A free repeats, but otherwise today's https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/03/26/day-431/
1/*Trump won't hire two attorneys who were supposed to join his legal team after all. The appointments were announced last week, but Trump's personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement that "conflicts prevent Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing from joining the president’s special counsel legal team." He added: "Those conflicts do not prevent them from assisting the president in other legal matters." (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/25/us/politics/trump-digenova-toensing.html
2/Trump's personal legal team is down to one memberas he struggles to find lawyers willing to represent him. Jay Sekulow is the only personal lawyer for Trump working full time on Robert Mueller's investigation. He is assisted by Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer paid by taxpayers to represent the institution of the presidency rather than Trump personally. John Dowd, who had been leading the Russia inquiry, resigned last week after strategy disputes with Trump, while Marc Kasowitz's role has been reduced after a series of clashes with Trump over the summer. Emmet Flood, the lawyer who represented Bill Clinton during his impeachment process, said he will not represent Trump if Kasowitz has any role on the team, and another, Theodore Olson, declined to represent Trump. (New York Times*/*Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-another-blow-to-trumps-efforts-to-combat-russia-probe-digenova-will-no-longer-join-legal-team/2018/03/25/8ac8c8d2-3038-11e8-94fa-32d48460b955_story.html
3/*Trump expects to "make one or two major changes to his government very soon,"*according to Trump's friend Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax. "He told me he thinks the White House is operating like a smooth machine – his words," said Ruddy, and that Trump is "perplexed by all these reports that there’s chaos at the White House or mass staff changes." (ABC News)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-make-major-government-presidents-friend/story?id=53993032
4/Stormy Daniels said she was threatened to not speak about her affair with Trump, Daniels told Anderson Cooper during her 60 Minutes interview. She also discussed statements and denials she previously made about the affair. After the interview aired, Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen sent Daniels a "cease and desist" letter, demanding that she stop speaking out about her relationship with Trump. (CBS News/*Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-daniels-cohen/trump-lawyer-tells-porn-star-cease-and-desist-after-interview-fox-idUSKBN1H21E2
5/A government watchdog group accused Cambridge Analytica of violating federal election lawsin a pair of legal complaints filed with the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice. The laws prohibit foreigners from participating directly or indirectly in the decision-making process of U.S. political campaigns. Cambridge Analytica sent dozens of non-U.S. citizens to provide campaign strategy and messaging advice to Republican candidates in 2014. (ABC News/*Washington Post)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-cambridge-analytica-accused-violating-us-election-laws/story?id=54010145
6/The Federal Trade Commission confirmed that it's opened a non-public investigation into Facebook for its user privacy practices. Shares of Facebook fell as much as 6% after the FTC announced it is investigating the company's data practices in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica leak of 50 million users' information. (Axios/*CNBC)
https://www.axios.com/facebook-under-federal-investigation-ftc-2926ae98-77fd-4c28-8ece-b0a51f95ca76.html
poll/*69% of Americans support tougher gun control laws, up from 55% when the question was first asked in October of 2013. While 60% believe that making it harder to legally obtain a gun would result in fewer mass shootings, 42% expect elected officials to take action. (Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/6bff3d106aa245d3b774868503e81289
Notables.
The U.S. will expel 60 Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil. The Russian consulate in Seattle will also be closed as part of the response. (NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/u-s-expels-dozens-russian-diplomats-after-chemical-attack-ex-n860001
Hundreds of thousands of people joined the Parkland survivors in Washington to March For Their Lives while Trump spent the day at the Trump International Golf Club. The White House released a statement saying, "We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today." Thousands more rallied at about 800 sister marches around the country and abroad, where students, like those in the capital, called for gun control and pledged to exercise their political power in the midterm elections this fall. (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/politics/students-lead-huge-rallies-for-gun-control-across-the-us.html
An NRA representative to the Parkland students: "No one would know your names" if a gunman hadn't killed three staff members and 14 students. The comment came on the eve of the March For Our Lives protest. (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/03/24/nra-host-taunts-parkland-teens-no-one-would-know-your-names-if-classmates-were-still-alive/
Rick Santorum said kids calling for stricter gun control measures should take CPR classes instead of protesting. "How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem," Santorum said, "do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that." (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/25/politics/rick-santorum-guns-cnntv/index.html
Trump issued orders to ban transgender troops*who require surgery or medical treatment from serving in the military except in select cases. LGBT advocates called the decision "appalling, reckless and unpatriotic." (Politico)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/23/trump-transgender-troops-ban-483434