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Today's Playbook Power Briefing presented by PhRMA

By ANNA PALMER (anna@politico.com; @apalmerdc), JAKE SHERMAN (sherman@politico.com; @JakeSherman), DANIEL LIPPMAN (daniel@politico.com; @dlippman) and ZACH MONTELLARO (zmontellaro@politico.com; @ZachMontellaro)


THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES at 10:16 a.m.: "A woman I don't know and, to the best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago. Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security......"

... at 10:29 a.m.: "....cameras running. Another False Accusation. Why doesn't @washingtonpost report the story of the women taking money to make up stories about me? One had her home mortgage paid off. Only @FoxNews so reported...doesn't fit the Mainstream Media narrative."

-- FACT CHECK: RACHEL CROOKS, the woman profiled by The Post, says the incident happened outside her office. Not in the lobby of Trump Tower.

-- RACHEL CROOKS' campaign's account at 11:22 a.m. ... @RachelforOhio: "Please, by all means, share the footage from the hallway outside the 24th floor residential elevator bank on the morning of January 11, 2006. Let's clear this up for everyone. It's liars like you in politics that have prompted me to run for office myself."

-- THE STORY ... WAPO'S ELI SASLOW: "Is anyone listening?: This Trump accuser keeps asking herself that. But she plans to keep talking about that day in 2006": "'It all happened at Trump Tower,' [Crooks] said. 'I had just moved to New York, and I was working as a secretary for another company in the building. That's where he forced himself on me.'

"Crooks, 35, had been publicly reliving this story for much of the past two years, ever since she first described it in an email to the New York Times several months before the 2016 election. ... In early February, she launched a campaign to become a Democratic state representative in Ohio, in part so she could share her story more widely with voters across the state. And yet, after dozens of retellings, she still wasn't sure: Did people really care? Did it matter at all?

"Despite her story, and the similar stories of more than a dozen other women, nothing had changed. Trump, who had denied all of the accusations, was still president of the United States, and Crooks was still circling back to the same moments on Jan. 11, 2006, that had come to define so much about her life." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc1ba05b82e7d9c034ff94475e7f23355ca472949d5a607e8b5ed6adf5fa90311ee3dcb7d00d23ba24

Good Tuesday afternoon. ANOTHER MUELLER CHARGE -- NYT'S EILEEN SULLIVAN and KEN VOGEL: "The special counsel investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election has charged an attorney with making a false statement when he was interviewed about work he did with a Trump campaign adviser six years ago.

"The attorney, Alex van der Zwaan, who worked in London for the prominent New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, was expected to appear in court on Tuesday. He is accused of making false statements regarding communications he had with Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign aide, about work done in Ukraine, according to a document filed in court on Friday.

"Mr. Gates was a longtime business associate of Paul Manafort, a Trump campaign chairman, and followed him onto the campaign. Both have been charged by the special counsel with money laundering and violations of tax and lobbying laws and have pleaded not guilty. Mr. Manafort was not mentioned in the court document about Mr. van Der Zwaan. ...

The Ukrainian general prosecutor alleged that his government circumvented contracting rules by initially agreeing to pay Skadden a fee that was less than the threshold for competitive bidding -- reportedly about $12,000 -- then later paying the firm a total of nearly $1.1 million." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc4dd7153e56a931fbe4f0e271fecf3dc4ad1117d8f529cf0a52bbf437d7ecc7c0908850ea91d0593a ... The charges http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc6070b2d74d856e7e4361353c70de94035c3526aea5f75beaa39ca5b0adf3a6300948ba36abf3dd54

-- BLOOMBERG'S DAVID VOREACOS and STEPHANIE BAKER: "The lawyer is accused of misleading investigators about the last time he talked with Richard Gates, who was indicted in October with ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort over their consulting work in Ukraine. Van Der Zwaan was questioned by U.S. authorities regarding his firm's work in 2012 on behalf of the Ukraine Ministry of Justice.

"Van Der Zwaan told investigators that his last contact with Gates was an innocuous text message in mid-August 2016, when they actually spoke the following month about the Tymoshenko report in a call the lawyer secretly recorded, the information says.

"Prosecutors also accused Van Der Zwaan of lying about his talks with someone else, identified by the government as Person A. The lawyer told investigators he last spoke with Person A in 2014, when in fact they spoke in September 2016 during the secretly recorded call with Gates. Van Der Zwaan also deleted and failed to produce emails sought by the special counsel and a law firm, prosecutors said." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedcf5089b041ed0b9a87b9074b2c64e26932315fb0af6e07068f5ed188e27f26f017676bc7889494284

A SMART INSIDER POINTS OUT ... This is the second incident in which Mueller has gone after a foreign national. Last week it was the Russians. This time, it's a London-based attorney.

****** A message from PhRMA: New report from Express Scripts shows spending on medicines grew just 1.5 percent in 2017, which is the smallest increase since the company began tracking spending 25 years ago. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1d3badb850113a2331c5996387d66fe1cf5334d60df42db76ba32c888bcfe101248474ae25b547a13fdee4aa407ca668 ******

MORE ON THE RUSSIA PROBE -- "Manafort Under Scrutiny For $40 Million In 'Suspicious' Transactions," by BuzzFeed's Jason Leopold, Anthony Cormier and Tanya Kozyreva: "Federal law enforcement officials have identified more than $40 million in 'suspicious' financial transactions to and from companies controlled by President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort -- a much larger sum than was cited in his October indictment on money laundering charges.

"The vast web of transactions was unraveled mainly in 2014 and 2015 during an FBI operation to fight international kleptocracy that ultimately fizzled. The story of that failed effort -- and its resurrection by special counsel Robert Mueller as he investigated whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election -- has never been fully told.

"But it explains how the special counsel was able to swiftly bring charges against Manafort for complex financial crimes dating as far back as 2008 -- and it shows that Mueller could still wield immense leverage as he seeks to compel Manafort to cooperate in the ongoing investigation." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc3610ad18abc500665730f5ae3ccdd85777ee589272cc607cb6d12e531778a8e0f185b45a9c99baf9

A POST-A.M. PLAYBOOK PRESIDENTIAL TWEET STORM -- @realDonaldTrump at 7:24 a.m.: "Thank you to @foxandfriends for the great timeline on all of the failures the Obama Administration had against Russia, including Crimea, Syria and so much more. We are now starting to win again!" ... at 7:37 a.m.: "'There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections, there's no evidence that that has happened in the past or that it will happen this time, and so I'd invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and make his case to get votes.' ...." ...

... at 7:46 a.m.: "....The President Obama quote just before election. That's because he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win and he didn't want to 'rock the boat.' When I easily won the Electoral College, the whole game changed and the Russian excuse became the narrative of the Dems." ...

... at 7:54 a.m.: "Republicans are now leading the Generic Poll, perhaps because of the popular Tax Cuts which the Dems want to take away. Actually, they want to raise you taxes, substantially. Also, they want to do nothing on DACA, R's want to fix!" ... at 8:03 a.m.: "Matt Schlapp and CPAC are getting ready for another exciting event. Big difference from those days when President Obama held the White House. You've come a long way Matt!" ...

... at 8:11 a.m.: "Hope Republicans in the Great State of Pennsylvania challenge the new 'pushed' Congressional Map, all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. Your Original was correct! Don't let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes & waste money!" ... 8:38 a.m.: "I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama, just look at the facts. Total Fake News!"

AT THE PENTAGON -- "In Emails, Trump's Top General Said The Transgender Military Ban Was 'Unexpected' And He Was 'Not Consulted,'" by BuzzFeed's Dominic Holden: "Less than 24 hours after President Trump tweeted that 'after consultation with my Generals and military experts' he would end transgender military service, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent emails to the country's top generals saying Trump's announcement 'was unexpected' and that he intended to say he was 'not consulted.'

"The two emails, obtained by BuzzFeed News, were sent by Gen. Joseph Dunford, the country's highest ranking military general, on July 27, 2017, to generals of the Air Force, Army, Marines, National Guard, and Navy. They suggest widespread surprise among the chiefs, while raising further questions about Trump's claim that he announced the position after consulting with military brass." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc3d354d105ef96db8592b34145f964d1b703d1b3f2cdef5463e08818d0433293dd7a6faf043590581

ANOTHER SHOT ON THE ACA -- "Trump proposal boosts skimpy insurance plans, again undercutting Obamacare," by Paul Demko: "The Trump administration is proposing to expand the availability of short-term health insurance plans that some deride as 'junk insurance' -- an effort that could give consumers cheaper coverage options but undermine Obamacare's marketplaces and popular protections for pre-existing medical conditions.

"Proposed rules issued this morning follow an executive order from President Donald Trump this fall seeking to expand access to more affordable health insurance alternatives to comprehensive, but pricey Obamacare plans. The HHS proposal, released weeks after the Trump administration issued a rule encouraging small businesses to find coverage outside the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, represents the administration's latest effort to unwind the health care law with repeal efforts stalled in Congress." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc4c134b7a0bc3664040fa952f789bb866db6e294acece5cdb261b9f81d932e83ca561439f49748660

VALLEY TALK -- OOPS! -- "A Facebook Executive Apologizes To His Company -- And To Robert Mueller," by Wired's Nicholas Thompson: "With Mueller's indictment, according to multiple people at the company, everyone felt that Facebook had done something right. The 35 mentions clearly showed that Facebook had fully cooperated with authorities. Many of the details in the indictment, particularly from pages 25 to 30, which include details of messages sent between private Facebook accounts, were given to Mueller by Facebook. That could have been a good story. But then Rob Goldman decided to weigh in, using a rival platform. He now has 10,500 Twitter followers, but a few fewer friends at work.

"On Sunday night, Joel Kaplan, the VP of Global Public Policy at Facebook, put out a statement saying 'Nothing we found contradicts the Special Counsel's indictments. Any suggestion otherwise is wrong.' Roughly translated, that meant, 'We asked Rob Goldman to throw his phone in a river.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc15e28ce320c84bc40a6a359a8d93fd8cd7816457851bc6f417a94d8c0dae667021c23ef4d4fe7d84

HARASSMENT FILES -- "#MeToo in medicine: Women, harassed in hospitals and operating rooms, await reckoning," by NBC News' Elizabeth Chuck: "Sexual harassment against women in medicine has been studied for decades: A 1995 study found 52 percent of all women in academic medicine said they had been sexually harassed.

"But unlike Hollywood and other industries where allegations against powerful men have recently shined a light on inappropriate behavior, medicine has yet to have its #MeToo moment. Nonetheless, women in the field are hopeful that that is about to change." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc5819fb328b431bee0f0cca0b0becac51fb9a8cf1dababd58ef40501e82ef5b6659f23dac96b64061

MEDIAWATCH -- "Mic Staffers Announce They Are Unionizing," by Splinter's David Uberti: "Mic staffer Will Drabold said that 88 percent of editorial staff had signed cards in support of unionizing with NewsGuild's New York chapter. (The chapter also represents staffers at The New York Times, Reuters, Time Inc., and The Daily Beast, among others.) Numerous staffers changed their Twitter avatars to make their positions public." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc8aa355a428728228671b570ef05d61e3aaab27cceecfde076b1b46106d39e72be757aa3278b1f28c

--Christine Rosen has been named managing editor of the Weekly Standard. She previously was a senior editor at The New Atlantis for many years and retains that title on the masthead at that magazine.

SPORTS BLINK -- "N.B.A. Owner Backs Lawsuit Against Russian Doping Whistle-Blower," by NYT's Tariq Panja: "[T]he Russian oligarch who owns the N.B.A.'s Brooklyn Nets is helping to finance an attempt to attack the credibility of the whistle-blower who exposed the country's elaborate doping program. The oligarch, Mikhail D. Prokhorov, who led Russia's biathlon federation before and during the 2014 Sochi Games, is backing a long-shot legal effort against the whistle-blower, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, that will commence with a defamation lawsuit to be filed in New York State Court on Tuesday." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedce17d5c1ca6a94ff3554b9fed725d3a8fcb4fdc150502fbba3f3877b3d33cd3ec4664d34825a8cd39

PAGING MITCH MCCONNELL -- "University of Louisville will lose its 2013 national championship banner," by the Louisville Courier Journal's Jeff Greer: "The University of Louisville will lose its 2013 national championship banner. The NCAA's Infractions Appeals Committee announced on Tuesday that it upheld the Committee on Infractions' ruling that Louisville must vacate 123 wins, including the 2013 title and the 2012 Final Four appearance, as punishment in the school's escort case." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedcef68a0b3056c679654c975b2c2a715165d5f1d8106f0096c79fe5f99dd063cb180a1294c0cbee8e5

TRANSITIONS -- Former National Labor Relations Board chairman Philip Miscimarra is returning to the law firm Morgan Lewis. ... Jesse Dougherty is now communications director at the Republican Party of Iowa. He was previously senior account manager at the PR firm Strategic Elements and press secretary at the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

ENGAGED -- Tony Samp, senior policy adviser for Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), proposed to Scarlet Doyle, legislative assistant for Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.). "Tony took me out to the DC Wharf for ice skating and then to our new favorite music and dancing spot, Pearl Street Warehouse, and eventually took to me out to the swings on the pier to propose." Pics http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedcf9e510dba52e17a3e842796a411e33d9b52c5d0e1da693456c2fa9ad579034d8e877acfae0229501 ... http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedcc617d6e5d310a0baec7cf275bf9d767899e2ae4236edbf59121d2b55c41ea20eb4e9c4f34c9aa332

WEEKEND WEDDING - HILLARY ALUMNI: Matt Kaplan, who works on the public policy team at Lyft and was the national surrogate finance director for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, on Sunday married Sari Bourne, of counsel at Genentech, at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco. Wedding pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedc07a4b61952cf663b4c329bed29b311134ccfc8514df1a8f9610d40f3767ac24d79174d4792e32362 ... NYT announcement http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedcf3ac80e4374dc38cd1fa53cb101322b7c50000a2e630a1c113b81f808a1fc732a2f3e2d3558d0b3d

SPOTTED: Mather Martin, Liz Heng, Chad Maisel, Troy Perry, Ellen Connell, Lindsay Lassman, Erica Gordon, Reva Bottles, Jen Weissman, Raymonde Charles, Ashley Steinberg, Clyde Owan, Tom Sullivan, Heather Greenfield, Jen Burton, Abe Silk, Tom Hill, Lauren Hill, Yianni Varonis, Colleen Lowry, Ian Keller, Sasha Filippova and Judd Olanoff (h/t Anne Sokolov)

WELCOME TO THE WORLD - OBAMA ALUMNI: Hannah Seligson, an NYC-based freelance journalist, and Andrew Eil, a consultant on climate change and clean energy, and former State Department staffer, recently welcomed Julia Leah Eil, who came in at 6lbs 2 oz. Pics http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedca4dd1454610ea4ea054ce8ca4cdab02f7e8b8126d3fc2bc97c96a0d031d33d945f21567970cc689a ... http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a9b786c04934eedcf8093889cbd5f664ce4c393b1b29d63d29680fbaf82b309e0f1dccb3bfaa1c29565341257e80a705

****** A message from PhRMA: While spending on medicines grew just 1.5 percent in 2017, unfortunately it doesn't feel that way for patients. More than one-third of a medicine's list price is often rebated back to middlemen, like insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). These discounts and rebates create savings of more than $100 billion, but insurers don't always share these savings with patients. Patients share the costs. They should share the savings. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=1d3badb850113a2331c5996387d66fe1cf5334d60df42db76ba32c888bcfe101248474ae25b547a13fdee4aa407ca668 ******

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