(cache) Trump pitched Republican leaders on a solar-paneled border wall - Axios
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Trump pitched Republican leaders on a solar-paneled border wall

Evan Vucci / AP

In the meeting at the White House today with Republican Congressional leaders, President Trump spent some time talking up his latest idea for the border wall. According to 3 people with direct knowledge of the meeting, Trump floated the idea that the wall could be covered in solar panels and the electricity generated used to pay for the cost.

Trump said his vision was a wall 40 feet to 50 feet high and covered with solar panels so they'd be "beautiful structures," the people said. The President said that most walls you hear about are 14 feet or 15 feet tall but this would be nothing like those walls. Trump told the lawmakers they could talk about the solar-paneled wall as long as they said it was his idea. One person cautioned that the President wasn't presenting the solar-paneled wall as the definite solution.

Where this idea might come from: A proposal to cover the wall with solar panels was among those submitted when the U.S. requested designs earlier this year, according to the AP. Companies winning contracts and asked to build prototypes may be announced this month.

Also discussed

What else was discussed:

  • The majority of the meeting focused on healthcare. Trump started off by saying the base was stronger than ever now and it was time to come through for them. He asked Mitch McConnell when the bill would be ready and McConnell said the bill would be released soon and scored by the CBO and voted on before July 4. Everyone agreed June would be spent talking about the failures of the Obama healthcare bill.
  • McConnell suggested acting on the debt-ceiling before the August recess to clear the way for tax reform. But Trump said they ought to do it after August so it doesn't cloud the messaging [presumably on healthcare]. After the meeting, one source said the administration has little control over the timing of the debt-ceiling vote and that they expected Congress to deal with it promptly.
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Spicer dodges questions on Trump's confidence in Sessions

Andrew Harnik / AP

Sean Spicer repeatedly declined to say President Trump has confidence in Attorney General Jeff Sessions — after Trump's tweets yesterday questioning key Justice Dept. decisions — saying instead that he had not discussed the matter with Trump. Key takeaways from his Tuesday briefing:

  • Will Trump watch Comey's testimony? "The president has a full day Thursday."
  • Can Trump's tweets be considered official WH statements? "They are considered official statements by the president of the United States."
  • On Qatar's diplomatic crisis: "This issue is not new. There's been tension among Qatar's neighbors for quite some time."
  • On health care reform stalling in the Senate: "We just don't have time to waste. Obamacare continues to collapse."
  • On the alleged leaking a confidential NSA document by contractor Reality Winner: "While I don't want to comment on any specific case or allegation, I think it's important to note that any disclosure of classified information is a threat to national security."
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Trump's omitted Article 5 endorsement

Matt Dunham / AP

The National Security Council, the Pentagon, and the State Department all expected President Trump to endorse Article 5, NATO's collective defense agreement, at last month's NATO summit. Here are the words they expected to hear, but didn't, via Politico:

"We face many threats, but I stand here before you with a clear message: the U.S. commitment to the NATO alliance and to Article 5 is unwavering."

Why it matters: The decision to omit this sentence sent an ambiguous signal to other NATO members about Trump's commitment to Article 5, the cornerstone of the alliance, particularly as he continued to challenge them over defense spending.

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Top Dem: Russian interference "much broader" than reported

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Mark Warner, the top Dem on the Senate Intel Committee, said Tuesday that what has been made public thus far about Russian hacking during the 2016 election is the tip of the iceberg:

"The extent of the attacks is much broader than has been reported so far...none of these actions from the Russians stopped on Election Day."

This comes after the report that Russian military intelligence operatives targeted more than 100 local election officials in the buildup to the election. Warner said he is encouraging intelligence agencies to declassify the states hit by the hack before midterm elections.

Warner added a caveat: "I don't believe they got into changing actual voting outcomes."

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Trump Org. reportedly billed son's foundation for fundraiser

Julio Cortez / AP

Eric Trump's annual charity golf tournament, which has raised more than $11 million for St Jude's Children's Hospital, generated more than $1 million in revenue for the Trump organization, Forbes reported Tuesday.

Despite Eric Trump repeatedly claiming he was able to use Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y. for free, his charity was actually billed amounts that golf experts told Forbes far exceeded what would be normal for a one-day tournament. Two sources with direct knowledge told Forbes it was Donald Trump who insisted his son's charity be billed.

Forbes also reports that the Donald J. Trump Foundation "apparently used the Eric Trump Foundation to funnel $100,000 in donations into revenue for the Trump Organization."

Why it matters: President Trump's foundation has faced previous accusations of self-dealing, and questions have repeatedly been raised over the murky relationship between it and his for-profit business. The Washington Post's David Fahrentold is back on the case after today's story.

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Trump's message to Comey: good luck

President Trump was asked Tuesday if he has anything to say to former FBI Director James Comey before his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday. His reply: "I wish him luck."

The president also weighed in on his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his increased media presence: "Jared's actually become much more famous than me. I'm a little bit upset about that," he joked.

Flashback to January:

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Report: Comey won't accuse Trump of obstructing justice

Carolyn Kaster / AP

ABC News' Justin Fishel and Jonathan Karl report that James Comey will not accuse President Trump of obstructing justice in his testimony Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, citing "a source familiar with Comey's thinking."

  • The context: Trump allegedly asked Comey in February to stop investigating Michael Flynn, raising questions over potential obstruction of justice.
  • What he will say: Per ABC News, the former FBI director "will dispute the president's contention that Comey told him three times he is not under investigation."
  • What he won't say, per the ABC source: "He is not going to Congress to make accusations about the President's intent, instead he's there to share his concerns."
  • What to watch: Trump plans to give a speech in the middle of Comey's testimony, and may even live tweet in reaction to Comey's claims.
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Uber fires 20 employees based on harassment investigation

Jeff Chiu / AP

Uber told employees during a company-wide meeting on Tuesday that it has fired 20 employees in connection with workplace harassment and bullying, as first reported by Bloomberg and BuzzFeed. None of the terminated workers were identified, but Axios has learned that they included former VP of product and growth Ed Baker (whose departure was previously disclosed).

The moves relate to an investigation by law firm Perkins Coie. Here are the key numbers, according to a source familiar with the situation:

  • 215 total incidents
  • 20 terminations
  • 7 written warnings
  • 31 employees required to undergo training and/or counseling
  • 57 cases still under review

Questions remain: Another report, compiled by former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder's law firm and commissioned following a former employee's explosive allegations of workplace harassment and discrimination, is still being reviewed by Uber's board of directors. Results are expected to be shared with Uber employees during next Tuesday's all-hands meeting.

The headline has been updated to better reflect the reasons for the firings.

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How the FBI got to Reality Winner, the alleged NSA docs leaker

Reality Winner / Facebook

A government contractor allegedly printed and leaked a classified NSA document on Russian meddling in the U.S. election to The Intercept. Reality Winner, the contractor, was arrested Saturday by the FBI.

An affidavit filed in federal court in Georgia on Monday alleged that Winner "printed and improperly removed classified intelligence reporting, which contained classified national defense information from an intelligence community agency, and unlawfully retained it."

Now she faces up to 10 years in prison.

Timeline

How it happened:

  • Feb. 13: Winner, a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation is assigned to a U.S. government agency facility in Georgia, at which point she is given top security clearance.
  • May 5: An NSA report detailed that Russian military intelligence carried out a cyber attack on U.S. voting software and infrastructure in the days leading up to the November election, according The Intercept.
  • May 9: Winner accessed the classified report by searching the NSA's system and printed it. She mailed the report to The Intercept a few days later. (CNN)
  • May 30: The Intercept contacted the U.S. government "likely through the NSA" to verify the document's authenticity. Government officials confirmed the document was classified "at the top secret level." (ABC)
  • June 1: The NSA informed the FBI of the leak, and the FBI launched its investigation. That same day, another government contractor approached the NSA, and said he was independently approached by a reporter from The Intercept to verify the documents. He told the agency that the documents had originally been mailed and were postmarked "Augusta, Georgia" — Winner's home. (WaPo)
  • Early June: Authorities identified several details in the scanned copy of the report that point to Winner. Creases on the document indicated that it had been printed and transported by hand, and the NSA's internal audit revealed that six people had printed out the report. Of the six, only Winner had been in email contact with The Intercept. (Quartz)
  • June 3: Winner is arrested and questioned at her home in Georgia where she admits to obtaining and leaking the document. (WaPo)
  • June 5: The Intercept leaked the report, and, one hour later, the FBI announced that a suspect was in custody. (Quartz)

Critics have railed against The Intercept for exposing their source by publishing a redacted version of the leaked report. Although The Intercept never revealed Winner's identity — the company claimed in a statement Tuesday they still have "no knowledge of the identity of the person who provided us with the document" — surveillance and privacy reporter Barton Gellman tweeted that The Intercept "made egregious mistakes that doomed its source. The FBI affidavit spells them out."

  • The Intercept's mistakes, as detailed by Gellman: "It handed USG a color copy of original doc & told a clearance-holding contractor the doc was mailed from Augusta. Where source lives... When reproducing online, either retype or take tech steps to strip metadata and identifying micro-images. Normal people don't know all this, but journalists should. And @theintercept does. Has world class experts in @headhntr and @micahflee. Which makes it hard to accept this catastrophic failure of source protection. Reporters & editors didn't consult experts right at hand."
  • How the NSA was able to find Winner, as detailed by blogger Rob Graham: The document she gave to the Intercept contained nearly invisible yellow "tracking dots" that showed "exactly when and where documents, any document, is printed." (Errata Security Blog)
  • The Intercept's defense: The Intercept released a statement on the allegations against Winner: "The U.S. government has told news organizations that Winner was that individual... While the FBI's allegations against Winner have been made public through the release of an affidavit and search warrant... it is important to keep in mind that these documents contain unproven assertions and speculation designed to serve the government's agenda and as such warrant skepticism. Winner faces allegations that have not been proven. The same is true of the FBI's claims about how it came to arrest Winner."
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There's now a self-help Facebook Messenger chatbot

If you're feeling down, a new chatbot could help. Woebot, which is integrated into Facebook Messenger and launched today, will deliver therapy by periodically checking in on users, asking them how they feel and making suggestions — for relaxing music or not talking negatively about themselves — based on their responses.

The artificially intelligent chatbot can deliver personalized mental health care that makes people feel measurably better, according to a new study. "It's a nice, elegant, simple application that shows a glimmer of what might be to come," says Skip Rizzo, psychologist, University of Southern California.

Why it's needed: Access to therapy can be limited for some (both physically and financially) and stigma around mental health care persists. Woebot, along with apps and other tech-based tools, attempts to deliver therapy but its effectiveness hasn't been clinically studied.

Keep reading ... words

How it works: Woebot uses the tools of cognitive behavioral therapy and relies on a decision tree that mirrors the decision-making of therapists while speaking with patients. In the study, 34 college students who reported symptoms of depression and anxiety spent two weeks chatting with Woebot while 36 people in the control group were directed to the National Institute of Mental Health's e-book on depression. After 14 days, people who had been conversing anonymously with Woebot said their symptoms of depression were reduced (the control group's remained the same).

Man v. machine: Woebot's creator, psychologist Alison Darcy, says the bot isn't designed for diagnosis or intended to replace human therapy. Right now, people have to choose between nothing and regularly seeing a psychologist and she says Woebot is one of the few options in between.

  • Woebot may be superior to human therapists in the sense that people are as likely if not more to disclose mental health information to a computer compared to a human because of the stigma of receiving mental health care.
  • But... "Mental health problems are more nuanced and with a bot it can be hard to detect changes in behavior, particularly when it comes to suicide," says UCSF's Danielle Ramo, who was not involved in the study. People are sometimes in a better mood once they've decided to take their own life - something a therapist might recognize as a distress signal whereas a bot may not.

Study limitations:

  • The author's note the small number of participants, all undergraduate students meaning the results can't be generalized to the entire population.
  • Short duration: students interacted with Woebot for only two weeks and follow-up studies are required to see if the outcomes are long-term.
  • Woebot should be compared to in-person theory to tease out whether the effect is specifically from the bot or just from any interaction as opposed to reading a website.
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Top lawyers don't want to represent Trump on Russia

Olivier Matthys / AP

Top lawyers from at least four major law firms turned down requests to represent President Trump in the ongoing Russia investigation, per Yahoo News.

Their reasoning: Potential conflicts of interest and existing commitments caused some of the rejections, but the big thing was a worry that Trump simply wouldn't listen to their legal counsel. Additionally, firms were worried about a prestige hit from representing a controversial president in such a fraught political climate. A lawyer with White House ties told Yahoo:

"The concerns were, 'The guy won't pay and he won't listen.'"

Go deeper: Jonathan Swan reported Sunday that top lawyers were put off by the idea of working under Marc Kasowitz, who is leading Trump's legal team, both from a pride standpoint and because they believe Kasowitz "plays to Trump's instincts" and has the wrong experience.

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What Trump will be doing during the Comey testimony

Evan Vucci / AP

President Trump has scheduled a speech to religious conservatives for 12:30pm EST on Thursday, the AP reports. That means the speech is likely to fall during James Comey's highly-anticipated testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

  • Flashback: This is part of the Trump playbook. He once held a televised fundraiser for veterans during a primary election debate he had boycotted.
  • Watch your Twitter feed: Comey's testimony will begin at 10am, and Trump will almost certainly be watching. Per the Washington Post's Robert Costa, he'll also be on Twitter: "I'm told by two WH sources that Pres. Trump... may live tweet if he feels the need to respond."
  • Why it matters: Comey is expected to confirm that Trump asked him to ease up on his investigation of Michael Flynn. Responding to his testimony in real time, and without consultation from aides or lawyers, is a risky move.
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