How grand jury could be good news for Trump
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s convening of a grand jury to investigate possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia could actually turn out to be good news for the president.
Good because it signals that there’s an end in sight to the question of who did what in 2016. The first six months of the Trump administration have been plagued by a ceaseless stream of leaks — Michael Flynn met with the Russians! Jeff Sessions met with the Russians! Donald Trump Jr. met with the Russians to get the dirt on Hillary Clinton, and he brought Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort with him!
Now, those leaks will stop. Mueller is a no-nonsense, nonpolitical prosecutor, and he doesn’t leak.
With a grand jury impaneled, he has the investigation in a highly controlled environment where the public can’t go and those who testify are sworn to secrecy.
So for now, at least, President Trump gets a reprieve from the daily drip, drip, drip of revelations.
And at the end, if the grand jury concludes that whatever took place didn’t rise to the level of criminal conduct, Trump wins a get-outof-jail-free card for the rest of his presidency. He’ll boast that anything less than an indictment of anyone connected to his campaign amounts to full exoneration, and the people who voted for him will believe him.
News that the Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff “Beauregard” Sessions intends to root out discrimination against white people in universities marks a new low. But who can say it won’t get worse?
Coming soon: The Justice Department reviews whether the ban on “separate but equal” public facilities unfairly discriminates against racists.
Steve Kawa, who served as chief of staff for three San Francisco mayors, had a retirement dinner at the Big Four Restaurant atop Nob Hill the other night.
The event was billed as “The Big Three Dinner at the Big Four,” with the “big three” being Mayor Ed Lee, former Mayor Gavin Newsom and me.
Kawa was one of my best appointments, but most of the night was spent cracking wise about my many other picks.
“How did you come up with Alicia Becerril for supervisor?”
“You can thank my friend John Burton for that one,” I said.
“Why did you appoint Kimiko Burton as public defender?” “Burton.” In fact, it was Burton who pushed me to appoint Newsom first to the Parking and Traffic Commission, then to the Board of Supervisors to replace Kevin Shelley in 1997, after Shelley was elected to the state Assembly.
I even appointed Lee to his first post as a city department head, putting him in charge of the Department of Public Works.
Lee wasn’t too crazy about taking the job, as it meant having to move to the city from Oakland. But his wife, Anita, couldn’t get over here fast enough.
I’m still not sure if Ed has forgiven me.
I was invited to a “pop-up” experience called the Color Factory on Sutter Street just off Union Square the other day, and what a trip it was.
Jordan Ferney, who used to work at the Willie Brown Institute, artist Leah Rosenberg and designer Erin Jang have taken over the two-story building and turned every room into a different color experience.
The Yellow Room has a pit filled with 200,000 yellow balls. Another room has thousands of colorful hanging ribbons to get lost in. There’s a room filled from floor to ceiling with balloons of every hue. The Bright Light Room has cylinders in the wall that change color when you pull them out.
It is incredible, but be prepared to shell out some green. Tickets are $34 and have to be bought online for a specific date and time.
Word must be getting around. I was told the first three months are sold out.
Movie time: “Atomic Blonde.” Charlize Theron stars as the new James Bond — or in this case, June Bond — in this super spy thriller.
It’s set in the dying days of the Cold War. Theron plays a British agent sent on a mission into Berlin to retrieve a top-secret dossier. Plenty of action and effects. I heard Theron did most of the stunts herself.
“Detroit.” A disturbingly honest movie about the Detroit riots of 1967. It’s a horror film for black America, and one that Black Lives Matter could show at its rallies.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign team is crowing over his having raised as much money as all his Democratic rivals combined for next year’s governor’s race.
Congratulations, Gavin. But the fact is that big money has never been a major factor in the governor’s race. Just ask Meg Whitman, who spent $190 million on her ill-fated run against Jerry Brown in 2010, or Al Checchi, who blew $40 million of his fortune in 1998 only to lose to Gray Davis in the Democratic primary.
On the other hand, Newsom is clearly the best-looking candidate. And don’t kid yourself — that means something to voters.
Just the other night, I was in the St. Regis bar when a woman came up and asked, “That goodlooking Gavin Whatshisname, is he married?”
“Yes, and with four children.” She paused. “And you are you married?” “That depends.” “On what?” “Your next question.”