December 1, 2022
Afternoon Update:
The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so. -- Three-Judge Panel, 11th Circuit Appeals Court ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Thursday removed a major obstacle to the criminal investigation into ... Donald J. Trump's hoarding of sensitive government documents, ending an outside review of thousands of records the F.B.I. seized from his home and freeing the Justice Department to use them in its inquiry. In a unanimous but unsigned 21-page ruling, a three-member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta shut down a lawsuit brought by Mr. Trump that has hindered the inquiry into whether he illegally kept national security records at his Mar-a-Lago residence and also obstructed the government's repeated efforts to retrieve them. The appeals court was sharply critical of the decision in September by Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee, to intervene in the case. It said that Judge Cannon never had legitimate jurisdiction to order the review or bar investigators from using the files, and that there was no justification for treating Mr. Trump differently than any other target of a search warrant.... All three of the judges on the panel that ruled on Thursday were appointees of Republican presidents -- and two of them, Andrew L. Brasher and Britt Grant, had been placed on the bench by Mr. Trump himself."
Kevin Freking & Josh Funk of the AP: "The Senate moved quickly Thursday to avert a rail strike that the Biden administration and business leaders warned would have had devastating consequences for the nation's economy. The Senate passed a bill to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail companies and union leaders in September. That settlement had been rejected by some of the 12 unions involved, creating the possibility of a strike beginning Dec. 9. The Senate vote was 80-15. It came one day after the House voted to impose the agreement. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature." The New York Times story is here.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to decide whether the Biden administration had overstepped its authority with its plan to wipe out billions of dollars in student debt. The justices put the case on an unusually fast track, saying they would hear arguments in February. In the meantime, though, they left in place an injunction blocking the program. The court's brief order gave no reasons and did not note any dissents."
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "... allegations against ... several ... firms are laid out in a sprawling, roughly 120-page report released Thursday by the House Selec Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, a congressional watchdog tasked to oversee roughly $5 trillion in federal pandemic aid. The 18-month probe -- spanning more than 83,000 pages of documents ... -- contends there was rampant abuse among a set of companies known as fintechs, which jeopardized federal efforts to rescue the economy and siphoned off public funds for possible private gain. Some of the companies involved had never before managed federal aid, the report found. At the height of the pandemic, they failed to hire the right staff to thwart fraud. They amassed major profits from fees generated from the loans -- large and small, genuine and problematic -- that they processed and reviewed. And they repeatedly escaped scrutiny from the Small Business Administration, putting billions of dollars at risk, the probe found. The trouble began under the Trump administration, after Congress first authorized the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in 2020."
What Are Trump's Friends Saying Today? Anthony Adragna of Politico: "A virulently antisemitic Thursday interview with Ye by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is sparking new GOP condemnation of the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, nine days after Ye brought a white supremacist to dine with Donald Trump. Ye appeared on Jones' 'InfoWars' show with Nick Fuentes, his guest during the Trump dinner -- a known racist and antisemite -- and made a host of antisemitic comments with his face covered by a black mask, repeating the lie that the Holocaust did not happen and praising Adolf Hitler. The Republican Jewish Coalition slammed the Ye-Fuentes appearance with Jones ... as a 'horrific cesspool of dangerous, bigoted Jew hatred.'" MB: Ah, so far, not much "GOP condemnation."
Eric Adelson & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A Florida tax collector who has been cooperating with the Justice Department in its sex trafficking investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, was sentenced on Thursday by a federal judge to 11 years in prison. The tax collector, Joel Greenberg, had faced up to nearly three decades in prison for a litany of crimes he had committed, including trafficking a 17-year-old girl, stalking a political rival and stealing $400,000 in taxpayer money to buy cryptocurrencies and sports memorabilia. But in the hope of receiving a lesser sentence, he had cooperated with the government in a series of investigations, including into Mr. Gaetz." The AP story is here.
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President & Jill Biden welcome President & Brigitte Macron to the White House: Marie: My favorite part is at the 6:00-minute mark, where I've set the video, when the Marine Band begins playing "La Marseillaise": ~~~
~~~ Alexandra Hutzler & Ben Gittleson of ABC News: "The White House is rolling out the red carpet on Thursday as President Joe Biden hosts French leader Emmanuel Macron for the first state dinner of Biden's administration. The president and first lady Jill Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, will welcome President Macron and his wife, Brigitte, on Thursday night. The state dinner will take place on the South Lawn in a candlelit pavilion." ~~~
~~~ President & Jill Biden hosted French President Emmanuel Macron & Brigitte Macron at a private dinner last night at Georgetown's Fiola Mare restaurant. Washington Examiner: "Emmanuel Macron toured NASA headquarters with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday before his bilateral meeting, press conference, and state dinner with Joe Biden at the White House scheduled for Thursday. Jill Biden is scheduled to host an education-focused event at the interactive museum Planet Word with Brigitte Macron during the day."
Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "In a terrorism advisory bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday raised concerns about potential threats to the LGBTQ, Jewish and migrant communities from violent extremists inside the United States. Americans motivated by violent ideologies pose a 'persistent and lethal threat,' a senior DHS official told reporters in a briefing on the bulletin. Intelligence officials across the federal government have consistently highlighted the growing threat of American extremists in recent years, while explaining that foreign threats such as the Islamic State terrorist group and Al Qaeda are no longer as persistent as they once were. The bulletin was the latest summary of national terrorism threats, a document that has been updated about every six months since the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021."
Adam Klasfeld & Marisa Sarnoff of Law & Crime: "In a rare victory lap for the typically reserved lawyer, Attorney General Merrick Garland celebrated the convictions of five Oath Keepers leaders and members on serious charges, including two leaders on the seditious conspiracy charge.... The press conference, convened the day after the historic verdict, marked the first time Garland directly addressed the resolution of any of the hundreds of Jan. 6-related cases on his expansive docket. He has not held any event like it after any jury trial, bench trial or guilty plea. The Oath Keepers trial, however, marked a uniquely significant event, as the first to accuse participants in the breach of the U.S. Capitol of trying to overthrow the government or block the execution of its laws by force." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Perry Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Garland declined to say Wednesday if he expected prosecutors to eventually file charges against ... other people who did not physically participate in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.... Tuesday's verdicts upheld a key Justice Department argument laid out in the seven-week-long trial: that the breach of the Capitol was not an isolated event, but rather a culmination or component of wider plotting by extremists who wanted to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden."
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The House on Wednesday resoundingly approved legislation to avert a nationwide rail strike by imposing a labor agreement between rail companies and their workers, as lawmakers rushed to shield the economy from the threat of a holiday-season work stoppage and prevent a disruption in shipping across the country. Acting quickly the day after President Biden made a personal appeal at the White House, the House passed a measure that would force the rail companies and employees to abide by a tentative agreement that the Biden administration helped broker earlier this year, which increased pay and set more flexible schedules for workers. The bill passed on a bipartisan vote of 290 to 137. It goes next to the Senate, where leaders in both parties have indicated they would move quickly to avoid a disruption to the nation's rail service." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "Emboldened House Democrats ushered in a new generation of leaders on Wednesday with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries [N.Y.] elected to be the first Black American to head a major political party in Congress as long-serving Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team step aside next year.... It's rare that a party that lost the midterm elections would so easily regroup and stands in stark contrast with the upheaval among Republicans.... The trio led by Jeffries, who will become the Democratic minority leader in the new Congress, includes 59-year-old Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts as the Democratic whip and 43-year-old Rep. Pete Aguilar of California as caucus chairman. The new team of Democratic leaders is expected to slide into the slots held by Pelosi and her top lieutenants -- Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina -- as the 80-something leaders make way for the next generation." The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mike Lillis & Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) on Wednesday announced a bid to join the top tiers of Democratic leadership, challenging Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) for the No. 4 spot within the party brass in the next Congress. The move, announced just moments before Democrats were set to vote on their next crop of leaders, came as a surprise. Clyburn had announced earlier in the month that he would cede his third-ranking spot next year, but would seek to remain in the top tiers of leadership at the No. 4 assistant leader position, arguing the Sout needed representation in the top ranks." (Also linked yesterday.)
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A House committee has gained access to six years of ... Donald J. Trump's tax returns after the Supreme Court last week paved the way for the release of records he had long sought to keep secret.... The move brought to an end a nearly four-year effort by Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee to obtain the returns. Breaking with modern precedent for major presidential candidates and sitting presidents, Mr. Trump had refused to make them public." CNN's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: According to the NYT report, the law "requires treating with confidentiality details about any requested returns that can be associated with a particular taxpayer. That same law, however, also allows the committee to later publish the returns in the Congressional Record, which would make them public. [Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee Richie] Neal [D-Mass.] has not announced whether he would do so." C'mon, Richie. Upload those suckers & let the nation's most vicious tax experts have at 'em.
Isaac Arnsdorf, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's refusal to apologize for or disavow the outspoken antisemites he dined with last week is setting him increasingly at odds with leaders of his own party, providing the first test of his political endurance since launching his third run for the White House. The fracas is also testing how Republicans will handle the party's extreme fringe in the months ahead after years of racist, misogynist and antisemitic speech flooding into the political bloodstream during the Trump era.... The wave of denunciations only intensified as lawmakers returned to Washington from the Thanksgiving holiday this week, breaking a well-worn pattern of dodging or shrugging off Trump's controversies during much of his presidency.... Up to the day of the dinner, multiple advisers tried to convince Trump to cancel it.... Trump has also resisted efforts in recent days to persuade him to make a statement denouncing [Nick] Fuentes and Ye." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The Homeland Security terrorism advisory bulletin, referenced above, provides the most obvious and alarming reason to condemn Trump for dining with an anti-gay, antisemitic white supremacist. Trump, Fuentes & Ye are dangers to society.
Zachary Cohen, et al., of CNN: "A state judge singled out Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer, one of the fake electors for Donald Trump for the unique role he played in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State as part of a ruling on Wednesday. Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the special purpose grand jury investigation into 2020 election interference in Fulton County Superior Court, ruled that two attorneys for 11 of the so-called 'alternate electors' in Georgia can't represent all of them. McBurney cited Shafer's central role as an organizer in efforts to overturn the election results.... 'Given the information before the Court about his role in establishing and convening the slate of alternate electors, his communications with other key players in the District Attorney's investigation, and his role in other post-election efforts to call into question the validity of the official vote count in Georgia, the Court finds that he is substantively differently situated from the other ten clients jointly represented by [attorneys Holly] Pierson and [Kimberly] Debrow,' McBurney wrote."
Beyond the Beltway
Georgia Senate Race. Voter Suppression, Ctd. Neil Vigdor & Blake Hounshell of the New York Times: "Georgia has eclipsed its daily record for early voting twice this week in the state's nationally watched Senate runoff election, but even if the state keeps up the pace, it appears unlikely to match early voting turnout levels from the 2021 runoffs. The number of early voting days has been cut roughly in half for the Dec. 6 runoff between Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, and the Republican candidate, Herschel Walker, compared with last year's Senate runoffs in Georgia. Democrats swept both of those races, which lasted nine weeks and helped them win control of the Senate. Since then, Republicans who control Georgia's Legislature and governor's office passed an election law last year that compressed the runoff schedule to four weeks. The 2021 law also sharply limited voting by mail. Election officials can no longer mail applications for absentee ballots to voters, and voters have far less time to request a ballot.... Democrats fear the restrictions will hamper a turnout machine they spent years building -- which delivered victories for Mr. Warnock, Jon Ossoff and Joseph R. Biden Jr. two years ago.On Monday afternoon in Alpharetta, Ga., a northern suburb of Atlanta, the wait time to vote was 150 minutes...." ~~~
~~~ Maya King of the New York Times: "Herschel Walker was being swamped by negative television ads. His Democratic opponents were preparing to flood the polls for early voting as soon as doors opened. After being hit by fresh allegations of carpetbagging, he was left with just over a week to make his final appeals to voters in the runoff for Georgia's Senate seat. But for five days, Mr. Walker was off the campaign trail. The decision to skip campaigning over the crucial Thanksgiving holiday weekend has Mr. Walker's Republican allies airing frustrations and concerns about his campaign strategy.... Democrats, they point out, have gotten a head start on Republicans in their early-voting push and are drowning out the G.O.P. on the airwaves -- outspending them two-to-one. [A former GOP official] also pointed to a series of mailers sent by the Georgia Republican Party encouraging voters to find their polling places that contained broken QR codes as examples of poor organizing. And he raised concern about the steady stream of advertisements supporting Warnock, a first-term senator and pastor, on conservative talk radio and contemporary Christian stations." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Georgia's Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said on CNN last night that he waited in line to vote yesterday for almost an hour, but once he finally got into the booth, he decided he couldn't vote for either Walker or Warnock. So he didn't vote. I couldn't find a print story about this, but I saw it on the teevee. ~~~
~~~ Watch the part where Walker explains why he will build a border wall:
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Thursday are here: "The U.S. Army has signed a new contract worth up to $1.2 billion with Raytheon Missiles and Defense to send six air defense missile systems to Ukraine. Raytheon also announced plans to manufacture Patriot missiles in Europe for the first time, partnering with missile developer MBDA to produce the weapons in Germany. Securing additional air defense systems is a top priority for Kyiv.... Two days of NATO meetings ended Wednesday with allies promising to continue to support Kyiv in its fight against Moscow."
U.K. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "A prominent lady-in-waiting to the late Queen Elizabeth II and godmother to royal heir Prince William resigned from her role in the Buckingham Palace household on Wednesday, and expressed 'profound apologies for the hurt caused,' after she pressed a Black British guest at the palace: 'Where are you really from?' Lady Susan Hussey, 83, had been dubbed 'Number One Head Girl' for the central role she played in the queen's life, and the new King Charles III had recently extended her honorary duties. But a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said that a complaint emerging from a Tuesday reception had been 'investigated immediately,' with the conclusion that 'unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments' had been made. The palace did not name Hussey, but said the royal household member had 'stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect.'... Camilla, Queen Consort, has said she wants to modernize the role of lady-in-waiting. She is calling her six attendants 'Queen's Companions,' expecting them to attend fewer events and relieving them of having to help answer letters to the queen."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Judging from the badgering questions asked of Ngozi Fulani, a British activist -- "What part of Africa are you from?" "What Nationality are you?" "Where do you really come from?" "Where do your people come from?" and "When did you first come here?" -- the old girl must have drunk too much.