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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Thursday
Aug252022

August 26, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Glenn Thrush & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Justice Department asked to search ... Donald J. Trump's Florida residence after retrieving an initial batch of highly classified national security documents, out of concern that their disclosure could compromise 'clandestine human sources' used in intelligence gathering, according to a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain the warrant. The affidavit -- including more than three dozen pages of evidence and legal arguments presented by the Justice Department's national security division plus supporting documents -- describes the government's monthslong push to recover highly classified materials taken from the White House by a former president who viewed state documents as his private property." This is a liveblog that is being updated Friday afternoon. Reporters' comments are informative. Following are a few items in the liveblog: ~~~

"Less than an hour after a heavily redacted copy of the affidavit used to justify the F.B.I.'s search of ... Donald J. Trump's residence in Florida was released on Friday, he and many of his allies were directing their ire toward the judge who signed the warrant. In a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, Mr. Trump named Judge Bruce Reinhart and falsely described the search of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 to retrieve classified documents as a 'break-in of my home.'...

[Another Lie.] "The General Services Administration, the federal agency charged with managing the government's property, rebutted on Friday a claim made by ... Donald J. Trump's aides that the agency had improperly packed hundreds of pages of documents with classified markings that were sent from the White House to Mr. Trump's home in Florida.... The agency said that it had no role in packing the boxes.... In the aftermath of the F.B.I.'s search of Mr. Trump's property two weeks ago, a top aide to Mr. Trump, Kashyap Patel, said ... that 'the G.S.A., not Trump, had mishandled the packaging of the documents.'... Around the same time, Mr. Trump's spokesman told NBC News that the former president was working to ensure that any items improperly moved by the General Services Administration were appropriately returned.'... The [GSA] said that while it was in charge of moving the boxes after they were packed[, shrink-wrapped & put on pallets], its personnel never examined the contents of the boxes, nor did it have any idea what was in them....

"A letter from the Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to Jay Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the national security division at the Justice Department, suggests that Trump had absolute declassification authority. But the letter does not state that Trump actually declassified any of these documents. Instead, the Trump adviser Kash Patel started making that claim around that time....

"A rare, unredacted line in a largely censored set of pages recounting events says that the National Archives made a request for the missing government documents on May 6, 2021, 'and continued to make requests until approximately late December 2021,' when Trump's office told them they had found 12 boxes that were ready for the agency to retrieve from Mar-a-Lago."

     ~~~ The Washington Post story, by Perry Stein & Devlin Barrett, is here. According to a note, it will be updated frequently. "The details contained in the affidavit and unsealed Friday ... underscore the high stakes and unprecedented nature of a criminal probe into whether the former president and his aides took secret government papers and refused to return all of the material -- even in the face of demands from senior law enforcement officials.... 'There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found,' the affidavit says.... Of the 38 pages in the affidavit, nearly half are entirely or mostly redacted." ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Records the FBI obtained from Trump’s Florida home in advance of the Aug. 8 search bore indications they contained human source intelligence, intercepts under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and signals intelligence, as well as other tags indicating high sensitivity. Several of those tightly-controlled documents contained Trump's 'handwritten notes,' the partially-redacted affidavit detailing the Justice Department investigation says.... In those boxes [obtained early this year], agents found 184 unique documents, 25 of which were marked 'top secret,' 92 of which were marked 'secret,' and 67 of which were marked 'confidential' -- the lowest level of national security classification. Prosecutors also added in another court filing unsealed Friday that the ongoing criminal probe into government records stashed at Trump's Florida home has involved 'a significant number of civilian witnesses' whose safety could be jeopardized if their identities were revealed."

     ~~~ Politico has a facsimile of the affidavit here.

Yeah but, what with all the security at Mar-a-Lago, there's no possibility any foreign spies or shady characters got into Mar-a-Lago. ~~~

~~~ Nikki Schwab, et al., of the Daily Mail: "A Ukrainian woman posing as a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty successfully infiltrated Mar-a-Lago and former President Donald Trump's inner circle and is now being investigated by the FBI and Canadian authorities. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project were out with a report Friday on 33-year-old Inna Yashchyshyn, who told Florida socialites she was heiress Anna de Rothschild, and was 'fawned all over' by guests at Trump's private club.... Canadian law enforcement confirmed Yashchyshyn has been the subject of a major crimes unit investigation in Quebec since February, the Post-Gazette reported. Yashchyshyn started showing up at Mar-a-Lago last spring...." Yashchyshyn carries Ukrainian & Russian passports. Her Florida drivers license lists an address at a mansion where she had never lived. She was involved with a man whom she described in court as a violent criminal who held her hostage; he said she was a grifter. Article includes a photo of Yashchyshyn posing with Trump & Lindsey Graham at Trump's Palm golf club.

~~~~~~~~~~

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday night launched a push toward the midterm elections with a fiery speech in Rockville, Md., in which he cast the Republican Party as one that was dangerously consumed with anti-democratic forces that had turned toward 'semi-fascism.' It was some of the strongest language used by Biden, a politician long known -- and at times criticized for -- his willingness to work wit members of the opposite party. 'The MAGA Republicans don't just threaten our personal rights and economic security,' Biden said, referencing ... Donald Trump's Make America Great Again slogan. 'They're a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace -- embrace -- political violence. They don't believe in democracy.'" Read on. CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When Barack Obama was president, the White House read Reality Chex. I expect President Biden's White House staff does, too.

Charlotte Alter of Time: "Many of the older conservatives who are angry at the idea that taxpayers might pay for student loan forgiveness went to school at a time when the government was heavily subsidizing higher education.... Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell called Biden's loan forgiveness plan 'student loan socialism' and said it was a 'slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college.' But when McConnell graduated from the University of Louisville in 1964, annual tuition cost $330 (or roughly $2,500 when adjusted for inflation); today, it costs more than $12,000, a 380% increase. When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who called the policy a 'debt transfer scam,' graduated from California State University, Bakersfield in 1989, tuition was less than $800; today, it's more than $7,500, a 400% increase when adjusted for inflation.... Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who called the policy 'UNFAIR' on Twitter..., graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1955, when annual tuition cost roughly $159, or between $40 and $53 per quarter. Today, it costs more than $8,300, a nearly 500% increase even when adjusted for inflation."

Trolling MTG. Julia Mueller of the Hill: "The White House on Thursday called out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Ga.) criticism of President Biden's plan to forgive some student loans, noting that the congresswoman had Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven.... 'Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven,' the White House wrote, referring to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a lifeline extended to help small businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.... The White House Twitter account has created a thread below its response to Greene's criticism, with similar responses to other Congressional critics of the student loan debt announcement. The congressmen whose PPP loan amounts were revealed include Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)."

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, President Biden announced a plan to reduce most students' debt by $10,000, with lower-income students eligible for twice that amount.... Assuming it survives legal challenges, it will be a big deal for millions of Americans, although the overall economic impact will ... be limited.... A preliminary analysis by Goldman Sachs estimates that student loan payments will fall to 0.3 percent of personal income from 0.4 percent. This is supposed to feed the fires of inflation?... The Biden plan also calls for an end to the pandemic pause in payments, which will suck considerably more cash out of the economy than debt relief will put back in.... There's solid evidence that freeing former students from overhanging debt makes it easier for them to move to better jobs and increases their income.... And to Republicans whining that this plan does nothing for blue-collar Americans who didn't go to college, a question: What are you proposing to do for such people -- other than cut taxes on the rich and claim that the benefits will trickle down? So you should ignore the inflation scaremongers, whose numbers don't add up."

Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "The Pentagon on Thursday announced sweeping changes aimed at reducing risks to civilians in U.S. military operations by fostering a culture in which those in the field view preventing such harm as a core part of their missions. A 36-page action plan directs broad changes at every level of military planning, doctrine, training and policy in not only counterterrorism drone strikes but also in any future major conflict. It includes emerging war-fighting tactics like attacks on satellites and computer systems. The directive -- which follows an investigative series by The New York Times into civilian deaths from American airstrikes -- contains 11 major objectives."


Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday ordered that a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain a warrant for ... Donald J. Trump's Florida residence be unsealed by noon on Friday -- paving the way for the disclosure of potentially revelatory details about a search with enormous legal and political implications. The decision by Judge Bruce E. Reinhart came just hours after the Justice Department submitted its proposal for extensive redactions to the document, in an effort to shield witnesses from intimidation or retribution if it is made public, officials said. Judge Reinhart appeared to accept the requested cuts and, moving more quickly than government lawyers had expected, directed the department to release the redacted affidavit in a brief two-page order issued from Federal District Court in Southern Florida. The order said that he had found the Justice Department's proposed redactions to be 'narrowly tailored to serve the government's legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation.'" (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Hill's report is here. CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Gabby Orr, et al., of CNN: "Not long after the National Archives acknowledged in February that it had retrieved 15 boxes of presidential records from ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Trump began fielding calls from Tom Fitton..., the longtime head of the [right-wing] legal activist group Judicial Watch. [Fitton told Trump] ... it was a mistake to give the records to the Archives..., according to three sources familiar with the matter. Those records belonged to Trump, Fitton argued, citing a 2012 court case involving his organization that he said gave the former President authority to do what he wanted with records from his own term in office. The Judicial Watch president suggested to Trump that if the Archives came back, he should not give up any additional records...." As Akhilleus points out in today's Comments, Fitton is not a lawyer. MB: This jibes with Trump's well-worn practice of finding "advisors" to fit his own views rather than advisors who will give him counsel that fits the facts & the law.

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "... on Thursday, [lawyers for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp argued] that the governor should not have to help with the ongoing criminal investigation into [2020] election meddling by testifying before a special grand jury. Mr. Kemp's legal team has accused Fani T. Willis, a Democrat and the local prosecutor leading the inquiry, of politicizing the investigation, and wants any testimony to take place after the polls close on his re-election bid in November.... The lawyers for Mr. Kemp made a number of arguments as to why he should not have to comply with the subpoena at all, but they were received skeptically by Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court, who did not immediately make a ruling.... In a sign of how widely her case is expanding, Ms. Willis also moved on Thursday to compel testimony from a number of additional Trump advisers, including Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff in the White House, and Sidney Powell, a lawyer who advanced the most aggressive conspiracy theories falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen. And Ms. Willis indicated in court filings that her investigation now encompasses 'an alleged breach of elections data' in rural Coffee County, Ga., which was part of a larger effort by Trump allies to infiltrate elections systems in swing states." ~~~

     ~~~ Mattnew Brown, et al., of the Washington Post: "The judge presiding over the grand jury investigation into possible election interference by Donald Trump and his allies expressed skepticism Thursday over arguments from Republicans that the prosecution, led by a Democratic district attorney, was politically motivated. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney did not immediately rule on a request from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to toss a subpoena for his testimony from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D). 'It is not my space' to focus on politics, McBurney said as lawyers for Kemp argued that the subpoena had already become a political issue this election season. 'I don't think it is the right forum' to debate the political ramifications of the case, said the judge."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Some of the biggest names at Fox News have been questioned, or are scheduled to be questioned in the coming days, by lawyers representing Dominion Voting Systems in its $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network, as the election technology company presses ahead with a case that First Amendment scholars say is extraordinary in its scope and significance. Sean Hannity became the latest Fox star to be called for a deposition by Dominion's legal team, according to a new filing in Delaware Superior Court. He is scheduled to appear on Wednesday. Tucker Carlson is set to face questioning on Friday. Lou Dobbs, whose Fox Business show was canceled last year, is scheduled to appear on Tuesday. Others who have been deposed recently include Jeanine Pirro, Steve Doocy and a number of high-level Fox producers, court records show.... The depositions are among the clearest indications yet of how aggressively Dominion is moving forward with its suit, which is set to go to trial early next year, and of the legal pressure building on the nation's most powerful conservative media company. There have been no moves from either side to discuss a possible settlement...."

Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "For years, as California has moved ahead with ambitious clean-air regulations, the state has had to prod the auto industry to go along. Now, in the push to electrify the nation's car fleet, it is California that is keeping up with automakers. Even before state regulators acted Thursday to ban sales of new internal-combustion vehicles by 2035, Detroit's Big 3 and their international rivals were setting increasingly aggressive targets for exclusively electric product lines.... 'To move everything to E.V.s in California doesn't seem outlandish and unattainable right now,' said Jessica Caldwell..., an auto-market researcher. 'But I'm sure each automaker will face challenges to achieve their targets, and a few may even struggle a bit.'"

Carter Sherman & Paul Blest of Vice: "A man who worked as a political director for Texas Right to Life, the premier anti-abortion group in the state, has been arrested for the online solicitation of a minor. Lucas 'Luke' Bowen, 33, was charged with the second-degree felony on August 3. A minor, under that statute, refers to anyone who's younger than 17 or who the arrested person believes to be younger than 17. Bowen allegedly 'knowingly' solicited a minor online 'with the intent' of engaging 'in sexual contact or sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse,' according to a complaint filed by Montgomery County prosecutors obtained by The Courier of Montgomery County." MB: One reason people go to work for right-to-life organizations is that they love having a job where they get to talk all day about having sex with minors.

Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Two Florida residents pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday to stealing a diary and other belongings of President Biden's daughter, Ashley Biden, and selling them to the conservative group Project Veritas in the final weeks before the 2020 election. Aimee Harris, 40, and Robert Kurlander, 58, admitted they took part in a conspiracy to transport stolen materials from Florida, where Ms. Biden had been living, to New York, where Project Veritas has its headquarters. Prosecutors said Mr. Kurlander agreed as part of a plea deal to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation into how the diary was acquired by Project Veritas, whose deceptive operations against liberal groups and traditional news organizations made it a favorite of ... Donald J. Trump.... Whether the Justice Department ultimately charges anyone who worked for Project Veritas is unclear." But an operative for Project Veritas, according to prosecutors, was involved in arranging the theft of some of Ms. Biden's belongings, and Project Veritas later demanded an interview with President Biden about the contents of the diary. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Guardian report is here.

Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "Sandy Hook victims' families asked a federal bankruptcy court on Thursday to order the Infowars conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones to relinquish control over his company, saying he has 'systematically transferred millions of dollars' to himself and his relatives while claiming to be broke. In a filing in the bankruptcy court in Houston, the families of nine Sandy Hook victims said they sought to have a bankruptcy trustee who is already monitoring the case take control of Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Mr. Jones's misinformation-peddling media outlet.... Mr. Jones's claimed insolvency is at the heart of his efforts to avoid paying for the damage done by his Sandy Hook lies."

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona Senate Race. Never Mind. Allan Smith & Marc Caputo of NBC News: "Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters softened his tone and scrubbed his website's policy page of tough abortion restrictions Thursday.... In an ad posted to Twitter on Thursday, Masters sought to portray his opponent, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, as the extremist on the issue while describing his own views as 'commonsense.'... Just after it released the ad, Masters' campaign published an overhaul of his website and softened his rhetoric, rewriting or erasing five of his six positions. NBC News took screenshots of the website before and after it was changed. Masters' website appeared to have been refreshed after NBC News reached out for clarification about his abortion stances."

North Dakota. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "The day before a near-total abortion ban would have taken effect in North Dakota, a judge put that law on hold Thursday afternoon, pending the conclusion of a legal challenge being mounted by the state's former sole abortion clinic. Burleigh County District Judge Bruce Romanick granted a preliminary injunction in a legal challenge brought by Red River Women's Clinic, which was North Dakota's only abortion clinic until it moved just across state lines earlier this month. Although the trigger ban has been blocked, the state will have no abortion clinic for the foreseeable future. The clinic relocated from Fargo to Moorhead, Minn., on Aug. 6 to stay open in the event that the North Dakota trigger ban went into effect. Tammi Kromenaker, the clinic's director, said Red River Women's Clinic would probably stay in Moorhead even if it wins its lawsuit and defeats the trigger ban, because Minnesota's abortion laws are far more permissive."

Texas. Johnny Get Your Gun. Eliza Fawcett of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Fort Worth struck down a Texas law on Thursday that prohibits adults under 21 from carrying handguns, on the grounds that the restriction violated the Second Amendment.... A lawsuit brought against the state in November 2021 by two adult plaintiffs under 21 and the Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun-rights advocacy nonprofit, challenged the constitutionality of the statute. The lawsuit argued that '18- to 20-year-old adults were fully protected by the Second Amendment at the time of its ratification.'... Judge [Mark] Pittman, who was nominated by ... Donald J. Trump in 2019, ordered the injunction stayed for 30 days, pending appeal...."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Electricity has been restored to Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Friday, narrowly averting a 'radiation accident,' says Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The facility was cut off from Ukraine's electricity grid a day earlier, causing a massive power outage before backup diesel generators kicked in. Zelensky warned that Europe remained 'one step away from a radiation disaster' as long as Russian troops controlled the plant.... Although now receiving power, [the plant] is not yet providing any power to the rest of the country.... Russia is using 21 sites in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, to detain, interrogate and process prisoners of war and civilians in so-called 'filtration camps,' a report by Yale University and the State Department has found. Its findings are based on data and commercial satellite imagery identifying with 'high confidence' the separate locations, it said, one of which contains 'potential graves.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant was cut off from the country's electricity grid, setting off a mass power outage in the adjacent area after fires damaged its last functioning transmission line, Ukraine's nuclear power company said Thursday. The incident renewed fears about safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which is also the largest atomic energy plant in Europe and is located in an area now occupied by invading Russian forces. Fighting in the vicinity of the plant has led to acute worries of a potential catastrophe and to calls from many world leaders for U.N. nuclear experts to be allowed to visit the site." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Comments Off
Wednesday
Aug242022

August 25, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "A federal magistrate judge on Thursday said he would release a redacted version of the affidavit that convinced him to approve a warrant to search former President Trump's Florida home. The decision from Judge Bruce Reinhart comes after he ordered the Justice Department to propose redactions to a document whose full release they argued would compromise their ongoing investigation.... 'I find that the Government has met its burden of showing a compelling reason/good cause to seal portions of the Affidavit,' Reinhardt wrote.... DOJ is ordered to file a public version of its redacted document by noon Friday." Update: CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Fortunately, Reality Chex has readers with connections. Akhilleus already has obtained the redacted affidavit, which probably will be released to everyone else tomorrow. See the bottom of today's Comments. (You may be surprised to learn that "holy crap" and "crooked asshole" are legal terms.)

Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Two Florida residents pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday to stealing a diary and other belongings of President Biden's daughter, Ashley Biden, and selling them to the conservative group Project Veritas in the final weeks before the 2020 election. Aimee Harris, 40, and Robert Kurlander, 58, admitted they took part in a conspiracy to transport stolen materials from Florida, where Ms. Biden had been living, to New York, where Project Veritas has its headquarters. Prosecutors said Mr. Kurlander agreed as part of a plea deal to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation into how the diary was acquired by Project Veritas, whose deceptive operations against liberal groups and traditional news organizations made it a favorite of ... Donald J. Trump.... Whether the Justice Department ultimately charges anyone who worked for Project Veritas is unclear." But an operative for Project Veritas, according to prosecutors, was involved in arranging the theft of some of Ms. Biden's belongings, and Project Veritas later demanded an interview with President Biden about the contents of the diary.

Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Thursday proposed extensive redactions to the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for ... Donald J. Trump's Florida residence in an effort to shield witnesses from intimidation or retribution if it is made public, officials said. The filing, sent to a federal judge in Florida a few minutes before a noon deadline, is unlikely to lead to the immediate release of the affidavit. In its most complete form, the document would disclose important, and potentially revelatory, details about the government's justification for taking the extraordinary step of searching Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. The submission by the Justice Department -- which contains proposed redactions and a supporting memo -- is a significant legal milepost in an investigation that has swiftly emerged as a major threat to Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have offered a confused and at times stumbling response. But it is also an inflection point for Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who is trying to balance protecting the prosecutorial process by keeping secret details of the investigation, and providing enough information to defend his decision to request a search unlike any other in history."

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant was cut off from the country's electricity grid, setting off a mass power outage in the adjacent area after fires damaged its last functioning transmission line, Ukraine's nuclear power company said Thursday. The incident renewed fears about safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which is also the largest atomic energy plant in Europe and is located in an area now occupied by invading Russian forces. Fighting in the vicinity of the plant has led to acute worries of a potential catastrophe and to calls from many world leaders for U.N. nuclear experts to be allowed to visit the site."

~~~~~~~~~~

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden announced on Wednesday that he would cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for those earning less than $125,000 per year, with an additional $10,000 for those who had received Pell grants for low-income students, providing economic relief for tens of millions of Americans. The debt forgiveness, although less than the amount that some Democrats had been pushing for, comes after months of deliberations in the White House over fairness and fears that it could exacerbate inflation before the midterm elections. The plan will almost certainly face legal challenges, making the timing of any relief uncertain." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Ron Lieber & Tara Bernard of the New York Times outline who may qualify for loan forgiveness. ~~~

     ~~~ After reading about the college loan forgiveness program, columnist Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post seemed to find her inner Elderly Foxbot: "DISGUSTING! AWFUL! I have just received word that life is getting marginally better for some people, and I am white-hot with fury! This is the worst thing that could possibly happen! I did not suffer and strive and work my fingers to the bone so that anybody else could have a life that does not involve suffering and striving and the working of fingers to the bone. I demand to see only bones and no fingers!" ~~~

     ~~~ MEANWHILE, Petri's collegues on the Washington Post's editorial board oppose the student loan forgiveness program. MB: The NYT story linked above cites some of the perceived pros & cons, but President Biden perhaps best captured the key economic consideration in remarks he made Wednesday: "All of this means people can start finally to climb out from under that mountain of debt. To finally think about buying a home or starting a family or starting a business. And by the way, when this happens, the whole economy is better off." Some economists worry that freeing up money so that young people can buy stuff is inflationary. But for pete's sake, people buying stuff obviously is what drives the economy. And nobody needs stuff more than young people.

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Wednesday announced that he had selected a new director for the U.S. Secret Service, an agency that has been under increasing scrutiny in recent months and faced a dramatic spotlight in the hearings of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Biden said in a statement that he had selected Kim Cheatle, who rose through the ranks during 27 years with the agency and served on his security detail when he was vice president. Cheatle, currently an official with PepsiCo, will become the agency's second female chief in its 157-year history.... The only other woman to head the Secret Service was Julia Pierson in 2013-2014, who resigned after security lapses eroded President Barack Obama's confidence in her." MB: So good luck with all that, Kim.

The IRS made it very clear that one of the "major duties" of these new positions is to 'be willing to use deadly force.'... The IRS is making it very clear that you not only need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS's words, willing, to kill them. -- Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), warning Americans why they should not take jobs with the IRS

... we WILL NOT FUND these 87k armed new IRS agents who will target the American people. -- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ~~~

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Let's consider the lie, endlessly repeated by Republicans and the Fox News-led echo chamber, that new legislation enacted by Democrats funds the hiring of '87,000 armed IRS agents.'... This is a whole-cloth invention designed to stoke paranoia.... Treasury officials tell me, the expected increase in personnel would be more like 40,000, over the course of a decade -- which would merely restore IRS staffing to around the 117,000 it had in 1990. Only about 6,500 of the new hires would be 'agents.' The rest would be customer-service representatives, data specialists and the like. And fewer than 1 percent of the new hires would be armed.... Such officers, who go after drug rings and Russian oligarchs, have been part of the IRS for more than a century.... Treasury says the new law will result in a 'lower likelihood of audit' for ordinary taxpayers, because technology upgrades will enable the IRS to target the actual tax cheats -- the super-rich -- for more audits." Emphasis added. Milbank cites more incendiary nonsense from top Republicans who fantasize about IRS SWAT teams taking AR-15s to kids' lemonade stands. and so forth. Really. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The real danger here, of course, is that many "ordinary Republicans" will believe the lies Republicans & Fox "News" tell them, and some of these gullible, trigger-happy bozos will attack IRS agents. The GOP seems determined to establish a vast right-wing terrorist army. Again, I say, Democrats and other leaders need to speak out against these Republican "leaders" & call them out by name for the dangers they pose to ordinary low-level officials at every level of government.

Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Less than four months after ... Donald J. Trump left office, the general counsel of the National Archives reached out to three lawyers who had worked with Mr. Trump to convey a firm message: The archives had determined that more than two dozen boxes of Mr. Trump's presidential records were missing, and it needed the lawyers' 'immediate assistance' to retrieve them, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. The email..., by the top lawyer at the archives, Gary M. Stern, was ... sent on May 6, 2021.... Mr. Stern noted that there were two sets of documents in particular the archives could not find: the original correspondence between Mr. Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and a letter that President Barack Obama had left for Mr. Trump on his first day in office. Mr. Stern told the lawyers that just before Mr. Trump left office, the letters from Mr. Kim were placed in a binder for the president but never made their way to the archives, as required by the law.... Mr. Stern also said that 'roughly two dozen boxes of original presidential records' that Mr. Trump had kept in the White House residence during his final year in office had not been given to the archives. In his email, Mr. Stern said the archives never received the materials even though [White House counsel Pat] Cipollone had determined that they should have been turned over...." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Dawsey & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The email shows NARA officials were concerned about Trump keeping dozens of boxes of official records even before he left the White House -- concerns that only grew in the coming months as Trump repeatedly declined to return the records. It also showed that Trump's lawyers had concerns about Trump taking the documents and agreed that the boxes should be returned -- at least according to the top Archives officials -- while Trump kept the documents.... [NARA attorney Gary] Stern does not say in the email how he determined that the boxes were in Trump's possession.... Throughout the fall of 2021, Stern continued to urge multiple Trump advisers to help the Archives get the records back, according to people familiar with the conversations.... Trump only decided to give some of the documents back after Stern told Trump officials that the Archives would soon have to notify Congress, and Stern told Trump advisers that he did not want to escalate and notify Congress, these people said." Emphasis added.

How Secure Is Mar-a-Lago? Olivia Rubin & Will Steakin of ABC News: "Interviews with over a dozen visitors and a review of social media posts show that in weeks leading up to the [FBI search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8], dozens of events were held at the club, which together drew thousands of visitors from around the world to the president's property. And though a number of Trump's lawyers have taken to the airwaves in recent days to offer assurances that Mar-a-Lago is highly secure, others with experience at the property say otherwise.... Since Trump returned to Palm Beach after losing the 2020 election, Mar-a-Lago has emerged as the power center for Republican politics, with candidates flocking to the former president's resort to court his support and rent out the club for lavish fundraisers.... During his time in office, Trump held multiple summits at Mar-a-Lago with foreign leaders.... That trend has continued since Trump left office.... Experts say it would be a security risk to allow non-U.S. citizens access to where top-secret documents are stored.... [Former Homeland Security official John Cohen says that security] procedures [at the resort] are primarily for the purpose of eliminating threats to the former president -- not for protecting documents."

Wherein Trump Files a Brief Admitting He's a Thief. Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump appeared to concede in his court filing surrounding the seizure of materials from his Florida resort that he unlawfully retained official government documents, as the former president argued that some of the documents collected by the FBI could be subject to executive privilege. The motion submitted on Monday by the former president's lawyers argued that a court should appoint a so-called special master to separate out and determine what materials the justice department can review as evidence due to privilege issues. But the argument from Trump that some of the documents are subject to executive privilege protections indicates that those documents are official records that he is not authorized to keep and should have turned over to the National Archives at the end of the administration." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Several legal experts made the same point on TV yesterday. Andrew Weissmann further argued that there is no such thing as an "executive privilege" that would bar DOJ, FBI & National Archives personnel from viewing "executive" documents inasmuch as these agencies are all part of the executive branch of the government. That is, they share the "privilege."

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has released the entire text of a secret 2019 memo that played a crucial role in the decision not to charge or accuse ... Donald Trump of committing obstruction of justice in the investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. The nine-page memo was the subject of a lawsuit by a government watchdog group, which argued the department had dishonestly kept the memo under wraps. A federal judge agreed, and an appeals panel last week upheld the judge's opinion and ordered the memo released. The memo was written by two senior Justice Department officials for then-attorney general William P. Barr, who subsequently told Congress there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's inquiry. A redacted version was released last year, leaving the legal and factual analysis under seal. The newly-released analysis shows that Steven Engel, then the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and Edward O'Callaghan, then a senior Justice Department official, concluded in the memo that Mueller did 'not identify sufficient evidence to prove any criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt.'" Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The memo, via Politico, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The lede on these stories should have been: "The Department of Justice has released, under court order, a memo from two of Donald Trump's political appointees to attorney general William Barr, also a Trump appointee. The nine-page memo, which Barr's DOJ has long attempted to keep secret, provided Barr with tortured reasoning that gave him a shaky basis to falsely claim that special counsel Robert Mueller had not found sufficient evidence to charge Donald Trump with obstruction of justice in regard to Mueller's Russia investigation." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story, by Mark Mazzetti & others is here: "Outside specialists in white-collar law greeted the disclosure of the memo with some skepticism, describing its tone as essentially that of a defense lawyer in a trial rather than an even-handed weighing of the law and evidence.... Ryan Goodman, a New York University law professor, called the memo a 'get out of jail free' card, adding: 'It's hard to stomach a memo that amounts to saying someone is not guilty of obstruction for deliberately trying to induce witnesses not to cooperate with law enforcement in a major criminal investigation.'... The memo shows that senior Justice Department officials seemed to be prepared to knock down arguments that Mr. Trump had obstructed justice. It is dated March 24, only two days after the special counsel's office delivered a report of more than 400 pages to the attorney general."

Danny Hakim & Richard Fausset of the New York Times explore Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R.-S.C.) November 13, 2020, call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during the time Raffensperger was overseeing a hand recount of the Georgia presidential vote as well as Graham's attempt to get out of a subpoena from a special grand jury called by Fulton County DA Fani Willis to examine interference in the 2020 presidential election. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Scott Perry is suing to block the Justice Department from reviewing the contents of his cell phone, which was recently seized as part of an apparent investigation into the Pennsylvania Republican's connections to ... Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election. FBI agents seized Perry's phone on Aug. 9 and transported it to the custody of DOJ's inspector general, which has helped lead the inquiry into the push by Trump and his allies to replace department leadership as part of a broader drive to keep Trump in power. Investigators have cited Perry as a key participant in that effort given his help connecting Trump with Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official whom Trump viewed as an ally in his push.... according to Perry, DOJ demanded that he waive his immunity under the Constitution's speech and debate clause as part of the process, which Perry says he declined.... A similar process has been unfolding in the case of attorney John Eastman, a key architect of Trump's 2020 election subversion." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The speech & debate clause of the Constitution provides that members of Congress "shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony, and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their attendance at the Session of their Respective Houses, and in going to and from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place." It appears that Perry & Graham are unaware of the meanings of speech and debate. (If only the Constitution had a glossary!) These terms certainly imply that members of Congress exercising their rights under the provision are opening their mouths, figurative or literally, and uttering words (not necessarily in complete sentences!) that the public can hear or read. One is not speechifying or debating if one is conveying no words at all. Therefore, IMO, the clause protects only public utterances. So there's a Catch-22 here. If Perry wants his utterances protected under the clause, he has to make them. If his "speech" is hidden on his phone, it is not protected. P.S. Somebody should tell Perry that an insurrection in which a mob storms the U.S. Capitol with the object of foreclosing any speech and debate -- by, among other means. killing potential speakers -- is also something of a "Breach of the Peace."

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Ryan Zinke, a former interior secretary during the Trump administration, intentionally misled investigators looking into his department's decision not to act on two Native American tribes' requests to open a new casino in Connecticut, the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General concluded in a report released on Wednesday. Mr. Zinke, who served as interior secretary from 2017 to 2019, is now the Republican nominee for a congressional seat in Montana. He is widely expected to win the general election this November. The 44-page report on Wednesday focused not on the casino decision itself -- litigation over that was resolved separately -- but on whether Mr. Zinke and his former chief of staff had been honest about it.... [The report] characterized Mr. Zinke and his chief of staff as not complying 'with their duty of candor when questioned.'"

Marie: For a long time I have thought that the GOP's threat to democracy was a secret known only to a few liberal wonks. But to my surprise & relief, an NBC poll released a couple of days ago tells us that has changed: ~~~

~~~ Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Threats to democracy clocked in as the most important issue facing the country for a plurality of registered voters, according to an NBC News poll. The poll found that 21 percent of respondents ranked threats to democracy as the most important issue, followed by 16 percent who indicated the cost of living and 14 percent who said jobs and the economy.... The new poll was conducted days after the FBI searched former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month as part of its investigation into the former president's handling of classified documents."

Faiz Siddiqui & Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post: "Elon Musk's attorneys raised a new whistleblower complaint in arguments in court Wednesday, leaning heavily on the high-ranking former Twitter executive's allegations as they sought the right to additional data to support their case. Twitter has sued Musk over his attempt to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the social media site, and Musk has countersued alleging fraud and breach of contract."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Mariana Alfaro & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "First lady Jill Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus in a rebound case, the White House said Wednesday, and will resume isolation procedures. 'After testing negative on Tuesday, just now, the First Lady has tested positive for COVID-19 by antigen testing,' her spokeswoman, Kelsey Donohue, said in a statement. "This represents a "rebound" positivity.' Donohue added that Biden has not experienced a reemergence of symptoms and that the White House has traced and notified the first lady's close contacts. She is in Delaware and will remain there as she isolates." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Katherine Foley of Politico: "The Trump administration pressured the Food and Drug Administration, including former FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, to authorize unproven treatments for Covid-19 and the first Covid-19 vaccines on an accelerated timeline, according to a report released Wednesday by Democrats on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.... In multiple instances, the subcommittee said it found evidence of senior Trump officials planning to take actions that could benefit the administration politically.... A substantial portion of the report focuses on Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser under Trump, who worked on the administration's coronavirus response ... [and his advisor] Steven Hatfill, an adjunct virology professor...." MB: It's probably worth your while to skim the story as a reminder of how Trump voters put our lives in the hands of scammers & screwballs.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Coral Davenport & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "California is expected to put into effect on Thursday its sweeping plan to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a groundbreaking move that could have major effects on the effort to fight climate change and accelerate a global transition toward electric vehicles.... The rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board, will require that 100 percent of all new cars sold in the state by 2035 be free of the fossil fuel emissions chiefly responsible for warming the planet, up from 12 percent today. It sets interim targets requiring that 35 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the state by 2026 produce zero emissions. That would climb to 68 percent by 2030." A CNN story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Idaho. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Idaho blocked part of the state's strict abortion ban on Wednesday, delivering a limited but significant victory to the Biden administration, which has tried to use its limited power to protect reproductive rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. This month, the Justice Department sued Idaho, one of the most conservative states in the country, arguing that the law would prevent emergency room doctors from performing abortions necessary to stabilize the health of women facing medical emergencies. Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the Federal District Court in Idaho wrote that doctors in the state could not be punished for acting to protect the health of endangered mothers, in a preliminary injunction issued a day before the ban was to be enacted. But he emphasized the narrow scope of the decision, leaving intact most of the bill's other provisions, which constitute a near-total prohibition on the procedure in the state as allowed under the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling in June." An NBC News story is here.

Texas. Chris Boyette & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "A federal judge in Texas has blocked Department of Health and Human Services guidance that medical providers who are required to provide emergency care to pregnant patients regardless of their ability to pay for it under a 1986 law must also provide abortion services in life-threatening or health-saving situations and will be protected if those actions violate state law. On Tuesday, US District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix ruled that the guidance, which cites the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), was 'unauthorized.'" MB: Three guesses as to who appointed Hendrix to the court. Any answer that does not begin with a "T" and end with a "p" is "unauthorized."

Texas. Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: "Facing intense pressure from parents, the school board in Uvalde, Texas, on Wednesday terminated its school police chief, Pete Arredondo, who directed the district's police response to a mass shooting at an elementary school in which the gunman was allowed to remain in a pair of classrooms for more than 75 minutes. The unanimous vote, which Mr. Arredondo, through his lawyer, called 'an unconstitutional public lynching,' represented the first direct accountability over what has been widely seen as a deeply flawed police response, one that left trapped and wounded students and teachers to wait for rescue as police officers delayed their entry into the two adjoining classrooms where the gunman was holed up." A Guardian story is here.

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 death toll from Russian strikes on a train station and residential area in the Ukrainian village of Chaplyne rose to 25, including two children, as search and rescue operations concluded. A day after announcing almost $3 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine, President Biden is expected to have a telephone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky to reaffirm U.S. support. In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron met with the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to discuss the situation at Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant."

Emma Graham-Harrison of the Guardian: "A detailed plan has been drawn up by Russia to disconnect Europe's largest nuclear plant from Ukraine's power grid, risking a catastrophic failure of its cooling systems, the Guardian has been told. World leaders have called for the Zaporizhzhia site to be demilitarised after footage emerged of Russian army vehicles inside the plant, and have previously warned Russia against cutting it off from the Ukrainian grid and connecting it up to the Russian power network. But Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine's atomic energy company, told the Guardian in an interview that Russian engineers had already drawn up a blueprint for a switch on the grounds of emergency planning should fighting sever remaining power connections. 'They presented [the plan] to [workers at] the plant, and the plant [workers] presented it to us. The precondition for this plan was heavy damage of all lines which connect Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the Ukrainian system,' Kotin said in an interview on Ukraine's independence day on Wednesday, with the country mostly locked down because of the threat of Russian attacks."


Somewhere off the Coast of Italy. Annabelle Timsit of the Washington Post: "A superyacht sank off the southern coast of Italy over the weekend in a spectacular capsizing captured on video and shared on Twitter by the Italian coast guard." MB: Gosh, I sure hope that's not the superyacht that nice Sen. Rick Scott was cruising on while complaining how terrible it was for Joe Biden to take a few vacation days in Delaware. Glub glub. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Related story linked yesterday.

Comments Off
Wednesday
Aug242022

August 24, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

As requested:

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has released the entire text of a secret 2019 memo that played a crucial role in the decision not to charge or accuse ... Donald Trump of committing obstruction of justice in the investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. The nine-page memo was the subject of a lawsuit by a government watchdog group, which argued the department had dishonestly kept the memo under wraps. A federal judge agreed, and an appeals panel last week upheld the judge's opinion and ordered the memo released. The memo was written by two senior Justice Department officials for then-attorney general William P. Barr, who subsequently told Congress there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's inquiry. A redacted version was released last year, leaving the legal and factual analysis under seal. The newly-released analysis shows that Steven Engel, then the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and Edward O"Callaghan, then a senior Justice Department official, concluded in the memo that Mueller did 'not identify sufficient evidence to prove any criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt.'" Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The memo, via Politico, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The lede on these stories should have been: "The Department of Justice has released, under court order, a memo from two of Donald Trump's political appointees to attorney general Williiam Barr, also a Trump appointee. The nine-page memo, which Barr's DOJ has long attempted to keep secret, provided Barr with tortured reasoning that gave him a shaky basis to falsely claim that special counsel Robert Mueller had not found sufficient evidence to charge Donald Trump with obstruction of justice in regard to Mueller's Russia investigation."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: “President Biden announced on Wednesday that he would cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for those earning less than $125,000 per year, with an additional $10,000 for those who had received Pell grants for low-income students, providing economic relief for tens of millions of Americans. Th debt forgiveness, although less than the amount that some Democrats had been pushing for, comes after months of deliberations in the White House over fairness and fears that it could exacerbate inflation before the midterm elections. The plan will almost certainly face legal challenges, making the timing of any relief uncertain." CNN's report is here.

Coral Davenport & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "California is expected to put into effect on Thursday its sweeping plan to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a groundbreaking move that could have major effects on the effort to fight climate change and accelerate a global transition toward electric vehicles.... The rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board, will require that 100 percent of all new cars sold in the state by 2035 be free of the fossil fuel emissions chiefly responsible for warming the planet, up from 12 percent today. It sets interim targets requiring that 35 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the state by 2026 produce zero emissions. That would climb to 68 percent by 2030." A CNN story is here.

Annabelle Timsit of the Washington Post: "A superyacht sank off the southern coast of Italy over the weekend in a spectacular capsizing captured on video and shared on Twitter by the Italian coast guard." MB: Gosh, I sure hope that's not the superyacht that nice Sen. Rick Scott was cruising on while complaining how terrible it was for Joe Biden to take a few vacation days in Delaware. Glub glub. Related story linked below.

Faiz Siddiqui & Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post:" Elon Musk's attorneys raised a new whistleblower complaint in arguments in court Wednesday, leaning heavily on the high-ranking former Twitter executive's allegations as they sought the right to additional data to support their case. Twitter has sued Musk over his attempt to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the social media site, and Musk has countersued alleging fraud and breach of contract."

Mariana Alfaro & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "First lady Jill Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus in a rebound case, the White House said Wednesday, and will resume isolation procedures. 'After testing negative on Tuesday, just now, the First Lady has tested positive for COVID-19 by antigen testing,' her spokeswoman, Kelsey Donohue, said in a statement. 'This represents a "rebound" positivity.' Donohue added that Biden has not experienced a reemergence of symptoms and that the White House has traced and notified the first lady's close contacts. She is in Delaware and will remain there as she isolates."

Wherein Trump Files a Brief Admitting He's a Thief. Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump appeared to concede in his court filing surrounding the seizure of materials from his Florida resort that he unlawfully retained official government documents, as the former president argued that some of the documents collected by the FBI could be subject to executive privilege. The motion submitted on Monday by the former president's lawyers argued that a court should appoint a so-called special master to separate out and determine what materials the justice department can review as evidence due to privilege issues. But the argument from Trump that some of the documents are subject to executive privilege protections indicates that those documents are official records that he is not authorized to keep and should have turned over to the National Archives at the end of the administration." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Several legal experts made the same point on TV yesterday. Andrew Weissmann further argued that there is no such thing as an "executive privilege" that would bar DOJ, FBI & National Archives personnel from viewing "executive" documents inasmuch as these agencies are all part of the executive branch of the government. That is, they share the "privilege."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' liveblog of Tuesday's primary election results is here:

[New York.] “Representative Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, handily defeated his longtime congressional neighbor, Carolyn B. Maloney, in a bruising three-way primary battle on Tuesday that was preordained to end one of the powerful Democrats' political careers. The star-crossed skirmish in the heart of Manhattan was unlike any New York City -- or the Democratic Party writ large -- had seen in recent memory. Though few ideological differences were at stake, it pitted two committee chairs who have served side by side in Washington since the 1990s against each other, and cleaved party faithful into rival factions....

[New York.] "Daniel Goldman, the former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the first impeachment case against Donald J. Trump, captured the Democratic nomination for an open House seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, according to The Associated Press. The victory on Tuesday in the heavily Democratic district all but assures Mr. Goldman a seat in Congress come 2023; he will face Benine Hamdan, a little-known Republican candidate, in November....

[New York.] "Nick Langworthy, the New York State Republican Party chairman, defeated Carl Paladino in a primary in New York's 23rd Congressional District on Tuesday, delivering a win for the party establishment against perhaps its most polarizing figure.... With an estimated 94 percent of votes reported, [Mr. Langworthy] had won 52 percent of the vote to Mr. Paladino's 48 percent....

[New York.] "Pat Ryan, a Democratic county executive in New York’s Hudson Valley, has won a special House election on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, in a contest that was seen as a potential test of the impact that the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion might have on the midterm elections. The result in the closely watched race, which was considered a tossup, will keep the swing-district seat, which was formerly held by Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, under Democratic control....

[New York.] "Joe Sempolinski, a local Republican Party leader and former congressional aide, won a special election on Tuesday for a vacant House seat in western New York, according to The Associated Press, keeping the sprawling rural district under Republican control. The race was surprisingly close, but Mr. Sempolinski was ultimately able to capitalize on his deep Republican Party ties in one of the most conservative regions of the state to repel a Democratic challenge by Max Della Pia, an Air Force veteran....

[New York.] "Representative Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, won his primary contest on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, defeating Alessandra Biaggi, a state senator who challenged him from the left. The race for the newly redrawn 17th District of New York was a high-drama, divisive affair that drew involvement from an array of national figures. Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Bill Clinton backed Mr. Maloney, while Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and a number of progressive organizations supported the state senator....

[Florida.] "Florida Democrats chose Representative Charlie Crist as their nominee for governor on Tuesday, betting that the former Republican governor who campaigned on a return to political decency was their best bet to try to defeat Gov. Ron DeSantis, the polarizing Republican incumbent. Mr. Crist's blowout victory sets up the general election against Mr. DeSantis as a contest between a centrist and a hard-right conservative, with Democrats believing that the well-known and peaceable Mr. Crist can attract independent voters and Republicans who are fed up with Mr. DeSantis's aggressive right-wing policies....

[Florida.] "Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old progressive activist, won a Democratic primary in an Orlando-area House district on Tuesday, setting himself up to be the first member of Congress from Generation Z....

[Florida.] "Representative Daniel Webster beat back a challenge from Laura Loomer, a far-right and anti-Muslim activist, in the Republican primary for Florida's 11th congressional district, according to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Ms. Loomer, a contributor to Infowars, the media company owned by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has been banned from Twitter and Facebook for violating rules about promoting misinformation, violence or hate....

[Florida.] "Representative Matt Gaetz, the far-right Republican who easily won his primary on Tuesday in Florida's First Congressional District, will face a Democratic challenger in November who made national headlines early in the coronavirus pandemic. Rebekah D. Jones, a former data manager for the Florida Department of Health, defeated Peggy Schiller in the Democratic primary, according to The Associated Press, after a confusing legal back-and-forth over whether Ms. Jones was eligible to appear on the ballot."


** The Purloined Papers, Ctd. The following WashPo & NYT stories repeat & substantially elaborate on information we learned yesterday. If you can access these stories directly, I recommend you do so. The narrative is more tortured than I can convey in excerpts. ~~~

~~~ “Trump Oversaw the Process Himself." Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "... the key events that led to the FBI search [of Mar-a-Lago] took place only this year, after months of slow-rolling conflict between the former president and law enforcement agencies. Some material recovered in the search is considered extraordinarily sensitive, two people familiar with the search said, because it could reveal carefully guarded secrets about U.S. intelligence-gathering methods. One of them said the information is 'among the most sensitive secrets we hold.'... Trump ignored multiple opportunities to quietly resolve the FBI concerns by handing over all classified material in his possession -- including a grand jury subpoena that Trump's team accepted May 11. Again and again, he reacted with a familiar mix of obstinance and outrage, causing some in his orbit to fear he was essentially daring the FBI to come after him....

[After Trump left office, there followed] a tortured standoff among Trump; some of his own advisers, who urged the return of documents; and the bureaucrats charged by the law with maintaining and protecting presidential records. Trump only agreed to return some of the documents after a National Archives official asked a Trump adviser for help, saying they may have to soon refer the matter to Congress or the Justice Department. Nearly a year later, on Jan. 17, 2022, Trump returned 15 boxes of newspaper clips, presidential briefing papers, handwritten notes and assorted mementos to the National Archives.... People familiar with the episode said Trump oversaw the process himself -- and did so with great secrecy, declining to show some items even to top aides.... As the fight with the Archives came to an uneasy conclusion, the FBI proceeded with interviews with others in Trump's orbit, including valets and former White House staffers.... Agents were told that Trump was a pack rat who had been personally overseeing his collection of White House records since even before leaving Washington and had been reluctant to return anything." On Tuesday, acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall released a May 10 letter to Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran, a letter that Trump ally John Solomon published earlier. ~~~

~~~ Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump took more than 700 pages of classified documents, including some related to the nation's most covert intelligence operations, to his private club and residence in Florida when he left the White House in January 2021, according to a letter that the National Archives sent to his lawyers this year. The letter, dated May 10 and written by the acting U.S. archivist, Debra Steidel Wall, to one of Mr. Trump's lawyers, Evan Corcoran, described the state of alarm in the Justice Department as officials there began to realize how serious the documents were. It also suggested that top department prosecutors and members of the intelligence community were delayed in conducting a damage assessment about the documents' removal from the White House as Mr. Trump's lawyers tried to argue that some of them might have been protected by executive privilege.... The letter could further implicate Mr. Trump in a potential crime....

"[An email dated April 13 from Archives officials to two of Mr. Trump's archive representatives, Patrick F. Philbin and John Eisenberg further filled out the timeline and] further undermine the repeated assertions from Mr. Trump's legal team that federal officials could have simply asked for the material at any time and that the matter was just an amiable ongoing negotiation.... [The letter] also revealed that well before Mr. Trump's lawyers argued in their court filing on Monday that many of the records were protected by executive privilege, the same argument had been rejected by the White House and a top official at the Justice Department."

     ~~~ Marie: So what happened here is (1) Trump stole box-fulls of documents & other stuff that by law the National Archives must retain. (2) Trump refused for a year-and-a-half to return the documents, even though multiple officials repeatedly told him he must do so. (3) Under extreme pressure, Trump secretly went through the boxes, picking out the stuff he really, really wanted to keep, then allowed the National Archives to have less important stuff. (4) Trump (probably) instructed his bush-league attorneys to swear he had returned all of the documents he stole, even though he had saved the "good stuff" for himself. (5) When the FBI finally forcefully collected that part of the remainder they could find, under cover of a judge's order, Trump squealed. It was Trump, not the FBI or some "leakers" who revealed the search. (6) Trump riled up Trumpbot Nation with complaints of an "unannounced raid on my home" & started shooting out fundraising emails based on the horror of his purloined papers being returned to the American people who owned them.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Each time former President Barack Obama ... wanted to review something ... [during] the three years that [he] wrote his 768-page memoir after leaving the White House..., his aides submitted precise requests to the National Archives and Records Administration. Sometimes, documents would be encrypted and loaded onto a laptop that would be brought to Mr. Obama at his office in Washington. Other times, a paper document would be placed in a locked bag for his perusal, and later returned the same way.... Aides to Mr. Obama said he did not request to see any classified documents while writing his book.... The tightly restricted process that Mr. Obama followed to gain access to the 30 million records from his presidency stands in stark contrast to ... Donald J. Trump's seemingly haphazard handling of some of the government's most sensitive documents after he left office in early 2021. People familiar with the actions of other recent presidents from both parties described similar, librarylike procedures to see documents, conforming to rules set out in the Presidential Records Act, which was passed in 1978.... It is unclear how many of the last-minute boxes that Mr. Trump and his aides packed up were turned over to the archives. But according to federal officials, dozens of boxes of documents ended up in the former president's custody. That is not the way it's supposed to happen. 'At 12:01 on Jan. 20, those documents become property of the United States government,' said Lee White, the executive director of the National Coalition for History."

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, a Florida judge informed two lawyers representing ... Donald J. Trump, neither of them licensed in the state, that they had bungled routine paperwork to take part in a suit filed following the F.B.I.'s search this month of Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and private club. 'A sample motion can be found on the Court's website,' the judge instructed them in her order.... The judge handling the Trump legal team's request for the appointment of a special master to review the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago came back with some pointed questions. Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, asked the lawyers to respond by Friday about whether she even had jurisdiction to hear Mr. Trump's request, and what precisely his motion was asking her to do. This came hours after Judge Cannon informed the lawyers about their basic paperwork mistake....

"Mr. Trump's court filing on Monday requesting the special master to review the seized documents was styled as a legal motion, but it sounded more like a news release drafted by Mr. Trump himself. It was filled with bombastic complaints that the government had long treated Mr. Trump unfairly. The document cited purported examples like 'two years of noisy "Russian collusion" investigations.' It also contained Trumpian boasts about the former president being 'the clear front-runner' for the 2024 election.... The only real continuity in the defense is Mr. Trump himself, and his demands that his lawyers do what he wants, which is why so many of his legal filings sound as if they were dictated by him." The gist of the article is that, without the aid of the perqs of the presidency, Trump is in trouble. ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Mangan of CNBC: "A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump ordered him Tuesday to answer several key questions about his new lawsuit related to the FBI raid on his Florida home, including why her court should be the one hearing the case and to more precisely explain what he wants her to do." MB: Mangan doesn't say so, but it's obvious from Judge Cannon's order that a whiney motion/press release is an insufficient filing on which to rule.

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Tuesday, Rolling Stone reported that ... Donald Trump is privately demanding that his lawyers help him get 'my' classified documents back from the Justice Department, after they were seized in an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. 'Trump wasn't merely referring to the alleged trove of attorney-client material that he insists was scooped up by the feds, two people familiar with the matter tell Rolling Stone,' reported Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley. 'The ex-president has been demanding that his team find a way to recover "all" of the official documents that Trump has long referred to as "mine" -- including the highly sensitive and top secret ones.'... You can read more here [firewalled]."

Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The House select committee scrutinizing the Jan. 6 attack has used the August congressional recess to gather more evidence as it prepares to resume public hearings next month, dispatching investigators to Europe and digging deeper into discussions by ... Donald J. Trump's cabinet after the riot about removing him from office. The panel has been holding closed-door interviews with senior Trump administration officials in an effort to uncover more about the period between Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Mr. Trump's supporters attacked Congress, and Jan. 20, when President Biden was sworn in, including talks about invoking the 25th Amendment. On Tuesday, the panel interviewed Robert O'Brien, Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, for several hours according to two people familiar with the committee's work." An NBC New story on O'Brien's interview is here.


Seung Min Kim, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Wednesday is set to announce his long-delayed move to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loans for many Americans and extend a pause on payments to January, according to three people familiar with the plan. Biden has faced pressure from liberals to provide broader relief to hard-hit borrowers, and from moderates and Republicans questioning the fairness of any widespread forgiveness. The delay in Biden's decision has only heightened the anticipation for what his own aides acknowledge represents a political no-win situation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case you think it's "not fair" for "kids today" to get away with not paying what is likely a small portion of their college debt, let me remind you that the price of college tuition has risen much faster than the cost-of-living. Way back when I went to school, it was possible for most Americans to get a good-to-excellent tuition-free or low-tuition education in many state-operated colleges & universities. Much less so today. Any loan forgiveness President Biden grants is, on the whole, simply a means of transferring a small portion of the cost of higher education from the states to the federal government. In addition, our young people are competing with European and other young people who do get tuition-free educations in their countries.

Deborah Solomon of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service, which has been under sustained attack by Republican lawmakers and conservative outlets, is undertaking a 'comprehensive' review of its security amid threats to the tax agency and its employees. In a letter sent to staff on Tuesday, the I.R.S. commissioner, Charles P. Rettig, cited 'an abundance of misinformation and false social media postings, some of them with threats directed at the I.R.S. and its employees.'... Misinformation and conspiracy theories about the agency have proliferated in the wake of a Democrat-backed bill that gives the tax collector an additional $80 billion to help crack down on tax cheats."

Rick's Italian Vacation. Jonathan Swan, et al., of Axios: "Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is spending part of his congressional recess on a luxury yacht in Italy with his family after criticizing President Biden for vacationing in Delaware.... Scott is already under fire for his management of the [National Republican Senatorial Committee]. Vacationing in Europe while Republicans face cash problems and rough headlines about their midterm chances could further hurt his standing with his GOP colleagues."


Sharon LaFraniere & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "The Biden administration plans to offer the next generation of coronavirus booster shots to Americans 12 and older soon after Labor Day, a campaign that federal officials hope will reduce deaths from Covid-19 and protect against an expected winter surge.... This week, both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech finalized their submissions to the F.D.A. asking for emergency authorization of booster shots aimed at BA.5 and another subvariant of Omicron that together account for most coronavirus cases in the United States. Federal health officials say they are eager to offer the updated boosters as quickly as possible, pointing to a death toll that now averages about 450 Americans per day and could rise in the coming months as people spend more time indoors.... The government plans to offer the new Pfizer booster to everyone 12 and older while limiting the new Moderna shot to adults. People who have already received the initial two-shot series of either vaccine would be eligible. So would those who have received the initial shots plus one or two booster shots. The new booster campaign could be broadened to younger children later."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Olga Rodriguez of the AP: "The husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor driving under the influence charges related to a May crash in California's wine country and was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation. Paul Pelosi already served two days in jail and received conduct credit for two other days, Napa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Solga said. Paul Pelosi will work eight hours in the court's work program in lieu of the remaining day, Solga said during Paul Pelosi's sentencing, which he did not attend. State law allows for DUI misdemeanor defendants to appear through their attorney unless ordered otherwise by the court."

Georgia Senate Race. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post extols Herschel Walker's anti-arborism platform.

Kentucky Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A former police detective admitted on Tuesday that she had helped mislead a judge into wrongly authorizing a raid of Breonna Taylor's apartment in Louisville, Ky., setting in motion the nighttime operation in which the police fatally shot Ms. Taylor. The former detective, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy, admitting that she had worked with another officer to falsify a search warrant application and had later lied to cover up their act. In pleading guilty, Ms. Goodlett became the first police officer to be convicted over the March 2020 raid, during which the police were searching for evidence of drug dealing by Ms. Taylor's former boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover."

Michigan. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "The first time federal prosecutors tried to convince a jury that a group of men plotted to kidnap Michigan's Democratic governor, they failed to get a single conviction. But on Tuesday, jurors in a second trial found the two remaining defendants guilty, providing a measure of vindication to federal law enforcement in a case filled with public setbacks.Prosecutors described the men, Barry Croft and Adam Fox, as threats to democracy who planned to capture Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at her vacation home in 2020 and instigate a national rebellion.... The case was seen as indicative of the rising threat of political violence and right-wing domestic terrorism, even before the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.... In a recent speech at a conservative conference, [Donald Trump] appeared to allude to the Michigan case, calling it 'fake' and saying 'Gretchen Whitmer was in less danger than the people in this room right now, it seems to me.'" CNN's report is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Wednesday are here: "Ukraine marked its Independence Day and six months of war, holding a muted ceremony Wednesday in the capital, Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky placed flowers at a war memorial in the city and took part in a multifaith service at a church, alongside his wife. He also warned that Russia could step up its attacks, even as he hailed the courage of Ukrainians in the face of Russian aggression.... World leaders have offered their support to Kyiv as President Biden praised the Ukrainian response and called the day 'bittersweet' for many.... Ukraine is holding a ghost parade -- of burned and battered Russian tanks and artillery launchers -- on Kyiv's grandest boulevard to mark its first Independence Day since Russia invaded. The country is celebrating the statehood that ... Vladimir Putin has failed to destroy."

Lolita Baldor & Matthew Lee of the AP: "As Russia's war on Ukraine drags on, U.S. security assistance is shifting to a longer-term campaign that will likely keep more American military troops in Europe into the future, including imminent plans to announce an additiona roughly $3 billion in aid to train and equip Ukrainian forces to fight for years to come, U.S. officials said. U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the package is expected to be announced Wednesday, the day the war hits the six-month mark and Ukraine celebrates its independence day. The money will fund contracts for as many as three types of drones, and other weapons, ammunition and equipment that may not see the battlefront for a year or two, they said."


Sharpiegate, Hungarian-Style. Zach Rosenthal of the Washington Post: "Two top officials with Hungary's National Meteorological Service (NMS) were fired Monday after severe storms they had forecast for the capital on the country's most important national holiday did not materialize, instead passing to the south. The forecast called for intense storms in Budapest around 9 p.m. local time, according to reporting from the Associated Press, leading organizers to postpone a massive annual fireworks display. The fireworks show celebrating St. Stephen's Day, a holiday that marks the country's founding, is usually watched by more than a million people.... On Tuesday morning, 17 agency leaders ... posted a statement on the meteorological service's Facebook page to demand that their fired colleagues be reinstated as soon as possible, saying that the firings were politically motivated and that the forecast was issued based on the best possible information at the time."

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