August 15, 2022

Afternoon Update:

** Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Lawyers for Rudolph W. Giuliani have been told that he is a target of a criminal investigation in Georgia into election interference by Donald J. Trump and his advisers. One of Mr. Giuliani's lawyers said in an interview that he was notified on Monday. On the same day, a federal judge rejected efforts by another key Trump ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, to avoid giving testimony before a special grand jury in Atlanta.... Mr. Giuliani is scheduled to appear before the special grand jury on Wednesday at a downtown Atlanta courthouse. His lawyer, Robert Costello, said in the interview that Mr. Giuliani would probably invoke attorney-client privilege if asked questions about his dealings with Mr. Trump.... Mr. Giuliani, who as Mr. Trump's personal lawyer spearheaded efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power, emerged in recent weeks as a central figure in the inquiry being conducted by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., which encompasses most of Atlanta. The rejection of Senator Graham's effort to avoid testifying came in a written order from a Federal District Court judge in Atlanta, Leigh Martin May. Mr. Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, is now set to testify on Aug. 23." ~~~

      ~~~ A CBS News story on Giuliani is here. A CNN story on Graham is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: From the report: "'If these people think he's going to talk about conversations between him and President Trump, they're delusional,' Mr. Costello said." Well, maybe not this week. But sometime. I recall reading some while back that Rudy charged Trump and/or the Trump campaign an exorbitant amount for his legal expertise, such as it is, so Trump stiffed Rudy. So I'm not so sure Rudy is unflippable.

Emma Brown, et al., of the Washington Post: "A team of computer experts directed by lawyers allied with ... Donald Trump copied sensitive data from election systems in Georgia as part of a secretive, multistate effort to access voting equipment that was broader, more organized and more successful than previously reported, according to emails and other records obtained by The Washington Post. As they worked to overturn Trump's 2020 election defeat, the lawyers asked a forensic data firm to access county election systems in at least three battleground states, according to the documents and interviews.... Attorney Sidney Powell sent the team to Michigan to copy a rural county's election data and later helped arrange for them to do the same in the Detroit area.... A Trump campaign attorney engaged the team to travel to Nevada. And the day after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol the team was in southern Georgia, copying data from a Dominion voting system in rural Coffee County.The emails and other records were collected through a subpoena issued to the forensics firm, Atlanta-based SullivanStrickler, by plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit in federal court over the security of Georgia;s voting systems." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie's Fashion Note: I do think Sidney will look smarter in an orange jumpsuit than in those fake leopard outfits she prefers.

Betsy Swan of Politico: "A federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack has subpoenaed Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann for documents and testimony, according to a person familiar with the matter.... Herschmann ... did not work in the White House counsel's office, but did provide Trump with legal advice. Because of that responsibility, there will likely be litigation over the scope of the subpoena and over how executive and attorney-client privileges may limit Herschmann's ability to comply.... During the tumultuous final weeks of Trump's term, Herschmann clashed with other aides and advisers who pushed the defeated president to fight the election results. He was also present for many of the most consequential meetings in that period of time."

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "The apparent position of Republicans loyal to Trump is that any law enforcement activity targeting him is by definition illegitimate, no matter how grave the suspected activity. So a GOP-controlled House next year would likely undermine investigations into Trump any way it can, regardless of what is learned about Trump in the interim.... While many have noted that a GOP House could stage phony Benghazi-like hearings, there's another possibility: using specific parliamentary tools to, in essence, defund the investigators."

Torsten Ove of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "A Mercer County man threatened to murder FBI agents last week after the bureau's search of Donald Trump's Florida estate, saying 'come and get me you piece of [expletive] feds' and 'I am going to [expletive] slaughter you,' according to a federal complaint filed Monday in Pittsburgh. Adam Bies, 46, is charged in U.S. District Court with influencing, impeding or retaliating against federal law officers. He is in U.S. custody and is set for an initial appearance hearing [Monday] afternoon before a federal magistrate judge."

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Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "First he said that he was 'working and cooperating with' government agents who he claimed had inappropriately entered his home. Then, when the government revealed that the F.B.I., during its search, had recovered nearly a dozen sets of documents that were marked classified, he suggested the agents had planted evidence. Finally, his aides claimed he had a 'standing order' to declassify documents that left the Oval Office for his residence, and that some of the material was protected by attorney-client and executive privilege.... Why was he keeping documents, some still marked classified, at an unsecured Florida resort when officials had sought for a year to retrieve them? The often contradictory and unsupported defenses perpetuated by Mr. Trump and his team since the F.B.I. search follow a familiar playbook of the former president's.... 'There should be no presidential records at Mar-a-Lago, whether they are classified or unclassified or subject to executive privilege or subject to attorney-client privilege.' [said Jason Baron, a former director of litigation for the National Archives].... [Mr. Trump's former national security advisor John Bolton said the standing-order claim was] 'almost certainly a lie.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The "instant declassification" claim doesn't make any sense. That would mean that absolutely anyone -- including the maid & wandering guests -- could read, photocopy, publish and/or sell highly-sensitive documents the minute they left the Oval Office. BTW, for all we know, the real President, Joe Biden, has reclassified "any and all documents and other materials retained by or otherwise in the possession of former President Donald J. Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ PLUS, There's This. Renato Mariotti in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "While I suspect Trump could find aides willing to testify that [the 'standing order' claim] is true, I doubt he disclosed this to the government during their months of negotiations and it is unlikely a jury would find this story convincing.' An interesting essay. Mariotti goes on to write, "... even based on the limited information we have, it looks like the DOJ has viable charges against him.... I would not be surprised if DOJ refuses to pursue charges, regardless of their strength, in the absence of a 'plus factor' like obstruction. But that factor might be present here, given recent reports that one of Trump's lawyers signed a written statement falsely asserting that 'all material marked as classified' had been returned to the government.... This could be one of the strongest cases that DOJ refuses to bring." ~~~

~~~ If a Tree Falls in a Forest.... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Here is a closer look at what a president can and cannot do when it comes to removing protections for government secrets.... Can a president secretly declassify information without leaving a written record or telling anyone? That question, according to specialists in the law of government secrecy, is borderline incoherent. If there is no directive memorializing a decision to declassify information and conveying it to the rest of the government, the action would essentially have no consequence, as departments and agencies would continue to consider that information classified and so would continue to restrict access to documents containing it."

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Former President Trump on Sunday called on the FBI to return documents reportedly seized at Mar-a-Lago that are protected by attorney-client and executive privileges. 'Oh great!' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged "attorney-client" material, and also "executive" privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken,' Trump continued. 'By copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken,' he added. 'Thank you!'... Fox News on Saturday evening reported that the FBI seized five boxes that included information covered by attorney-client privilege...." MB: "Knowingly should not have taken"?? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Anyone who has read reports of the FBI's searches of (then attorneys) Rudy Giuliani's & Michael Cohen's homes & offices is aware that the FBI often seizes information that is or may be attorney-client-privileged. The FBI doesn't just pack up the docs & send them back because the client tweets -- without any specificity whatsoever -- that he wants them back. Rather, the court appoints a special master to comb through the seized material & decide what-all is privileged and what is not. (I guess lawyers for both sides can then wrangle in court with the special master's decisions.) I suppose Trump is just pretending he doesn't understand this, but if he really believes a public tweet will cause the return of some documents, he's dumber than even I thought. In the meantime, if I can figure out how to tweet Merrick Garland (I can't), I'm going to ask him to send me all those once-tippy-top-secret documents that Trump has declassified. I'll expect them by return mail (which, okay, will take a long time because Louis DeJoy).

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "... it is one of the most bizarre loop de loops in Donald Trump's dark, crazy reign over Republicans that he turned a party that was pro-law and order and anti-Evil Empire into a party that trashes the F.B.I. and embraces Vladimir Putin. It is the greatest con of the century's greatest con man: hijacking his own party.... The utterly spoiled Fifth Avenue brat accustomed to living in gilt palaces and cheating his way to success portrays himself as the world's biggest victim.... Even after so many years of this poisonous folly, I remain amazed that the Republicans viciously smeared by Trump on his way up, like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, now back up his smears." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm with MoDo. To me, the most surprising part of Trump's triumph was to discover that of all of these Republicans who presented themselves as powerful leaders -- leaders worthy of becoming "leader of the free world" even, like Marco, Ted & Lindsey -- is that they are nothing, nothing but cowards, fearful of someone who is now but an aged, washed-up, petulant Mafia boss. With a few notable exceptions -- like Liz Cheney & Adam Kinzinger, both of whom will soon be looking for other jobs -- the party that associated itself with robust militaristic world leadership & with "traditional" values in which the head-of-household should be a manly man -- is made up entirely of chickenshits cowering under the dirty skirts of a whiny bully.

Jonathan Dienst, et al., of NBC News: "The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning of a spike in threats to federal law enforcement officials since the search of ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.... A third law enforcement official said the five-page document states that such threats are appearing across multiple platforms, 'including social media sites, web forums, video sharing platforms and image boards.' The FBI also warned that it has seen personal identifying information of possible targets of violence, such as home addresses, as well as identification of family members as additional targets, the official added."

David Smith of the Guardian: "It was a tale of two presidents: Biden at his zenith, gaining praise for a 'hot streak' and earning comparisons with the master legislator Lyndon Johnson; Trump at his nadir, under criminal investigation for potential violations of the Espionage Act and earning comparisons with the 1920s gangster Al Capone. And yet ... determining who won and who lost the week was less clear cut. For Biden, to be sure, it was a much needed boost after months of Washington gridlock, miserable poll ratings and speculation that he could face a challenger from his own Democratic party in the 2024 presidential election. But Trump, perversely, also appeared to end the week stronger within his party than he began it. He had faced growing dissent over damaging revelations from the congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. Yet his claim that his home had been 'raided' by law enforcement prompted Republicans to unite behind him with renewed zeal."

Johnson Lai & Ken Moritsugu of the AP: "A delegation of American lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Sunday, just 12 days after a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that prompted China to launch days of threatening military drills around the self-governing island that Beijing says must come under its control. The five-member delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet President Tsai Ing-wen and other officials, as well as members of the private sector, to discuss shared interests including reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and investments in semiconductors." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Johnson Lai of the AP: "China announced more military drills around Taiwan as the self-governing island's president met with members of a new U.S. congressional delegation on Monday, threatening to renew tensions between Beijing and Washington just days after a similar visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi angered China."

Frank Thorp & Julianne McShane of NBC News: "A man died after he crashed his car into a barricade in D.C. early Sunday morning, according to a U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson. Authorities identified the suspect as Richard Aaron York, 29, adding that a Delaware driver's license was found and he is also believed to have lived in Pennsylvania recently. The man drove his car into a vehicle barricade at East Capitol Street and Second Street around 4 a.m., the spokesperson said in a press release. When he got out of the car, it became engulfed in flames. He then began shooting into the air.... And as Capitol police were approaching, he shot himself, according to the spokesperson." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Naomi Nix of the Washington Post (Aug. 10): "Facebook has long banned content referencing white nationalism. But a plethora of hate groups still populate the site, and the company boosts its revenue by running ads on searches for these pages. A new report from the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit tech watchdog, found 119 Facebook pages and 20 Facebook groups associated with white supremacy organizations."

Beyond the Beltway

Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "Two top antiabortion groups have crafted and successfully lobbied for state legislation to ban or further restrict the predominant way pregnancies are ended in the United States -- via drugs taken at home, often facilitated by a network of abortion rights groups. In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, 14 states now ban or partially ban the use of those drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in more than half of all abortions. But the drugs remain widely available, with multiple groups working to help provide them even to women in states with abortion bans. Students for Life of America and National Right to Life Committee, which have played leading roles in crafting antiabortion laws, hope to change that with new legislation. The groups are pursuing a variety of tactics, from bills that would ban the abortion-inducing drugs altogether to others that would allow family members to sue medication providers or attempt to shut down the nonprofit groups that help women obtain and safely use the drugs."

Fake "Investigators," Claiming Fraud, Are Coercing Elections Officials to Give Them Voting Machines. Patrick Marley & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "In states across the country, including Colorado, Pennsylvania and Georgia, attempts to inappropriately access voting machines have spurred investigations. They have also sparked concern among election authorities that, while voting systems are broadly secure, breaches by those looking for evidence of fraud could themselves compromise the integrity of the process and undermine confidence in the vote. In Michigan, the efforts to access the machines jumped into public view this month when the state attorney general, Dana Nessel (D), requested a special prosecutor be assigned to look into a group that includes her likely Republican opponent, Matthew DePerno.... Once election officials lose control of voting machines, [as happened in the Michigan case,] the machines can no longer be used because of the risk of hacking.... The situation in Michigan is similar to ones elsewhere in which allegedly unofficial and unauthorized investigators sought evidence of fraud by gaining access to voting equipment. Some of those named in the Michigan case have been connected to cases elsewhere."

Arizona, a Horror Story. Robert Draper in the New York Times Magazine: "The aggressive takeover of the Arizona G.O.P. by its far-right wing was made manifest on primary night earlier this month, when a slate of Trump-endorsed candidates ... all prevailed. As a group, they maintain that the 2020 election was stolen, have promoted conspiracy theories about Covid and have vowed to protect Arizona's schools from gender ideology, critical race theory and what McCarthyites denounced 70 years ago as 'godless communism.' They have cast the 2022 election as not just history-defining but potentially civilization-ending.... The state&'s G.O.P. has aggressively declined to moderate itself.... Its core activists, as well as a growing number of officials and those campaigning for governmental positions, openly espouse hostility not just to democratic principles but, increasingly, to the word 'democracy' itself.... It's the failure to reinstall a legitimately defeated president ... that seems to have ushered in the view among Arizona Republicans -- and many more across the nation -- that democracy itself was at fault and had been weaponized by the political left, or the 'enemies from within,' as McCarthy once put it."

** Florida. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post highlights Gov. Ran DeSantis' suspension of Hillsborough (Tampa Bay) State Attorney Andrew Warren (D). "The dramatic ouster has alarmed many in Florida, who say DeSantis -- widely considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate -- usurped the will of the voters by removing a twice-elected local official who disagreed with him politically.... In announcing the suspension, DeSantis excoriated Warren for being a 'woke' prosecutor more interested in social justice than in enforcing the law. He warned of a 'pathogen' spreading in U.S. cities -- progressive prosecutors trying to reduce incarceration rates they see as overly punitive and that disproportionately affect people of color.... 'This is something that Putin or Castro or Maduro would do,' said U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat who has represented parts of the Tampa Bay area in Congress for 15 years. 'People in Hillsborough are outraged.'" The Republican state legislature is expected to uphold Warren's suspension. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This isn't voter suppression. It isn't voting machine manipulation. It's voter nullification. If Ron DeSantis doesn't like the person you elected, he'll fire the official & appoint one of his pals to fill the job. This is how democracy dies, not in darkness as the WashPo slogan goes, but in broad daylight. Ron DeSantis is a dangerous autocrat.

Hawaii Primary Elections. New York Times liveblog: "Lt. Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii won the Democratic primary for governor, according to The Associated Press, putting himself in a strong position to secure the top office in a reliably blue state. Mr. Green defeated six other Democrats, including Representative Kai Kahele and Vicky Cayetano, a former first lady of Hawaii. He will face the Republican nominee, Duke Aiona, in November; the winner then will succeed Gov. David Ige, a Democrat who cannot run for re-election because of term limits." The page includes other primary results. Sen. Bruce Schatz won the Democratic for Senate with 94% of the vote. (Also linked yesterday.)

Wisconsin. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Having gerrymandered the Legislature past the point that it can be flipped, [Republicans] are now pushing intensely to take greater control over the state's voting infrastructure ahead of the 2024 presidential contest. Two pivotal elections in the coming months are likely to decide if that happens. The soaring stakes of the first, the November race for governor, became clear last week when Tim Michels, a construction magnate endorsed by ... Donald J. Trump, won the Republican primary.... The second election, an April contest to determine control of the narrowly divided Wisconsin Supreme Court, could be even more important."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "Brittney Griner's defense team appealed the verdict of a Russian court that sentenced the American basketball player to 9 years in prison for bringing cannabis oil into the country in February. Forty-two countries are calling on Russia to withdraw troops from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, according to a statement by the European Union dated Friday and posted Sunday. The statement says Russia's military aggression at and near the plant poses a threat to nuclear safety. The latest round of shelling near the plant killed one employee and injured two others, Ukraine's nuclear power regulator said on Telegram." ~~~

     ~~~ An AP story about Griner's appeal is here.

Myanmar. Richard Paddock of the New York Times: "On Monday, a special court appointed by the military regime that detained her last year convicted [Daw] Aung San Suu Kyi on four corruption counts and added six years to her sentence, according to one of the people.... Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is one of more than 15,000 people arrested for opposing military rule, and of these, 12,000 remain in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Many have been tortured in interrogation centers and sentenced by military courts after brief trials where defense attorneys and the public are barred.... Since the coup, more than 70 political prisoners have been sentenced to die.... At least 55 journalists are now imprisoned.... The human rights lawyer U Kyi Myint said the regime was casting itself as safeguarding traditional morality in the deeply Buddhist country even as soldiers massacre civilians and rape women."

August 14, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Former President Trump on Sunday called on the FBI to return documents reportedly seized at Mar-a-Lago that are protected by attorney-client and executive privileges. 'Oh great!' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged "attorney-client" material, and also 'executive" privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken,' Trump continued. 'By copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken,' he added. 'Thank you!'... Fox News on Saturday evening reported that the FBI seized five boxes that included information covered by attorney-client privilege...." MB: "Knowingly should not have taken"?? ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Anyone who has read reports of the FBI's searches of (then attorneys) Rudy Giuliani's & Michael Cohen's homes & offices is aware that the FBI often seizes information that is or may be attorney-client-privileged. The FBI doesn't just pack up the docs & send them back because the client tweets -- without any specificity whatsoever -- that he wants them back. Rather, the court appoints a special master to comb through the seized material & decide what-all is privileged and what is not. (I guess lawyers for both sides can then wrangle in court with the special master's decisions.) I suppose Trump is just pretending he doesn't understand this, but if he really believes a public tweet will cause the return of some documents, he's dumber than even I thought. In the meantime, if I can figure out how to tweet Merrick Garland (I can't), I'm going to ask him to send me all those once-tippy-top-secret documents that Trump has declassified. I'll expect them by return mail (which, okay, will take a long time because Louis DeJoy).

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "... it is one of the most bizarre loop de loops in Donald Trump's dark, crazy reign over Republicans that he turned a party that was pro-law and order and anti-Evil Empire into a party that trashes the F.B.I. and embraces Vladimir Putin. It is the greatest con of the century's greatest con man: hijacking his own party.... The utterly spoiled Fifth Avenue brat accustomed to living in gilt palaces and cheating his way to success portrays himself as the world's biggest victim.... Even after so many years of this poisonous folly, I remain amazed that the Republicans viciously smeared by Trump on his way up, like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, now back up his smears." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm with MoDo. To me, the most surprising part of Trump's triumph was to discover that of all of these Republicans who presented themselves as powerful leaders -- leaders worthy of becoming "leader of the free world" even, like Marco, Ted & Lindsey -- is that they are nothing, nothing but cowards, fearful of someone who is now but an aged, washed-up, petulant Mafia boss. With a few notable exceptions -- like Liz Cheney & Adam Kinzinger, both of whom will soon be looking for other jobs -- the party that associated itself with robust militaristic world leadership & with "traditional" values in which the head-of-household should be a manly man -- is made up entirely of chickenshits cowering under the dirty skirts of a whiny bully.

Johnson Lai & Ken Moritsugu of the AP: "A delegation of American lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Sunday, just 12 days after a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that prompted China to launch days of threatening military drills around the self-governing island that Beijing says must come under its control. The five-member delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet President Tsai Ing-wen and other officials, as well as members of the private sector, to discuss shared interests including reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and investments in semiconductors."

Frank Thorp & Julianne McShane of NBC News: "A man died after he crashed his car into a barricade in D.C. early Sunday morning, according to a U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson. Authorities identified the suspect as Richard Aaron York, 29, adding that a Delaware driver's license was found and he is also believed to have lived in Pennsylvania recently. The man drove his car into a vehicle barricade at East Capitol Street and Second Street around 4 a.m., the spokesperson said in a press release. When he got out of the car, it became engulfed in flames. He then began shooting into the air.... And as Capitol police were approaching, he shot himself, according to the spokesperson."

Hawaii. New York Times liveblog: "Lt. Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii won the Democratic primary for governor, according to The Associated Press, putting himself in a strong position to secure the top office in a reliably blue state. Mr. Green defeated six other Democrats, including Representative Kai Kahele and Vicky Cayetano, a former first lady of Hawaii. He will face the Republican nominee, Duke Aiona, in November; the winner then will succeed Gov. David Ige, a Democrat who cannot run for re-election because of term limits." The page includes other primary results. Sen. Bruce Schatz won the Democratic for Senate with 94% of the vote.

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Glenn Thrush & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "At least one lawyer for ... Donald J. Trump signed a written statement in June asserting that all material marked as classified and held in boxes in a storage area at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and club had been returned to the government, four people with knowledge of the document said. The written declaration was made after a visit on June 3 to Mar-a-Lago by Jay I. Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department's national security division.... Over recent months, investigators were in contact with roughly a half-dozen of Mr. Trump's current aides who had knowledge of how the documents were handled, two people briefed on the approaches said. At least one witness provided the investigators with information that led them to want to further press Mr. Trump for material....

“Shortly before [Attorney General Merrick] Garland made [a public statement on Thursday], a person close to Mr. Trump reached out to a Justice Department official to pass along a message from the former president to the attorney general. Mr. Trump wanted Mr. Garland to know he had been checking in with people around the country and found them to be enraged by the search. 'The country is on fire,' Mr. Trump said, according to a person familiar with the exchange. 'What can I do to reduce the heat?'... As a judge unsealed the warrant and the inventory of items that the F.B.I. took, Mr. Trump alternately claimed he did nothing wrong and also made the baseless statement that officials may have planted evidence on him." CNN has a story here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: Based on reviews of the property receipt, several news outlets, including this one, have noted that "FBI agents removed 11 sets of classified documents and 27 boxes from [Donald Trump's] Florida residence." I've briefly looked at the receipt, and I can't do the math, but I'll assume for argument's sake that number 27 is correct. In addition to those 27 boxes, Trump returned 15 boxes in January 2022, and according to the NYT story linked above, FBI agents took additional material from Mar-a-Lago in June 2022. So that's at least 43 boxes of stuff --and probably more -- Trump stole from us. Whatever the size of the boxes, and whatever their contents, you can't take that much stuff "accidentally." ~~~

     ~~~ Various news outlets have reported that at least some of the stuff was kept in a basement storage room. My house in Florida was on a large waterway; Trump's is between two bodies of water -- the Atlantic Ocean & Lake Worth. My house was built at the same time Mar-a-Lago was, and my house & Trump's are among the few in Florida that have basements. During rainy season, which runs for months, I had a sump pump that ran almost 24/7. During these months, the basement was never dry. It's possible the basement at Mar-a-Lago has since been made water-tight, but given its location, that's difficult to do. So I'm wondering about the condition of those retrieved docs, papers that have been in a likely-damp basement for at least a year-a-and-a-half.

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Trump and his close allies [in New York] quickly became transfixed by the events unfolding in Palm Beach.... Some monitored the agents via CCTV security cameras as they searched Trump's office and personal quarters and a first-floor storage facility, another of his lawyers, Christina Bobb, told Fox News.... So distressing was the search that the usually loquacious Trump team stayed mum for much of the day -- until 6:51 p.m., when Trump himself confirmed the raid in a bombastic statement that declared it unjustified and politically motivated. 'They even broke into my safe!' he announced.... Immediately after the search, Trump seemed to believe the FBI had played into his hands.... By Friday, however, the unsealed court records showed agents had seized 11 sets of classified documents, among other things. Republicans' howls of protest became somewhat more muted, and people around Trump said his buoyant mood at times turned dark.... As the week progressed, Trump grew angrier, at times screaming profanities to advisers about the FBI.... [Trump] kept up a steady stream of angry online statements,mixing outright denials with near-admissions that he had indeed been holding sensitive material about nuclear weapons." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is a fairly helpful review of how Trump's theft of material belonging to the U.S. ultimately ended up as a criminal matter. Predicating the climactic search was Trump's belief that the materials were his personal property, so "Trump was hesitant to return the documents, dragging his feet for months." ~~~

~~~ Matt Bai, in a Washington Post op-ed, explains why that is: "... the underlying concept of the presidency somehow always eluded [Donald Trump]. Everyone who preceded Trump accepted the idea that the office is held in a sacred and temporary trust. The White House and everything that comes with it -- the salutes and the planes, the couches and carpets, the weird things people gift you in foreign countries -- belong to the country and its history, not to you. You're just hired to manage the place for a while.... Trump imagined he had been sent to Washington not to restore the institutions of government, but to replace them.... When the presidency is an acquisition rather than an opportunity to serve, then everything that comes with it is rightfully yours to do with as you please."

Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The House Democrats' top investigators on Saturday asked the director of National Intelligence to conduct a review and damage assessment of the boxes of highly classified information seized by the FBI this week from ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. The letter was sent to National Intelligence Director Avril Haines by House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and cites the search warrant cataloguing the classified documents of various levels of sensitivity found at Mar-a-Lago. 'Former President Trump's conduct has potentially put our national security at grave risk,' the two wrote, asking also for a classified briefing on the assessment as soon as possible. 'This issue demands a full review, in addition to the ongoing law enforcement inquiry.'" Politico's report is here.

Like all of the other Hoaxes and Scams that they've used to try and silence the voice of a vast majority of the American People, I have TRUTH on my side, and when you have TRUTH, you will ultimately be victorious! -- Donald Trump, in a statement, Saturday

You will notice that Trump's statement glorifying "truth" contains more than one lie. The biggest liar in American history is a strange person to promote "truth" as his path to "victory." -- Marie

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The armed attack this week on an F.B.I. office in Ohio by a supporter of ... Donald J. Trump ... was one of the most disturbing episodes of right-wing political violence in recent months. But it was hardly the only one. In the year and a half since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life.... Scholars who study political violence point to a common thread: the heightened use of bellicose, dehumanizing and apocalyptic language, particularly by prominent figures in right-wing politics and media. Several right-wing or Republican figures reacted to the search of Mar-a-Lago not only with demands to dismantle the F.B.I., but also with warnings that the action had triggered 'war.'... If political aggression is set in the context of a war..., ordinary people with no prior history of violence are more likely to accept it. Political violence can also be made more palatable by couching it as defensive action against a belligerent enemy. That is particularly true if an adversary is persistently described as irredeemably evil or less than human. 'The right, at this point, is doing all three of these things at once,' [Rachel] Kleinfeld [of the Carnegie Endowment] said." ~~~

~~~ Tiffany Hsu & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Predictions of imminent civil war and calls for violence surged early this week on social media platforms such as Truth Social, the network started by ... Donald J. Trump, after the F.B.I.'s court-approved search of his Florida home on Monday. The search ... set off an immediate outburst of aggressive and threatening language, akin to the public rhetoric that festered in the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Truth Social users posted that the United States was born 'through an insurrection followed by several years of bloody violence,' and that the country would 'become a communist state just as long as we don't pick up arms and fight back!!' There was talk that 'the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,' a phrase from a letter by Thomas Jefferson, and that 'sometimes clearing out dangerous vermin requires a modicum of violence, unfortunately.'...

"Later in the week, a different narrative gained traction, propelled without evidence by other prominent Truth Social users: that calls for violence were posts planted by federal law enforcement officials or Democratic operatives to frame right-wing patriots as insurrectionists and extremists. The point, the conspiracy theory goes, is to give the Biden administration cover to strip Trump supporters of guns, or to set up a pretext for martial law." ~~~

~~~ GOP Terrorists. Steve M. republishes a portion of a (firewalled) Daily Beast story that reads, in part, "Just hours after a list began circulating among right-wing media of FBI agents who signed off on the search warrant for Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property, a former Trump aide tried to sic MAGA fans on the family members of the purported agents. Garrett Ziegler ... took to Telegram to post the personal information of men he identified as agents. 'This is one of the two feds who signed the "Receipt for Property" form, which detailed -- at a very high level -- the fishing expedition that the FBI performed at Mar-a-Lago,' Ziegler said on both Truth Social and Telegram. The former Trump administration staffer that worked under White House trade adviser Peter Navarro further listed out the FBI agents' date of birth, work emails and linked to alleged family members' social media accounts." There's more. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M." "This is the new normal.... We're rapidly approaching the point where anything that offends Republicans will result in the doxxing of the responsible parties, with threats of violence as the inevitable consequence. Soon -- again because of Republican intransigence -- we'll conclude that we simply can't prevent this, and anyone who engages in conduct that upsets Republicans will need to invest in extra security and urge every peripheral person who might be affected to do the same. America will be divided into two nations: Republicans and those terrorized or potentially terrorized by Republicans." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Did Kilmeade Ask Himself, "Is This What Walter Cronkite Would Do?" David Moye of the Huffington Post: "While filling in for host Tucker Carlson on Thursday, [Fox News' Brian Kilmeade displayed a fabricated image of Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart [-- who authorized the search of Mar-a-Lago --] having his feet massaged by convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell and holding Oreo cookies and alcohol on a plane. 'Sean, can you relate to that?' Kilmeade asked Fox News personality Sean Hannity, who noted that the photo looked doctored. 'I think that's actually a picture of [financier and convicted sex offender] Jeffrey Epstein with somebody putting his [Reinhart's] head on there,' Hannity said. 'I'm guessing. I don't know.' 'Who knows?' Kilmeade said.... The fake photo seems to be a reference to Reinhart's past work defending several of Epstein's employees in court. On Friday, Kilmeade took to Twitter to clarify that the photo wasn't real. '... This depiction never took place & we wanted to make clear that we were showing a meme in jest.' So far, Kilmeade has not apologized on air to the viewers who saw the image and possibly believed it to be authentic.... Twitter users read Kilmeade the riot act for pushing misinformation, especially as Reinhart has received violent and antisemitic threats since approving the warrant...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Twitter commenters, including comedian Patton Oswalt & journalist Mehdi Hasan, saw or heard no indication in Kilmeade's on-air performance that he was "showing a meme in jest." It's a bad day for Fox "News" when the person who pushes back with at least a bit of journalistic fact-checking is Sean Hannity. Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. See also his commentary below.

Fox10 Phoenix: "Signs reading 'Honor your oath' and 'Abolish FBI' were seen outside the FBI office in Phoenix on Aug. 13, just days after news broke that the agency searched ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Several of those who were there were armed with guns." Includes photos. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I assume it's legal in Arizona to dress up in camo & stand around an FBI office carrying an assault weapon alongside protesters waving anti-FBI signs. But that sounds pretty damned threatening to me. If I worked at that FBI office, I don't think I'd waltz carelessly to my car in the parking lot at the end of my work day. AND if I ran that office, I'd put on my tactical gear & announce that any protesters who did not have weapons could protest to their heart's content, but everybody with weapons had to go on home or risk arrest & charges for threatening federal officials. We really cannot expect people to work for the U.S. government under these conditions. Coddling armed "protesters" is no way to run a government. If it is, I suggest the Supremes invite heavily-armed individuals into their grandiose marbled temple.

From Trusted Serviceman to Insane Trumpbot. Alex Horton, et al., of the Washington Post (Aug. 12): "The Navy veteran who tried to breach the FBI's Cincinnati field office Thursday once handled highly classified material years ago while posted on an attack submarine, but had been on the bureau's radar for months for possible extremist behavior, authorities said Friday."

Hurubie Meko & Lauren D’Avolio of the New York Times: The author Salman Rushdie was stabbed roughly 10 times as he prepared to speak at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York on Friday, prosecutors said during an arraignment for the man accused of carrying out the attack. Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey man who was arrested at the scene, appeared on Saturday afternoon at the Chautauqua County Courthouse in Mayville, N.Y., for his arraignment on charges of second-degree attempted murder and assault with a weapon. In court, prosecutors said that the attack on the author was premeditated and targeted. Mr. Matar traveled by bus to the intellectual retreat in western New York and purchased a pass that allowed him to attend the talk Mr. Rushdie was to give on Friday morning, according to the prosecutors." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Trump/Trumpets fatwas are purposely less specific than was the Ayatollah Khomeini's 1989 edict against Rushdie, but they are received as fatwas nonetheless, and sometimes Trumpbots carry them out. That is part of Trump's purpose, but it seems clear he wants more: a full-blown revolution that will sweep him into absolute power where the only rules are ones he sets for others. ~~~

     ~~~ Carolyn Thompson & Hillel Italie of the AP: "... author Salman Rushdie was taken off a ventilator and able to talk Saturday, a day after he was stabbed as he prepared to give a lecture in upstate New York. Rushdie remained hospitalized with serious injuries, but fellow author Aatish Taseer tweeted in the evening that he was 'off the ventilator and talking (and joking).' Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed that information without offering further details."

Meredith Deliso, et al., of ABC News: "The gun used in the fatal shooting on the 'Rust' movie set could not have been fired without pulling the trigger, according to an FBI forensic report obtained Friday by ABC News. Actor Alec Baldwin shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western, which he was producing and starring in, last year. The actor believed he was handling a 'cold gun' -- one without live ammunition -- when it went off and a live bullet struck Hutchins, killing her. The film's director, Joel Souza, was also wounded in the shooting."

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Kim Chandler of the AP: "A federal jury awarded Republican Roy Moore $8.2 million in damages Friday after finding a Democratic-aligned super PAC defamed him in a TV ad recounting sexual misconduct accusations during his failed 2017 U.S. Senate bid in Alabama. Jurors found the Senate Majority PAC made false and defamatory statements against Moore in one ad that attempted to highlight the accusations against Moore. The verdict, returned by a jury after a brief trial in Anniston, Alabama, was a victory for Moore, who has lost other defamation lawsuits, including one against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. 'We're very thankful to God for an opportunity to help restore my reputation which was severely damaged by the 2017 election,' Moore said in a telephone interview. Ben Stafford, an attorney representing Senate Majority PAC, said in an emailed statement that they believe the ruling would be overturned on appeal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: God is Great. With all of the problems on Earth (and elsewhere!), God has taken time out to protect Roy Moore's reputation.

Idaho. Isabella Paz of the New York Times: "Idaho's near-total ban on abortion can go into effect at the end of August while legal challenges to the restrictions are reviewed, the Idaho Supreme Court said in a ruling late Friday. As a result of the decision, the ban is scheduled to begin on Aug. 25."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for those responsible for attacks near Europe's largest nuclear power plant to be 'tried by an international court,' and accused Russian forces of using the plant in southern Ukraine as a shield in a 'blackmail operation' against Kyiv and 'the entire free world.'... Ukrainian forces will target Russian soldiers who shoot at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant or shoot from the facility, Zelensky said in his nightly address Saturday.... Norway has become the latest country to join an international coalition helping train Ukraine's Armed Forces.... A total of 16 grain ships have now left Ukrainian ports, Zelensky said Saturday, under a U.N.-brokered deal to ease the global food crisis."

News Lede

New York Times: "In a pair of horrific scenes on Saturday night that compounded the tragedy of a recent fatal fire in eastern Pennsylvania, a man plowed his car into a fund-raising event for families affected by that fire, killing one and injuring 17, then drove off and fatally beat a woman before the police arrested him, the authorities said. The suspect, identified by the police as Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes, 24, was arraigned on two counts of homicide and denied bail. He is being held at the Columbia County Correctional Facility. Investigators identified the woman who was beaten to death as the suspect's mother, Rosa D. Reyes, The Press Enterprise of Bloomsburg, Pa., reported, citing court records. Investigators said that Mr. Reyes told them he hit his mother with his car and then struck the woman, who appeared to be unconscious, over the head with a hammer several times."

August 13, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Glenn Thrush & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "At least one lawyer for ... Donald J. Trump signed a written statement in June asserting that all material marked as classified and held in boxes in a storage area at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and club had been returned to the government, four people with knowledge of the document said. The written declaration was made after a visit on June 3 to Mar-a-Lago by Jay I. Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department's national security division.... Over recent months, investigators were in contact with roughly a half-dozen of Mr. Trump's current aides who had knowledge of how the documents were handled, two people briefed on the approaches said. At least one witness provided the investigators with information that led them to want to further press Mr. Trump for material....

"Shortly before [Attorney General Merrick] Garland made [a public statement on Thursday], a person close to Mr. Trump reached out to a Justice Department official to pass along a message from the former president to the attorney general. Mr. Trump wanted Mr. Garland to know he had been checking in with people around the country and found them to be enraged by the search. 'The country is on fire,' Mr. Trump said, according to a person familiar with the exchange. 'What can I do to reduce the heat?'... As a judge unsealed the warrant and the inventory of items that the F.B.I. took, Mr. Trump alternately claimed he did nothing wrong and also made the baseless statement that officials may have planted evidence on him." CNN has a story here. ~~~

~~~ Marie: Based on reviews of the property receipt, several news outlets, including this one, have noted that "FBI agents removed 11 sets of classified documents and 27 boxes from [Donald Trump's] Florida residence." I've briefly looked at the receipt, and I can't do the math, but I'll assume for argument's sake that number 27 is correct. In addition to those 27 boxes, Trump returned 15 boxes in January 2022, and according to theNYT story linked above, FBI agents took additional material from Mar-a-Lago in June 2022. So that's at least 43 boxes of stuff --and probably more -- Trump stole from us. Whatever the size of the boxes, and whatever their contents, you can't take that much stuff "accidentally." ~~~

     ~~~ Various news outlets have reported that at least some of the stuff was kept in a basement storage room. My house in Florida was on a large waterway; Trump's is between two bodies of water -- the Atlantic Ocean & Lake Worth. My house was built at the same time Mar-a-Lago was, and my house & Trump's are among the few in Florida that have basements. During rainy season, which runs for months, I had a sump pump that ran almost 24/7. During these months, the basement was never dry. It's possible the basement at Mar-a-Lago has since been made water-tight, but given its location, that's difficult to do. So I'm wondering about the condition of those retrieved docs, papers that have been in a likely-damp basement for at least a year-a-and-a-half.

GOP Terrorists. Steve M. republishes a portion of a (firewalled) Daily Beast story that reads, in part, "Just hours after a list began circulating among right-wing media of FBI agents who signed off on the search warrant for Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property, a former Trump aide tried to sic MAGA fans on the family members of the purported agents. Garrett Ziegler ... took to Telegram to post the personal information of men he identified as agents. 'This is one of the two feds who signed the "Receipt for Property" form, which detailed == at a very high level -- the fishing expedition that the FBI performed at Mar-a-Lago,' Ziegler said on both Truth Social and Telegram. The former Trump administration staffer that worked under White House trade adviser Peter Navarro further listed out the FBI agents' date of birth, work emails and linked to alleged family members' social media accounts." There's more. ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M. writes, "This is the new normal.... We're rapidly approaching the point where anything that offends Republicans will result in the doxxing of the responsible parties, with threats of violence as the inevitable consequence. Soon -- again because of Republican intransigence -- we'll conclude that we simply can't prevent this, and anyone who engages in conduct that upsets Republicans will need to invest in extra security and urge every peripheral person who might be affected to do the same. America will be divided into two nations: Republicans and those terrorized or potentially terrorized by Republicans." ~~~

~~~ David Moye of the Huffington Post: "While filling in for host Tucker Carlson on Thursday, [Fox News' Brian Kilmeade displayed a fabricated image of Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart [-- who authorized the search of Mar-a-Lago --] having his feet massaged by convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell and holding Oreo cookies and alcohol on a plane. 'Sean, can you relate to that?' Kilmeade asked Fox News personality Sean Hannity, who noted that the photo looked doctored. 'I think that's actually a picture of [financier and convicted sex offender] Jeffrey Epstein with somebody putting his [Reinhart's] head on there,' Hannity said. 'I'm guessing. I don't know.' 'Who knows?' Kilmeade said.... The fake photo seems to be a reference to Reinhart's past work defending several of Epstein's employees in court. On Friday, Kilmeade took to Twitter to clarify that the photo wasn't real. '... This depiction never took place & we wanted to make clear that we were showing a meme in jest.' So far, Kilmeade has not apologized on air to the viewers who saw the image and possibly believed it to be authentic.... Twitter users read Kilmeade the riot act for pushing misinformation, especially as Reinhart has received violent and antisemitic threats since approving the warrant...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Twitter commenters, including comedian Patton Oswalt & journalist Mehdi Hasan, saw or heard no indication in Kilmeade's on-air performance that he was "showing a meme in jest." It's a bad day for Fox "News" when the person who pushes back with at least a bit of journalistic fact-checking is Sean Hannity. Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. See also his commentary below.

~~~~~~~~~~

So here was Politico's banner headline Friday afternoon: ~~~

Trump Under Investigation for Potential Violations of Espionage Act

Wall Street Journal reporters got hold of the search warrant & inventory of documents sought & retrieved from Mar-a-Lago. I myself, for reasons unknown was able to breach the WSJ firewall. ~~~

Alex Leary, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: "FBI agents who searched ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home Monday removed 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked as top secret and meant to be only available in special government facilities, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The Federal Bureau of Investigation agents took around 20 boxes of items, binders of photos, a handwritten note and the executive grant of clemency for Mr. Trump's ally Roger Stone, a list of items removed from the property shows. Also included in the list was information about the 'President of France,' according to the three-page list. The list is contained in a seven-page document that also includes the warrant to search the premises which was granted by a federal magistrate judge in Florida. The list includes references to one set of documents marked as 'Various classified/TS/SCI documents,' an abbreviation that refers to top-secret/sensitive compartmented information. It also says agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents. The list didn't provide any more details about the substance of the documents. Mr. Trump's lawyers argue that the former president used his authority t declassify the material before he left office. While a president has the power to declassify documents, there are federal regulations that lay out a process for doing so.... The search and seizure warrant, signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, shows that FBI agents sought to search 'the 45 Office,' as well as 'all storage rooms and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by [the former president] and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate.'" A CNN report, which has been expanded since first linked, is here. An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's story, by Devlin Barrett & Josh Dawsey, is here. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times is once again live-blogging developments in Trump's theft of highly-sensitive national security documents. ~~~

"Federal agents who executed the warrant did so to investigate potential crimes associated with violations of the Espionage Act, which outlaws the unauthorized retention of national security information that could harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary; a federal law that makes it a crime to destroy or conceal a document to obstruct a government investigation; and another statute associated with unlawful removal of government materials.... The most informative and sensitive document, an affidavit detailing the "probable cause" evidence that prompted Judge Reinhart to approve the search, will not be released now, or probably ever, department officials said on Thursday....

"The search warrant for Trump's residence cited three criminal laws, all from Title 18 of the United States Code. Section 793, better known as the Espionage Act, which covers the unlawful retention of defense-related information that could harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary; Section 1519, which covers destroying or concealing documents to obstruct government investigations or administrative proceedings; and Section 2071, which covers the unlawful removal of government records. Notably, none of those laws turn on whether information was deemed to be unclassified....

"Shortly after 3 p.m. Eastern, the Justice Department notified the court that 'counsel for former President Trump -- M. Evan Corcoran, Esq., and James Trusty, Esq. -- have informed the government that the former President does not object to the government motion to unseal' the search warrant and the inventory list." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times stand-alone story, by Maggie Haberman & others, is here: "The results of the search showed that material designated as closely guarded national secrets was being held at an unsecured resort club, Mar-a-Lago, owned and occupied by a former president who has long shown a disdain for careful handling of classified information. The documents released on Friday also made clear for the first time the gravity of the possible crimes under investigation in an inquiry that has generated denunciations of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. from prominent Republicans and fueled the anger of Mr. Trump, a likely 2024 presidential candidate.... Last year, he told close associates that he regarded some presidential documents as his own personal property." ~~~

~~~ Politico has published the warrant & inventory here.

Yeah? So? Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump claimed on Friday that before leaving office, he declassified all the documents the F.B.I. found in this week's search of his Florida residence ... including several caches apparently marked as 'top secret.' 'It was all declassified,' Mr. Trump asserted in a statement.... Such a claim would not settle the matter. For one thing, two of the laws that a search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago this week referred to -- Sections 1519 and 2071 of Title 18 of the United States Code -- make the taking or concealment of government records a crime regardless of whether they had anything to do with national security. For another, laws against taking or hoarding material with restricted national-security information, which generally carry heavier penalties than theft of ordinary documents, do not always line up with whether the files are technically classified.... A third law ... known as the Espionage Act ... was enacted by Congress during World War I, decades before President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order creating the modern classification system for the executive branch. As a result, the Espionage Act makes no reference to whether a document has been deemed classified. Instead, it makes it a crime to retain, without authorization, documents related to the national defense that could be used to harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So let us assume for a moment that Trump did declassify all that formerly-super-sensitive material that had been squirreled away in super-secure rooms where only a few select officlals with top clearance were allowed to venture. Then why hasn't Trump released this declassified stuff to the public? Suddenly, we all -- and that "we" includes the country's most dangerous enemies -- have a right to read these declassified docs, don't we? After all, declassification renders them no more secret or sensitive than say, an executive order or Melanie's tour of her White House holiday decorations.

Zoë Richards of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Friday denied a report from The Washington Post that said FBI agents were looking for classified documents related to nuclear weapons, among other items, when they searched his Mar-a-Lago home this week. On his Truth Social platform, Trump said that 'Nuclear weapons is a hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax,' referring to then-special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. Trump attacked the officials involved with the search of his home, calling them 'sleazy.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Given that Trump knew we were about to find out that he had stolen top-secret docs, this is an extraordinary denial. Of course it's true that Trump didn't lift any "nuclear weapons" as he mentions; on the other hand, the WashPo article did not suggest he was storing a nuclear bomb in the Mar-a-Lardo basement. So Trump is denying something that no one asserted. However, since the Mueller investigation also was not a hoax, I suppose it's fair for Trump to compare the Mar-a-Lago search with the Mueller probe. So I guess Trump is reasonable, after all!

At the top of today's Comments, Akhilleus explains Trump's evolving excuses/lies for engaging in, well, espionage against the United States.

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Republicans who days ago united in preemptive defense of Donald Trump are struggling to stay on the same page following new questions about documents that the former president was holding at his Florida residence. The FBI's daylong search at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate this week, personally approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland, sparked near-universal GOP outrage and allegations of a politicized Justice Department. In the wake of reports that the search was tied to concerns Trump may have improperly taken highly classified White House documents related to nuclear weapons and so-called special access operations, however, Republicans are politically diverging. While some GOP lawmakers acknowledged Friday that a scenario in which Trump withheld nuclear-related documents would be problematic, House Republican leaders are still rallying behind him and suggesting without evidence that President Joe Biden sought to weaponize DOJ against a political rival." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Max Boot of the Washington Post: "The more we learn about the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, the sillier -- and more sinister -- the overcaffeinated Republican defenses of ... Donald Trump look. A genius-level spinmeister, Trump set the tone with a Monday evening statement announcing: 'These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.'... Although Trump's team had a copy of the search warrant, he gave no hint of why the FBI might have been there.... His followers -- which means pretty much the whole of the Republican Party -- took up the cry based on no more information.... What has been reported so far bears no relation to the persecution fantasies of Trump and his cult followers.... The right now appears to be in disarray." ~~~

~~~ BUT. Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: "House Republicans stood by ... Donald Trump on Friday despite the revelation that FBI agents sought classified documents relating to nuclear weapons in their search of his Mar-a-Lago estate this week.... Republicans also were highly critical of the FBI, Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray over the execution of the search warrant and about what they characterized as a lack of transparency in sharing information with Congress about a criminal investigation. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday singled out Garland, saying the attorney general 'has a lot of explaining to do.'... Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the No. 3 Republican in the House leadership, on Friday called the FBI search a 'complete abuse and overreach of its authority' and promoted baseless claims that the agency protected Hillary Clinton, former FBI director James B. Comey and President Biden's son Hunter.... House Republicans, who were back in Washington on Friday to vote against the Democrats' climate, health-care and tax bill, deflected blame that their rhetoric has inspired Trump supporters to attack law enforcement."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "On few previous occasions has the Trump movement so embraced Stephen K. Bannon's strategy (paraphrased here) of flooding the zone with garbage as after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago....But ... it's difficult to top the latest entry." After several Fox "News" hosts latched onto a story that President Obama had "had 30 million records shipped to Chicago for his presidential library," Trump got out the muck spreader & fake-tweeted, 'What happened to the 30 million pages of documents taken from the White House to Chicago by Barack Hussein Obama? He refused to give them back! What is going on? This act was strongly at odds with NARA. Will they be breaking into Obama's "mansion" in Martha's Vineyard?'... But ... the Obama team was transferring the records to Chicago through the National Archives.... There isn't the faintest hint of legal violations -- nor does the New York Post's story suggest as much.... And on Friday, after Trump raised the issue again, the Archives sought to put an end to the charade [and clarified that they, not President Obama, has retained control of those records]." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So if I were Trump, I would rob a bank cashier's till, then complain that you were worse than I because you had gotten more money when you made a cash withdrawal from your bank account. Unfortunately, "Barack Hussein Obama stole 30 million documents & the FBI ignored it" will soon become a true thing among the Trumpbots. ~~~

President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots! -- Donald Trump, August 12

Trump is wrong. News reports starting in 2016 showed that the National Archives and Records Administration would oversee transfer of Obama's presidential records. The agency announced it would digitize the records and that classified records were sent to a facility in College Park, Maryland. -- Jim Greenberg & Amy Sherman of PolitiFact ~~~

     ~~~ Update. John Wagner of the Washington Post: “The National Archives and Records Administration issued a statement Friday in an attempt to counter misstatements about former president Barack Obama's presidential records after several days of misinformation that had been spread by ... Donald Trump and conservative commentators. Since the FBI search of his Florida home and club this week for classified documents, Trump has asserted in social media posts that Obama 'kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified' and that they were "taken to Chicago by President Obama.' In its statement, NARA said that it obtained 'exclusive legal and physical custody' of Obama's records when he left office in 2017. It said that about 30 million pages of unclassified records were transferred to a NARA facility in the Chicago area and that they continue to be maintained 'exclusively by NARA.'"

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Leadership at the Justice Department forcefully pushed back against attacks on the bureau, with Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray issuing statements condemning such rhetoric just hours apart on Thursday. Wray made clear Thursday that he sees the attacks as undermining not just the bureau, but the role law enforcement plays in a democracy. 'Unfounded attacks on the integrity of the FBI erode respect for the rule of law and are a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrifice so much to protect others. Violence and threats against law enforcement, including the FBI, are dangerous and should be deeply concerning to all Americans,' Wray said in a statement.... [Donald] Trump has repeatedly referred to the FBI's search as a raid and suggested multiple times, without evidence, that agents may have been 'planting information.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Josh Campbell, et al., of CNN: "The FBI is investigating an 'unprecedented' number of threats against bureau personnel and property in the wake of the search of ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, including some against agents listed in court records as being involved in the recent search, a law enforcement source tells CNN. On Friday, the names of the two agents who signed the search warrant paperwork circulated online. The names had been included in a version of the search warrant that was leaked prior to the official unsealing of the documents. The version released by the court redacted the agents' names." MB: We know, of course, who released the agents' names. As shocking as it is, Trump and his team certainly seem to want to endanger the lives of federal agents & their families.

Lucia Walinchus, et al., of the New York Times: "A man whom the police say they killed hours after he tried to breach the F.B.I.'s Cincinnati office had been on the radar of the federal authorities for months, two law enforcement officials said on Friday. The officials said federal investigators had been looking into whether the man, Ricky Shiffer, 42, of Columbus, had been involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. They also said the F.B.I. had received a tip about Mr. Shiffer in May that was unrelated to Jan. 6, and agents opened a separate inquiry that included conducting interviews in Florida and Ohio. The F.B.I. acknowledged in a statement that it had received information about Mr. Shiffer before Thursday, but said that the information 'did not contain a specific and credible threat.' The bureau said agents from multiple offices had tried to find and interview him, but had not been successful. A neighbor at an apartment complex in Columbus where Mr. Shiffer lived, who declined to give his name, said federal agents had visited the property a few weeks ago and had asked him questions about Mr. Shiffer...."

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: Department of Homeland Security Inspector General "Joseph V. Cuffari [--a Trump appointee --] and his staff have refused to release certain documents and tried to block interviews, effectively delaying ... [an investigation], which has now stretched for more than 15 months and evolved into a wide-ranging inquiry into more than a dozen allegations of misconduct raised by whistleblowers and other sources.... That probe, for now, does not include an investigation into the missing Secret Service texts [sent around Jan. 6, 2021], which instead are the subject of multiple congressional inquiries. Some Republican senators have also raised stiff resistance to the wider investigation into Cuffari -- which is being overseen by a panel of federal watchdogs from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).... Led by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) the senators have demanded that investigators scale back records requests from Cuffari's office and pressed them on their motives...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Needless to say, any sentence that begins with the phrase, "Led by Sen. Josh Hawley," can only end in nonsense or worse, unless what is being led by Josh Hawley is cute little puppies.

Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "A Manhattan state court judge on Friday declined to throw out the criminal case against Donald J. Trump's family business and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, clearing the way for a trial in the case scheduled for the fall. Mr. Weisselberg and the business, the Trump Organization, were charged last year by the Manhattan district attorney's office with having engaged in a 15-year scheme in which executives were compensated with hidden benefits so that they could evade taxes. The charges stemmed from the office's long-running investigation into the company's business practices. In February, Mr. Weisselberg and the company filed motions to dismiss the charges, arguing that the case was politically motivated and that the defendants were charged only because of their link with former president Donald J. Trump. The decision marked the latest legal blow to Mr. Trump in a week full of them." Here's a Law & Crime story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congress gave final approval on Friday to legislation that would reduce the cost of prescription drugs and pour billions of dollars into the effort to slow global warming, as House Democrats overcame united Republican opposition to deliver on key components of President Biden's domestic agenda. With a party-line vote of 220 to 207, the House agreed to the single largest federal investment in the fight against climate change and the most substantial changes to national health care policy since passage of the Affordable Care Act. The bill now goes to Mr. Biden for his signature. The legislation would inject more than $370 billion into climate and energy programs aimed at helping the United States cut greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 40 percent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. It would also extend for three years subsidies to help people afford insurance under the Affordable Care Act, as well as fulfill a long-held Democratic goal to lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to directly negotiate prices and capping recipients' annual out-of-pocket drug costs." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear & Zolan-Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "With final House passage of the Inflation Reduction Act on Friday, President Biden is poised to deliver the latest in a series of legislative victories that will ripple across the country for decades -- lowering the cost of prescription drugs, extending subsidies to help people pay for health insurance, reducing the deficit and investing more than $370 billion into climate and energy programs. 'The choice we face as Americans is whether to protect the already-powerful or find the courage to build a future where everybody has a shot,' Mr. Biden said on Twitter. 'Today, I proudly watched as House Democrats chose families over special interests.'... Taken together, the bills Mr. Biden has helped usher through a closely divided Congress since taking office 18 months ago touch many parts of American society."

Joshua Goodman of the AP: "Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked Friday as he was about to give a lecture in western New York. An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. The 75-year-old author was pushed or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained. Rushdie was quickly surrounded by a small group of people who held up his legs, presumably to send more blood to his chest. His condition was not immediately known." MB: According to Andrea Mitchell of NBC News, Rushdie suffered a stab wound to the neck. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: "The assailant stabbed Mr. Rushdie, 75, in the abdomen and the neck, the police and witnesses said, straining to continue the attack even as several people held him back. Mr. Rushdie was taken by helicopter to a nearby hospital in Erie, Pa., where he was in surgery for several hours on Friday afternoon. Mr. Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie, said Friday evening that Mr. Rushdie was on a ventilator and could not speak. 'The news is not good,' Mr. Wylie said in an email. 'Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.' Major Eugene J. Staniszewski of the New York State Police identified the suspect in the attack as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey man who was arrested at the scene, but said at a news conference late Friday afternoon that there was no indication yet of a motive."

Thomas Fuller of the New York Times: "The leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, the country's largest Protestant denomination, said on Friday that the church was under investigation by the Justice Department for sexual abuse and that it would 'fully and completely cooperate.' Church leaders said in a statement that multiple branches of the denomination, which includes seminaries and missionary organizations, were under investigation.... In May, leaders of the church published a scathing review that said reports of sexual abuse were suppressed by top church officials for two decades."

Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times: "The polio virus has been detected in wastewater from New York City, suggesting the virus is likely circulating in the city, New York's health authorities said Friday. The announcement came after a man in Rockland County, N.Y., north of the city, was stricken with polio that left him with paralysis. Health officials fear that the detection of polio in New York City's wastewater could be followed by other cases of paralytic polio. The vaccination rate across the city fell slightly during the pandemic, as children's pediatrician visits were postponed. But most adults were vaccinated against polio as children. Across New York State, nearly 80 percent of people have been vaccinated. The spread of the virus poses a risk to unvaccinated people, but the polio vaccine is nearly 100 percent effective in people who have been fully immunized." (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Pennsylvania Senate Race. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, returned to the campaign trail on Friday evening for his first major public event since he suffered a stroke in mid-May. Mr. Fetterman was by turns emotional and brash as he addressed an exuberant crowd, acknowledging the gravity of the health scare he faced while also slamming his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician, and pledging to fight for 'every county, every vote.'... Several people who have spoken with him or heard him speak at private events described him as eager to return to the campaign trail, though some have also said it was evident when he was reaching for a word. He has acknowledged that challenge, and it was at times apparent on Friday when he started a sentence over or spoke haltingly." Politico's story is here.

Wisconsin. 2020 Presidential Election. Scott Bauer of the AP: "Wisconsin's Republican Assembly leader on Friday ended a 14-month, taxpayer-funded inquiry into the 2020 election by firing his hand-picked investigator. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos' firing of Michael Gableman came just three days after the lawmaker narrowly survived a primary challenge from an opponent endorsed by ... Donald Trump and Gableman. While Gableman found no evidence of widespread fraud during his inquiry, he had joined Trump in calling for lawmakers to consider decertifying the 2020 election -- something Vos and legal experts say is unconstitutional and impossible. Vos announced the investigation last year under pressure from Trump and chose Gableman, a conservative former Supreme Court justice, to lead it. But as the investigation progressed, Vos' relationship soured with both Gableman and Trump.... [Gableman's] investigation had drawn bipartisan scorn, and his firing generated bipartisan praise."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Saturday are here: "The Kremlin has condemned calls to ban all Russian travelers after [Ukraine's President] Zelensky told The Washington Post he wants Western countries to deny visas to Russians in a bid to deter Moscow from annexing Ukrainian territory. In a nightly address, Zelensky renewed his appeal for a ban.... Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States 'is concerned' by reports of British, Swedish and Croatian nationals being charged by 'illegitimate authorities in eastern Ukraine.' Pro-Moscow separatists in the east have tried foreign nationals for fighting alongside Kyiv.