Garland's Big Lie

On January 5, 2022, the eve of the first anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Attorney General Merrick Garland gave a “solemn speech,” according to a contemporaneous Guardian report, in which he pledged to hold responsible all those who attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results: “'The justice department remains committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law – whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy,' Garland said in his address, delivered from the justice department’s Great Hall in Washington. 'We will follow the facts wherever they lead.'...

“Garland did not mention [Donald] Trump by name, and in keeping with the justice department’s longstanding rule not to comment on ongoing investigations, he did not detail any possible leads the department was pursuing related to the former US president, his family or his allies. But the carefully crafted speech seemed designed to address concerns about the focus of the investigation.... 'There cannot be different rules for the powerful and the powerless,' he added.”

However, if yesterday's Washington Post report is substantially correct, then Garland was lying in January 2022. Or at least in that “carefully-crafted speech,” he was purposely misleading listeners, suggesting that the Department of Justice was pursuing “the powerful” people behind the coup attempt. According to the Post, “'A decision was made early on to focus DOJ resources on the riot,' said one former Justice Department official.... 'The notion of opening up on Trump and high-level political operatives was seen as fraught with peril. When [Deputy Attorney General] Lisa [Monaco] and Garland came on board, they were fully onboard with that approach.' Some prosecutors even had the impression that Trump had become a taboo topic at Main Justice.... Garland, Monaco and [FBI Director Christopher] Wray ... remained committed to [a 'going up the ladder' approach] even as evidence emerged of an organized, weeks-long effort by Trump and his advisers before Jan. 6 to pressure state leaders, Justice officials and Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of Biden’s victory.”

The Post reports that it was not until April 2022, months after Garland's misleading January 2022 speech and 15 months after the insurrection, that  “Wray signed off on the authorization opening a criminal investigation into the fake electors plot. Still, the FBI was tentative: Internally, some of the ex-president’s advisers and his reelection campaign were identified as the focus of the bureau’s probe, but not Trump.” And that sign-off came only after federal judge David O. Carter ruled in March 2022 that “Trump 'more likely than not' committed federal crimes in trying to obstruct the congressional count of electoral college votes.” “More than a year after the attack on our Capitol, the public is still searching for accountability.… If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself,” Carter wrote in his opinion.

And it was not until November 2022, after Trump announced he would seek the presidency* again, that Garland got around to appointing a special prosecutor, Jack Smith, to oversee the case.

If you believe the attorney general should tell the public the truth, then you were mighty irritated when then-attorney general Bill Barr lied about the contents of the Mueller report weeks before Barr allowed the report itself to be released to the public. How is it any better for the current attorney general to craftily imply the Justice Department is investigating “the powerful” when DOJ and the FBI were doing no such thing? To err is human; to lie about erring is unconscionable.

June 20, 2023

Late Morning Update:

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "The federal judge presiding over the prosecution of ... Donald J. Trump in the classified documents case set an aggressive schedule on Tuesday, ordering a trial to begin as soon as Aug. 14. While the timeline set by the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, is likely to be delayed by extensive pretrial litigation -- including over how to handle classified material -- its brisk pace suggests that she is seeking to avoid any criticism for dragging her feet or for slow-walking the proceeding. In each of four other criminal trials she has overseen that were identified in a New York Times review, she has initially set a relatively quick trial date and later pushed it back. The early moves by Judge Cannon, a relatively inexperienced jurist who was appointed by Mr. Trump in 2020, are being particularly closely watched. She disrupted the documents investigation last year with several rulings favorable to the former president before a conservative appeals court overturned her, saying that she never had legitimate legal authority to intervene." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. A CNBC report is here.

Stefano Dazio & Michael Blood of the AP: "An effort to disbar conservative attorney John Eastman, who devised ways to keep ... Donald Trump in the White House after his defeat in the 2020 election, will begin Tuesday in Los Angeles. Eastman is expected to spend the day testifying before the State Bar of California in a proceeding that could result in him losing his license to practice law in the state. He faces 11 disciplinary charges stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy that was aimed at helping Trump remain in power by disrupting the counting of state electoral votes. The State Bar's counsel will seek Eastman's disbarment during a hearing before the State Bar Court that's expected to last at least eight days. If the court finds Eastman culpable of the alleged violations it can recommend a punishment such as suspending or revoking his law license. The California Supreme Court makes the final decision."

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "On a remote site at the edge of the Gulf of Oman, thousands of migrant laborers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are at work in 103-degree heat, toiling in shifts from dawn until nightfall to build a new city, a multibillion-dollar project backed by Oman's oil-rich government that has an unusual partner: ... Donald J. Trump.... The Oman deal has taken [Mr. Trump's] financial stake in one of the world's most strategically important and volatile regions to a new level, underscoring how his business and his politics intersect as he runs for president again amid intensifying legal and ethical troubles.... The venture puts Mr. Trump in business with the government of Oman, an ally of the United States with which Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, cultivated ties while in office and which plays a vital diplomatic role in a volatile region.... Mr. Trump was brought into the deal by a Saudi real estate firm, Dar Al Arkan, which is closely intertwined with the Saudi government. While in office, Mr. Trump developed a tight relationship with Saudi leaders.... Mr. Trump's company, the Trump Organization, has already brought in at least $5 million from the Oman deal. Under its terms, Trump Organization will not put up any money for the development.... The project could also draw scrutiny in the West for its treatment of its migrant workers...."

Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "President Biden's son Hunter has reached a tentative agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and admit to the facts of a gun charge under terms that would likely keep him out of jail, according to court papers filed Tuesday. Any proposed plea deal would have to be approved by a federal judge. Both the prosecutors and the defense counsel have requested a court hearing at which Hunter Biden, 53, can enter his plea. The agreement caps an investigation that was opened in 2018 during the Trump administration, and has generated intense interest and criticism since 2020 from Republican politicians who accused the Biden administration of reluctance to pursue the case. The terms of the proposed deal -- negotiated with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a holdover from ... Donald Trump's administration -- are likely to face similar scrutiny." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. The AP's report is here.

Florida. Beth Reinhard & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: Florida Gov. Ron "DeSantis seized on the unusual retirement of three liberal justices at once to quickly remake the [state's supreme] court. He did so with the help of a secretive panel led by Leonard Leo -- the key architect of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority -- that quietly vetted judicial nominees in an Orlando conference room three weeks before the governor's inauguration.... After taking office in January 2019, DeSantis appointed three new justices in two weeks, flipping the court from what he described as a 4-3 liberal majority to a 6-1 conservative advantage. More recently, two justices appointed by past Republicans stepped down and took more lucrative jobs with allies of the governor, allowing DeSantis to handpick his own stalwarts. The governor's efforts have yielded one of the most conservative state Supreme Courts in the country, reflecting Florida's shift from a politically competitive state to a testing ground for culture war legislation over immigration, race and sex education that is now at the heart of DeSantis's presidential bid.... The governor's confidential vetting process for the high court was one of the earliest examples of what would become a signature tactic of his administration -- testing the boundaries of executive authority, while defying protocols aimed at transparency and accountability."

Louisiana. Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "The last four Roman Catholic archbishops of New Orleans went to shocking lengths to conceal a confessed serial child molester who is still living but has never been prosecuted, a Guardian investigation has found. Upon review of hundreds of pages of previously secret church files, the Guardian has uncovered arguably the most complete account yet about the extremes to which the second-oldest Catholic archdiocese in the US went to coddle the admitted child molester Lawrence Hecker. Back in 1999, Hecker confessed to his superiors at the archdiocese of New Orleans that he had either sexually molested or otherwise shared a bed with multiple teenagers whom he met through his work as a Roman Catholic priest." Read on to get an idea of "shocking lengths" the archdiocese went to in order to conceal Hecker's crimes.

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Matthew Lee of the AP: "U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said they agreed to 'stabilize' badly deteriorated U.S.-China ties, but America's top diplomat left Beijing with his biggest ask rebuffed: better communications between their militaries. After meeting Xi, Blinken said China is not ready to resume military-to-military contacts, something the U.S. considers crucial to avoid miscalculation and conflict, particularly over Taiwan. Still, China's main diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, Yang Tao, said he thought Blinken's visit to China 'marks a new beginning.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Amy Hawkins of the Guardian: "Antony Blinken's meeting with Xi Jinping on Monday may have lasted only 35 minutes, but both sides insisted that it represented progress in the strained relationship. The two men exchanged warm words while both refusing to budge on their respective core interests. That the US secretary of state was able to meet China's leader at all was a diplomatic coup for the highly anticipated visit. Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to visit Beijing since 2018, but until he arrived in the Chinese capital it was not confirmed that he would meet China's leader. The meeting was brief compared with Blinken's seven-and-a-half-hour marathon encounter with his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang. But it was the culmination of an effort to stabilise the fraught relationship between the world's two biggest economies." ~~~

     ~~~ Edward Wong & David Pierson of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Xi Jinping, China's leader, on Monday in Beijing, as the two governments sought to pull relations out of a deep chill that has raised global concerns about the growing risk of a conflict between them. The 35-minute meeting, which capped a two-day visit by Mr. Blinken, sent a signal, at least for now, that the United States and China do not want their relationship to be defined by open hostility, and that they recognize that their rivalry and their diplomatic efforts carry enormous stakes. Mr. Blinken and Mr. Xi held talks at the Great Hall of the People, the grand building on the west side of Tiananmen Square where Mr. Xi often receives dignitaries. Striking a congenial note at the top of the meeting, Mr. Xi praised the two sides for making progress on some unspecified issues during Mr. Blinken's visit...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's worth remembering that Republicans excoriated Blinken for trying to normalize relations with China (NYT link).

Trumpty Dumpty News -- Socks & Pants Edition

Marie: Perhaps you remember how we all were complaining that DOJ was doing nothing about Trump, et al.'s incitement of the January 6 insurrection, the worst treachery of any president* in U.S. history. Meanwhile, calmer voices were reminding us how the DOJ & FBI did their investigating in secret, so the public had no idea how hard they were working to ferret out Trump's culpability. Well, we wuz right: ~~~

** Merrick the Unready, Ctd. Carol Leonnig & Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation. A wariness about appearing partisan, institutional caution, and clashes over how much evidence was sufficient to investigate the actions of Trump and those around him all contributed to the slow pace. [Attorney General Merrick] Garland and the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, charted a cautious course aimed at restoring public trust in the department while some prosecutors below them chafed, feeling top officials were shying away from looking at evidence of potential crimes by Trump and those close to him, The Post found....

"Senior Justice Department [and FBI] officials ... quashed a plan by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office to directly investigate Trump associates for any links to the riot, deeming it premature, according to five individuals familiar with the decision. Instead, they insisted on a methodical approach -- focusing first on rioters and going up the ladder. The strategy was embraced by Garland, Monaco and [FBI Director Christopher] Wray.... The National Archives inspector general's office asked the Justice Department's election crimes branch to consider investigating the seemingly coordinated ['fake electors'] effort in swing states. Citing its prosecutors' discretion, the department told the Archives it would not pursue the topic, according to two people with knowledge of the decision." This is a long investigative article, well-worth reading. It confirms and even magnifies what we hair-on-fire skeptics had suspected all along. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a shorter version by Davis & Leonnig, but you need to read the full version to get a good understanding of how Garland, Monaco and Wray dragged their feet and only allowed investigations into Trump & his cronies when press reports, a federal judge's ruling and January 6 House committee findings embarrassed them into it. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Leonnig pointed out during a discussion on MSNBC yesterday that the "going up the ladder" methodology doesn't work on a multi-pronged criminal endeavor. For instance, there is no connection between the rioters/insurrection leaders and the fake-electors plot. Successfully prosecuting Oath Keepers does not get you to the fake-electors scheme. Ergo, there's not much excuse for DOJ's turning down the National Archives' referral on Trump's coordinated plan to submit false slates of electors in swing states.

     ~~~ Marcy Wheeler has many thoughts. (Also linked yesterday.)

What About Pence and Biden & Bill Clinton? Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: "Donald Trump told Fox News' Bret Baier on Monday that the law was on his side and he had no worries about the 37 federal charges against him.... 'Based on the law? Zero. Zero. Presidential Records Act plus the Clinton case -- the Clinton case which was won by Clinton as president because he took he and hid them in his socks. Zero.... Every good lawyer has said that.'... Trump [also] pushed back by blaming [Mike] Pence for also retaining classified documents.... '... No, he didn't turn them over. He got caught. His lawyers found some documents and then he turned them over. Why did he have them? He shouldn't be saying that, because he had classified documents. And immediately they said, "That's OK." And I suppose it's going to be OK with Biden, too, even though he has them in Chinatown? Even though he has them in Delaware and probably 100 times more than I have?'" ~~~

~~~ Bret Baier of Fox "News" Does Some Journalism. Ted Johnson of Deadline: "Donald Trump offered a fusillade of unfounded claims and falsehoods in his interview with Fox News' Bret Baier.... 'Why did you have this very sensitive national security defense documents, like the war plans for a strike on Iran?' Baier asked, referring to a central claim by federal prosecutors in last week's indictment. Trump responded, 'So like every other president, I take things out, and in my case I took it out pretty much in a hurry but people packed it up and we left. I had clothing in there. I had all sorts of personal items, and they are much, much stuff.' He then went on to bashing his former attorney general William Barr, insisting that he fired him 'because he didn't have the courage to go after so many different things. He was a coward.'... During the interview, Fox News also ran clips of Trump from 2016, where he talked of the importance of protecting classified information. Baier also ran through a list of Trump's attacks on members of his own administration, while reminding him that he had pledged to only 'surround himself with the very best people.'" ~~~

~~~ Trump Test-runs the I-Was-Busy-So-I-Lied-to-the-FBI Defense. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump claimed to a Fox News anchor in an interview on Monday that he did not have a classified document with him in a meeting with a book publisher.... According to the transcript [of the meeting], Mr. Trump describes the document, which he claims shows General [Mark] Milley's desire to attack Iran, as 'secret' and 'like, highly confidential.' He also declares that 'as president, I could have declassified it,' adding, 'Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret.'... The comments were ... the latest in a string of shifting stories that he and his allies have offered since it became public that officials at the National Archives and Records Administration recovered 15 boxes of material from Mr. Trump in January 2022. Earlier in the interview with [Bret] Baier, Mr. Trump appeared to concede that even after the Justice Department issued a subpoena last year for all classified documents in his possession, he delayed complying with it in order to separate any personal records that might have been among them. 'Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out,' Mr. Trump said. 'These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things.'... Mr. Trump also acknowledged that he did not immediately comply with an earlier request to return government records to the archives, telling Mr. Baier that he gave the archives 'some' and maintaining, 'I was very busy, as you've sort of seen.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Confessions of Trump, Ctd. Sam Stein of Politico: "The comments from Trump are an admission that he did not move to satisfy the federal government's demands that he comply with their requests to hand over the documents.... Pressed by [Bret] Baier, Trump did not deny that he told his lawyers to say he fully complied with the subpoena when he hadn't. Instead, he said once more that he needed time to sort through the boxes to take out personal items like 'golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes.'" ~~~

~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "The former president repeated his claim that the Presidential Records Act gave him the right to take the material with him. This defense has been widely panned by legal experts across the spectrum.... Shortly after the interview aired, [Fox 'News" political analyst Brit] Hume ... said, 'His answers on the matters of the law seem to me to verge on incoherent,' he said. 'He seemed to be saying that the documents were really his and that he didn't give them back when he was requested to do when they were subpoenaed because, you know, he wasn't ready to because he sorted them and separated the classified information or whatever from his golf shirts or whatever he was saying. It was not altogether clear what he was saying.... But he seemed to believe that documents were his, that he had declassified them' he continued. 'Evidence to the contrary. And therefore, he, you know, he could do whatever he wanted with them, which I don't think it's going to hold up in court.'" ~~~

~~~ Lawrence O'Donnell plays "Defense or Confession" with legal experts:

Judge Orders Trump to STFU. Tierney Sneed of CNN: "A magistrate judge has signed off on special counsel Jack Smith's request that ... Donald Trump and his co-defendant Walt Nauta be prohibited from disclosing information the discovery handed over to the defense in the criminal case Trump and Nauta now face from the special counsel. Among the restrictions approved by US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who previously approved the search warrant the FBI executed at Mar-a-Lago last year, is that 'The Discovery Materials, along with any information derived therefrom, shall not be disclosed to the public or the news media, or disseminated on any news or social media platform, without prior notice to and consent of the United States or approval of the Court.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Republicans Suppress Truth about Themselves by Burying Truthtellers in Lawsuits & Subpoenas. Steven Myers & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "... Republican lawmakers and activists are mounting a sweeping legal campaign against universities, think tanks and private companies that study the spread of disinformation, accusing them of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online. The effort has encumbered its targets with expansive requests for information and, in some cases, subpoenas -- demanding notes, emails and other information related to social media companies and the government dating back to 2015.... [The targets] and others warned that the campaign undermined the fight against disinformation in American society when the problem is, by most accounts, on the rise -- and when another presidential election is around the corner. Many of those behind the Republican effort had also joined ... Donald J. Trump in falsely challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.... The House Judiciary Committee ... has sent scores of letters and subpoenas to the researchers -- only some of which have been made public.... A conservative advocacy group led by Stephen Miller, the former adviser to Mr. Trump, filed a class-action lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court in Louisiana that echoes many of the committee's accusations and focuses on some of the same defendants." (Also linked yesterday.)

Other News

Philip Nieto of Mediaite: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) shared some of his thoughts on Dr. Anthony Fauci, billionaire Bill Gates and the viruses the two men, along with the World Health Organization, are bent on unleashing in large American cities. Or something like that.

What Twitter Giveth, Elon Taketh Away. Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post: "Twitter's recent decision under new owner Elon Musk to charge more than $500,000 annually for a once-free tool to analyze posts on the platform is hampering disinformation and war crimes research, and could slow rescue efforts during natural disasters, according to experts and nonprofit groups. Since 2006, users have had unlimited access to the social media platform's application programming interface, or API -- allowing researchers to extract and analyze data that provided critical insights into the website's role in election meddling and the spread of disinformation, as well as to gather and synthesize photographic and video evidence that could be used to indict potential war criminals in international tribunals. Twitter announced in April that access to the API will now require a paid subscription, with those most useful to researchers ranging from $42,000 to $210,000 per month. The change has left many policy shops, NGOs, independent researchers and students without access."

What Facebook Giveth, Meta Taketh Away. Rebecca Tan of the Washington Post: "When Facebook took off in Vietnam about a decade ago, it was like a 'revolution,' said two of the company's early employees in Asia. For the first time, people across the country could communicate directly about current affairs. Users posted about police abuse and government waste, poking holes in the propaganda of the ruling Communist Party.... But as Facebook's popularity exploded in Vietnam, soon making this country the company's seventh largest market worldwide, the government increasingly demanded greater restrictions. Since then, the social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook, has been making repeated concessions to Vietnam's authoritarian government, routinely censoring dissent and allowing those seen as threats by the government to be forced off the platform...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024. The Krazy Kennedy. Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. "sees America as a divided place, where an elite few conspire to crush the rest, where doctors poison the public, and where few institutions or experts can be trusted. 'People should be scared,' he tells me.... In a 108-minute speech in Boston in April announcing his run, Kennedy never brought up vaccines -- alluding only once to some mystery cause for all childhood ailments. It was a striking omission for the founder of Children's Health Defense, the country's largest anti-vaccine organization, which describes itself as a 'child health protection and advocacy group.' Full-page newspaper ads supporting Kennedy make no mention of vaccines.... Kennedy has his vocal supporters -- anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, internet contrarians, billionaire tech bros, Camelot nostalgists and right-wing provocateurs who seem to be pumping Kennedy as a spoiler candidate.... Kennedy’s pivot to Covid denialism, and his subsequent banning by social media companies, made him a darling of the right, while his criticism of corporations and the military-industrial complex has drawn supporters from the left.... Recent polls show him making a dent against an incumbent whom many voters see as too old.... Kennedy believes the government, specifically the CIA, is responsible for [killing his father and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy].... For Kennedy, even the assumption that childhood vaccines work is up for argument.... Kennedy claimed Operation Warp Speed..., Donald Trump's interagency vaccine initiative, was a nefarious plot engineered by the intelligence agencies and the military." ~~~

~~~ Christopher Kane of the Washington Blade: "In a recently unearthed video interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the noted anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and a Democratic challenger of President Joe Biden's 2024 reelection bid, claimed chemicals in the water supply are turning boys trans. 'A lot of the problems we see in kids, particularly boys, it's probably underappreciated how much of that is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of sexual dysphoria that we're seeing,' the scion of the Kennedy political dynasty said during an interview with Canadian psychologist and ring-wing pundit Jordan Peterson. 'I mean, they're swimming through a soup of toxic chemicals today, and many of those are endocrine disruptors,' Kennedy said, adding, 'there's Atrazine throughout our water supply, and atrazine, by the way, if you, in a lab, put Atrazine in a tank full of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcibly feminize every frog in there and 10 percent of the frogs, the male frogs, will turn into fully viable females able to produce viable eggs.'... If it's doing that to frogs,' he said, 'there's a lot of other evidence that it's doing it to human beings as well.'... According to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 'When the general population is exposed to atrazine, exposure levels are expected to be very low.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Punishing the Publishers. Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "In most of the country, state and local laws require public announcements -- about town meetings, elections, land sales and dozens of other routine occurrences -- to be published in old-fashioned, print-and-ink newspapers, as well as online, so that citizens are aware of matters of public note. The payments for publishing these notices are among the steadiest sources of revenue left for local papers. Sometimes, though, public officials revoke the contracts in an effort to punish their hometown newspapers for aggressive coverage of local politics. Such retaliation is not new, but it appears to be occurring more frequently now.... In recent years, newspapers in Colorado, North Carolina, New Jersey and California, as well as New York, have been stripped of their contracts for public notices after publishing articles critical of their local governments. Some states, like Florida, are going even further, revoking the requirement that such notices have to appear in newspapers." (Also linked yesterday.)

North Carolina. Andrew McMillan of WSOC-TV (Charlotte): "A detailed lawsuit filed by a former Apex City Councilman claims that North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland County) started an affair with his wife and engaged in group sex with other people seeking political favor. Scott Riley Lassiter is suing Moore and an unnamed John Doe defendant for several claims, including alienation of affections and civil conspiracy. Channel 9 obtained the court documents, which allege that Moore 'used his position as Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives to initiate contact and develop a personal relationship with [Lassiter's wife Jamie Liles] Lassiter, despite knowing that she was married to Plaintiff.'... The lawsuit says Lassiter's wife confessed she had been having an affair for three years, and that 'she had engaged in sexual activity with Defendant Tim Moore (including group sex with other individuals seeking Tim Moore's political favor), and that she feared ending the relationship with [Moore] would result in losing her job.'... [Mrs.] Lassiter is currently the executive director of the North Carolina Conference of Clerks of Superior Court."

Way Beyond

Greece. Jason Horowitz, et al., of the New York Times: "... in the aftermath of the deadliest shipwreck in Greece in a decade, and perhaps ever, with possibly more than 700 men, women and children from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt drowned, the decision not to intervene has raised concerns that an alignment of interests between [human] smugglers paid to reach Italy and Greek authorities who would rather the migrants be Italy's problem led to an avoidable catastrophe.... Shortly after [the] rickety fishing boat carrying hundreds of smuggled migrants sank in front of a Greek Coast Guard vessel last week, Greek officials explained that they had not intervened because the smugglers didn't want them to.... On Monday, the Greek authorities came under more pressure as new accusations of negligence surfaced and survivor accounts began to trickle out, describing a hapless captain, engine trouble and even suggestions that the Greek Coast Guard had accidentally caused the sinking.... Experts say the Greek authorities also violated maritime law." A related Guardian story is here.

Russia/U.S. Ronen Bergman, et al., of the New York Times: "As President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has pursued enemies abroad, his intelligence operatives now appear prepared to cross a line that they previously avoided: trying to kill a valuable informant for the U.S. government on American soil. The clandestine operation, seeking to eliminate a C.I.A. informant in Miami who had been a high-ranking Russian intelligence official more than a decade earlier, represented a brazen expansion of Mr. Putin's campaign of targeted assassinations. It also signaled a dangerous low point even between intelligence services that have long had a strained history.... The assassination failed, but the aftermath in part spiraled into tit-for-tat retaliation by the United States and Russia.... Sanctions and expulsions, including of top intelligence officials in Moscow and Washington, followed." (Also linked yesterday.)

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Tuesday is here: "Two weeks after the Kakhovka dam collapse that displaced thousands and killed dozens of people, areas in eastern Ukraine continue to grapple with the repercussions, including water contamination and flooded homes.... There is 'significant' water contamination in areas affected by the dam collapse, the Ukrainian Health Ministry said in a report on Monday. There are reports of salmonella, rotavirus and E. coli, among other contaminants.... There is no water supply to 167,000 subscribers in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and more than 800 houses remain flooded as a result of the dam collapse, which killed at least 17 Ukrainians, according to the Interior Ministry.... Ukraine conducted counteroffensive operations in at least three front-line areas and made gains on Monday, the Institute for the Study of War said in a report.... The United Nations has accused Moscow of blocking humanitarian aid to Russian-controlled areas.... China has reassured the United States and other governments that it is not and will not provide lethal assistance to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday."

U.K. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Ten days after Boris Johnson abruptly quit Britain's Parliament, his former colleagues delivered a stinging rebuke to the former prime minister, overwhelmingly ratifying a report that concluded he deliberately misled lawmakers about lockdown-breaking parties held in Downing Street during the coronavirus pandemic. The vote revealed a Conservative Party still somewhat divided by Mr. Johnson's polarizing leadership. But rather than take a clear position on the findings, by a powerful parliamentary committee, a large proportion of Conservative lawmakers abstained and just seven members of Parliament rejected the report. That allowed it to be accepted by the House of Commons without Conservatives having to go on the record.... Still, however tortured the deliberations, the outcome was a damning verdict for Mr. Johnson. It foreclosed -- at least for the moment -- any plausible return to power for a flamboyant figure whose three years in Downing Street were marked by a landslide electoral victory in 2019 but nearly ceaseless scandals after that."

News Lede

New York Times: "The U.S. Coast Guard was racing against time on Tuesday and facing a host of extreme logistical challenges, including crushing pressure deep below the ocean, to find a deep-diving submersible and its five-person crew in the North Atlantic. The submersible, the Titan, had been in the area to explore the wreck of the Titanic when it lost contact on Sunday morning with a chartered research ship at the dive site. At the time, the 22-foot-long vessel was more than halfway into what should have been a two-and-a-half-hour dive. The submersible is thought to be equipped with only a few days' worth of oxygen. Even if the Titan can be located -- in a remote patch of ocean where the seafloor lies more than two miles below the choppy surface -- retrieving it will not be easy." This is an update of a liveblog also linked yesterday. ~~~

     ~~~ A Guardian liveblog is here.

Juneteenth 2023

Julia Mueller of the Hill: "The National Archives plans to place the Emancipation Proclamation on permanent public display in its Rotunda alongside the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the agency announced on Saturday.... The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, in which former President Abraham Lincoln wrote that 'all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free,' will be up for the National Archives Museum's annual temporary display to mark Juneteenth, from June 17 to 19.... The Archives says it's assessing the best display environment to protect the document condition, and may rotate the original pages on display to preserve the material from light exposure. A timeline for the permanent display was not shared in the Saturday announcement." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As for me, I'm hoping the Archives soon will put on permanent display at least one of thousands of documents it retrieved after Donald Trump stole them. Perhaps a rotating display of the documents will help preserve them.

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Morning/Afternoon Update:

Tierney Sneed of CNN: "A magistrate judge has signed off on special counsel Jack Smith's request that ... Donald Trump and his co-defendant Walt Nauta be prohibited from disclosing information the discovery handed over to the defense in the criminal case Trump and Nauta now face from the special counsel. Among the restrictions approved by US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who previously approved the search warrant the FBI executed at Mar-a-Lago last year, is that 'The Discovery Materials, along with any information derived therefrom, shall not be disclosed to the public or the news media, or disseminated on any news or social media platform, without prior notice to and consent of the United States or approval of the Court.'"

Republicans Suppress Truth about Themselves by Burying Truthtellers in Lawsuits & Subpoenas. Steven Myers & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "... Republican lawmakers and activists are mounting a sweeping legal campaign against universities, think tanks and private companies that study the spread of disinformation, accusing them of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online. The effort has encumbered its targets with expansive requests for information and, in some cases, subpoenas -- demanding notes, emails and other information related to social media companies and the government dating back to 2015.... [The targets] and others warned that the campaign undermined the fight against disinformation in American society when the problem is, by most accounts, on the rise -- and when another presidential election is around the corner. Many of those behind the Republican effort had also joined ... Donald J. Trump in falsely challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.... The House Judiciary Committee ... has sent scores of letters and subpoenas to the researchers -- only some of which have been made public.... A conservative advocacy group led by Stephen Miller, the former adviser to Mr. Trump, filed a class-action lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court in Louisiana that echoes many of the committee's accusations and focuses on some of the same defendants."

Edward Wong & David Pierson of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Xi Jinping, China's leader, on Monday in Beijing, as the two governments sought to pull relations out of a deep chill that has raised global concerns about the growing risk of a conflict between them. The 35-minute meeting, which capped a two-day visit by Mr. Blinken, sent a signal, at least for now, that the United States and China do not want their relationship to be defined by open hostility, and that they recognize that their rivalry and their diplomatic efforts carry enormous stakes. Mr. Blinken and Mr. Xi held talks at the Great Hall of the People, the grand building on the west side of Tiananmen Square where Mr. Xi often receives dignitaries. Striking a congenial note at the top of the meeting, Mr. Xi praised the two sides for making progress on some unspecified issues during Mr. Blinken's visit...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's worth remembering that Republicans excoriated Blinken for trying to normalize relations with China (NYT link).

Marie: Perhaps you remember how we all were complaining that DOJ was doing nothing about Trump, et al.'s incitement of the January 6 insurrection, the worst treachery of any president* in U.S. history. Meanwhile, calmer voices were reminding us how the DOJ & FBI did their investigating in secret, so the public had no idea how hard they were working to ferret out Trump's culpability. Well, we wuz right: ~~~

** Merrick the Unready, Ctd. Carol Leonnig & Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: “A Washington Post investigation found that more than a year would pass before prosecutors and FBI agents jointly embarked on a formal probe of actions directed from the White House to try to steal the election. Even then, the FBI stopped short of identifying the former president as a focus of that investigation. A wariness about appearing partisan, institutional caution, and clashes over how much evidence was sufficient to investigate the actions of Trump and those around him all contributed to the slow pace. [Attorney General Merrick] Garland and the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, charted a cautious course aimed at restoring public trust in the department while some prosecutors below them chafed, feeling top officials were shying away from looking at evidence of potential crimes by Trump and those close to him, The Post found....

"Senior Justice Department [and FBI] officials ... quashed a plan by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office to directly investigate Trump associates for any links to the riot, deeming it premature, according to five individuals familiar with the decision. Instead, they insisted on a methodical approach -- focusing first on rioters and going up the ladder. The strategy was embraced by Garland, Monaco and [FBI Director Christopher] Wray.... The National Archives inspector general's office asked the Justice Department's election crimes branch to consider investigating the seemingly coordinated ['fake electors'] effort in swing states. Citing its prosecutors' discretion, the department told the Archives it would not pursue the topic, according to two people with knowledge of the decision." This is a long investigative article, well-worth reading. It confirms and even magnifies what we hair-on-fire skeptics had suspected all along. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a shorter version by Davis & Leonnig, but you really need to read the full version to get a good understanding of how Garland, Monaco & Wray dragged their feet and only allowed investigations into Trump & his cronies when press reports, a federal judge's ruling and January 6 House committee findings embarrassed them into it. ~~~

     ~~~ Marcy Wheeler has many thoughts.

Ronen Bergman, et al., of the New York Times: "As President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has pursued enemies abroad, his intelligence operatives now appear prepared to cross a line that they previously avoided: trying to kill a valuable informant for the U.S. government on American soil. The clandestine operation, seeking to eliminate a C.I.A. informant in Miami who had been a high-ranking Russian intelligence official more than a decade earlier, represented a brazen expansion of Mr. Putin's campaign of targeted assassinations. It also signaled a dangerous low point even between intelligence services that have long had a strained history.... The assassination failed, but the aftermath in part spiraled into tit-for-tat retaliation by the United States and Russia.... Sanctions and expulsions, including of top intelligence officials in Moscow and Washington, followed."

What Facebook Giveth, Meta Taketh Away. Rebecca Tan of the Washington Post: "When Facebook took off in Vietnam about a decade ago, it was like a 'revolution,' said two of the company's early employees in Asia. For the first time, people across the country could communicate directly about current affairs. Users posted about police abuse and government waste, poking holes in the propaganda of the ruling Communist Party.... But as Facebook's popularity exploded in Vietnam, soon making this country the company's seventh largest market worldwide, the government increasingly demanded greater restrictions. Since then, the social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook, has been making repeated concessions to Vietnam's authoritarian government, routinely censoring dissent and allowing those seen as threats by the government to be forced off the platform...."

Punishing the Publishers. Emily Flitter of the New York Times: "In most of the country, state and local laws require public announcements -- about town meetings, elections, land sales and dozens of other routine occurrences -- to be published in old-fashioned, print-and-ink newspapers, as well as online, so that citizens are aware of matters of public note. The payments for publishing these notices are among the steadiest sources of revenue left for local papers. Sometimes, though, public officials revoke the contracts in an effort to punish their hometown newspapers for aggressive coverage of local politics. Such retaliation is not new, but it appears to be occurring more frequently now.... In recent years, newspapers in Colorado, North Carolina, New Jersey and California, as well as New York, have been stripped of their contracts for public notices after publishing articles critical of their local governments. Some states, like Florida, are going even further, revoking the requirement that such notices have to appear in newspapers."

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John Hudson & Meaghan Tobin of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday, said a U.S. official, capping a string of discussions aimed at lowering tensions between the two superpowers while leaving unresolved their most bitterly contested issues. The meeting follows a careful encounter between Blinken and Wang Yi, China's top foreign policy official, in which both men made sure not to repeat the rancorous tit-for-tat exchange of their first meeting, in Anchorage, at the outset of the Biden presidency." The Guardian's story is here.

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "William P. Barr, who served as attorney general under ... Donald J. Trump, excoriated his former boss on Sunday for 'reckless conduct' that led to Mr. Trump's indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents, saying that the case was 'entirely of his own making.' Mr. Barr, in an interview with CBS News's 'Face the Nation,' walked through the severity of the charges against Mr. Trump. He described the former president's actions -- laid out in a 49-page indictment -- as harmful not only to the country, but also to the Republican Party and the conservative movement that Mr. Trump leads. Mr. Barr also attacked Mr. Trump's character in extraordinary language, describing him as 'a consummate narcissist' and a 'fundamentally flawed person' who would always put his own ego ahead of everything else. He added that he believed Mr. Trump had lied to the Justice Department about the classified documents in his possession. 'He's like a defiant 9-year-old kid who is always pushing the glass towards the edge of the table, defying his parents from stopping him from doing it,' Mr. Barr said, adding that 'our country can't be a therapy session for a troubled man like this.'... In an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union,' [one of Trump's defense secretaries, Mark] Esper, laid out the risks of state secrets being held at Mr. Trump's Florida estate." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yo, Chris, Donald Trump does not lead a "conservative movement." BTW, I can't think of a more appropriate Friend of Trump than Bill Barr. They're peas in a giant pod. Both will turn on a dime against anyone any time it suits them. It's no wonder Republicans don't trust liberals. They can't trust each other. Ever. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the full transcript of the interview, via CBS News. A CBS News story is here: BUT "'I don't like the idea of a former president serving time in prison,' Barr told "Face the Nation" on Sunday when asked whether Trump should serve a prison sentence if he is convicted." MB: Me neither. But a former president*? That's fine.

Edward Helmore of the Guardian recounts remarks made by Chris Christie, Mike Pence & Asa Hutchinson, all candidates for the GOP presidential nomination. They all faulted Trump for stealing the documents & refusing to return them, but they also blamed the DOJ for "inequitable" application of the law. MB: Apparently none of these DOJ critics mentioned that FBI directors Jim Comey & Chris Ray are Republicans and that Republican AGs Jeff Sessions & Bill Barr also decided not to bring charges against Hillary Clinton. It was a Democratic AG who dismissed charges against mike pence (as he should have), and we don't know what will happen with the Biden investigation. And they didn't highlight the huge differences between what Trump did and what the other supposed miscreants did.

Marie: Planning to revamp my bathrooms as I was following the release of a photo of a Mar-a-Lardo accommodation featuring a huge, crystal (acryllic?) chandelier hanging right over the toilet, I noticed that one of the boxes in the Trump bathroom, located off the public "Lake Room," was marked "MAL Bedroom." Presumably, that means "Mar-a-Lago Bedroom." So if a "beautiful mind" box destined for Trump's bedroom later ended up in a public-area bathroom, doesn't that suggest the box was moved? Admittedly, it doesn't tell us when the box was moved? The photo is undated.

Jonathan Landay of Reuters: "Even when he was president, Donald Trump lacked the legal authority to declassify a U.S. nuclear weapons-related document that he is charged with illegally possessing, security experts said, contrary to the former U.S. president's claim. The secret document, listed as No. 19 in the indictment charging Trump with endangering national security, can under the Atomic Energy Act only be declassified through a process that by the statute involves the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.... The special status of nuclear-related information further erodes what many legal experts say is a weak defense centered around declassification. Without providing evidence, Trump has claimed he declassified the documents before removing them from the White House.... Not everyone agrees that the president lacks the power to declassify nuclear data." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to some (mostly right-wing, I think) experts, the Congress cannot constrain the president. Evidently, this is what Trump meant when he said, "Then I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president." Of course, this "unitary executive theory" pretty much kills the central idea of the Constitution, which is supposed to operate under a system of checks & balances.

Presidential Race 2024. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "As President Biden ramps up his re-election campaign, his team is focused not on the various investigations into ... Donald J. Trump but rather on spotlighting the ways, however mundane, his administration can assist Americans in their daily lives.... While Republican candidates bicker over the case of Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden hopes to showcase his governing. While his opponents attack -- or promise to pardon -- Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden would rather discuss infrastructure and cracking down on undisclosed fees." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his troops for waging tough counteroffensive battles in several regions during what he described in his nightly address as a 'very important week.' Ukrainian forces continued to make limited gains in at least four sectors, the Institute for the Study of War said in an analysis.... The United Nations has called out Moscow for continuing to block humanitarian aid shipments to Russian-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine affected by the Kakhovka dam collapse." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here.

James Glanz, et al., of the New York Times: Russia denies it blew up the Kakhovka Dam, causing massive, lasting devastation to downwater Ukraine. But the Russian military controlled the dam, Russia had the plans to the Soviet-era dam, and infrared signals to a Western satellite indicate an explosion occurred. An AP report is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A submersible went missing in the area of the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic on Monday, setting off a search-and-rescue operation by the U.S. Coast Guard, according to the agency and the tourism company operating the craft. Petty Officer Lourdes Putnam confirmed that Coast Guard officials were searching for the submersible, which is operated by OceanGate Expeditions. It was not clear how many people were on board the vessel, and Officer Putnam offered no further details. The company's website said its submersibles carry five people." This is a liveblog. A BBC story is here.

New York Times: "At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in a shooting just after midnight Sunday at a large Juneteenth celebration in a strip mall parking lot in Willowbrook, Ill., southwest of Chicago, officials said.... [Deputy Chief Eric] Swanson said the motive behind the shooting was unclear. It was also not clear what types of firearms were used. No suspects were in custody."