June 27, 2023

Late Morning Update:

Marie: I probably should have highlighted Josh Dawsey & Devlin Barrett's WashPo report (linked below) on the scope of Jack Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn the election because the reporters include quite a few details indicating that top Trump officials didn't believe what campaign operative Jason Miller called "the bullshit being beamed down from the mothership."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected ... the 'independent state legislature' theory ... that would have radically reshaped how federal elections are conducted by giving state legislatures largely unchecked power to set all sorts of rules for federal elections and to draw congressional maps warped by partisan gerrymandering. The vote was 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing the majority opinion. The Constitution, he said, 'does not exempt state legislatures from the ordinary constraints imposed by state law.' Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented.... The case, Moore v. Harper, No. 21-1271, concerned a voting map drawn by the North Carolina Legislature that was initially rejected as a partisan gerrymander by the state's Supreme Court....

"The composition of the North Carolina Supreme Court changed after elections in November, favoring Republicans by a 5-to-2 margin. In what a dissenting justice called a 'shameful manipulation of fundamental principles of our democracy and the rule of law,' the new majority reversed course, saying the Legislature was free to draw gerrymandered voting districts as it saw fit. Many observers had expected the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss the case in light of that development. But Chief Justice Roberts concluded that the Supreme Court retained jurisdiction over the case." The Washington Post's report is here. MB: Neither report makes clear where the decision leaves North Carolina.

Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the conviction of a man who made extensive online threats to a stranger, saying free speech protections require prosecutors to prove the stalker was aware of the threatening nature of his communications. In a 7-2 ruling authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the court emphasized that true threats of violence are not protected by the First Amendment. But to guard against a chilling effect on non-threatening speech, the majority said states must prove that a criminal defendant has 'disregarded a substantial risk that his communications would be viewed as threatening violence.' Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett dissented. The case concerned a Colorado law used to convict Billy Raymond Counterman of stalking and causing 'emotional distress' for Coles Whalen, a singer-songwriter he had never met.... The case now returns to the lower courts, where prosecutors could decide to retry the case under the new standards set by the Supreme Court's decision."

Justice Delayed. Blayne Alexander, et al., of NBC News: "Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will be interviewed by investigators from special counsel Jack Smith's office Wednesday in Atlanta, his office confirmed to NBC News. Raffensperger's interview with the special counsel's office will be his first with the Justice Department." MB: Well, that's just great. It's been more than two-and-a-half years since Raffensperger released audio of Trump's infamous call pleading with Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 Trump votes: enough to overturn Georgia's presidential election results and flip the win from Biden to Trump.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post recounts how Sean Hannity, having just received notice of the damning Bedminster tape, tried to explain away Trump's cavalier and unlawful dissemination of information contained in a classified document. (It's not clear from the tape whether or not Trump handed the doc to his little audience or held it up to them at a readable distance.) Hannity's original plan was to center his Fox show on The Great Hunter Biden Scandal. The pivot was, well, awkward. Bump admits that some of Hannity's rants and hypotheses will be lost in translation to those of us who live in the reality-based world. So it probably would help to read David Firestone's explanation -- linked below -- of how the right defines crime.

Hannah Rabinowitz, et al., of CNN: "Walt Nauta, an aide charged alongside ... Donald Trump for the alleged mishandling of classified documents from the White House, had an arraignment hearing rescheduled after his flight to Florida was canceled due to storms. Nauta had been set to be arraigned on Tuesday, but the judge postponed the date after Nauta did not make it to Miami for the court hearing.... In addition, Nauta still does not have a local attorney who can practice in the Southern District of Florida, [Nauta's lawyer Stanley] Woodward said. At Tuesday's brief hearing, the magistrate judge told Woodward to make July 6 'your drop-dead deadline to get somebody on board,' referring to the need for Nauta to hire an attorney who can practice in southern Florida." MB: Why can't Walt get a Florida lawyer? It's been two weeks since Trump's arraignment. Trump (or rather his small donors! [NYT link]) is paying Woodward; is he not paying for a Florida-barred lawyer for Nauta? This is odd.

Glenn Thrush & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in a cell with a bedsheet tied around his neck in 2019, died by suicide, not foul play -- following a cascade of negligence and mismanagement at the now-shuttered federal jail in Manhattan where he was housed, according to the Justice Department's inspector general. The inspector general, who released a report on Tuesday after a yearslong investigation, found that the leadership and staff members at the jail, the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center, created an environment in which Mr. Epstein, a financier charged with sex trafficking, had every opportunity to kill himself. The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, referred two supervisors at the facility responsible for ensuring Mr. Epstein's safety for criminal prosecution by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York after they were caught falsifying records and lying to investigators. But prosecutors declined to bring charges." The AP's report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

** Lordy, There Is a Tape! Jeremy Herb of CNN: "CNN has exclusively obtained the audio recording of the 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey, where ... Donald Trump discusses holding secret documents he did not declassify.... The recording, which first aired on CNN's 'Anderson Cooper 360,' includes new details from the conversation that is a critical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith's indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information, including a moment when Trump seems to indicate he was holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran." The article includes a clear audio recording of the brief conversation among Trump, an unidentified staffer and an unidentified writer. There is more to the conversation than appeared in the transcript, and the last line is pretty funny. MB Bottom Line: it sure does sound like Trump is sharing classified pages with the kids in the room. ~~~

     ~~~ This YouTube video has good-quality audio of the conversation: ~~~

     ~~~ Update: The New York Times currently (5:30 am ET Tuesday) has the audio on its front page. It also appears in this NYT story by Maggie Haberman & Alan Feuer about the tape: "Last week, in an interview with the Fox News host Bret Baier, Mr. Trump insisted that he was not presenting classified material in the meeting, which was recorded at Mr. Trump's golf club at Bedminster, N.J. Mr. Trump said he was not referring to any 'secret' or 'highly confidential' documents, but was rather talking about 'newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.' But the audio recording of the full encounter suggests that Mr. Trump was referring not to secondhand accounts, but instead to a specific piece of paper, or papers, in front of him.... 'Wow,' a woman in the room can be heard saying, followed by a rustling of papers. 'Let's see here,' Mr. Trump says, adding, 'Look.' There is a brief pause, during which he appears to show people in the room something, and they start to laugh.... The full clip undercuts arguments made by some of Mr. Trump's allies that he was simply blustering and exaggerating or mischaracterizing the material he described in the recording.” MB: Bear in mind that the classified document in question is an American plan on how to miliarily attack Iran. Apparently, the Pentagon routinely prepares such broad contingency plans against U.S. adversaries. ~~~

     ~~~ Update 2. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump claimed on Monday that a recording of him allegedly showing off 'highly confidential' and 'secret' Iran documents to guests was 'actually an exoneration.'... 'The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and "spun" a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,' he wrote. 'This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!'" MB: Lame "defense." Where's the "exoneration" exactly? Since no one in DOJ agreed to comment at all, Smith or others in the Department did not "spin" the audio tape. Also, it's highly unlikely Smith or his team leaked the recording. News media consistently get their scoops on the Trump cases from witnesses and Trump's allies and lawyers, except in the cases where Trump himself releases information, such as he did when the FBI executed a search warrant on Mar-a-Lardo.

Andrew Weissmann, appearing on MSNBC Tuesday night said that the prosecution could, but won't necessarily, introduce at trial some of the lies -- a/k/a "false exculpatory statements" -- Trump has told publicly in his shifting defenses.

Cannon Rules Against Prosecution. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The federal judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's prosecution on charges of illegally holding on to sensitive national security documents denied on Monday the government's request to keep secret a list of witnesses with whom Mr. Trump has been barred from discussing his case. The ruling by Judge Aileen M. Cannon, in the Southern District of Florida, means that some or all of the list of 84 witnesses could at some point become public, offering further details about the shape and scope of the case that the special counsel Jack Smith has brought against Mr. Trump.... Mr. Trump's lawyers had not taken a position on the request to seal the list. Then on Monday, a group of news media companies including The New York Times filed their own motion asking Judge Cannon to make the list public, saying that the case against Mr. Trump was 'one of the most consequential criminal cases in the nation's history.'... In her ruling, Judge Cannon said the petition by the news media was moot, given that she had denied the government's request to seal.... Judge Cannon also scheduled a hearing for July 14 for the parties to discuss how to handle the significant amount of highly sensitive material involved in the case under a law known as the Classified Information Procedures Act. That hearing will be conducted mostly, if not entirely, under seal."

Josh Dawsey & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department's investigation of efforts by Donald Trump and his advisers to overturn the 2020 election results is barreling forward on multiple tracks, according to people familiar with the matter, with prosecutors focused on ads and fundraising pitches claiming election fraud as well as plans for 'fake electors' that would swing the election to the incumbent president.... A key area of interest is the conduct of a handful of lawyers who sought to turn Trump's defeat into victory by trying to convince state, local, federal and judicial authorities that Joe Biden's 2020 election win was illegitimate or tainted by fraud. Investigators have sought to determine to what degree these lawyers -- particularly Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Kurt Olsen and Kenneth Chesebro, as well as then-Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark -- were following specific instructions from Trump or others, and what those instructions were...."

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "About half a dozen Secret Service agents have testified before the grand jury that will decide whether to indict ... Donald Trump for his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and efforts to interfere in the peaceful transfer of the presidency, according to two sources familiar with their testimony. Roughly five or six agents have appeared, the sources said, in compliance with subpoenas they received. It is not known what the agents' proximity to Trump was on Jan. 6 or what information they may have provided to the grand jury.... Secret Service agents who were close to Trump on Jan. 6 may be able to confirm, deny or provide more details on a story first told by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to the now-defunct Jan. 6 committee in Congress."

Ryan Nobles & Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee released a report Tuesday concluding that federal law enforcement agencies failed to correctly analyze a wide range of intelligence showing the potential for violence on Jan. 6, 2021. The report, authored by the committee's chair, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and staff, provides specific examples of threats of violence and plans for an attack on the Capitol, which were collected by agencies in the lead-up to Jan. 6, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A). The report concludes that the agencies consistently downplayed the potential for violence and, as a result, the government did not prepare the proper security apparatus for Washington, D.C., that day.... 'What was shocking is that this attack was essentially planned in plain sight in social media,' Peters said in an interview, 'And yet it seemed as if our intelligence agencies completely dropped the ball.'... Tuesday's report ... does not absolve ... Donald Trump for his role in fueling the violence that occurred on that day." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's story is here. The New York Times story is here. The report is here.

Roger Parloff in Lawfare on why Donald Trump's theft and retention of classified documents is nothing like Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server on which some classified information was discussed. "... the crux of Clinton's case, unlike Trump's, was about gradations of carelessness, recklessness, and gross negligence -- states of mind that can constitute felonies only in rare situations.... Trump is accused of acting 'with intent,' 'knowingly,' 'willfully,' and 'corruptly,' and of doing so over a period of 18 months.... While that evidence [against Clinton] is by no means flattering, it is ... radically different [from Trump's].... Investigators [into Clinton's conduct] found that Clinton's 'extreme carelessness' did not meet [the] standard [required for prosecution]....

"The second factor favoring non-prosecution of Clinton, according to the [investigative] team, was that her emails were always used for official purposes. Every one of [the 337 documents Trump stole] was, by definition, removed for an unofficial, non-governmental purpose. Indeed, Trump has publicly emphasized this point, declaring in interviews that the documents were his personal property and that he had every right to take them. A third factor ... was the absence of direct proof that Clinton knew her emails contained classified information.... Trump or his surrogates have repeatedly admitted publicly that he knew he possessed documents that were marked as classified." Moreover, there's no evidence anyone expressed concern about Clinton's relaying or receiving classified information, whereas Trump was repeatedly warned he could not retain the classified docs. And Clinton did not set up her server for the purpose of conveying classified information, whereas Trump [allegedly!] engaged in an intentional and rococo 18-month scheme to remove and retain classified information from proper storage." Parloff gives a fairly detailed account of the Clinton email saga. ~~~

~~~ BUT Parloff totally misses the point! David Firestone of the New York Times provides "a handy guide to the Republican definition of a crime." With illustrative graphics. Firestone's helpful explanations would be funny if they weren't true.

** Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The last 30 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, including the men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, are being held by the United States under circumstances that constitute 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law,' a United Nations human rights investigator said on Monday. Fionnuala Ni Aolain, a law professor in Minnesota serving as special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, included the finding in a report drawn from a four-day visit to the prison in February, which included meetings with an undisclosed number of detainees and interviews with lawyers and former prisoners. She issued the report one month before her term as rapporteur ends. She specifically cited the cumulative effects of inadequate health care, solitary confinement, restraints and use of force to remove prisoners from their cells as contributing to her conclusions. She said the conditions at the prison 'may also meet the legal threshold for torture.'"

Nobody Loves Margie. Olivia Beavers of Politico: "House Freedom Caucus members took a momentous vote Friday on Marjorie Taylor Greene's future with the group, according to three people familiar with the matter -- but it's not yet clear whether she's been officially ejected.... Greene's close alliance with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and her accompanying criticism of colleagues in the group, has put her on the opposite side of a bloc that made its name opposing GOP leadership. While her formal status in the conservative group remains in limbo, the 8 a.m. Friday vote -- which sources said ended with a consensus against her -- points to, at least, continued strong anti-Greene sentiment."

Tierney Sneed of CNN: "The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Louisiana congressional map to be redrawn to add another majority-Black district. The justices reversed plans to hear the case themselves and lifted a hold they placed on a lower court's order for a reworked redistricting regime. There were no noted dissents. 'Today's decision follows on the heels of the court's 5-4 ruling earlier this month holding that Alabama also has to re-draw its congressional district maps to include a second majority-minority district,' said Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst.... 'And like the Alabama ruling, it doesn't explain why the court nevertheless had issued emergency relief to allow Louisiana to use its unlawful maps during the 2022 midterm cycle,' Vladeck added. 'It puts the court's interventions last year into ever-sharper perspective.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Tobi Raji, et al., of the Washington Post: "Newly released and previously unreported court documents that belonged to Justice John Paul Stevens, who led the [Supreme Court]'s liberal wing, show just how aware the justices were of charges that the appearance of impropriety could shake the public's faith in the institution. They also show just how quick they were to push back against these concerns." MB: The reporters fail to point out one jarring difference between then and now: even when the confederate justices back then decided their own ethics were absolutely fabulous, they at least debated issues of recusal with their colleagues. Clarence & Sam take their filthy lucre in secret, then decide all on their own that they're above reproach -- at least as far as we know. (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024

President DeSantolini Would Order Border Patrol to Commit Atrocities. David Goodman & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Monday proposed a host of hard-right immigration policies, floating the idea of using deadly force against suspected drug traffickers and others breaking through border barriers while 'demonstrating hostile intent.... Of course you use deadly force,' Mr. DeSantis said after a campaign event on a sweltering morning in Eagle Pass, a small Texas border city. 'If you drop a couple of these cartel operatives trying to do that, you're not going to have to worry about that anymore,' he added. He said they would end up 'stone-cold dead.' He did not clarify how Border Patrol officers or other law enforcement authorities might determine which people crossing the border were smuggling drugs."

Will McDuffie & Hannah Demissie of ABC News: "Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that he would seek to eliminate the constitutional guarantee of citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States. So-called 'birthright citizenship' has long been considered protected under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to all individuals 'born or naturalized in the United States.'... In a detailed list of immigration objectives he released on Monday, DeSantis, who also spoke to supporters and reporters in the Texas border town of Eagle Pass, pledged to take action to end the idea that the children of illegal aliens are entitled to birthright citizenship if they are born in the United States.'... Donald Trump in 2018 promised an executive order to eliminate it, a threat on which he never followed through. Trump, the current frontrunner in the Republican primary, has again promised to strike the protection if elected." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We get that you fascists don't think you have to obey the Constitution, your oath to protect the Constitution notwithstanding. But the clear language of the 14th Amendment on this point gives you no wiggle-room. You'll have to suspend the Constitution and declare marshal law to pull this off.

"Decimation!" Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Former President Trump railed against the electric vehicle industry during a speech to Michigan Republicans on Sunday, warning them that the state's auto industry is at risk under President Biden. 'Biden is a catastrophe for Michigan and his environmental extremism is heartless and disloyal and horrible for the American worker and you're starting to see it,' Trump said in a keynote address to Oakland County Republicans in Michigan on Sunday. 'Driven by his ridiculous regulations, electric cars will kill more than half of U.S. auto jobs and decimate the suppliers that they decimated already -- decimate the suppliers, and it's going to decimate your jobs and it's going to decimate more than anybody else, the state of Michigan,' he added. 'It's is going to be decimation. It's going to be at a level that that people can't even imagine.... The state of Michigan is going to be decimation,'...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm sure Trump's "concern" about Michigan's "decimation" has nothing whatever to do with his and Jared's ties to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries. Never mind that Michigan's auto workers are quite as capable of building EVs as they are of building gas-guzzlers. See also Forrest M.'s comment in yesterday's thread.

DAR Moves Slowly, Slowly Forward into the 19th Century. Corrine Dorsey of the Washington Post (June 25): "In 1980, Lena Ferguson [-- a Black woman --] ... aimed to join the Daughters of the American Revolution. But after multiple attempts, she was denied by a local D.C. chapter. It led to a fight to make the organization more inclusive of Black and other women of color.... Four decades later, Ferguson is being recognized with a tribute plaque in the memorial garden at DAR National Headquarters.... In addition, the DAR renamed a nursing scholarship this year in Ferguson's honor. Ferguson sought to join the DAR after being encouraged by a nephew, Maurice Barboza, who had connected the family's lineage to the Revolutionary War, a requirement for membership. Her ancestor is Jonah Gay, a member of the town committee of Friendship, Maine, that supported the war effort. But her attempts to become a member of a Washington chapter of the DAR were initially rebuffed because of her race. In 1983, Ferguson was admitted as an at-large member of the national DAR but was unable to join a local chapter until the next year. Ferguson's fight drew media attention and even a threat to revoke the DAR's tax-exempt status."

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona Book Report. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "In a new book, the Trump ally and potential running mate Kari Lake blows a 'birther' racist dog whistle to supporters, claiming Barack Obama had a 'mysterious past' when he ran for president -- but does not mention that she donated to Obama in 2008 and reportedly campaigned for him door-to-door." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This isn't a very important story, but I wanted to point to one sentence (the third paragraph) in the report: "Rightwing extremist Lake, who supports Trump's lie about voter fraud in 2020 and maintains despite repeated court defeats that her defeat for Arizona governor last year was also the result of cheating...." Oh why can't the U.S. MSM be more like the Guardian? I don't think I've ever read a U.S. MSM story about Lake (or similar loons, for that matter) that matter-of-factly describes her as a "rightwing extremist." And U.S. media seldom call Trump's lies "lies," even when the reports bother to refute the lies. By constantly portraying Lake and Trump and DeSantis, et al., as normal politicians, the U.S. media probably comprise the most significant factor in permitting & normalizing these "rightwing extremists." I blame the media for Trump's 2016 win, and they haven't learned much since. If our next president* is a Republican, blame it on the New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post and local straight-news papers throughout the country.

Florida. John Yoon of the New York Times: "A Florida woman accused of fatally shooting a neighbor after a dispute with her children this month will not face murder charges, a prosecutor said Monday in a carefully worded statement explaining his reasoning in the divisive case. The woman, Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, was instead charged with one count of manslaughter with a firearm and one count of assault, said Bill Gladson, the state attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Florida. She could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted on the charges. The family of the dead woman, Ajike Owens, 35, a mother of four, had asked for a murder charge, which would be punishable by up to life in prison. But Mr. Gladson said that there was not enough evidence to prove the crime."

Idaho. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs & Mike Baker of the New York Times: "Prosecutors in Idaho said they planned to seek the death penalty against the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in a home near campus last fall.... Bill Thompson, the top prosecutor in Latah County, wrote in a court filing on Monday that the nature of the November killings -- stabbings that occurred in the middle of the night and went unsolved for several weeks -- met the standard for the kind of aggravating factors that warrant seeking the death penalty. Among them, he said: The suspect, Bryan Kohberger, is charged with committing multiple murders; the killings were 'especially heinous, atrocious or cruel'; and Mr. Kohberger had 'exhibited utter disregard for human life.'"

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian authorities dropped an investigation into Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, for leading an armed rebellion that saw his troops get to within 125 miles from Moscow on Saturday before he abruptly called off his short-lived mutiny, Russian state media reported on Tuesday. Mr. Prigozhin's whereabouts remained unclear early Tuesday.... President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who visited frontline positions on Monday, projecting unity with his troops, said Ukrainian forces had 'advanced in all directions' over the past day. 'This is a happy day,' he said." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Tuesday is here: "In a televised address Monday, [Vladimir Putin] confirmed earlier reports that Russian jets had been downed and pilots killed by Wagner's mercenaries." ~~~

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

Kevin Liptak of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Monday sought to distance the United States from the weekend rebellion in Russia, insisting in his first public remarks since the episode that the West had nothing to do with the mutiny. Speaking from the White House, Biden suggested it was too early to say how the situation would unfold going forward. And he said he may speak again with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to coordinate their response after conferring in a phone call Sunday.... Biden's statement reflected a carefully calibrated American response to the brief uprising by the Wagner Group that amounted to the biggest threat in years to Russian President Vladimir Putin.... In his remarks Monday, Biden laid out the thinking behind his approach, which some Republicans have criticized as overly cautious. 'We had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system,' Biden said." (Also linked yesterday.)

AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday blasted organizers of a weekend revolt as 'traitors' who played into the hands of Ukraine's government and its allies.... Putin said the nation had stood united, and he praised the rank and file mercenaries for not letting the situation descend into 'bloodshed.' Earlier in the day, the rebellion's leader, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, defended his short-lived insurrection. He taunted Russia's military, but said he hadn't been seeking to stage a coup against Putin. Putin did not name Prigozhin in his televised address but said organizers of the mutiny had tried to force the group's soldiers 'to shoot their own.' Putin blamed 'Russia's enemies' and said they 'miscalculated.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times: "A visibly angry Vladimir V. Putin on Monday denounced as 'blackmail' a weekend rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group even as he defended his response to the mutiny and hinted at leniency for those who took part, saying that 'the entire Russian society united' around his government.... Throughout the day, the Kremlin had sought to project an air of normalcy, unity and stability, despite Mr. Putin's absence from public view after perhaps the most serious crisis of his two-decade rule. When he finally emerged, the Russian leader skirted a host of unanswered questions left by the revolt....

"[Yevgeny] Prigozhin, until recently a vital ally of Mr. Putin, said in an 11-minute, stream-of-consciousness voice memo posted on the messaging app Telegram on Monday that the government was trying to destroy Wagner, which he said would effectively have to disband by this coming Saturday.... It was not clear where Mr. Prigozhin was, or how he would be handled by a system that criminalizes mere dissent, much less armed rebellion. The Kremlin statement over the weekend that he would be allowed to go into exile was contradicted on Monday by reports in multiple state-controlled news outlets that he still faced investigation and a very real possibility of prosecution. Nor was it clear what would happen to his tens of thousands of fighters...."

News Lede

New York Times: "A teenage boy and his stepfather hiking in Big Bend National Park in Texas died as temperatures there rose to 119 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday -- the second-highest mark ever recorded in the state -- during a triple-digit heat wave that was forecast to spread to the Southeast this week. 'We are in extreme heat right now,' said Thomas VandenBerg, a park ranger at Big Bend, near the U.S. border with Mexico, where another hiker recently died of heat-related causes. The dangerous early-summer heat wave has broken daily temperature records across Texas and strained the state's independent power grid. In Oklahoma, the heat scorched a state battered by storms that left tens of thousands, mostly in the Tulsa area, without electricity for much of last week.... The system is forecast to shift slowly to the east during the week, extending the brutally hot weather to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama."

June 26, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday blasted organizers of a weekend revolt as 'traitors' who played into the hands of Ukraine's government and its allies.... Putin said the nation had stood united, and he praised the rank and file mercenaries for not letting the situation descend into 'bloodshed.' Earlier in the day, the rebellion's leader, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, defended his short-lived insurrection. He taunted Russia's military, but said he hadn't been seeking to stage a coup against Putin. Putin did not name Prigozhin in his televised address but said organizers of the mutiny had tried to force the group's soldiers 'to shoot their own.' Putin blamed 'Russia's enemies' and said they 'miscalculated.'"

Kevin Liptak of CNN: “President Joe Biden on Monday sought to distance the United States from the weekend rebellion in Russia, insisting in his first public remarks since the episode that the West had nothing to do with the mutiny. Speaking from the White House, Biden suggested it was too early to say how the situation would unfold going forward. And he said he may speak again with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to coordinate their response after conferring in a phone call Sunday.... Biden's statement reflected a carefully calibrated American response to the brief uprising by the Wagner Group that amounted to the biggest threat in years to Russian President Vladimir Putin.... In his remarks Monday, Biden laid out the thinking behind his approach, which some Republicans have criticized as overly cautious. 'We had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system,' Biden said."

Will McDuffie & Hannah Demissie of ABC News: "Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that he would seek to eliminate the constitutional guarantee of citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States. So-called 'birthright citizenship' has long been considered protected under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to all individuals 'born or naturalized in the United States.'... In a detailed list of immigration objectives he released on Monday, DeSantis, who also spoke to supporters and reporters in the Texas border town of Eagle Pass, pledged to take action to end the idea that the children of illegal aliens are entitled to birthright citizenship if they are born in the United States.'... Donald Trump in 2018 promised an executive order to eliminate it, a threat on which he never followed through. Trump, the current frontrunner in the Republican primary, has again promised to strike the protection if elected." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We get that you fascists don't think you have to obey the Constitution, your oath to protect the Constitution notwithstanding. But the clear language of the 14th Amendment on this point gives you no wiggle-room. You'll have to suspend the Constitution and declare marshal law to pull this off.

"Decimation!" Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Former President Trump railed against the electric vehicle industry during a speech to Michigan Republicans on Sunday, warning them that the state's auto industry is at risk under President Biden. 'Biden is a catastrophe for Michigan and his environmental extremism is heartless and disloyal and horrible for the American worker and you're starting to see it,' Trump said in a keynote address to Oakland County Republicans in Michigan on Sunday. 'Driven by his ridiculous regulations, electric cars will kill more than half of U.S. auto jobs and decimate the suppliers that they decimated already -- decimate the suppliers, and it's going to decimate your jobs and it's going to decimate more than anybody else, the state of Michigan,' he added. 'It's is going to be decimation. It's going to be at a level that that people can't even imagine.... The state of Michigan is going to be decimation,' he added." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm sure Trump's "concern" about Michigan's "decimation" has nothing whatever to do with his and Jared's ties to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries. Oh, and never mind that Michigan's auto workers are quite as capable of building EVs as they are of building gas-guzzlers. See also Forrest M.'s comment below.

Tierney Sneed of CNN: "The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Louisiana congressional map to be redrawn to add another majority-Black district. The justices reversed plans to hear the case themselves and lifted a hold they placed on a lower court's order for a reworked redistricting regime. There were no noted dissents. 'Today's decision follows on the heels of the court's 5-4 ruling earlier this month holding that Alabama also has to re-draw its congressional district maps to include a second majority-minority district,' said Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst.... 'And like the Alabama ruling, it doesn't explain why the court nevertheless had issued emergency relief to allow Louisiana to use its unlawful maps during the 2022 midterm cycle,' Vladeck added. 'It puts the court's interventions last year into ever-sharper perspective.'"

Tobi Raji, et al., of the Washington Post: "Newly released and previously unreported court documents that belonged to Justice John Paul Stevens, who led the [Supreme Court]'s liberal wing, show just how aware the justices were of charges that the appearance of impropriety could shake the public's faith in the institution. They also show just how quick they were to push back against these concerns." MB: The reporters fail to point out one jarring difference between then and now: even when the confederate justices back then decided their own ethics were fine, they at least debated issues of recusal with their colleagues. Clarence & Sam take their filthy lucre in secret, then decide all on their own that they're above reproach -- at least as far as we know.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jesse Eisenger & Stephen Engelberg of Propublica examine Justice Sam Alito's Wall Street Journal "prebuttal" to their report on the gift of a luxury Alaska vacation by hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer, who would soon have business before the Court. "It does not appear that the editors at the Journal made much of an effort to fact-check Alito's assertions.... Journalists [including former WSJ reporters] were ... sharply critical of the decision to help the subject of another news organization's investigation 'pre-but' the findings[,] especially since some of Alito's assertions didn't make much sense to the public who had not read ProPublica's report]." Moreover, Patricia McCabe, the Supreme Court's spokesperson, was cagey in her contacts with ProPublica, such as when she asked the reporters to tell her when their story would go to print. MB: Clearly, Alito has brought more shame upon a court that already was in trouble. How now, John Roberts? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has been arguing for years that a flood of 'dark money' flowing through right-wing front groups has corrupted the Supreme Court. Never has there been more evidence to bolster his claim.... [In a phone conversation with me,] the senator ticked off the problems with Alito's [WSJ] argument: factual omissions (e.g., the standard for exempt gifts does not include transportation); Alito's lame effort to turn an airplane into a 'facility' to jam it into an exempt-gift category ('It doesn't pass the laugh test,' Whitehouse said); Alito's plea that he couldn't possibly have known Singer had a financial stake ($2 billion) in the outcome of a case before the court (although it was widely reported in the media); and the insistence that yet another billionaire was a 'friend,' which somehow absolved him from his obligation to report gifts of 'hospitality.' And, Whitehouse argued, it strains credulity that Alito (like Justice Clarence Thomas) could be confused about reporting requirements when there is a Financial Disclosure Committee expressly set up to help judges navigate these issues.... The best argument for court reform comes from Alito, whose arrogant, slipshod and unconvincing defense makes him the poster boy for serious court reform." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Randy is so disrespectful! ~~~

Presidential Race 2024

"You're Fat!" "Yeah? You're Fat!" David Cohen of Politico: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday mocked Donald Trump ... for Trump's recent quips about his weight. 'Oh, like he's some Adonis?' he said to host Howard Kurtz on Fox News' 'Media Buzz'... Calling Trump 'a bully on the schoolyard,' Christie added: 'Here's my message to him: I don't care what he says about me, and I don't care what he thinks about me, and he should take a look in the mirror every once in a while -- maybe he'd drop the weight thing off of his list of criticisms.'" MB: This is the perfect debate to have in a party that doesn't care a whit about ordinary Americans.

Shane Goldmacher & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Facing multiple intensifying investigations..., Donald J. Trump has quietly begun diverting more of the money he is raising away from his 2024 presidential campaign and into a political action committee that he has used to pay his personal legal fees.... When Mr. Trump kicked off his 2024 campaign in November, for every dollar raised online, 99 cents went to his campaign, and a penny went to Save America. But internet archival records show that sometime in February or March, he adjusted that split. Now his campaign's share has been reduced to 90 percent of donations, and 10 percent goes to Save America."

Ret. Judge Michael Luttig (Very-R) in a New York Times op-ed: Republicans' "fawning support since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has given Mr. Trump every reason to believe that he can ride these [espionage] charges and any others not just to the Republican nomination, but also to the White House in 2024.... As only the Republicans can do, they are already turning this ignominious moment into an even more ignominious moment -- and a self-immolating one at that -- by rushing to crown Mr. Trump their nominee before the primary season even begins.... It's finally time for [Republicans] to put the country before their party and pull back from the brink -- for the good of the party, as well as the nation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Steve Contorno of CNN: "In his early outreach to Republican voters as a presidential candidate, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis [R-Fla.] has portrayed himself as a fighter and, crucially, a winner in the cultural battles increasingly important to conservatives. If elected to the White House, he'll take those fights to Washington, he has said.... But back in Florida, the agenda at the centerpiece of his pitch remains unsettled. Still ongoing are more than a dozen legal battles testing the constitutionality of many of the victories DeSantis has touted on the campaign trail. Critics say DeSantis has built his governorship around enacting laws that appeal to his conservative base but that, as a Harvard-trained lawyer, he knows are unconstitutional and not likely to take effect." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "A worker at San Antonio's international airport died after being sucked into a jet's engine late on Friday, officials said. A source briefed directly on the case told the Guardian on Sunday that it appeared the worker had 'intentionally stepped in front of the live engine' on the jet and that police were investigating that aspect. But the cause of the worker's death hadn't officially been determined on Sunday.... Officials added that the worker --; whose identity has not been publicly released -- was ingested into the one engine which the plane in question had on at the time."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "The brief rebellion in Russia 'raises profound questions' about the country's stability, [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken said. Blinken and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attributed the revolt, at least in part, to Putin's invasion of Ukraine.... Rescuers in Kyiv on Sunday were searching for people trapped underneath the rubble of a building after an airstrike that killed five people over the weekend." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Monday are here: "Russia on Monday released video of Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu for the first time since the short-lived uprising by the Wagner mercenary group over the weekend, saying he had met with forces in occupied Ukraine. The Defense Ministry did not specify when or where the visit occurred." ~~~

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

Kelly Garrity of Politico: "President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, a day after Russian mercenary forces reversed their plans to march on Moscow, Zelenskky said. The White House confirmed the call on Sunday afternoon. Zelenskyy and Biden discussed 'the course of hostilities and the processes taking place in Russia,' Zelenskyy said in a post on Twitter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "Confusion and uncertainty pervaded Russia on Sunday, with neither President Vladimir V. Putin nor Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the head of a mutinous mercenary group, appearing anywhere in public a day after the most profound government crisis in three decades -- an open military rebellion -- appeared defused. Even as state television tried to trumpet the fact that Russian unity and 'maturity' had prevailed, independent commentators assessing the damage concluded that Mr. Putin's aura of infallibility and invincibility had been punctured.... Aside from Mr. Putin, neither Sergei K. Shoigu, the minister of defense, nor Valery V. Gerasimov, the military chief of staff, had put in a public appearance since the uprising started on Friday night. Many heads of the country's security services also proved invisible.... The rebellion, even if aborted, may now affect Russia's global standing as partners like China reassess the strength of Mr. Putin's authority." ~~~

~~~ Anthony Faiola, et al., of the Washington Post: "Within Russia, hard-line military bloggers, meanwhile, lampooned the harried 'defense' of Moscow. And in Western capitals, intelligence analysts pondered whether Putin had declined to arrest Prigozhin because he feared his officers might refuse his order.... The fact that Moscow relied on [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko, seen by some as a pale puppet of Putin, to defuse the crisis raised eyebrows and questions about long-standing assumptions on the extent of Putin's authority." ~~~

~~~ AP: "... the short-lived revolt has weakened President Vladimir Putin just as his forces are facing a fierce counteroffensive in Ukraine.... It was not yet clear what the fissures opened by the 24-hour rebellion would mean for the war in Ukraine. But it resulted in some of the best forces fighting for Russia being pulled from the battlefield: the Wagner troops, who had shown their effectiveness in scoring the Kremlin's only land victory in months, in Bakhmut, and Chechen soldiers sent to stop them on the approach to Moscow. The Wagner forces' largely unopposed, rapid advance also exposed vulnerabilities in Russia's security and military forces. The mercenary soldiers were reported to have downed several helicopters and a military communications plane."

Greece. Elinda Labropoulou of CNN: "Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of Greece's center-right New Democracy party, has won a second four-year term as prime minister. Mitsotakis is now set to return to the prime minister's office in a stronger position with his party's resounding victory in Sunday's elections, which were dominated by financial stability and cost-of-living issues.... Mitsotakis, at the helm during the Covid-19 pandemic and Europe's energy crisis, had positioned himself as a safe pair of hands to boost growth in difficult global circumstances. His government staged a stunning turnaround in the economy, now on the brink of returning to investment grade on the global market for the first time since it lost market access in 2010." The New York Times story is here.

News Lede

CNN: "James Crown, a billionaire businessman who held several leadership roles including board member of JPMorgan Chase, died Sunday in a racing accident in Colorado. Crown, who also turned 70 on Sunday, died in the single-vehicle crash after colliding with an impact barrier at Aspen Motorsports Park in Woody Creek, Colorado, The Colorado Sun reported. Among his many roles, Crown was chairman and CEO of his family business, the investment firm Henry Crown and Company. In addition to serving on the JPMorgan board, he was also a board director at General Dynamics. Crown had served on JPMorgan's board since the early 1990s." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Apparently the way we're reducing the number of billionaires is that they're killing themselves in feats of derring-do. It seems to me it would be better to just tax the hell out of them so they might live on with the rest of us.

June 25, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Kelly Garrity of Politico: "President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, a day after Russian mercenary forces reversed their plans to march on Moscow, Zelenskky said. The White House confirmed the call on Sunday afternoon. Zelenskyy and Biden discussed 'the course of hostilities and the processes taking place in Russia,' Zelenskyy said in a post on Twitter."

Ret. Judge Michael Luttig (Very-R) in a New York Times op-ed: Republicans' "fawning support since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has given Mr. Trump every reason to believe that he can ride these [espionage] charges and any others not just to the Republican nomination, but also to the White House in 2024.... As only the Republicans can do, they are already turning this ignominious moment into an even more ignominious moment -- and a self-immolating one at that -- by rushing to crown Mr. Trump their nominee before the primary season even begins.... It's finally time for [Republicans] to put the country before their party and pull back from the brink -- for the good of the party, as well as the nation."

Jesse Eisenger & Stephen Engelberg of Propublica examine Justice Sam Alito's Wall Street Journal "prebuttal" to their report on the gift of a luxury Alaska vacation by hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer, who would soon have business before the Court. "It does not appear that the editors at the Journal made much of an effort to fact-check Alito's assertions.... Journalists [including former WSJ reporters] were ... sharply critical of the decision to help the subject of another news organization's investigation 'pre-but' the findings[,] especially since some of Alito's assertions didn't make much sense to the public who had not read ProPublica's report]." Moreover, Patricia McCabe, the Supreme Court's spokesperson, was cagey in her contacts with ProPublica, such as when she asked the reporters to tell her when their story would go to print. MB: Clearly, Alito has brought more shame upon a court that already was in trouble. How now, John Roberts? ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has been arguing for years that a flood of 'dark money' flowing through right-wing front groups has corrupted the Supreme Court. Never has there been more evidence to bolster his claim.... [In a phone conversation with me,] the senator ticked off the problems with Alito's [WSJ] argument: factual omissions (e.g., the standard for exempt gifts does not include transportation); Alito's lame effort to turn an airplane into a 'facility' to jam it into an exempt-gift category ('It doesn't pass the laugh test,' Whitehouse said); Alito's plea that he couldn't possibly have known Singer had a financial stake ($2 billion) in the outcome of a case before the court (although it was widely reported in the media); and the insistence that yet another billionaire was a 'friend,' which somehow absolved him from his obligation to report gifts of 'hospitality.' And, Whitehouse argued, it strains credulity that Alito (like Justice Clarence Thomas) could be confused about reporting requirements when there is a Financial Disclosure Committee expressly set up to help judges navigate these issues.... The best argument for court reform comes from Alito, whose arrogant, slipshod and unconvincing defense makes him the poster boy for serious court reform."

Steve Contorno of CNN: "In his early outreach to Republican voters as a presidential candidate, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis [R-Fla.] has portrayed himself as a fighter and, crucially, a winner in the cultural battles increasingly important to conservatives. If elected to the White House, he'll take those fights to Washington, he has said.... But back in Florida, the agenda at the centerpiece of his pitch remains unsettled. Still ongoing are more than a dozen legal battles testing the constitutionality of many of the victories DeSantis has touted on the campaign trail. Critics say DeSantis has built his governorship around enacting laws that appeal to his conservative base but that, as a Harvard-trained lawyer, he knows are unconstitutional and not likely to take effect."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times has a tick-tock of how the shortest revolution went. ~~~

~~~ Here's the New York Times liveblog for today on the shortlived insurrection of Yevgeny Prigozhin: "The strongest challenge to President Vladimir V. Putin's rule was defused, but there were new questions about his authority and the country's war in Ukraine. In many ways, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the Wagner chief who led an armed uprising against the military's leadership for nearly 24 hours, punctured Mr. Putin's strongman authority and aura of infallibility. His blistering criticism and brazen actions called into question Russia's justifications for its war in Ukraine and the competency of its military leadership.... Both Mr. Putin's and Mr. Prigozhin's current locations remain unknown.... The future of the Wagner group and Mr. Prigozhin's continued role in it remains unclear." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for today are here: "Some 12 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin described the rebellion by Wagner mercenaries as 'a stab in the back' for Russia and a 'betrayal,' promising to crush them, group leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin left the southern town of Rostov-on-Don with a column of tanks and armored vehicles to cheering crowds.... On Saturday night, people dashed forward to shake Prigozhin's hand as he departed the city or clamored for selfies, an upwelling of what appeared to be spontaneous support of a kind rarely seen in Russia after more than 20 years of Putin's authoritarian rule.... Video also emerged of the return of Russian police to the streets of Rostov early Sunday to restore control after Wagner's departure. A crowd chanted 'Shame! Shame!' and some yelled that the police were 'Traitors!'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's liveblog for Sunday is here. The Guardian's main story is here. ~~~

~~~ From Saturday's the New York Times liveblog on the shortest Russian revolution, a skirmish which seems not to have lasted long: "The Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin announced that his troops marching toward Moscow would turn around, minutes after the leader of Belarus, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, said he had successfully negotiated with the Wagner boss. The statements offered the possibility that the rapidly evolving security crisis embroiling President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia's government could be resolved without armed fighting between Russian authorities and Mr. Prigozhin's forces. But Mr. Prigozhin did not say whether his forces were leaving the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, a Russian military hub he has seized. In an audio statement posted to Telegram, Mr. Prigozhin said his forces were within 200 kilometers, or about 125 miles, of Moscow, and had reached that point without any bloodshed among his fighters. 'Now the moment has come when blood could be shed,' Mr. Prigozhin said. 'So, understanding all responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be spilled, on one side, we are turning around our column and are leaving in the opposite direction to field camps in accordance with the plan.'" The liveblog includes a map that shows how far the Wagner troops had got on the road to Moscow before the stand-down. It appears they were more than half-way there. The AP's story is here. ~~~

~~~ NYT liveblog update: "... Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters that under an agreement brokered by Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, Mr. Prigozhin would go to Belarus and the criminal case opened against him for organizing an armed insurrection would be dropped. The Wagner fighters who didn't participate in the uprising would be given the option of signing Russian Defense Ministry contracts, Mr. Peskov said, and the rest would avoid prosecution, considering their 'heroic deeds on the front.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

David Sanger & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "American intelligence officials briefed senior military and administration officials on Wednesday that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, was preparing to take military action against senior Russian defense officials, according to officials familiar with the matter. U.S. spy agencies had indications days earlier that Mr. Prigozhin was planning something and worked to refine that material into a finished assessment, officials said.... The information that the long-running feud between Mr. Prigozhin, who got his start as 'Putin's chef' in St. Petersburg, and Russian defense officials was about to devolve into conflict was considered both solid and alarming. Mr. Prigozhin is known for his brutality, and had he succeeded in ousting the officials, he would likely have been an unpredictable leader. And the possibility that a major nuclear-armed rival of the United States could descend into internal chaos carried with it a new set of risks." CNN's story is here.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... even with the apparent end to the immediate threat posed by Yevgeny Prigozhin's rebellious mercenary army, the short-lived uprising suggested that Mr. Putin's hold on power is more tenuous than at any time since he took office more than two decades ago. The aftermath of the mutiny leaves President Biden and American policymakers with both opportunity and danger in perhaps the most volatile moment since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine. Disarray in Russia could lead to a breakdown of its war effort just as Ukrainian forces are mounting their long-awaited counteroffensive, but officials in Washington remained nervous about an unpredictable, nuclear-armed Mr. Putin feeling vulnerable.... The armed standoff on the road to Moscow, brief as it was, represented the most dramatic struggle for power in Russia since the 1991 failed hard-liner coup against Mikhail Gorbachev and the 1993 showdown between Boris Yeltsin and parliament....

"[President] Biden responded to the crisis by not responding, opting for caution rather than speaking out, which would risk giving Mr. Putin ammunition to claim this was all a foreign plot.... Mr. Biden delayed his departure for Camp David to convene a secure video briefing with top advisers in the Ward Room of the White House -- a makeshift Situation Room while the real one is being renovated -- and also spoke with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany."

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Appearing at a Faith & Freedom Coalition gala in Washington on Saturday night, [Donald Trump] cited his appointment of three of the six justices who voted to strike down the law as a capstone of his presidency. And he cast himself as an unflinching crusader for the Christian right in a meandering speech that lasted nearly 90 minutes. 'No president has ever fought for Christians as hard as I have,' he said, adding, 'I got it done, and nobody thought it was even a possibility.'... Several times in his speech on Saturday night, Mr. Trump sought to align himself with the faith community and said that it was under attack, much like he was. 'Together, we're warriors in a righteous crusade to stop the arsonists, the atheists, globalists and the Marxists,' he said. In a speech at the gathering a day earlier, [Mike] Pence called on the entire 2024 Republican presidential field to pledge support for a national abortion ban at 15 weeks -- a ban more extreme than what Mr. Trump has backed so far." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump characterizes himself as "fighting for Christians," but a significant number of Christians oppose the repeal of Roe.

Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "At least seven cars from a freight train tumbled into the Yellowstone River in Montana on Saturday after a derailment and a bridge collapse, causing asphalt and molten sulfur cargo to spill into the water, the authorities said. Officials were investigating whether the derailment or the bridge collapse happened first, as well as how much of the cargo had spread into the river." The ABC News story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Colbi Edmonds of the New York Times: "Three San Antonio police officers were charged with murder on Friday after police shot and killed a 46-year-old woman, who swung a hammer in their direction and appeared to be in distress, in her home, officials said. The three officers, Sgt. Alfred Flores, Officer Eleazar Alejandro and Officer Nathaniel Villalobos, have been suspended without pay and were taken into custody on Friday. They have been with the San Antonio Police Department for 14, five and two years."

Way Beyond

Louisa Loveluck, et al., of the Washington Post: "The story of how as many as 750 migrants came to board a rickety blue fishing trawler and end up in one of the Mediterranean's deadliest shipwrecks is bigger than any one of the victims.... About half the passengers are believed to have been from Pakistan. The country's interior minister said Friday that an estimated 350 Pakistanis were on board, and that many may have died.... This account of what pushed them to risk a notoriously dangerous crossing is based on interviews with survivors in Greece and relatives of the dead in Pakistan, Jordan and Egypt...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)