The Commentariat -- February 21, 2019
Afternoon Update:
You Won't Be Hearing from Roger Stone Any More. Maybe. Darren Samuelsohn, et al., of Politico: "A federal judge hit Roger Stone with a full gag order on Thursday, several days after the longtime Donald Trump associate posted a photo on Instagram that appeared to threaten the federal judge overseeing his case. Before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued her decision, Stone took the stand to offer a formal apology. 'I recognize that I let the court down,' Stone said. 'I let you down. I let myself down. I let my family down. I let my attorneys down. I can only say I'm sorry. it was a momentary lapse in judgment. Perhaps I talk too much.'... 'So thank you, but the apology rings quite hollow,' [the judge] said, adding: 'There's nothing ambiguous about crosshairs.'... 'No, Mr. Stone I'm not giving you another chance,' she said. 'I have serious doubts about whether you've learned any lesson at all. You appear to need clear boundaries,' she added. 'So there they are.'... Stone was already under a partial gag order that allowed the defendant to continue discussing his case so long as he wasn't in the vicinity of the D.C. courthouse."
Julie Brown of the Miami Herald: "A judge ruled Thursday that federal prosecutors -- among them, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta -- broke federal law when they signed a plea agreement with a wealthy, politically connected sex trafficker and concealed it from more than 30 of his underage victims. U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra, in a 33-page opinion, said that the evidence he reviewed showed that Jeffrey Epstein had been operating an international sex operation in which he and others recruited underage girls -- not only in Florida -- but from overseas, in violation of federal law.... Instead of prosecuting Epstein under federal sex trafficking laws, Acosta, then the U.S. attorney in Miami, helped negotiate a non-prosecution agreement that gave Epstein and his co-conspirators immunity from federal prosecution. Epstein, who lived in a Palm Beach mansion, was allowed to quietly plead guilty in state court to two prostitution charges and served just 13 months in the county jail. His accomplices, some of whom have never been identified, were never charged."
Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "[Virginia's] Republican-controlled House of Delegates on Thursday killed Democrats' last-ditch efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in the waning days of the legislative session, as advocates promised retribution at the ballot box.... Introduced nearly a century ago by suffragist Alice Paul, the amendment would bar discrimination on account of sex. The lower chamber of the General Assembly has consistently thwarted a campaign by ERA activists to make Virginia the 38th -- and theoretically the last -- state needed to ratify the measure."
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Mark Harris, the Republican candidate for Congress in North Carolina whose campaign is at the center of a fraud inquiry, on Thursday called for a new election.... 'It's become clear to me that the public's confidence in the Ninth District's general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted,' Mr. Harris said to audible gasps in the hearing room in the North Carolina capital. The state board did not immediately rule on Mr. Harris's request, but the five-member panel is now virtually certain to order a new election.... In [calling for a new election], Mr. Harris effectively acknowledged that L. McCrae Dowless Jr., a contractor he personally hired, and a network of employees had compromised the integrity of the vote." ...
... Update. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "The North Carolina State Board of Elections on Thursday ordered a new election in the 9th Congressional District, ending a dramatic, months-long investigation into allegations of widespread ballot tampering. 'It appears to me the irregularities and improprieties occurred to such an extent that they tainted the results of the entire election and cast doubt on its fairness,' said the board chairman, Bob Cordle, shortly before the five-member panel voted unanimously to throw out the November results between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready."
Sopan Deb & Jack Healy of the New York Times: "Jussie Smollett, upset by his salary and seeking publicity, staged a fake assault on himself a week after writing himself a threatening letter, the Chicago police said Thursday after the 'Empire' actor surrendered to face a charge of filing a false police report. A visibly angry Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson said Mr. Smollett had taken advantage of the pain and anger of racism, draining resources that could have been used to investigate other crimes for which people were actually suffering. 'I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention,' he said at a news conference in Chicago."
Andrew Restuccia & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Facing the possible completion of a special counsel investigation that could upend his presidency, Donald Trump is lashing out at everything and everybody -- except his new attorney general, Bill Barr. Trump, who publicly filleted Jeff Sessions for more than a year, has adopted a noticeably friendly tone toward Barr, even as the newly sworn-in attorney general prepares to face ... the culmination of Robert Mueller's Russia probe. 'He's a tremendous man and tremendous person who really respects this country and respects the justice system. So that'll be totally up to him,' Trump said in the Oval Office Wednesday when asked about a new CNN report that Barr is preparing to announce the completion of Mueller's work as soon as next week. Last week, at the close of meandering remarks in the Rose Garden, Trump similarly praised Barr."
That Time Trump Forgot to Be Cruel & Vindictive. Brianna Sacks & Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "Although ... Donald Trump tweeted that he had ordered his administration to cut off disaster aid to wildfire victims in California, federal officials confirmed on Wednesday that they never received any such directive.... 'Billions of dollars are sent to the state of California for forest fires that, with proper forest management, would never happen,' the president tweeted last month. 'Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!'... 'We never got any such directive,' Brandi Richard, a FEMA spokesperson, told BuzzFeed News. 'That's evidenced by the fact that work is still being done and we continue to support wildfire survivors across the state.'"
Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "Upon orientation, [White House] interns signed their very own non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), with the envoy of the counsel's office warning them that a breach of the NDA -- blabbing to the media, for instance -- could result in legal, and thus financial, consequences for them. Interns were also told that they would not receive their own copies, these sources said.... To veterans of other administrations, the act of compelling interns to sign these types of NDAs would seem odd, if not downright unenforceable or legally dubious. To this White House, it's standard operating procedure."
... we've had thousands of Americans die year after year after year because of threats crossing our southern border. -- Stephen Miller, senior adviser to President Trump, in an interview with "Fox News Sunday," February 17
... it's an astonishing statement, suggesting that undocumented immigrants kill thousands of Americans every year.... There’s no evidence that thousands of Americans are killed by undocumented immigrants, especially in light of credible studies showing they commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post
Alan Gomez of USA Today: "The Trump administration has been blocked from systematically breaking up migrant families, but hundreds of children crossing the border continue to be separated from their parents in a process requiring none of the oversight used to remove children in the United States from their homes, according to a USA TODAY review of the system.... At the border, the removal decision is made solely by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in the field. No child welfare specialist is required, and no judge is involved in a decision that cannot be appealed.... [CPB agents often use an exception to the rulings disallowing separations --] when a parent presents a danger to a child.... Immigration attorneys and family law experts say the process being used to separate children, most commonly carried out by CBP agents, has been shrouded in mystery, provides no due process for the parents and is vulnerable to abuse or mistakes."
Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Federal law bars gun ownership by felons, fugitives, drug abusers, people adjudicated to be mentally ill, those dishonorably discharged from the military or living in the country illegally, and by convicted domestic abusers or others subject to domestic violence restraining orders. But experts say the number of people who are barred from owning guns but have them anyway may reach into the millions.... Only eight states have laws that provide an explicit mechanism so that people suspected of having guns in violation of those prohibitions are actually required to give them up. And some of those states merely allow -- but do not require -- the police to seek a court order to confiscate such guns. That was the case in Illinois, where the authorities knew for more than four years that Gary Martin was a violent felon but apparently did nothing to ensure that he surrendered the laser-sighted Smith & Wesson handgun that he used to kill five co-workers in Aurora, Ill., on Friday.... Only a single state -- California -- has a database dedicated to tracking firearm owners who have lost their right to possess a gun, either because of a new criminal conviction or something else."
*****
The Trump Scandals. Ctd.
Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "Attorney General Bill Barr is preparing to announce as early as next week the completion of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, with plans for Barr to submit to Congress soon after a summary of Mueller's confidential report, according to people familiar with the plans. The preparations are the clearest indication yet that Mueller is nearly done with his almost two-year investigation.... But with ... Donald Trump soon to travel overseas for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Justice officials are mindful of not interfering with the White House's diplomatic efforts, which could impact the timing." ...
... Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Regulations call for Mueller to submit to the attorney general a confidential explanation as to why he decided to charge certain individuals, as well as who else he investigated and why he decided not to charge those people. The regulations then call for the attorney general to report to Congress about the investigation. An adviser to President Trump said there is palpable concern among the president's inner circle that the report might contain information about Trump and his team that is politically damaging, but not criminal conduct.... [William Barr] has pointed, however, to Justice Department practices that insist on saying little or nothing about conduct that does not lead to criminal charges."
... Marcy Wheeler: "This is happening in the window of time when Rod Rosenstein is still around and -- because William Barr has presumably not been through an ethics review on the investigation -- presumably back in charge of sole day-to-day supervision of the investigation. But it is happening after Barr has been confirmed, and so any problems with the investigation that might stem from having an inferior officer (an unconfirmed hack like the Big Dick Toilet Salesman) supervising Mueller are gone.... Whatever comes next week, people on both sides should accept that it is the outcome of the investigation that Mueller deemed appropriate." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Rachel Maddow, on the other hand, speculated last night that Mueller could be ending his investigation because Bill Barr ordered him to do so. ...
... digby: "It would be terribly ironic if the Mueller report proves that the president of the United States was a dupe and a stooge for a foreign adversary but because he is so dumb he didn't know he was breaking the law so he can't be charged with a crime and therefore the public will never know exactly how he and his henchmen sold out his country through sheer incompetence, greed, arrogance and stupidity. It could happen. And he could even be re-elected."
Trump v. First Amendment. Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Wednesday took direct aim at The New York Times, calling the news organization a 'true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE,' in an escalation from his previous lashings which were typically addressed to a group of news organizations or over specific Times articles.... Mr. Trump does not cite a specific article, but his blunt declaration comes a day after The Times published a report describing how he has tried to influence and undermine investigations surrounding him, his presidential campaign and his administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger is hitting back at ... Donald Trump for attacking the paper as the 'enemy of the people.'... In a statement he released on Wednesday, Sulzberger condemned Trump for diminishing the free press as an institution whenever he demonizes them for asking tough questions and run unflattering coverage on his administration. Sulzberger goes on to say that Trump has every right to critique reporters, but this is different from Trump's attacks on the media, which Sulzberger calls an abandonment of a 'distinctly American principle' to defend the free press." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Trump v. the SDNY. Frank Rich: "Clearly Trump was tardy in realizing what may be the biggest legal threat to his bank account, his family, and himself -- a slew of potential indictments in his hometown that do not require the political act of impeachment to be consummated. Is it any wonder that his Twitter finger has never left his phone since the weekend?" Thanks to MAG for the link.
Josh Gerstein & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen will appear before the House Oversight Committee for a public hearing on Feb. 27, Chairman Elijah Cummings announced Wednesday. The notice came hours after a judge granted Cohen a two-month reprieve on reporting to prison while he continues to recover from shoulder surgery and prepares to testify before a total of three congressional panels.... The Oversight Committee said the scope of Cohen's public testimony would be limited to Trump's 'payoffs, financial disclosures, compliance with campaign finance laws, business practices, and other matters.' The longtime Trump attorney is slated to testify before the House Intelligence Committee the following day behind closed doors. A similar appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee was postponed earlier this month, with Cohen's lawyers citing his ongoing recovery." ...
... Erica Orden & Kara Scannell of CNN: "A federal judge agreed Wednesday to a two-month delay to the date by which ... Michael Cohen must report to prison. In asking for the postponement, an attorney for Cohen said in a court filing that his client required more time to cope with both recovery from a recent surgical procedure and to prepare for expected testimony before three congressional committees. Cohen had been scheduled to report to prison on March 6. US District Court Judge William Pauley on Wednesday granted him an extension to May 6."
Russ Choma of Mother Jones: "President Donald Trump's sons announced Thursday that they were shelving plans to open two chains of lower-end hotels and motels, blaming Democrats and journalists on their failure to get the new brands off the ground. But there's a likelier explanation for their struggles, and it has to do with their dad.... Fresh evidence of the Trump Organization's financial conundrum came last week with news that in the midst of his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump sought out Deutsche Bank for a loan.... He didn't get the loan.... [W]ith a brutally expensive 2020 race looming and with no major real estate sales, no new Deutsche Bank cash, no new big franchise fees from overseas hotels, and now no new smaller franchise fees for downmarket chains, Trump may be beginning to worry about his finances more. As he groused to the New York Times last week, 'I lost massive amounts of money doing this job. This is not the money. This is one of the great losers of all time.'" --s ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: We've long known that nothing is Donald Trump's fault. Good to know that nothing is Donnie's or Eric's fault, either. The Democrats did it??? Puh-leze.
Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "A former Trump campaign staffer filed a class action Wednesday seeking to invalidate all of the nondisclosure and nondisparagement agreements that the Trump campaign required all staffers to sign. The claims brought by former campaign staffer Jessica Denson represent the broadest attack to date on the Trump campaign's practice of having staffers, volunteers, and contractors sign agreements barring them from ever publicly criticizing Trump, his company, or his family, and from disclosing private or confidential information."
Breathe Deeply -- Carbon Emissions Are Good for You. Juliet Eilperin & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The White House is working to assemble a panel to assess whether climate change poses a national security threat, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, a conclusion that federal intelligence agencies have affirmed several times since President Trump took office. The proposed Presidential Committee on Climate Security, which would be established by executive order, is being spearheaded by William Happer, a National Security Council senior director. Happer, an emeritus professor of physics at Princeton University, has said that carbon emissions linked to climate change should be viewed as an asset rather than a pollutant. The initiative represents the Trump administration's most recent attempt to question the findings of federal scientists and experts on climate change and comes less than three weeks after Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats delivered a worldwide threat assessment that identified it as a significant security risk." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
E.A. Crudnen of ThinkProgress: "New data analysis shows that the government accepted 260 oil and gas drilling permit applications during the partial government shutdown last month, even as federal agencies suffered severe staffing shortages at all levels. Those findings shed more light on the extent to which the Interior Department (DOI) favored the oil and gas industry over public lands protection during the longest government shutdown in history[.]" --s
Heather Caygle & Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi is throwing her muscle behind a legislative effort to block ... Donald Trump's national emergency declaration, the first formal step to counter Trump and squeeze Republicans on the border wall. Democrats will introduce legislation Friday to terminate the emergency proclamation and Pelosi is urging House colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the resolution, according to a letter obtained by Politico on Wednesday.... 'The President's decision to go outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process violates the Constitution and must be terminated,' she[wrote]."
Lindsey Lost It. Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News: "Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan clashed with Sen. Lindsey Graham over the administration's Syria policy during a briefing last weekend, prompting Graham to unleash a string of expletives and declare himself Shanahan's 'adversary,' according to two officials in the briefing and three others familiar with the conversation.... Tensions escalated after Graham pointedly asked Shanahan for his opinion on Trump's decision to leave Syria, and the acting secretary refused to condemn it.... The contentious briefing on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference rankled the bipartisan group of lawmakers and cast doubt over Shanahan's chances of being confirmed if ... Donald Trump nominates him to permanently lead the Pentagon, the officials said. The episode highlighted Shanahan's increasingly strained relationship with Capitol Hill two months after his predecessor, Jim Mattis, stepped down." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's fine to "vehemently disagree" with a Cabinet officer. It is not fine to swear at him. It seems Lindsey has control issues.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Siding with a small time drug offender in Indiana whose $42,000 Land Rover was seized by law enforcement officials, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Constitution places limits on civil forfeiture laws that allow states and localities to take and keep private property used to commit crimes.... Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for eight justices, said the question was an easy one. 'The historical and logical case for concluding that the 14th Amendment incorporates the Excessive Fines Clause is overwhelming,' she wrote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Matthew Rodriguez of Out Magazine: "The Trump administration is set to launch a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality in dozens of nations where anti-gay laws are still on the books, NBC News reported Monday. While on its surface, the move looks like an atypically benevolent decision by the Trump administration, the details of the campaign belie a different story. Rather than actually being about helping queer people around the world, the campaign looks more like another instance of the right using queer people as a pawn to amass power and enact its own agenda.... [Ambassador Richard] Grennell's sudden interest in Iran's anti-gay laws is strikingly similar to Trump's rhetoric after the 2016 Pulse massacre in Orlando, Florida. After the deadly shooting, Trump used the 49 deaths as a way to galvanize support for an anti-Muslim agenda rather than find a way to support LGBTQ+ people." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post slams CNN's hiring of former Jeff Sessions flak Sarah Isgur. "This is the same CNN, under the same leadership, that in 2016 hired the bullying and ultra-partisan Corey Lewandowski as a commentator after Trump fired him as campaign manager. It's the same CNN that this month inexplicably and foolishly gave Starbucks founder Howard Schultz a prime-time 'town hall' event to promote his scattered notions of a run as an independent 2020 presidential candidate. That Trump has spent the past two years mocking and endangering CNN's journalistic staff makes Isgur's hiring even more incomprehensible -- and insulting.... Far from being reformed from a time when it aired Trump rallies live during the 2016 primary season and let the candidate call in by phone to comment on this and that, CNN seems to be doubling down on a ratings-first, fair-in-name-only approach to politics." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race 2020. The Bern Is Back. David Wright of CNN: "Bernie Sanders raised nearly $6 million in the 24 hours following his 2020 presidential campaign launch, his campaign said Wednesday, a record-smashing debut that easily outstripped his Democratic rivals. Sanders raised $5,925,771 from 223,047 individual contributors across all 50 states in the campaign's first 24 hours, and more than $6 million from 225,000 individuals in total since the launch. And Sanders' campaign also noted that the average contribution was $27, 'mirroring [Sanders'] 2016 campaign's average donation,' a symbolic reflection of the Vermont senator's grassroots support that was key to his anti-establishment bid against Hillary Clinton." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
2018 Congressional Election. Emily Singer of Shareblue: "North Carolina Republican Mark Harris -- who is under investigation for election fraud during his 2018 congressional campaign -- was personally warned [by his son John] that a consultant he was thinking of hiring had a history of carrying out massive election fraud. Harris went ahead and hired him anyway. That revelation came Wednesday during what's now been a 3-day hearing by the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which is probing the alleged fraud and whether it warrants a do-over election in North Carolina's competitive 9th District.... John [Harris] testified before the NCSBOE, that he told his dad and his dad's campaign consultant Andy Yates that he warned his dad about hiring McCrae Dowless, who appeared to be part of another election fraud scandal in 2016. Yet [Mark] Harris went ahead and hired Dowless -- who is now accused of illegally harvesting absentee ballots for Harris' 2018 bid." ...
... Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "With a congressional seat now in the balance, sworn testimony this week in the North Carolina capital has illuminated the inner workings of Mr. Dowless's precise but amateurish operation, an almost fly-by-night enterprise that paid about $3 for every collected absentee ballot request and $2.50 for each collected absentee ballot. The scheme has called into question whether Mark Harris, the Republican candidate, really outpolled his Democratic opponent, Dan McCready. Witnesses have described a scheme that was at once on the books and under the radar, and a network filled not with seasoned, ideological activists, but with acquaintances and relatives of Mr. Dowless who needed cash and asked few questions."
Lynh Bui of the Washington Post: "A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-identified white nationalist was arrested after federal investigators uncovered a cache of weapons and ammunition in his Maryland home that authorities say he stockpiled to launch a widespread domestic terrorist attack targeting politicians and journalists. Christopher Paul Hasson called for 'focused violence' to 'establish a white homeland' and dreamed of ways to 'kill almost every last person on earth,' according to court records filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland. Though court documents do not detail a specific planned date for an attack, the government said he had been amassing supplies and weapons since at least 2017, developed a spreadsheet of targets that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and searched the Internet using phrases such as 'best place in dc to see congress people' and 'are supreme court justices protected.'"
Mrs. McC: Also on the hit list, Chuck Schumer, Kamala Harris, Maxine Waters, & other well-known Democrats & MSNBC & CNN personalities. One search Harris made last month were "what if trump illegally impeached" & "civil war if trump impeached". ...
... The government's "detention memo," which lays out evidence against Hasson, is here. It's chilling.
Luke Barnes of ThinkProgress: "The number of hate groups in the United States has surged to an all-time high, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), with numbers rising for the fourth year in a row. The SPLC's annual Year in Hate and Extremism report, released Wednesday, recorded 1,020 hate groups in the United States in 2018. That figure includes neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and anti-government extremists, and represents a rise of seven percent from 2017.... The SPLC's concerns are backed up by another report on far right violence released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in January. According to that report, almost every extremist-related murder committed in the United States in 2018 was carried out by an individual who was either directly linked or affiliated with the far right. In the lone exception, the perpetrator was affiliated with the far right before switching over to Islamic extremism just prior to carrying out a murder." --s
Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "... this week snippets of an old interview [the actor John Wayne] did with Playboy magazine, in which he expressed racist and homophobic sentiments and railed against socialism, began circulating on Twitter. A tweet with portions of the interview sent Sunday night from a screenwriter in Tennessee went viral -- and, with that, Wayne's politics were news again. In the 1971 interview, Wayne railed against 'perverted films,' giving the interviewer, Richard Warren Lewis, two examples when asked: 'Easy Rider' and 'Midnight Cowboy.' The actor described the characters in the latter film with a homophobic slur, then went on to extol the virtues of sexual intercourse between men and women. 'I believe in white supremacy,' he said, and spoke harshly about African Americans, saying,'We can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks.'... 'I don't feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves,' he said. 'Now, I'm not condoning slavery. It's just a fact of life, like the kid who gets infantile paralysis and has to wear braces so he can't play football with the rest of us.'... I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from [Native Americans]...,' Wayne said. 'Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.'" ...
... Heavy has the transcript of the Playboy interview.
Beyond the Beltway
Illinois. Ray Sanchez, et al., of CNN: "'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett was 'officially classified' a suspect in a criminal investigation Wednesday for allegedly filing a false police report, according to a tweet from Chicago police spokesman Officer Anthony Guglielmi. A Cook County grand jury was hearing evidence just weeks after the young actor reported being the victim of a hate crime on January 29, the police spokesman said. Filing a false police report is a Class 4 felony. Smollett's transformation from victim to suspect in a reported crime that captured national headlines came on the same day that a high-ranking police source said Chicago detectives were working to obtain the actor's financial records." ...
... Update. AP: "'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett was charged Wednesday with making a false police report when he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago by two men who hurled racist and anti-gay slurs and looped a rope around his neck, police said. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said prosecutors charged Smollett with felony disorderly conduct, an offense that could bring one to three years in prison and force the actor to pay for the cost of the investigation into his report of a Jan. 29 beating.... The charges emerged on the same day that detectives and two brothers who were earlier deemed suspects testified before a grand jury."
Virginia. Steven Shepard of Politico: "Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam appears to have quelled any widespread public clamor for his resignation in the wake of his blackface scandal. Two new polls out Wednesday show pluralities say the Democrat should not quit or be forced out over a racist photo that appeared on his medical-school yearbook page 35 years ago. Most African-American voters agree that he shouldn't go, according to one of the surveys.... Northam's position has ... been reinforced by the controversies around [Lt. Gov. Justin] Fairfax and [AG Mark] Herring -- the two men next up in Virginia's line of succession for governor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Nicholas Casey & Jenny González of the New York Times: "The economic crisis that has engulfed Venezuela under President Nicolás Maduro has set off a staggering exodus. The economic damage is among the worst in Latin American history, researchers say, with more than three million people leaving the country in recent years -- largely on foot."
News Lede
New York Times: "Peter Tork, a struggling musician who became an overnight teenage idol in the 1960s with