;)
April 13, 2023
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Florida. Matt Dixon of NBC News: "Florida's Republican-dominated Legislature on Thursday passed a ban on most abortions after six weeks, sending the bill to Gov. Ron DeSantis. He has said he would sign the measure into law. Final passage came after a marathon floor hearing in the state House, which passed the proposal largely along party lines in a 70-40 vote after the state Senate passed the bill on April 3. Democrats in the chamber forcefully opposed the legislation but were vastly outnumbered by Republican supermajorities in both chambers. GOP House Speaker Paul Renner had to close the public viewing galleries after protesters threw what appeared to be paper on the House floor.... The measure bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with new exceptions for rape and incest up until 15 weeks. The measure does not change the exceptions for the life and health of the mother up until 15 weeks that are in current law."
Merrick Garland made a public "statement" in which he said, well, nothing except to confirm that 21-year-old National Guard airman Jack Teixeira was the suspect. As Simone Sanders said on MSNBC, Garland described "an ongoing investigation," which is DOJ-speak for "we ain't gonna be telling you much." From the NYT liveblog, linked next: "Mr. Garland said Airman Teixeira was accused of illegally sharing classified defense information." ~~~
~~~ ** The Feds Get Their Man. New York Times: "Federal investigators on Thursday arrested a 21-year-old air national guardsman who they believe is linked to a trove of leaked classified U.S. intelligence documents, which have upended relations with American allies and exposed weaknesses in the Ukrainian military. The man, who The New York Times first identified as Jack Teixeira, is a member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard and is tied to an online group where the leaked documents first appeared. Airman Teixeira oversaw an online group named Thug Shaker Central, where about 20 to 30 people, mostly young men and teenagers, came together over a shared love of guns, racist online memes and video games. On Thursday afternoon, around a half-dozen rifle-carrying F.B.I. agents pushed onto the property of Airman Teixeira.... The New York Times spoke with four members of the Thug Shaker Central chat group, where Airman Teixeira served as group administrator. While the gaming friends would not identify the group's leader by name, a trail of digital evidence compiled by The Times leads to Airman Teixeira." This is the top story in a liveblog. ~~~
~~~ CNN's liveblog is here: "Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said the leaking of a trove of classified information on social media sites was a 'deliberate criminal act,' and the department is looking at how it protects such information." ~~~
~~~ Aric Toler of Bellingcat and New York Times reporters on what they know about Jack Teixeira (NYT link). ~~~
~~~ John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Thursday that an investigation into the leak of a massive trove of classified U.S. military documents is 'getting close' to a resolution and downplayed the fallout from secrets that have exposed U.S. spying on allies and revealed the grim prospects for Ukraine's war with Russia, among other things. 'There is a full-blown investigation going on, as you know, with the intelligence community and the Justice Department, and they're getting close,' Biden told reporters in Dublin, [Ireland]..., when asked if he could provide an update on the investigation. Biden did not elaborate on the status of the investigation beyond that, saying he was not in a position to do so." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Good. Maybe OG will get a jail cell next to Donald Trump's and the two of them can compare top-secret documents they stole.
** Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said on Thursday that it would [ask] the Supreme Court to block a ruling by a federal appeals panel that limited the distribution and access to the abortion pill mifepristone.... 'The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the Fifth Circuit's decision' Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement Thursday, adding that the Biden administration would 'defend the F.D.A.'s scientific judgment and protect Americans' access to safe and effective reproductive care.'... Danco Laboratories, which makes Mifeprex, the brand-name version of mifepristone, will also petition the court for emergency relief, planning to file Friday, a lawyer for the company, Jessica Ellsworth, said...." This is an update of a story linked earlier today. The AP's report is here.
** The Thomas-Crow Affair, Ctd. Justin Elliott, et al., of ProPublica: "In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow's companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia.... What made [the sale] noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives. The transaction marks the first known instance of money flowing from the Republican megadonor to the Supreme Court justice.... [Crow] now owned the house where the justice's elderly mother was living. Soon after the sale was completed, contractors began work on tens of thousands of dollars of improvements on the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home.... A federal disclosure law passed after Watergate requires justices and other officials to disclose the details of most real estate sales over $1,000. Thomas never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties. That appears to be a violation of the law, four ethics law experts told ProPublica." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Your move, John Roberts. There is now no plausible excuse not to push Thomas out the door. Don't worry; he can get a job with one of Ginni's disreputable outlets. Or maybe working for Harlan Crow: polishing Hitler's silverware, for instance.
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A former bodybuilder and romance novel cover model who dragged a police officer down the stairs of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to three years on Thursday by US District Judge Rudolph Contreras. Logan Barnhart, a 42-year-old from Michigan, was identified by online sleuths who used facial recognition to turn up images of him at bodybuilding competitions. He was arrested in August 2021. Barnhart pleaded guilty in September 2022 to assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon. 'During the course of this attack, Barnhart grabbed an officer's neck and torso and dragged him in a prone position from the police line, out of the Archway, and down a set of stairs into the violent mob, where the officer was further attacked with weapons, including a flagpole and a baton, and sustained physical injuries,' prosecutors wrote." MB: No bodice-ripping for a while, fella.
Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump was being questioned under oath on Thursday in a civil fraud lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the latest in a series of legal predicaments entangling the former president.... Ms. James's civil case, which was filed in September and is expected to go to trial later this year, accuses Mr. Trump, his family business and three of his children of a 'staggering' fraud for overvaluing the former president's assets by billions of dollars. The lawsuit ... asks a judge to essentially run him out of business in the state if he is found liable at trial.... This is the second time that lawyers for Ms. James have questioned Mr. Trump under oath: He also sat for a deposition in the summer of 2022, shortly before the attorney general filed her lawsuit. During that deposition, Mr. Trump lashed out at Ms. James, a Democrat, accusing her of being motivated by politics and then invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination hundreds of times over the course of four hours.... Mr. Trump was not planning to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination [during this deposition], people familiar with his thinking said....
"While jurors in criminal trials cannot hold a defendant's silence against him, in civil trials, they are permitted to take into account a refusal to answer questions -- and infer that it means that the defendant had something to hide. If Mr. Trump refused to answer questions, it could seriously damage his chance of winning at trial. But answering questions on Thursday could expose Mr. Trump to additional legal peril. Once he provides answers on a topic, he would essentially forfeit his right to refuse other questions on that same topic." A CBS News report is here.
Rachel Weiner & Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "A D.C. court has refused to decide whether Donald Trump was doing presidential work when he denied raping a woman, leaving unresolved whether his alleged victim can sue for defamation. The decision-less decision on the matter issued by the D.C. Court of Appeals on Thursday leaves in limbo a trial originally planned for this month. But a second suit brought by the same woman, based on statements Trump made after leaving office, is set for trial in less than two weeks. That lawsuit also accuses Trump of battery, a claim made possible by changes in New York sexual assault law.... Adopting the Justice Department's position would end [E. Jean] Carroll's suit because the federal government cannot be sued for defamation. A federal court in New York, unable to reach a decision, asked for the D.C. appellate court to interpret the city's employment law. The court declined.... The case will be sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit for an ultimate ruling on whether the case will go forward. The D.C. court did clarify its understanding of the employment law in ways that are generally helpful to Carroll. 'Elected officials speaking to the press' are not always acting 'within the scope of that official's employment,' the court said.... The court said that a professional motivation can be so 'insignificant' that it does not count as work." The ABC News report is here.
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "... Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is set to chair a Judiciary Committee hearing in New York City on Monday that will target Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's indictment of ... Donald Trump. But the emerging details are already shining a harsh light on what you might call the 'governing by Fox News' problem, in which Republicans use committee hearings to create right-wing media boomlets but ultimately run into the buzz saw of outside scrutiny.... Democrats ... plan to use the proceedings to amplify the message that Republicans have no business griping about crime when they refuse action on gun safety in the wake of one horrific mass shooting after another.... Committee Democrats, led by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), also plan to push back against lurid and widely debunked GOP claims about Bragg, New York City and crime.... And Democrats plan to highlight potential coordination between Trump's defense team and Republicans. CNN reports that Trump has been in direct contact with Republicans on committees that are trying to investigate Bragg's office to 'shore up support.'..."
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. was examining whether a foreign government had targeted a Republican lawmaker for an intelligence operation when the bureau conducted botched searches for information about him within messages swept up under an expiring warrantless surveillance law, according to people familiar with the matter. The disclosure helps clarify the circumstances surrounding the scrutiny of the lawmaker, Representative Darin LaHood of Illinois, and carries policy implications as Congress debates whether to reauthorize the surveillance law, known as Section 702.... Last month..., Mr. LaHood said at a House Intelligence Committee hearing that he had concluded that he was the lawmaker.... The F.B.I..., people [familiar with the matter] said, did not suspect Mr. LaHood of any wrongdoing."
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Katie Rogers & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden climbed the stone stairs of an ancient castle in the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday and paused to look out toward an iron-gray Irish Sea, where his maternal great-great-great grandfather set sail for America in 1849. On the ground, bagpipers puffed out an original song, called 'A Biden Return.'... 'It feels wonderful!' Mr. Biden shouted down from the castle toward a group of reporters. 'It feels like I'm comin' home.'... 'For President Biden, Ireland is not just a place where his ancestors lived -- it is deeply ingrained in his identity,' said Shailagh Murray, a former senior adviser to Mr. Biden. 'His Irishness is interwoven alongside his faith, his fierce devotion to his family and his empathy for people who are struggling.'" ~~~
~~~ New York Times photos of President Biden in Ireland and Northern Ireland. ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden on Wednesday made what amounted to a diplomatic toe dip in Northern Ireland, a territory that he said had been 'made whole by peace' in the decades since the Good Friday agreement brought an end to sectarian violence.... During his short stay in Belfast -- a whirlwind stop ahead of several days of Biden family-related excursions -- the president and his advisers generally tried to avoid thorny questions surrounding politics in Northern Ireland, where the legislature has been deadlocked after the Democratic Unionist Party pulled out over post-Brexit trade concerns. He told reporters earlier in the day that he was 'going to listen' during brief exchanges with leaders of the region's five main political parties. Mr. Biden met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain before the speech."
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed the nation's most ambitious climate regulations to date, two plans designed to ensure two-thirds of new passenger cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the United States are all-electric by 2032. The new rules would require nothing short of a revolution in the U.S. auto industry.... If the two rules from the Environmental Protection Agency are enacted as proposed, they would put the world's largest economy on track to slash its planet-warming emissions at the pace that scientists say is required of all nations in order to avert the most devastating impacts of climate change. The government's challenge to automakers is monumental.... The proposed regulations would require them to invest more heavily and reorient their processes in ways that would essentially spell the end of the internal combustion engine.... The E.P.A. is 'proposing the strongest-ever federal pollution technology standards for both cars and trucks,' said Michael S. Regan, the agency's administrator, in remarks outside E.P.A. headquarters on Wednesday."
Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden is set to announce that his administration is expanding eligibility for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the matter.The action will allow participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, to access government-funded health insurance programs."
Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "Inflation moderated notably in March as a decline in gas prices helped to pave the way for the slowest pickup in prices in nearly two years, providing relief for many American consumers and some evidence that the Federal Reserve's campaign to raise interest rates and cool the economy is beginning to work. The Consumer Price Index climbed 5 percent in the year through March, down from 6 percent in February. That marked the slowest pace of price increases since May 2021."
Mariana Alfaro & Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she will temporarily give up her seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee in an announcement that came just hours after her fellow California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna called on her to resign on Wednesday. Feinstein, who at 89 is the oldest member of the Senate, drew criticisms from some Democrats who noted her absence from the Senate for nearly two months, after being hospitalized for shingles treatment in early March, has contributed to a confirmation slowdown of President Biden's judicial nominees. She has not cast a vote since announcing she will not run for reelection in 2024.... A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would ask the Senate next week to temporarily replace Feinstein on the committee.... It's unclear whether Republicans would unanimously allow this particular replacement to go through without objections, however, given the leverage Feinstein's absence has given them over judicial nominations. Replacing her would then take 60 votes to approve...." The Huffington Post's story is here. MB: Watch Mitch.
** The Big Grift. Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have in recent weeks sought a wide range of documents related to fundraising after the 2020 election, looking to determine if ... Donald Trump or his advisers scammed donors by using false claims about voter fraud to raise money, eight people familiar with the new inquiries said. Special counsel Jack Smith's office has sent subpoenas in recent weeks to Trump advisers and former campaign aides, Republican operatives and other consultants involved in the 2020 presidential campaign.... They have also heard testimony from some of these figures in front of a Washington grand jury.... Prosecutors are said to be interested in whether anyone associated with the fundraising operation violated wire fraud laws, which make it illegal to make false representations over email to swindle people out of money." Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog extensively cites the WashPo story. ~~~
~~~ The Classified Docs Show. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal investigators are asking witnesses whether ... Donald J. Trump showed off to aides and visitors a map he took with him when he left office that contains sensitive intelligence information, four people with knowledge of the matter said. The map has been just one focus of the broad Justice Department investigation into Mr. Trump's handling of classified documents after he departed the White House.... [One person] said the map might also have been shown to a journalist writing a book. The Washington Post has previously reported that investigators have asked about Mr. Trump showing classified material, including maps, to political donors." MB: There's a funny look-over-there part near the end of the story where one of Trump's lawyers tries to get the DOJ off Trump's case. As for showing off classified maps, Trump probably has some of them framed & hanging on the walls of public rooms in his resorts. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "New legislation from House Republicans aims to prevent local district attorneys from pursuing charges against former presidents. The symbolic bill is yet another show of support for Donald Trump, who faces the possibility of criminal charges in Georgia and was arraigned in Manhattan last week for allegedly violating state law with false business records. Republicans have subpoenaed a former prosecutor from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office ... and scheduled a Monday hearing to accuse Bragg of failing to prosecute real crimes. Now comes a proposal that Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) said would 'prevent political prosecutions' by moving cases against former presidents from state jurisdiction to federal court, where judges are confirmed by the Senate, an institution reliably influenced by elected Republicans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is suing his former attorney Michael Cohen for $500 million over allegations that Cohen violated their attorney-client relationship and breached a confidentiality agreement. According to a 32-page lawsuit filed by Trump's lawyers on Wednesday, Trump accuses Cohen of revealing 'confidences' in an 'embarrassing or detrimental way.' Cohen, the suit alleges, also breached a confidentiality agreement and spread 'falsehoods' about Trump 'with malicious intent and to wholly self-serving ends.' The lawsuit comes after Trump pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court on April 4 to 34 felony charges that he falsified business records to conceal $130,000 in reimbursement payments to Cohen, who paid adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 trying to keep her from publicly claiming she had an affair with Trump. Cohen is at the center of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation into Trump's payment." Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "... former Manhattan prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo [said of Trump] on CNN..., '... on the one hand, he's saying everything is false, right?... So if he was breaching attorney-client privilege, you're doing that by telling things that were said to you in confidence. But so, is he saying things that Michael Cohen is saying are true because I told him in confidence, and now he's breached that privilege? Or is he saying that the things are false? Because if they're false, why didn't he bring a defamation claim? So it kind of makes no sense.... It really reads to me like he's just trying to put his defense in the criminal case out and try and get his statements out there in the court of public opinion.' She added: 'I also think it's worth noting that there is a little bit of witness intimidation going on here as well.'"
Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Former President Trump's claim to a Fox News anchor that New York court employees were 'crying' and apologizing for his arraignment on felony charges is 'absolute BS' and doesn't remotely resemble what took place, a law enforcement source familiar with the details of what transpired that day told Yahoo News.... 'There were zero people crying. There were zero people saying "I'm sorry."'... Trump told [Tucker] Carlson, 'People that work there, professionally work there, that have no problems putting in murderers.... It's a tough, tough place, and they were crying.... They said, "I'm sorry." They said, "2024, sir. 2024." And tears were pouring down their eyes.'" Related story linked below under Presidential Election 2024. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: There's a tell here that many of you will recognize. Trump claims the tough, tough employees said, "2024, sir. 2024." I'll admit that most Trump tales are lies, but its a gare-un-tee that every story he tells in which someone calls him "sir" is an out-and-out fabrication. P.S. How do tears "pour down their eyes"?
Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump, citing a 'deluge of prejudicial media coverage' concerning his recent indictment and arraignment in Manhattan, asked a federal judge late Tuesday for a one-month postponement of Mr. Trump's civil trial over an allegation that he raped a magazine writer in the mid-1990s. The request for the delay comes just two weeks before the civil suit by the writer E. Jean Carroll was scheduled for trial in federal court in Manhattan." Politico's report is here. MB: Wait, wait. Trump himself is adding to the "media deluge" by suing Cohen in relation to the indictment, by repeatedly discussing it on his Twitter-knockoff site and in other venues, by defaming the D.A. and judge, by urging his supporters in Congress to harass the Manhattan, DA & so forth. So an unrelated trial should be delayed?? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post questions Jim Jordan's sudden interest in "an increase in violent crime" in Manhattan. Kessler compares Manhattan's crime rate with that of Mansfield, Ohio, (pop. 50,000) which is the largest town in Jordan's home district. One Website -- City-Data.com -- "shows that Mansfield's crime index was higher every year -- almost double New York City's index every year dating back to 2007 -- except for 2020..., the year the pandemic struck. Property Club, a real estate company, lists Mansfield as the seventh-most dangerous city in Ohio.... By contrast, Property Club said, 'New York City is one of the safest large cities in the world.'"
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday rejected a bid by former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro to retain hundreds of government records despite a judge's order to return them promptly to the National Archives. 'There is no public interest in Navarro's retention of the records, and Congress has recognized that the public has an interest in the Nation's possession and retention of Presidential records,' the three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded in a unanimous two-page order.... Navarro acknowledged [during the suit the DOJ brought against him] that at least 200 to 250 records in his possession belong to the government, but he contended that no mechanism exists to enforce that requirement -- and that doing so might violate his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected that claim, ordering Navarro to promptly return the records he had identified as belonging to the government. But Navarro appealed the decision...."
Kalyeena Makortoff of the Guardian: "World Bank staff were apparently told to give preferential treatment to the son of a high-ranking Trump administration official after the US Treasury threw its support behind a $13bn (£10bn) funding increase for the organisation, a leaked recording suggests. Shared with the Guardian by a whistleblower, the recording of a 2018 staff meeting suggests colleagues were encouraged by a senior manager to curry favour with the son of David Malpass, who is now president of the World Bank but at the time was serving in the US Treasury under Donald Trump. During the recording, which has left the Washington-based organisation facing questions over standards of governance, staff refer to 22-year-old Robert Malpass as a 'prince' and 'important little fellow', who could go 'running to daddy' if things went wrong."
Katie Robertson & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The judge overseeing Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit against Fox News said on Wednesday that he was imposing a sanction on the network and would very likely start an investigation into whether Fox's legal team had withheld evidence, scolding the lawyers for not being 'straightforward' with him.... In imposing sanction on Fox, Judge Eric M. Davis of the Delaware Superior Court ruled that if Dominion had to do additional depositions or redo any already done that 'Fox will do everything they can to make the person available, and it will be at a cost to Fox.' He also said he would very likely appoint a special master to investigate Fox's handling of discovery of documents and the question of whether Fox had inappropriately withheld details about Rupert Murdoch's role as a corporate officer of Fox News.... He said he would weigh whether any additional sanctions should be put on Fox." CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Gosh, who could have guessed that a media outlet that makes its money lying to the public would lie to a judge overseeing a case in which the plaintiff accused the outlet of lying?
** Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the abortion pill mifepristone could remain available, but the judges blocked the drug from being sent to patients through the mail and rolled back other steps the government had taken to ease access in recent years. In its order, a three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit partially overruled Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas, who last week declared that the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone in 2000 was not valid, in essence saying that the drug should be pulled from the market. The appellate court said its ruling would hold until the full case is heard on its merits.... The appellate panel said the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone could stand because too much time had passed for the plaintiffs ... to challenge that decision. The court also seemed to take into account the government's view that removing a long-approved drug from the market would have 'significant public consequences.' But the appellate court said that it was not too late for the plaintiffs to challenge a set of steps the F.D.A. took beginning in 2016 that lifted restrictions and made it easier for more patients to have access to the pill.... In the decision, two Trump-appointed judges voted to reimpose some of the restrictions that the F.D.A. had eased. The third judge, appointed by President George W. Bush, said she would essentially have granted the [government's] full request." The Guardian's report is here.
David Von Drehle of the Washington Post: "Since the 1960s, if not earlier, self-styled legal conservatives have been saying -- with perfectly straight faces -- that judges must not legislate from the bench.... Judges don't make the laws. They don't execute the laws. They just read the laws.... Was it all a lie? Of course it was.... Just how far [Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk] would venture into lawlessness was revealed when the Amarillo freelancer shrugged off all deference to the other branches of government to assert his personal power to undo approval of a medicine cleared for American patients some 20 years ago: mifepristone, used to induce miscarriages early in pregnancy and prescribed as part of the most common abortion procedure in the United States.... The Justice Department has appealed the ruling. It had little choice, given the usurpation of both executive and legislative authority. Congress has given authority over prescription medicines to the executive branch, not some Panhandle praetor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brett Murphy of ProPublica: "A Washington ethics watchdog is calling for the Department of Justice to investigate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for failing to disclose luxury trips he received from a billionaire GOP megadonor. 'This high-profile ethics matter has historic implications far beyond one Supreme Court justice,' attorneys for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center wrote in a detailed letter on Tuesday to the Judicial Conference, the principal policymaking body for federal courts. The Judicial Conference could trigger an investigation by referring the case to the Justice Department.... The letter is the latest in what have been days of mounting pressure to address the revelations. Last week, Democratic lawmakers called on Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate. This Monday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans to hold a hearing 'regarding the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court's ethical standards.'" ~~~
~~~ David Sirota & Julia Rock of the Lever: "While refusing to disclose lavish gifts from a billionaire, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas pushed to invalidate all political spending disclosure laws in America, insisting that donors have a constitutional right to anonymously influence politics with unlimited amounts of cash.... In 2010..., [Thomas] supported the Citizens United majority ruling, but issued a concurring opinion insisting that judges should overturn all rules that require transparency in political spending."
NPR Is Tired of Trying to Reason with Elon Musk. Laura Kelley & Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "National Public Radio said on Wednesday that it would suspend all Twitter use, a little over a week after the social network designated the broadcaster 'U.S. state-affiliated media.' Twitter has since changed the label on the NPR Twitter account to 'Government-funded Media,' a designation it also gave to PBS. That label also appeared on the account of the BBC, the national broadcaster of Britain, until Wednesday, when it was changed to 'publicly funded media.' NPR said Twitter's move could damage its reputation.... In a letter to staff on Wednesday morning, John Lansing, NPR's chief executive, said posting on the platform would be a disservice to the staff's journalism. 'Actions by Twitter or other social media companies to tarnish the independence of any public media institution are exceptionally harmful and set a dangerous precedent,'..." ~~~
~~~ NPR's story, by David Folkenflik, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Big Bird Has Stopped Tweeting. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Public TV broadcaster PBS also said it has suspended tweets since Saturday for the same reason -- but unlike NPR, the organization left the door open to return at some point. At least three public radio stations have also left the platform in reaction to the labeling controversy."
Presidential Race 2024. Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who announced Wednesday he's testing the waters for a presidential bid, will not say whether he'd support ... Donald Trump in 2024 if he's the GOP nominee. Scott, who is forming a presidential exploratory committee, a precursor to running for president, twice declined to answer a question about supporting Trump in an interview with CBS News political correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns in Iowa."
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona. This Is Different. Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "The Republican-controlled Arizona House of Representatives expelled a GOP member from the chamber Wednesday after an ethics committee concluded she committed 'disorderly behavior' for lying about false testimony given during a February legislative hearing on elections. The resolution to expel state Rep. Liz Harris, which passed with bipartisan support, said her conduct undermined the public's confidence in the House, violated the 'inherent obligation' to protect the chamber's integrity, and 'violated the order and decorum' needed to do the people's work. In February, a speaker invited by Harris to testify at the election-focused hearing baselessly accused Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, Republican House Speaker Ben Toma, Maricopa County leaders and local judges of accepting bribes from a drug cartel.... Arizona House members voted 46-13 to expel Harris, a tally that included 18 Republicans voting in favor." MB: It's not entirely clear from the story, but I gather that Harris lied to the Ethics Committee by telling them she didn't know her guest speaker would make baseless charges against officials, but she did know. ~~~
~~~ Update: Yeah, that's the gist of it: Ben Giles of NPR: "An Arizona Republican legislator has been expelled from the state House of Representatives for inviting a witness to present false charges about lawmakers and other state officials -- and then, according to an ethics committee report, lying about her involvement in the outrageous testimony."
Missouri. David Moye of the Huffington Post: "A Missouri state senator [Mike Moon] apparently wants to block gender-affirming care for transgender youth but is OK with 12-year-olds getting married. When a Democratic member asked if Moon knew of any 12-year-olds who had married. Why, yes, yes, he did: "'I do. And guess what? They're still married,' Moon responded, according to the Springfield News-Leader.... In 2018, [Moon] opposed a passed law that raised the state's marriage age from 15 to 16 and required older teenagers to get parental permission."
New Jersey. Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "Two New Jersey police chiefs -- one suspended, the other retired -- were charged on Wednesday with abusing their authority by committing sex-related crimes involving women who worked in their departments. The cases are unrelated, but Matthew J. Platkin, the state's attorney general, announced them together at a news conference to send a message to the public and to those who work in law enforcement.... Chief Thomas Herbst of Manville, who was suspended last year, was charged with sexual assault, official misconduct and other counts for what Mr. Platkin described in a news release as 'a yearslong pattern of sexually predatory behavior targeting multiple women.'... The retired chief, Andrew Kudrick, who stepped down from his job leading the Howell Township Police Department last year, was charged with official misconduct, retaliation against witnesses, and other crimes in connection with a sexual relationship with a subordinate that he tried to cover up...."
North Dakota. David Chen of the New York Times: "North Dakota on Tuesday night became the latest state to bar transgender girls and women from joining female sports teams, starting from kindergarten and all the way through college. The new restrictions in North Dakota, which were signed by Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican, came less than a week after the Biden administration weighed in on the charged debate over transgender athletes. Under the administration's proposed rule change, schools would be allowed to block some transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identities, but would be prevented from enacting across-the-board bans. North Dakota's laws and others like it could be headed for a clash with federa regulation if and when Mr. Biden's proposed change takes effect. According to legal experts the federal instruction would override state laws."
** Tennessee. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Local officials unanimously voted on Wednesday to send Justin J. Pearson, one of two Black Democratic representatives ousted from the Tennessee House of Representatives after a gun control protest on the House floor, back to his seat in the state legislature.The vote came less than a week after Mr. Pearson of Memphis and State Representative Justin Jones of Nashville were abruptly expelled from the legislature.... The unanimous vote by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners allows Mr. Pearson to return to his seat as early as this week, ahead of a special election later this year. Both Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson have vowed to run for their seats." The AP's report is here. ~~~
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. -- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail" ~~~
~~~ Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out that Pearson's return to office came exactly 60 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested and sent to the Birmingham City Jail, where he wrote "Letter from Birmingham Jail." You can read the letter here. It's not long.
~~~ Matthew Brown of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats are urging the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the expulsions of two Tennessee state representatives to determine whether their removal violated the Constitution or federal civil rights law. In a letter delivered on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) call on Attorney General Merrick Garland to 'use all available legal authorities' to conclude whether federal statutes were violated and 'take all steps necessary to uphold the democratic integrity of our nation's legislative bodies.'"
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Thursday is here: "The war in Ukraine is unlikely to end this year, and no peace talks between Kyiv and the Kremlin are expected in 2023, according to a sensitive U.S. government document that was part of a trove leaked online.... The [Defense Intelligence Agency] predicts a costly and slow conflict, with both sides making only marginal gains because they lack sufficient soldiers and supplies for a major breakthrough.... Two U.S. citizens have died in Ukraine, the State Department said Wednesday, without disclosing their identities or the circumstances of their deaths. ABC News reported that they had been volunteers in the war.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for international action after a gruesome video of an apparent beheading of a Ukrainian fighter was shared on Russian-language Telegram channels. The United Nations demanded an investigation into the 'brutal execution.'"
** The WashPo Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy Who Uploaded Classified Docs. Shane Harris & Samuel Oakford of the Washington Post: "The man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has exposed spying on allies, revealed the grim prospects for Ukraine's war with Russia and ignited diplomatic fires ... is a young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic. United by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God, the group of roughly two dozen -- mostly men and boys -- formed an invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord.... [The group called one of the members 'OG,' and it was OG who posted a message that was unintelligible to most of the group. But one] young member read OG's message closely, and the hundreds more that he said followed on a regular basis for months. They were, he recalled, what appeared to be near-verbatim transcripts of classified intelligence documents that OG indicated he had brought home from his job on a 'military base,' which the member declined to identify. OG claimed he spent at least some of his day inside a secure facility....
"[The young man's] account was corroborated by a second member who read many of the same classified documents shared by OG.... Both members said they know OG's real name as well as the state where he lives and works but declined to share that information while the FBI is hunting for the source of the leaks." Read on. Eventually, someone in the group posted some of the classified docs on another Discord server; the documents migrated to at least one other Discord server and from there onto other sites. ~~~
~~~ Julian Borger of the Guardian extensively cites the Washington Post's findings. ~~~
~~~ Marie: If a right-wing nut with top-secret security clearance can freely walk out of a military base day after day with his pockets stuffed with classified documents, as seems to be the case, we have a pretty piss-poor security system.
~~~ Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "... the leak appears to have hinged on a single person with privileged access to top secret documents, a small inner circle of supporters willing to dissect and share the records, and a group chat service, Discord, that operates at a frenetic pace and is largely invisible to the rest of the internet. The leak highlights the challenge for the U.S. government in guarding the documents it shares with the roughly 3 million people with security clearances nationwide. Any of them can use a service like Discord anonymously, sharing records for their own personal purposes.... Discord ... [has] grown to encompass roughly 19 million chatrooms, called servers, with 150 million monthly active users worldwide." ~~~
~~~ This Seems Prudent. Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "The Biden administration is looking at expanding how it monitors social media sites and chatrooms after U.S. intelligence agencies failed to spot classified Pentagon documents circulating online for weeks, according to a senior administration official and a congressional official briefed on the matter.... The administration is now looking at expanding the universe of online sites that intelligence agencies and law enforcement authorities track, the official said. The secret Pentagon documents appeared in an obscure part of the internet focused on gaming, and some former intelligence officials said it was understandable that U.S. authorities did not spot the disclosure.... But cybersecurity experts have long known that Discord has been used by criminals and hackers to spread malware and stealthily transfer stolen information." ~~~
~~~ Marcy Wheeler: OG "would and did leak to feed his own ego and rationalized doing so with claims about the Deep State, the same kind of claims that the former President [Trump] spreads regularly."
~~~ Anton Troianovski, et al., of the New York Times: "The depth of the infighting inside the Russian government appears broader and deeper than previously understood, judging from a newly discovered cache of classified intelligence documents that has been leaked online. The additional documents, which did not surface in a 53-page set that came to wide public attention online last week, paint a picture of the Russian government feuding over the count of the dead and wounded in the Ukraine war, with the domestic intelligence agency accusing the military of obscuring the scale of casualties that Russia has suffered. The new batch, which contains 27 pages, reinforces how deeply American spy agencies have penetrated nearly every aspect of the Russian intelligence apparatus and military command structure. It also shows that the breach of American intelligence agencies could contain far more material than previously understood." MB: This leak appears to me to be more damaging than Edward Snowden's notorious docudump.
U.K. Sammy Westfall of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, Buckingham Palace confirmed that [Prince] Harry will attend the May 6 [coronation of King Charles & Queen Camilla], though his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will remain behind in California with their 22-month-old daughter, Lilibet, and son, Archie -- whose fourth birthday is on Coronation Day." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Ledes
NBC News: "San Francisco police on Thursday arrested a suspect in the fatal stabbing of technology executive Bob Lee, law enforcement officials announced Thursday. San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott, speaking to reporters at a news conference, identified the suspect as 38-year-old Nima Momeni of Emeryville, California. He confirmed that Lee and Momeni knew each other. Momeni will be charged with murder, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told reporters. She added that she plans to file a motion to detain him without bail to make sure he remains in custody. He is expected to be arraigned Friday afternoon."
New York Times: "Mary Quant, the British designer who revolutionized fashion and epitomized the style of the Swinging Sixties, a playful, youthful ethos that sprang from the streets, not a Paris atelier, died on Thursday at her home in Surrey, in southern England. Known as the mother of the miniskirt, she was 93."
New York Times: "Josh Harris, an owner of the N.B.A.'s Philadelphia 76ers and the N.H.L.'s New Jersey Devils, agreed in principle to buy the Washington Commanders for a record $6 billion from Dan Snyder, the longtime owner of the team plagued by scandals that drew investigations from the N.F.L., Congress and other government agencies. With the end of Snyder's tenure nearing, the N.F.L. can begin to distance itself from a painful chapter in its history and right the future of the popular franchise, which under Snyder had been tarnished by accusations of a toxic workplace and an inability to secure a new stadium." The Washington Post's story is here. The WashPo has a number of related stories linked on its front page.
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Reader Comments (8)
Though it may suggest I'm more indecisive than thoughtful, I'm of at least two minds about the latest security breach receiving so much attention.
Yeah, when considering international relations and the Ukraine war effort, the breach is undoubtedly harmful, but isn't there also something positive to be said more generally about the democratization of information? If knowledge is power, why should it be restricted to the powerful, especially if those powerful people are using their exclusive knowledge to profit themselves or harm others?
That question often informs some mildly mixed feelings I have about the Snowdens, Assanges and Mannings who spill other people's beans, tho' in naming those three I'm not implying I think of them as exactly the same.
To me, they are not because I take a kind of Catholic approach to the issue secrets revealed. Starting with the question of whether the secret(s) should have been secret(s) at all, there is the revelation itself, but in judging it, I also look to the actors' motives and the results of what they did. Often, though, I don't know enough about those motives or results to come down firmly on one side or the other. So I end up with a spot of dithering.
But me not knowing doesn't make the issue disappears. Regardless of the legal or social prohibitions against revealing secrets, doing so isn't always bad, and can be justified similarly to the way we justify disobedience to a bad law, as MLK does in his letter, and not unlike what happened recently in the Tennessee legislature where three people broke the legislature's rules in a good cause...
GET THAT FUCKER!!!!
Best news ever! "Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post questions Jim Jordan's sudden interest in “an increase in violent crime” in Manhattan." My animus for this creep knows no bounds–--almost matches that feeling for the cock of the walk who talks of tears flowing from those who are laughing hilariously. As I said before, I hate feeling such hatred but ......
@Ken Winkes: My thinking, which I'll also admit may be mighty faulty, on the seriousness of the leaked papers -- at least the ones that have come out so far -- is that they reveal some types of things that I don't recall the Snowden disclosures did. Snowden's docs mostly showed what the U.S. was doing, and that did include some spying on allies which embarrassed the U.S. But Snowden's main concern seemed to be about how the U.S. federal government spied on its own citizens & invaded their privacy. That's as I recall, & my memory may be faulty, too.
OG's leaks -- besides once again embarrassing the U.S. for our spying on "friends" -- reveal Ukraine's battlefield plans (which may be outdated, but we don't know for sure) and our assessments of Ukraine's military shortcomings. The new leaks also appear to me to come close to revealing sources who work inside the Russian government.
The OG leaks also reveal how sloppy our supposed security system is. Now, that may be a good thing if it forces the Pentagon & intel agencies to do a better job of securing classified info. Snowden had to go to some trouble to secretly download his docs & sneak digital copies out of his workplace; OG just copied docs on the old photocopier & stuffed the hard copies in his pocket, then waltzed past "security" with no questions asked: not exactly high-tech spy stuff. Then, it turns out our intel agencies have not figured out a way -- or don't bother -- to monitor the chatrooms of sites like Discord. It took them months to find OG's leaks, and they didn't find them until the classified docs migrated to more popular chatrooms.
@P.D. Pepe:
I cope with my animus re Gym Jordan by noting that his cheeks are more sunken, his hair is greyer, and his buff chest with rolled up shirtsleeves look stupider now, now that he just looks old. Sorta like Dorian Grey.
It’s interesting that appellate judges in the 5th Circuit put a stop to the outrageous overreach of single judge in Texas removing mifepristone from the market, a guy with zero credentials for ruling on that or any other drug.
Interesting because the 5th Circuit is by far and away the most extreme right-wing appellate court in the nation, described often as the most dangerous court in the country for its habit of finding the most squirrely ways around judicial roadblocks when deciding on cases near and dear to confederate extremists. If the mifepristone ban was too much for these guys, it truly is far enough around the bend to see it’s own ass up ahead.
BUT!!!…this being the 5th Circuit, they couldn’t just allow common sense and long standing FDA approval to get away scot free from the righty-right-right wrecking ball. So they decided to keep other roadblocks in place, like obtaining this medication through the mail.
Why? If it’s a legal drug, what’s the problem?
The problem is what it most often is: mollifying the religious nut jobs. Would they make Viagra unobtainable through the mail? Hell no.
And here’s the thing: right-wing antipathy to women making their own health and life decisions rests entirely—ENTIRELY—on the religious beliefs of certain Christian groups. It’s all about religion.
In a secular society, the religious beliefs of these groups trump the rights of every other person in America. It’s not a legal issue, not a medical issue (in fact it’s anti-medical), it’s a religious issue.
That’s it. Exactly the sort of bullshit the founders tried to put in the rear view mirror.
But the religious beliefs and requirements of this single group control so much of public life in America. Last Friday, I went to the local courthouse to drop off a juror qualification form. It had to be filled out and returned within so many days. Not wanting to be a Trump-style scofflaw, I hightailed it down to the clerk’s office to drop it off within the allotted time period.
Couldn’t. Know why?
The entire courthouse, in fact, all city and county departments were closed for Good Friday, a religious holiday. These are taxpayer funded public offices. Closed because of religion. Do they close for Yom Kippur? Ramadan? Flying Spaghetti Monster Day?
Not on your life.
One religion controls or influences so much of what happens in this country. But they never stop complaining about how oppressed they are and how people hate them.
Maybe if they didn’t work so hard at controlling how the rest of us live, that wouldn’t be case.
While President Biden is climbing the stone steps of an ancient castle in Ireland, Fatty is sitting on his brains whining to TuKKKer KKKarlson about how he (Biden) is too weak and out of shape to finish a presidential campaign.
This from a lard ass who needed a golf cart to carry his indolent bulk a few hundred feet at a G7 meeting a few years ago. Other world leaders walked. Not this fat fuck. He needed help making it the length of a football field.
Climb the steps of an ancient castle? He’d be lucky to make it three steps before whining that the guy who designed the place was out to get Trump.
AK: yes, yes and yes and indubitably yes. You express so well the frustrations of most of us. Ken and Marie are more reserved, less bombastic...but all of you are absolutely correct on almost everything being commented upon.
Looks like the leaker is a RWNJ who was dumb enough to release the intelligence he purloined on a site he administers...
Should we draw any conclusions about his own?
Although I believe we do over-classify, Now that I've read a little about him I find it hard to excuse him.
https://news.yahoo.com/big-u-intelligence-leak-gun-034247926.html