;)
The Commentariat -- August 15, 2020
Late Morning Update:
Just saw this ad on run on CNN. Pretty good:
Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar. Sean Colarossi of Politics USA: "In a bipartisan letter to the Justice Department, the Senate Intelligence Committee raised concerns about testimony given by some of Donald Trump's family members during the Russia investigation. According to the Los Angeles Times, '[The letter] raised concerns about testimony provided by family members and confidants of President Trump that appeared to contradict information provided by a former deputy campaign chairman [Rick Gates] to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.' Among those family members and allies who may have given conflicting testimony were Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Hope Hicks. The committee also sought an investigation into ... Steve Bannon for 'potentially lying to lawmakers during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The letter is dated July 19, 2019. What with more than a year's having passed since the senators sent the letter to the DOJ, you'd almost think maybe our fine Justice Department wasn't getting right on it.
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race, Etc.
Davey Alba of the New York Times: "... false and misleading information about [Kamala] Harris has spiked online and on TV.... Here are three false rumors about Ms. Harris that continue circulating widely online.... The falsehood that Ms. Harris is connected to a child-trafficking conspiracy known as PizzaGate was published on the conspiracy-mongering website Infowars, which set off a round of sharing on social media.... One of the most convoluted lies that has spread on social media involves the actor Jussie Smollett and the baseless allegation that Ms. Harris is his aunt and knew in advance that Mr. Smollett was planning to stage an assault against himself early last year.... Falsehoods about Ms. Harris's heritage -- in particular that she is 'not Black' -- were among the most widely spread misinformation that Zignal Labs tracked." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: While the first two rumors are just plain nuts, I think the last may be simply misunderstanding, even though in many cases that misunderstanding is embedded in purposeful racism. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times does a fine job of explaining what it means to be African-American or Black in the U.S.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and the magazine's recently hired opinion editor, Trump-backing conservative activist and attorney Josh Hammer, apologized on Friday after nearly a week of defending a right-wing law professor's op-ed questioning Sen. Kamala Harris' U.S. citizenship and her eligibility to be Joe Biden's running mate. 'This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize,' read the editor's note that replaced their earlier detailed defense of the op-ed.... Hammer -- a former Ted Cruz aide and member of the Federalist Society and the right-leaning Claremont Institute, who joined Newsweek in May after writing for Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire -- declined to comment, telling The Daily Beast in a brief phone conversation, 'I'm not interested in speaking. Thank you.' And then hung up the phone." ~~~
~~~ Mark Stern of Slate: "... the conservative legal movement continues to entertain their lie [that children born in the U.S. do not automatically receive American citizenship], lending it a patina of legitimacy. In turn, media outlets give these charlatans a megaphone through which to launder their racist falsehoods. And that, in short, is why ... Donald Trump is floating the fictitious claim that [Kamala] Harris may not qualify to serve as vice president.... Why ... do outlets like Newsweek and the Washington Post keep publishing articles that promote this lie? A coterie of racists based at the Claremont Institute hope that if they repeat it enough, they can leave the door open for a mass expatriation of second-generation Americans, most of them minorities. Indeed, there are few if any supporters of this falsehood who lack connections to the Claremont Institute.... The Claremont Institute masquerades as an intellectual salon of the right, but it is really just a racist fever swamp with deep connections to the conspiratorial alt-right."
Edward Moreno of the Hill: "Marge Simpson says she's 'pissed off' after Trump campaign adviser Jenna Ellis tweeted this week that Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) ... 'sounds like' her." ~~~
Marge Simpson has something to say. pic.twitter.com/viux96bAPf
— TheSimpsons (@TheSimpsons) August 14, 2020
Janelle Griffith of NBC News: "A Virginia mayor is facing calls for his resignation over a Facebook post in which he said that Joe Biden 'just announced Aunt Jemima' as his running mate. Luray Mayor Barry Presgraves posted the comment about two weeks ago on his Facebook page.... 'I thought it was humorous,' he said. 'I had no idea people would react the way they did. I think people have gone overboard on this ... It's an election year.' [Presgraves is not running for re-election.] The comment was condemned by members of the Luray Town Council and other residents before he took it down.... Presgraves apologized at a town council meeting on Monday night.... The town council voted 5-1 to censure Presgraves for what they described in a statement as 'his choice of harmful words posted on social media.'"
MEANWHILE, in Australia. Sonali Paul & Joseph Ax of Reuters: "A cartoon in Australia's biggest national newspaper was denounced as racist by some top government figures on Friday for a portrayal of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris.... The cartoon by Johannes Leak in The Australian newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and is known for its conservative views, depicted a beaming Biden saying, 'It's time to heal a nation divided by racism.' The drawing then showed him pointing to Harris, the first Black woman on a major-party U.S. presidential ticket, and saying, 'So I'll hand you over to this little brown girl while I go for a lie-down.'"
A FactCheck Backtrack. "Trump Proves Biden Right." Eugene Keily of FactCheck.org: "In late June, Joe Biden claimed ... Donald Trump 'wants to cut off money for the post office so they cannot deliver mail-in ballots.' At the time, we wrote that ... [Biden] had no evidence of Trump's ulterior motive -- but now he does. In an Aug. 13 interview, Trump admitted that he opposes a coronavirus pandemic relief bill crafted by the House Democrats because it includes funding the U.S. Postal Service and state election officials -- funding that Trump said is needed to allow the Postal Service to handle an expected surge in mail-in voting.... Hours after his interview with Bartiromo, Trump said he wouldn't veto the bill if it includes money for the Postal Service and state election planning -- but he repeated his statement about the agency being unable to handle mail-in ballots without it.... Trump provided Biden with the evidence that he earlier had lacked."
Ha! Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "Joe Biden gained the presidential endorsement of the National Association of Letter Carriers on Friday, a union that boasts nearly 300,000 active and retired postal workers.... The endorsement comes ... a day after ... Donald Trump said he opposes Postal Service funding pushed by Democrats.... Congressional Democrats, backed by Biden, have sought $3.6 billion to help equip states for an expected surge of mail-in votes, as well as $25 billion to shore up the Postal Service. Trump opposes it.... [Union president Fredric] Rolando said the postal worker union's decision to endorse Biden is 'partly informed by what we have seen from the current administration with regards to the Postal Service.... In 2018, legislative recommendations from the White House Postal Task Force report called for the revocation of collective bargaining rights by America's postal unions, massive cuts to services and the potential privatization of the agency,' he said. 'Since that time, we have continued to see the administration take steps outside of the public eye to undermine the Postal Service and letter carriers.'"
Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Ads, speeches, campaign strategy — all the usual detritus of a normal political cycle -- are minor concerns in the face of the only story that really matters right now: Donald Trump is trying to destroying the U.S. Postal Service in order to keep votes by mail from being delivered on time and counted. This election, at the end of the day, is coming down to one single question: Will Trump be able to steal it?... Trump's efforts to undermine the Postal Service, so Americans can't reliably or effectively vote by mail, are working.... The president is trying to steal the election, he has the means to do it, and he very well may succeed unless he's met with massive, organized resistance.... The good news is that there's a real opportunity for voters to rally and take real action to make sure their vote is counted.... Postal slowdowns are the sort of thing even low-information voters tend to notice."
Louie DeLuxe.Marshall Cohen & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "The internal watchdog at the United States Postal Service is reviewing controversial policy changes recently imposed under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and is also examining DeJoy's compliance with federal ethics rules, according to a spokeswoman for the USPS inspector general and an aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who requested the review. Lawmakers from both parties and postal union leaders have sounded alarms over disruptive changes instituted by DeJoy this summer, including eliminating overtime and slowing some mail delivery. Democrats claim he is intentionally undermining postal service operations to sabotage mail-in voting in the November election -- a charge he denies.... A spokeswoman for the USPS watchdog told CNN in an email, 'We have initiated a body of work to address the concerns raised, but cannot comment on the details.'" ~~~
~~~ Trump Held Secret Meeting with DeJoy, Lied about It. Abby Phillip, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump met with United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy at the White House last week amid his ongoing attacks on mail-in voting and ahead of DeJoy's meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.... The meeting took place on August 3, Deere said. DeJoy met with Pelosi and Schumer on August 5. Asked days later, August 9, in New Jersey about the Post Office's issues, Trump said he 'didn't speak' to DeJoy.... 'It was a congratulatory meeting,' White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNN. DeJoy, a longtime ally and prolific Trump fundraiser, took the post office's top role on June 15.... News of the meeting comes ... as the President has explicitly admitted he is blocking postal service funding to stop mail-in votes and spreading lies about mail-in voting." As Rachel Maddow said, on the same day DeJoy met with Pelosi & Schumer, August 7, DeJoy pulled off his "Friday Night Massacre," reassigning or removing 23 top USPS executives. Mrs. McC: Funny time for a "congratulatory meeting": nearly two months after DeJoy took office. Or was Trump congratulating DeJoy for something else? ~~~
~~~ In an update of a story also linked yesterday, the Washington Post reported that "DeJoy ... is in frequent contact with top Republican Party officials...." Mrs. McC: Now, what would be the purpose of those "frequent contacts"?
** Erin Cox, et al., of the Washington Post: "Anticipating an avalanche of absentee ballots, the U.S. Postal Service recently sent detailed letters to 46 states and D.C. warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted -- adding another layer of uncertainty ahead of the high-stakes presidential contest. The letters sketch a grim possibility for the tens of millions of Americans eligible for a mail-in ballot this fall: Even if people follow all of their state's election rules, the pace of Postal Service delivery may disqualify their votes. The ballot warnings, issued at the end of July from Thomas J. Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service, and obtained through a records request by The Washington Post, were planned before the appointment of Louis DeJoy, a former logistics executive and ally of President Trump, as postmaster general in early summer. They go beyond the traditional coordination between the Postal Service and election officials, drafted as fears surrounding the coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented and sudden shift to mail-in voting." An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Steve M.: "The Postal Service is practically boasting that it won't deliver your mail-in ballot on time.... We might be tempted to believe that the bad guy here is not President Trump's hatchetman, Louis DeJoy, the recently appointed postmaster general [since, according to the WashPo, the letters were planned "in early summer"].... Except that according to a Vice/Motherboard story ... [linked below], the plans coincide with DeJoy's appointment rather precisely.... To me it seems obvious that DeJoy was in on the planning of this as his appointment was being finalized. The Postal Service is clearly trying to steal the election for Trump.... Of the six largest reductions in sorting capacity, two are in obvious swing states: Michigan and Pennsylvania. Two are in states that weren't expected to be swing states but now appear to be: Texas and Ohio. But why the sorting reductions in New York and California?... [Trump] doesn't just want to steal an Electoral College win. He wants to steal a popular vote win." ~~~
~~~ "A Most Desperate Ratfucking." Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "You can see a major part of the strategy here: to use uncertainty about the outcome to declare victory on Election Night. (Relatedly, the Trump administration is pretending Bush v. Gore was constitutional law to try to get the courts to suppress the vote in Nevada.)" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I see these letters as part of the effort to suppress the Democratic vote, too. Since millions more Democrats than Republicans are expected to vote by mail, and since voting by mail is a bit of a hassle -- request a ballot, look for the ballot in the mail, fill out the ballot, make sure you properly complete all the bells & whistles, mail the ballot -- Trump & DeJoy want Democratic voters to think, "Why am I going through all this effort when the Post Office will just turn my ballot into paper pulp?" See also the Postal Employees union president on this, too, reported by Zoë Richards of TPM & linked below. ~~~
~~~ Pam Fessler & Miles Parks of NPR: "... a bipartisan group of secretaries of state, who are responsible for running elections, requested to meet this week with postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who was appointed to the job in May. But that meeting has yet to be scheduled.... It was not clear why the invitation has yet to be accepted, but ... the delay is unusual, considering that election officials will begin sending out absentee ballots as soon as September.... In his first public statement last week, DeJoy ... reaffirmed the Postal Service's commitment to delivering election mail and said the organization has 'ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on time.' President Trump has contradicted that claim, saying repeatedly that the Postal Service will not be able to handle the expected flood of absentee ballots without a large infusion of funds, which he opposes." ~~~
~~~ ** Aaron Gordon of Vice: "The United States Postal Service proposed removing 20 percent of letter sorting machines it uses around the country before revising the plan weeks later to closer to 15 percent of all machines, meaning 502 will be taken out of service, according to documents obtained by Motherboard.... USPS workers told Motherboard this will slow their ability to sort mail. One of the documents also suggests these changes were in the works before Louis DeJoy ... became postmaster general, because it is dated May 15, a month before DeJoy assumed office and only nine days after the Board of Governors announced his selection. The title of the presentation, as well as language used in the notice to union officials, undermines the Postal Service's narrative that the organization is simply 'mov[ing] equipment around its network' to optimize processing.... The May document clearly calls the initiative an 'equipment reduction.' It makes no mention of the machines being moved to other facilities.... Multiple sources within the postal service told Motherboard they have personally witnessed the machines, which cost millions of dollars, being destroyed or thrown in the dumpster." ~~~
Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The removal of dozens of mailboxes in a handful of states set off a social media panic and some high-profile attention this week, but the U.S. Postal Service said the iconic blue boxes are just being moved to higher-volume areas.... Mailboxes have reportedly been removed in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Montana. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) wrote to DeJoy on Thursday requesting more information about the Postal Service's plans for its mailboxes. 'These actions set my hair on fire and they have real life implications for folks in rural America and their ability to access critical postal services like paying their bills and voting in upcoming elections,' Tester said in a Friday statement. 'Postmaster General DeJoy must immediately provide Montanans with an explanation for the actions of the USPS, or he can do it under oath before a Senate committee.'... Tester said in a later statement Friday that the Postal Service had paused mailbox removal in his home state, but ... demanded the postmaster general replace the collection boxes that were already removed." ~~~
~~~ Maritsa Georgiou of MBC Montana: "NBC Montana confirmed with the Montana State Association of the National Association of Letter Carriers the orders to remove 13 boxes in Missoula, 9 in Bozeman, 3 in Lewistown and 30 in Billings. A source that wishes to remain anonymous sent us the directive for Missoula, which lists addresses in front of the Target store, and several downtown Missoula." The story has been updated: "At 3:10 Friday afternoon, NBC Montana confirmed that the removal of USPS collection boxes has been put on hold statewide. A union leader says the decision came after Friday's pressure." That pressure came from Sen. Tester and later even from Sen. Steve Daines (R) & Rep. Greg Gianforte (R).
~~~ Closed for Lunch. Paul Murphy of CNN: "The US Postal Service will stop taking letter collection boxes off streets in Western states following accusations the removals would further limit some voters ability to send back mail-in ballots. The change came after CNN and others reported on Friday that the US Postal Service has started reducing post office operating hours across several states and removing letter collection boxes, according to union officials.... In a statement Friday night..., a USPS spokesperson for the service's the Western region told CNN that the service will stop the removal of letter collection boxes in 16 states and parts of two others until after the election.... It's not clear if the removal freeze would go into effect across the nation.... In the St. Louis area, some post offices that had been open until 6:30 p.m. -- specifically to serve people getting off-work -- would start to close at 5:00 p.m.... Union officials in West Virginia, Florida and Missouri also said workers are being told that post offices must close an hour for lunch...." ~~~
~~~ Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Former President Barack Obama, in an interview released Friday, slammed ... Donald Trump for trying to 'actively kneecap the Postal Service' to affect mail-in voting in the 2020 election and urged lawmakers and citizens to take actions to 'protect the integrity' of the election.... Obama ... accused Republicans of having tried for years 'to discourage people's votes from counting in all kinds of ways,' like voter identification laws and gerrymandering, but said Trump's threats were 'unique to modern history.'" ~~~
~~~ Zoë Richards of TPM: "President of the American Postal Workers Union Mark Dimondstein on Thursday called it 'truly shameful' that ... Donald Trump would 'hold the post office hostage,' amid the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to suppress and discourage Americans from voting. 'The cat's out of the bag,' Dimondstein told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, referring to revelations earlier this week that -- by his own admission -- Trump said blocking a Democratic proposal for $25 billion of much-needed additional funding to the U.S. Postal Service would prevent widespread mail-in voting.... Dimondstein ... accused the President of what he called attempts to 'keep people from voting,' since ongoing health concerns have made it increasingly difficult for many people to vote safely in-person during the upcoming November election. Dimondstein also criticized the President for perpetuating the 'dangerous' and false claim that voting by mail wouldn't work as a way to discourage people from voting at all."
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "During a news conference Friday, the Associated Press's Jill Colvin asked Trump specifically about QAnon. 'You congratulated Marjorie Taylor Greene in a tweet. You called her a future Republican star,' Colvin said. 'Greene has been a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory. She said it's something that should be -- would be worth listening to. Do you agree with her on that?' 'Well, she did very well in the election,' Trump replied. 'She won by a lot. She was very popular. She comes from a great state, and she had a tremendous victory. So absolutely I did congratulate her.' This, in a nutshell, seems to summarize Trump's view of the situation: she's popular and can get votes, so who's he to object to what she does?... 'Specifically on QAnon and her appearance to embrace that conspiracy theory,' Colvin pressed. 'Do you agree with her on that?' Trump ignored the follow-up..., calling on another reporter.... By not specifically denying or rejecting the theory, he gave it oxygen...." A CNN story is here. ~~~
~~~ Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Anything that threatens the integrity of the vote needs to be treated as one of the biggest stories out there -- even if it's not the sexiest.... All news organizations need to turn up the heat.... Democracy itself depends on it."
Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's what the Constitution says about postal services: "The Congress shall have Power ... To establish Post Offices and post Roads[.]" Although one of the reasons for establishing a national postal service seems to have been to raise revenues, there's nothing in that Constitutional clause that suggests the USPS must be a profit center. And surely one good purpose -- very much in the national interest -- of maintaining the Post Office is to make sure it is able to facilitate the franchise, that right most fundamental to democracy.
Belarus May Be Our Future. Julia Ioffe in GQ describes the horrific conditions in Belarus, where 6,000 people were rounded up and jailed for protesting a rigged presidential election "in which Aleksander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, claimed to win over 80 precent of the vote.... After hundreds of protestors and journalists were released, they described being severely beaten and humiliated, handcuffed and packed in jail cells and forced to lie face down on the concrete, 'like a living carpet,' in pools of their own blood. Others described being in a cell with 65 other people and being given one loaf of bread for everyone to share. People fainted from hunger, thirst, and a lack of fresh air.... In the meantime, liberal, pro-Western Russians and Belarussians are asking: where are the Americans?... Once upon a time, we cared about people like this.... But when the same authoritarianism came home, how did we respond? When a man who didn't hide his authoritarian fantasies won an election, when he openly admired the dictators who crush their dissenters, what did we do? People like [Lindsey] Graham turned into Trump's biggest enablers.... The institutions didn't anticipate such cynical party loyalty, even to a man who has repeatedly said that he may not accept the election results if he loses, a man who would likely be all too happy to make the presidential election of November 2016 our last."
Connecticut Congressional Race. Daniela Altimari of the Hartford Courant: "The arrest of Connecticut Congressional candidate Thomas Gilmer on the eve of this week's Republican primary threw the race into disarray. But details of his alleged violent domestic assault were known in Republican circles for more than two months before anyone contacted authorities. Gilmer's primary opponent, Justin Anderson, spent weeks showing a graphic video of the alleged attack to his fellow Republicans as he worked to defeat the party-backed Gilmer. The state party chairman, J.R. Romano, acknowledged he knew about the allegations as early as May.... Anderson did not report the matter to the police until whispers of Gilmer's past behavior spilled onto social media in late July -- two months after the party's nominating convention. Other Republicans who were shown the video or informed of the allegations also did not contact the police, nor did party leaders alert rank and file Republicans, who selected Gilmer as the nominee." According to the New York Times, the race still has not been called & Anderson leads Gilmer by only 15 votes. The numbers have not changed since I last looked a few days ago.
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here.
Sarah Mervosh, et al., of the New York Times: "... for the first time, the number of known tests [for coronavirus] conducted each day has fallen. Reported daily tests trended downward for much of the last two weeks, essentially stalling the nation's testing response.... The troubling trend ... may in part reflect that fewer people are seeking out tests as known cases have leveled off at more than 50,000 per day, after surging even higher this summer. But the plateau in testing may also reflect people's frustration at the prospect of long lines and delays in getting results -- as well as another fundamental problem: The nation has yet to build a robust system to test vast portions of the population, not just those seeking tests. Six months into the pandemic, testing remains a major obstacle in America's efforts to stop the coronavirus.... 'We are doing the appropriate amount of testing now to reduce the spread, flatten the curve, save lives,' [Adm. Brett Giroir, Trump's virus testing czar,] said this week." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll bet one reason some people choose not to get tested is that they believe Trump that "There are those that say you can test too much" and his repeated nonsensical claim that testing increases cases. They think either that the testing itself makes people sick, as Trump implies, or that they're helping Trump reduce the number of cases.
Joseph Guzman of the Hill: "The nation's leading infectious disease expert and White House coronavirus task force adviser said on Thursday he is not pleased with the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. as the nation continues to lead the rest of the world in the number of cases and deaths. 'Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going,' Anthony Fauci ... said during an exclusive conversation with National Geographic"
Florida. Lori Rozsa, et al., of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week forced one of the country's largest school districts to reopen campuses by the end of August, threatening to withhold up to $200 million in state aid. The Republican's administration told Hillsborough County -- the eighth-largest system in the country -- that it would lose state aid if it did not drop plans to reopen schools remotely for the first month of the 2020-2021 school year. So the county revised its plan and will start with just one week of remote learning. Then parents will choose whether to send their children into school buildings.... DeSantis's administration is playing hardball with other school districts, too, in a state that is one of the nation's coronavirus hot spots, forcing them to reopen buildings now or earlier than they want. Other governors had linked reopening schools to state funding, but none as explicitly as DeSantis."
Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump drew stinging backlash on Friday with his boast on Twitter that he'd 'done more for WOMEN than just about any President in HISTORY!' Trump also proposed in his post -- which came ahead of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment passing, which granted women the right to vote -- building 'a BEAUTIFUL STATUE in Washington D.C. to honor the many brave women who made this possible for our GREAT COUNTRY.'" Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. Mrs. McC: And thanks to Donald Trump for all he's done for me.
Pete Williams of NBC News: "The top two officials at the Department of Homeland Security, acting Secretary Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary, are not legally qualified to hold those positions, a government watchdog concluded Friday. The Government Accountability Office said Wolf and Cuccinelli assumed those jobs under an order of succession that was issued by an acting secretary who himself had no authority to hold his job. That former acting head was Kevin McAleenan, who took over after the last Homeland secretary to be confirmed by the Senate, Kirstjen Nielsen, resigned. GAO's conclusion has no force of law, but the agency said it is referring its conclusion to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. Friday's findings could, however, be cited in lawsuits challenging DHS policies, including stricter immigration controls." A Washington Post story is here.
Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A former F.B.I. lawyer intends to plead guilty after he was charged with falsifying a document as part of a deal with prosecutors conducting their own criminal inquiry of the Russia investigation, according his lawyer and court documents made public on Friday. The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, 38, who was assigned to the Russia investigation, plans to admit that he altered an email from the C.I.A. that investigators relied on to seek renewed court permission in 2017 for a secret wiretap on the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who had at times provided information to the spy agency. Mr. Clinesmith's lawyer said he made a mistake while trying to clarify facts for a colleague." The Daily Beast's story is here.
Carol Leonnig & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service sought to bolster its protection of the White House with surveillance aircraft and a Black Hawk helicopter carrying a 'fast rope' commando team after crowds protesting the police killing of George Floyd knocked down temporary barricades and one man got onto the complex grounds in late May, according to newly obtained government correspondence. That breach -- combined with the throngs of protesters that converged outside the White House the night of May 29 -- prompted agents to rush President Trump to a reinforced bunker and spurred a deeper concern about the White House's vulnerability. In a letter a week later, the Secret Service asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide aircraft that could be used in a rapid-response helicopter operation, the records show.... The Secret Service also asked CBP to help the agency gather information on protesters by flying a surveillance plane equipped with infrared imaging over the city starting that weekend."
Lomi Kriel of ProPublica: "Guards in an immigrant detention center in El Paso sexually assaulted and harassed inmates in a 'pattern and practice' of abuse, according to a complaint filed by a Texas advocacy group urging the local district attorney and federal prosecutors to conduct a criminal investigation. The allegations ... maintain that guards systematically assaulted at least three people in a facility overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- often in areas of the detention center not visible to security cameras.... According to the complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and shared with prosecutors, several guards 'forcibly' kissed and touched the intimate parts of at least one woman. She faces deportation next week -- meaning investigators could lose a key witness."
Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday issued an order calling on Chinese company ByteDance, which owns the popular video app TikTok, to divest from the social media platform's U.S. operations, citing national security. 'There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance Ltd. ... might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,' Trump said in the order released Friday night. The order cites ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of the social media app Musical.ly, which merged into TikTok...."
Your Second-Amendment Rights Are Amazing. David Li of NBC News: "A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the state of California and its ban on high-capacity magazines, calling it 'well-intentioned' but unconstitutional. A split ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the state's ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition would infringe on the Second Amendment right to own firearms.... In dissent, Judge Barbara Lynn said the California law didn't trample on anyone's core Second Amendment freedoms."
But the Emails! Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court panel has unanimously overturned a lower-court order requiring Hillary Clinton to provide a sworn deposition about her use of a private email account and server during her four years as secretary of State. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, 3-0, that the conservative group Judicial Watch was not entitled to depose Clinton in connection with an 8-year-old Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records of details about information national security adviser Susan Rice discussed during interviews in 2012 about the deadly attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya.... Clinton answered written questions under penalty of perjury about her email practices. However, in March of this year, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the former first lady, Cabinet official and two-time Democratic presidential candidate to sit for a deposition. Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan who has tangled with Clinton administration aides in a series of cases for decades, called Hillary Clinton's earlier answers 'incomplete, unhelpful, or cursory, at best.'"
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