On Friday, 60 Minutes revealed that Denver Riggleman, a key staffer for the House Select Committee on January 6, discovered the White House switchboard patched through to the phone of a Capitol rioter — while the attack was in progress.
Bombshell: J6 staffer told 60 Minutes White House switchboard called rioter on Jan. 6
Tish James Got the Goods on the Trump Family Grift—Now What?
While it’s nice to learn more about the crimes Trump & Co. committed, what many of us really want is to know when he’ll be held accountable.
House Passes Symbolic Police Funding And Reform Bills
House Democrats approved legislation Thursday that would provide millions of dollars to local law enforcement while aiming to enhance police training and technology.
The four bills, which are unlikely to clear the Senate and become law, are designed to send a message: that Democrats support small police departments, but also improvements to police practices.
Democrats reached a breakthrough deal after months of arguments between progressives and centrists. President Joe Biden and other moderates have worked to distance the party from the “Defund the Police” slogan and activism of the summer of 2020, which they feel has damaged the party’s electoral prospects.
‘A Lot of Panic’: Russian Men, Fearing Ukraine Draft, Seek Refuge Abroad
A little more than 12 hours after he heard that Russian civilians could be pressed into military service in the Ukraine war, the tour guide said he bought a plane ticket and a laptop, changed money, wrapped up his business, kissed his crying mother goodbye and boarded a plane out of his country, with no idea when he might return.
On Thursday morning, he walked into the cavernous arrival hall of the Istanbul International Airport carrying only a backpack and the address of a friend who had promised to put him up while he figured out what to do with his life.
“I was sitting and thinking about what I could die for, and I didn’t see any reason to die for the country,” said the tour guide, 23, who, like others interviewed for this article, declined to give his name for fear of reprisals.
In angry outburst, Infowars host Alex Jones says ‘he’s done being sorry’ during second defamation trial
In an angry outburst, conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Alex Jones said “he’s done being sorry” as he took the stand Thursday during his second defamation trial for saying the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
“Is this a struggle session? Are we in China?” he exclaimed during his testimony after being reminded of those who were murdered and shown a clip of Robbie Parker at a press conference the day after his daughter Emilie died in the 2012 mass shooting.
“I’ve already said I’m sorry hundreds of times and I’m done saying I’m sorry,” Jones said.
Special master in Mar-a-Lago case asks Trump to back up his allegation that FBI ‘planted’ evidence
The special master appointed to review documents federal agents seized at Donald Trump’s Florida estate has given the former president until Friday of next week to back up his allegation that the FBI planted evidence in the search on Aug. 8.
After the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Trump and his lawyers have publicly insinuated on multiple occasions without providing evidence that agents planted evidence during the search. “Planting information anyone?” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Aug. 12.
Appeals court lifts hold that prevented Justice Department from using classified documents in Mar-a-Lago probe
A federal appeals court said Wednesday that the Justice Departmentcan resume using classified documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in its criminal investigation.
The Justice Department had appealed a ruling this month by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, that temporarily barred it from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes.
The appeals court panel, comprised of two Trump appointees and one Obama appointee, thoroughly rejected Trump’s position on the classified documents and parts of Cannon’s reasoning for issuing her original order. The appeals court said that among the factors under consideration were whether or not Trump had individual interest or need for the classified documents, which the district court hadn’t mentioned in its analysis.
1,300 arrested for protesting Putin’s mobilization as others scramble for flights out of Russia
The Kremlin has for months fought to maintain a sense of domestic normalcy while pursuing its faltering war in Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of a “partial mobilization”has, for some Russians at least, shattered that illusion.
By the time Putin’s recorded announcement was done playing on TV on Wednesday, Russians were scrambling to buy the last available flights out of the country and opposition groups were calling for protests as his order bred a sense of unease at home, just as his nuclear threats sought to do abroad.
Ginni Thomas to meet with House committee investigating Jan. 6 riot
The House Jan. 6 committee has reached an agreement with Ginni Thomas to be interviewed in the coming weeks, a source close to the House panel said Wednesday.
Emails, records and reporting indicate that Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was involved in some aspects of a scheme involving “fake electors” after the 2020 election and was also in touch with Trump lawyer John Eastman about his strategies to overturn the election results.
CNN first reported the planned meeting with Thomas, which comes after weeks of back and forth and a letter asking her to speak with the panel.
New York AG sues Trump, 3 of his children and their company, charging large-scale business fraud
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a sweeping lawsuit Wednesday against former President Donald Trump, his three eldest children and the Trump Organization in connection with her yearslong civil investigation into the company’s business practices.
In the suit, which runs more than 200 pages, James’ office detailswhat it says are Trump’s efforts to inflate his personal net worth to attract favorable loan agreements and alleges more than 200 instances of fraud over 10 years.
James is seeking to permanently bar the Trump family from serving as officers of New York-based companies and prevent Trump and his company from entering into commercial real estate acquisitions in the state for five years. She is also seeking about $250 million in penalties. In addition, her office is sending a criminal referral to the IRS and U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan, she said.
Putin orders partial mobilization of Russian reservists and hints using nuclear weapons still possible
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists in Russia, in a measure that appeared to be an admission that Moscow’s war against Ukraine isn’t going according to plan after nearly seven months of fighting and amid recent battlefield losses for the Kremlin’s forces.
The Russian leader, in a televised address to the nation aired on Wednesday morning, also warned the West that he isn’t bluffing over using all the means at his disposal to protect Russia’s territory, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to Russia’s nuclear capability. Putin has previously warned the West not to back Russia against the wall and has rebuked NATO countries for supplying weapons to help Ukraine.
Fed expected to raise interest rates, escalate fight against inflation
Wall Street will watch closely on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve is expected to escalate its fightagainst inflation with a dramatic interest rate hike.
The move would come a little more than a week after a higher-than-expected inflation report revealed that prices rose slightly in August, worsening the cost woes for U.S. households and sending the S&P 500 tumbling for its worst day of 2022.
The Fed has instituted a series of aggressive interest rate hikes in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by slowing the economy and choking off demand. But the approach risks tipping the U.S. into an economic downturn and putting millions out of work.
Members of far-right group America First charged in connection with Jan. 6 riot
Five people who federal investigators say are associated with the far-right group America First have been arrested in connection with last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In addition to numerous criminal charges, they are accused of entering House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s conference room, according to a court filing.
The Justice Department said in the filing that the leadership of America First “has espoused a belief that they are defending against the demographic and cultural changes in America.”
Special master in Mar-a-Lago case appears skeptical of Trump ‘declassification’ claims
The special master appointed to review documents federal agents seized at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate appeared doubtful Tuesday about Trump’s contention that he had declassified the various top secret and other highly sensitive documents found there.
The special master, Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie of New York, had asked Trump’s attorneys for more information about which of the over 100 sensitive documents federal agents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach might have been declassified. Trump’s attorneys had told the judge in a letter Monday night that they didn’t want to disclose the information yet because it could force them to prematurely “disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment.”
Trump ally Mike Lindell must face defamation suit over election-rigging claims
MyPillow Inc. Chief Executive Mike Lindell must face a defamation lawsuit brought by a voting machine company that the Trump ally falsely accused of rigging the 2020 U.S. election, a Minnesota federal judge ruled on Monday.
Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright denied Lindell and MyPillow’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit by Smartmatic USA Corp., finding ample evidence that Lindell ignored publicly available information that contradicted his theories.
Judge Wright also found sufficient evidence that Lindell knew or should have known his statements were false and acted with “actual malice” in promoting them, a key legal threshold in defamation cases.
Trump attorneys don’t want to disclose which Mar-a-Lago documents he claims to have declassified
Donald Trump’s attorneys said in a filing Monday night that they don’t want to disclose to a court-appointed special master which Mar-a-Lago documents they assert the former president may or may not have declassified.
In a four-page letter to the special master, Trump’s attorneys pushed back against Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie’s apparent proposal that they submit “specific information regarding declassification” to him in the course of his review.
Dearie issued an order Friday summoning both parties to the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, for a preliminary conference Tuesday.
Texas sheriff opens criminal investigation into Martha’s Vineyard migrant trips
A Texas sheriff said Monday that his office has opened a criminal investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ unprecedented move to send nearly 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, last week.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said the inquiry was in its early stages, and he declined to name possible suspects. But in a news conference, he said: “Everybody on this call knows who those names are already.”
Salazar said it was not clear whether any laws had been broken, but he said that 48 migrants appeared to have been “lured under false pretenses” into staying at a hotel for a couple of days before they were flown to Florida and Martha’s Vineyard.
Top Jan. 6 committee members propose reforms to 1887 Electoral Count Act
Two senior members of the Jan. 6 select committee have introduced a bipartisan bill to reform the counting of presidential electoral votes to prevent another riot at the Capitol over disputed results.
The Presidential Election Reform Act from Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., targets some of the perceived nuances in 135-year-old Electoral Count Act that former President Donald Trump and his supporters attempted to exploit to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.
“Our proposal is intended to preserve the rule of law for all future presidential elections by ensuring that self-interested politicians cannot steal from the people the guarantee that our government derives its power from the consent of the governed,” Cheney and Lofgren wrote in a joint Wall Street Journal column last week.
Charlie Pierce: The Republicans Built a Time Machine, Powered by Racism
The good people who manage the vast archives at the John F. Kennedy Library down by the bay in Boston are not people known to miss a trick. There is so much history stored there because, as we oldsters will tell you, the 1960s were a pretty target-rich environment, history-wise. Of course, JFK’s time in office was cut off before what we call the ’60s really got rolling. Consider: If he had not been murdered, Kennedy would have been president of the United States when the Beatles arrived and throughout the Summer of Love in 1967—but a lot of the seeds that sprouted later can be found in the stacks of his library, which sits like the prow of a ship, pointed out over a domesticated slice of the Atlantic Ocean.
For example, during his entire time in office (but especially after the Bay of Pigs debacle in 1961), Kennedy and the CIA were at sword’s point. Kennedy didn’t trust the CIA as far as he could throw Allen Dulles—and, in the aftermath of the Cuban fiasco, JFK threw him pretty far—and the spooks out at Langley thought the president was callow and not up to the job of being butch with the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro. (So many of the ‘Who Shot John?’ theories surrounding Kennedy’s murder have their roots in this undeniable conflict.) Anyway, on March 16, 1963, looking to manufacture a casus belli with which to justify another Cuban invasion, the Joint Chiefs of Staff came up with a plan called Operation Northwoods, a blatantly illegal and utterly batshit plan to create false-flag domestic terrorist attacks that could be blamed on Castro’s regime. One of these proposed actions involved blowing up John Glenn on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
The Rude Pundit: Graham and DeSantis Tried to Own But Got Owned
You know what’s darkly hilarious or perhaps hilariously dark or maybe not hilarious at all and just plain dark? I’d bet that Lindsey Graham and Ron DeSantis thought what they did this week was fucking awesome and that they’d show those no-good liberals what fucking hypocrites they are. Except that reality ended up punching them both in the dick for acting like dicks, and, yeah, that’s pretty fucking funny.
First, South Carolina Sen. Graham, who lately always looks like he’s on his fifth mint julep while annoyed that he doesn’t have enough liquor for number six, put out a bill to outlaw nearly all abortions after 15 weeks, and he fucking expected Republicans to jump for joy that he had solved the post-Roe clusterfuck of bad news for his party going into the midterms. At his weird little press conference announcing the bill, Graham pronounced, “If we adopted my bill, our bill, we would be in the mainstream of most everybody else in the world. I think there are 47 of the 50 European countries have a ban on abortion from 12 to 15 weeks. And I pick 15 weeks, which is a little longer than Belgium, Germany and Spain, longer than France, Denmark, and Norway.” So now we’re taking our cues from Europe? I thought that was wrong and might turn us all gay to do that.
All of Puerto Rico without power as Hurricane Fiona slams island
Hurricane Fiona battered Puerto Rico on Sunday, cutting power to the entire island while bringing destructive winds and life-threatening flash flooding. Conditions rapidly deteriorated even before the Category 1 storm made landfall Sunday afternoon, and the situation was not expected to improve much going into Monday.
As the wind and rain escalated Sunday, all 3.2 million people on the island were without power, according to PowerOutage.us, a site that tracks power failures. Puerto Rico’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, confirmed in a tweet on Sunday afternoon that power was out on the entire island.
World watches Britain lay its longest-reigning monarch to rest
It is a national holiday in the United Kingdom, and tens of thousands of people have camped out overnight for the event. Millions more will watch from around the globe. Britain’s last state funeral was held in 1965 for wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
NY Mayor Eric Adams calls for ‘coordination’ with GOP governors, WH on bused migrants
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday called for more “coordination” with the federal government and Govs. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, and Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who are busing and flying newly arrived migrants to blue states across the country.
“I traveled to Washington last week, spoke with Sen. [Chuck] Schumer, Sen. [Kirsten] Gillibrand and other lawmakers and sat down with Biden administration to talk about — how do we coordinate?” Adams, a Democrat, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, referencing New York’s two Democratic senators.
‘The pandemic is over,’ Biden says in ’60 Minutes’ Interview
After more than 1 million deaths in the U.S. and almost three years of lockdowns and economic disruption, President Joe Biden declared the coronavirus pandemic is over in an interview that aired Sunday.
Biden said on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that “we still have a problem with Covid,” adding: “We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.”
CBS News said the interview was conducted Thursday, before the president flew to the United Kingdom for observances of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Biden Approval Rises Sharply Ahead Of Midterms: Poll
President Joe Biden’s popularity improved substantially from his lowest point this summer, but concerns about his handling of the economy persist, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Support for Biden recovered from a low of 36% in July to 45%, driven in large part by a rebound in support from Democrats just two months before the November midterm elections. During a few bleak summer months when gasoline prices peaked and lawmakers appeared deadlocked, the Democrats faced the possibility of blowout losses against Republicans.
Trump Says Americans Won’t ‘Stand’ For Charges Against Him, Warns Of Trouble
Donald Trump said Thursday that Americans will not “stand” for indictments against him regarding top secret documents he took from the White House — and ominously warned that criminal charges could trigger “big problems” never before seen.
Trump also declared that he issued a standing order to declassify everything he took from the White House. It’s a resurrected claim that even his attorneys haven’t presented in court filings — and one contradicted by several Trump administration officials.
Asked about possible indictments related to the several boxes of White House documents, including classified and even top secret files, stashed at Mar-a-Lago, Trump repeatedly told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on his program that Americans won’t “stand for it,” and that any charges would trigger “problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before.”
Jeffrey Clark, whom Trump considered for AG, had phone seized in obstruction probe
Federal agents who seized former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark‘s phone in June were looking for evidence of crimes of making false statements, criminal conspiracy and obstruction of justice, according to a new filing.
Clark, whom former President Donald Trump considered naming attorney general as part of his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, told officials with the Washington, D.C., bar that the search warrant for seizure of his electronic devices was connected to a criminal investigation into violations of three federal laws. Special agents with the Justice Department inspector general conducted the search in June.
Federal judge appoints special master to review documents seized at Mar-a-Lago
A federal judge appointed a special master to review documents the FBI seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate while denying the Justice Department continued access to roughly 100 classified documents for use in its criminal investigation.
In an order Thursday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon named Raymond J. Dearie, a senior U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of New York, to review all of the materials seized on Aug. 8. The Trump team had proposed Dearie, and Justice officials had previously signaled its approval for him as a potential arbiter to determine if any of the documents are protected by attorney-client or executive privileges.
CNN Reports Mark Meadows Complied With Department of Justice Subpoena as DOJ Goes ‘Gun Blazing’ on Jan. 6 Investigation
Mark Meadows has complied with a subpoena served to him by the Department of Justice, CNN reported Wednesday night.
Meadows served as former President Donald Trump’s last chief of staff. In the waning days of Trump’s presidency on Jan. 6, 2021, a mob stormed the Capitol to stop certification of the 2020 election Trump falsely claimed was rigged against him. That event has prompted investigations by both the DOJ and Congress.
“He’s complied with a subpoena from the Justice Department as part of the January 6th investigation,” CNN’s Evan Perez reported on Don Lemon Tonight. Now, this makes him the highest-ranking Trump official to comply with a subpoena as part of this criminal investigation.”
‘You’re gonna die tonight’: Trump fan admits dragging cop down Capitol steps
A man who wore a “Trump 2020” hat as he beat one officer and dragged another down the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6 has pleaded guilty, admitting telling officers “you’re gonna die tonight” and repeatedly assaulting law enforcement.
Jack Wade Whitton, 32, from Georgia, bragged in a message obtained by the government that he had “fed” a cop “to the people.” He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, which carries a maximum of 20 years in federal prison. His estimated sentencing guidelines are 6.5 to 8 years in federal prison but could be slightly lower if a judge agrees with Whitton’s contention that none of his victims were physically restrained during the assault.
DeSantis flies two planes of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planes of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, escalating a tactic by Republican governors to draw attention to what they consider to be the Biden administration’s failed border policies.
Flights to the upscale island enclave in Massachusetts were part of an effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director.
While DeSantis’ office didn’t elaborate on their legal status, many migrants who cross the border illegally from Mexico are temporarily shielded from deportation after being freed by U.S. authorities to pursue asylum in immigration court — as allowed under U.S law and international treaty — or released on humanitarian parole.
Graham’s proposed near-total national abortion ban quickly meets GOP resistance
Less than two months before the midterm elections, Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday introduced a bill that would impose a nationwide ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The measure, the first GOP effort to ban abortion at the national level since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, contains exceptions for cases of rape, incest or when a mother’s life is in danger but otherwise would restrict abortions after the point when Graham, citing medical research, claimed a fetus’ nerves develop enough to feel pain.
Kenneth Starr, independent counsel behind Bill Clinton’s impeachment, dies at 76
Kenneth Starr, whose investigation as independent counsel led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, has died, his former employer Baylor University said Tuesday. He was 76.
Starr died at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston of complications from surgery, the school said.
Starr ended his legal and scholarly career as president and chancellor of the private university in 2016 after six years.
‘Irreparable harm’: Justice Department warns against further delay in Trump documents probe
The Justice Department on Tuesday blasted efforts by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers to delay its investigation of classified documents seized at his Florida resort, while a magistrate judge unsealed some previously redacted information relating to the FBI’s search of Trump’s club.
“Plaintiff [Trump] has characterized the government’s criminal investigation as a ‘document storage dispute’ or an ‘overdue library book scenario.’ In doing so, Plaintiff has not addressed the potential harms that could result from mishandling classified information or the strict requirements imposed by law for handling such materials,” the Justice Department said in a court filing urging U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to allow it to proceed for now with its criminal investigation into the over 100 classified documents the department says it took from Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Judge Unseals Additional Portions Of Mar-A-Lago Affidavit
A federal judge Tuesday unsealed additional portions of an FBIaffidavit laying out the basis for a search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, showing that agents earlier obtained a hard drive after issuing a subpoena for surveillance footage recorded inside Mar-a-Lago.
A heavily redacted version of the affidavit was made public last month, but the Justice Department requested permission to show more of it after lawyers for Trump revealed the existence of a June grand jury subpoena that sought video footage from cameras in the vicinity of the Mar-a-Lago storage room.
Charlie Pierce: Herschel Walker Is the Reductio ad Absurdum of Every “Not a Politician” Campaign
Sen. Raphael Warnock is a brilliant, eloquent advocate for the issues that he supports on behalf of his constituents. His opponent in the upcoming senatorial election in Georgia is…incredibly none of those things. Last week, for example, the opponent said this: “Warnock, I remember hearing him say, ‘America need to apologize for it whiteness.’ That’s not in a Bible I ever read. Our Founding Fathers already apologized for its whiteness. Because if you read the Constitution, it talks about every man being treated fair.”
First, Warnock never said this, and his opponent never heard him say it. Second, one does not have to have read the Bible to know it doesn’t contain that particular sentiment, and I don’t believe his opponent ever read the Bible, anyway. And, finally, the Constitution says nothing of the sort, and Warnock’s opponent hasn’t read the Constitution either. (The original Constitution, in fact, said quite the opposite, Three-Fifths Of All Other People etc.)
Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s column at Esquire Politics
DOJ Agrees to Accept Trump’s Candidate for Special Master
The Department of Justice has agreed to accept one of former President Donald Trump’s nominees for a special master to review documents sized from his home by the FBI last month.
The former president and the DOJ had each submitted two candidates for a third-party to review documents Trump claims are protected by attorney-client privilege.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon will now decide whether to approve senior Judge Raymond Dearie of New York to act as a neutral third party to review the materials.
Biden touts next steps on ‘Cancer Moonshot’ in speech at JFK library
President Joe Biden announced new steps to expand on his administration’s “Cancer Moonshot” initiative to prevent deaths from cancer by trying to speed the discovery of new treatments and improve prevention, detection and treatment to those suffering from the disease.
“Cancer doesn’t discriminate between red or blue, it doesn’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat,” Biden said in a speech Monday afternoon at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. “Beating cancer is something we can do together and that’s why I’m here today.”
Justice Department has issued dozens of subpoenas in the last week related to Trump and the Capitol riot
The Justice Department has issued about 40 subpoenas in the last week related to the actions of former President Donald Trump, his allies and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to sources familiar with the matter.
It also seized two telephones, the sources said.
The subpoenas and phone seizures, first reported by The New York Times, are the latest developments in the sprawling investigation into the former president.
Read the rest of the story at NBC News
The Rude Pundit: Abortion Rights and the Lie of “Reaching Across the Aisle”
Democrats make ads all the time about how they are willing to work across the aisle with the opposing party. (I know some Republicans do, too, but it’s not as prominent a thing on the right.) The notion is worn like a badge of honor, as if Democrats need to show how not Democratic they are. For instance, in this election cycle, we have Elissa Slotkin in Michigan saying, “I refuse to let partisan politics hold this country back.” Senator Maggie Hassan goes even further, bragging, “I took on members of my own party” on a gas tax holiday. President Biden campaigned in 2020 on his supposed ability to work with Republicans (even if he’s learned how ludicrous a notion that is).
And while the realities of getting legislation passed sometimes forces cooperation, to insist that you as a Democrat need buy-in from the other side in order to justify your position makes it seem like you’re apologizing for being a Democrat. The whole idea is a comforting lie, affirming a fictional tale of the two parties who can put aside differences for the good of the country. Mostly, it forces Democrats to agree to negotiate with people who are insane extremists and pretend like their positions aren’t so.
Ex-Trump Aide Stephen Miller Subpoenaed In DOJ’s Jan. 6 Probe: Report
The Department of Justice has reportedly subpoenaed former President Donald Trump’s senior White House advisor Stephen Miller in a probe looking at a super PAC from the former president, The New York Times reported.
Miller, along with ex-White House political director Brian Jack, is reportedly among a group of more than a dozen people linked to Trump that received federal grand jury subpoenas this week.
Several “junior and mid-level” aides who worked for Trump in the White House and for his presidential bid also received subpoenas, The Times reported earlier this week.
Kamala Harris warns domestic threats to democracy are harming America at home and abroad
Vice President Kamala Harris said anti-democratic forces that have emerged in the mainstream of American politics have made the nation weaker at home and undermined our legitimacy overseas, joining President Joe Biden in describing it as a major threat.
Asked in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” whether the threats from within the U.S. pose a risk equal to or greater than what the nation faced 21 years ago on 9/11, Harris drew upon the oaths of office she had taken as a prosecutor, California’s attorney general, a senator and vice president to uphold the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic — and we don’t compare the two.”
Biden honors 9/11 victims, vows commitment to thwart terrorism
President Joe Biden marked the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, laying a wreath at the Pentagon in a somber commemoration held under a steady rain and paying tribute to “extraordinary Americans” who gave their lives on one of the nation’s darkest days.
Sunday’s ceremony occurred a little more than a year after Biden ended the long and0 costly war in Afghanistan that the U.S. and allies launched in response to the terror attacks.
Ukrainian forces made “significant gains” against Russian positions in the past 24 hours.
Ukraine’s armed forces have recaptured large swaths of territory and are making “significant gains” against Russia’s occupation of the northwest region of Kharkiv, the U.K.’s defense ministry said in an intelligence briefing Sunday.
Russian forces have likely “withdrawn units from the area,” but fighting continues around the strategically important cities of Kupiansk and Izyum, it said in its daily update on the war in Ukraine, posted to Twitter.
King Charles III to address a nation in mourning after queen’s death
Britain’s new monarch, King Charles III, will address the nation Friday as it mourns the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
On his first full day of duties, the king is expected to return to London for a meeting with the U.K.’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, herself new to the job after being appointed earlier this week.
As Britain begins a 10-day mourning period, the country and the world are paying tribute to the queen as huge crowds flock to Buckingham Palace.
DOJ to appeal special master ruling, arguing classified documents aren’t Trump’s ‘personal records’
The hundreds of pages of classified government records seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last month aren’t the former president’s “personal records,” and he has no right to possess them, the Justice Department said in a court filing Thursday as it said the government would appeal a judge’s ruling on the matter.
The Justice Department will appeal U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling for a special master to look at the documents seized during the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, according to the notification filed Thursday. The Justice Department said it will file its appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Steve Bannon charged with money laundering, conspiracy in ‘We Build the Wall’ fundraising fraud case
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was charged Thursday in New York with defrauding donors who were giving money to build a wall at the southern U.S. border.
Bannon, 68, was indicted on charges including money laundering, scheming to defraud, and conspiracy in what prosecutors described as a yearlong scheme. He pleaded not guilty in a brief arraignment before acting Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and agreed to surrender his passports as a condition of his bail. Supreme Court is the name of New York’s principal criminal court.
“He’s not going anywhere. He intends to fight these charges all the way,” Bannon’s attorney David Schoen told the judge.
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest serving monarch, has died
Queen Elizabeth II, whose 70-year reign spanned wars, a pandemic, 14 U.S. presidents and the winding down of Britain’s vast empire, has died. Her eldest son, Charles, is now king.
“The queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” the royal family said in a statement. “The king and the queen consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”
The longest-serving British monarch was 96.
Trump Told Advisers He Needed to Save ‘Russiagate’ Docs so Biden Wouldn’t ‘Shred’ Them: Report
Former President Donald Trump reportedly told those close to him he intended to preserve documents related to the Russian collusion investigation, as he feared his White House successor would destroy them.
The investigation dated back to 2016 and centered on allegations people in Trump’s orbit worked with Russians to help him win the election.
According to Rolling Stone, Trump worried the investigation would return to haunt him, and documents about it would not be preserved by then-President-elect Joe Biden in January of 2020.
Judge nixes Oath Keepers leader’s bid to delay Jan. 6 trial
The high-profile seditious conspiracy trial for the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group will begin this month after a judge on Wednesday rejected a last-minute bid by Stewart Rhodes to replace his lawyers and delay his Capitol riot case.
Rhodes said in court papers this week there had been a “breakdown” in communication between him and his two lawyers, who he claimed weren’t defending him forcefully enough. Rhodes’ new lawyer argued that the Oath Keepers founder has not been given enough time to adequately prepare for trial and urged the judge to delay his trial at least 90 days.
Trump aide subpoenaed, FBI seeks interview related to Jan. 6 investigations: Sources
The FBI sought to interview a current top adviser to former President Donald Trump who has also been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, both in relation to investigations into the events leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
William Russell wasn’t home when the two FBI agents came to his house Wednesday morning, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Russell served in the Trump White House as a special assistant to the president and the deputy director of advance before moving down to Florida to work as an aide to Trump after he left the White House.
Obamas return to the White House for the unveiling of their official portraits
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama returned to the White House on Wednesday for the unveiling of their official portraits, reviving the bipartisan tradition that stalled under the Trump administration.
“Barack and Michelle, welcome home,” President Joe Biden said at a ceremony in the East Room celebrating the former first couple.
The White House Historical Association has facilitated acquiring portraits of presidents and first ladies since 1965. Most presidents and first ladies select artists before they leave office, according to the association. Once completed, the portraits are displayed in the White House.
California Independent System Operator issues emergency alert as record heat wave puts strain on state’s electrical grid
A record-setting heat wave made life miserable in much of the West on Tuesday, with California stretching into its second week of excessive heat that taxed the state’s power supply and threatened power shortages that could prompt blackouts while people were desperately trying to stay cool.
The California Independent System Operator (ISO), the entity that oversees the state’s electrical grid, upgradedits Energy Emergency Alert level from 2 to 3, making power outages possible. It had earlier warned there could be “rotating power outages” Tuesday evening.
“As grid conditions worsened, energy supplies were determined to be insufficient to cover demand and reserves,” Cal ISO said Tuesday evening.
Read the rest of the story at CBS News
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Covid vaccines will likely become annual like flu shots, White House officials say
Covid vaccinations will likely become an annual affair, White House officials said Tuesday, with a schedule resembling that of flu shots.
“In the absence of a dramatically different variants, we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual updated Covid-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a White House briefing.
The reasoning behind this expectation, according to Fauci and White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha, has to do with improved protection from newly updated Covid booster shots.
Surveillance video shows Georgia ‘fake elector’ escorting operatives into elections office before alleged data breach
Newly obtained video shows the former head of Coffee County Republicans escorting members of a forensics firm hired by a Trump-allied lawyer into a Georgia elections office shortly before an alleged data breach in January 2021.
The video, which was obtained by NBC News, shows Cathy Latham, the chairwoman of the Coffee County GOP at the time, greeting and escorting members of the tech firm SullivanStrickler into the office on Jan. 7, 2021, the same day as a data breach that is under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The video shows scenes only from outside the office.
Steve Bannon expected to surrender to New York prosecutors Thursday: Sources
Steve Bannon, former adviser to former President Donald Trump, is expected to surrender to prosecutors in New York on Thursday, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The details of the charges are unclear, however, the sources confirmed to ABC News that the charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office stem from the federal prosecution of Bannon over “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraising campaign for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the federal case, Bannon was accused of defrauding donors and using the money for personal expenses.
Trump calls Biden ‘enemy of the state’ during 1st rally since Mar-a-Lago search
In his first rally since the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago home last month, former President Donald Trump took the stage in Pennsylvania for nearly two hours during which he responded to the raid on his home last month and President Joe Biden’s remarks earlier this week.
“The shameful raid and break-in of my home Mar-a-Lago was a travesty of justice,” Trump said of the search. “The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters.”
California braces for possible power outages as temperatures again break triple digits in relentless heat wave
California is facing worsening grid challenges and bracing for possible power outages as temperatures again surged into the triple digits Monday.
The California Independent System Operator, or CAISO, which oversees more than three-quarters of the state’s electrical power flow, called for residents in a news release “to lower electricity use in the afternoons and evenings to avoid outages” in the historic heat wave.
“We have now entered the most intense phase of this heat wave,” the operator’s president and CEO, Elliot Mainzer, said at a news conference Monday, giving an update on the heat wave and grid reliability. “Forecasted demand for Monday and Tuesday is at all-time record levels. Potential for rotating outages has increased significantly.”
Read the rest of the story at NBC News
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Biden takes his case to two swing states for Labor Day in midterms push
President Joe Biden kicked off a Labor Day tour of two battleground states with rousing speeches in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, where he touted his recent wins in Washington, denounced Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump and took specific aim at Sen. Ron Johnson.
“This guy never stops,” Biden said of Johnson, R-Wis., referring to recent positions Johnson has taken.
“But guess what? I ain’t stopping, either,” Biden said to a raucous round of applause.
Judge grants Trump’s special master request, delays parts of criminal probe
In a major blow for the government, a federal judge approved former President Donald Trump’s request for a special master to oversee all the evidence the FBI seized last month from his Mar-a-Lago estate and temporarily blocked parts of the Justice Department’s investigation.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — a Trump appointee — said in her ruling Monday that the special master should be able to review the seized documents both to address questions of attorney-client privilege and to litigate claims of executive privilege.
Charlie Pierce: Empty Folders at Mar-a-Lago Marked ‘Classified’? I’m Sure It’s Fine
We seem to be getting closer faster to the moment where we see classified photos of U.S. nuclear weapons labs framed and on the wall of the royal palace in Riyadh. From the AP (via madison.com):
FBI agents who searched former President Donald Trump’s Florida home last month found empty folders marked with classified banners, according to a more detailed inventory of the seized material made public by the Justice Department on Friday. The inventory reveals in general terms the contents of 33 boxes taken from Mar-a-Lago during the Aug. 8 search. It shows the extent to which newspapers, magazines and other items were commingled among documents that investigators say were marked as classified, including at the top-secret level.
Empty folders marked as classified, you say? Provocative.
Read the rest of Charlie Pierce’s piece at Esquire Politics.
The Rude Pundit: Dark Brandon Ascending… Random Observations on a Patriotic Speech
1. There are a few criticisms to be made about President Joe Biden’s speech in Philadelphia last night. For instance, when he said, “Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology,” he’s really talking the difference between someone who comes to your house and murders everyone and someone who comes to your house, murders everyone, fucks the corpses, and sets the place on fire. Sure, the latter is way worse, but, you know, in the former, you’re still murdered.
Yeah, one way to look at that is Biden offering the supposedly “mainstream Republicans” a lifeboat from the Trumptanic before it smashes into the iceberg of reality and sinks into the depths of the brutal ocean of history. That lets Republicans off the hook for a whole lot of fuckery. While the “MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people,” it’s not like pre-Trump Republicans were handing out daisies across the aisle. What was the Republican Senate’s use of the formerly rare filibuster as a regular tool to block legislation starting with Barack Obama’s administration but another way to thwart the will of the people when they voted in Democratic majorities in Congress? Yeah, it’s not the same as overturning an election because the results make you feel sad. But it’s not that fucking far off.
McCarthy calls on Biden to apologize after ‘semi-fascism’ remark
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday called on President Joe Biden to apologize for invoking fascism to describe the ideology of former President Donald Trump and his supporters.
McCarthy made the remarks during a prebuttal speech ahead of the President’s prime-time address later in the evening. The speech from the House GOP leader marks an effort to counter the President’s message — ahead of the 2022 midterms as Republicans fight to win back control of the House of Representatives.
“President Biden has chosen to divide, demean, and disparage his fellow Americans — Why? simply because they disagree with his policies,” McCarthy said in his speech. “That is not leadership.”
Federal judge puts off ruling on Trump’s request for a special master as Trump lawyer calls refusal to turn over documents ‘an overdue-library-book scenario’
US District Judge Aileen Cannon heard arguments Thursday related to former President Donald Trump’s request that a special master be appointed to sift through and filter out any materials seized in the Mar-a-Lago search that could be privileged.
After the nearly two-hour hearing, in which an attorney for Trump downplayed the former president’s communications with the National Archives, Cannon said she would not yet rule on Trump’s request and wanted to take more time to consider national security and privilege issues raised by the Justice Department and the former president’s defense lawyers.
Jan. 6 panel seeks testimony from Newt Gingrich about 2020 election claims
The Jan. 6 committee is requesting testimony from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an ally of former President Donald Trump, over his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including on the day of the riot.
In a letter sent Thursday, the committee specifically said it wants to ask Gingrich, R-Ga., about emails it said it obtained between him and former Trump senior advisers, including Jared Kushner and Jason Miller, in which Gingrich gave his input about television ads that “repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election.”
Biden attacks Trump, MAGA Republicans as a threat to democracy in blistering speech
President Joe Biden accused former President Donald Trump and his supporters of promoting an extreme ideology that threatens democracy in rare prime-time remarks Thursday as he stepped up attacks on conservatives ahead of the midterm elections.
“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden said in the speech from the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.
John Eastman, Key Figure In Fake Elector Plot, Appears Before Atlanta Grand Jury
John Eastman, a key figure in the effort to block the certification of the 2020 Electoral College results, appeared before an Atlanta grand jury on Wednesday, his lawyers said.
Eastman’s attorneys, Harvey Silverglate and Charles Burnham, said they advised him to assert attorney-client privilege and invoke his Fifth Amendment rights. The pair would not disclose what questions were posed or what testimony Eastman gave, but lambasted the effort as a means to penalize “disfavored legal theories.”
“By all indications, the District Attorney’s Office has set itself on an unprecedented path of criminalizing controversial or disfavored legal theories, possibly in hopes that the federal government will follow its lead,” the attorneys wrote. “Criminalization of unpopular legal theories is against every American tradition and would have ended the careers of John Adams, Ruth Ginsburg, Thurgood Marshall and many other now-celebrated American lawyers.”
Serena Williams upsets No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit to advance to third round of U.S. Open
Serena Williams can call it “evolving” or “retiring” or whatever she wants. And she can be coy about whether or not this U.S. Open will actually mark the end of her playing days. Those 23 Grand Slam titles earned that right.
If she keeps playing like this, who knows how long this farewell will last?
No matter what happens once her trip to Flushing Meadows is over, here is what is important to know after Wednesday night: The 40-year-old Williams is still around, she’s still capable of terrific tennis, she’s still winning – and, like the adoring spectators whose roars filled Arthur Ashe Stadium again – she’s ready for more.
Democrat Mary Peltola defeats Sarah Palin in special election for Alaska’s House seat
Democrat Mary Peltola is projected to win the Alaska special general election for the state’s sole House seat, ABC News reports.
Peltola defeated two Republicans — former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Nick Begich — and will be the first Democrat to represent the state in the House in nearly half a century, succeeding Rep. Don Young, who died in March.
Peltola will also be the first Alaska Native to represent the state in Congress.
Trump’s legal team responds to DOJ in dispute over review of seized records; Court hearing today
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Wednesday responded to the Justice Department in the dispute over Trump’s request for a “special master” to review materials the FBI seized at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump’s lawyers have argued to a federal judge in Florida that the review is needed to deal with matters they argue could be covered by executive privilege.
Late Tuesday, the Justice Department, ahead of a court hearing Thursday, laid out in extraordinary detail DOJ’s efforts to obtain highly classified records they allege were improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago since Trump’s departure from the White House, and the resistance — which they describe outright as obstructive conduct, that they were met with by Trump’s representatives in their efforts to have them handed over.
Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leader who helped end the Cold War, has died
Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union and a reformer who helped end the Cold War and lead his country from communism to capitalism, died Tuesday at 91, according to the Gorbachev Foundation.
“Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and long illness,” the Central Clinical Hospital reported, according to the Interfax news agency.
He will be buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow next to his wife, Raisa Gorbachev, according to the agency.
Graham faces backlash after claiming violence could break out if Trump prosecuted
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is facing backlash after claiming political violence will break out if former President Donald Trump is indicted for mishandling presidential records.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday, while not mentioning Graham by name, appeared to call him out at a political rally in Pennsylvania, saying, “the idea you turn on a television and see senior senators and congressmen saying if such and such happens, there’ll be blood in the street. Where the hell are we?”
Graham’s comments came at a time when Trump supporters’ threats against law enforcement have escalated following the Mar-a-Lago search and at least one man citing it attacked an FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was later killed by police.
Biden calls out ‘MAGA Republicans’ on Jan. 6, attacking FBI over Mar-a-Lago search
President Joe Biden continued his sharpened attacks on the Republican Party as he visited Pennsylvania on Tuesday, criticizing “MAGA Republicans” for their response to the Mar-a-Lago search and Jan. 6 as he highlighted his administration’s policing and crime prevention efforts.
“A safer America requires all of us to uphold the rule of law, not the rule of any one party or any one person,” Biden said as he spoke at Wilkes University.
“Let me say this to my MAGA Republican friends in Congress: Don’t tell me you support law enforcement if you won’t condemn what happened on Jan. 6,” he continued. “For God’s sake, whose side are you on?”
DOJ alleges ‘obstructive conduct’ by Trump’s legal team in efforts to retrieve classified records
The Justice Department on Tuesday responded to former President Donald Trump’s call for a “special master” to review materials the FBI seized at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump’s lawyers have said the review is needed to deal with matters they argue may be covered by executive privilege.
In their 36-page filing, top department officials laid out in extraordinary detail their efforts to obtain highly classified records they allege were improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago since Trump’s departure from the White House, and the resistance — which they describe outright as obstructive conduct, that they were met with by Trump’s representatives in their efforts to have them handed over.
Charlie Pierce: What Happens When an Entire Party Reorients Around a Central Delusion? We’re Gonna Find Out!
It’s going to take decades of excavation to dig out the crazy in our politics. If it weren’t so entrenched in conservative politics already, the previous president* wouldn’t have found it so easy to anchor himself in the past, present and especially the future of the Republican Party.
And it’s clear that expressing the (unfactual) conviction that the 2020 election was rigged to defeat the previous president* as enthusiastically as possible is the best possible career move for a Republican politician. (Ringing the Jesus bell also helps.)
Brian Kemp must testify in Trump election interference probe, Georgia judge rules
A Georgia judge on Monday denied Gov. Brian Kemp’s bid to avoid testifying before the grand jury hearing evidence in an investigation of possible 2020 election interference by then-President Donald Trump and others but said he doesn’t have to testify until after the November election.
“The governor is in the midst of a re-election campaign and this criminal grand jury investigation should not be used by the District Attorney, the Governor’s opponent, or the Governor himself to influence the outcome of that election,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his six-page ruling. “Once the election is over, the Court expects the Governor’s legal team promptly to make arrangements for his appearance.”
DOJ tells judge it has completed review of possible attorney-client privileged materials seized from Mar-a-Lago
The Justice Department on Monday said its team tasked with identifying potential attorney-client privileged materials that were seized in the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month has already completed its review and is in the process of addressing possible privilege disputes.
In a filing acknowledging receipt of District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order Saturday, which indicated she was leaning towards granting a request from Trump’s legal team to appoint a special master to intervene in the ongoing review of documents seized from Mar-a-Lago, the department said its filter team already “identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information.”
Biden to deliver prime-time speech on ‘battle’ for democracy
President Joe Biden will deliver a prime-time address “on the continued battle for the soul of the nation” Thursday outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the White House announced Monday.
Billed as a major address just over two months before the midterm elections, Biden, the White House said, will discuss how the nation’s standing in the world and its democracy are at stake.
“He will talk about the progress we have made as a nation to protect our democracy, but how our rights and freedoms are still under attack,” the White House said. “And he will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms, and fighting for our democracy.”
Here are the signs Republicans’ hopes for a ‘red wave’ are receding ahead of the 2022 elections
Last fall, Republicans held high hopes of a “red wave” in the 2022 elections after they stormed to power in blue-leaning Virginia and nearly won the governor’s race in New Jersey. While Democrats were demotivated, the GOP base was on fire.
But in recent weeks, numerous data points have indicated Republican prospects of a smashing victory are dimming. While the president’s party tends to perform poorly in midterm elections, there are signs it is shaping up to be an unusual year, potentially enabling Democrats to hold one or both chambers of Congress.
Trump’s Inner Circle is Freaking Out Over Their ‘Comically Inept and Inexperienced’ Legal Team
Any public bluster from former President Donald Trump and his team in the wake of the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago is just posturing, says one top correspondent.
Appearing on ABC’s This Week Sunday, Jonathan Karl reported that Trump’s inner circle is freaking out over the former president’s inability to retain adequate legal counsel.
“Publicly, what they’re saying is this is rallying Republicans to Trump’s defense,” Karl said. “This makes it more likely that he will run for president, more likely that he will win the Republican nomination. Campaigning against this political action by the FBI and the DOJ.
Intelligence officials assessing national security risk from documents found at Mar-a-Lago
Intelligence officials are assessing the potential risk to national security after classified documents were found at former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines sent a letter Friday to top lawmakers in Congress confirming the assessment is underway, a spokesperson for the agency told ABC News.
The letter, addressed to the House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, was first reported by Politico.
Judge signals support for special master to review some Trump records FBI seized
A Florida federal judge Saturday indicated she was inclined to appoint a special master to review some of the documents the FBI seized earlier this month from former President Donald Trump’s Florida home as part of a national-security-related criminal investigation.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, did not issue a blanket order for the special master but instead said she had a “preliminary intent” to do so after hearing arguments she scheduled for Thursday in her West Palm Beach court room.
The Justice Department did not comment.
Biden hits the campaign trail to tout a string of political wins
President Joe Biden hit the campaign trail on Thursday to highlight a series of policy wins as Democrats look to keep their narrow majorities in Congress during this fall’s elections.
“I just want to be crystal clear on what’s on the ballot this year,” he said at a Democratic National Committee rally in front of a friendly Rockville, Maryland, crowd as he underscored what he felt should be on voters’ minds in November: abortion rights, Social Security, climate change and more.
“Your right to choose is on the ballot this year. The Social Security you paid for from the time you had a job is on the ballot,” he said. “The safety of your kids from gun violence is on the ballot. And it’s not hyperbole — the very survival of our planet is on the ballot. Your right to vote is on the ballot.”
White House shines light on Republicans who are criticizing student debt cancelation after getting their PPP loans forgiven
The White House hit back at Republicans in an uncharacteristic manner Thursday by using its Twitter account to go after GOP lawmakers who are bashing President Joe Biden’s move to cancel some student debt after they personally benefited from having Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven during the Covid pandemic.
In a series of tweets, the White House highlighted several congressional Republicans — Reps. Vern Buchanan of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, and Markwayne Mullin and Kevin Hern of Oklahoma — who it said had tens of thousands of dollars in PPP loans forgiven as part of a federal program intended to help those harmed by the coronavirus.
Judge orders a redacted version of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit be made public Friday
A redacted version of the affidavit used to secure the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is set to be unsealed Friday under a judge’s order.
The Justice Department submitted its proposed redactions to the document on Thursday, prompting the judge to agree to unseal the document on Friday by noon.
The search warrant affidavit had led U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart to find probable cause that evidence of crimes would be found at Mar-a-Lago ahead of the Aug. 8 raid. The document lays out the justification for the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago by FBI special agents, though it is unclear how much will be redacted.
Archives asked for records in 2021 after Trump lawyer agreed they should be returned, email says
“It is also our understanding that roughly two dozen boxes of original presidential records were kept in the Residence of the White House over the course of President Trump’s last year in office and have not been transferred to NARA, despite a determination by Pat Cipollone in the final days of the administration that they need to be,” wrote Gary Stern, the agency’s chief counsel, in an email to Trump lawyers in May 2021, according to a copy reviewed by The Washington Post.
DOJ releases unredacted memo to Barr on Trump, obstruction in Mueller probe
The Justice Department on Wednesday released the unredacted version of a 2019 memo that made the case to then-Attorney General William Barr that President Donald Trump should not be charged with obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation.
The nine-page memo, from March 24, 2019, was written by Steven Engel, then the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, and Ed O’Callaghan, who was the Justice Department’s principal associate deputy attorney general. Barr, a critic of then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, announced that the Justice Department would not prosecute the case the same day the memo was sent to him.
Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo fired over botched response to shooting that killed 19 students and 2 teachers
Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo was fired Wednesday by the Texas city’s school board.
The board voted unanimously to oust the embattled chief after a recommendation from the school district superintendent.
Arredondo’s removal caps three months of outrage over the botched law enforcement response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School, which killed 19 children and two teachers.
Biden to cancel up to $10K in federal student loan debt for certain borrowers and up to $20K for Pell Grant recipients
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he will cancel $10,000 in federal student loans for millions of borrowers, following through on a campaign promise to address the burden of student debt.
Borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year, or $250,000 for couples who file taxes jointly, will be eligible for debt cancellation. Pell Grant recipients, who make up the majority of student loan borrowers, will be eligible for an additional $10,000 in debt relief, for a total of $20,000.
Biden is also extending the pause on federal student loan payments for a final time through Dec. 31. It had previously been scheduled to expire Aug. 31.
After Delay, Biden Readies Student Loan Help, Payment Pause
President Joe Biden on Wednesday is set to announce his long-delayed move to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loans for many Americans and extend a pause on payments to January, according to three people familiar with the plan.
Biden has faced pressure from liberals to provide broader relief to hard-hit borrowers, and from moderates and Republicans questioning the fairness of any widespread forgiveness. The delay in Biden’s decision has only heightened the anticipation for what his own aides acknowledge represents a political no-win situation. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Biden’s intended announcement ahead of time.
Dr. Oz’s campaign jabs at John Fetterman for stroke, suggesting he brought it on himself
The Pennsylvania Senate race took a heated — and personal — turn on Tuesday as an aide to Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee and former cardiothoracic surgeon who for years offered medical advice as a popular TV host, was quoted derisively blaming Democratic opponent John Fetterman for his own stroke.
“If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn’t have had a major stroke and wouldn’t be in the position of having to lie about it constantly,” Oz communications adviser Rachel Tripp said in a statement, first reported by Insider, responding to Fetterman’s attacks on Oz as elitist and out of touch.
Democrats gain momentum: 5 takeaways from the last big primary night of 2022
A New York special election seen as the last, best test of the electorate’s midterm leanings confirmed what Democrats hoped and Republicans feared: Predictions of a red wave may be overblown.
To be sure, Donald Trump had a winning night. But so did Ron DeSantis, who demonstrated Trump isn’t the only Republican in Florida with a political machine.
Primaries in four more states, including New Hampshire, are yet to come. But Tuesday marked the last of the year’s major, multi-state contests, leaving the shape of the general election landscape all but complete.
Fauci plans to step down in December after half a century in government
Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s preeminent infectious-disease expert who achieved unprecedented fame while enduring withering political attacks as the face of the coronavirus pandemic response under two presidents, plans to step down in December after more than a half-century of public service, he announced Monday.
Fauci, 81, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. He joined the parent agency, the National Institutes of Health, in 1968 as a 27-year-old doctor who had just finished medical residency and was quickly identified as a rising star. Most recently, Fauci has also served as President Biden’s chief medical adviser since the start of his administration.
Justice Department investigating Arkansas officers’ use of force in arrest caught on video
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday that the U.S. attorney general’s office and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will investigate a viral video that shows law enforcement officers holding down and beating a man Sunday morning outside a convenience store in Mulberry, Arkansas.
The three officers were suspended Sunday following widespread outrage over the video, in which one of the officers repeatedly punches a shoeless man’s head and smashes it into the pavement, while another knees him and a third holds him down.
Donald Trump asks judge to review ‘shockingly aggressive’ Mar-a-Lago search
Former President Donald Trump asked a judge Monday to order the appointment of a special master to oversee the handling of the documents seized in the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate two weeks ago.
The court filing also asks the judge to require the Justice Department to return materials not covered by the scope of the search warrant, which Trump’s team refers to as “overbroad.” The filing also calls the Justice Department’s decision to search the estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 8 a “shockingly aggressive move.”
Trump Had More Than 300 Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago
The initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives from former President Donald J. Trump in January included more than 150 marked as classified, a number that ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month seeking to recover more, multiple people briefed on the matter said.
In total, the government has recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings from Mr. Trump since he left office, the people said: that first batch of documents returned in January, another set provided by Mr. Trump’s aides to the Justice Department in June and the material seized by the F.B.I. in the search this month.
Charlie Pierce: The Press’s Fealty to Both-Sidesism Means It Can’t Stop Falling for Trump’s B.S.
On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart—who has spent a couple weeks in hiding because he signed off on the search warrant on the Tacky Palace that produced the Pool Shed Papers—produced a temporizing decision on whether to release the affidavit on which the warrant was based.
From NPR:
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ruled the DOJ must turn over the redacted version by next Thursday at noon. The affidavit will remain sealed during any appeals, he said. Reinhart also unsealed more minor documents containing general information at the hearing. The Justice Department argued during a hearing on Thursday afternoon that redacting the affidavit would leave no information of substance to release, and noted that the search itself and release of the warrant last week had created a volatile situation leading to death threats against FBI agents.
So Reinhart ruled that the Feds should have a week to work on the affidavit with their black Sharpies before he decides whether to make public whatever’s left in them.
Rude Pundit: Ron DeSantis Is Not Your New Trump, But He Is a…
Cunt. He’s a cunt. If I put that in the title, someone would report it somewhere, but we’re all presumably adult(ish) here, so I’ll say it clearly: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is a total, irredeemable cunt and every word out of his cunty mouth is filled with cuntishness. Sure, sure, you can have a delicate sensibility and call him a “dick” or “prick” or “asshole.” But those insults don’t capture the feeling of seeing and listening to Ron DeSantis quite as viscerally as “cunt.”
Honestly, there would be no reason to discuss the nature of DeSantis’s cuntery were it not for all the talk about him being the most viable non-Trump candidate for the Republican nominee for president in 2024, with some seeing him as even more viable than Trump because he’s not (yet) tainted by the scandals and barrage of lying and braying egotism that Trump has hanging over him. I’ll get to why that’s bullshit in a few. But let’s just explore some of DeSantis’s recent words and actions in order to get the full measure of his cuntocity.
NBC News poll: 57% of voters say investigations into Trump should continue
A clear majority of American voters believe that the various investigations into alleged wrongdoing by former President Donald Trump should continue, according to a national NBC News poll conducted after the FBI searched Trump’s Florida home and recovered documents marked as “top secret” earlier this month.
The poll also shows a dissatisfied public, with three-quarters of voters saying the county is headed in the wrong direction, a record 58% who say that America’s best years are behind it and 61% who say they’re willing to carry a protest sign for a day because they’re so upset.
Democratic Senate campaign fundraising outpaces GOP for fourth straight month
The committee tasked with electing more Democrats to the Senate is reporting a $10 million haul in July, outpacing its Republican counterpart for the fourth month in a row, according to numbers first released to NBC News.
With less than three months until the November elections, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee appears to be in a more formidable financial position, with $54.1 million cash on hand, well more than double the $23 million left in the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s account.
The NRSC reported about $8 million in fundraising in July.
Sen. Lindsey Graham wins temporary reprieve from testifying in Georgia probe of Trump
An appeals court put on hold Sen. Lindsey Graham’s scheduled testimony for Tuesday before a grand jury in Georgia probing efforts by Donald Trump to overturn the former president’s 2020 election defeat, with the case returning to a lower court for another look.
A federal judge on Monday had rejected Graham’s challenge to the subpoena to testify before the grand jury. Graham, R-S.C, had argued his position as a U.S. senator provided him immunity from having to appear before the investigative panel.
Sunday’s order by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes as a temporary reprieve for Graham who otherwise would have had to testify on Tuesday.
Trump appeals ruling backing IRS release of tax returns to House to full DC Circuit
Former President Donald Trump asked the full bench of the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals to review a recent appellate panel ruling okaying the Internal Revenue Service’s release of Trump’s tax returns to a House committee.
The DC Circuit panel made “made several errors” in its ruling in favor of the House, Trump said in the new filing Thursday.
“The decision here will control future disputes between Congress and the Executive— including those of sitting Presidents — almost all of which arise in this circuit,” Trump said. “The Court should grant the petition.”
Judge partially blocks DeSantis’ anti-‘woke’ law
A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ruled that a law pushed by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis restricting conversations around race in schools and the workplace is unconstitutional.
In a 44-page ruling blocking enforcement of parts of the law, US District Judge Mark Walker said that Florida’s Individual Freedom Act (IFA), better known as the “Stop WOKE Act,” “discriminates on the basis of viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment and is impermissibly vague in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The law, which took effect on July 1, is a key component of DeSantis’ war on “woke ideology,” and was intended to prevent teachings or mandatory workplace activities that suggest a person is privileged or oppressed based necessarily on their race, color, sex or national origin.
2022 ELECTION McConnell says Republicans may not win Senate control, citing ‘candidate quality’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday downplayed expectations of Republicans capturing control of the Senate in the fall elections, describing “candidate quality” as an important factor.
“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” he said in Florence, Kentucky, at a Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce luncheon when asked about his projection for the 2022 election.
Judge says he’s inclined to unseal parts of Mar-a-Lago search affidavit, orders government to submit redactions
A federal judge on Thursday said he is inclined to unseal at least some of the probable cause affidavit used to secure a search of former President Donald Trump‘s Florida estate and ordered the government to submit proposed redactions.
“On my initial careful review … there are portions of it that can be unsealed,” Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart said after a hearing where a top government lawyer contended the document’s release could jeopardize an investigation that is still in its “early stages.”
In a written ruling after the hearing, Reinhart said, “I find that on the present record the Government has not met its burden of showing that the entire affidavit should remain sealed.”
Pence says he would consider testifying before the Jan. 6 committee
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he would consider testifying before the House Jan. 6 committee if invited to appear, but he suggested he would need to sort out thorny constitutional questions before committing.
“If ever any formal invitation were rendered to us, we’d give it due consideration,” he said, in reply to a question posed to him at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics’ “Politics & Eggs” series.
Afterward, a spokeswoman for the House committee declined to comment on whether it plans to ask Pence to appear. In a recent interview with NBC News, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said both Pence and former President Donald Trump “are on our agenda to be talked about as we meet.”
Today’s hearing on unsealing the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit to put DOJ arguments on display
A federal judge in Florida has scheduled a hearing Thursday on whether to unseal the affidavit that federal investigators used to justify a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home — a major point of contention between the government and the former president, his supporters and the news media.
The Department of Justice is arguing against unsealing the document for fear it could compromise an “ongoing criminal investigation” involving national security, while Trump and his Republican allies are calling the unprecedented search a major instance of government overreach and demanding the justification be made public. Several media companies, meanwhile, have urged the document be disclosed because of the public’s “clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred in these circumstances.”
CDC director Rochelle Walensky announces shake-up of the organization, citing COVID mistakes
The head of the nation’s top public health agency on Wednesday announced a shake-up of the organization, saying it fell short responding to COVID-19 and needs to become more nimble.
The planned changes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — CDC leaders call it a “reset”— come amid criticism of the agency’s response to COVID-19, monkeypox and other public health threats. The changes include internal staffing moves and steps to speed up data releases.
The CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, told the agency’s staff about the changes on Wednesday. It’s a CDC initiative, and was not directed by the White House or other administration officials, she said.
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg could be called to testify against company after pleading guilty in fraud case
Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is expected to plead guilty Thursday to 15 counts of fraud and tax evasion, acknowledging that he was part of a scheme to receive more than $1.7 million in off-the-books perks and compensation.
Weisselberg was charged alongside two Trump Organization companies that prosecutors claim took part in the scheme, which allegedly benefited other company executives. The company has entered a not guilty plea and jury selection for its trial is scheduled for Oct. 24.
Prosecutors will ask a New York judge Friday to impose a sentence of five months incarceration for Weisselberg, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
Updated COVID boosters could be available in 3 weeks, White House predicts
Newly updated COVID-19 boosters tailored to target a dominant strain of the virus will be available in the next three weeks or so, assuming the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention work through their processes for authorization as expected.
That was White House COVID coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha’s prediction Tuesday at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
In late June, the FDA directed Moderna and Pfizer to make vaccines for the upcoming winter that targeted the more contagious BA.5 omicron subvariant, along with the original COVID strain. That work has been underway and the next step is for the FDA and CDC to review data from the companies, once they’ve received it.
Sarah Palin advances to November’s general election for Alaska’s House seat
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has clinched one of four spots in November’s ranked-choice general election for the state’s at-large congressional seat, NBC News projects, keeping alive her hopes for a political comeback.
She will be joined on the fall ballot by Republican Nick Begich, the namesake grandson of a former Democratic representative who held the seat, and Democrat Mary Sattler Peltola, a former state lawmaker. It was too early after polls closed to call the fourth and final contender.
Rep. Liz Cheney loses her primary in Wyoming to Trump-backed challenger
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a onetime House GOP leader and a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, was ousted in a Republican primary Tuesday night, NBC News projects.
Former President Donald Trump’s name wasn’t on the ballot, but his shadow eclipsed the contest as he sought revenge for Cheney’s vote last year to impeach him and her work on the committee investigating his behavior leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. His hand-picked challenger, Harriet Hageman, defeated Cheney in a multi-candidate race.
With 80% of the vote counted before midnight, Hageman was leading Cheney by more than 32 points. But the result didn’t put an end to hostilities between Trump and Cheney. Instead, she vowed to escalate them.
Biden signs major climate, health care and tax bill into law
President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday a major Democratic spending bill that seeks to fight climate change, raise taxes on corporations and expand health care coverage.
The bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, is a major legislative achievement for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections. It passed the House and the Senate last week with the support of every Democrat and no Republicans.
“With this law, the American people won, and the special interests lost,” Biden said in remarks from the White House. “We didn’t tear down; we built up. We didn’t look back; we looked forward. And today offers further proof that the soul of America is vibrant.”
Charlie Pierce: There Is No Darkness Republicans Won’t Follow Trump Into Now
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston with his wife but no longer his three children.
It is an article of faith around the shebeen that the classification system employed by the United States government is as chewy a cluster of f*ck as exists anywhere concerning anything. The only thing keeping me from falling into a fugue state somewhere between joy and sheer terror is that, maybe, this newly revealed batch of Pool Shed Files were just some of that over-classified paperwork that parts of the government are drowning in.
Liz Cheney tries to hold on in today’s Wyoming primary reshaped by Trump
Six years ago, when Rep. Liz Cheney first ran for Wyoming’s lone House seat, Nicholas Houfek said he saw the long-time Virginia resident, who had purchased a home in Jackson Hole four years earlier, as a “carpetbagger.”
Now, Houfek, a registered Republican who works in real estate, is staunchly behind Cheney in Tuesday’s primary against Harriet Hageman and three other candidates.
He asked Cheney’s campaign for a yard sign, which he and his wife Payson Houfek proudly display in their front yard. The two said many of their Democratic friends in the area have switched their party registration to vote for Cheney.
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Rudy Giuliani informed he’s a target of probe into Trump’s alleged election interference in Georgia
Rudy Giuliani is a “target” of the criminal investigation into possible 2020 election interference in Georgia by former President Donald Trump and others, his attorney told NBC News.
The lawyer, Robert Costello, said that as part of their efforts to compel Giuliani’s testimony, Georgia prosecutors initially told New York courts that Giuliani was a material witness. Then, Costello said, Giuliani’s lawyers were informed Monday that he is a “target” of the probe.
Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney and the former mayor of New York City, was ordered last week to testify in person Wednesday before a grand jury handling the case.
Ex-Trump Org. official Allen Weisselberg expected to plead guilty in tax case
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg is expected to plead guilty to criminal charges tied to his indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in an investigation of former President Donald Trump’s businesses, according to two people familiar with the matter and a public court filing.
Weisselberg’s plea could come as soon as 9 a.m. Thursday. Terms of the expected deal were not immediately disclosed.
Weisselberg and the Trump Organization were charged as part of what prosecutors described as an “off the books” scheme over 15 years to help top officials in the Trump Organization avoid paying taxes. Weisselberg, 74, was accused of avoiding paying taxes on $1.7 million of his income.
Justice Department asks judge to keep Trump’s search warrant affidavit sealed, citing investigation
Justice Department lawyers on Monday asked the judge who approved the search warrant for former President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago resort to keep the accompanying affidavit under seal, citing a need to protect witnesses and the ongoing investigation.
Federal prosecutors responded to inquiries from numerous news organizations, including NBC News, to make the affidavit public by arguing it should remain sealed “to protect the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security.”
They also said the affidavit contains “highly sensitive information about witnesses, including witnesses interviewed by the government; specific investigative techniques; and information required by law to be kept under seal.”
Sen. Rand Paul Aims To Repeal Espionage Act To Save Trump
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has called for the Espionage Act to be repealed just days after the Justice Department revealed that Donald Trump is under investigation for possibly violating the law.
“The Espionage Act was abused from the beginning to jail dissenters of WWI. It is long past time to repeal this egregious affront to the 1st Amendment,” tweeted Paul:
His tweet featured a photo of a young Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who leaked a trove of Hillary Clinton and Democratic Party emails — with the help of Russian intelligence— shortly before the 2016 election, which was then won by Trump. (Trump offered to pardon to Assange if he denied Kremlin help with the leak, Assange’s lawyer said in 2020 in a London court.)
‘Great Simmering Anger!’ Trump Doubles Down on DOJ and FBI Attacks After Mar-a-Lago Raid
Six days after the raid at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump is continuing to rage on his platform Truth Social, adding to the increasing criticism of the FBI and Justice Department since Monday.
The search warrant and inventory list from the former president’s estate were revealed to the public on Friday, showing that Trump could find himself in serious trouble, being investigated for multiple federal charges, including the Espionage Act. On Saturday, it was unearthed that a Trump lawyer signed a statement for the DOJ assuring that all classified material had been returned, two months before those documents were seized from Mar-a-Lago.
House Democratic chairs request federal intelligence damage assessment after classified docs seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
The Democratic chairs of the House Intelligence and Oversight Committees have asked federal intelligence leadership for a congressional briefing and damage assessment after the FBI seized 11 sets of classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home earlier this week.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney requested that Avril Haines, director of National Intelligence (DNI), conduct an immediate review following the extraordinary search of a former president’s home, according to a letter dated Saturday that was obtained by CNN. The DNI oversees the intelligence community in the executive branch.
FBI and DHS warn threats to federal law enforcement have spiked since Mar-a-Lago search
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning of a spike in threats to federal law enforcement officials since the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.
“The FBI and DHS have observed an increase in threats to federal law enforcement and to a lesser extent other law enforcement and government officials following the FBI’s recent execution of a search warrant in Palm Beach, Florida,” the document, dated Friday, reads, according to one official.
The Rude Pundit: Note on Democratic Groups Helping Trump Republicans Win Primaries… So?
In one of the great “tut-tut” pieces in a while, the Editorial Board of the New York Times(motto: “We’re partly responsible for the Iraq War and Trump’s election, but you’ll still subscribe”) wrote that it was appalled by the idea that “Democratic Party groups have been elevating Big Lie proponents over their moderate Republican opponents all year.” They take great umbrage – umbrage, I say – that Democrats would dare attempt to give subversive support to the fucknuts and grifters who make coin and get votes by saying that Donald Trump really won the 2020 election and that a conspiracy involving at least a few hundred thousand people worked to keep him out of office. The idea, of course, is that in a general election, those fucknuts and grifters (and, to be fair, the fucknut grifters) will be easily defeated by a Democrat. And what’s the big strategy here? Reminding voters who is endorsed by Trump because to some idiot voters, that’s like getting oral from Jesus.
Man who fired nail gun at Cincinnati FBI building called for violence on Truth Social in days after Mar-a-Lago search
A man identified by two law enforcement sources as Ricky Shiffer, who died in a confrontation with police after he fired a nail gun at a Cincinnati FBI building, appeared to post online in recent days about his desire to kill FBI agents shortly after former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was searched.
Two law enforcement officials confirmed Shiffer’s name. Shiffer was at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, according to three people aiding law enforcement who saw him in photos taken from the day of the attack; however, it’s unclear whether he went inside the building. Shiffer frequently posted about his attendance at the Capitol on social media.
House Democrats are poised to send a sweeping climate and health care bill to Biden’s desk Friday
The House is expected to pass a sweeping Democratic bill to combat climate change and extend health care coverage Friday, sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature.
Passing the Inflation Reduction Act would deliver a major victory for the Democratic Party less than three months before the November midterm elections and cap nearly a year of on-again, off-again internal negotiations, defying numerous near-death experiences for the bill.
“This life-changing legislation increases the leverage of the people’s interest over the special interest,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told Democratic colleagues in a letter. “This bill makes a tremendous difference at the kitchen table of America’s families.”
Anne Heche not expected to survive fiery crash into home, her family says
Actor Anne Heche suffered an “anoxic” brain injury and is not expected to survive, her spokesperson said Thursday, nearly a week after she crashed her car into a home in Los Angeles.
“It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable,” the spokesperson said in a statement on behalf of her friends and family.
On Monday, Heche, 53, was in a coma and in “extreme” condition, her representative said. The spokesperson said Heche was “unconscious, slipping into a coma” following the crash.
Trump says he won’t oppose move to unseal Mar-a-Lago search warrant
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant” for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and that the Justice Department filed a motion earlier in the day to make the warrant public.
Trump said late Thursday that he would not oppose the move.
Speaking about his decision at a brief news conference, Garland said the department “does not take such actions lightly” and first pursues “less intrusive” means to retrieve material. Garland noted that it was Trump’s “right” to reveal Monday’s FBI search of his property and that all Americans are entitled to a presumption of innocence.
FBI Director Denounces ‘Deplorable’ Threats After Mar-A-Lago Raid
The director of the FBI had strong words Wednesday for supporters of former President Donald Trump who have been using violent rhetoric in the wake of his agency’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Christopher Wray, who was appointed as the agency’s director in 2017 by Trump, called threats circulating online against federal agents and the Justice Department “deplorable and dangerous.”
“I’m always concerned about threats to law enforcement,” Wray said. “Violence against law enforcement is not the answer, no matter who you’re upset with.”
Gas prices fall below $4 a gallon, the lowest point since March
Relentlessly high inflation is the nation’s most vexing economic problem, prompting months of recession talk even as job growth has soared — U.S. employers added 528,000 jobs in July — and consumer spending has remained resilient.
Biden signs bill to expand benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits
President Joe Biden signed legislation on Wednesday expanding health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.
The bipartisan bill, known as the PACT Act, is the most significant expansion of veterans’ health care and benefits in more than 30 years, a White House official said.
Speaking at a White House ceremony, Biden said that “veterans of the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan not only faced dangers in battle — they were breathing toxic smoke from burn pits.”
Trump invokes Fifth Amendment nearly 450 times in N.Y. AG’s civil probe of his business practices
Former President Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Wednesday during a deposition before lawyers from New York Attorney General Letitia James‘ office in its probe into the Trump Organization’s business practices.
The deposition lasted four hours, and the only question the former president answered was about his name, Trump attorney Ron Fischetti told NBC News.
A source with knowledge of the deposition said Trump took the fifth more than 440 times.
Read the rest of the story at NBC News
2022 midterm primary results: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont and Connecticut
Four states went the polls Tuesday night in matchups that included a race to take on a swing-state governor, a member of the progressive “Squad” with several primary challengers and an opportunity to elect a woman for the first time in Vermont’s at-large congressional district.
Tuesday’s primaries take place a day after the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s primary residence in Florida, at Mar-a-Lago, as part of a probe into documents that may not have been preserved as required by the Presidential Records Act.
Since the search, Trump has launched fundraising efforts off “Biden’s FBI RAIDS.” Republicans blasted the search, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowed to retaliate if the GOP takes back the House in November.
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), a top Trump ally, says FBI agents seized his cellphone
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said Tuesday night that the FBI seized his cellphone earlier in the day, less than 24 hours after federal agents searched former President Donald Trump‘s home in Florida.
“This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone,” Perry said in a statement.
Perry, a top Trump ally, said the FBI “made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish. I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress.”
Federal court rules that House committee can access Trump’s tax records
A federal appeals panel unanimously ruled Tuesday that a House committee can access former President Donald Trump’s tax records after a yearslong legal battle.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., agreed that the House Ways and Means Committee has the authority to obtain Trump’s tax records from the Treasury Department, upholding a district court ruling from late last year.
Trump’s lawyers are all but certain to appeal the ruling.
Trump’s legal team was in talks with DOJ this spring over records stored at Mar-a-Lago, attorney says
Donald Trump‘s legal team was in discussions with the Justice Department as recently as early June about records stored at the former president’s Mar-a-Largo home, which FBI agents searched Monday, one of his attorneys confirmed to NBC News.
Trump attorney Christina Bobb said Tuesday that the FBI removed about a dozen boxes from a basement storage area and that a search warrant left by agents indicated they were investigating possible violations of laws dealing with the handling of classified material and the Presidential Records Act.
With her account, multiple sources have now confirmed to NBC News that the unprecedented search was related to classified material.
Republican officials reacted with fury to news of the search at Mar-A-Lago
Top Republicans and prominent conservatives reacted with outrage on Monday night to the news that the F.B.I. had searched the private residence of former President Donald J. Trump, with some suggesting that federal agents should be arrested and others hinting that the court-approved law-enforcement action against Mr. Trump was pushing the country toward political chaos.
“I’ve seen enough,” Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, wrote in a statement that he posted online. “The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization.”
The House Jan. 6 panel is scheduled to interview Pompeo and Mastriano today
In the wake of the F.B.I. search of former President Donald J. Trump’s property in Florida, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is gearing up to meet with two potentially key witnesses in its separate inquiry on Tuesday.
The committee is expected to meet with Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state under Mr. Trump, and Douglas V. Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania who served as a point person in the state for a plan to keep Mr. Trump in power by using slates of “alternative” or “fake” electors.
Olivia Newton-John, pop singer who found stardom with ‘Grease,’ dies at 73
Olivia Newton-John, a British Australian pop star who dominated the pop culture of an era, has died after repeated treatments for cancer, her family announced Monday. She was 73.
“Dame Olivia Newton-John … passed away peacefully at her Ranch in Southern California this morning, surrounded by family and friends,” John Easterling, her husband, said in a statement on her official Facebook page. “We ask that everyone please respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time.”
“Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer. Her healing inspiration and pioneering experience with plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer.”
FBI search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home tied to classified material, sources say
Former President Donald Trump said Monday that the FBI “raided” his home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida and even cracked his safe,with a source familiar with the matter telling NBC News that the search was tied to classified information Trump allegedly took with him from the White House to his Palm Beach resort in January 2021.
Trump also claimed in a written statement that the search — unprecedented in American history — was politically motivated, although he did not provide specifics.
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a lengthy email statement issued by his Save America political committee.
Liz Cheney ‘Would Find It Very Difficult’ to Support DeSantis for President: He’s ‘Lined Himself Up Almost Entirely’ with Trump and ‘That’s Very Dangerous’
Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) criticisms of former President Donald Trump are no secret, with her impeachment vote and involvement in the House Select Committeeinvestigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and she holds similar concerns about Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), telling The New York Times she “would find it very difficult” to support the Florida governor for president because of how he had “lined himself up almost entirely” with Trump.
Cheney, currently the underdog in the primary battle to retain her own congressional seat against Trump-endorsed challenger Harriet Hageman, is described by Times reporter Jonathan Martin as believing that “ridding American politics of former President Donald J. Trump and his influence” is “more important than her House seat,” skipping time on the campaign trail to work with committee members and staff on their ongoing investigations and series of hearings.
Republicans block cap on insulin costs for millions of patients
Republican lawmakers on Sunday successfully stripped a $35 price cap on the cost of insulin for many patients from the ambitious legislative package Democrats are moving through Congress this weekend, invoking arcane Senate rules to jettison the measure.
The insulin cap is a long-running ambition of Democrats, who want it to apply to patients on Medicare and private insurance. Republicans left the portion that applies to Medicare patients untouched but stripped the insulin cap for other patients. Bipartisan talks on a broader insulin pricing bill faltered earlier this year.
Biden ends isolation in White House after negative Covid tests
President Joe Biden traveled to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Sunday after he ended isolation in the White House following two negative tests for Covid.
“This morning, the president’s SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing was negative for a second consecutive day,” Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House physician, wrote in a letter Sunday. “He will safely return to public engagement and presidential travel.”
Biden told reporters he was feeling great as he walked out of the White House to board Marine One on his way to his home state, where first lady Jill Biden has been staying during his Covid infection.
Senate passes sweeping climate, health and tax package, putting Democrats on cusp of historic win
Senate Democrats narrowly passed a sweeping climate and economic package on Sunday, putting President Joe Biden and his party on the cusp of a big legislative victory just three months before the crucial November midterm elections.
After a marathon overnight Senate session, the 51-50 vote was strictly along party lines, with all Republicans voting no and all Democrats voting yes. After Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote, Democrats stood and applauded.
The legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, now heads to the House, which plans to return from its summer recess on Friday, pass the legislation and send it to Biden’s desk for his signature.
Stephanie Mencimer: Trump Merch, Rabid Fans, Disgraced Ex-Officials… Inside the Right-Wing Conference Circuit
In 2018, two years before YouTube de-platformed “Dark Web philosopher” and alt-right star Stefan Molyneux for violating its hate speech policies, he was one of the big names featured at the first American Priority Conference in DC. The event was marketed as a free speech extravaganza of Trump-supporting activists and influencers not welcome at more traditional Republican confabs like the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the oldest, largest, and most influential right-wing gathering in the country. But when Molyneux showed up, he discovered conference rooms mostly full of empty chairs. So he bailed.
Embarrassing turnout might have put an end to this event. Instead, AMPFest, as it’s now known, relocated to the Trump National Doral Miami hotel in 2019, added a golf tournament and a $75,000 sponsorship package, and scored appearances by Donald Trump Jr. and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Suddenly it became a top destination in the right-wing convention circuit, providing yet another platform for disgraced MAGA-world politicos like former national security adviser Lt. General Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, campaign operative George Papadopoulos, and right-wing filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, all of whom were pardoned by President Donald Trump for various crimes.
Trump lawyers in talks with Justice Department about January 6 criminal probe
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team is in direct communication with Justice Department officials, the first sign of talks between the two sides as the criminal probe intoJanuary 6, 2021, accelerates, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.
The talks revolve around whether Trump would be able to shield conversations he had while he was president from federal investigators.
In recent weeks, investigators have moved aggressively into Trump’s orbit, subpoenaing top former White House officials, focusing on efforts to overturn the 2020 election and executing searches of lawyers who sought to aid those efforts.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema signs off on Democrats’ big agenda bill, paving the way for Senate passage
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema signed off on sweeping Democratic legislationThursday that would provide new spending to mitigate climate change and extend health care access while taxing corporations.
The Arizona Democrat’s announcement likely unlocks the votes needed to pass the bill in the Senate.
Sinema said her support came after Democratic leaders agreed to remove a provision on closing the so-called carried interest tax loophole that enables wealthy hedge fund and investment managers to pay lower taxes.
U.S. officials declare monkeypox a public health emergency
The Biden administration declared monkeypox a public health emergency on Thursday as cases topped 6,600 nationwide.
The declaration could facilitate access to emergency funds, allow health agencies to collect more data about cases and vaccinations, accelerate vaccine distribution and make it easier for doctors to prescribe treatment.
“We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously and to take responsibility to help us tackle this virus,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a Thursday briefing about the emergency declaration.
Alex Jones must pay at least $4.1 million to parents of a Sandy Hook school massacre victim in defamation case, jury rules
An Austin jury on Thursday decided Infowars host Alex Jones must pay at least $4.1 million to the family of a 6-year-old killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for the suffering he and his website and broadcast caused them by spreading lies about the 2012 massacre.
Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse died alongside 19 of his classmates and six educators at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, had sought $150 million for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
An attorney for Jones, who has repeatedly suggested that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, asked jurors to award Heslin and Lewis only $1.
Alex Jones Finds Out in Court His Lawyers Accidentally Sent All His Texts to the Opposition — Texts Proving He Lied
Alex Jones found himself shocked and playing catch up during his Wednesday testimony in the Sandy Hook defamation trial as he was informed while on the stand that his lawyers had accidentally sent two years’ worth of text messages to attorney Mark Bankston, who is representing families of Sandy Hook victims.
“Did you know 12 days ago your attorneys messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cell phone with every text message you’ve sent for the past two years?” Bankston asked Jones.
Trump ally Navarro sued for alleged unofficial email account
The Justice Department filed suit Wednesday against Peter Navarro, claiming the former adviser to Donald Trump used an unofficial email account while working in the White House and wrongfully retained presidential records.
The lawsuit in federal court in Washington claims Navarro used at least one “non-official” email account — a ProtonMail account — to send and receive emails. The legal action comes just weeks after Navarro was indicted on criminal charges after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski and two staffers killed in car crash
Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., and two of her staffers were killed in a car crash on Wednesday, authorities said. Walorski was 58.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy first confirmed Walorski’s death in a tweet earlier Wednesday.
McCarthy said he spoke to Walorski’s husband, Dean Swihart, who was informed of her death by the Elkhart County Sheriff’s office on Wednesday afternoon.
Here are key takeaways so far from Tuesday’s primaries
Kansas voters handed abortion-rights advocates a massive victory Tuesday, surging to the polls to defeat a measure that would have allowed the GOP-led legislature to impose new restrictions.
The vote in Kansas was one of the first tests of the potency of abortion rights at the ballot box since the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade and end the federal protection of abortion access.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, local elections officials were still counting votes to determine whether a slate of statewide candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump and promoted his lies about election fraud won their Republican primaries.
Federal grand jury subpoenas ex-Trump WH counsel Cipollone in 2020 election probe, source says
Former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN, the latest sign that the Justice Department’s investigation is heating up.
Cipollone and his attorneys are in discussions about an appearance before the grand jury, including how to deal with executive privilege issues, the source said.
ABC News first reported the subpoena.
Senate passes veterans health bill after Republicans cave to pressure
The Senate on Tuesday passed legislation expanding lifesaving health care benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.
The 86-11 vote came after Republicans agreed to lift their blockade of the popular bill, caving to pressure from more than 60 veterans groups — and comedian Jon Stewart — who had railed against Republicans for days outside the Capitol.
Many of the veterans who had camped on the Senate steps, braving heat, humidity and thunderstorms, watched the vote from the gallery in the Senate chamber. The bill has already cleared the House and now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
Kansans overwhelmingly vote to uphold abortion rights in their state
Kansas voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly struck down a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove language enshrining reproductive rights in their state, in a move widely seen as a victory for abortion rights activists.
The proposed amendment was the first time anywhere in the U.S. that voters cast ballots on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
A ballot question, known as the “Value Them Both Amendment,” asked voters to decide whether the state’s Constitution should continue to protect abortion rights. The proposed amendment to the state Constitution would have removed language that guarantees reproductive rights and asked voters if they prefer to put the issue of abortion in the hands of the state’s Republican-controlled legislature — an outcome that abortion advocates said was all but certain to result in the elimination or curtailment of those rights.
Lindsey Graham adds Trump’s former White House counsel as he battles Georgia subpoena
Amid an ongoing legal battle over the 2020 election probe in Georgia, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has added former President Donald Trump’s first White House counsel, Donald McGahn, to his legal team.
Graham continues to fight a subpoena ordering him to appear before a grand jury in Fulton County’s criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.
McGhan’s name appeared on a recent legal filing alerting the Fulton County Superior Court that Graham would be moving his challenge to the Northern District of Georgia, as he continues his fight against the subpoena, which he first began last month.
Veterans have been camping out on the Capitol steps after GOP blocks burn pit bill
Jen Burch, 35, a retired staff sergeant in the Air Force, looks strong and healthy from the outside. She says that inside, however, she’s suffering from ailments that she believes are related to her service during the Afghanistan war more than a decade ago.
While they were in Kandahar, Burch and her fellow service members were exposed to “burn pits, incinerators and poo ponds,” she said. When she left, she battled pneumonia and bronchitis. And in the years since then, she has been “in and out of ERs” and has struggled with intense migraine headaches and shortness of breath whenever she climbs a flight of stairs.
DHS watchdog asked the Secret Service for all Jan. 6 texts, then retracted the request in an email
The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog agency, which in February 2021 requested all Secret Service text messages sent around Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol riot, withdrew the request five months later, according to an email obtained by the top Democrats on two House committees.
On July 27, 2021, DHS Deputy Inspector General Thomas Kait sent an email telling Jim Crumpacker, a senior official at DHS, “Jim, please use this email as a reference to our conversation where I said we no longer request phone records and text messages from the USSS relating to the events of January 6th,” referring to the U.S. Secret Service.
U.S. drone strike kills Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan
President Joe Biden announced Monday night that a U.S. counterterrorism operation over the weekend in Afghanistan killed top Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the plotters behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Justice has been delivered. And this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in a rare evening address from the White House. “No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide — if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”
Two people briefed on the matter told NBC News it was a CIA drone strike that killed al-Zawahiri.
Charlie Pierce: Hey, That’s Weird… The Texts for Trump’s Top DHS Officials Are Also Gone
As it turns out, Rose Mary Woods, or somebody (cough-Nixon-cough), was something of a piker when it came to burying inconvenient electronic evidence of presidential misdeeds. From the Washington Post:
This discovery of missing records for the senior-most homeland security officials [acting Secretary Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli], which has not been previously reported, increases the volume of potential evidence that has vanished regarding the time around the Capitol attack. It comes as both congressional and criminal investigators at the Department of Justice seek to piece together an effort by the president and his allies to overturn the results of the election, which culminated in a pro-Trump rally that became a violent riot in the halls of Congress.
What appears to have been an almost maniacal frenzy of ass-covering in the final days of the previous administration—one that’s extended, largely underground, well into the current one—has opened a brand new universe of investigation for all concerned.
House Democrats pass a ban on assault weapons
The House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill to ban assault-style weapons.
The last-minute vote was announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Friday morning just hours before the chamber was set to break for a month-long recess.
The legislation passed 217 to 213. Two Republican lawmakers — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Chris Jacobs of New York — voted in support of the bill.
Pelosi said the ban is “a crucial step in our ongoing fight against the deadly epidemic of gun violence.”
Biden ‘continues to feel well’ after testing positive for COVID-19 again: Doctor
President Joe Biden has tested positive again for COVID-19, according to a letter from White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who said on Sunday that Biden “continues to feel well” and that “unsurprisingly” his test results are still positive.
O’Connor wrote in a memo released by the White House that Biden’s antigen test came back positive late Saturday morning after he tested negative Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning.
As Manchin pushes for speedy passage of new deal, Sinema stays quiet
Senate Democrats are aiming to pass a major spending bill this week that includes funding for climate change, health care and tax increases on corporations.
The deal was unexpectedly struck last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and a key centrist, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., giving Democrats optimism that they’ll have a robust agenda to run on in competitive races ahead of the midterm elections this fall.
While Manchin appeared on five Sunday programs to defend the deal and call for its passage, another centrist who holds a swing vote in the 50-50 Senate, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., whom Democrats consider a difficult negotiator, has been quiet about whether she’d vote for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, released Wednesday.
Speaker Pelosi Heads To Asia, But No Word On Potential Taiwan Visit
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed Sunday she is leading a Congressional delegation to several Asian countries, but didn’t say if she planned to stop in Taiwan.
Pelosi’s office said the speaker would visit Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan with several members of her caucus, including Reps. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Mark Takano (Calif.), Suzan DelBene (Wash.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.) and Andy Kim (N.J.).
“Today, our Congressional delegation travels to the Indo-Pacific to reaffirm America’s strong and unshakeable commitment to our allies and friends in the region,” Pelosi said. “Our delegation will hold high-level meetings to discuss how we can further advance our shared interests and values, including peace and security, economic growth and trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, human rights and democratic governance.”
Prosecutors prepare for court battle to force former White House officials to testify about Trump’s January 6 conversations
Justice Department prosecutors are preparing to fight in court to force former White House officials to testify about then-President Donald Trump’s conversations and actions around January 6, according to people briefed on the matter.
At issue are claims of executive privilege that prosecutors expect the former president to make in order to shield some information from the federal grand jury as the criminal investigation moves deeper into the ranks of White House officials who directly interacted with Trump.
DOJ’s preemptive move is the clearest sign yet that federal investigators are homing in on Trump’s conduct as he tried to prevent the transfer of power to Joe Biden.
U.S. Economy Shows Another Decline, Fanning Recession Fears
A key measure of economic output fell for the second straight quarter, raising fears that the United States could be entering a recession — or perhaps that one had already begun.
Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, fell 0.2 percent in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That drop followed a decline of 0.4 percent in the first quarter. The estimates for both periods will be revised in coming months as government statisticians get more complete data.
News of the back-to-back contractions heightened a debate in Washington over whether a recession had begun and, if so, whether President Biden was to blame. Economists largely say that conditions do not meet the formal definition of a recession but that the risks of one are rising.
Blindsided veterans erupt in fury after Senate Republicans suddenly tank Burn Pit Act
Blindsided veterans erupted in anger and indignation Thursday after Senate Republicans suddenly tanked a widely supported bipartisan measure that would have expanded medical coverage for millions of combatants exposed to toxic burn pits during their service.
Supporters of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act — or PACT Act — overwhelmingly expected the House-passed bill to sail through to the president’s desk for signature.
But in a move that shocked and confused veteran groups Wednesday night, 41 Senate Republicans blocked the bill’s passage, including 25 who had supported it a month ago.
Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former acting chief of staff, testifies before Jan. 6 committee
Mick Mulvaney, who was the acting White House chief of staff for President Donald Trump, testified Thursday before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.
Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff in 2019 and early 2020, arrived for his closed-door deposition with the committee around 1:40 p.m. and departed 2½ hours later.
As he was leaving, reporters asked Mulvaney whether he was in contact with anyone from the White House from December 2020 to January 2021. “I haven’t talked to anybody in the White House in a long time,” he responded, without elaborating.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson cooperating with DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe, say sources
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top adviser to then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, has recently cooperated with the Department of Justice investigation into the events of Jan. 6, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department reached out to her following her testimony a month ago before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the sources said.
The extent of her cooperation was not immediately clear.
DOJ is questioning witnesses about Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6
Federal prosecutors have been interviewing witnesses pertaining to former President Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021 as part of a larger investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, a person familiar with the matter said.
Prosecutors will also review attempts by Trump and his team to alter the election outcome by substituting fake electors in key states Trump lost and by pressuring former Vice President Mike Pence to block certification of the results.
U.S. seeking to swap Russian arms dealer for Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan
The U.S. government has proposed to Russia that it release detained Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan in exchange for imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.
Griner, a WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist, has been held in Russia since February, and Whelan, a corporate executive, has been detained in the country since 2018.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the Biden administration had made a “substantial” offer to Russia to facilitate the release of Griner and Whelan, but he did not disclose further details about the proposal.
Manchin strikes major deal with Schumer on climate, taxes and health care
In an unexpected breakthrough, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., reversed his opposition to quickly moving a broad filibuster-proof bill Wednesday and announced he will support a package that includes major investments in drug pricing, as well as provisions to address climate change and taxes on the wealthy.
Manchin announced the agreement in a joint statement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., after months of negotiations between the two appeared to break down recently. The deal represents a major breakthrough for elements of President Joe Biden’s agenda that appeared to be all but dead.
Dr. Irwin Redlener: Dispatch From Ukraine
Last week in Lviv was particularly productive for Karen and me.
Although warnings to Americans to stay out of Ukraine were becoming increasingly intense, we were getting mixed signals from our friends in-country. Their message was, in essence, that this decision should be entirely one of risk versus benefit. In other words, were the meetings we had planned essential to what we were trying to accomplish with the work of our new foundation, Ukraine Children’s Action Project This is how we parsed the decision: Lviv? Yes, we needed to be there. Kyiv? Not so much. (Next time, though…)
Read the rest of Dr. Irwin Redlener’s piece at Smerconish.com
Georgia state bar investigating two lawyers who participated in fake elector plot
The State Bar of Georgia is investigating two Republican lawyers who signed on to the “fake electors” scheme to subvert the Electoral College in the 2020 presidential election.
The lawyers, Brad Carver and Daryl Moody, were specifically referred to the State Disciplinary Board for investigation by the Office of General Counsel, the state bar told CNN in a statement.
Carver, a lawyer and member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, and Moody, chairman of the Foundation Board of Governors for the Georgia Republican Foundation, are two of the 16 individuals who signed the fake elector certificates that were ultimately sent to the National Archives in late 2020.
Self-awareness in short supply as Trump calls for law and order in DC
America first, irony last. Donald Trump, the former US president accused of a coup attempt in which police were speared and sprayed, returned to Washington on Tuesday with a plea for law and order to give police “the respect that they deserve”.
Trump spoke at a luxury hotel less than two miles from the US Capitol where, 18 months ago, his supporters furiously attacked law enforcement in a bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election result. It was his first visit to the nation’s capital since he snubbed Joe Biden’s inauguration and took flight to Florida.
There were chants of “four more years!” as Trump gave a 90-minute address to a summit hosted by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a rightwing thinktank conceived by alumni of his White House. Less than a week after the congressional January 6 committee detailed 187 minutes in which he chose not to stop the deadly insurrection, Trump sought to blame Democrats for what he described as rampant crime.
Trump Defense Secretary Says He Never Received ‘Direction or Order’ to Deploy National Guard on Jan. 6
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol shot down a right-wing talking point on Tuesday by releasing a video deposition of former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller saying there was no order to have military personal ready ahead of Jan. 6.
“I was never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature,” Miller said in the clip shared by the committee on Twitter.
“To remove any doubt: Not only did Donald Trump fail to contact his Secretary of Defense on January 6th (as shown in our hearing), Trump also failed to give any order prior to January 6 to deploy the military to protect the Capitol,” the committee wrote, adding, “Here is Secretary Miller’s testimony.”
Justice Dept. investigating Trump’s actions in Jan. 6 criminal probe
The Justice Department is investigating President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury — including two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence — have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won, according to two people familiar with the matter. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
GOP lawmaker attended gay son’s wedding 3 days after voting against same-sex marriage
A Republican lawmaker attended his gay son’s wedding just three days after joining the majority of his GOP colleagues in voting against a House bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex marriage.
The gay son of Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., confirmed to NBC News on Monday that he “married the love of [his] life” on Friday and that his “father was there.” NBC News is not publishing the names of the grooms, neither of whom is a public figure.
Thompson’s press secretary, Maddison Stone, also confirmed the congressman was in attendance.
Top Pence Aides Testify to Grand Jury in Jan. 6 Investigation
Two top aides to former Vice President Mike Pence testified last week to a federal grand jury in Washington investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the highest-ranking officials of the Trump administration so far known to have cooperated with the Justice Department’s widening inquiry into the events leading up to the assault.
The appearances before the grand jury of the men — Marc Short, who was Mr. Pence’s chief of staff, and Greg Jacob, who was his counsel — were the latest indication that the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the events surrounding and preceding the riot is intensifying after weeks of growing questions about the urgency the department has put on examining former President Donald J. Trump’s potential criminal liability.
Trump didn’t want to call for Jan. 6 rioters’ prosecution, new video shows
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) posted a video Monday on Twitter showing previously unpublicized testimony from several people close to Trump, centered on a speech he was supposed to give Jan. 7, 2021.
Biden tears into Trump over violence against police hours before ex-president returns to D.C. for campaign-style speech
President Joe Biden slammed former President Donald Trump on Monday for lacking “the courage to act” as police defending the U.S. Capitol suffered through “medieval hell” on Jan. 6, 2021 — a rare and direct attack pre-empting Trump’s plan to deliver a law-and-order-themed speech Tuesday in the nation’s capital.
The two men may be on a collision course for a rematch of their hard-fought 2020 election.
Biden has said he will seek re-election, and Trump advisers say it is likely he will announce his own bid before November’s midterm elections.
Biden’s Covid symptoms are improving ‘significantly,’ doctor says
President Joe Biden’s Covid symptoms “continue to improve significantly,” his doctor said in a letter Sunday.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House physician, said that the president completed his third full day of treatment with the antiviral drug Paxlovid on Saturday and that his “predominant symptom” is only a sore throat. Biden, who tested positive for Covid on Thursday, had been fully vaccinated and twice boosted, the White House said.
“This is most likely a result of lymphoid activation as his body clears the virus, and is thus encouraging,” O’Connor said of Biden’s sore throat. “His rhinorrhea, cough and body aches have diminished considerably. His voice remains a bit deep. His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature all remain normal. His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear.” (Rhinorrhea is a runny nose.)
Read the rest of the story at NBC News
Steve Bannon found guilty in Jan. 6 contempt of Congress trial
A jury on Friday found former Donald Trumpadviser Steve Bannon guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress for blowing off the House Jan. 6 committee.
The jury returned the verdict after deliberating for less than three hours in what prosecutors presented as a straightforward case.
“This case is not complicated, but it is important,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston told jurors during closing arguments on Friday. She argued that Bannon “did not want to recognize Congress’ authority” or play by the government’s rules.
Jan. 6 panel will weigh subpoenaing Ginni Thomas if needed, Cheney says
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots will weigh subpoenaing Virginia “Ginni” Thomas if she does not agree to a voluntary interview with the committee, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo, said Sunday.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Cheney, vice chair of the panel, said the committee remained “engaged” with Thomas’ lawyer and hopes “she will agree to come in voluntarily.
“But the committee is fully prepared to contemplate a subpoena if she does not,” Cheney told host Jake Tapper. “I hope it doesn’t get to that. I hope she will come in voluntarily. We’ve certainly spoken with numbers of people who are similarly situated in terms of the discussions that she was having that you’ve mentioned.”
Mike Pence’s Security Detail Feared For Their Lives During Jan. 6 Capitol Riot
Members of former Vice President Mike Pence’s security detail were so afraid for their lives during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot that they made calls over radio to say goodbye to their family members, according to testimony given to the House committee investigating the attack.
“The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives,” a former White House national security official said in testimony to the committee that aired in a hearing on Thursday.
The official’s identity was withheld for security reasons.
Senate Democrats Introduce Bill To Lift Federal Ban On Weed
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats in the chamber announced a long-awaited bill Thursday to lift the federal ban on cannabis products ― something that’s hugely popular with the American people but unlikely to succeed in Congress right now.
The New York senator’s Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act has been in the works since last year, when he released a draft with Senate Finance Committee chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). If passed, it would decriminalize weed on the federal level and officially allow states to create their own marijuana laws.
President Joe Biden Tests Positive For COVID, Experiencing Mild Symptoms
Biden, who is fully vaccinated and twice boosted, tested positive Thursday morning and is experiencing “very mild symptoms,” the White House said.
“Consistent with CDC guidelines, he will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time,” his administration said. He will resume in-person activities after he tests negative.
Jan. 6 Hearing Focuses On Trump’s 187 Minutes Of Cheering His Mob During His Coup Attempt
The House committee investigating Donald Trump’s attempted coup to remain in power wrapped up its summer series of public hearings Thursday night, going through a minute-by-minute account of his refusal to tell the violent mob he had called to the U.S. Capitol to stand down.
“Donald Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican. “It is a stain on our history.”
Prime-time Jan. 6 hearing to focus on Trump’s riot response, with new testimony and evidence
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold the eighth in its latest string of hearings on Thursday starting at 8 p.m. ET — in prime-time.
Committee aides say the session will zero-in on then-President Donald Trump’s response to the insurrection by a pro-Trump mob, specifically the 187 minutes between his speech at the Ellipse near the White House earlier that day and his public statement telling rioters to go home.
The panel will also discuss what occurred on the remainder of Jan. 6, including a tweet Trump sent around 6 p.m., and the fallout on Jan. 7, 2021.
Prosecution rests its case in Steve Bannon trial after calling 2 witnesses
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday rested what they argue is a pretty straightforward contempt of Congress case against former Trump adviser Steve Bannon after calling just two witnesses.
Justice Department prosecutors told jurors in their opening statement Tuesday that Bannon thought he was “above the law.” Wednesday’s testimony from a senior staffer on the House Jan. 6 committee and an FBI special agent, who testified — among other things — about Bannon’s posts on the right-leaning social media website GETTR.
Judge orders Rudy Giuliani to testify before grand jury in Trump election probe
A New York judge has ordered Rudy Giuliani to testify before the Georgia special grand jury hearing evidence in an investigation into possible 2020 election interference by former President Donald Trump and others, court filings show.
The order came after Giuliani, who was Trump’s personal attorney, failed to appear at a July 13 hearing before the judge to challenge a subpoena for his testimony in the investigation.
Giuliani was subpoenaed earlier this month as a “material witness” by the grand jury called by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to investigate any “coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections.” The subpoena said Giuliani made statements at legislative hearings in Georgia falsely claiming that there had been “widespread voter fraud” in the state.
Senators Propose Changes To Electors Law After Capitol Riot
A bipartisan group of senators agreed Wednesday on proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act, the post-Civil War-era law for certifying presidential elections that came under intense scrutiny after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Donald Trump‘s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Long in the making, the package introduced by the group led by Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Joe Manchin of West Virginia is made up of two separate proposals. One would clarify the way states submit electors and the vice president tallies the votes in Congress. The other would bolster security for state and local election officials who have faced violence and harassment.
Georgia ‘fake electors’ hit with subpoenas in criminal probe
Nearly a dozen of Georgia’s “fake electors” revealed Tuesday they’ve been subpoenaed to appear before the Fulton County special grand jury hearing evidence in the criminal investigation into possible 2020 election interference by former President Donald Trump and his allies.
The revelations came in a court filing where attorneys for 11 of the state’s 16 false presidential electors attempted to quash the subpoenas, calling them “unreasonable and oppressive.”
The attorneys also argued that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office initially said their clients were “witnesses, not subjects or targets” of the investigation, and that the electors had agreed to voluntary interviews with the team investigating election interference beginning in April.
Secret Service Says Some Missing Jan. 6 Texts Are Unlikely to Be Recovered
The Secret Service said it may not be able to recover a batch of erased text messages from phones used by its agents around the time of the attack on the Capitol last year, a development that comes amid intensified scrutiny over lapses in the agency’s accounting of its actions during the riots.
The Secret Service informed the House Jan. 6 committee that it was still attempting a forensic search for the phone records on Tuesday morning, when it delivered not the missing text messages the panel was seeking but “thousands of pages of documents” and other records related to decisions made on Jan. 6, according to the agency’s spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. Later, in an interview, Mr. Guglielmi said the phone records were probably not recoverable.
Steve Bannon thought he was ‘above the law,’ prosecutors say in contempt trial
Former Donald Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon “decided he was above the law” when he blew off the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday in opening statements of Bannon’s contempt of Congress trial.
Bannon “chose to show his contempt for Congress’ authority and its processes” by refusing to comply with a subpoena, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Rose Vaughn told jurors.
“It wasn’t optional, it wasn’t a request and it wasn’t an invitation. It was mandatory,” Vaughn said.
House votes to protect same-sex marriage in case the Supreme Court rescinds it
The House passed the Respect For Marriage Act Tuesday to codify legal same-sex marriage nationwide, fearing that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court will rescind the right after it overturned Roe v. Wade last month.
The vote was 267-157, with 47 Republicans joining a unanimous Democratic caucus in supporting the legislation.
Among the GOP lawmakers who voted for the measure were Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the No. 3 Republican in the House, and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, head of the House Republicans’ campaign arm, also backed the bill.
Barbara McQuade: The case for charging Trump with manslaughter
The next Jan. 6 committee hearing — a prime-time finale after seven previous hearings — is expected to focus even more intently on what was happening inside the White House during the insurrection. I will be listening for evidence of a crime that has gone largely undiscussed: manslaughter.
Five people died in the Jan. 6 attack. Officer Brian Sicknick sustained a fatal stroke a day after rioters sprayed him with a chemical irritant. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot by police when she tried to climb through a window and enter the House chamber. A Georgia woman, Rosanne Boyland, was crushed by fellow rioters as they pushed their way against the police outside a Capitol door. Kevin Greeson, an Alabama man, died of a heart attack in a sea of Trump supporters on the sidewalk west of the building. Benjamin Philips of Pennsylvania died of a stroke during the assault on the Capitol.
Biden could declare climate emergency as soon as this week, sources say
The potential move comes days after Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) told Democratic leaders that he does not support his party’s efforts to advance a sprawling economic package this month that includes billions of dollars to address global warming. If an emergency is invoked, it could empower the Biden administration in its efforts to reduce carbon emissions and foster cleaner energy.
Jury Selection Begins In Trial Of Ex-Trump Adviser Steve Bannon
Jury selection began Monday in the trial of Steve Bannon, a one-time top adviser to former President Donald Trump. He is facing criminal contempt of Congress charges after refusing for months to cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Bannon is charged in Washington’s federal court with defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee that sought his records and testimony. He was indicted in November on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, one month after the Justice Department received a congressional referral. Each count carries a minimum of 30 days of jail and as long as a year behind bars.
Angry and heartbroken Uvalde parents flood school board meeting with demands for new leadership
One by one, dozens of angry parents and residents lambasted the Uvalde school board, repeatedly calling for the superintendent to be fired and trustees to step down after more law enforcement failures were revealed in the response to the shooting that killed 19 childrenand two teachers at Robb Elementary School.
“Shame on you!” a chorus erupted as the meeting got underway Monday evening.
Hundreds of community members crammed into an auditorium at Uvalde High School, questioning school officials’ handling of safety and demanding accountability from the people paid to protect children and school staff.
Two Trump White House officials expected to testify at prime-time Jan. 6 hearing Thursday
Former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews and Matthew Pottinger, a member of the National Security Council during the Trump administration, are expected to testify at the Jan. 6 committee’s high-profile hearing on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the plans.
Both Matthews and Pottinger were among a wave of Trump officials who resigned in the wake of the attack on the Capitol. This would be the first time either witness has testified publicly before the panel.
CNN first reported Pottinger was an expected witness.
Charlie Pierce: Joe Manchin Has Sold Us All Out Again
Over the decade in which this shebeen has been open, I have gradually come to the sad conclusion that the climate crisis is far beyond the ability of our democratic republic to handle. Our institutions are too creaky, too money-sodden, and too fat with chokepoints to develop a consensus that the climate crisis is even a crisis at all. Our politicians and our political system are sleepwalking themselves—and us—into an apocalyptic cul de sac from which there is no way out, and in which there are no good choices anymore. More and more, I think that the only nation-states that will survive what’s coming are the most brutal and authoritarian ones. And good morning to you, too. Have a nice day.
The Rude Pundit: An Observation on the Nature of Extremist F***nuts at the January 6 Committee Hearing
One thing that jumped out at me while watching Tuesday’s televised hearing from the January 6 Committee into the insurrection of fucking idiots, which came closer than we want to believe to actually working, is how the extremists coming to DC on that cold day didn’t emerge from a vacuum. No, in fact, it was the action, or, really, the inaction of the federal government on another uprising that gave the idiot hordes the confidence to go full overthrow. Jason Van Tatenhove, former member of the Oath Keepers (motto: “If this whole beach was completely covered in dicks, and somebody said I had to eat every dick until the beach was clean for liberty, I would say, ‘No problemo!'”), pointed very clearly to an event from 2014 that helped inspire motherfuckers to start fucking more mothers all the way to the Capitol.
Jury selection set to begin in contempt trial of Trump ally Steve Bannon
Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the trial of former President Donald Trump’s ally Steve Bannon over his defiance of a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon, who previously served as Trump’s White House chief strategist but departed in August of 2017, was first subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee for records and testimony in September of last year. The committee told Bannon at the time it had “reason to believe that you have information relevant to understanding activities that led to and informed the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Jan. 6 panel expects to get Secret Service texts by Tuesday, says new witnesses will appear in next hearing
The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot expects to receive erased Secret Service text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, by Tuesday, and will present testimony from new witnesses during Thursday’s public hearing, its members said Sunday.
Fanning out on Sunday programs, multiple members of the committee discussed the latest developments in their investigation and plans surrounding the prime-time hearing this week, which will focus on what the panel has called the crucial “187 minutes” — the length of time it took for former President Donald Trump to urge his supporters to leave the Capitol after the attack began.
Four dead after a shooter uses a long gun to open fire at an Indianapolis-area mall
Four people were dead, including the suspected shooter, after a man with a long gun entered a mall south of Indianapolis and opened fire, police said.
Two others were injured in the early evening attack at Greenwood Park Mall, Jim Ison, the police chief of Greenwood, Indiana, said at a Sunday night news conference. One remained hospitalized, he said. A 12-year-old girl with abrasions was treated and released.
Four of six people who were injured or killed were female, Ison said.
Blistering report finds ‘systemic failures’ by authorities in the wake of Uvalde school shooting
A scathing report released Sunday by a Texas House committee investigating the mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde faulted “systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making” by law enforcement and the school district.
Also Sunday, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin announced that Uvalde’s acting chief of police, Lt. Mariano Pargas, has been placed on leave as a city launched an investigation of his response and that of his officers.
Manchin rejects climate and energy provisions in reconciliation bill
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has dealt a huge blow to President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, telling Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he will only support a reconciliation bill that lowers prescription drug prices and extends subsidies for the nation’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act, according to a Democrat briefed on the conversations.
Manchin told Schumer that he cannot support a bill this August containing the climate or energy provisions the president seeks.
Texas AG sues Biden for telling doctors to perform abortions as needed in emergencies
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday filed the first legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s executive order on abortion — accusing the administration of turning emergency health care providers into “walk-in abortion clinics” and kicking off what is expected to be a protracted legal battle between the White House and red states.
At issue is Biden’s interpretation of a federal law that requires doctors to treat patients in medical emergencies, even if they do not have insurance, and provide the necessary “stabilizing treatment.”
Under guidance issued Monday, the Health and Human Services Department said the law would require doctors to perform abortions in medical emergencies if their clinical judgement finds such a procedure would help stabilize a pregnant patient.
Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, dead at 73
Ivana Trump, Donald Trump‘s first wife and the mother of his three oldest children, has died, the former president said Thursday.
“I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,” the former president said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. “She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life. Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana!”
Ivana Trump was 73. Her cause of death is unknown.
Secret Service erased text messages from Jan. 6 and the day before, the Homeland Security watchdog says
The Secret Service erased text messages from both Jan. 6 and the day before the attack on the Capitol after the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog requested records of electronic communications tied to the insurrection, according to a letter sent to congressional committees that was obtained by NBC News.
The details about the erased messages were revealed in a letter to two congressional committees Wednesday, in which Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said he was informed that many of the messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, had been erased “as part of a device-replacement program.”
House Jan. 6 committee is having conversations with Justice Department
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has been having conversations with the Justice Department about the phony elector scheme put forward by former President Donald Trump’s allies, committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said Wednesday.
Thompson confirmed a day earlier the committee had been having discussions with the Justice Department. He clarified on Wednesday that those conversations are about a scheme allegedly cooked up by Trump’s allies to put forward alternate electors supporting him in seven battleground states that President Joe Biden won.
Novavax Covid-19 vaccine wins FDA authorization
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday granted emergency use authorization to Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, opening up another option for adults who have not received immunization against the virus.
The vaccine, a two-dose series administered three weeks apart, is manufactured using a lab-made spike protein produced in insect cells and an adjuvant obtained from the bark of a tree native to Chile, offering a different and older vaccine technology than is used in the messenger RNA vaccines and Johnson & Johnson shot. It is authorized for people ages 18 and older as a primary series, meaning the shot is intended for the roughly 10 percent of adults who have not yet received a Covid-19 vaccine.
Biden meets with Israeli leaders amid unsettled political climate
President Joe Biden sought to reaffirm U.S. support for Israel and present a united front between the two nations on a range of issues from Iran to Russia’s war in Ukraine as he kicked off a day of meeting with Israeli leaders here on Thursday.
Biden met Thursday with Israeli caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid, who said the two leaders spoke about ways to improve relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and their commitment to never allow a nuclear Iran.
Biden said he discussed with Lapid the importance of integrating Israel into the region and support for Israel from the “the vast majority” of Americans.
Trump tried to call a White House support staff member who was in talks with the Jan. 6 panel, source says
Former President Donald Trump tried to call a member of the White House support staff who was talking to the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, a source familiar with the issue told NBC News on Wednesday.
CNN first reported that the witness works at the White House.
The committee’s vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., asserted Tuesday that Trump tried to call a witness involved in the committee’s investigation. She did not identify the person.
Biden heads to Israel, kicking off first Middle East trip as president
President Joe Biden will arrive in Israel Wednesday for his first trip to the Middle East as president looking to show support for that nation amid low expectations that his visit will lead to any fundamental shift in the growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
While most presidents have centered their visits to Israel around trying to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there are no indications from Biden administration officials that there are plans to do anything more than reaffirm Biden’s support for a two-state solution.
Cheney says Trump called a Jan. 6 committee witness after its last hearing
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., revealed Tuesday during the Jan. 6 committee’s seventh hearing that former President Donald Trump called a witness in the probe after the previous hearing on June 28.
“After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation — a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings,” Cheney said in her closing statement. “That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump’s call, and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us.”
Video from inside Uvalde school shows officer running from classroom where gunman killed 21
Security video published Tuesday by two Texas news outlets shows police officers retreating from the classroom where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The video, which was recorded in a hallway and obtained and edited by the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV of Austin, shows the officers arriving at Robb Elementary School at 11:36 a.m. May 24, three minutes after the gunman was seen entering the school and walking down an empty hallway.
Takeaways from Day 7 of the Jan. 6 panel: Trump can’t be ‘willfully blind’ in defending assembling the mob
As it builds a case that Donald Trump plotted a coup, the House Jan. 6 committee is painstakingly seeking to undercut his argument that the 2020 election was stolen.
No “rational or sane man” could possibly reach that conclusion given the dearth of evidence and the abundance of top White House advisers who believed that he lost and needed to concede, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the panel’s top Republican, said at the hearing Tuesday.
Trump “cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind,” she added.
Charlie Pierce: The Jan. 6 Committee Can’t Let Steve Bannon Bring the Circus (Back) to Town
Were I running the House Select Committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021, and I wanted testimony from the likes of Steve Bannon or Stewart Rhodes, I would insist it be taken on videotape, preferably recorded in the old jail cells in the basement of the Capitol.
The possibility that Bannon—and Oath Keeper Rhodes—would testify lit up the news over the weekend. But the idea that either one would be allowed a public platform is sheer lunacy. Either they would demolish the great sense of dignity that has lent the committee’s proceedings so much gravitas and credibility thus far, or they would concoct some wild, ruthless scheme that would blunt the momentum built up assiduously by the committee throughout the past several months. The circus most definitely need not come to town at this point.
xWhat to watch for during President Biden’s trip to the Middle East
When President Joe Biden touches down in Israel on Wednesday for a series of meetings there and in the West Bank before heading to Saudi Arabia, he will find himself treading carefully around political land mines both foreign and domestic, where any missteps could have wide-ranging consequences.
For much of Biden’s time in office, the Middle East has taken a back seat as an area of concern to China and Russia, and the president hasn’t made progress on his campaign pledge to improve human rights in the region. But the region remains key to Biden’s wider domestic and foreign policy goals, including the revival of a nuclear deal with Iran, maintenance of stability in the region, and the lowering of record high gas prices.
Judge won’t delay Steve Bannon’s trial after his last-minute offer to cooperate with Jan. 6 panel
A judge said Monday that he would not delay Steve Bannon’s contempt of Congress trial, just one week before it is set to begin.
Bannon was indicted last year for refusing to answer questions from the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Bannon, who had stonewalled the committee since October, had a last-minute change of heart over the weekend, a decision his lawyer attributed to a letter from former President Donald Trump that waived a purported claim of executive privilege. The Justice Department maintains that Bannon’s offer to testify was nothing more than a “last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability.”
Judge orders Lindsey Graham to testify before grand jury in Trump election probe
A judge ordered U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham to testify in front of a special grand jury in Georgia investigating former President Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered that Graham will be required to testify on Aug. 2. The judge’s certification filed on Monday described Graham as a “necessary and material witness” to the grand jury probe. The development was reported earlier by WSB-TV.
Ties between Trump allies and extremist groups to be focus of today’s Jan. 6 panel hearing
The Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday plans to demonstrate how right-wing militia groups that led the assault on the U.S. Capitol were connected to key Trump allies, including Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, who were at the center of the plot to overturn the 2020 election.
“We’ll show how some of these right-wing extremist groups who came to D.C. and led the attack on the Capitol had ties to Trump associates, including Roger Stone and General Flynn,” a committee aide said Monday on a conference call with reporters.
Bannon now says he will testify for Jan. 6 committee after Trump’s OK — with contempt trial looming
Steve Bannon, a former top adviser in Donald Trump’s White House, recently told the House panel investigating the Capitol riot that he would be willing to testify since Trump now says he won’t cite executive privilege.
In a letter on Saturday to the committee, obtained by ABC News, Bannon said he would prefer testifying in a live, public hearing after the former president had sent him a separate letter on Saturday — also obtained by ABC — waiving objections.
Both the House committee and federal prosecutors who sought to speak with Bannon have said the executive privilege claims never covered him, since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection took place long after Bannon left his post as chief White House strategist in 2017.
Ex-Oath Keepers spokesperson to appear as witness at Tuesday’s Jan. 6 hearing
A former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers, a far-right “militia” organization, will appear as a witness at the House Jan. 6 committee’s next public hearing Tuesday, a source familiar with the plans said.
While he was not part of the Oath Keepers, whose members have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy in connection with the riot or with events during or leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, the source said, Jason Van Tatenhove is expected to speak about the group’s propaganda efforts and radicalization over the years, including how founder Stewart Rhodes capitalized on conspiracy theories to build membership and funding.
‘Closing argument’: Jan. 6 panel makes final hearings push
Six down. At least two more to go.
The Jan. 6 committee is hitting the home stretch of the public hearings phase of its historic, yearlong investigation into the attack on the Capitol — and American democracy.
After a half-dozen hearings, committee members are looking to build on the momentum with a pair of back-to-back panel meetings this week. They will mark a final push for a special House panel that set out not only to establish an official record for the history books but also to demonstrate Donald Trump’s role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election, and to warn the public about ongoing threats to the election system.
‘Closing argument’: Jan. 6 panel makes final hearings push
Six down. At least two more to go.
The Jan. 6 committee is hitting the home stretch of the public hearings phase of its historic, yearlong investigation into the attack on the Capitol — and American democracy.
After a half-dozen hearings, committee members are looking to build on the momentum with a pair of back-to-back panel meetings this week. They will mark a final push for a special House panel that set out not only to establish an official record for the history books but also to demonstrate Donald Trump’s role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election, and to warn the public about ongoing threats to the election system.
Biden Considering Public Health Emergency To Protect Abortion Access
President Joe Biden said Sunday he is considering declaring a public health emergency to free up federal resources to promote abortion access even though the White House has said it doesn’t seem like “a great option.”
He also offered a message to people enraged by the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that ended a constitutional right to abortion and who have been demonstrating across the country: “Keep protesting. Keep making your point. It’s critically important.”
The president, in remarks to reporters during a stop on a bike ride near his family’s Delaware beach house, said he lacks the power to force the dozen-plus states with strict restrictions or outright bans on abortion to allow the procedure.
Highland Park suspect’s father could have some ‘responsibility’ in attack, police say
Highland Park shooting suspect Robert E. Crimo III’s father “may have responsibility in certain circumstances” for his son’s deadly actions, police said Wednesday while stopping short of tying the dad to any criminal culpability.
The 21-year-old suspect was too young to get a gun permit in 2019 from the state of Illinois, but his father, Bob Crimo Jr., sponsored one for him despite previous threats by his son to harm himself and loved ones, authorities have previously said.
IRS Watchdog To Investigate Why Comey, McCabe Both Chosen For Rare, Invasive Audit
The head of the Internal Revenue Service, Charles Rettig, has asked the agency’s inspector general to investigate why former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe were both selected to undergo rare, invasive audits in recent years
“The IRS has referred the matter to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration for review,” the agency said in a statement to The New York Times, adding that the IRS commissioner had “personally reached out” to the watchdog.
The request came a day after The New York Times first reported that both Comey and McCabe were subjected to the intensive audits, which are supposed to be random. The newspaper noted that just 5,000 people were selected in 2017 out of153 million returns, or about 1 in 30,600. Both men, who didn’t know the other had been targeted for the process until the Times informed them, raised questions about the randomness of the audits as both were seen as enemies by former President Donald Trump.
Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone to appear before Jan. 6 committee on Friday
Pat Cipollone, who served as White House counsel under former President Donald Trump, has reached an agreement to appear Friday before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, two sources familiar with the matter tell CBS News.
The panel issued a subpoena for Cipollone’s testimony last week after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Cipollone strongly opposed Trump’s efforts to travel to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Other witnesses have testified that Cipollone was one of the main White House officials opposed to attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He previously sat for an informal interview with the committee.
Former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe dies after being shot at campaign event
Former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe died on Friday after being shot at a campaign event, in an attack that shocked a country where gun violence is virtually nonexistent.
Abe, 67, was a towering political presence even after he stepped down as Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, and he was campaigning ahead of elections scheduled for Sunday. He had just begun a speech in the western city of Nara, near Kyoto, when gunfire was heard around 11:30 a.m. local time (10:30 p.m. Thursday ET).
Officials said that one person had been apprehended in relation to the shooting.
New Report Details The Many Law Enforcement Failures During Uvalde School Massacre
A new report offers the clearest timeline yet of a mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, school in May that left 19 children and two teachers dead, and it addresses the many failures of law enforcement that contributed to the high number of casualties.
The report, released Wednesday by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) program, which is based at Texas State University, describes a police response that was botched by poor tactical planning and by officers who put their safety above those who were being executed in their classrooms at Robb Elementary School on May 24.
