September 7, 2022

From the Book of All the President*'s Crooks. Shayna Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "Stephen K. Bannon is expected to surrender to state prosecutors on Thursday to face a new criminal indictment, people familiar with the matter said, weeks after he was convicted of contempt of Congress and nearly two years after he received a federal pardon from ... Donald Trump in a federal fraud case. The precise details of the state case could not be confirmed Tuesday evening. But people familiar with the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sealed indictment, suggested the prosecution will likely mirror aspects of the federal case in which Bannon was pardoned. In that indictment, prosecutors alleged that Bannon and several others defrauded contributors to a private, $25 million fundraising effort, called 'We Build the Wall,' taking funds that donors were told would support construction of a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border." A CBS News story is here.

Devlin Barrett & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "A document describing a foreign government's military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property. Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search.... Records that deal with such programs are kept under lock and key, almost always in a secure compartmented information facility, with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location.... ~~~

~~~ "The Washington Post previously reported that FBI agents who searched Trump's home were looking, in part, for any classified documents relating to nuclear weapons. After that story published, Trump compared it on social media to a host of previous government investigations into his conduct. 'Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more. Same sleazy people involved,' he wrote, going on to suggest that FBI agents might have planted evidence against him." A Guardian report on the report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, this super-duper classified document was one of those Trump not only refused to turn over to the National Archives, he hid it from the FBI. And the DOJ can't use it or refer to it or question witnesses about finding it until Judge Cannon's special master -- or somebody -- declares it is not subject to executive privilege. ~~~

~~~ Everybody Thinks Judge Cannon Is Ridiculous. David Knowles of Yahoo! News: "Former Attorney General William Barr decried the decision by a federal judge to appoint a special master to review government documents discovered in an FBI raid of ... Donald Trump's Florida home and country club.... 'The opinion, I think, was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it,' Barr said during a Tuesday interview on Fox News. 'It's deeply flawed in a number of ways.' Numerous legal experts have taken issue with Cannon's ruling, calling it 'unprecedented,' especially in that it prohibits federal prosecutors from further examining seized documents for an ongoing Department of Justice investigation of Trump until the yet-to-be-chosen special master finishes a full review.... He added, 'But I think the fundamental dynamics of the case are set, which is the government has very strong evidence of what it needs to determine whether charges [are] appropriate, which is government documents were taken, classified information was taken and not handled appropriately, and they are looking into, and there's some evidence to suggest, that they were deceived. And none of that really relates to the content of documents; it relates to the fact that there were documents there and the fact that they were classified, and the fact that they were subpoenaed and were never delivered.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Weissman has a column in the Atlantic articulating what-all is wrong with the Cannon/Trump ruling. No link. ~~~

     ~~~ Ian Millhiser of Vox: "Judge Aileen Cannon's order suspending one of the Justice Department's criminal investigations into ... Donald Trump, at least until a court-appointed official can review documents the FBI seized from Trump, is a trainwreck of judicial reasoning. Cannon mangles the law so completely that it's hard to know where to even begin in criticizing her opinion in Trump v. United States. For starters, Cannon, who was appointed to the federal bench by Trump days after he lost the 2020 election, argues fairly explicitly that Trump is entitled to special rules that apply to virtually no other criminal defendant, because he used to be a powerful person.... On a practical level, [the ruling] could also allow Cannon or other judges to delay this criminal investigation into Trump indefinitely. Cannon's opinion ... plays with legal concepts, such as executive privilege, which she seems to barely understand.... Cannon ordered the United States to halt its criminal investigation into the documents seized from Trump -- something she decidedly does not have the power to do -- until after the process she set up to review those documents is complete." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is a ruling that should have begun, "Well, it seems to me...." OR, perhaps, "In order to best protect our noble President* from another hoax perpetrated upon him by the Democrat Department of Justice, it is ORDERED:..."

Zachary Cohen & Jason Morris of CNN: "A Republican county official in Georgia escorted two operatives working with an attorney for ... Donald Trump into the county's election offices on the same day a voting system there was breached, newly obtained video shows. The breach is now under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and is of interest to the Fulton County District Attorney, who is conducting a wider criminal probe of interference in the 2020 election. The video sheds more light on how an effort spearheaded by lawyers and others around Trump to seek evidence of voter fraud was executed on the ground from Georgia to Michigan to Colorado, often with the assistance of sympathetic local officials. In the surveillance video, which was obtained by CNN, Cathy Latham, a former GOP chairwoman of Coffee County who is under criminal investigation for posing as a fake elector in 2020, escorts a team of pro-Trump operatives to the county's elections office on January 7, 2021, the same day a voting system there is known to have been breached. The two men seen in the video with Latham, Scott Hall and Paul Maggio, have acknowledged that they successfully gained access to a voting machine in Coffee County at the behest of Trump lawyer Sidney Powell." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Richard Fausset & Sean Keenan of the New York Times: "The video footage reflects just how many pro-Trump activists descended on the county, roughly 200 miles southeast of Atlanta, in an effort to find anomalies that would help them challenge Mr. Trump's narrow loss in Georgia. And it raises new questions about how many individuals and groups gained access to the county's voting software, a data breach that is under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and is one of a number of similar incidents coordinated by Trump allies in various swing states. Legal experts say that state investigators are most likely exploring whether Georgia laws were violated, including laws specifically barring access to voting equipment. More broadly, the breaching of numerous election systems around the country raises questions about their vulnerability to being hacked in future elections."

Who's the Moron Now? From the Book of All the President*'s Dupes. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Jan. 6 rioter turned in by his ex after he called her a 'moron' because she didn't believe Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election was sentenced to nine months in federal prison Tuesday. Richard Michetti of Pennsylvania pleaded guilty to a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding in May. He admitted that he went inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.... 'If you can't see the election was stolen you're a moron,' Michetti [texted his ex-girlfriend as he stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021]."

Oath Keepers Membership Roster Leaked; Includes Many Elected Officials, Law Enforcement Officers & Military Members. Alanna Richer & Michael Kunzelman of the AP: "The names of hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers, elected officials and military members appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group that's accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to a report released Wednesday. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists and identified more than 370 people it believes currently work in law enforcement agencies -- including as police chiefs and sheriffs -- and more than 100 people who are currently members of the military. It also identified more than 80 people who were running for or served in public office as of early August. The membership information was compiled into a database published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets.... It's especially problematic for public servants to be associated with extremists at a time when lies about the 2020 election are fueling threats of violence against lawmakers and institutions."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The challenge to a peaceful transfer of power after ... Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 election has worsened 'an extremely adverse environment' for the U.S. military, according to an open letter signed by several top generals and former defense secretaries. The letter does not mention Mr. Trump by name. But in 16 points on the principles that are supposed to define civil-military relations, the signatories issued a thinly veiled indictment of Mr. Trump and the legions of his followers who called on the military to support his false claim that the election was stolen from him.... Two former defense secretaries who served under Mr. Trump, Jim Mattis and Mark T. Esper, were among those who signed the letter, which was published Tuesday on War on the Rocks, an online platform for analysis of national security and foreign affairs issues."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha. Ha. David Folkenflik of NPR: In November 2020, a Fox "News" "producer warned: Fox cannot let host Jeanine Pirro back on the air. She is pulling conspiracy theories from dark corners of the Web to justify ... Donald Trump's lies that the election had been stolen from him.... Pirro was far from alone in broadcasting such false claims. In the weeks that followed Election Day 2020, other prominent Fox stars, commentators and their guests heavily promoted them. A repeat target was Dominion Voting Systems, the election machine and technology company. Trump and his allies alleged on Fox that Dominion was engaged in a conscious effort to throw the 2020 race to Joe Biden.... The producer's email is among the voluminous correspondence acquired by Dominion's attorneys as part of its discovery of evidence in a $1.6 billion defamation suit it filed against Fox News and its parent company." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll bet the paralegal who pulled that email from the piles of papers got the rest of the day off.

Anna Merlan of Vice: "On September 1st, Evie Magazine -- which strives to be the conservative answer to Cosmo, and which promotes COVID denialism and vaccine misinformation, soft-focus transphobia, and a weird obsession with organ meats -- announced a new venture: 28, a 'femtech' company offering workouts and nutritional tips based on users' menstrual cycles, and which requires those users to enter information about the first day of their last period. The week prior, TechCrunch announced the new venture's biggest funder: the investment firm Thiel Capital, which led the latest $3.2 million funding round, and whose founder Peter Thiel has a variety of other interests. (Those include, of late, funding the MAGA movement to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.)" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Colleen Slevin of the AP: "A judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit challenging a primary election recount lost by an indicted Colorado county clerk who alleged voting fraud in her failed bid to become the state's top election official. Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters filed a lawsuit objecting to the methods used to recount ballots on Aug. 3 but did not ask for the recount to be stopped until the following day, after the recount was completed and several hours after the recount results had been certified by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Judge Andrew P. McCallin ruled that election law only gives him the authority to consider recount challenges while a recount is underway and his jurisdiction stops once it is over and is certified. The recount barely changed the results of the primary election to choose a Republican candidate to challenge Griswold in November's election...."

Massachusetts. The New York Times is liveblogging the state's primary election results. ~~~

"Maura Healey, the barrier-breaking attorney general of Massachusetts, secured the Democratic nomination for governor on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, putting her on track to become the first woman to be elected governor in the state." ~~~

~~~ Steve LeBlanc of the AP: "Geoff Diehl, a former state representative endorsed by ... Donald Trump, has won the Republican nomination for Massachusetts governor over businessman Chris Doughty, who was considered the more moderate candidate in the race. The victory for Diehl sets up a general election contest against Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey, who would be the first openly gay person and the first woman elected governor of Massachusetts if she wins in November. The state's current governor, Republican Charlie Baker, decided against seeking a third term."

New Mexico. From the Book of All the President*'s Dupes. Hannah Rabinowitz, et al., of CNN: "A New Mexico judge on Tuesday removed January 6 rioter and Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin from his elected position as a county commissioner for his role in the US Capitol attack. The ruling was the result of a lawsuit seeking Griffin's removal, which alleged that he violated a clause in 14th Amendment of the Constitution by participating in an 'insurrection' against the US government. He had been convicted of trespassing earlier this year. The historic ruling represents the first time an elected official has been removed from office for their participation or support of the US Capitol riot. It also marks the first time a judge has formally ruled that the events of January 6, 2021, were an 'insurrection.'... Griffin, one of three commissioners in Otero County, is also barred from holding any state or federal elected position in the future, state Judge Francis Mathew ruled Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Wednesday are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky echoed calls from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog for a protected zone to be established around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.... Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan, Russian state news agencies reported.... Putin will discuss the possibility of limiting grain and food exports from Ukraine to Europe with Turkey's leader. The Russian president announced his intention to talk with Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the structure of the grain deal that eased Russian blockades.... Russian energy giant Gazprom released a video showing Europe freezing this winter. The video comes as Russia has cut off supplies, sending prices soaring and governments into a frenzy as they attempt to circumnavigate the crisis.... Britain's new prime minister, Liz Truss, pledged 'steadfast support' to Ukraine."

Eric Nagourney & Matthew Bigg of the New York Times: "The United Nations' nuclear watchdog on Tuesday called for a no-fire zone around an embattled Ukrainian nuclear generator, but like the plant itself, the agency was quickly caught up in the war between Russia and Ukraine. In a highly anticipated report, nuclear inspectors who had to wend their way through the battlefield to get to the plant said they were 'gravely concerned' about conditions there. 'We are playing with fire, and something very very catastrophic could take place,' Rafael Mariano Grossi, the U.N. official who led the inspectors, said in an address to the Security Council on Tuesday afternoon."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The second of two brothers sought by the police after a stabbing rampage in western Canada that killed 10 people died on Wednesday after he was taken into police custody, the authorities said. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police initially announced that the man, Myles Sanderson, had been captured on a highway near the town of Rosthern, Saskatchewan, at about 3:30 p.m. But at a news conference about four and a half hours later, Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore of the mounted police in Saskatchewan said that Mr. Sanderson had gone into 'medical distress' shortly after his arrest and was taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Saskatoon, where he was pronounced dead. An independent investigation will review the death and the police's conduct, Assistant Commissioner Blackmore said."

New York Times: "A string of shootings in Memphis and a feverish police manhunt for a 19-year-old suspect that effectively closed down Tennessee's second largest city for five hours ended on Wednesday night when the police announced that they had captured the man. The manhunt, which began after the first shootings at about 4:30 p.m., prompted the authorities to encourage residents to stay inside. The police said that the man was responsible for multiple shootings, some of which that he might have filmed on Facebook Live. The Memphis Police Department identified the man as Ezekiel Kelly. It was unclear what charges he will face, but as the police searched, they described him as 'armed and dangerous.' It was not immediately clear how many people had been shot and whether the shootings were random." An AP report is here.

September 6, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Massachusetts is holding primary elections today. The New York Times has a what-to-watch-for blog.

Hannah Rabinowitz, et al., of CNN: "A New Mexico judge on Tuesday removed January 6 rioter and Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin from his elected position as a county commissioner for his role in the US Capitol attack. The ruling was the result of a lawsuit seeking Griffin's removal, which alleged that he violated a clause in 14th Amendment of the Constitution by participating in an 'insurrection' against the US government. He had been convicted of trespassing earlier this year. The historic ruling represents the first time an elected official has been removed from office for their participation or support of the US Capitol riot. It also marks the first time a judge has formally ruled that the events of January 6, 2021, were an 'insurrection.'... Griffin, one of three commissioners in Otero County, is also barred from holding any state or federal elected position in the future, state Judge Francis Mathew ruled Tuesday."

Zachary Cohen & Jason Morris of CNN: "A Republican county official in Georgia escorted two operatives working with an attorney for ... Donald Trump into the county's election offices on the same day a voting system there was breached, newly obtained video shows. The breach is now under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and is of interest to the Fulton County District Attorney, who is conducting a wider criminal probe of interference in the 2020 election. The video sheds more light on how an effort spearheaded by lawyers and others around Trump to seek evidence of voter fraud was executed on the ground from Georgia to Michigan to Colorado, often with the assistance of sympathetic local officials. In the surveillance video, which was obtained by CNN, Cathy Latham, a former GOP chairwoman of Coffee County who is under criminal investigation for posing as a fake elector in 2020, escorts a team of pro-Trump operatives to the county's elections office on January 7, 2021, the same day a voting system there is known to have been breached. The two men seen in the video with Latham, Scott Hall and Paul Maggio, have acknowledged that they successfully gained access to a voting machine in Coffee County at the behest of Trump lawyer Sidney Powell."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha. Ha. David Folkenflik of NPR: In November 2020, a Fox "News" "producer warned: Fox cannot let host Jeanine Pirro back on the air. She is pulling conspiracy theories from dark corners of the Web to justify ... Donald Trump's lies that the election had been stolen from him.... Pirro was far from alone in broadcasting such false claims. In the weeks that followed Election Day 2020, other prominent Fox stars, commentators and their guests heavily promoted them. A repeat target was Dominion Voting Systems, the election machine and technology company. Trump and his allies alleged on Fox that Dominion was engaged in a conscious effort to throw the 2020 race to Joe Biden.... The producer's email is among the voluminous correspondence acquired by Dominion's attorneys as part of its discovery of evidence in a $1.6 billion defamation suit it filed against Fox News and its parent company." ~~~

    ~~~ Marie: I'll bet the paralegal who pulled that email from the piles of papers got the rest of the day off.

Anna Merlan of Vice: "On September 1st, Evie Magazine -- which strives to be the conservative answer to Cosmo, and which promotes COVID denialism and vaccine misinformation, soft-focus transphobia, and a weird obsession with organ meats -- announced a new venture: 28, a 'femtech' company offering workouts and nutritional tips based on users' menstrual cycles, and which requires those users to enter information about the first day of their last period. The week prior, TechCrunch announced the new venture's biggest funder: the investment firm Thiel Capital, which led the latest $3.2 million funding round, and whose founder Peter Thiel has a variety of other interests. (Those include, of late, funding the MAGA movement to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.)"

~~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: For three weeks, beginning this week, I have to be away for the good part of the first two work days of every week. So I'll do what I can to keep Reality Chex up-to-date, but there will be some lapses.

Olivia Olander of Politico: "President Joe Biden continued to add texture Monday to a recent string of criticisms against 'MAGA Republicans,' the right-most wing of the party that he's sought to distinguish from the more moderate, 'mainstream' GOP. 'I want to be very clear up front: Not every Republican is a MAGA Republican,' Biden said at a Labor Day event in Wisconsin. 'Not every Republican embraces that extreme ideology. I know because I've been able to work with mainstream Republicans in my whole career.' However, he continued: 'The extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress have chosen to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate and division. But together we can -- and we must -- choose a different path forward.'... Biden placed Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican running to keep his seat in Wisconsin's midterm elections, squarely in the 'MAGA' camp.... A protester briefly interrupted as Biden spoke.... 'Let him go. Everybody's entitled to being an idiot,' Biden said after security grabbed the protester."

Alan Feuer & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal judge intervened on Monday in the investigation of ... Donald J. Trump's handling of sensitive government records, ordering the appointment of an independent arbiter to review a trove of materials seized last month from Mr. Trump's private club and residence in Florida. In a 24-page ruling, the judge, Aileen M. Cannon of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, also enjoined the Justice Department from using the seized materials for any 'investigative purpose' connected to its inquiry of Mr. Trump until the work of the arbiter, known as a special master, was completed.... Her order would not, however, affect a separate review of the documents by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence seeking to determine what risk to national security their removal to Mar-a-Lago may have caused.... Judge Cannon's ruling ... permitted whoever is appointed to the job to evaluate the documents not only for those protected by attorney-client privilege, a relatively common measure, but also for those potentially shielded by executive privilege, which typically protects confidential internal executive branch deliberations.... In her order, Judge Cannon evinced concern that Mr. Trump might suffer 'reputational harm.'... She also noted that, because of the search of Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump faced 'unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public.'" Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm kinda surprised Cannon didn't order Trump never again to make another public statement inasmuch as he "suffers reputational harm" every time his opens his fat lips & the best words come out. More seriously, Cannon seems confused by the concept of three branches of government, and -- as Akhilleus & I both speculated last week -- is not competent to do the judge thing. Oh, and that one-president-at-a-time "theory"? Faggedaboudit. Moreover, the items she objected to cover matters that the government would never have presented in a case against Trump for the theft of government documents. She claimed that among the items seized were medical records & tax documents; but whether or not Trump lied about his heart rate & taxes is immaterial to the matters of espionage, theft & obstruction.

     ~~~ Update. Toljaso. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal judg's extraordinary decision on Monday to interject in the criminal investigation into ... Donald J. Trump's hoarding of sensitive government documents at his Florida residence showed unusual solicitude to him, legal specialists said. This was 'an unprecedented intervention by a federal district judge into the middle of an ongoing federal criminal and national security investigation,' said Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at University of Texas.... In reaching [her] result, Judge Cannon took several steps that specialists said were vulnerable to being overturned if the government files an appeal, as most agreed was likely.... 'The opinion seems oblivious to the nature of executive privilege,' [Peter M. Shane, who is a legal scholar in residence at N.Y.U.,] said.... 'Even if there is some hypothetical situation in which a former president could shield his or her communications from the current executive branch,' Mr. Shane said, 'they would not be able to do so in the context of a criminal investigation -- and certainly not after the material has been seized pursuant to a lawful search warrant.'"

Adam Satariano of the New York Times: "Meta was fined roughly $400 million for breaking European Union data privacy laws for its treatment of children's data on Instagram, the latest in a series of steps by authorities in Europe and the United States to crack down on what information is collected and shared by companies about young people online. Ireland's Data Protection Commission said it decided on Sept. 2 to impose what would be one of the largest fines to date under the General Data Protection Regulation, or G.D.P.R., the four-year-old European data privacy law that has been criticized for being weakly enforced.... In 2020, Ireland's Data Protection Commission began investigating Instagram for making the accounts of children aged 13 to 17 set to public by default, and for allowing teenagers with business accounts on Instagram, many of them aspiring influencers, to make public their email addresses and phone numbers." A Politico report is here.

Fat Leonard Flees. Rebecca Ratcliffe of the Guardian: "A Malaysian businessman who pleaded guilty in the US navy's worst corruption scandal has escaped house arrest in San Diego after cutting off his monitoring bracelet, federal authorities have said. Leonard Glenn Francis, known as Fat Leonard, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering $500,000 in bribes to navy officers, was due to be sentenced in a few weeks. The supervisory deputy, US Marshal Omar Castillo, said Francis fled from his home on Sunday morning, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Officers who arrived at the property found it empty but discovered parts of his broken GPS tracker bracelet." MB: Wonder if Trump will try this.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "The U.N. nuclear watchdog will detail its findings on the 'safety, security and safeguards' at the Zaporizhzhia plant, controlled by Russian forces in Ukraine. Inspectors have left the site after an IAEA mission that overcame halting negotiations and the risk of artillery fire, with two representatives staying behind to monitor. As well as publishing its report, the IAEA will brief the U.N. Security Council about the facility.... The flow of gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will not resume until Siemens Energy repairs equipment, the deputy CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom told Reuters on Tuesday. The Kremlin has blamed Western sanctions for the supply halt, while European leaders accuse Russia of using energy as leverage against countries opposing its war. The pipeline shutdown puts Europe at risk of shortages in the winter as the world faces price hikes. Russia is in the process of buying rockets and artillery shells from North Korea, the Associated Press and Reuters reported Tuesday, citing U.S. intelligence."

Pjotr Sauer of the Guardian: "Russia will not resume in full its gas supplies to Europe until the west lifts its sanctions against Moscow, the Kremlin said, as concerns over Russian gas supplies continued to drive up energy prices. Speaking to journalists on Monday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, blamed sanctions 'introduced against our country by western countries including Germany and the UK' for Russia's failure to deliver gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Afghanistan. Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the consular section of Russia's embassy in Kabul on Monday, killing a top diplomat, a Russian security guard and four Afghans, according to Russian and Afghan officials. Afghan police reported that Taliban guards at the embassy shot dead the attacker, but his device still detonated. The blast happened as the embassy's second secretary exited the building to read out names to a crowd waiting to hear about visas, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. The attack against one of the few countries that has maintained an embassy under the Taliban is a blow to the image of the group that took over Afghanistan a year ago and maintains it has control over the country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Israel/Palestine. Hiba Yazbek & Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "The Israeli Army on Monday acknowledged for the first time that Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist killed in May in the occupied West Bank, was most likely shot by an Israeli soldier, but it stopped short of definitively accepting responsibility for her death. The army's announcement -- the conclusion of a monthslong internal investigation -- marked a shift from the original Israeli position, which maintained that Ms. Abu Akleh, a veteran broadcaster for Al Jazeera, had probably been killed by Palestinian fire." The AP's report is here.

U.K. She's Going to Scotland to Visit the Queen. The New York Times is live-updating developments in the transfer of power in the U.K. Although Boris Johnson made a final speech as P.M. today, he did not urge his followers to storm the barricades. So an insurrection is unlikely. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's story of Boris's last speech is here. He too is going to Balmoral to visit the Queen. So, you know, the Queen of England probably is having a lousier day than you are.

~~~ Who Is Liz Truss? Who Knows? William Booth, et al., of the Washington Post: "The next prime minister of Britain will be Liz Truss, whose political journey began on the left -- down with the monarchy! she cried -- only to arrive on the right, as a hard-line Brexiteer who has tried to channel the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher.... It's fair to say Truss is a shapeshifter. She fought for Britain to remain in the European Union before becoming a staunch defender of Brexit.... In Brussels[, S]he's seen as an agitator, an anti-Europe opportunist who could make matters even worse in the rocky relationship between Britain and the 27-nation bloc.... [Truss was chosen in an election] by 172,437 Conservative Party members -- about 0.3 percent of the British population -- who are older, wealthier and 95 percent White and more to the right than Britain as a whole."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Police cruisers and unmarked trucks raced to the James Smith Cree Nation reserve in the western [Canadian] province of Saskatchewan, and residents were once again warned to take shelter. But hours later, the authorities released a discomfiting statement to a province on edge: Myles Sanderson was still at large. Mr. Sanderson, 30, is one of two brothers accused of carrying out the spree of violence that [that left 10 people dead of stabbing wounds. It] began on the reserve in the predawn hours of Sunday. Investigators found the body of [Myles'] brother, Damien, 31, near a house on the reserve the next day, and said they were looking into whether Myles Sanderson had killed him."

ABC News: "A body discovered in Memphis has been identified as abducted school teacher Eliza Fletcher, authorities said Tuesday. Fletcher's remains were found on Sunday afternoon in a South Memphis residential neighborhood several miles from where she was abducted, police said. The grim news came as 38-year-old Cleotha Abston, the suspect in the kidnapping, was set to make his first court appearance. The Memphis Police Department said charges of first-degree murder and first-degree murder in perpetration of kidnapping have been filed against Abston."

September 5, 2022

Then:

And Now:

Afternoon Update:

Alan Feuer & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal judge intervened on Monday in the investigation of ... Donald J. Trump's handling of sensitive government records, ordering the appointment of an independent arbiter to review a trove of materials seized last month from Mr. Trump's private club and residence in Florida. In a 24-page ruling, the judge, Aileen M. Cannon of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, also enjoined the Justice Department from using the seized materials for any 'investigative purpose' connected to its inquiry of Mr. Trump until the work of the arbiter, known as a special master, was completed.... Her order would not, however, affect a separate review of the documents by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence seeking to determine what risk to national security their removal to Mar-a-Lago may have caused.... Judge Cannon's ruling ... permitted whoever is appointed to the job to evaluate the documents not only for those protected by attorney-client privilege, a relatively common measure, but also for those potentially shielded by executive privilege, which typically protects confidential internal executive branch deliberations.... In her order, Judge Cannon evinced concern that Mr. Trump might suffer 'reputational harm.'... She also noted that, because of the search of Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump faced 'unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public.'" Politico's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm kinda surprised Cannon didn't order Trump never again to make another public statement inasmuch as he "suffers reputational harm" every time his opens his fat lips & the best words come out. More seriously, Cannon seems confused by the concept of three branches of government, and -- as Akhilleus & I both speculated last week -- is not competent to do the judge thing. Moreover, the items she objected to cover matters that the government would never have presented in a case against Trump for the theft of government documents. She claimed that among the items seized were medical records & tax documents; but whether or not Trump lied about his heart rate & taxes is immaterial to the matters of espionage, theft & obstruction.

Pjotr Sauer of the Guardian: "Russia will not resume in full its gas supplies to Europe until the west lifts its sanctions against Moscow, the Kremlin said, as concerns over Russian gas supplies continued to drive up energy prices. Speaking to journalists on Monday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, blamed sanctions 'introduced against our country by western countries including Germany and the UK' for Russia's failure to deliver gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline."

Afghanistan. Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the consular section of Russia's embassy in Kabul on Monday, killing a top diplomat, a Russian security guard and four Afghans, according to Russian and Afghan officials. Afghan police reported that Taliban guards at the embassy shot dead the attacker, but his device still detonated. The blast happened as the embassy's second secretary exited the building to read out names to a crowd waiting to hear about visas, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. The attack against one of the few countries that has maintained an embassy under the Taliban is a blow to the image of the group that took over Afghanistan a year ago and maintains it has control over the country."

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Will Weissert of the AP: "President Joe Biden is making his third trip to Pennsylvania in less than a week and returning just two days after his predecessor, Donald Trump, staged his own rally there -- illustrating the battleground state's importance to both parties as Labor Day kicks off a nine-week sprint to crucial midterm elections.... On Monday, [President Biden is] attending Labor Day festivities in Milwaukee, in another key swing state, Wisconsin, before traveling to Pittsburgh[, Pa.] for that city's parade.... The unofficial start of fall, Labor Day also traditionally kicks off political crunch time...."

Olivia Olander of Politico: "John Sullivan, the United States' ambassador to Russia, concluded his time in the role and left Moscow on Sunday after almost three years as envoy, according to a statement from the U.S. embassy in Russia. Elizabeth Rood, another diplomat who was the deputy chief of the embassy, will take it over until the ambassador's successor is appointed and confirmed, the statement said. She has been stationed at the embassy since June, but has been nominated to be the next ambassador to Turkmenistan. Sullivan was appointed by ... Donald Trump in 2019, but was asked to stay on by President Joe Biden. 'Following his departure, he will retire from a career in public service that has spanned four decades and five U.S. presidents,' the statement said."

Beyond the Beltway

Nevada. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "An investigative reporter for The Las Vegas Review-Journal was found stabbed to death outside his home on Saturday morning, prompting a search for the attacker.... The police believe Jeff German, 69, was in an altercation with someone on Friday that resulted in the stabbing, The Review-Journal reported. Dori Koren, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told the newspaper that the police had potential leads on an assailant. A motive was not immediately clear." The AP's report is here.

Way Beyond

** U.K. Pippa Crerar of the Guardian: "Liz Truss will become Britain's next prime minister after winning a resounding victory over Rishi Sunak in the bitterly fought Conservative leadership contest. The foreign secretary, who won 81,326 votes of Tory members, while the former chancellor picked up 60,399 votes takes over from Boris Johnson, who was ousted by his own MPs earlier this summer. But the euphoria of victory will quickly give way to the hard reality of the economic challenges ahead with the country gripped by a cost of living crisis leaving families struggling to pay their energy bills this winter. Truss has said she will reveal plans to support households within a week of taking office, with allies understood to be discussing a £100bn package that could include freezing energy bills. She has already pledged to reverse a national insurance rise even though it disproportionately benefits the well-off. An emergency budget is expected within the first month to set out how she will bolster the economy amid sustained low growth, soaring inflation, flat-lining wages and the very real prospect of recession."

~~~ New York Times: "Britain will learn the identity of its new prime minister at around 12:30 p.m. on Monday (7:30 a.m. in New York), when the Conservative Party announces the results of a hard-fought contest to replace Boris Johnson. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, remains the heavy favorite over her opponent, Rishi Sunak, a former chancellor of the Exchequer." This is a liveblog. An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case you think of the Brits as more hidebound than Americans, the U.K. now has its third female prime minister; they even had a Jewish (by birth) P.M. in the 19th century. In the U.S? None of the above: all of our presidents, except one, were white guys.

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' liveblogs of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "'The Ukrainian counteroffensive is making verifiable progress in the south and the east,' according to the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank. ISW analysts said 'Ukrainian forces are advancing along several axes' to the west of the Kherson region and 'have secured territory' in Donetsk, one of two eastern regions that make up the Donbas area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday after a meeting of Ukraine's defense, military and intelligence chiefs that 'Ukrainian flags are returning to the places where they should be by right.'"

Chile. Jack Nicas of the New York Times: "For the past three years, Chileans have fought over a path forward for their country in the form of a new constitution, written entirely from scratch, that would transform their society and grant more rights than any national charter before it. On Sunday, voters overwhelmingly rejected that text. The proposed changes had looked to remake one of the most conservative countries in Latin America into one of the world's most left-leaning societies, but Chileans decided that went too far."

News Lede

New York Times: "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan said Monday night that one of the two men suspected in a wave of deadly stabbings had been found dead of wounds 'not believed to be self-inflicted.' After more than a day of manhunt that put three provinces on alert, the police said that Damien Sanderson, 31, had been found dead before noon on Monday in a grassy area near a house being investigated on the Cree Nation reserve. And they said his brother, Myles Sanderson, 30, had possibly been wounded.... The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in statement that the two men had been charged with first degree, attempted murder and break and enter." This is a liveblog.

Marie: Sorry, I lost some of the ledes of the day.