August 15, 2022

Afternoon Update:

** Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Lawyers for Rudolph W. Giuliani have been told that he is a target of a criminal investigation in Georgia into election interference by Donald J. Trump and his advisers. One of Mr. Giuliani's lawyers said in an interview that he was notified on Monday. On the same day, a federal judge rejected efforts by another key Trump ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, to avoid giving testimony before a special grand jury in Atlanta.... Mr. Giuliani is scheduled to appear before the special grand jury on Wednesday at a downtown Atlanta courthouse. His lawyer, Robert Costello, said in the interview that Mr. Giuliani would probably invoke attorney-client privilege if asked questions about his dealings with Mr. Trump.... Mr. Giuliani, who as Mr. Trump's personal lawyer spearheaded efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power, emerged in recent weeks as a central figure in the inquiry being conducted by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., which encompasses most of Atlanta. The rejection of Senator Graham's effort to avoid testifying came in a written order from a Federal District Court judge in Atlanta, Leigh Martin May. Mr. Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, is now set to testify on Aug. 23." ~~~

      ~~~ A CBS News story on Giuliani is here. A CNN story on Graham is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: From the report: "'If these people think he's going to talk about conversations between him and President Trump, they're delusional,' Mr. Costello said." Well, maybe not this week. But sometime. I recall reading some while back that Rudy charged Trump and/or the Trump campaign an exorbitant amount for his legal expertise, such as it is, so Trump stiffed Rudy. So I'm not so sure Rudy is unflippable.

Emma Brown, et al., of the Washington Post: "A team of computer experts directed by lawyers allied with ... Donald Trump copied sensitive data from election systems in Georgia as part of a secretive, multistate effort to access voting equipment that was broader, more organized and more successful than previously reported, according to emails and other records obtained by The Washington Post. As they worked to overturn Trump's 2020 election defeat, the lawyers asked a forensic data firm to access county election systems in at least three battleground states, according to the documents and interviews.... Attorney Sidney Powell sent the team to Michigan to copy a rural county's election data and later helped arrange for them to do the same in the Detroit area.... A Trump campaign attorney engaged the team to travel to Nevada. And the day after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol the team was in southern Georgia, copying data from a Dominion voting system in rural Coffee County.The emails and other records were collected through a subpoena issued to the forensics firm, Atlanta-based SullivanStrickler, by plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit in federal court over the security of Georgia;s voting systems." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie's Fashion Note: I do think Sidney will look smarter in an orange jumpsuit than in those fake leopard outfits she prefers.

Betsy Swan of Politico: "A federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack has subpoenaed Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann for documents and testimony, according to a person familiar with the matter.... Herschmann ... did not work in the White House counsel's office, but did provide Trump with legal advice. Because of that responsibility, there will likely be litigation over the scope of the subpoena and over how executive and attorney-client privileges may limit Herschmann's ability to comply.... During the tumultuous final weeks of Trump's term, Herschmann clashed with other aides and advisers who pushed the defeated president to fight the election results. He was also present for many of the most consequential meetings in that period of time."

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "The apparent position of Republicans loyal to Trump is that any law enforcement activity targeting him is by definition illegitimate, no matter how grave the suspected activity. So a GOP-controlled House next year would likely undermine investigations into Trump any way it can, regardless of what is learned about Trump in the interim.... While many have noted that a GOP House could stage phony Benghazi-like hearings, there's another possibility: using specific parliamentary tools to, in essence, defund the investigators."

Torsten Ove of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "A Mercer County man threatened to murder FBI agents last week after the bureau's search of Donald Trump's Florida estate, saying 'come and get me you piece of [expletive] feds' and 'I am going to [expletive] slaughter you,' according to a federal complaint filed Monday in Pittsburgh. Adam Bies, 46, is charged in U.S. District Court with influencing, impeding or retaliating against federal law officers. He is in U.S. custody and is set for an initial appearance hearing [Monday] afternoon before a federal magistrate judge."

~~~~~~~~~~

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "First he said that he was 'working and cooperating with' government agents who he claimed had inappropriately entered his home. Then, when the government revealed that the F.B.I., during its search, had recovered nearly a dozen sets of documents that were marked classified, he suggested the agents had planted evidence. Finally, his aides claimed he had a 'standing order' to declassify documents that left the Oval Office for his residence, and that some of the material was protected by attorney-client and executive privilege.... Why was he keeping documents, some still marked classified, at an unsecured Florida resort when officials had sought for a year to retrieve them? The often contradictory and unsupported defenses perpetuated by Mr. Trump and his team since the F.B.I. search follow a familiar playbook of the former president's.... 'There should be no presidential records at Mar-a-Lago, whether they are classified or unclassified or subject to executive privilege or subject to attorney-client privilege.' [said Jason Baron, a former director of litigation for the National Archives].... [Mr. Trump's former national security advisor John Bolton said the standing-order claim was] 'almost certainly a lie.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The "instant declassification" claim doesn't make any sense. That would mean that absolutely anyone -- including the maid & wandering guests -- could read, photocopy, publish and/or sell highly-sensitive documents the minute they left the Oval Office. BTW, for all we know, the real President, Joe Biden, has reclassified "any and all documents and other materials retained by or otherwise in the possession of former President Donald J. Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ PLUS, There's This. Renato Mariotti in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "While I suspect Trump could find aides willing to testify that [the 'standing order' claim] is true, I doubt he disclosed this to the government during their months of negotiations and it is unlikely a jury would find this story convincing.' An interesting essay. Mariotti goes on to write, "... even based on the limited information we have, it looks like the DOJ has viable charges against him.... I would not be surprised if DOJ refuses to pursue charges, regardless of their strength, in the absence of a 'plus factor' like obstruction. But that factor might be present here, given recent reports that one of Trump's lawyers signed a written statement falsely asserting that 'all material marked as classified' had been returned to the government.... This could be one of the strongest cases that DOJ refuses to bring." ~~~

~~~ If a Tree Falls in a Forest.... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Here is a closer look at what a president can and cannot do when it comes to removing protections for government secrets.... Can a president secretly declassify information without leaving a written record or telling anyone? That question, according to specialists in the law of government secrecy, is borderline incoherent. If there is no directive memorializing a decision to declassify information and conveying it to the rest of the government, the action would essentially have no consequence, as departments and agencies would continue to consider that information classified and so would continue to restrict access to documents containing it."

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Former President Trump on Sunday called on the FBI to return documents reportedly seized at Mar-a-Lago that are protected by attorney-client and executive privileges. 'Oh great!' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged "attorney-client" material, and also "executive" privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken,' Trump continued. 'By copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken,' he added. 'Thank you!'... Fox News on Saturday evening reported that the FBI seized five boxes that included information covered by attorney-client privilege...." MB: "Knowingly should not have taken"?? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Anyone who has read reports of the FBI's searches of (then attorneys) Rudy Giuliani's & Michael Cohen's homes & offices is aware that the FBI often seizes information that is or may be attorney-client-privileged. The FBI doesn't just pack up the docs & send them back because the client tweets -- without any specificity whatsoever -- that he wants them back. Rather, the court appoints a special master to comb through the seized material & decide what-all is privileged and what is not. (I guess lawyers for both sides can then wrangle in court with the special master's decisions.) I suppose Trump is just pretending he doesn't understand this, but if he really believes a public tweet will cause the return of some documents, he's dumber than even I thought. In the meantime, if I can figure out how to tweet Merrick Garland (I can't), I'm going to ask him to send me all those once-tippy-top-secret documents that Trump has declassified. I'll expect them by return mail (which, okay, will take a long time because Louis DeJoy).

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "... it is one of the most bizarre loop de loops in Donald Trump's dark, crazy reign over Republicans that he turned a party that was pro-law and order and anti-Evil Empire into a party that trashes the F.B.I. and embraces Vladimir Putin. It is the greatest con of the century's greatest con man: hijacking his own party.... The utterly spoiled Fifth Avenue brat accustomed to living in gilt palaces and cheating his way to success portrays himself as the world's biggest victim.... Even after so many years of this poisonous folly, I remain amazed that the Republicans viciously smeared by Trump on his way up, like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, now back up his smears." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm with MoDo. To me, the most surprising part of Trump's triumph was to discover that of all of these Republicans who presented themselves as powerful leaders -- leaders worthy of becoming "leader of the free world" even, like Marco, Ted & Lindsey -- is that they are nothing, nothing but cowards, fearful of someone who is now but an aged, washed-up, petulant Mafia boss. With a few notable exceptions -- like Liz Cheney & Adam Kinzinger, both of whom will soon be looking for other jobs -- the party that associated itself with robust militaristic world leadership & with "traditional" values in which the head-of-household should be a manly man -- is made up entirely of chickenshits cowering under the dirty skirts of a whiny bully.

Jonathan Dienst, et al., of NBC News: "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 ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.... A third law enforcement official said the five-page document states that such threats are appearing across multiple platforms, 'including social media sites, web forums, video sharing platforms and image boards.' The FBI also warned that it has seen personal identifying information of possible targets of violence, such as home addresses, as well as identification of family members as additional targets, the official added."

David Smith of the Guardian: "It was a tale of two presidents: Biden at his zenith, gaining praise for a 'hot streak' and earning comparisons with the master legislator Lyndon Johnson; Trump at his nadir, under criminal investigation for potential violations of the Espionage Act and earning comparisons with the 1920s gangster Al Capone. And yet ... determining who won and who lost the week was less clear cut. For Biden, to be sure, it was a much needed boost after months of Washington gridlock, miserable poll ratings and speculation that he could face a challenger from his own Democratic party in the 2024 presidential election. But Trump, perversely, also appeared to end the week stronger within his party than he began it. He had faced growing dissent over damaging revelations from the congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. Yet his claim that his home had been 'raided' by law enforcement prompted Republicans to unite behind him with renewed zeal."

Johnson Lai & Ken Moritsugu of the AP: "A delegation of American lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Sunday, just 12 days after a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that prompted China to launch days of threatening military drills around the self-governing island that Beijing says must come under its control. The five-member delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet President Tsai Ing-wen and other officials, as well as members of the private sector, to discuss shared interests including reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and investments in semiconductors." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Johnson Lai of the AP: "China announced more military drills around Taiwan as the self-governing island's president met with members of a new U.S. congressional delegation on Monday, threatening to renew tensions between Beijing and Washington just days after a similar visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi angered China."

Frank Thorp & Julianne McShane of NBC News: "A man died after he crashed his car into a barricade in D.C. early Sunday morning, according to a U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson. Authorities identified the suspect as Richard Aaron York, 29, adding that a Delaware driver's license was found and he is also believed to have lived in Pennsylvania recently. The man drove his car into a vehicle barricade at East Capitol Street and Second Street around 4 a.m., the spokesperson said in a press release. When he got out of the car, it became engulfed in flames. He then began shooting into the air.... And as Capitol police were approaching, he shot himself, according to the spokesperson." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Naomi Nix of the Washington Post (Aug. 10): "Facebook has long banned content referencing white nationalism. But a plethora of hate groups still populate the site, and the company boosts its revenue by running ads on searches for these pages. A new report from the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit tech watchdog, found 119 Facebook pages and 20 Facebook groups associated with white supremacy organizations."

Beyond the Beltway

Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "Two top antiabortion groups have crafted and successfully lobbied for state legislation to ban or further restrict the predominant way pregnancies are ended in the United States -- via drugs taken at home, often facilitated by a network of abortion rights groups. In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, 14 states now ban or partially ban the use of those drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in more than half of all abortions. But the drugs remain widely available, with multiple groups working to help provide them even to women in states with abortion bans. Students for Life of America and National Right to Life Committee, which have played leading roles in crafting antiabortion laws, hope to change that with new legislation. The groups are pursuing a variety of tactics, from bills that would ban the abortion-inducing drugs altogether to others that would allow family members to sue medication providers or attempt to shut down the nonprofit groups that help women obtain and safely use the drugs."

Fake "Investigators," Claiming Fraud, Are Coercing Elections Officials to Give Them Voting Machines. Patrick Marley & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "In states across the country, including Colorado, Pennsylvania and Georgia, attempts to inappropriately access voting machines have spurred investigations. They have also sparked concern among election authorities that, while voting systems are broadly secure, breaches by those looking for evidence of fraud could themselves compromise the integrity of the process and undermine confidence in the vote. In Michigan, the efforts to access the machines jumped into public view this month when the state attorney general, Dana Nessel (D), requested a special prosecutor be assigned to look into a group that includes her likely Republican opponent, Matthew DePerno.... Once election officials lose control of voting machines, [as happened in the Michigan case,] the machines can no longer be used because of the risk of hacking.... The situation in Michigan is similar to ones elsewhere in which allegedly unofficial and unauthorized investigators sought evidence of fraud by gaining access to voting equipment. Some of those named in the Michigan case have been connected to cases elsewhere."

Arizona, a Horror Story. Robert Draper in the New York Times Magazine: "The aggressive takeover of the Arizona G.O.P. by its far-right wing was made manifest on primary night earlier this month, when a slate of Trump-endorsed candidates ... all prevailed. As a group, they maintain that the 2020 election was stolen, have promoted conspiracy theories about Covid and have vowed to protect Arizona's schools from gender ideology, critical race theory and what McCarthyites denounced 70 years ago as 'godless communism.' They have cast the 2022 election as not just history-defining but potentially civilization-ending.... The state&'s G.O.P. has aggressively declined to moderate itself.... Its core activists, as well as a growing number of officials and those campaigning for governmental positions, openly espouse hostility not just to democratic principles but, increasingly, to the word 'democracy' itself.... It's the failure to reinstall a legitimately defeated president ... that seems to have ushered in the view among Arizona Republicans -- and many more across the nation -- that democracy itself was at fault and had been weaponized by the political left, or the 'enemies from within,' as McCarthy once put it."

** Florida. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post highlights Gov. Ran DeSantis' suspension of Hillsborough (Tampa Bay) State Attorney Andrew Warren (D). "The dramatic ouster has alarmed many in Florida, who say DeSantis -- widely considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate -- usurped the will of the voters by removing a twice-elected local official who disagreed with him politically.... In announcing the suspension, DeSantis excoriated Warren for being a 'woke' prosecutor more interested in social justice than in enforcing the law. He warned of a 'pathogen' spreading in U.S. cities -- progressive prosecutors trying to reduce incarceration rates they see as overly punitive and that disproportionately affect people of color.... 'This is something that Putin or Castro or Maduro would do,' said U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat who has represented parts of the Tampa Bay area in Congress for 15 years. 'People in Hillsborough are outraged.'" The Republican state legislature is expected to uphold Warren's suspension. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This isn't voter suppression. It isn't voting machine manipulation. It's voter nullification. If Ron DeSantis doesn't like the person you elected, he'll fire the official & appoint one of his pals to fill the job. This is how democracy dies, not in darkness as the WashPo slogan goes, but in broad daylight. Ron DeSantis is a dangerous autocrat.

Hawaii Primary Elections. New York Times liveblog: "Lt. Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii won the Democratic primary for governor, according to The Associated Press, putting himself in a strong position to secure the top office in a reliably blue state. Mr. Green defeated six other Democrats, including Representative Kai Kahele and Vicky Cayetano, a former first lady of Hawaii. He will face the Republican nominee, Duke Aiona, in November; the winner then will succeed Gov. David Ige, a Democrat who cannot run for re-election because of term limits." The page includes other primary results. Sen. Bruce Schatz won the Democratic for Senate with 94% of the vote. (Also linked yesterday.)

Wisconsin. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Having gerrymandered the Legislature past the point that it can be flipped, [Republicans] are now pushing intensely to take greater control over the state's voting infrastructure ahead of the 2024 presidential contest. Two pivotal elections in the coming months are likely to decide if that happens. The soaring stakes of the first, the November race for governor, became clear last week when Tim Michels, a construction magnate endorsed by ... Donald J. Trump, won the Republican primary.... The second election, an April contest to determine control of the narrowly divided Wisconsin Supreme Court, could be even more important."

Way Beyond

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "Brittney Griner's defense team appealed the verdict of a Russian court that sentenced the American basketball player to 9 years in prison for bringing cannabis oil into the country in February. Forty-two countries are calling on Russia to withdraw troops from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, according to a statement by the European Union dated Friday and posted Sunday. The statement says Russia's military aggression at and near the plant poses a threat to nuclear safety. The latest round of shelling near the plant killed one employee and injured two others, Ukraine's nuclear power regulator said on Telegram." ~~~

     ~~~ An AP story about Griner's appeal is here.

Myanmar. Richard Paddock of the New York Times: "On Monday, a special court appointed by the military regime that detained her last year convicted [Daw] Aung San Suu Kyi on four corruption counts and added six years to her sentence, according to one of the people.... Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is one of more than 15,000 people arrested for opposing military rule, and of these, 12,000 remain in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Many have been tortured in interrogation centers and sentenced by military courts after brief trials where defense attorneys and the public are barred.... Since the coup, more than 70 political prisoners have been sentenced to die.... At least 55 journalists are now imprisoned.... The human rights lawyer U Kyi Myint said the regime was casting itself as safeguarding traditional morality in the deeply Buddhist country even as soldiers massacre civilians and rape women."

Comments

[P.D. Pepe]

M&M'S DELCIOUS DISCOURSE:

That would be the two Irish Lasses, Maureen Dowd and Marie Burns, whose outrage at the Donald and his minions " made up entirely of chickenshits cowering under the dirty skirts of a whiny bully," will be taking their message to the streets. Look for them in your local grocery or town square––they will be everywhere standing there with their bull horn trying like hell to get through to people that this was and continues to be " the greatest con of the century’s greatest con man: hijacking his own party." They don't want your money––-what they want is for the truth to be recognized ––and our M&M's cover all colors unlike their nemesis who only liked the vanilla.

Praise be!

[P.D. Pepe]

The Times endorses Jerrold Nadler, Sean Maloney and Dan Goldman in New York's Democratic Primary races for congress, with pictures of all those running.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/13/opinion/new-york-congress-nyt-endorse.html

[Akhilleus]

Changing the rules that don’t suit them, Pt. 3,458

So the Fat Fascist steals top secret documents and the DoJ is looking at Espionage Act violations (as they should). Oh dear! What’s a party full of traitors and law breakers to do?

I know! Change the law! Presto-change-o, no more Espionage Act violation!

And right on cue, here comes the self certified eye poker, Senator What About Meeeee? to the rescue.

“We must abolish the Espionage Act, harrumph, harrumph!”

Why, pray tell? “Well, it’s old, been around since WWI! That’s why!”

Well gee, then why don’t we get rid of the entire Constitution, if that’s the problem? That’s been around a whole lot longer. Oh, wait. Treason weasels like Li’l Randy don’t pay no mind to that old thing anyway, less’n they can use it to fuck someone.

But traitors like the littlest law remover have their work cut out. If they’re gonna eradicate all the laws the Orange Monster has broken, it’ll take years. The Federal statutes will be reduced to the size of a McDonald’s menu by the time they tear out all the laws that fat crook has pissed on.

But Li’l Randy is just the rat bastard for the job. He’s got plenty of time. After all, he doesn’t actually DO anything.

https://www.newsweek.com/rand-paul-calls-espionage-act-repeal-trump-fumes-over-fbi-search-1733488?amp=1

[Ken Winkes]

Akhilleus,

The Supremes, with their McDonnell decision, already went half way to abolishing politically inconvenient laws after the fact.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/supreme-court-overturns-bob-mcdonnells-corruption-convictions-224833

At least that's the way I took it. Making, as they did, proving corruption so difficult that it's as if there was no corruption at all in rather obvious tits for tats.

Particularly noted at the time that McDonnell was doing favors for a patent medicine/vitamin millionaire. Now I see him as a telling antecedent for the hucksters of hydroxychloroquine and horse de-wormer that have recently plagued the nation.

Surely the Supremes could have come up with a better decision.

As I've said before, "Supremes, please think before you act."

[Ken Winkes]

Interesting that the extent to which the Right's habitual casting of itself as victims has made it comfortable enough with being victimized that they're OK with the Pretender's outright theft of their property.

His adherents are apparently so used being abused, they expect nothing else. They even rush to defend their chief abuser.

[Ken Winkes]

Liked Boot's column today. He's turning into my kind of hard ass.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/15/nixon-presidential-pardon-trump/

And my comment:

Agreed. That Nixon pardon is a stink that has never gone away...

Not only did it set a poisonous precedent, it illustrated at the nation's highest level that the rich and powerful will be protected and not held responsible for their actions...thus paving the way for ever more shameless corruption and the cynicism with which the nation has come to greet it.

Letting the Wall Streeters off the hook for the Bush II crash didn't help.

Thus we get widespread distrust in government and those like Trump who don't hesitate to exploit it.