The Conversation -- May 6, 2024

David Bauder of the AP: "The New York Times and The Washington Post were awarded three Pulitzer Prizes apiece on Monday for work in 2023 that dealt with everything from the war in Gaza to gun violence, and The Associated Press won in the feature photography category for coverage of global migration to the U.S. Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the aftermath produced work that resulted in two Pulitzers and a special citation. The Times won for text coverage that the Pulitzer board described as 'wide-ranging and revelatory,' while the Reuters news service won for its photography. The citation went to journalists and other writers covering the war in Gaza. The prestigious public service award went to ProPublica for reporting that 'pierced the thick wall of secrecy' around the U.S. Supreme Court to show how billionaires gave expensive gifts to justices and paid for luxury travel. Reporters Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Alex Mierjeski and Kirsten Berg were honored for their work." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a full list of winners, via Axios.

From the Washington Post's live updates of developments in the Israel/Hamas war (also linked earlier today): "Hamas informed Arab mediators that it would approve a Qatari-Egyptian cease-fire proposal, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas's political bureau, said in a statement Monday. While there has been no formal response from Israel, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman, said in a briefing later Monday: 'We are considering any response and any answer in the most serious way and are pursuing every possibility for negotiations to return the hostages as quickly as possible.' He added that 'in parallel, we are continuing to maneuver in the Gaza Strip.'"

Yes, Yes, Trump's Friends Seem Like Criminals, Too. David Fahrenthold of the New York Times: "The Conservative Partnership Institute, a nonprofit whose funding skyrocketed after it became a nerve center for... Donald J. Trump's allies in Washington, has paid at least $3.2 million since the start of 2021 to corporations led by its own leaders or their relatives, records show. In its most recent tax filings, the nonprofit's three highest-paid contractors were all connected to insiders.... Donations to the group are tax deductible, like gifts to a food bank or the American Red Cross.... By law, its money must serve the public good rather than private interests. The nonprofit has pushed those limits by entwining itself with only one faction of American politics. It pays high salaries to some of Mr. Trump's former officials, hosts retreats for Republican lawmakers at a rural compound and funds efforts to vet people and ideas for a second Trump term. Legal experts say these insider transactions also raise concerns about self-dealing.... 'There's no checks and balances,' said Michael West, a lawyer at the New York Council of Nonprofits."

It's going to be a Trump day today. New York Times reporters are ready to tell us all about it: ~~~

Maggie Haberman: "Trump is in the courtroom, with his son Eric in tow again. Alina Habba, who represented Trump in his civil fraud trial last year, is sitting next to Eric Trump. Boris Epshteyn, Trump's recently-indicted legal adviser, is sitting behind both, several seats away from Alan Garten, the Trump Organization's general counsel."

Jonah Bromwich: "The judge says he will address the motion for contempt and begins to address Trump and his lawyers. He says that he will find Trump in criminal contempt for the 10th time -- one for each of the violations of his gag order."

Haberman: "Justice Merchan is speaking directly to Trump, in an extraordinary moment. He tells him he's finding him in contempt of the gag order a 10th time, but that the $1,000 per instance fines aren't working and that he has to consider jail. 'The last thing' he wants to do is put Trump in jail, the judge says, adding, 'You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well.'... Justice Merchan tells Trump his ongoing violation of his gag order is a 'direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue.' He says he wants him to understand he will put him in jail if he has to."

Kate Christobek: "Trump was hunched over at the defense table staring at Merchan as he issued his warning. When the judge concluded, Trump shook his head."

Bromwich: "... the written order leaves Trump a bit of wiggle room — Merchan writes that 'if appropriate and warranted, future violations' of his orders will be punishable by jail. He could have drawn an even brighter red line by saying 'any future violation.' Still, overall, this is a dire situation for the former president."

Haberman: "Defense lawyers suggest they've been told Jeffrey McConney, who was a top Trump Organization official at the time of the Stormy Daniels payout, will be the next witness."

Bromwich: "The judge is now scolding the defense lawyers. He is frustrated because they wish to lodge objections related to the witness, Jeffrey McConney, but that they did not tell him yesterday, when they learned who the witness was, that they would have objections. Justice Merchan has objected to what he sees as efforts from the defense to delay the trial, often by taking action last minute."

Haberman: "Jeffrey McConney testifies that he worked for the Trump Organization beginning in 1987. For context, that's just a few years after Trump Tower opened, and the same year that Trump made a feint at running for president the first time with a trip to New Hampshire as his book 'The Art of the Deal' was being published.... He is now describing the intricate lacing of more than 500 entities that comprise the Trump Organization.... For context on how the Trump Organization worked, Jeffrey McConney's son Justin was the person who basically ran Trump's Twitter feed before Trump learned how to do it himself, a moment that Justin described to Politico as like the moment the dinosaurs learned to open doors in 'Jurassic Park.'"

Jonathan Swan: "Jeffrey McConney, who no longer works for the Trump Organization, says the company is still footing his legal bills."

Bromwich: "For those of us who covered the Trump Organization's trial in 2022, hearing Jeffrey McConney's testimony is like experiencing deja vu. At that trial, too, McConney testified about his old boss, Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, who is currently in jail. McConney and Weisselberg had been close, having lunch every day, as McConney just testified. In this trial filled with fascinating witnesses and compelling testimony, McConney's appearance may mark a turn, as we begin to hear about the financial documents at the heart of the case." ~~~

~~~ Susanne Craig: "During that trial, the Trump Organization was convicted of tax fraud and other crimes."

Bromwich: "Jeffrey McConney just told a story that is emblematic of Trump's management style. He says about a year into his employment, he walked into Trump's office. The boss, who was on the phone, said to him: 'Jeff, you're fired.'... McConney wasn't actually fired, but Trump warned him that it was a problem that his 'cash balances went down last week' and urged him to 'focus on my bills.' It was, McConney says, a 'teaching moment.' And it's helpful for prosecutors seeking to illustrate how closely Trump was focused on the outflow of cash." [MB: Not at all clear in Bromwich's telling, but according to analysts on MSNBC, the point here was that Trump wanted McConney not to pay his bills, but to negotiate them down first.]

Haberman: "The prosecutor just asked Jeffrey McConney: 'Are you familiar with' Michael Cohen? This is going to introduce key conversations between Allen Weisselberg, the former top financial official at the Trump Organization, and Cohen, a key witness for the prosecution.... McConney is being fairly mocking of Cohen. Asked about his role, McConney says, 'He said he was a lawyer.'"

Bromwich: "McConney says that in 2017, his boss, Allen Weisselberg, told him that Cohen needed some money. Some of it was related to Cohen's bonus, McConney testifies, and adds, 'And then there was some other money he was owed.' Cohen was owed $130,000 for the hush-money payment."

Bromwich: "Jeffrey McConney is testifying about hugely important documentary evidence, only barely disguised by the financial documents and handwritten notes on screen. We just now learned that the payment came from Trump's personal bank account. It appears we are about to see that the invoices Michael Cohen sent for the payment were prompted by Cohen's conversation with Allen Weisselberg, in an arrangement, again, that Cohen will testify was confirmed with Trump." [Emphasis added.]

Bromwich: "Matthew Colangelo, a prosecutor, ends his direct questioning by asking Jeffrey McConney a series of questions about a financial disclosure publicized in 2018 in which Trump reported to the government that he had repaid more than $100,000 to Mr. Cohen the previous year. This form is further documentary evidence of the hush-money reimbursement, and as our colleagues reported then, raised many questions when it was first made public."

Swan: "In his cross-examination, Trump's lawyer Emil Bove is trying to establish some distance between Trump and the actions of his accounting department. Trump has opened his eyes for this section and is paying close attention. He smiled as Jeffrey McConney said he never discussed accounting software with Trump."

Craig: "McConney said he never gave Trump a tour of the company's accounting software. But it's important to remember the government's lawyers need not prove that Trump personally falsified the records, only that he orchestrated their falsification."

Craig: "Jurors are seeing a lot of notes scribbled by Jeffrey McConney. It looks more like how someone might track their personal taxes on the fly, not something coming out of a company."

Jesse McKinley: "We're seeing a bank statement from Michael Cohen's shell company, Essential Consultants, marked with a handwritten notation by Allen Weisselberg.... It outlines the reimbursement to Cohen, which included a bonus and monies to cover a tax burden. Weisselberg's handwriting is a scrawl but Jeffrey McConney seems to be able to read it."

Bromwich: "This evidence helps to counter one of the arguments that the defense made in its opening statement, asking the jury to consider why, if Michael Cohen made a payment of $130,000, he was paid so much more than he would have been owed. But Jeffrey McConney just walked us through the disparity in the amounts, which includes both a bonus for Cohen and tax considerations."

Haberman: "This also underscores the prosecution's argument that top officials in the Trump Organization were involved in making Cohen financially whole. And McConney just walked through how closely Trump, historically, has paid attention to his bottom line."

Bromwich: "We are seeing important evidence right now, of the instructions Weisselberg gave to McConney as related to paying Cohen, in part to reimburse the hush-money payment. This fulfills several important functions: Cohen is expected to testify that he spoke with Trump about being repaid, and that Trump asked Weisselberg to handle the specifics. So here, we see paper evidence of what prosecutors will say is the aftermath of that conversation, and the blueprints for the repayment."

Haberman: "On screen is an email from Allen Weisselberg to Jeffrey McConney saying that it was okay to pay the money to Michael Cohen, “per agreement with Don and Eric." Eric Trump is sitting in the courtroom as this takes place.... Notably, McConney testifies that he didn't send the invoice from Cohen to the legal department for review. He acknowledges he typically would do so with invoices."

Bromwich: "We are beginning to see the roots of what prosecutors say are false about the documents at issue in this case. Jeffrey McConney told Deborah Tarasoff, who dealt with the details of payroll at the Trump Organization and who is also expected to testify, to record the payments to Michael Cohen as 'legal expenses.' He also told her to say they were being made as part of a 'retainer' agreement between Cohen and Trump, which prosecutors say did not exist. Prosecutors say that was a way to disguise the hush-money reimbursement to Cohen. To find Trump guilty, jurors will have to agree that these documents were indeed falsified."

Christobek: "Matthew Colangelo, the prosecutor, asked McConney if he ever saw a retainer agreement. He responded: 'I did not.'"

Bromwich: "The last 10 minutes or so have consisted of a slow procession of invoices from Michael Cohen and related emails between Jeffrey McConney, Deborah Tarasoff and Allen Weisselberg being shown on the video monitors in the courtroom. These, prosecutors say, are the false documents. They don't look like much, and despite their centrality to the case, the room has taken on a relaxed atmosphere as we make our way through them.... We've concluded looking at the series of 11 invoices that prosecutors say were falsified. With that testimony, we take our morning break."

Bromwich: "Matthew Colangelo, the prosecutor, questioned Jeffrey McConney again during a brief re-direct. He leaned into the arguments the defense was making, and only really asked McConney if he later learned that there were things going on to which he had not been privy to. This takes advantage of Emil Bove, Trump's lawyer, not having an alternative explanation for the documentary evidence. Bove argued that McConney didn't know what he was talking about when it came to the transactions that Allen Weisselberg directed him to make. But not only was Colangelo fine with that -- he thought it was helpful for the prosecution's case."

Haberman: "Watching Emil Bove's largely hard-to-follow cross examination of Jeffrey McConney, the challenge facing Trump's lawyers again becomes clear. They're basically doing a version of: 'He didn't do it, and even if he did it's not a crime.'... But ... [there is] a lot of pretty clear evidence that Michael Cohen made a payoff to Stormy Daniels that he was reimbursed for after discussions involving top Trump financial officials. Since the client here -- Trump -- never wants his lawyers to cede any ground as to whether he did anything questionable, the defense lawyers are left with this jumble." [Lunch break.]

Bromwich: "Christopher Conroy, a prosecutor, just told the judge that the next witness would be Deborah Tarasoff, who has run the Trump Organization's books for years."

Haberman: "Todd Blanche, one of Trump's lawyers, complains to Justice Merchan that the defense only learned who the prosecution's next witness would be 30 minutes ago. The prosecutors' lack of trust toward the defense team is underscored here.... Deborah Tarasoff [testifies] she still is employed by the Trump Organization, and the company is paying for her lawyers.... Tarasoff is walking the court through the very mundane way in which Trump would sign checks, down to the black Sharpie he would use. She is underscoring that, for all of Trump's emphasis on the size of his company, Hope Hicks was correct when she testified that the company functioned like a family business. Things take place on a small and almost parochial level."

Christobek: "Deborah Tarasoff says that Trump had to sign all the checks from his personal account, even after he became president and was living in Washington, D.C. She says they were sent by FedEx. She added that after Trump signed the checks, she would eventually get them back."

Haberman: "As a side note, Trump's campaign is fundraising off the judge's warning to him this morning about possible jail time if he does not stop violating his gag order, and attacking witnesses and others connected to the case."

McKinley: "We are seeing a series of checks made out to Michael Cohen, signed by Trump."

Bromwich: Todd Blanche is doing the cross of Tarasoff. "The cross-examination concludes, very quickly."

Marie: In case you're feeling sorry for Hope Hicks because those mean prosecutors drove her to tears when they forced her to testify against her Dear Ole Boss, remember that her Dear Ole Boss was Donald Trump and that Hicks conspired with him time and again to mislead the public, as this WashPo story demonstrates in regard to some of Trump's scandalous past. Hope Hicks knew what Donald Trump was and she aided & abetted him anyway.

Into the Weeds We Go. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "An obscure New York state election law that has rarely been prosecuted over five decades has been dusted off by Manhattan prosecutors and elevated to a prominent role in Donald Trump's criminal trial over allegedly falsifying documents related to a hush money payment during the 2016 election campaign. The law -- Section 17-152 of the state's election code -- makes it a misdemeanor for two or more people to 'conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means.' Trump is not being charged under that statute, which apparently has been used only a few times in cases related to state or local elections, though it is a key factor in his case.... In bringing the felony charges, prosecutors are required to prove not just that Trump doctored records, but that he did so to commit or conceal another crime.... '... The entire case is predicated on the idea that there was a conspiracy to influence the election in 2016, [prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan during Trump's trial on April 23.... Prosecutors do] not have to prove Trump violated the statute but merely demonstrate that he was falsifying internal Trump Organization records as part of a broader scheme to improperly influence the 2016 election."

** Gaby Del Valle of the New York Times profiles Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) (Also linked yesterday.)

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The White House on Sunday slammed former President Trump after he compared the Biden administration to the Gestapo police force in Nazi Germany. 'Instead of echoing the appalling rhetoric of fascists, lunching with Neo Nazis, and fanning debunked conspiracy theories that have cost brave police officer their lives, President Biden is bringing the American people together around our shared democratic values and the rule of law...,' deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement."

Nick Robertson of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) emphasized the stakes of the 2024 election in a '60 Minutes' interview on Sunday, warning that much more than abortion rights are at risk if former President Trump gets a second term.... 'If Roe v. Wade can fall, anything can fall,' he [said]. 'Social Security can fall. Medicare can fall. Voting rights can fall. And God help us all, but democracy itself can fall....'"

Veepstakes. digby: "Kristi Noem went on Face the Nation and poured gasoline on her dumpster fire of a political career this morning[.]... [According to the Daily Beast,] 'At one point in the book, titled No Going Back, Noem recalled meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, claiming he "underestimated" her. However, experts have called into question whether such a meeting could have ever taken place. "Did you meet Kim Jong Un?" [host Margaret] Brennan directly asked the governor, who avoided answering the question and instead said she's "met with many, many world leaders" and has "made some edits" to the book. "I'm not going to talk about my specific meetings with world leaders...," [Noem replied]....' And here's the coup de grâce....She ended the book by saying that she wanted to shoot Biden's dog. I'm not kidding." The New York Times story is here. At the end of the NYT story, we find out that Noem believes in doggie heaven and doggie hell.

Photo aspirational. Trump is not that good.Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. Top News in the New York Times, May 6, 2020: An exposé of how Jared Kushner mucked up the procurement and distribution of critically-needed medical supplies needed to battle the coronavirus by fobbing off the job to a group of inexperienced volunteers who prioritized input from Friends of Trump. "The fumbling search for new supplies -- heralded by Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner as a way to pipe private-sector hustle and accountability into the hidebound federal bureaucracy -- became a case study of Mr. Trump's style of governing, in which personal relationships and loyalty are often prized over governmental expertise, and private interests are granted extraordinary access and deference." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Now just think how well the kleptocracy would work in a second Trump term, when Trump's flaks would institute this same level of corruption and incompetence all across the federal government. It is not only democracy that is at stake (you know, free & fair elections & so on), it is also the luxury of living in a country with a functioning government that serves public needs. Trump is not Mussolini incarnate; Mussolini made the trains run on time.

The New York Times' liveblog of developments Monday re: U.S. college campus protests is here.

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The Israel Defense Forces is calling for civilians in parts of Rafah to 'evacuate immediately' to a humanitarian zone, saying they will operate with 'extreme force' in those areas. Israel's determination to invade Rafah remains a sticking point in cease-fire negotiations that appear to be at an impasse, with a Hamas delegation leaving the ongoing negotiations in Cairo to consult its leadership in Qatar.... The U.N. agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, said it was not evacuating Rafah and would 'maintain a presence' in the city for 'as long as possible' to continue providing aid. An Israeli offensive would be 'devastating' for the more than 1 million people sheltering there, it said." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Monday are here. CNN's live updates are here.

Michael Schwartz, et al., of CNN: "Israel has ordered the closure of Al Jazeera in the country, a move the Qatar-based news network called a 'criminal act.' Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on X: 'The government headed by me unanimously decided: the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel.'... In a post on X, [Netanyahu's spokesman] said that the network's 'broadcast equipment will be confiscated, the channel's correspondents will be prevented from working, the channel will be removed from cable and satellite television companies, and Al Jazeera's websites will be blocked on the Internet.' Israeli cable providers ceased carrying the Al Jazeera networks by late Sunday afternoon.... Several of the network's journalists working in Gaza have been injured or killed since October 7." (Also linked yesterday.)

Cinco de Mayo 2024

What is Cinco de Mayo anyway?

** Gaby Del Valle of the New York Times profiles Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)

Michael Schwartz, et al., of CNN: "Israel has ordered the closure of Al Jazeera in the country, a move the Qatar-based news network called a 'criminal act.' Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on X: 'The government headed by me unanimously decided: the incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel.'... In a post on X, [Netanyahu's spokesman] said that the network's 'broadcast equipment will be confiscated, the channel's correspondents will be prevented from working, the channel will be removed from cable and satellite television companies, and Al Jazeera's websites will be blocked on the Internet.' Israeli cable providers ceased carrying the Al Jazeera networks by late Sunday afternoon.... Several of the network's journalists working in Gaza have been injured or killed since October 7."

~~~~~~~~~~

Maggie Haberman & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Fresh from his criminal trial in New York, Donald J. Trump delivered a frustrated and often obscene speech, lasting roughly 75 minutes, at a Republican National Committee donor retreat in Florida on Saturday, attacking one of the prosecutors pursuing him and comparing President Biden's administration to the Nazis. 'These people are running a Gestapo administration,' Mr. Trump told donors who attended the event at Mar-a-Lago.... Before making the comparison, Mr. Trump baselessly insisted that the various indictments against him and his allies in several states were being orchestrated by the Biden administration.... Mr. Trump entered the event to the recording of the national anthem that he made with a group of people arrested in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.... Mr. Trump also mocked the physical appearance of Jack Smith, the special counsel who has indicted him twice. 'He's unattractive both inside and out,' Mr. Trump said. 'This is one unattractive dude.' He then used two expletives to describe Mr. Smith." The NBC News report is here.

Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. Top News in the New York Times, May 5, 2020: "As President Trump presses states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in coronavirus infections and deaths over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1 -- nearly double the current level."

Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "The D.C. Court of Appeals has temporarily suspended John Eastman's law license after a similar decision in California, which did so over his role in a legal strategy to help Donald Trump stay in power after his 2020 election loss.... Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, chief judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals, wrote in an order filed Friday that Eastman's license is suspended in D.C. until there's a final decision in the California proceeding. Eastman also faces potential disbarment in D.C.; that challenge to his license is also on hold during the California litigation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It occurs to me that the Trumpist lawyers who are getting their licenses suspended don't have much recourse. Even if Trump becomes king, I doubt he can force law bars to reinstate their law licenses.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Charlie Spies, the Republican National Committee's chief counsel, was pushed out of his new role just two months after taking the job, amid a storm of controversy over conflicts involving other clients at the firm where he still works, according to two people briefed on the matter.... In the last few weeks, the fact that Mr. Spies's firm -- from which he did not take a leave when he accepted the R.N.C. job -- still has ties to [Ron] DeSantis became a particular point of concern for Trump officials, the two people said." ~~~

~~~ The Rest of the Story. Josh Dawsey & Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "The top lawyer at the Republican Party is resigning after he cited conflicts with his other work obligations and after Donald Trump grew angry about his criticism of the former president's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, people familiar with the situation said Saturday night. The lawyer, Charlie Spies, is a long-respected GOP election operative who was hired by Trump's top lieutenants in March after the former president engineered a takeover of the Republican National Committee, which in recent years has been the party's main operation in both fundraising and field operations. Trump had approved of the hiring but later learned about additional comments the lawyer had made." MB: I thought Haberman's report was thin. Odd she didn't seem to know about the only thing that matters at the RNC: the mercurial mood swings of Trumplethinskin. All Retribution Roads lead to Trump. ~~~

     ~~~ The NBC News report is here.

CNN is live-updating developments related to U.S. college campus protests: "Colleges and universities are holding graduation ceremonies this weekend as pro-Palestinian protests continue on campuses across the US. Several schools enhanced security measures as they prepared for commencement. At the University of Michigan, banners with opposing messages flew overhead and some protesters were removed during the school's main graduation ceremony on Saturday. A smaller ceremony held Friday at the school was also interrupted. At the University of Virginia, police took down tents and cleared out protesters Saturday after declaring an unlawful assembly near the center of campus. UVA said 25 people were arrested. The US ambassador to the United Nations will no longer deliver the commencement address at the University of Vermont following calls by protesters for the school to rescind its invitation."

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Ellen Knickmeyer & Russ Bynum of the AP: "A top U.N. official said Friday that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in 'full-blown famine' after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory. Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, became the most prominent international official so far to declare that trapped civilians in the most cut-off part of Gaza had gone over the brink into famine. 'It's horror,' McCain told NBC's 'Meet the Press' in an interview to air Sunday. 'There is famine -- full-blown famine -- in the north, and it's moving its way south.'" ~~~

~~~ José Andrés in a Washington Post op-ed: "... barely a month has passed since Israeli forces killed seven of our World Central Kitchen family, despite knowing their location, movements and the nature of their essential work. Our colleagues risked everything to feed people they did not know. Yet ... we cannot stand by while so many people are so desperate for the essentials of life. Food is a universal human right, and we will not cease until those basic human rights are respected. This week, we are restarting our operations at scale: We have 276 trucks, representing almost 8 million meals, ready to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing in the south. We are also sending trucks from Jordan as we push to distribute food into northern Gaza, where the situation is most dire." outlines the Israel Defense Forces' mistreatment of World Central Kitchen workers and the IDF's failure to provide security.

News Lede

New York Times: "Frank Stella, whose laconic pinstripe 'black paintings' of the late 1950s closed the door on Abstract Expressionism and pointed the way to an era of cool minimalism, died on Saturday at his home in the West Village of Manhattan. He was 87." MB: It wasn't only Stella's paintings that were laconic; he was a man of few words, so when I ran into him at events, I enjoyed "bringing him out." How? I never once tried to discuss art with him.

The Conversation -- May 4, 2024

Azi Paybarah & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Friday gave the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to 19 people -- with recipients covering nearly every corner of American life, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Olympic champion Katie Ledecky, Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh and, posthumously, civil rights leader Medgar Evers. During a ceremony held at the White House on Friday, Biden said he had the 'extraordinary honor to bestow the nation's highest civilian honor to 19 incredible people whose relentless curiosity, inventiveness, ingenuity and hope have kept faith in a better tomorrow.'" This is an update of a story linked yesterday.

Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday expanded the boundaries of two national monuments in California by nearly 120,000 acres, using his executive authority to protect vast swaths of land of cultural significance to Native American tribes and nearby communities. During a ceremony in the Oval Office, Biden signed two proclamations enlarging the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, both of which were originally designated by President Barack Obama."

Jamie Frevele of Mediaite: "Pop culture icon and Star Wars actor Mark Hamill kicked off Friday's White House press briefing wearing a new pair of aviator shades -- a gift from President Joe Biden. Hamill told a delighted White House press corps that he had a visit with the president, calling Biden 'the most legislatively successful president in my lifetime' and listing a few of Biden's accomplishments. '... The Bipartisan Infrastructure law, the PACT Act, the Chips Act, all of that, inflation, 15 million jobs. It's all good....'"

The Trials of Trump & the Trump Mob, Ctd.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: Trump's former aide Hope Hicks testified Friday against her will "that [Donald] Trump was an image-obsessed micromanager. She also acknowledged that it seemed implausible that Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump's fixer, would pay hush money to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, without the then-candidate's say-so. And Ms. Hicks testified that Mr. Trump had shown awareness of that payoff years after the fact. 'Mr. Trump's opinion,' she said, was that 'it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election.' But she was not totally unhelpful to the defense, providing Mr. Trump's lawyers grist to argue that their client was a family man, and that his motive for suppressing damning stories might not have been solely to win election but also to protect his home life." Politico's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Both the NYT & the Politico report emphasize that Hicks' testimony was helpful to Trump in that she boosted his "family man" defense. However, two legal experts [one was Ryan Goodman; I don't know the name of the other person] appearing on CNN yesterday said that two things can be true simultaneously: that a person is concerned about both his personal AND his business or political interests. That is essentially what Hicks said in court. So the fact that Trump seemed to be concerned about his wife's reactions to the sex scandals does not diminish the government's assertion that he wanted to hide the stories from voters.

** And There's This: According to Maggie Haberman's notes in the Times liveblog linked below, Hicks testified during cross-examination, "President Trump really values Mrs. Trump's opinion, and she doesn't weigh in all the time, but when she does, it's really meaningful to him. He really, really respects what she has to say. I think he was just concerned of what her perception of this would be." What that says to me is that the Family Guy didn't care as much about hurting Melania's feelings as he did about getting the benefit of her "opinion" and her "perception" of the scandal, IOW, how Melania thought the story would affect his campaign and how he should manage it. So still totally narcissistic, as we would expect. ~~~

~~~ AND. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "MSNBC commentator and former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said the testimony of Hope Hicks dealt a 'body blow' to ... Donald Trump in court on Friday.... The jury heard testimony from Hicks ... [that] Trump had told her that [Michael] Cohen made [the payment to Stormy Daniels] 'out of the kindness of his own heart.' [Even] during cross-examination, Hicks appeared to back up the prosecution's argument that Trump arranged the hush money payment to prevent it from being an election issue. 'Mr. Trump's opinion was that it was better to be dealing with it now and it would've been bad to have that story come out before the election,' she said.... Weissmann said, '... I also thought about how her crying was kind of icing on the cake for the D.A.'s office. I'm not in any way suggesting that they sought it, but her testimony was a body blow to the defense here because she put the guilty knowledge of the hush money payments into Donald Trump's mouth.... Her crying would underscore to the jury, in my view, that she was not there because she wanted to help the government, that she had all loyalty for the Trump Organization. And so, it was going to make it impossible for the defense to actually say that she was lying to help the government and to hurt Donald Trump." ~~~

~~~ AND. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Jim Trusty, a former attorney for Donald Trump said the testimony of Hope Hicks in the ex-president's New York criminal trial 'certainly hurts' his case.... '... You see a person that is clearly uncomfortable with being there, doesn't want to hurt anybody, doesn't want to be a part of it, but they end up giving devastating, very entertaining, and interesting information.'... During CNN's coverage of the trial, network legal analyst Norm Eisen theorized that Hicks cried on the stand 'because she was throwing her former boss under the bus.'"

An elderly, sleepy-headed, possibly confused Donald Trump returned to the courtroom yesterday to face his accusers in a trial for financial records crimes the Manhattan D.A. alleges he committed in relation to his 2016 campaign for president*. New York Times reporters were on the scene to relay developments. Yesterday's Conversation includes many of their observations.

Links to transcripts of the proceedings are here. (At 2:30 am ET Saturday, they do not yet include Friday's testimony.

Even Trump's Auditors Are Crooked. Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "An accounting firm that audits the financial statements of hundreds of public companies including ... Donald J. Trump's social media company can no longer do so, U.S. securities regulators said on Friday. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm, BF Borgers, with fraud, saying that it had failed to comply with accounting rules. In settling with the S.E.C., the firm agreed immediately stop filing audited statements on behalf of its clients. The regulator held BF Borgers and its owner, Benjamin F. Borger, responsible for 'deliberate and systemic failures' to comply with accounting rules. The accompanying settlement requires both the firm and Mr. Borgers to pay a total of $14 million in civil penalties. Many companies that used BF Borgers must now find new auditors." (Also linked yesterday.) A CBS News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the SEC's press release.

Brandi Buchman of Law & Crime: "Charges have formally been made public against Mark Meadows, the onetime chief of staff to ... Donald Trump, in the expansive fake electors case now underway in Arizona.... Though several Republicans were named directly in the fraud and forgery indictment including, among others, leaders of the state's Republican party and two incumbent state lawmakers, some of those charged had their identities redacted, including Meadows and Trump's former attorney ... Rudy Giuliani.... The reason they were not named openly is because they had not yet been formally served."

Perry Stein & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.) and his wife allegedly accepted $600,000 in bribes from an oil company controlled by the Azerbaijan government and a bank headquartered in Mexico, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Texas on Friday. The 68-year-old congressman and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, are accused of setting up front companies that entered into sham contracts with the bank and the Azerbaijan government, the indictment said. Through their lawyer, they denied wrongdoing. The 54-page indictment details a bold corruption scheme in which Cuellar -- who co-chairs the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus -- allegedly promised to wield his power as a U.S. congressman to advocate for his benefactors. To Azerbaijan, he pledged to influence legislation related to the country's conflict with neighboring Armenia, insert favorable language into committee reports on economic aid programs and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the House floor, the indictment says. To the Mexican bank, Cuellar allegedly promised to pressure executive branch officials to back off money laundering enforcement practices that threatened the bank's business interests and to support legislation that would block regulation of the payday lending industry, which has been accused of exploiting poor Americans." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Nice to see Cuellar, who admittedly is a conservative Democrat but still a Democrat, join Sen. Bob Menendez in the (Alleged!) Crooked Democrats Club. It isn't fair that Republicans get to claim all the crooks.

Well, yesterday was just a Star Wars kinda day ~~~

~~~ GOP Battle of the Jewish Laser Beams! Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) took aim at his Republican colleague, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), on Friday after the Georgia Republican criticized him for authoring a bill regarding anti-Semitism that passed the House this week. Greene wrote on X, 'Since George Soros is Jewish and funds the radical left including the Pro-Hamas Protests breaking out on college campuses, thanks to Mike Lawler's new Antisemitism bill, college kids who speak out against Soros could be convicted of being Antisemitic.'... [Lawyer wrote in a Tweet,] '... #MoscowMarjorie has gone off the deep end -- may be the result of a space laser.'... PolitiFact fact-checked claims that Soros has funded the protest, writing, 'Soros' grant-making organization, Open Society Foundations, has awarded grants to two groups that the New York Post article linked to the demonstrations, but the connections between Soros' money and specific campus protesters had several degrees of separation.'"

The New York Times live-updated developments yesterday in the protests on U.S. college and university campuses.

Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. Top News in the New York Times, May 4, 2020: "President Trump predicted on Sunday night that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the country may reach as high as 100,000 in the United States, twice as many as he had forecast just two weeks ago, even as he pressed states to reopen the shuttered economy." MB: The actual number of recorded U.S. deaths from Covid -- so far -- is more than 1.1 million. ~~~

~~~ Better Than Bleach! I didn't know that Akhilleus was a scientist, but in yesterday's Comments he presented a proof that Donald Trump is not as smart as an orangutan. Bill Chappell of CNN: "When a wild orangutan in Indonesia suffered a painful wound to his cheek, he did something that stunned researchers: He chewed plant leaves known to have pain-relieving and healing properties, rubbed the juice on the open wound -- and then used the leaves as a poultice to cover his injury. 'This case represents the first known case of active wound treatment in a wild animal with a medical plant,' biologist Isabelle Laumer, the first author of a paper about the revelation, told NPR."

~~~~~~~~~~

Missouri. Adam Edelman of NBC News: "A proposed amendment to enshrine abortion access in Missouri's constitution cleared a key hurdle Friday to appear on the ballot this year after a coalition of reproductive rights advocates submitted the required number of valid signatures to state officials. Missourians for Constitutional Freedom ... announced it had collected signatures from more than 380,000 registered voters -- more than the approximately 172,000 it needed to move forward with the process of qualifying their proposal for the ballot."

South Dakota. "Hey, Where's Cricket?"Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "First, South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem wrote about killing her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, in her soon-to-be-released book, 'No Going Back.'... The scene of slaughter [during which Noem shot dead not only the young dog but also a buck goat] ends with Noem's kids getting off the school bus, and her daughter asking, 'Hey, where's Cricket?'... Then, over the course of three separate days, the Republican posted on social media about killing her dog -- a series of missives that ranged from book promotion to defensive explanation to, finally, blame-the-media spin. And on Wednesday, Noem appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News show, where the two devoted five minutes to Noem's late wirehair pointer, as a befuddled Hannity tried to give Noem -- who wrote about dragging her female dog out to a gravel pit and shooting her -- the benefit of the doubt.... In short, Noem just can't stop talking about killing her dog -- much to the collective confusion of horrified observers." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to reports, Noem's telling of her murderous domestic animal rampage was not framed as a confession but as a boast about her super-MAGA toughness, apparently in an effort to impress Donald Trump enough to tap her as his running mate.