September 8, 2022

Afternoon Update:

U.K. Queen Elizabeth II has died. The New York Times is liveblogging developments. ~~~

     ~~~ Elizabeth's New York Times obituary is here.

The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.

The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/VfxpXro22W

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) September 8, 2022

     ~~~ The Guardian's main story, is here. Currently, the front page of both the U.K. & U.S. edition have numerous related stories. ~~~

     ~~~ A statement by President Biden & First Lady Jill Biden is here.

** Perry Stein & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department said it would appeal a federal judge's decision to appoint a special master to sift through thousands of documents the FBI seized from Donald Trump's Florida residence on Aug. 8, according to a Thursday court filing.... The Justice Department wrote in a brief filing that it would be appealing the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In a separate, simultaneous court filing, prosecutors asked Cannon to stay her Sept. 5 decision on two key points: her order to temporarily halt a significant portion of the FBI investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, and to allow a special master to review the classified material that is among the documents seized as part of a court-authorized search at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club on Aug. 8.... Barring the FBI from using the classified material in the investigation 'could impede efforts to identify the existence of any additional classified records that are not being properly stored -- which itself presents the potential for ongoing risk to national security,' prosecutors wrote -- the first time they have suggested in court filings that there could be more unsecured classified material they have yet to find." Emphasis added. This story has been updated. ~~~

     ~~~ According to Andrew Weissmann, in an MSNBC appearance, DOJ lawyers explained very, very nicely to the judge why she didn't understand WTF she was doing. They not only explained in exquisite detail how she was endangering national security with her little concerns about Trump's "reputation," but also why you don't give a thief the opportunity to pick through the stolen goods to see what-all he might really, really want to keep. Marie: As for me, I still would have taken more of an Aileen-you-ignorant-slut approach.

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "A book by a former top federal prosecutor offers new details about how the Justice Department under ... Donald J. Trump a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/nyregion/geoffrey-berman-trump-book.html" target="_blank">sought to use the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan to support Mr. Trump politically and pursue his critics -- even pushing the office to open a criminal investigation of former secretary of state John Kerry. The prosecutor, Geoffrey S. Berman, was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for two and a half years until June 2020, when Mr. Trump fired him.... The book paints a picture of Justice Department officials motivated by partisan concerns in pursuing investigations or blocking them; in weighing how forthright to be in court filings; and in shopping investigations to other prosecutors' offices when the Southern District declined to act." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's second attorney general, William Barr, is stupid, a liar, a bully and a thug, according to a hard-hitting new book by Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the southern district of New York whose firing Barr engineered in hugely controversial fashion in summer 2020. 'Several hours after Barr and I met,' Berman writes, 'on a Friday night, [Barr] issued a press release saying that I was stepping down. That was a lie. A lie told by the nation's top law enforcement officer.'... Berman describes clashes on issues including the prosecution of Michael Cohen, Trump's former fixer, and the Halkbank investigation, concerning Turkish bankers and government officials helping Tehran circumvent the Iran nuclear deal." Read on.

Grifters Gotta Grift. DOJ Is Investigating Another Trump Scheme. Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "A federal grand jury in Washington is examining the formation of -- and spending by -- a super PAC created by Donald J. Trump after his loss in the 2020 election as he was raising millions of dollars by baselessly asserting that the results had been marred by widespread voting fraud. According to subpoenas issued by the grand jury, the contents of which were described to The New York Times, the Justice Department is interested in the inner workings of Save America PAC, Mr. Trump's main fund-raising vehicle after the election. Several similar subpoenas were sent on Wednesday to junior and midlevel aides who worked in the White House and for Mr. Trump's presidential campaign.... The new subpoenas appeared to have been issued by a different grand jury in Washington than the one that has been gathering evidence about the so-called fake electors plan...." The ABC News story, which broke the news, is here. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, Another Trumpy Grifter Is Charged. Chelsia Marcius, et al., of the New York Times: "Stephen K. Bannon, who once served as top adviser to ... Donald J. Trump, surrendered to the Manhattan district attorney's office on Thursday and was expected to face charges later in the day. The indictment, unsealed Thursday morning, charges Mr. Bannon with two felony counts of money laundering, two counts of conspiracy and a felony count of scheming to defraud in connection with his work with We Build the Wall Inc." The story has been updated. CNN's story is here.

Glenn Rifkin of the Washington Post: "Bernard Shaw, a journalist who left network TV in 1980 for the uncertainty of anchoring at the first 24-hour cable news network -- CNN -- and whose steady-under-missile-fire coverage from Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War helped elevate the outlet to global prominence, died Sept. 7 at a Washington-area hospital. He was 82." CNN's obituary is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

U.K. Caroline Davies of the Guardian: "Doctors have expressed concern for.. Queen [Elizabeth]'s health and recommended she remain under medical supervision, Buckingham Palace has said.... Concerns over the health of the 96-year-old head of state escalated when she pulled out of a virtual privy council meeting on Wednesday after doctors ordered her to rest. Prince Charles was at her side, and Prince William was travelling to be with her. A Clarence House spokesman said: 'Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have travelled to Balmoral.' A Kensington palace spokesman said: 'The Duke of Cambridge is travelling to Balmoral.'" CNN is portraying the situation as dire. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates are here.

Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times: On Wednesday, President Biden unveiled the official portraits of Barack & Michelle Obamas in the East Room of the White House. "The portraits, commissioned by the White House Historical Association, have been a well-kept secret, along with the identity of their artists: Robert McCurdy, who painted the former president, and Sharon Sprung, who painted the former first lady.... Mr. Obama praised the artists. 'I want to thank Sharon Sprung for capturing everything I love about Michelle: her grace, her intelligence and the fact that she's fine,' he said, to cheers. 'And I want to thank Robert McCurdy for taking on a much more difficult subject.' President Biden was joined by his wife, Jill, for the formal unveiling in the East Room, where they made clear their affection for the Obamas.... The portraits are typically unveiled during the first term of a president's immediate successor.... But Mr. Trump did not schedule the ceremony.... It is not clear whether Mr. Biden will decide to host an event for Mr. Trump when his portrait is ready. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, dodged the question at a briefing on Tuesday." A Politico report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, I think President Biden should hold the ceremony. In a commemorative White House basement closet labeled "The Mold Room -- Top Secret." And that's where the portraits should stay. ~~~

~~~ Eugene Scott & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "In her first White House visit since the end of Barack Obama's presidency, Michelle Obama spoke to the importance of honoring long-held traditions -- including upholding a democracy -- during the historic unveiling of the official Obama portraits, a custom that had been on hold during the Trump administration.... Michelle Obama used her moment from the podium to remind listeners of just how presidents are elected and how they ought to the leave the White House -- a thinly veiled swipe at [Donald] Trump and those who continue to support his false claims [that he won the 2020 election]. 'The people, they make their voices heard with their vote,' she said. 'We hold an inauguration to ensure a peaceful transition of power. Those of us lucky enough to serve work, as Barack said, as hard as we can for as long as we can, as long as the people choose to keep us here and once our time is up, we move on. And all that remains in this hallowed place are our good efforts.... Our democracy is so much stronger than our differences. And this little girl from the South Side is blessed beyond measure to have felt the truth of that fuller story throughout her entire life.'" ~~~

Video of full ceremony. President Biden begins speaking at about 5:45 min. in: ~~~

Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The Justice Department faces a complex and consequential decision this week: whether to appeal all, part or none of a court order requiring it to turn over to an independent arbiter materials seized last month from Donald J. Trump's home in Florida. The ruling, issued by Judge Aileen M. Cannon on Monday, is more likely to delay than derail the investigation into Mr. Trump's retention of highly classified documents belonging to the government.... The case presents the department with several tough calls, requiring a careful balance between the desires to speedily resolve the investigation and to limit an expansion of executive power espoused by Mr. Trump's team.... Department officials are expected to oppose the judge's call for the arbiter, known as a special master, by a midnight deadline on Friday. The question is whether they will mount a narrow approach geared at extracting relatively small concessions from the judge, to speed up the independent review, or if they plan a more comprehensive, riskier appeal to reverse what they see as a dangerous enhancement of presidential power. Over the past several days, senior officials at the department have been huddling to game out options." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I would begin the pleading with, "Aileen, you ignorant slut...." That should work.

Michael Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Wednesday, Rolling Stone reported that ... Donald Trump told White House officials that he would protect documents that he believed would expose the Russia investigation as a hoax and reveal a 'Deep State' conspiracy to destroy his presidency. 'At the end of his presidency, Trump and his team pushed to declassify these so-called "Russiagate" documents, believing they would expose a "Deep State" plot against him,' reported Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng. '... Trump told several people working in and outside the White House that he was concerned Joe Biden's incoming administration -- or the "Deep State" -- would supposedly "shred," bury, or destroy "the evidence" that Trump was somehow wronged.'"

Luke Broadwater & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Democrats and liberal groups, determined to find a way to bar ... Donald J. Trump from returning to office, are preparing a variety of ways to disqualify him, including drafting new legislation and readying a flurry of lawsuits seeking to use an obscure clause in the Constitution to brand him an insurrectionist. The plans amount to an extraordinarily long-shot effort to accomplish what multiple investigations of Mr. Trump have failed to do: foreclose any chance that the former president could regain power, whether voters want him to or not. They reflect the growing concern among Democrats and liberal activists seeking to find a way to end the political careers of the former president and the officials who helped him try to cling to the presidency, including through several new and in some cases arcane strategies.... The push gained momentum this week when a judge in New Mexico removed Couy Griffin from his post as commissioner of New Mexico's Otero County, branding him an insurrectionist for his participation in the Jan. 6 riot and for helping to spread the election lies that inspired it."

Adam Goldman & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors issued a subpoena to [William Russell,] a personal aide to ... Donald J. Trump[,] as part of the investigation into the events leading up to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, people familiar with the matter said. The move suggests that investigators have expanded the pool of people from whom they are seeking information in the wide-ranging criminal investigation into efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to reverse his loss in the 2020 election and that agents are reaching into the former president's direct orbit.... [Russell] continued to work for Mr. Trump ... after he left office...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Includes great photo of Russell, apparently in D.C., balancing a file box & thick file folder -- both of which look in danger of falling to the ground -- while towing a bunch of other stuff, including a suitcase, in his other hand. Would those files include some top-secret docs, Mr. Russell?

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "MAGA Republican leaders take umbrage at being accused of 'semi-fascism.'... It's just their taste in authoritarian figures skews toward the classics. They're old-school -- 1st century B.C. old. 'Hail, Caesar' goes down so much easier than 'Heil Hitler.' J.D. Vance, the Republican Senate nominee in Ohio, is one resident of this newly platted Caesarian section, as a recent profile in the Cleveland Plain Dealer showed. It referred to a year-old interview Vance gave on a far-right podcast in which he spoke approvingly of Curtis Yarvin, a self-proclaimed monarchist who argues for an American Julius Caesar to take power.... [A] former Trump adviser, Michael Anton, hosted a Claremont Institute podcast with Yarvin about the desirability of an 'American Caesar.'... For MAGA Republicans, all roads lead to Roman imperialism." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Picture Donald Trump in a toga. Please, Jupiter, save us.

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Chuck Schumer said the Senate would vote on legislation to protect same-sex marriage in the coming weeks, forcing Republicans to take a stance ahead of the midterm elections.... Schumer's announcement comes as Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are working to shore up the 10 GOP votes necessary to pass their bill to codify same-sex marriage.... Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the most vulnerable GOP incumbent, said recently he won't support the bill in its current form, despite saying earlier this summer he saw 'no reason to oppose' it.... The Senate push comes after the House passed legislation in July to protect same-sex marriage, with support from 47 House Republicans."

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Texas ruled Wednesday that the Affordable Care Act's process for determining what kinds of preventive care must be fully covered by private health insurance is unconstitutional, ramping up yet another legal battle over the 12-year-old law. The ruling, by Judge Reed O';Connor of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, could jeopardize millions of Americans' access to preventive services, including cancer screenings, alcohol abuse counseling and drugs that prevent H.I.V. infection. It does not take effect immediately, however, and legal experts said the Biden administration would almost certainly appeal. Judge O'Connor concluded that the Preventive Services Task Force -- a volunteer panel of experts that recommends what kinds of preventive care must be covered under the law -- violated the Constitution because its members are not appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate, yet its recommendations become binding. The ruling also took explicit aim at the H.I.V. drug regimen known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, saying the law's requirement that it be fully covered violated the religious freedom of a plaintiff in the case, Braidwood Management."

Marie: Yesterday, a contributor wrote that some prominent Americans, including "Justice" Sam Coathanger Alito, had signed up for the far-right paramilitary group Oath Keepers. I haven't found any printed confirmation of that. I've asked the contributor for a reliable source. I'll let you know. In the meantime, please keep an open mind. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: I have been working with the person who claimed that a number of famous politicians & three Supreme Court justices turned up on the Oath Keepers membership list, but so far I haven't come up with a thing that verifies these claims. At this point, I doubt it's true these individuals belong or belonged to Oath Keepers. My guess is that the site this contributor found was a hoax, but I could still be proved wrong.

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Anne Garrels, an international correspondent for NPR who reported from the front lines of major conflicts around the world, including during the American 'shock and awe' bombing of Baghdad in 2003, died on Wednesday at her home in Norfolk, Conn. She was 71." NPR's obituary for Garrels is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Jeremy Harlan of CNN: "Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who lost the GOP nomination for Colorado secretary of state earlier this year, pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges Wednesday afternoon, six months after a county grand jury indicted her following an election security breach investigation by local authorities. District Judge Matthew Barrett set Peters' trial for March 6, 2023."

Michigan. Ed White of the AP: "A judge on Wednesday struck down Michigan's 1931 anti-abortion law, months after suspending it, the latest development over abortion rights in a state where the issue is being argued in courtrooms and, possibly, at the ballot box. The law, which was long dormant before >the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, violates the Michigan Constitution, said Judge Elizabeth Gleicher. 'A law denying safe, routine medical care not only denies women of their ability to control their bodies and their lives -- it denies them of their dignity,' Gleicher of the Court of Claims wrote. 'Michigan's Constitution forbids this violation of due process.' The decision comes as the Michigan Supreme Court is considering whether to place a proposed amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot that would add abortion rights to the state constitution. A Friday deadline is looming. Supporters submitted more than 700,000 signatures, easily clearing the threshold. But a tie vote by the Board of State Canvassers over spacing issues on the petition has kept it off the ballot so far."

Bob Ortega, et al., of CNN: "The evening before Michigan's state primary, Wayne County GOP leaders held a Zoom training session for poll workers and partisan observers -- warning them about 'bad stuff happening' during the election and encouraging them to ignore local election rules barring cell phones and pens from polling places and vote-counting centers.... Some participants raised concerns about being tossed out if they broke the rules. 'That's why you got to do it secretly,' [Cheryl Costantino, the GOP county chairwoman and host of the call,] replied.... During the Wayne County training call..., the presumption that Democrats cheat -- thus justifying Republican rule-breaking -- permeated the discussion. It offers a snapshot of one of the ways Trump-backing, MAGA-minded conspiracy theorists are intervening in the election process across the country, sometimes encouraging poll workers or volunteer observers to violate election rules in hopes of finding evidence that Democrats might be doing the same. It's an approach election experts fear could spur chaos and conflict in November's mid-term elections and in 2024."

Nevada. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "A county official in Las Vegas was arrested on a murder charge on Wednesday, hours after the police searched his home in connection with the fatal stabbing of a reporter at The Las Vegas Review-Journal, the district attorney said. The official, Robert Telles, the Clark County public administrator, was taken into custody in the killing of the reporter, Jeff German, according to the Clark County district attorney, Steven B. Wolfson. Mr. Telles was wheeled out on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance after the police returned to his home in tactical gear, The Review-Journal reported.... Mr. Telles, a Democrat elected in 2018, lost a June primary after he was the focus of investigative stories by Mr. German, who detailed claims that Mr. Telles had presided over a hostile work environment and had engaged in an 'inappropriate relationship' with a staff member. Mr. Telles and the staff member denied the accusations." The AP's report is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday 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 Thursday are here: U.S. "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced $675 million in new weapons transfers to Kyiv at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, during a trip for the latest meeting of allied defense ministers supporting Ukraine. The delivery will deploy arms and munitions to Kyiv from U.S. Department of Defense inventories. The package includes more rounds for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems..., a U.S. official told The Washington Post earlier, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce $2 billion more in 'security assistance' to bolster Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including NATO allies and regional partners 'who are most potentially at risk for future Russian aggression,' the State Department added. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians including children have been interrogated, detained or forcibly deported to Russia, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the Security Council on Wednesday. She cited witness testimony and reporting from groups including Human Rights Watch. The State Department described the 'so-called filtration operations' as a Kremlin campaign to forcibly deport, disappear and imprison Ukrainians who it 'decides could be a potential threat' to its control."

News Lede

Guardian: "The fugitive wanted over a mass stabbing in Canada that killed 10 people and injured 18 has died in hospital after his arrest, police have confirmed, with sources saying his death was the result of self-inflicted wounds. Myles Sanderson went into 'medical distress' after his arrest and was taken to hospital where he died, Royal Canadian Mounted police assistant commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said in a press conference on Wednesday night. Police found a knife in the truck, which officers had rammed off the road into a ditch, but Blackmore would not comment on the cause of his death. Sources familiar with the situation earlier confirmed to the Guardian that Sanderson died shortly after being taken into custody, after police rammed his stolen vehicle. They said he had died as a result of self-inflicted injuries. Police sources gave similar accounts to Canadian media outlet Global News and Associated Press."

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."