The Conversation -- May 17, 2024

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times has recounted the news from Thursday's meeting of the House Oversight Committee and Permanent Select Fight Club, a short clip of which is embedded below. My favorite part of the exchange of ideas -- which you can hear in the video -- is this: “The fighting continued, but Ms. Crockett was not about to allow Ms. Greene’s original insult to go unanswered. Couching her own jab in a procedural question allowed under committee rules, Ms. Crockett inquired of Mr. Comer: 'I’m just curious, just to better understand your ruling: If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?' 'A what now?' Mr. Comer said.”

Marie: Did Michael Cohen lie in his testimony this week as Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche tried to show? According to this analysis by Aaron Blake of the Washington Post, it doesn't look that way to me. Cohen, in direct testimony, had relied on reconstructions -- based on phone logs, texts and documents -- that prosecutors had presented to him during interviews & trial prep. If the conversation he recalled in direct testimony took place at a different time or was very brief, it really doesn't matter. Moreover, as Blake notes, "The importance of the Oct. 24 phone call is debatable." Of course it will be up to prosecutors to rehabilitate Cohen on this point, and it does seem the possible error might have been at least partially their faults. But it wasn't a lie, IMO, and it wasn't a knockout punch, either. Prosecutors should be able to clean up Cohen's testimony in redirect.

Danny Hakim & Rowan Gerety of the New York Times: “John Eastman, a lawyer who advised Donald J. Trump’s 2020 election campaign, was arraigned in Phoenix on Friday on state criminal charges that he helped try to keep Mr. Trump in power after he lost the last presidential election. Mr. Eastman is the first of 18 defendants to come before a judge in the Arizona case, which was brought by Kris Mayes, the state attorney general. Mr. Eastman faces charges of fraud, forgery and conspiracy.... In Phoenix, Mr. Eastman appeared in a cramped basement courtroom with a glass-walled holding cell on one side, where defendants awaiting arraignment in other cases wore shackles and orange jumpsuits. The arraignment of Mr. Eastman, who wore a blue suit, lasted less than three minutes. A judge read him his rights, and state prosecutors, citing his compliance, did not ask for any conditions to be imposed on his release pending trial.” Eastman pleaded not guilty.

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Glenn Thrush & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “President Biden has asserted executive privilege to deny House Republicans access to recordings of his interview with a special counsel investigating his handling of government documents, Justice Department officials and the White House counsel said on Thursday. The move is intended to shield Attorney General Merrick B. Garland from prosecution if House Republicans succeed in their effort to hold him in contempt for refusing to turn over audio of Mr. Biden’s conversations with the special counsel, Robert K. Hur.... 'It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege cannot be prosecuted for criminal contempt of Congress,' Carlos F. Uriarte, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, wrote in a letter to Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio ... and Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky....” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated: “Later on Thursday, two House committees voted along party lines to recommend holding Mr. Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with their subpoenas demanding the recordings. The Judiciary Committee approved its resolution against Mr. Garland first, 18 to 15. The Oversight Committee postponed its own vote until the evening because so many of its members had traveled to New York to support Mr. Trump at his criminal trial there. After a lengthy night session marred by an unusually high volume of personal attacks and other antics, the Republican-led panel voted 24 to 20 to join the Judiciary Committee in recommending a contempt charge.... Approval [by the full House] is not certain, given Republicans’ narrow majority and intraparty divisions, congressional aides said.” ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “The usually raucous House Oversight Committee managed to outdo itself on Thursday night, as members got personal with one another.... During the hearing, trouble began when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) asked if any Democratic committee members employ the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York. Merchan’s daughter works for a political consulting firm whose services Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) – who sits on the committee – has enlisted. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) asked Greene what relevance her question had. After some crosstalk, Greene commented about Crockett’s 'fake eyelashes,' which ignited the tinderbox and prompted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to demand Chairman James Comer (R-KY) order Greene’s words be 'taken down,' or expunged from the record[.]... Comer ruled that Greene’s words would not be taken down. Greene also attacked Ocasio-Cortez, calling her 'not intelligent.'” MB: All in all, I'd say Miss Margie bit off more than she could chew. ~~~

GOP House Members Take a Field Trip to the Courthouse. Annie Karni of the New York Times: “The House was in session at the Capitol on Thursday, but thanks to the latest procession of Republicans reporting for duty in front of a Manhattan criminal courthouse to show support for ... Donald J. Trump at his trial, the party risked ceding its control of the floor. Almost a dozen House Republicans showed up at the courthouse on Thursday, including hard-right rabble rousers like Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida; Anna Paulina Luna of Florida; Lauren Boebert of Colorado; and Bob Good of Virginia. They said they were there to speak on behalf of Mr. Trump because a gag order had barred him from speaking for himself.... Paul Kane, a reporter for The Washington Post, posted on social media that the large number of Republican absences could allow Democrats to 'pull some hijinks,' such as calling a motion to adjourn and shutting down the chamber all together.... Top Republicans had already changed at least one element of the House schedule to accommodate the G.O.P. field trip. The Oversight Committee postponed a meeting scheduled for Thursday morning to vote on holding Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general, in contempt of Congress, rescheduling it for 8 p.m.” ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, the Irony. Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post : “... as Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.) pilloried the White House and the Justice Department [for politicizing the justice system], their committees were hobbled by attendance problems: At least five members were in New York on Thursday morning, standing behind ... Donald Trump at his criminal trial and inserting themselves, and their political views, into the same justice system the two chairmen claimed to be defending from politicization.... The band of pro-Trump lawmakers held an impromptu news conference on the steps of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, where they criticized New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and other participants in the proceedings.” MB: But IOKIYAR.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: “Donald J. Trump’s lawyers on Thursday took their best shot at Michael D. Cohen, the star witness in the former president’s criminal trial in Manhattan, grilling Mr. Cohen about a medley of misrepresentations, manipulations and outright lies. Seeking to destroy Mr. Cohen’s credibility, a defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, portrayed him as an unrepentant criminal and a serial deceiver who took the stand only to exact revenge on Mr. Trump.... While [Mr. Blanche] did not call into question key elements of the prosecution’s case, he wearied Mr. Cohen.... Mr. Cohen, a self-described former 'thug' for Mr. Trump who oscillates between defiance and charm, bent on the stand, but did not break.... Some of Mr. Blanche’s attacks meandered, and some Mr. Cohen easily turned aside. The questioning drew more than a dozen prosecution objections that the judge sustained and prompted a handful of sidebar conferences at the judge’s bench. The interruptions gave a disjointed feeling to a high-stakes confrontation.”

Texts, Lies and Videotape. Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post pose some takeways from yesterday's cross-examination of Michael Cohen.

We were back in downtown Manhattan Thursday with New York Times reporters who liveblogged the proceedings in the Manhattan District Attorney's criminal case against Donald Trump. For details, see yesterday's Conversation.

Elsewhere in Downtown Manhattan. Benjamin Weiser & Maya Coleman of the New York Times: “With the corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey underway on Thursday, a prosecutor handed a juror in the first row of the jury box a plastic bag containing an object at the heart of the government’s case: a gold bar that glinted under the courtroom lights. One by one, jurors held the bag, turning it over in their hands and feeling its weight before passing it to their neighbor.... The prosecutor, Lara Pomerantz, soon handed jurors another bag containing several gold bars. But before she could hand over a third, the judge, Sidney H. Stein, said the jury 'has gotten a feel for the weight of gold.'... On Thursday, the senator revealed that [his wife, who is also charged but is being tried separately,] was being treated for breast cancer and was preparing to undergo a mastectomy and possible radiation treatment.... On Thursday morning, lawyers for the senator’s co-defendants [who are being tried with Mr. Menendez]..., portrayed their clients as friends of the couple whose innocent acts of generosity were being unfairly cast by prosecutors as criminal.” A related NJ.com story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I suppose those of us who don't have friends who give us gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash just don't have very good friends.

Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: “In one of its biggest steps yet to keep fossil fuels in the ground, the Biden administration announced Thursday that it will end new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, which produces nearly half the coal in the United States. Climate activists have long pushed the Interior Department to stop auctioning off leases for coal mining on public lands, and they celebrated the decision. It could prevent billions of tons of coal from being extracted from more than 13 million acres across Montana and Wyoming, with major implications for U.S. climate goals. A significant share of the nation’s fossil fuels come from federal lands and waters. The extraction and combustion of these fuels accounted for nearly a quarter of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions between 2005 and 2014, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link. NPR's story emphasizes the controversy over the move.

Molly Nagle & Luke Barr of ABC News: "The Biden administration announced Thursday that it's officially moving forward with a proposal to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. The Justice Department submitted the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to the Office of the Federal Register and, if approved, the rescheduling would limit the punishment for those who are in possession of marijuana when it comes to a federal crime. The proposal is subject to a 60-day public comment period. After that, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration can assign an administrative law judge to consider the evidence and make a final scheduling recommendation[.]

** Alito Denigrates U.S. Flag, Violates Ethics Code, Blames Wife. Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: “After the 2020 presidential election, as some Trump supporters falsely claimed that President Biden had stolen the office, many of them displayed a startling symbol outside their homes, on their cars and in online posts: an upside-down American flag. One of the homes flying an inverted flag during that time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in Alexandria, Va., according to photographs and interviews with neighbors. The upside-down flag was aloft on Jan. 17, 2021, the images showed.... Donald J. Trump’s supporters, including some brandishing the same symbol, had rioted at the Capitol a little over a week before. Mr. Biden’s inauguration was three days away. Alarmed neighbors snapped photographs, some of which were recently obtained by The New York Times. Word of the flag filtered back to the court, people who worked there said in interviews.

“While the flag was up, the court was still contending with whether to hear a 2020 election case, with Justice Alito on the losing end of that decision. In coming weeks, the justices will rule on two climactic cases involving the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, including whether Mr. Trump has immunity for his actions. Their decisions will shape how accountable he can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election and his chances for re-election in the upcoming one.... Judicial experts said in interviews that the flag was a clear violation of ethics rules, which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias.... The court has also repeatedly warned its own employees against public displays of partisan views, according to guidelines circulated to the staff....” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) A derivative AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As is the fashion these days among Washington's elite (alleged!) corrupt criminals, Alito blamed the Little Missus: He emailed the Times: “I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.” And it does seem the Times obtained corroborating evidence that Sam is telling the truth: “Interviews show that the justice’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, had been in a dispute with another family on the block over an anti-Trump sign on their law.” For decades, I've felt sorry for Martha-Ann for having hitched her wagon to Insufferable Sam. I don't feel sorry for her anymore.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court rejected a challenge on Thursday to the way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded, one that could have hobbled the bureau and advanced a central goal of the conservative legal movement: limiting the power of independent agencies. The vote was 7 to 2, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing the majority opinion.... The central question in the case was whether the way Congress chose to fund the bureau had violated the appropriations clause of the Constitution, which says that 'no money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.' Justice Thomas said the mechanism was constitutional.... Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, dissented.” MB: Because of course they did. (Also linked yesterday.) The ABC News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Ian Millhiser of Vox explains: "The Supreme Court delivered a firm and unambiguous rebuke to some of America’s most reckless judges on Thursday, ruling those judges were wrong to declare an entire federal agency unconstitutional in a decision that threatened to trigger a second Great Depression." ~~~

     ~~~ Matt Naham of Law & Crime: Sam “Alito appealed to English history and the American founding to buttress his conclusion that majority strayed from the proper path at the expense of the legislative branch.... Alito, who recently wondered during Donald Trump’s 'immunity' arguments whether a president has the power to issue a self-pardon, asserted it was reasonable to say that the agency has powers that would make 'a Stuart king' envious. 'It is not an exaggeration to say that the CFPB enjoys a degree of financial autonomy that a Stuart king would envy,' Alito wrote, arguing that the funding mechanism 'blatantly attempts to circumvent the Constitution.'” MB: Not sure why Alito seems to disparage the Stuarts when he's such a fan of witch-hangin' Sir Matthew Hale, knighted & made Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench by Charles II, a Stuart king.

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Alabama. Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: “Not content to prevent women from obtaining abortions in his own state, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is doing his best to prevent them from traveling to states where the procedure remains legal. Fortunately, a federal judge just ruled that the Constitution won’t let him. Unfortunately, we might have more of this kind of zealotry heading our way. Marshall’s antiabortion fervor illustrates one of the many shortcomings of the leave-it-to-the-states approach endorsed by, among others..., Donald Trump.... Marshall threatened to prosecute anyone who helped Alabama women obtain abortions elsewhere, asserting that could amount to a 'criminal conspiracy' under state law.... In a ruling on May 6..., U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson, a Jimmy Carter appointee, declined Marshall’s bid to ... [prosecute] organizations and individuals who provide funding and advice to women seeking abortions out of state..., saying the threat violated the constitutional rights to travel and to freedom of speech.”

California. Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post : “The president of a public university in California was placed on administrative leave, officials said Wednesday, one day after he’d sent a message announcing that the school had promised pro-Palestinian protesters a review of its investments and an 'academic boycott' of educational programs connected to Israeli institutions. Sonoma State University President Ming-Tung 'Mike' Lee did not have 'appropriate approvals' to send the campuswide message outlining the agreement with students who had been protesting at a pro-Palestinian encampment, Cal State Chancellor Mildred García said in a statement.” Politico's story is here.

Florida. Ian Livingston of the Washington Post: “Scorching temperatures set numerous records across South Florida on Wednesday, and historically hot conditions for mid-May will persist through the weekend. On Wednesday, Key West ... register[ed] a heat index of 115 — matching the highest mark on record for any time of year. The record heat comes after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday signed a bill scrubbing most references to climate change from state law. Critics say the measure, which will take effect July 1, ignores the threats Florida faces from extreme heat as well as powerful hurricanes and worsening toxic algae blooms.... This brutal combination of heat and humidity has little precedent in May.”

New York. Daniel Douglas-Gabriel & Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post : “A group of undergraduate faculty members at Columbia University declared with a vote on Thursday that they have no confidence in President Minouche Shafik, accusing her of violating academic freedom and students’ rights in her handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus. While the action has no legal impact, it signals to trustees, who have voiced strong support for Shafik, that the university leader has lost the support of some professors. The faculty who voted are in the school of Arts and Sciences, which is the largest of Columbia’s 21 schools and serves the most students. The motion was introduced by faculty who serve on the board of Columbia’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Of the 709 faculty who cast a vote, 65 percent supported the motion, 29 percent were against it and 6 percent chose to abstain.”

North Carolina. Makiya Seminera of the AP: "Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are pushing forward with their plan to repeal a pandemic-era law that allowed the wearing of masks in public for health reasons, a move spurred in part by demonstrations against the war in Gaza that have included masked protesters camped out on college campuses. The legislation cleared the Senate on Wednesday in a 30-15 vote along party lines despite several attempts by state Senate Democrats to change the bill. The bill, which would raise penalties for someone who wears a mask while committing a crime, including arrested protesters, could still be altered as it heads back to the House. Opponents of the bill say it risks the health of those masking for safety reasons.... Legislative staff said during a Tuesday committee that masking for health purposes would violate the law." Thanks to RAS for the lead.

Texas. They Shoot Protesters, Don't They? David Goodman of the New York Times: “Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Thursday pardoned a man who was convicted of fatally shooting a protester during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in the summer of 2020, fulfilling a promise he made last year amid pressure from conservatives. The decision immediately followed a pardon recommendation from the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles, whose members are appointed by the governor. Lawyers for the man, Daniel S. Perry, argued that he had acted in self-defense against the protester, who was carrying an AK-47-style rifle. Mr. Perry was sentenced to 25 years in prison in an emotional hearing last year in which prosecutors presented evidence of racist online comments he had made and said that psychological experts had found him to be 'basically a loaded gun.' As the pardons board considered the case, lawyers with the Travis County district attorney, José Garza, met with the board to argue against a pardon.” The Texas Tribune story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to a facsimile of the pardon itself, which accompanies the Times story, Abbott granted "a full pardon and restoration of full civil rights of citizenship." I assume that means that the “basically loaded gun” -- a/k/a Daniel Perry -- will be able to wield his firearms again today.

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: “U.S. military personnel have begun moving aid to Gaza using a makeshift pier afloat off the Palestinian territory’s coastline. U.S. Central Command said aid trucks started moving into the Palestinian enclave early Friday using a temporary pier, adding that no U.S. troops went ashore to Gaza. It said the effort to deliver supplies through a maritime corridor 'will involve aid commodities donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organizations.'... At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Israel is set to respond to South Africa’s accusations that the Israeli assault on Rafah and closure of key crossings into Gaza aim to destroy 'the essential foundations of Palestinian life.' South Africa asked the court to order Israel to cease all military operations there, while Israel’s Foreign Ministry called South Africa’s claims 'biased and false.' Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that additional troops will join Israel’s operation in Rafah and that it would 'intensify.' Nearly 600,000 people have fled Rafah in southern Gaza, according to the United Nations, including about 150,000 in the past few days.”

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “The House on Thursday passed a bill that would rebuke President Biden for pausing an arms shipment to Israel and compel his administration to quickly deliver those weapons, in a largely symbolic vote engineered by the G.O.P. to spotlight the left’s divisions over Israel’s conduct of its offensive against Hamas. The legislation has no chance of moving ahead. White House officials said the president would veto it, and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said it was 'not going anywhere' in the Senate. But it had its intended effect of splintering Democrats: 16 of them joined Republicans in favor of legislation that condemned their own president’s administration. The measure passed 224 to 187.” Reuters' story is here.

The Conversation -- May 16, 2024

** Unfuckingbelievable. Alito Denigrates U.S. Flag, Violates Ethics Code. Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: “After the 2020 presidential election, as some Trump supporters falsely claimed that President Biden had stolen the office, many of them displayed a startling symbol outside their homes, on their cars and in online posts: an upside-down American flag. One of the homes flying an inverted flag during that time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in Alexandria, Va., according to photographs and interviews with neighbors. The upside-down flag was aloft on Jan. 17, 2021, the images showed.... Donald J. Trump’s supporters, including some brandishing the same symbol, had rioted at the Capitol a little over a week before. Mr. Biden’s inauguration was three days away. Alarmed neighbors snapped photographs, some of which were recently obtained by The New York Times. Word of the flag filtered back to the court, people who worked there said in interviews.

“While the flag was up, the court was still contending with whether to hear a 2020 election case, with Justice Alito on the losing end of that decision. In coming weeks, the justices will rule on two climactic cases involving the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, including whether Mr. Trump has immunity for his actions. Their decisions will shape how accountable he can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election and his chances for re-election in the upcoming one.... Judicial experts said in interviews that the flag was a clear violation of ethics rules, which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias.... The court has also repeatedly warned its own employees against public displays of partisan views, according to guidelines circulated to the staff....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As is the fashion these days among Washington's elite (alleged!) corrupt criminals, Alito blamed the Little Missus: He emailed the Times: “I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.” And it does seem the Times obtained corroborating evidence that Sam is telling the truth: “Interviews show that the justice’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, had been in a dispute with another family on the block over an anti-Trump sign on their law.” For decades, I've felt sorry for Martha-Ann for having hitched her wagon to Insufferable Sam. I don't feel sorry for her anymore.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court rejected a challenge on Thursday to the way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded, one that could have hobbled the bureau and advanced a central goal of the conservative legal movement: limiting the power of independent agencies. The vote was 7 to 2, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing the majority opinion.... The central question in the case was whether the way Congress chose to fund the bureau had violated the appropriations clause of the Constitution, which says that 'no money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.' Justice Thomas said the mechanism was constitutional.... Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, dissented.” MB: Because of course they did.

Glenn Thrush & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “President Biden has asserted executive privilege to deny House Republicans access to recordings of his interview with a special counsel investigating his handling of government documents, Justice Department officials and the White House counsel said on Thursday. The move is intended to shield Attorney General Merrick B. Garland from prosecution if House Republicans succeed in their effort to hold him in contempt for refusing to turn over audio of Mr. Biden’s conversations with the special counsel, Robert K. Hur.... 'It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege cannot be prosecuted for criminal contempt of Congress,' Carlos F. Uriarte, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, wrote in a letter to Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio ... and Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky....”

We're back in downtown Manhattan with New York Times reporters who are liveblogging the proceedings in the Manhattan District Attorney's criminal case against Donald Trump:

Maggie Haberman: “Trump has walked into the courtroom, trailed by his son Eric, his lawyers, and Republican members of the House of Representatives, including Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz. The entourage is so large today that some people are being made to sit in the back. Others had to leave and go to Trump’s hold room.” [MB: Yea! All the best people!]

Jonah Bromwich: “Outside in the hallway, before entering the courtroom, Trump seemed to potentially violate the gag order that forbids him from talking about prosecutors in the case, other than Alvin Bragg. He made what sounded like a reference to Matthew Colangelo, one of the prosecutors here, saying, 'a lead person from the D.O.J. is running the trial,' and baselessly adding, 'So Biden’s office is running this trial.' Colangelo used to work at the Department of Justice, and Trump has used similar language to describe him in the past.... A very long sidebar is finally over. We do not know what it was about, but the jurors were summoned almost 18 minutes late this morning....

“The judge just told the jurors that, if they are OK with it, court may be in session next Wednesday, despite the fact that the trial is usually off on Wednesdays. This suggests that the prosecutors and the defense were quibbling over the calendar [during the long sidebar]. The defense sought to delay the trial many times before it started, and Trump has complained that it was going too fast....

“Todd Blanche began questioning Michael Cohen about his texts with an investigator with the Manhattan district attorney's office, Jeremy Rosenberg, who was reportedly suspended for his interactions with Cohen. Blanche was going to ask Cohen about those texts, but Susan Hoffinger, one of the prosecutors, stood up and asked for a mid-cross voir dire, so she could question Cohen about the evidence in the middle of his cross-examination.... When she established that the texts had been taken out of context, she called for a sidebar. Her objection was sustained, so Blanche may be prevented from doing what he was trying to do with these texts.

“Cohen says that he learned that Trump was indicted before the indictment was unsealed in the courtroom, when The New York Times broke that news in 2023. He says Rosenberg alerted him to that article.”

Jesse McKinley: “In the overflow room, laughter is heard as Justice Merchan shoots down Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer. Blanche asked for a sidebar and got a dismissive 'no' from Merchan.”

Bromwich: “We are now hearing a recording of Michael Cohen celebrating Trump's indictment on his podcast. His voice is loud, over-energized, enthusiastic to the point of seeming off-putting.”

Haberman: “Todd Blanche plays a second clip of Michael Cohen from his podcast, in which he says he hopes 'that this man ends up in prison,' and 'revenge is a dish best served cold,' and 'you better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family.'”

Bromwich: “Michael Cohen is asked if he responded to a post on Truth Social, Trump's social media platform, in which Trump attacked Cohen and Stormy Daniels. He responds: 'I’m not on Truth Social, sir.' But when asked if he responded elsewhere by calling Trump 'dumbass Donald,' he agrees that he did.”

Haberman: “Todd Blanche is now having Michael Cohen recall the lies he told to Congress about how many times he spoke to Trump about a possible Trump Tower project in Moscow. Blanche’s goal is to show the jury Cohen is opportunistic even under oath. However, these were lies that Cohen has said he told to protect Trump.... So far today, Todd Blanche has yet to ask Michael Cohen about anything in connection to the actual case that's on trial.... Todd Blanche is now focusing on Michael Cohen’s guilty plea in August 2018, and gets Cohen to say that he 'never denied the underlying facts' of the plea, and that he simply thought he shouldn’t have been charged. Blanche then asks if prosecutors pressured him to plead guilty, and Cohen says his lawyer conveyed that he had only 48 hours to decide....

“Todd Blanche is now asking about the F.B.I. search of Michael Cohen’s phones and his hotel room and office in April 2018, and the investigation into taxi medallions that Cohen had. Cohen walks through his partnership with a man who cooperated with the investigation, coherently. The jurors are paying close attention to Cohen right now.... This is a delicate moment for Michael Cohen, and the prosecution. This case largely rests on Cohen tying Trump to knowledge of how the false business records at the center of the case were structured. Todd Blanche is creating a portrait of Cohen as an indiscriminate liar who changes his story situationally.”

Jonathan Swan: “Todd Blanche is seeking to show the jury that Michael Cohen has not fully taken responsibility for his crimes and still blames a range of people, quite implausibly, for being corrupt. The irony is that by showing that Cohen lashing out at the judge and prosecutors, Blanche is making him sound a lot like his former boss, arnd Blanche’s current client, Donald Trump.”

Bromwich: “Todd Blanche continues to press his complicated point, about what Michael Cohen has said about his previous guilty pleas. Blanche notes that Cohen was asked if he lied because the stakes affected him personally. Cohen says yes.... As Blanche continues to hammer home what Cohen says were his lies to a federal judge, a prosecutor objects several times. The judge sustains the objections.”

Haberman: “Blanche asks Cohen about blaming a lot of people for the conduct for which he was convicted. Cohen freely acknowledges he has.”

Bromwich: “Todd Blanche is now going over the complex financial transactions that allowed Michael Cohen to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels, perhaps the closest he’s gotten to the subject matter of this particular case all day. He notes that Cohen hid those transactions from his wife, apparently seeking to call into question whether Cohen was really as concerned about his family — and his wife — as he suggested when explaining his federal guilty plea....

“Blanche just asked Cohen about a number of different events, including an exchange of public statements with Michael Avenatti, one of Stormy Daniels's lawyers, and conversations with his wife. He ended by asking Cohen if he had deleted his communications with his wife around that time, and Cohen seemed genuinely stumped. Then Blanche asks if Cohen, around this time, had taken to deleting his texts more generally.... The defense is trying to suggest that Cohen has a history of manipulating the types of phone records that prosecutors have used here to bolster their case.... Todd Blanche seems to have seized on another lie: Michael Cohen had testified years ago that he had never asked for a pardon, but testifies here today — as he did in a deposition — that he did, in fact, direct his lawyers to explore the possibility of a pardon.... Blanche says that Cohen has explained the distance between the two statements in different ways. At one point, under oath, he said that he had not explored a pardon, his lawyers had. At another point, also apparently under oath, he said that that the seeming disparity stemmed from a semantic distinction between the past and present tenses.”

Swan: “Todd Blanche is demonstrating that Cohen told lies, big and small, over a long period of time and for various reasons.”

Haberman: “At the same time, prosecutors have and will demonstrate in closing arguments that Trump has told lies, big and small, about a number of people and issues in this case....” [Morning break.]

“Todd Blanche is questioning Michael Cohen about his efforts, which began soon after he went to prison, to have his sentence reduced based on his cooperation with prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert Mueller.... It’s not clear that the jury is going to hold it against him that he tried to shorten his prison sentence and supervised release....

“Todd Blanche is now asking Michael Cohen if he wanted a job in the Trump White House. Cohen testified to the House in 2019 that he didn’t want one. But other witnesses, like Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels's former lawyer, have testified that Cohen was interested and sad he was being left behind.... Blanche is now asking Cohen about texts in which he discussed the possibility of being White House chief of staff.”

Bromwich: “Though none of the texts were definitive, there were a lot of them, and they do clearly show that Cohen was at least interested in the idea. When Reince Priebus was finally named chief of staff, Cohen told his daughter he was disappointed, Blanche shows. Cohen admits here that he was disappointed.... Cohen responds: 'I wanted a hybrid position, one where I would have the access to President Trump but not be a White House employee.' It’s a helpful answer for prosecutors, underscoring, as they have said, that Cohen was bent on being close to Trump.”

Haberman: “Blanche is making clear that Cohen was less than candid when he said he didn’t want a job, as he walks through all the people to whom Cohen complained about being left behind. But it underscores a theme that’s been true for awhile — one I wrote about first in 2018 and repeatedly since — that Trump went out of his way to abuse Cohen.”

Bromwich: “Todd Blanche is now asking about an embarrassing episode for Michael Cohen, who used an artificial intelligence program to generate legal citations for his previous lawyer. The cases listed by the software were not real cases.”

Susanne Craig: “This made headlines, and was, as Jonah noted, embarrassing. But Cohen just explained what happened calmly, and I think it took some of the sting out of it.”

Bromwich: “Todd Blanche has brought up a phone call that Michael Cohen talked about during direct testimony, when he spoke to Trump over Trump’s bodyguard’s cellphone. Cohen said that during this conversation, he told Trump that the payment to Stormy Daniels had been made. Blanche is trying to cast doubt on that account, saying it was the first time that Cohen had discussed this call.... Todd Blanche has initiated a long sequence of questioning about whether Michael Cohen received harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old prankster in October 2016. He appears to be hoping to suggest an alternative reason for Michael Cohen's call to Keith Schiller, Trump’s bodyguard.... As expected, Blanche has now suggested that Cohen was not, in fact, telling Trump about his plans to make the hush money payment to Trump but instead, simply reporting that he was being pranked by a teenager.... Todd Blanche, who is agitated, is seeking to set up a moment in which the jurors will have to choose whether to believe Cohen, who continues to say that during a relatively brief phone call, he both informed Trump's bodyguard of the teenage prankster and discussed the hush-money payment he planned to make to Stormy Daniels. It’s a really interesting moment, and that’s where we leave the trial for now. The jurors are excused for their lunch break.”

Swan: “Todd Blanche is trying to get Michael Cohen to say that while working for Trump, he gave statements to reporters without checking in with his boss. Cohen is refusing to concede this, and says that he would always talk to Trump about every story.... Blanche is drawing out Michael Cohen about his relationships with reporters over the years. Blanche gets Cohen to admit that he serially recorded reporters without their knowledge, including our colleague Maggie Haberman. Blanche also gets Cohen to say that he sent a recording of somebody else to Haberman as she was reporting a story.”

Bromwich: “Todd Blanche ... is asking Michael Cohen how he can have specific memories of phone calls that he conducted eight years ago. Cohen responds that the reason he remembers them is because he’s been talking about the conversations for six years.... Michael Cohen had previously testified that in June 2016, he was negotiating with The National Enquirer and Karen McDougal over her story about having had an affair with Trump. On the stand now, as Todd Blanche digs in about whether he can remember a specific call from that year, Cohen is insisting that seeing prosecutors’ other evidence has jogged his memory about calls he had back then.”

Swan: “Todd Blanche is now showing the hush-money contract that Michael Cohen struck with Stormy Daniels. He gets Cohen to agree it’s a 'perfectly legal contract.' He’s raising his voice to emphasize this point — to try to make the jury feel like this arrangement was business as usual.”

Bromwich: “Todd Blanche is now trying to undermine the close relationship Michael Cohen said he had with Trump himself. He is asking whether Cohen did legal work not only for Trump, but also for his family and the Trump Organization. Then Blanche notes that Cohen did not have a legal retainer to do this work.”

Swan: “Todd Blanche is now getting Michael Cohen to admit he lied to reporters in early 2018 and also secretly recorded conversations with reporters about Trump’s involvement in the hush-money payment.”

Haberman: “Todd Blanche ... elicited testimony from Cohen on the second day of cross-examination portraying him as a liar who engaged in shady practices with people he dealt with across the board.... Justice Merchan stops early, as Todd Blanche says he’s moving to another area.”

Swan: “Todd Blanche tells Justice Merchan that he expects to be done with the cross-examination of Michael Cohen by the morning break on Monday. Which means by roughly 11 a.m.”

Bromwich: “Blanche also says it’s not clear yet whether Trump will testify in his own defense. Merchan takes away from this that the charging conference will be on Monday and asks both sides to be prepared to deliver their closing arguments on Tuesday.... The defense lawyers also alerted the judge that if they were to put on a witness or witnesses, it wouldn’t take very long. They did not name any potential witnesses in particular besides Trump, who they said had yet to decide whether he would testify. But the judge, operating off the defense lawyers' comments, felt it appropriate to warn both sides to be ready for closing arguments on Tuesday. That could mean the case will go to the jury as early as next week.”

Slovakia. Bela Szandelszky, et al., of the AP: “The Slovak interior minister said Thursday that a 'lone wolf' has been charged in the shooting that seriously wounded Prime Minister Robert Fico and prompted soul-searching among leaders in the deeply divided society. Fico was in serious but stable condition Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit multiple times in an attempt on his life that shook the small country and reverberated across the continent weeks before European elections. President-elect Peter Pellegrini visited Fico in the hospital and spoke to him but said that his condition 'remains very serious.'”

~~~~~~~~~~

Summer Concepcion of NBC News: “Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, argued that President Joe Biden should have pardoned Donald Trump after the Justice Department brought indictments against the former president and pressured New York prosecutors not to pursue Trump's ongoing hush money trial.... Romney expressed his dismay in response to Republican lawmakers, including the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s vice presidential prospects, rallying to Trump’s defense outside the Manhattan courthouse where Trump’s hush money trial is taking place.... Romney, a vocal critic of Trump, said, 'I think it’s a terrible fault for our country to see people attacking our legal system — that’s an enormous mistake. I think it’s also demeaning for people to quite apparently try and run for vice president by donning a red tie and standing outside the courthouse. It's just — I'd have felt awkward.'” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: “So not only should Biden issue a blanket pardon [to] Trump to create a de facto presidential immunity (albeit one that obviously will not be honored for Democratic presidents), total presidential immunity is so important that he should also interfere with state prosecutions to uphold it! Fighting Trumpism with Trumpism, apparently. At least Romney isn’t one of the Republicans pulling the 'he can’t be impeached because he can be prosecuted and he can’t be prosecuted because he can be impeached' shell game, but it’s still pretty grim.”

Marie: Way back Wednesday morning Judd Legum was reminding us that Justice Juan “Merchan's order prohibits Trump from 'directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses.” (Okay, I never forgot.) As Legum noted, “Many of Trump's surrogates appear to be speaking from a common script,” so it was pretty obvious that somebody was coordinating and directing the Trumpiclones' remarks. Besides, does anybody think that Senator Potato Head could be counted on to say the right thing under his own volition? Of course not. In fact, when asked by a Newsmax host if he was speaking “to go against the gag order and intimidate witnesses because Trump can’t,” Tuberville answered, “Yes, sir.” ~~~

     ~~~ So Now. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “New York Magazine contributing editor Andrew Rice claimed on Tuesday that he spotted ... Donald Trump 'editing' and 'making notations' to the speeches his allies then made outside of the courtroom during his hush money trial in New York.... 'Before or after?' asked MSNBC host Chris Hayes, to which Rice replied, 'While testimony was going on. While Michael Cohen was testifying against him, he was actually ... going through and annotating and editing the quotes that these people were going to say.'” On MSNBC Wednesday afternoon, Andrew Weissmann said Justice Merchan was unlikely to raise the issue on his own, so it would be up to the prosecutors if they wanted to call to the judge's attention the apparent violation of the gag order. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ AND the headline of this firewalled Rolling Stone story is "Trump's GOP 'Surrogates' Take Turns Bashing Judge's Daughter." Maybe that will get Justice Merchan's attention. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jim McGovern Is on a Roll. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: “Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) nuked House Republicans for going to Donald Trump’s porn star hush money trial during a barn burner of a speech on Wednesday. 'It’s probably not the best idea to take direction on law and order from a guy who, as we speak, is a defendant for covering up hush money payments to a porn star for political gain.... This is unbelievable. Here’s a picture of the speaker of this House of Representatives. Second in line to the presidency, standing in front of a courthouse, acting as a prop for Donald Trump, trying to interfere with a criminal trial. Because apparently, Republicans like law and order unless it applies to them.... The American people ... certainly deserve better than the speaker of the House spending his time trying to influence our justice system at a courthouse in New York City....'” ~~~

~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) had quite the rebuttal to Rep. Nick Langworthy’s (R-NY) floor speech about crime in Washington, D.C. On Wednesday, the House debated the rules concerning eight bills regarding crime and law enforcement.... [McGovern responded,] 'The Gentleman keeps on talking about crime in D.C., crime in D.C., crime on the rise.... I can tell you one thing. Crime is definitely down in the White House right now....' McGovern entered into the record a Washington Post article titled, 'Crime is down, though Fox News viewers might not be aware.'”

MEANWHILE, Down the Street. Aaron Katersky of the AP: “Sen. Robert Menendez 'put his power up for sale' and 'betrayed the people he was supposed to serve,' a prosecutor claimed Wednesday at the start of the New Jersey Democrat's federal bribery trial in New York.... 'He was powerful. He was also corrupt,' prosecutor Lara Pomerantz said of the senator during her opening statement.... His price, Pomerantz told the jury, was gold bars, envelopes stuffed with cash, checks to his wife for a no-show job and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.... The defense meanwhile introduced Menendez 'not as an agent of the Egyptian government' but as 'an American patriot' who 'took no bribes.' Menendez has pleaded not guilty to 16 federal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Benjamin Weisler & Tracey Tully of the New York Times: “A lawyer for Senator Robert Menendez on Wednesday laid blame for the bribery charges the senator faces squarely on his wife — a woman he found 'dazzling' but who, his lawyer said, hid her past dire finances and the source of her newfound income from her powerful husband. She had kept him in the dark about 'what she was asking others to give her,' the lawyer, Avi Weitzman, told a jury in opening statements at the start of the senator’s federal corruption trial in Manhattan. The gold and some of the cash that the F.B.I. found in a search of the senator’s New Jersey home — items that prosecutors say were bribes — were kept in a locked closet where his wife, Nadine Menendez, stored her clothing, Mr. Weitzman said. 'He did not know of the gold bars that existed in that closet,' Mr. Weitzman added....”

Presidential Race

Josh Boak, et al., of the AP: “Josh Boak, et al., of the AP: “President Joe Biden and ... Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to hold two campaign debates — the first on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC — setting the stage for their first presidential face-off to play out in just over a month.” This is an update of a story linked yesterday.

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “Ron Klain, the president’s former chief of staff, will take some time away from his post-White House job to help President Biden prepare for a debate against Donald J. Trump. Mr. Klain, who left the White House last year, said in a text message that he would take a vacation from his job as the chief legal officer at Airbnb in the coming weeks to help get Mr. Biden ready.... Mr. Klain, 62, is one of the president’s most trusted confidants, and was critical to Mr. Biden’s debate preparations during the 2020 campaign. When he left the White House, Mr. Klain, whom Republicans sometimes referred to as 'prime minister' in describing his influence, took with him decades of institutional knowledge about Washington politics, the inner workings of Capitol Hill and an intimate knowledge of the Biden family. He was so well liked within the White House that staff members had a nickname for themselves: 'Klainiacs.'”

Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “... Sean Hannity spent the first 20 minutes of his Fox News show railing against the upcoming debates while demanding changes – such as 'no notes, no teleprompter' – to the format agreed to by Trump, who had said last month he would debate Biden 'any time, any place. We’ll do it any way you want, Joe.' [Then Lara Trump, co-chair of the RNC and wife of Eric, joined Hannity] and called 'the two presidential debates Donald Trump had just agreed to, 'rigged.'” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary at the end of yesterday's thread.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a Guardian op-ed: "Today, in 2024, our country once again faces a pivotal moment in American history.... As the nation moves rapidly toward oligarchy, the billionaire class exerts enormous influence over the economic and political life of the nation.... Never before have the 1% done so well, or enjoyed so much power. Our political system is corrupt.... Our life expectancy and birth rate are in decline.... The climate crisis threatens the very future of the planet.... Biden is not popular and many progressives, including me, strongly disagree with his policies regarding Israel and this disastrous war in Gaza. But, let’s be clear. Biden is not running against God. He is running against Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in American history whose second term, if he is re-elected, will be worse than his first. And, on his worst day, Biden is a thousand times better than Trump."

Eduardo Porter & Youyou Zhou of the Washington Post: “The public conversation over immigration that has raged at least since the days of the 1924 Johnson-Reed law [-- which imposed strict quotas to preserve the nation's 'pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock' --] can explain Washington’s policy failure: There is no way America can reconcile the sentiments embodied by the Statue of Liberty — 'Give me your tired, your poor,' etc. — with its deep-seated fear that immigrants will reshape its ethnic makeup, its identity and the balance of political power. Try as they might, policymakers have always been unable to protect the White America they wanted to preserve. Today’s 'melting pot' was built largely with policies that didn’t work. Millions upon millions of migrants have overcome what obstacles the United States has tried to put in their way.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Florida. Coral Davenport of the New York Times: “Florida’s state government will no longer be required to consider climate change when crafting energy policy under legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. The new law, which passed the Florida Legislature in March and takes effect on July 1, will also prohibit the construction of offshore wind turbines in state waters and will repeal state grant programs that encourage energy conservation and renewable energy. The legislation also deletes requirements that state agencies use climate-friendly products and purchase fuel-efficient vehicles. And it prevents any municipality from restricting the type of fuel that can be used in an appliance, such as a gas stove.... Florida is one of the states most vulnerable to the costly and deadly impacts of climate change, which is largely driven by the burning of oil, gas and coal. Multiple scientific studies have shown that the increase of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has contributed to sea level rise and more flooding in the state’s coastal cities. Last year was the hottest in Florida since 1895, and the waters off its coast heated to 90 degrees during the summer, bleaching corals and scorching marine life.” And don't forget the hurricanes, their intensity drive by climate change. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Apparently Ron will keep his head buried in the sand even when the beach floods. It's hard to believe anyone can be that blind to reality; for those of you who have and those of you who wish you had an Ivy League education, turns out it don't cure stupid.

Louisiana. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily revived a congressional map in Louisiana that includes a second majority-Black district, halting a lower court decision to pause the map over concerns that it was racially gerrymandered. The move could increase Democrats’ likelihood of taking control of a second congressional seat in Louisiana. The newly drawn map had been approved in January by Louisiana’s Republican-controlled legislature after it had been directed to redraw it. The decision, which was unsigned, said that it would remain in effect pending an appeal or a decision by the Supreme Court. The court’s three liberal justices wrote that they would not have lifted the block on the proposed map, with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan noting they would have denied the stay application.” (Also linked yesterday.) CNN's report is here. MB: Maybe if you read both reports, you can figure out the logic here. I don't have time to try.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: “A temporary pier built by the United States to help distribute humanitarian aid delivered by sea was anchored at a beach in Gaza Thursday morning, U.S. Central Command said.... Aid trucks 'are expected to begin moving ashore in the coming days,' Centcom said, noting that 'as part of this effort, no U.S. troops entered Gaza.' U.S. officials say they could eventually deliver up to 2 million meals a day using the pier, though the success of the operation will depend on Israel allowing the free flow of material in.... The International Court of Justice will hold hearings Thursday and Friday on South Africa’s request that the court order Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah.” ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates Thursday are here.

Slovakia. Jessie Yeung, et al., of CNN: "Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, is in a stable but serious condition after being shot five times from a close range and undergoing surgery, his deputy said Thursday, an assassination attempt that rocked the central European country and sparked global condemnation. The 59-year-old populist leader, who returned to power last year and whose controversial reforms have sparked protests in recent weeks, was attacked on Wednesday after an off-site government meeting in the town of Handlova. The prime minister had approached a small crowd of people waiting to meet him, when the suspected gunman in the crowd lunged forward and shot him five times from across a security barrier.... The alleged shooter has been identified by multiple local media outlets as a 71-year-old man from southern Slovakia. There has been no official confirmation of the identity of the shooter, but his face was clearly visible in some of the video footage of the attack and his subsequent arrest.... Nobody else was injured in the attack. The suspected gunman was detained by police...."

Ukraine, et al.

CNN's live updates of developments Thursday in the Russia/Ukraine ware are here: "Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met in Beijing Thursday. China is Russia's top trade partner, and international sanctions over Moscow's war in Ukraine have driven the two economies closer. Russia is pushing into northeastern Ukraine after a surprise assault there last week. More than 7,500 people have been evacuated from the Kharkiv region. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky halted his upcoming international visits as his country grapples with the Russian offensive."

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: “... Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced another $2 billion in U.S. military aid [to Ukraine] as he wrapped a two-day visit to Ukraine that was intended to demonstrate Washington’s continued support for the war-hit country. Blinken’s trip was planned before Russia’s weekend advances on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. But it also served to highlight the lingering consequences of Washington’s seven-month delay in approving more military aid for Ukraine. Stocks of artillery shells and other long-range munitions have run perilously low, leaving Ukrainian troops on the back foot.”

The Conversation -- May 15, 2024

Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily revived a congressional map in Louisiana that includes a second majority-Black district, halting a lower court decision to pause the map over concerns that it was racially gerrymandered. The move could increase Democrats’ likelihood of taking control of a second congressional seat in Louisiana. The newly drawn map had been approved in January by Louisiana’s Republican-controlled legislature after it had been directed to redraw it. The decision, which was unsigned, said that it would remain in effect pending an appeal or a decision by the Supreme Court. The court’s three liberal justices wrote that they would not have lifted the block on the proposed map, with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan noting they would have denied the stay application.”

Marie: Way back Wednesday morning Judd Legum was reminding us that Justice Juan “Merchan's order prohibits Trump from 'directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses.” (Okay, I never forgot.) As Legum noted, “Many of Trump's surrogates appear to be speaking from a common script,” so it was pretty obvious that somebody was coordinating and directing the Trumpiclones' remarks. Besides, does anybody think that Senator Potato Head could be counted on to say the right thing under his own volition? Of course not. In fact, when asked by a Newsmax host if he was speaking “to go against the gag order and intimidate witnesses because Trump can’t,” Tuberville answered, “Yes, sir.” ~~~

     ~~~ So Now. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “New York Magazine contributing editor Andrew Rice claimed on Tuesday that he spotted ... Donald Trump 'editing' and 'making notations' to the speeches his allies then made outside of the courtroom during his hush money trial in New York.... 'Before or after?' asked MSNBC host Chris Hayes, to which Rice replied, 'While testimony was going on. While Michael Cohen was testifying against him, he was actually ... going through and annotating and editing the quotes that these people were going to say.'” On MSNBC Wednesday afternoon, Andrew Weissmann said Justice Merchan was unlikely to raise the issue on his own, so it would be up to the prosecutors if they wanted to call to the judge's attention the apparent violation of the gag order. ~~~

     ~~~ AND the headline of this firewalled Rolling Stone story is "Trump's GOP 'Surrogates' Take Turns Bashing Judge's Daughter." Maybe that will get Justice Merchan's attention.

MEANWHILE, Down the Street. Aaron Katersky of the AP: “Sen. Robert Menendez 'put his power up for sale' and 'betrayed the people he was supposed to serve,' a prosecutor claimed Wednesday at the start of the New Jersey Democrat's federal bribery trial in New York.... 'He was powerful. He was also corrupt,' prosecutor Lara Pomerantz said of the senator during her opening statement.... His price, Pomerantz told the jury, was gold bars, envelopes stuffed with cash, checks to his wife for a no-show job and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.... The defense meanwhile introduced Menendez 'not as an agent of the Egyptian government' but as 'an American patriot' who 'took no bribes.' Menendez has pleaded not guilty to 16 federal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction.”

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Presidential Race. Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “President Biden is willing to debate ... Donald J. Trump at least twice before the election, and as early as June — but his campaign is rejecting the nonpartisan organization that has managed presidential debates since 1988, according to a letter obtained by The New York Times. The letter by the Biden campaign lays out for the first time the president’s terms for giving Mr. Trump what he has openly clamored for: a televised confrontation with a successor Mr. Trump has portrayed, and hopes to reveal, as too feeble to hold the job. Mr. Biden and his top aides want the debates to start much sooner than the dates proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates, so voters can see the two candidates side by side well before early voting begins in September. They want the debate to occur inside a TV studio, with microphones that automatically cut off when a speaker’s time limit elapses. And they want it to be just the two candidates and the moderator — without the raucous in-person audiences that Mr. Trump feeds on and without the participation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or other independent or third-party candidates.” ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Boak, et al., of the AP: “Trump responded to the letter in an interview with Fox News digital, calling the proposed dates 'fully acceptable to me.'... Biden, in a post on X..., sought to needle his rival, saying, 'Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020, since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal.'... [Biden] suggested that the two candidates could pick some dates, taking a dig at Trump’s ongoing New York hush money trial by noting that the Republican is 'free on Wednesdays,' the usual day off in the trial.” ~~~

     ~~~ ** UPDATE. Betsy Klein, et al., of CNN: “President Joe Biden and ... Donald Trump have both accepted an invitation from CNN to debate on June 27, a historically early showdown that will set the tone for the final months of the 2024 campaign. 'I’ve received and accepted an invitation from @CNN for a debate on June 27th. Over to you, Donald. As you said: anywhere, any time, any place,' Biden said in a post on X. A Trump campaign official later told CNN that Trump had accepted the offer.”

Trump Mob Trial

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: Michael Cohen's “testimony [yesterday] marked a pivotal moment for prosecutors [of the criminal trial of Donald Trump]. They charged Mr. Trump with falsifying the checks and other records, and Mr. Cohen’s recounting drove those accusations home. It offered the jury its first and only personal account tying the former president to the documents at the crux of his case. Mr. Trump has denied the allegations and the sex, and his legal team soon sought to sweep Mr. Cohen’s revelations aside in cross-examination. The lead defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, attacked Mr. Cohen’s credibility, portraying him as out of control and bent on exacting revenge on Mr. Trump after his patron abandoned him. Mr. Blanche also emphasized Mr. Cohen’s voluminous television appearances and insult-slinging on social media — all of which Mr. Cohen did in defiance of the prosecution’s wishes and at Mr. Trump’s expense, Mr. Blanche suggested. And he noted that Mr. Cohen maintains a financial interest in attacking Mr. Trump, arguing that he cashed in on their feud with a podcast and a pair of books.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Times reporters in yesterday's liveblog (linked below) and in the article here have emphasized that Cohen's oral testimony is the only proof the prosecution has offered to tie Trump to the crime. But that isn't accurate, IMO. First, there's Exhibit 35, the account statement from the phony LLC Cohen established to pay off Stormy Daniels. Trump's former controller Jeff McConney authenticated Allen Weisselberg's handwritten note on the statement which show that the Trump Org would "gross up" the $130,000 payment Cohen made from his own funds to $420,000 to cover related expenses, including Cohen's anticipated tax liability. In addition, prosecutors put into evidence 12 checks, written in 2017, each in the amount of $35,000, to be paid for "legal services" rendered by Michael Cohen in a year in which Cohen provided no legal services to Trump or the Trump Org. Trump signed 10 of those checks.

Several of Trump's still-loyal former employees testified that Donald Trump (a) paid close attention to detail of moneys paid out; and (b) was so cheap (cruel & dishonest, IMO) that he ordered staff to negotiate down legitimate payments due. It should be obvious to every juror that even a more careless person would notice that he was paying more than double the $130K -- and for services never performed. Conspiracies are seldom written down, but here there is both documentation and oral testimony from multiple defendant-friendly sources proving up Trump's knowledge of the scheme. Also, Blanche's argument, emphasized in the Times story, that Cohen hates Trump, falls flat. In conspiracy cases, the evidence usually comes, at least in part, from parties who have had fallings-out with the defendant and have "flipped" in their own self-interest. Co-conspirators in illegal enterprises are not upstanding folks with pure motives. They're criminals like Michael Cohen.

Here are takeaways by CNN reporters on Todd Blanche's cross-examination of Michael Cohen and other stuff. Though the CNN reporters discuss Blanche's opening shots, oddly enough, they don't mention Justice Merchan's response. According to Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “Soon afterward, there was a sidebar, out of earshot of jurors. At that sidebar, according to a transcript..., Justice Merchan asked Blanche: 'Why are you making this about yourself?'... Blanche protested, but the judge stood firm. 'Just don’t make it about yourself,' he said to conclude the conference.” ~~~

     ~~~ Stephen Collinson of CNN did catch Merchan's scolding of Todd Blanche: “... Blanche mostly concentrated on his effort to tarnish Cohen’s character, motives and credibility rather than the core question of the case — whether Trump falsified the business records as part of a cover up expressly designed to mislead voters in 2016 in an early instance of election interference.... But jurors don’t have to like Cohen. They just have to believe him.... As always, when a Trump subordinate performs in front of the boss, there was a sense Blanche’s histrionics were as much for the benefit of his client as the case. And in a curious debut of the cross-examination, Blanche earned an admonition from Judge Juan Merchan for making it all about him, when he noted Cohen had called him a 'crying little sh*t' on TikTok.”

Hannah Knowles & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: “Sen. J.D. Vance, who once recoiled from Donald Trump’s lewd comments about women, was at Trump’s side in court this week as prosecutors rehashed the infamous 'Access Hollywood' tape that upended his 2016 campaign. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), an amiable advocate of conservative Christian morals, came to the courthouse the next day to call Trump’s trial a 'shame,' a 'travesty' and a 'partisan witch hunt.'... An hour later, one of Trump’s former presidential rivals [-- Vivek Ramaswamy --] stood in a nearby park attacking the witnesses the former president is legally barred from disparaging himself.... The pilgrimages demonstrate the imperative in today’s GOP to show loyalty to Trump and his fervent base in the midst of a case that has become a showcase of salacious scandal. Notably absent from court: Trump’s wife, Melania Trump....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The past couples of days' shows of force (see photo of yesterday's courthouse entourage accompanying WashPo article) have reminded me less of obsequious toadies -- which of course they are -- than of the made men who sit shoulder-to-shoulder at the back of courtrooms during mob criminal trials, primarily for the purpose of intimidating witnesses, which is what Trump's toadies also are doing. There's this observation from the Times' liveblog yesterday, by Jonah Bromwich:

Michael Cohen was in the midst of testimony about weighing whether to retain loyalty to Trump, painting it as a very difficult decision, as he considered whether he would be loyal to his family, his country or Trump. As he was speaking, Vivek Ramaswamy and a number of the other politicians here supporting Trump today walked back in the room. It was a remarkable moment, but Cohen seemed mostly unfazed. He kept testifying. ~~~

~~~ Another Ignominious Moment in American History. Meg Kinnard of the AP: “U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson assailed the hush money case against Donald Trump Tuesday as an illegitimate 'sham,' becoming the highest-ranking Republican to show up at court, embrace the former president’s claims of political persecution and attack the U.S. system of justice. It was a remarkable moment in modern American politics: The House speaker amplifying Trump’s defense and turning the Republican Party against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to the U.S. government and a cornerstone of democracy.... Johnson was a chief architect of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential results ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, mob assault on the U.S. Capitol.... Unlike other Republicans showing up to show their support, Johnson did not enter the courtroom where Trump is on trial, but dashed back to Washington to open the House chamber for the day.”

Yesterday was another Trump day in a downtown Manhattan courtroom, and New York Times reporters were there to keep us up to speed. See details in yesterday's Conversation.

STFU, Donald. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A New York State appeals court on Tuesday upheld a gag order imposed on ... Donald J. Trump in his criminal trial in Manhattan, rejecting arguments that the measure had violated Mr. Trump’s First Amendment rights.... In its decision Tuesday, a five-judge panel of the appeals court wrote that Justice [Juan] Merchan had 'properly determined' that Mr. Trump’s 'public statements posed a significant threat to the integrity of the testimony of witnesses and potential witnesses in this case.' The decision also found that Justice Merchan had properly weighed Mr. Trump’s free speech rights against the court’s 'commitment to ensuring the fair administration of justice in criminal cases' and the rights of people connected to the case 'from being free from threats, intimidation, harassment and harm.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As we've seen, Trump has sidestepped the gag order by getting his henchmen to stand on the courthouse steps and make the same attacks he is prevented by court order from delivering. The judge has no control over these remarks by others, particular when the others are elected officials. ~~~

     ~~~ digby: "Trump has brought his surrogates to the trial to violate his gag order for him." Includes a number of examples. ~~~

     ~~~ BUT. Judd Legum of Popular Information: Justice Juan "Merchan's order prohibits Trump from 'directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses.' The order also prohibits Trump from directing others to attack the jury, the court staff, or family members. Asked on Tuesday if he directed the Republicans to speak about the trial on his behalf, Trump described them as his '"surrogates' and praised them for 'speaking very beautifully.' Trump has also entered the courthouse flanked by his surrogates, effectively giving them his imprimatur. Many of Trump's surrogates appear to be speaking from a common script.... If Trump directed his surrogates to speak, their comments could constitute criminal contempt of the gag order by Trump.... Attorney Jeff Jacobovitz, in an appearance on MSNBC..., noted that 'if Trump is feeding information' to his allies, it would violate the gag order."

How Trump Normalizes Violence. Peter Eisler, et al., of Reuters: “When Donald Trump attacks the integrity of judges hearing cases against him, his followers often respond with posts urging that the jurists be beaten, tortured and killed.... Trump has baselessly cast the judges and prosecutors in his trials as corrupt puppets of the Biden administration.... [For instance, on April 23, ] Trump declared on Truth Social, [that Justice Juan Merchan] is a 'highly conflicted' overseer of a 'kangaroo court.' Trump supporters swiftly replied to his post with a blitz of attacks on Merchan.... Some called for Merchan and other judges hearing cases against Trump to be killed.... In a review of commenters’ posts on three pro-Trump websites..., Reuters documented more than 150 posts since March 1 that called for physical violence against the judges handling three of his highest-profile cases.... Those posts were part of a larger pool of hundreds identified by Reuters that used hostile, menacing and, in some cases, racist or sexualized language to attack the judges.... Experts on extremism say the constant repetition of threatening or menacing language can normalize the idea of violence – and increase the risk of someone carrying it out.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's lackeys of course are doing the same: encouraging violence by playing down actual acts of violence like the January 6 attack on the U.S. capitol and by falsely claiming that law enforcement agencies and President Biden are persecuting poor old Trump and taking away winger "freedoms."

Primary Elections

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: “Hundreds of thousands of voters in Maryland, West Virginia and Nebraska went to the polls on Tuesday, weighing in on primaries whose results pointed to a desire for moderation, achievement and diversity, and a rejection of the political power of money....

Maryland. “Representative David Trone, a co-owner of the giant alcohol retailer Total Wine and More, gave up his safe House seat, spent more than $60 million of his fortune and lost the Senate Democratic primary to Angela Alsobrooks, who hopes to become only the third Black woman to be elected to Congress’s upper chamber.... Maryland would ordinarily have been a safe bet for Democrats hoping to hold the seat of Senator Ben Cardin upon his retirement, but the entry of Larry Hogan, a popular former governor and Republican moderate [who won the primary by a landslide], into the race has scrambled the equation.... [Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn] was beaten by a soft-spoken workhorse, State Senator Sarah Elfreth, in a Democratic primary almost certain to determine who will represent Maryland’s Third House District next year....

Nebraska. “In Nebraska’s swing district around Omaha, Representative Don Bacon, who has a reputation as an independent voice, faced off against Dan Frei, a conservative challenger backed by the state’s Republican Party, a pro-Trump bastion.... On Tuesday, Mr. Bacon trounced Mr. Frei, setting up a much tougher race for the Democratic nominee, State Senator Tony Vargas....

West Virginia. “Derrick Evans, an unrepentant rioter arrested after participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, challenged Representative Carol Miller in a safe Republican seat. Ms. Miller is no moderate, but she isn’t a rioter. The incumbent whipped the insurgent.” ~~~

Also from the Times story: In the Maryland Democratic presidential primary, about 10 percent voted for uncommitted & another 3.3 percent chose Marianne Williamson or Dean Phillips. Phillips got 8 percent of the vote in Nebraska. In West Virginia some 20% of Democratic voters chose candidates named Jason Palmer and Stephen Lyons. On the Republican side, zombie candidate Nikki Haley got about 20 percent of the vote in both Maryland and Nebraska and about 10 percent in West Virginia.

West Virginia Senate Race. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) is projected to win the Republican primary for Senate in the state, according to the Associated Press. Justice defeated a crowded field of contenders to clinch the GOP nomination and is also heavily favored to win the general election in the deep-red state.”

Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: “The Department of Justice said on Tuesday that Boeing was in violation of a 2021 settlement related to problems with the company’s 737 Max model that led to two deadly plane crashes in 2018 and 2019. In a letter to a federal judge, the department said that Boeing had failed to 'design, implement and enforce' an ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws in the company’s operations.... The determination by the Justice Department opens the door to a potential prosecution of a 2021 criminal charge accusing Boeing of conspiracy to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration, though Boeing can contest Tuesday’s decision. In a statement, Boeing said that the company believed that it had honored the terms of the settlement, adding that it was looking forward to the opportunity to respond.” The CBS News report is here.

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

Louisa Loveluck of the Washington Post: “Israeli tanks moved deeper into Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, pushing closer to the dense urban centers President Biden has warned Israel against invading, and prompting one of the largest civilian exoduses of the seven-month war.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “The Biden administration has told Congress that it intends to move forward with a plan for the United States to sell more than $1 billion in new weapons to Israel, according to three congressional aides familiar with the deal. The notification of the sale, which would include new tactical vehicles and ammunition, comes as President Biden has withheld a shipment of bombs to Israel, hoping to prevent U.S.-made weapons from being used in a potential invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Last week, Mr. Biden said he would block the delivery of weapons such as bombs and missiles that could be fired into the densely populated area where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering. The potential arms transfer illustrated the narrow path the Biden administration is walking with Israel, trying to prevent an assault on Rafah and limit civilian casualties in Gaza but continuing to supply a longtime ally that the president has said has a right to defend itself. One congressional aide said Congress had been aware of the arms deal for months....” A CBS News report is here.

Ukraine, et al.

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: “Before [Antony] Blinken became the top American diplomat, he was a serious rock guitarist — and along with a Ukrainian band, he played 'Rockin’ in the Free World,' a 1989 song by [Neil Young], the Canadian American musician, for a packed basement music club [in Kiev, Ukraine].... 'The United States is with you. So much of the world is with you. And they’re fighting, not just for a free Ukraine, but for the free world. And the free world is with you too,' Blinken said before launching into the song with 19.99, a Kyiv punk band.” ~~~

Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: “Russian security agents detained a senior general early Tuesday, widening a purge of the country’s sprawling Defense Ministry amid President Vladimir V. Putin’s broader shake-up of his government. Lt. Gen. Yuri Kuznetsov, who oversaw the ministry’s personnel department, was detained on an accusation of 'large-scale' bribery, Russia’s Investigative Committee, a federal law enforcement agency, said in a statement on Tuesday.” (Also linked yesterday.)