May 22, 2022

Russell Goldman of the New York Times: "President Biden raised the alarm on Sunday about monkeypox, a viral infection fast spreading around the world, and warned that the disease, which can be spread as easily as through handling a contaminated object, is something 'that everybody should be concerned about.' Monkeypox, rarely seen outside Africa, has been found in recent weeks in Europe and the United States. As of Saturday, 92 cases and 28 suspected cases had been identified in 12 countries outside of those African nations where it is endemic, according to the World Health Organization. There has been one confirmed case in the United States -- a man in Boston was diagnosed last week -- but public health officials believe case numbers will soon increase."

Michael Conroy of the AP: "A military plane carrying enough specialty infant formula for more than half a million baby bottles arrived Sunday in Indianapolis, the first of several flights expected from Europe aimed at relieving a shortage that has sent parents scrambling to find enough to feed their children. President Joe Biden authorized the use of Air Force planes for the effort, dubbed 'Operation Fly Formula,' because no commercial flights were available. The formula weighed 78,000 pounds (35,380 kilograms), White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One as Biden flew from South Korea to Japan.... The flights are intended to provide 'some incremental relief in the coming days' as the government works on a more lasting response to the shortage, Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Sunday."

"How Trump's 2020 Election Lies Have Gripped State Legislatures." Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: A New York Times "analysis exposes how deeply rooted lies and misinformation about ... Donald J. Trump's defeat have become in state legislatures, which play an integral role in U.S. democracy. In some, the false view that the election was stolen -- either by fraud or as a result of pandemic-related changes to the process -- is now widely accepted as fact among Republican lawmakers, turning statehouses into hotbeds of conspiratorial thinking and specious legal theories.... Election and democracy experts say they see the rise of anti-democratic impulses in statehouses as a clear, new threat to the health of American democracy. State legislatures hold a unique position in the country's democratic apparatus, wielding a constitutionally mandated power to set the 'times, places and manner of holding elections.' Cheered on by Mr. Trump as he eyes another run for the White House in 2024, many state legislators have shown they see that power as license to exert greater control over the outcome of elections."

Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention on Sunday released a major third-party investigation that found that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized and 'even vilified' by top clergy in the nation's largest Protestant denomination. The findings of nearly 300 pages include shocking new details about specific abuse cases and shine a light on how denominational leaders for decades actively resisted calls for abuse prevention and reform. Evidence in the report suggests leaders also lied to Southern Baptists over whether they could maintain a database of offenders to prevent more abuse when top leaders were secretly keeping a private list for years." A CBS News report is here.

Israel. Steve Hendrix & Shira Rubin of the Washington Post: "After decades of demolition, rebuilding and a more than 20-year legal battle, Israel's highest court this month gave the military permission to permanently evict more than 1,000 Palestinians [from the West Bank] and repurpose the land for an army firing range.... The demolitions have sparked expressions of concern from Washington ahead of a planned June visit to Israel by President Biden, coming at a time of mounting instability in Israel's coalition government and the recent approval of more than 4,200 new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.... The European Union urged Israel to halt the demolitions. A United Nations human rights panel warned that the 'forcible transfer' of residents would amount to 'a serious breach of international and humanitarian and human rights laws.'"

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Josh Boak & Aamer Madhani of the AP: "President Joe Biden tended to both business and security interests Sunday as he wrapped up a three-day trip to South Korea, first showcasing Hyundai's pledge to invest at least $10 billion in the United States and later mingling with troops at a nearby military base. Biden's visit to Osan Air Base, where thousands of U.S. and South Korean service members monitor the rapidly evolving North Korean nuclear threat, was his final stop before he arrived in Tokyo later Sunday."

Peter Baker & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "In his first meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol, [President] Biden sought to put the relationship with South Korea, traditionally one of the United States' strongest allies in Asia, on a firmer foundation after the volatile years of ... Donald J. Trump, who frequently undercut ties with the South while wooing the North's mercurial dictator, Kim Jong-un. 'The alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States has never been stronger, more vibrant or, I might add, more vital,' said Mr. Biden, using South Korea's formal name, at a news conference in Seoul with Mr. Yoon.... Unlike Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden hailed the continuing American troop presence in South Korea.... Mr. Biden said that cooperation between the United States and South Korea showed 'our readiness to take on all threats together.' He also said that his administration would collaborate to confront cyberattacks from North Korea. Mr. Biden's team is focused, through engaging with allies in the region, on returning to a North Korea strategy aimed at deterrence. It views the Trump administration's approach, in which Mr. Trump ignored the usual diplomatic process and directly embraced Mr. Kim, as an aberration in American foreign policy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Video of the joint press conference is here.

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The acting Social Security commissioner will launch a 'full investigation' on Monday of Inspector General Gail Ennis's oversight of an anti-fraud program that imposed extensive penalties on disabled and elderly people, a senior agency official said Saturday. The action follows a Washington Post report that revealed how attorneys in charge of a little-known program run by Social Security's watchdog division issued unprecedented fines beginning in the Trump administration. More than 100 people who received disability benefits to which they were not entitled were hit with penalties as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those fines were imposed on poor, disabled and elderly people, many of whom had no hope of ever being able to pay. The acting commissioner 'has very serious concerns about the issues raised by The Washington Post about the inspector general's oversight of this program,' Scott Frey, chief of staff to Kilolo Kijakazi, said in an interview."

Marie: I know it's hard to believe, but another Trumpist Member of Congress told a series of porkers about his aiding and abetting some folks “wearing red baseball caps” the day before the insurrection: ~~~

~~~ Eric Levai of the Daily Dot: The Daily Dot has obtained a radio interview from Jan. 6, 2021, from WBHF in Cartersville, Georgia, in which Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) says, 'about a dozen' people were present in his congressional office in Washington, D.C. the day before the Capitol riot. [Thursday], Loudermilk said in a statement that 'a constituent family' visited him the day before the Capitol riot. That is an updated version of a previous statement by Republicans on the Committee on House Administration -- which Loudermilk is a member of -- that originally stated 'there were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on' given by him or other Republicans in advance of the Capitol riot. But in the interview -- given as the riot was winding down -- Loudermilk made it clear that he met with people who were planning to protest on Jan. 6, and that he discussed how they wanted to be in the crowd that day to protest the results of the 2020 election.... In a video statement released [Friday], Loudermilk claims that the family was wearing red baseball caps, which is why he's being singled out by the committee, but also admits the family brought guests with them, which he had not previously mentioned." Red baseball caps, Barry? Really? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Proxy Trial: Durham Goes After Hillary. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The trial of well-connected lawyer Michael Sussmann centers on whether he lied to the FBI while sharing potentially damaging allegations about Donald Trump at a key moment in the 2016 presidential campaign. But the first week of testimony showed the prosecution's hopes for a conviction rest largely on a much broader set of assertions: that the FBI, the Hillary Clinton campaign and the press collided in ultimately harmful ways, leading to the public airing of unsubstantiated allegations shortly before Election Day. Sussman's trial is the first courtroom test of the investigative work done by special counsel John Durham, appointed by Trump administration Attorney General William P. Barr to probe whether the federal agents who investigated the 2016 Trump campaign committed wrongdoing."

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Utah hunting guide Wade Lemon is facing five years in prison for baiting a bear that was killed by [Donald] Trump, Jr. on May 18, 2018, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Saturday.... Trump, Jr.'s guided hunting trip resulted in kills of a black bear and mountain lion. 'Charging documents allege Lemon's outfitters illegally used bait on the bear shot by Trump Jr.'... Prosecutors have indicated there was no evidence showing Trump Jr. would have known about the alleged baiting that went on during the hunt,' the newspaper reported.... The vast majority of game taken in America is from hunters who do not require a hired guide. [Junior] has previously had scandals over killing an elephant in Africa, killing an endangered sheep in Mongolia, and killing pregnant prairie dogs in Montana." MB: Like father, like son, the Adventures of Junior lead to somebody else getting in trouble with the law.

Robert Ford, the CEO of Abbott, the baby-formula manufacturing company at the heart of the U.S. formula scarcity, says he's sorry & makes his case in a Washington Post op-ed.

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A state court formally approved New York's new congressional map late Friday, ratifying a slate of House districts drawn by a neutral expert that could pave the way for Democratic losses this fall and force some of the party's most prominent incumbents to face off in primary matches. The map, approved just before a midnight deadline set by Justice Patrick F. McAllister of State Supreme Court in Steuben County, effectively unwinds an attempted Democratic gerrymander, creates a raft of new swing seats across the state, and scrambles some carefully laid lines that have long determined centers of power in New York City. Jonathan R. Cervas, the court-appointed mapmaker, made relatively minor changes to a draft proposal released earlier this week whose sweeping changes briefly united both Republicans and Democrats in exasperation and turned Democrats against each other. In Manhattan, the final map would still merge the seats of Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, setting the two Democratic committee leaders, who have serve alongside each other for 30 years, onto an increasingly inevitable collision course." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Texas. (Alleged) Rustlers! The Misadventures of Skeet & Leroy. Susan Carroll of NBC News: "Lawmen came to remote Loving County, Texas, on Friday to arrest the county judge, a former sheriff's deputy and two ranch hands on one of Texas' oldest crimes -- cattle theft. Judge Skeet Jones, 71, the top elected official since 2007 in the least populated county in the continental United States, is facing three felony counts of livestock theft and one count of engaging in criminal activity, accused of gathering up and selling stray cattle, authorities said. Jones, the scion of a powerful ranching family that settled in Loving County in the 1950s, was booked into Winkler County Jail on Friday and released on $20,000 bond, records show.... Authorities also arrested former Loving County deputy Leroy Medlin Jr., 35, on one count of engaging in criminal activity.... Word of the arrests spread faster than a prairie fire with a tailwind through this West Texas county, population 57 as of the last U.S. Census Bureau estimate."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed his allies for even more military aid on Saturday after the United States signed one of its biggest war packages in decades, arguing that winning the fight against Russia would also help tame rising global food costs.... Mr. Zelensky ... argued that food prices would ease if it could break Russia's grip on its ports.... International measures targeting the Russian economy have 'practically broken' logistics in the country, its transport minister said on Saturday, a rare acknowledgment by the Kremlin minister of the impact of sanctions. The [U.S.] State Department said that a U.S. consular officer had visited Brittney Griner, the W.N.B.A. star being detained in Russia, and found her 'as well as could be expected under these exceedingly challenging circumstances.' The leaders of Sweden and Finland held separate phone calls on Saturday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who has said he opposes the applications of the two Nordic countries to join NATO." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the New York Times' summary of Saturday's events. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the only way out of the war will be through diplomacy -- in addition to a Kyiv win on the battlefield. 'Russia doesn't want to return anything,' he said.... Zelensky said the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine is facing an 'extremely difficult' situation as Russian forces concentrate on the east after Kyiv gave up its defense of Mariupol and Moscow claimed total control of the port city. Two cities are under severe assault, Zelensky said: Slovyansk, near Kramatorsk, and Severodonetsk, the easternmost city still in Ukrainian hands. A delegation of U.S. diplomats is set to travel to The Hague on Sunday for talks with allies 'regarding our responses to atrocities committed in Ukraine' and in other conflicts, and on efforts to 'bring the perpetrators of atrocities to justice,' the State Department said in a news release.... Polish President Andrzej Duda is in Kyiv and will be the first foreign leader to address Ukraine's parliament in person." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Elena Becatoros, et al., of the AP: "With Russia claiming to have taken prisoner nearly 2,500 Ukrainian fighters from the besieged Mariupol steel plant, concerns grew about their fate as a Moscow-backed separatist leader vowed they would face tribunals. Russia has declared its full control of the Azovstal steel plant, which for weeks was the last holdout in Mariupol and a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity in the strategic port city, now in ruins with more than 20,000 residents feared dead."

Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Russia is permanently banning nearly 1,000 Americans, including President Biden and Vice President Harris, from entering the country in response to the United States' support of Ukraine and the historic sanctions facing Moscow nearly three months into its invasion. On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry published the list of 963 Americans barred from entering Russia -- a largely symbolic move featuring a wide-ranging collection of Biden administration members, Republicans, tech executives, journalists, lawmakers who have died, regular U.S. citizens and even actor Morgan Freeman.... One prominent name missing from the list: ... Donald Trump. In fact, the only prominent Trump administration official included in the ban is former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is not on the list. Also not listed is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who delayed a Senate vote on aid for Ukraine last week when he was the only senator to object." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Putin's Altar Boy." Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "The leader of about 100 million faithful, [Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church], 75, has staked the fortunes of his branch of Orthodox Christianity on a close and mutually beneficial alliance with Mr. Putin, offering him spiritual cover while his church -- and possibly he himself -- receives vast resources in return from the Kremlin, allowing him to extend his influence in the Orthodox world. To his critics, the arrangement has made Kirill far more than another apparatchik, oligarch or enabler of Mr. Putin, but an essential part of the nationalist ideology at the heart of the Kremlin's expansionist designs.... Kirill's role is so important that European officials have included him on a list of individuals they plan to target in an upcoming -- and still in flux -- round of sanctions against Russia, according to people who have seen the list." Read on. This is a rags (in the form of a monk's habit) to riches (possibly to the tune of billions of dollars).

Australia. Michael Miller & Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: "Australia delivered a stinging defeat to the country's ruling conservative coalition on Saturday in what amounted to a personal rebuke of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's abrasive brand of leadership. The result paves the way for opposition leader Anthony Albanese to become the next prime minister. But it was unclear whether his center-left Labor Party would win an outright majority or be forced to negotiate with a handful of independent and Greens candidates elected on platforms of combating climate change." The AP's story is here. MB: Well, let's hope this bodes well for us. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Guardian profiles Anthony Albanese: "Anthony Albanese's election to Australia's top job will go down as one of the most remarkable in the nation's political history: both for the personal journey of the man who will move into the prime minister's residence and the circumstances in which he won the keys."

May 21, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Peter Baker & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "In his first meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol, [President] Biden sought to put the relationship with South Korea, traditionally one of the United States' strongest allies in Asia, on a firmer foundation after the volatile years of ... Donald J. Trump, who frequently undercut ties with the South while wooing the North's mercurial dictator, Kim Jong-un. 'The alliance between the Republic of Korea and the United States has never been stronger, more vibrant or, I might add, more vital,' said Mr. Biden, using South Korea's formal name, at a news conference in Seoul with Mr. Yoon.... Unlike Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden hailed the continuing American troop presence in South Korea.... Mr. Biden said that cooperation between the United States and South Korea showed 'our readiness to take on all threats together.' He also said that his administration would collaborate to confront cyberattacks from North Korea. Mr. Biden's team is focused, through engaging with allies in the region, on returning to a North Korea strategy aimed at deterrence. It views the Trump administration's approach, in which Mr. Trump ignored the usual diplomatic process and directly embraced Mr. Kim, as an aberration in American foreign policy."

Marie: Hard to believe, but another Trumpist told a series of porkers about his aiding and abetting some folks "wearing red baseball caps" the day before the insurrection: ~~~

~~~ Eric Levai of the Daily Dot: The Daily Dot has obtained a radio interview from Jan. 6, 2021, from WBHF in Cartersville, Georgia, in which Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) says, 'about a dozen' people were present in his congressional office in Washington, D.C. the day before the Capitol riot. [Thursday], Loudermilk said in a statement that 'a constituent family' visited him the day before the Capitol riot. That is an updated version of a previous statement by Republicans on the Committee on House Administration -- which Loudermilk is a member of -- that originally stated 'there were no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on' given by him or other Republicans in advance of the Capitol riot. But in the interview -- given as the riot was winding down -- Loudermilk made it clear that he met with people who were planning to protest on Jan. 6, and that he discussed how they wanted to be in the crowd that day to protest the results of the 2020 election.... In a video statement released [Friday], Loudermilk claims that the family was wearing red baseball caps, which is why he's being singled out by the committee, but also admits the family brought guests with them, which he had not previously mentioned." Red baseball caps, Barry? Really?

Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Russia is permanently banning nearly 1,000 Americans, including President Biden and Vice President Harris, from entering the country in response to the United State' support of Ukraine and the historic sanctions facing Moscow nearly three months into its invasion. On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry published the list of 963 Americans barred from entering Russia -- a largely symbolic move featuring a wide-ranging collection of Biden administration members, Republicans, tech executives, journalists, lawmakers who have died, regular U.S. citizens and even actor Morgan Freeman.... One prominent name missing from the list: ... Donald Trump. In fact, the only prominent Trump administration official included in the ban is former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is not on the list. Also not listed is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who delayed a Senate vote on aid for Ukraine last week when he was the only senator to object."

New York. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A state court formally approved New York's new congressional map late Friday, ratifying a slate of House districts drawn by a neutral expert that could pave the way for Democratic losses this fall and force some of the party's most prominent incumbents to face off in primary matches. The map, approved just before a midnight deadline set by Justice Patrick F. McAllister of State Supreme Court in Steuben County, effectively unwinds an attempted Democratic gerrymander, creates a raft of new swing seats across the state, and scrambles some carefully laid lines that have long determined centers of power in New York City. Jonathan R. Cervas, the court-appointed mapmaker, made relatively minor changes to a draft proposal released earlier this week whose sweeping changes briefly united both Republicans and Democrats in exasperation and turned Democrats against each other. In Manhattan, the final map would still merge the seats of Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, setting the two Democratic committee leaders, who have served alongside each other for 30 years, onto an increasingly inevitable collision course." Read on.

Australia. Michael Miller & Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: "Australia delivered a stinging defeat to the country's ruling conservative coalition on Saturday in what amounted to a personal rebuke of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's abrasive brand of leadership. The result paves the way for opposition leader Anthony Albanese to become the next prime minister. But it was unclear whether his center-left Labor Party would win an outright majority or be forced to negotiate with a handful of independent and Greens candidates elected on platforms of combating climate change." The AP's story is here. MB: Well, let's hope this bodes well for us.

~~~~~~~~~~

Justin McCurry of the Guardian: President "Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk-yeol, have said they are considering expanding joint military exercises in response to the 'threat' posed by North Korea.... Speaking in Seoul on the second day of his visit to South Korea, Biden said he was willing to meet North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, but only if he was 'sincere and serious' about dismantling his nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Yoon, a conservative who took office just 11 days ago, said he and Biden also discussed the timing of a possible deployment in the South of US 'strategic assets' -- a term that typically refers to bombers, submarines and aircraft carriers -- to deter North Korea. The two measures, if implemented, would mark an escalation in US and South Korean efforts to put on a show of force against Pyongyang, and an admission that nuclear talks started by Donald Trump are unlikely to be revived."

Miriam Jordan & David Goodman of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday blocked the Biden administration from lifting a pandemic-related health order whose scheduled expiration on Monday would have thrown open the doors of the United States to asylum seekers at the border for the first time in more than two years. The ruling means further delays for thousands of people waiting for a chance to seek refuge in the United States, but it averts a potential crisis on the border by giving the administration more time to roll out its plan to handle the large numbers that are expected. Department of Homeland Security officials have said they were preparing for as many as 18,000 migrants a day, compared with 8,000 currently, if the order were lifted.... The sweeping public health measure, known as Title 42, was put into place in March 2020 to control the transmission of the coronavirus across the border. Under its authority, thousands of migrants arriving at land borders have been swiftly expelled, without an opportunity for those fleeing danger and persecution to request humanitarian protection in the United States."

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "... inflated fees [for Americans who received Social Security benefits in error] were set in motion during the Trump administration, when attorneys in charge of a little-known anti-fraud program run by the inspector general's office levied unprecedented fines against ... more than 100 ... beneficiaries without due process, according to interviews, documents and sworn testimony before an administrative law judge. In doing so, they disregarded regulations and deviated from how the program had recovered money since its inception in 1995, failing to take into account someone's financial state, their age, their intentions and level of remorse, among other factors.... Unlike in the past, the chief counsel also directed staff attorneys to charge those affected as much as twice the money they had received in error, on top of the fines, interviews and court testimony show.... Fines as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars were imposed on poor, disabled and elderly people, many of whom had no hope of ever being able to pay." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     ~~~ Marie: Pictured with the story is a grinning Aryan lady, the Trump appointee who ran the program. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. See especially his commentary in yesterday's thread.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani ... sat on Friday for a lengthy interview with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to people familiar with the closed-door interview. Mr. Giuliani's interview, which was virtual, lasted for more than seven hours, the people said. The interview was transcribed, and he was under oath. He took a break in the middle of it to host his hourlong afternoon radio show.... His centrality to [Donald] Trump's various attempts to subvert the election made him a potentially pivotal witness for the panel, with knowledge of details about interactions with members of Congress and others involved in the plans.... Earlier this month, he abruptly pulled out of a scheduled interview with the committee after the panel refused to let him record the session. He later dropped that objection and agreed to testify after the panel threatened to use its 'enforcement options.'..." CNN's report is here.

Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Arizona lawmakers after the 2020 election to set aside Joe Biden's popular-vote victory and choose 'a clean slate of Electors,' according to emails obtained by The Washington Post. The emails, sent by Ginni Thomas to a pair of lawmakers on Nov. 9, 2020, argued that legislators needed to intervene because the vote had been marred by fraud.... She told the lawmakers the responsibility to choose electors was 'yours and yours alone' and said they have 'power to fight back against fraud.'... In sending the emails, Thomas played a role in the extraordinary scheme to keep Trump in office by substituting the will of legislatures for the will of voters.... Thomas's name also appears on an email to the two representatives on Dec. 13, the day before members of the electoral college met.... 'Before you choose your state's Electors ... consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don't stand up and lead,' the email said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

      ~~~ The New York Times' story is here. A Guardian story is here.

Josh Gerstein & Kelly Hooper of Politico: "The manager of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid, Robby Mook, testified Friday that the campaign did not instruct or authorize a lawyer to go to the FBI with claims of a potential data link between then-candidate Donald Trump and a Russian bank owned by allies of ... Vladimir Putin. That lawyer -- former Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann -- is on trial in federal court in Washington on a felony false-statement charge brought by special counsel John Durham, who claims Sussmann lied to the FBI when he said he was not acting on behalf of any client in relaying indications and internet data stream between a Trump-related server and one for Moscow-based Alfa Bank. Called as a witness by Sussmann's defense, Mook told jurors that he would have vigorously opposed taking the allegations to the FBI because the campaign had no faith in the bureau after the FBI's then-director James Comey publicly blasted Clinton as he closed an investigation into her use of a private email account when she served as secretary of State. Asked if he would have favored handing the server information to the FBI, Mook said: 'Absolutely not.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Mook's testimony seems to put a huge dollop of reasonable doubt into Durham's Big Case. However, prosecutors claim that Sussmann also represented the DNC, so it's still possible DNC officials authorized him to go to the FBI. We should find out when the defense presents its case. The jury heard from Mook now instead of during the defense's rebuttal only because the judge allowed Mook to testify out of regular order.

Bigots' & Loonies' Convention Going Well. Flora Garamvolgyi and Julian Borger of the Guardian: "A notorious Hungarian racist who has called Jews 'stinking excrement', referred to Roma as 'animals' and used racial epithets to describe Black people, was a featured speaker at a major gathering of US Republicans in Budapest. Zsolt Bayer took the stage at the second day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Hungary, a convention that also featured speeches from Donald Trump, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and Trump's former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. The last featured speaker of the conference was Jack Posobiec, a far-right US blogger who has used antisemitic symbols and promoted the fabricated 'Pizzagate' conspiracy theory smearing prominent Democrats as pedophiles.... [Hungary's] nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, [was] the star speaker on the first day of CPAC Hungary...." MB: This report does make it seem as if Trump is becoming part of the fringe. CPAC was the venue, after all, in which Mitt Romney announced in 2012 that he was "severely conservative." You wouldn't catch Mitch pandering to this crowd now. We'll see what happens.

Annie Karni & Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "An ultraconservative archbishop in San Francisco said on Friday that Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California would not be permitted to receive communion in his archdiocese because of her support for abortion rights. Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, who has repeatedly confronted Ms. Pelosi over abortion, said in a letter on Friday that until Ms. Pelosi was willing to 'publicly repudiate' her position defending the 'legitimacy of abortion,' she would be banned from the sacrament, a central element of Catholic worship." MB: Which raises the question: Why would the Church put "an ultraconservative archbishop" in San Francisco, of all places?

Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "A chaotic day on Wall Street extended the longest period of market turmoil since 2001, with stocks on Friday briefly descending into bear market territory, a symbolic marker of investors' deep pessimism about the health of the global economy and the buying power of the American consumer. The S&P 500 has fallen for seven consecutive weeks, its worst stretch since the dot-com bubble burst more than two decades ago. After a 3 percent drop this week, the index is down 14 percent since early April. Friday afternoon, the S&P 500 crossed the bear market threshold of a 20 percent decline from its peak on Jan. 3. But with less than 30 minutes left before trading ended, after hours of churn and a drop of as much as 2.3 percent, the market rallied and ended a hair above where it had started the day."

Reuters, via the Guardian: "Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule has docked for the first time with the International Space Station, completing a major objective in a crucial test flight into orbit without astronauts aboard. The rendezvous of the gumdrop-shaped CST-100 Starliner with the orbital research outpost ... occurred on Friday nearly 26 hours after the capsule was launched from Cape Canaveral US Space Force Base in Florida. Starliner lifted off on Thursday atop an Atlas V rocket furnished by the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA) and reached its intended preliminary orbit 31 minutes later despite the failure of two onboard thrusters."

** Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "In a sign of growing concern among federal health officials about the spread of new coronavirus infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now saying that all people 50 or older should get a second booster shot if at least four months have passed since their first booster dose. Previously, the agency said those 50 and older had the option of the additional shot, but only encouraged people over 65 or with underlying medical conditions to get it. The new guidance, issued in a statement on the C.D.C.'s website on Thursday, also extends to anyone 12 and older with certain immune deficiencies. The C.D.C. said it was changing its advice because of a steady rise in infections over the past month, coupled with 'a steep and substantial increase in hospitalizations for older Americans.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Louisiana. Senator Cassidy: Don't Count Black Women. Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said Louisiana's maternal mortality rate -- one of the worst in the nation -- does not tell the whole story of maternal health in the state because of its large Black population and the uncommonly broad definition Louisiana uses. 'About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we;re not as much of an outlier as it'd otherwise appear,' Sen. Bill Cassidy said in an interview with Politico. 'Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.' The United States has the worst maternal mortality rate among developed nations." Cassidy is a medical doctor. MB: Could you find some way, Bill, to be a little more dismissive of Black women? They die too much for whatever reason.

Michigan. Amanda Terkel & Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: Jackie Eubanks, "Donald Trump's pick for a Michigan state Senate seat is promising to ban all birth control if she gets the chance. 'I guess we have to ask ourselves, would that ever come to a vote in the Michigan state legislature? And if it should, I would have to side with it should not be legal,' Republican Jacky Eubanks said in a recent interview.... I think it gives people the false sense of security that they can have consequence-free sex, and that's not true and that's not correct. Sex ought to be between one man and one woman in the confines of marriage.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ohio. Secessionist Challenges Kaptur. And He Could Win. Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "Ohio Republican congressional candidate J.R. Majewski said in a livestream following the 2020 election that he thought every state won by ... Donald Trump should secede from the United States. Majewski, who works in the nuclear industry and is an Air Force veteran, is already under scrutiny over his past promotion of the false QAnon conspiracy theory and his attendance at the January 6, 2020 'Stop the Steal' rally which preceded the Capitol riot. Majewski emerged victorious in a crowded Republican primary earlier this month and will face off against long-serving Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in the newly drawn congressional district this November. The race is considered to be competitive and is likely to be a toss up.... Before running for Congress, Majewski was best known as the Trump supporter who painted his front lawn into a 19,000-square-foot Trump 2020 sign." Worth clicking on to see what this jamoke looks like.

Pennsylvania. Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "Two decades before he was Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, Doug Mastriano warned in a master's thesis that the United States was vulnerable to a left-wing 'Hitlerian Putsch' that would begin with the dismantling of the U.S. military and end with the destruction of the country's democracy. The thesis, written in 2001 when Mastriano was a major at the Air Force's Air Command and Staff College, is highly unusual for its doomsaying and often fearful point of view, and its prediction that only the U.S. military could save the country from the depredations of the country's morally debauched civilian leaders.... The document displays a disgust for anyone who doesn't hold his view that homosexuality is a form of 'aberrant sexual conduct' and presages the worldview that has led Mastriano to blame rampant fraud for Donald Trump's 2020 defeat and to join a crowd headed toward the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Zach Montellaro & Holly Otterbein of Politico: "A little-watched federal court case could upend the neck-and-neck Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania between Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick. On Friday afternoon, a three-judge panel for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals issued a judgment saying election officials should count several hundred mail ballots that were submitted without a date written on their mailing envelopes in a November 2021 county judgeship election, as long as they were otherwise received on time. It was not immediately clear how sweeping the reach of the circuit court's ruling will be because a formal opinion from the panel is still forthcoming. But it could have a serious impact on the Senate race. Oz and McCormick were separated by about 1,100 votes as of Friday afternoon, and the ruling could introduce into the pool an as-yet-unknown number of similarly-situated ballots that would not have initially been counted."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, etc.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Severodonetsk, the easternmost city under Ukraine's control, is set to be the war's next major battlefield, with local officials reporting intense Russian shelling in recent days. Some 100 miles to Severodonetsk's west, a cultural center in the Kharkiv region was struck by a missile. Seven people were injured in the attack, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned as 'absolutely evil.'... Russia on Friday claimed full control of the Azovstal steel plant in the Black Sea port city of Mariupol, and said more than 1,900 Ukrainian fighters from the facility have surrendered -- though that figure drastically exceeds other estimates.... Finland's gas transmission network operator said early Saturday that Russia had stopped shipping natural gas. The move is not expected to disrupt the Nordic state's energy network, as Finland is able to make up the shortfall from elsewhere.... Britain also said it is working with partners to provide modern military equipment to Moldova, which is not a NATO member." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Saturday are here: "With Russia's campaign in Ukraine increasingly focused on the south and east, it is making 'incremental progress' in the Donbas region, according to the Pentagon spokesman.... President Biden on Saturday signed a new $40 billion package of military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, the latest step to help the nation combat Russia.... The Group of 7 economic powers agreed to provide nearly $20 billion to support Ukraine's economy over the coming months to help keep the country's government running." The Times' summary of events Friday is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. The Guardian's daily summary report is here.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. Christopher Clarey of the New York Times: "The men's and women's tennis tours responded to Wimbledon's ban on Russian and Belarusian players on Friday by stripping the event of ranking points this year, the most significant rebuke to date of efforts by global sports organizations to ostracize individual Russian athletes as punishment for their country;s invasion of Ukraine. It is a move without precedent in tennis, and without the points, Wimbledon, the oldest of the four Grand Slam tournaments, will technically be an exhibition event, bringing no ranking boost to those who excel on its pristine lawns this year.... Though Wimbledon, for now, is the only one of the four major tournaments to ban Russians and Belarusians, the power play by the tours could lead to countermeasures, including the possibility of Grand Slam events considering an alternative ranking system or aligning to make more decisions independently of the tours."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Robert J. Vlasic, who by combining a keen sense for business with an even keener sense of humor turned his family business into the nation's largest purveyor of pickles, gherkins, sauerkraut and a host of other briny condiments, died on May 8 at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. He was 96." ~~~

New York Times: "Roger Angell, the elegant and thoughtful baseball writer who was widely considered among the best America has produced, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 101.... For Mr. Angell, The New Yorker was, to some degree, the family shop. His mother, Katharine Sergeant Angell White, was among the magazine's first editors hired by Harold Ross in 1925. His stepfather, the essayist E.B. White, was a frequent contributor. Mr. Angell published his first piece in the magazine, a short story, in 1944 and went to work there in 1956."

New York Times: "Vangelis, the Greek film composer and synthesizer virtuoso whose soaring music for 'Chariots of Fire,' the 1981 movie about two British runners in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, won the Academy Award for best original score, died on Tuesday in Paris. He was 79." ~~~

May 20, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Arizona lawmakers after the 2020 election to set aside Joe Biden's popular-vote victory and choose 'a clean slate of Electors,' according to emails obtained by The Washington Post. The emails, sent by Ginni Thomas to a pair of lawmakers on Nov. 9, 2020, argued that legislators needed to intervene because the vote had been marred by fraud.... She told the lawmakers the responsibility to choose electors was 'yours and yours alone' and said they have 'power to fight back against fraud.'... In sending the emails, Thomas played a role in the extraordinary scheme to keep Trump in office by substituting the will of legislatures for the will of voters.... Thomas's name also appears on an email to the two representatives on Dec. 13, the day before members of the electoral college met to cast their votes and seal Biden's victory. 'Before you choose your state's Electors ... consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don't stand up and lead,' the email said."

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "... inflated fees [for Americans who received Social Security benefits in error] were set in motion during the Trump administration, when attorneys in charge of a little-known anti-fraud program run by the inspector general's office levied unprecedented fines against ... more than 100 ... beneficiaries without due process, according to interviews, documents and sworn testimony before an administrative law judge. In doing so, they disregarded regulations and deviated from how the program had recovered money since its inception in 1995, failing to take into account someone's financial state, their age, their intentions and level of remorse, among other factors.... Unlike in the past, the chief counsel also directed staff attorneys to charge those affected as much as twice the money they had received in error, on top of the fines, interviews and court testimony show.... Fines as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars were imposed on poor, disabled and elderly people, many of whom had no hope of ever being able to pay."

     ~~~ Marie: Pictured with the story is a grinning Aryan lady, the Trump appointee who ran the program. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. See especially his commentary in today's thread.

Michigan. Amanda Terkel & Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: Jackie Eubanks, "Donald Trump's pick for a Michigan state Senate seat is promising to ban all birth control if she gets the chance. 'I guess we have to ask ourselves, would that ever come to a vote in the Michigan state legislature? And if it should, I would have to side with it should not be legal,' Republican Jacky Eubanks said in a recent interview.... I think it gives people the false sense of security that they can have consequence-free sex, and that's not true and that's not correct. Sex ought to be between one man and one woman in the confines of marriage.'"

Pennsylvania. Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "Two decades before he was Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor, Doug Mastriano warned in a master's thesis that the United States was vulnerable to a left-wing 'Hitlerian Putsch' that would begin with the dismantling of the U.S. military and end with the destruction of the country's democracy. The thesis, written in 2001 when Mastriano was a major at the Air Force's Air Command and Staff College, is highly unusual for its doomsaying and often fearful point of view, and its prediction that only the U.S. military could save the country from the depredations of the country's morally debauched civilian leaders.... The document displays a disgust for anyone who doesn't hold his view that homosexuality is a form of 'aberrant sexual conduct' and presages the worldview that has led Mastriano to blame rampant fraud for Donald Trump's 2020 defeat and to join a crowd headed toward the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021."

~~~~~~~~~~

Aamer Madhani & Josh Boak of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Friday opened his trip to Asia by touring a South Korean computer chip factory that will be the model for another plant in Texas, offering it as a way to deepen ties with the Indo Pacific and fuel technological innovation and foster vibrant democracies. 'So much of the future of the world is going to be written here, in the Indo Pacific, over the next several decades,' Biden said. 'This is the moment, in my view, to invest in one another to deepen our business ties, to bring our people even closer together.'"

Cleve Wootson, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden touched down in South Korea on Friday in the first visit to Asia of his presidency.... Biden's first remarks here will nod to a top domestic priority for the administration, calling for final passage of a sweeping bill in Congress meant to boost U.S. competitiveness against China that House and Senate negotiators are scrambling to finalize.... Accompanied by newly inaugurated South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Biden will also tour a Samsung facility that will serve as a model for a plant the company is building in Texas -- a sample of the president's 'foreign policy for the middle class' ethos that has guided his administration.... Biden's visit will be the first head-of-state meeting for Yoon, a first-time politician with no foreign policy experience.... [The] visit kicks off amid signs that North Korea is preparing to conduct a nuclear test or a long-range ballistic missile test as early as this week...."

Peter Baker & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden embarked Thursday on his first diplomatic mission to Asia since taking office, hoping to demonstrate that the United States remained focused on countering China, even as his administration stage-managed a war against Russia in Europe. With his original strategy of pivoting foreign policy attention to Asia effectively blown up by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Biden has now shifted to the argument that there can be no trade-off between Europe and Asia and that only the United States can bring together the democracies of the East and West to stand up to autocracy and aggression in both spheres."

More Secret Service Agents Behaving Badly. Josh Margolin of ABC News: "Two Secret Service employees -- an agent and an armed physical security specialist -- in South Korea to prepare for President Joe Biden's impending arrival are being sent home after an alleged alcohol-fueled incident that ended with a report being filed with local police, according to two sources briefed on the situation. The personnel were assigned to help prepare for the presidential visit when they went out for dinner and then stopped at several bars, the sources told ABC News. As the evening progressed, the two Secret Service staffers became apparently intoxicated and the agent wound up in a heated argument with a cab driver, according to the sources."

David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Biden vowed on Thursday to speed Finland and Sweden to NATO membership, seeking to redraw the map of Europe to the West's advantage less than three months after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia began his invasion of Ukraine. In a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden with President Sauli Niinisto of Finland and Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden, Mr. Biden said he was immediately submitting to the Senate the treaty language needed to make the two countries the newest members of the alliance. Formal accession to the alliance will require the approval of the other 29 member nations as well.

"... Turkey -- which under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had a sometimes close and sometimes contentious relationship with Moscow -- has expressed objections that could slow the process and require negotiations to address its concerns.... Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met his Turkish counterpart in New York on Wednesday, and Finnish officials said they were in talks with Turkey as well. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden's national security adviser, expressed confidence that 'Turkey's concerns can be addressed' and that Finland and Sweden would ultimately be able to join the alliance. But Mr. Erdogan is famously unpredictable, and he could easily take advantage of his leverage as a potential spoiler to press for his own demands, including a lifting of sanctions on his country for its purchase of Russian-made antiaircraft systems."

Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "Pentagon spokesman John Kirby will move to the White House in a senior communications role, according to two people familiar with the personnel move. Kirby's move to the White House comes after Karine Jean-Pierre took over as White House press secretary from Jen Psaki, who left the administration last week. Kirby met with President Biden at the White House the day after he offered the press secretary job to Jean-Pierre. Kirby's exact title and role remain unclear." ~~~

~~~ Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times profiles Karine Jean-Pierre: "Karine Jean-Pierre began her debut briefing as President Biden's press secretary on Monday by acknowledging the unusual nature of her presence behind the White House lectern. 'I am a Black, gay, immigrant woman, the first of all three of those to hold this position,' she said. Left unsaid were the other ways in which her path to becoming the president's chief spokeswoman sharply diverged from that of her predecessors."

Tara Bahrampour of the Washington Post: "The 2020 Census undercounted people in six states and overcounted them in eight states, according to a post-count survey released Thursday by the Census Bureau.The results, along with other analyses by the bureau and outside researchers..., cannot legally be used to reapportion seats in the House of Representatives, which are calculated based on decennial census data. The bureau found that ... found that Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Illinois and Mississippi probably have more people than the census counted. It also found that Hawaii, New York, Minnesota, Utah, Massachusetts, Delaware, Rhode Island and Ohio probably have fewer people than the census counted.... Post-enumeration survey findings released earlier this year showed the 2020 Census missed counting Hispanics, Blacks and other typically undercounted minority groups and overcounted Whites and Asians at a higher rate than in 2010. The undercount for Hispanics more than tripled." An NPR report is here.

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The Senate voted Thursday to deliver more than $40 billion in new military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, sending the measure to President Biden after a week-long delay sparked by a lone senator's objection. The vote was 86 to 11, with all opposition to the package coming from Republicans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Related stories linked under "Way Beyond the Beltway" below.

Eugene Scott & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "House GOP leaders were among the 192 Republicans who voted against providing $28 million in aid to the Food and Drug Administration to address the shortage of baby formula -- within days of criticizing President Biden for not doing enough on the issue. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Whip Steve Scalise (La.) and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) voted late Wednesday against the measure to provide new FDA funding, which the House approved on a largely party-line vote of 231 to 192. Twelve Republicans broke ranks and joined with Democrats in backing the money. On a separate bill, the House voted Wednesday overwhelmingly to ease the burden on low-income parents by allowing the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program -- a major national purchaser of formula -- to source it from more foreign suppliers. The vote was 414 to 9 with all the opposition coming from Republicans. The Senate approved the legislation Thursday by voice vote. It now heads to Biden, who will sign it into law." Related story linked below under "Oklahoma." (Also linked yesterday.)

MEANWHILE. Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "It was only one half-hour into Wednesday's congressional hearing on abortion access when it became clear that the Republican contributions to the day would be loonier than a QAnon message board. 'In places like Washington D.C.,' fetuses are 'burned to power the light's of the city's homes and streets,' claimed Catherine Glenn Foster, who had, just minutes before, sworn not to lie under oath. The GOP-summoned witness let loose the wild and utterly false accusation that municipal electrical companies are powered by incinerated fetuses. 'The next time you turn on the light, think of the incinerators,' she said, apparently repeating a misleading talking point from the same anti-choice activists caught stashing fetuses at home.... [Foster] is a Georgetown law school graduate who is paid $190,000 a year to be the president of Americans United for Life, one of the largest anti-abortion non-profits in the country.... The GOP contributions to the hearing were a blizzard of bullshit, meant to totally white out the efforts by Democrats and reproductive rights activists to remind the public of the great human cost that results from banning abortion."

Emily Birnbaum & Marianne Levine of Politico: "Republican senators laid into a Google executive at the Capitol Wednesday over allegations that the company's filters target GOP emails as spam. It quickly turned confrontational. The Senate Republican Steering Committee, the policy arm of the Senate GOP, had invited Google's chief legal officer, Kent Walker, to discuss a recent study that found the company has disproportionately filtered Republican lawmakers' emails into hidden spam folders compared to emails from Democratic lawmakers. Walker said there is no bias in how Google deals with spam. The group lunch grew unusually tense, according to three people familiar with the meeting, granted anonymity to discuss private matters. 'The lunch was spirited,' said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of the more vocal attendees. 'Google deflected, refused to provide any data, repeatedly refused to answer direct questions.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gee, Ted, do you think the spam drop might be caused by the fact that you wingers write way more fake crap than Democrats do? I'll bet if you all quit lying -- as if you had the capacity to tell the truth -- you'd find that your spammed quotient went way down.

Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: "Congressional investigators have obtained a batch of official White House photographs, including images taken on Jan. 6, 2021, according to two sources familiar with the evidence. The previously unreported cache, which arrived via the National Archives, may provide the committee with real-time visual evidence of ... Donald Trump's actions and movements as a mob of his supporters battered their way into the Capitol and threatened the transfer of power to Joe Biden. At least some of the photos were taken by official White House photographer Shealah Craighead, the sources indicated.... Asked whether the panel had spoken to Craighead as a direct witness, [committee chair] Bennie Thompson said, 'Not yet.'" MB: Hope there's a time-stamped snap of Trump's stubby fingers trying to make a call on a $10 burner phone. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nicholas Wu & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The Jan. 6 select committee says it has reviewed evidence that reveals a Republican lawmaker, Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, gave a tour through the Capitol complex the day before a pro-Trump mob attacked. 'We believe you have information regarding a tour you led through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021,' Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) wrote to Loudermilk.... The committee noted that Republicans on the House Administration Committee, who had previously reviewed security footage from that day, had publicly claimed that there were 'no tours, no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on.' The GOP comments called into question allegations made by three dozen Democrats in the days after Jan. 6 that they observed suspicious, 'unusually large' groups, perhaps led by Republican lawmakers or staffers, walking through the Capitol complex in the days preceding the attack.... The select committee noted that Loudermilk is a member of the House Administration Committee. And they said their review of the evidence 'directly contradicts that denial.'" The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The committee's letter to Loudermilk, via the committee, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Consigliere Fingers the Capo. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "John Eastman, the attorney who architected Donald Trump's last-ditch legal strategy to overturn the 2020 election, revealed Friday that he routinely communicated with Trump either directly or via 'six conduits' during the chaotic weeks that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. In a late-night court filing urging a federal judge to maintain the confidentiality of his work for Trump, Eastman provided the clearest insight yet into the blizzard of communications between Trump, his top aides, his campaign lawyers and the army of outside attorneys who were working to help reverse the outcome in a handful of states won by Joe Biden. The filing also describes the direct role of Trump himself in developing strategy, detailing 'two hand-written notes from former President Trump about information that he thought might be useful for the anticipated litigation.' Those notes are among the documents Eastman is seeking to shield via attorney-client privilege."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "While little is known about what was said on the chat, the membership list of Friends of Stone, provided to The New York Times by one of its participants, offers a kind of road map to [Roger] Stone's associations, showing their scope and nature in the critical period after the 2020 election. During that time, Mr. Stone was involved with a strikingly wide array of people who participated in efforts to challenge the vote count and keep Mr. Trump in the White House.... As prosecutors deepen their inquiry into the storming of Capitol, the list suggests that Mr. Stone had the means to be in private contact with key players in the events of Jan. 6 -- political organizers, far-right extremists and influential media figures who subsequently played down the attack.... Members of the group were among those who took part in a conference call on Dec. 30, 2020, when a social media expert who formerly worked for Mr. Stone urged his listeners to 'descend on the Capitol' one week later, promising that Joseph R. Biden Jr. 'will never be in that White House.'"

Jamie Gangel & Evan Perez of CNN: "Former Attorney General William Barr has 'tentatively agreed to give sworn testimony behind closed doors' to the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations. Barr has already talked informally to the committee, including at a meeting at his home last fall with committee lawyers and committee Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, according to sources familiar with the matter. The meeting lasted approximately two hours, and it focused on interactions between Barr and ... Donald Trump before and after the election, according to one of the sources. The committee also inquired about Barr informing Trump there was no widespread election fraud."

How Not to Spend Winter Break. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A far-right Republican leader at UCLA with white supremacist ties pleaded guilty Thursday after admitting to sitting in Vice President Mike Pence's chair in the Senate during the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. Christian Secor, a member of America First Bruins, admitted to obstructing an official proceeding -- namely Congress's certification of the election of Joe Biden -- in a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A former top official at the FBI told a federal jury on Thursday that he was '100 percent confident' that Michael Sussmann, a prominent cybersecurity lawyer, said he wasn't acting on behalf of any of his clients when he gave the FBI information weeks before the 2016 presidential election about an alleged data link between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank. The daylong testimony from former FBI General Counsel James Baker in federal court in Washington backed the central claim of the narrow false-statement case special counsel John Durham brought against Sussmann last year: that he lied to Baker by hiding the involvement of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee in promoting the alleged link." The New York Times report is here.

Mitchell Clark of the Verge: "SpaceX reportedly paid a flight attendant $250,000 to ensure she didn't speak out or sue the company after Elon Musk allegedly exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, according to a report from Business Insider." Oh, read on.

Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "Boeing's Starliner spacecraft finally reached orbit Thursday on its way to docking with the International Space Station, completing a major step after two previous failed attempts that became part of the company's many woes and a symbol of its fall from grace. But the accomplishment was marred when at a postlaunch briefing, Boeing revealed that two of the four thrusters that were to put the spacecraft into the correct orbit failed."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "The United States has officially surpassed one million known deaths from Covid-19, according to a New York Times database.... [This is] the world's highest known total."

Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Thursday that children ages 5 to 11 get a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to boost their immunity as cases and hospitalizations tick upward in many pockets of the United States. CDC director Rochelle Walensky greenlit the recommendation Thursday evening, and she also encouraged parents of children in that age group who have not yet been vaccinated to get their first shot soon." Free to nonsubscribers.

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia Senate Race. Marc Caputo, et al., of NBC News: "Former Sen. David Perdue's once-spirited primary challenge to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appears to be sputtering in the homestretch ahead of Tuesday's vote. Even the man who recruited Perdue to run against Kemp -- ... Donald Trump -- seems to have given his campaign up for dead, said three Republicans who have spoken to Trump. They say Trump has groused about what he believes is a lackluster campaign effort from Perdue. Trump isn't planning to make any more personal appearances in Georgia in Perdue's behalf, having sunk enough of his own political capital in a race that looks like a lost cause, said a fourth source...."

Michigan. Cynthia McFadden, et al., of NBC News: "Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's top election official, faced an onslaught of threats after the 2020 presidential election for refusing to overturn results that showed Joe Biden had won the state.... She says she also received an especially disturbing piece of information: ... Donald Trump suggested in a White House meeting that she should be arrested for treason and executed.... 'It certainly amplified the heightened sense of anxiety, stress and uncertainty of that time -- which I still feel in many ways -- because it showed there was no bottom to how far he (Trump) and his supporters were willing to stoop to overturn or discredit a legitimate election,' [Benson said in an interview with NBC News.]"

Minnesota. Minnesota Public Radio: "The chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota apologized Thursday for an image that was projected at the party's state convention of George Soros manipulating the strings of puppets with the faces of two prominent Jewish Democrats. Republican Party Chair David Hann said in a statement that after speaking to staff at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, the party understands concerns that the imagery perpetuated an antisemitic trope.... The image was contained in a video shown by secretary of state candidate Kim Crockett. The faces on the puppets were DFL elections attorney Marc Elias and Secretary of State Steve Simon. Soros is also Jewish."

New York. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the second-highest-ranking Black lawmaker in Congress, has launched an aggressive effort to discredit a proposed congressional map that would divide historically Black neighborhoods in New York, likening its configurations to Jim Crow tactics. Mr. Jeffries is spending tens of thousands of dollars on digital advertising as part of a scorched-earth campaign to try to stop New York's courts from making the new map final without changes later this week. As construed, the map would split Bedford-Stuyvesant in central Brooklyn into two districts and Co-Op City in the Bronx into three, for example, while placing Black incumbents in the same districts -- changes that Mr. Jeffries argues violate the State Constitution.... Mr. Jeffries may be laying the groundwork for an eventual legal challenge, but his more immediate aim was to pressure Jonathan R. Cervas, New York's court-appointed special master, to change congressional and State Senate maps that he first proposed on Monday before he presents final plans to a state court judge for approval on Friday."

New York. Jesse McKinley & Lola Fadulu of the New York Times: "The accused gunman in Saturday's massacre at a supermarket in Buffalo appeared in court on Thursday morning.... The felony hearing, in Erie County court, was adjourned by a judge until June 9, largely a procedural step.... [The suspect] has pleaded not guilty, and appeared briefly in the courtroom, wearing an orange jumpsuit, amid heavy security. He faces life in prison if convicted, and continues to be held without bail, [Erie County D.A. John] Flynn said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "An emergency services dispatcher in Buffalo could be fired after being accused by a supermarket employee of hanging up on a 911 call during a racist shooting rampage at the store last week. The dispatcher, who has not been publicly identified, was placed on administrative leave on Monday after an internal investigation and faces a disciplinary hearing on May 30, at which 'termination will be sought,' Peter Anderson, a spokesman for the Erie County executive, said on Wednesday.... [Latisha] Rogers told The Buffalo News that she had called 911 while hiding from the gunman, whispering on the phone in hopes of eluding his notice. The dispatcher, she said, had admonished her. 'She was yelling at me, saying, "Why are you whispering? You don't have to whisper,"' Ms. Rogers told The News, 'and I was telling her, "Ma'am, he's still in the store. He's shooting. I'm scared for my life. I don't want him to hear me. Can you please send help?" She got mad at me, hung up in my face.' Ms. Rogers, 33, told The News she then called her boyfriend and told him to call 911." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Oklahoma, the State That Hates Women & Infants. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "The Oklahoma Legislature gave final approval on Thursday to a bill that prohibits nearly all abortions starting at fertilization, which would make it the nation's strictest abortion law. The bill subjects abortion providers and anyone who 'aids or abets' an abortion to civil suits from private individuals. It would take effect immediately if signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who has pledged to make his state the most anti-abortion in the nation." An NPR report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) A Mother Jones report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Good thing Stitt said "anti-abortion," not "pro-life." Because it seems that in Oklahoma, life ends at birth: "'There can be nothing higher or more critical than the defense of innocent, unborn life,' State Representative Jim Olsen, a Republican, said on Thursday on the floor of the Oklahoma House....' AND/BUT. While state legislators busied themselves condemning women and even children to carrying unwanted pregnancies to term, their friends in Washington were trying to make sure those neonates died nearly as soon as they saw the light. All five of Oklahoma's Members of the House, all Republicans, voted against funding the FDA to address the baby formula shortage. You are monsters.

Oklahoma. Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: "The three known remaining survivors of the 1921 massacre that saw a white mob kill hundreds of Black residents in Tulsa, Okla., have received a $1 million donation from a philanthropic group frustrated that the justice system has yet to compensate them. Hughes Van Ellis, 101, Viola Fletcher, 108, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 107, all survived the rampage, in which a mob burned more than 1,250 homes and erased years of Black success in Greenwood. Once a booming district known as Black Wall Street, Greenwood was made up of some 40 blocks of restaurants, hotels and theaters owned and run by Black entrepreneurs.... 'These families that were clearly wronged never really got any sense of reimbursement,' said Ed Mitzen, an entrepreneur and the co-founder of the organization Business for Good, who on Wednesday in Tulsa presented the survivors with a check to be split equally among them."

Pennsylvania Senate Race. Corrupt, Whining Liar Still Corrupt, Whining & Lying. Colby Itkowitz & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump escalated his baseless assault on Pennsylvania's elections Thursday even as other Republicans declined to embrace his stance and election officials cautioned that his rhetoric could further erode confidence in the democratic system. For the second day, Trump again questioned the legitimacy of mail-in ballots in the stat's too-close-to-call Republican Senate primary race as the former president's preferred candidate saw his narrow lead dwindle. A recount is basically assured as Mehmet Oz, who Trump endorsed, now leads David McCormick by just 1,080 votes with thousands of mail-in ballots left to count out of the million-plus that were cast.... 'That's not the least bit surprising given his history and what we know about Donald Trump,' [Sen. Pat] Toomey [(R-Pa.) who is retiring,] said of Trump's comments. 'It's much to Mehmet Oz's credit that he hasn't adopted that rhetoric and seems to be adhering to what used to be the conventional view that all the legal ballots should be counted.'"

South Carolina. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "A former sheriff's deputy in South Carolina who drove a jail van into floodwaters while transporting two women to a mental health center in 2018, causing them to drown in a cage in the back as the water rose, was convicted on Thursday and sentenced to 18 years in prison. A Marion County jury found Stephen Flood, a former deputy of the Horry County Sheriff's Office, guilty of two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of reckless homicide in the deaths of Nicolette Green, 43, and Wendy Newton, 45."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, etc.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "After Russia's near-total conquest of the southern city of Mariupol this week, Russian officials appeared to be laying the groundwork for annexing swaths of southeast Ukraine. They have already made changes in some areas, introducing the ruble currency, installing proxy politicians and cutting the population off from Ukrainian broadcasts. But in a sign that the Kremlin is recognizing its struggles elsewhere, it suspended at least two commanders whom it blamed for not capturing the northeast city of Kharkiv and for the sinking of the Russian flagship in the Black Sea, Britain's defense intelligence agency said in a report Thursday." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' summary of events Thursday is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here: "Ukrainian troops in the country's eastern region are fighting a Russian assault that President Volodymyr Zelensky described as 'hell.' 'Donbas is completely destroyed,' he said in a nightly address, accusing Russian forces of bombing the city of Severodonetsk." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here. A Guardian summary report is here.

Yousur Al-Hlou, et al., of the New York Times: "In two videos, Russian paratroopers march [men] at gunpoint along a street in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv. Some of the Ukrainian captives are hunched over, holding the belts of those in front of them. Others have their hands over their heads. 'Walk to the right, bitch,' one of the soldiers orders them. The videos, filmed on March 4 by a security camera and a witness in a nearby house and obtained by The New York Times, are the clearest evidence yet that the men were in the custody of Russian troops minutes before being executed. 'Hostages are lying there, against the fence,' the person filming one of the videos says. He counts: 'One, two, three, for sure, four, five, six ...' In total, nine people are being held. The men are forced to the ground.... The video ends. But eight witnesses recounted to The Times ... [that] soldiers took the men behind a nearby office building.... There were gunshots. The captives didn't return. A drone video filmed a day later ... showed the dead bodies lying on the ground by the side of the office building...."

Steve Hendrix & Claire Parker of the Washington Post: "A Russian soldier asked the widow of a slain Ukrainian civilian for 'forgiveness' in a dramatic Kyiv court session Thursday, as the trial of two other Russian soldiers began in central Ukraine. Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, the first Russian soldier to face a war crimes trial in Ukraine, pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian in the country's Sumy region. He is facing a life sentence. Prosecutors contend that Shishimarin, 21, who appeared gaunt, violated Ukrainian laws on war crimes when he fired multiple rounds from his Kalashnikov rifle at Oleksandr Shelipov, who was pushing his bicycle near the village of Chupakhivka in late February.... 'Ensign Kafurov ordered the shooting,' Shishimarin said in court, according to reports in Ukrainian media. 'I refused. Then another soldier ordered me to shoot in a threatening tone, arguing that [Shelipov] would betray us. I fired a short burst.'... Acting on orders does not absolve individual soldiers of responsibility for war crimes, according to experts."

Germany. Amy Cheng of the Washington Post: "Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder is facing pressure from his own party, as well as from the European Union, to resign from his board position with Russian state energy giant Rosneft. On Thursday, Schröder was stripped of his office and staff, according to a spokesman for Germany's Green Party. The announcement came one day after representatives from three German political parties said in a statement that the parliament's budget committee was putting in place a new regulation linking the benefits to which former chancellors are entitled to whether they have any official duties. In the same week, a draft resolution put forth by the four largest parties in the European Parliament, the legislative body of the E.U., 'strongly demands' that Schröder resign from Rosneft."

Israel. Shira Rubin of the Washington Post: "A Palestinian Israeli lawmaker on Thursday announced her resignation from Israel's ruling coalition, citing the government's support of Jewish right-wing groups and the recent killing of a prominent Palestinian American journalist. The lawmaker, Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, was the second Knesset member to quit Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's ruling coalition in the past two months, raising the prospect of new elections as the government struggles to keep power amid a surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence."

News Lede

AP: "Two people are dead and another eight wounded following a shooting near a fast food restaurant in Chicago that sent bystanders scattering, authorities said. The shooting happened about 10:40 p.m. Thursday near a McDonald's on the city's Near North Side, a few blocks from the city's Magnificent Mile shopping district. One person was taken into custody and a weapon was recovered, police said in statement."