July 14, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "The Biden administration announced Friday that it will wipe out $39 billion in student debt for more than 800,000 borrowers, relief that comes weeks after the Supreme Court invalidated a separate, broader effort by President Biden to address student loan debt. Unlike the broad forgiveness Mr. Biden originally attempted to provide, the forthcoming debt discharges by the Department of Education are narrower, stemming from 'fixes' announced by the administration in April 2022 to ensure borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that go toward forgiveness. The new student debt plan also relies on a different law than the one that was struck down by the Supreme Court." A Washington Post story is here.

Flippity-Flip-Flip? Alexander Mallin, et al., of ABC News: "The special counsel investigating ... Donald Trump's handling of classified documents has taken new steps to examine possible efforts to obstruct the probe, threatening potential charge against a Trump Organization employee who is suspected of lying to investigators.... Special counsel Jack Smith in recent weeks transmitted a target letter to the staffer indicating that he might have perjured himself during a May appearance before the federal grand jury hearing evidence in the classified documents probe.... The target letter to the employee ... signals Smith's growing interest in the Trump Organization's handling of the surveillance footage and potential efforts to avoid sharing it with investigators.... Stanley Woodward, a lawyer who has represented the employee and who represents several other Trump advisers, declined to comment to ABC News." The New York Times story is here.

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "In his latest legal maneuver, Donald J. Trump sought a court order on Friday that would throw out the work of an Atlanta special grand jury and disqualify Fani T. Willis, the prosecutor leading an investigation into election interference in Georgia. A decision on indictments looms in the investigation, which has been in progress for more than two years." CNN's story is here.

A billionaire using donor money to pay personal legal fees, and now paying his wife more than 2x what the average American makes just to pick some tableware. There's grifting and then there's Trump grifting. Undisputed champs. -- Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ~~~

~~~ Trump Pays Melanie Three Figures for Setting the Table at Home. Shane Goldmacher & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A super PAC aligned with ... Donald J. Trump paid Melania Trump $155,000 in late 2021, an unusual payment that was not visible in the group's initial federal reports and came to light only in a filing by Mr. Trump on Thursday.... It is rare for the spouse of a potential presidential candidate to be paid directly by a campaign or an outside group affiliated with the candidate.... [A] representative for the super PAC ... said that Ms. Trump had been hired through her agency for 'design consulting' for the old super PAC's dinner and that her responsibilities included choosing tableware, arranging settings and picking floral arrangements. The fee was $125,000, and the second $30,000 payment was for additional services rendered out of the scope of the first contract, the representative said.... The December 2021 payment to Ms. Trump coincided with a private fund-raising dinner that the super PAC held at Mar-a-Lago and that Mr. Trump attended."

Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: "Representative George Santos, the New York Republican facing federal criminal charges, reported raising about $150,000 for his re-election campaign from April through June -- a modest sum that he mostly used to pay back money he had lent to his past congressional bids. The contributions came from roughly 50 donors, only four of whom reported living inside Mr. Santos's Queens and Long Island district, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission on Friday. A plurality of the donors said they lived in California, and, when reached for comment, some said they had given money to the congressman as a gag."

** Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "... watching Republicans vomit conspiracy theories at [FBI Director Christopher] Wray, the name that came to my mind was ... Timothy McVeigh, the right-wing terrorist who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people. McVeigh and his co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, were motivated by anti-government conspiracy theories that sounded very much like the garbage being peddled by Republican congressmen during Wednesday's hearing.... McVeigh's views would have been right at home with what House Republicans were spouting Wednesday: That the U.S. government is being secretly run by a decadent 'elite' that wants to brainwash right wing Americans.... It's the same conspiracy theory [that] .. dates back to the overtly anti-semitic conspiracy theories that motivated the Nazis.... The anger was over federal authorities prosecuting white men who thought themselves above law." Marcotte links the conspiracy theory to Ron DeSantis' flying "the others" out of his domain of Florida & Tommy Tuberville's effort to "debate" white nationalism.

Senior Federal Judge Michael Ponsor, in a New York Times op-ed: "... if there will not be formal ethical constraints on our Supreme Court -- or even if there will be -- its justices must have functioning noses. They must keep themselves far from any conduct with a dubious aroma, even if it may not breach a formal rule..... You don't just stay inside the lines; you stay well inside the lines. This is not a matter of politics or judicial philosophy. It is ethics in the trenches."

Haley Talbot & Clare Foran of CNN: "The House voted Friday to pass a sweeping defense policy bill following a contentious debate and the adoption of controversial amendments that touched on hot-button social issues. The addition of amendments pushed by conservative hardliners related to abortion policy and transgender health care access as well as targeting diversity and inclusion programs infuriated Democrats and led to push back from some moderate Republicans -- and will now set up a clash with the Senate."

~~~~~~~~~~

Steve Holland & Essi Lehto of Reuters: "President Joe Biden on Thursday gave his assurance that the United States would stay committed to NATO despite 'extreme elements' of the Republican Party, in remarks during a visit to Finland to welcome it as the alliance's latest member. 'I absolutely guarantee it,' Biden told a press conference when pressed by a Finnish reporter about the U.S. commitment to NATO given political instability in the United States. Biden's predecessor..., Donald Trump, threatened to take the United States out of the alliance.... Concern lingers in Europe about the reliability of U.S. pledges and global alliances, years after Trump's norm-busting presidency ended. Trump clashed with NATO leaders over funding the alliance and threatened to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Germany." ~~~

~~~ Michael Mitsanas of NBC News: "President Joe Biden denounced Sen. Tommy Tuberville's blockade of hundreds of military nominations during a joint press conference with Finland's president on Thursday, calling the Republican's actions 'totally irresponsible.'... 'I expect the Republican party to stand up -- stand up and do something about it,' Biden [said].... Biden's remarks come as criticism of the Senator's blockade continues to mount and shortly after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told CNN on Thursday that the impasse is affecting both national security and military readiness." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Matthew Perrone of the AP: "U.S. officials have approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill.... The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it cleared Perrigo's once-a-day Opill to be sold without a prescription, making it the first such medication to be moved out from behind the pharmacy counter. The company won't start shipping the pill until early next year, and there will be no age restrictions on sales.... 'This is really a transformation in access to contraceptive care,' said Kelly Blanchard, president of Ibis Reproductive Health, a non-profit group that supported the approval.... Forcing insurers to cover over-the-counter birth control would require a regulatory change by the federal government, which women's advocates are urging the Biden administration to implement." Update: A New York Times report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Alisha Gupta of the New York Times has more on the over-the-counter pill. (Also linked yesterday.)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Carol Leonnig & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Secret Service has closed its investigation into who may have brought a plastic bag of cocaine into the White House this month after lab results were inconclusive about possible suspects, according to two people briefed on the probe. The Secret Service sent the bag that had contained the powder to an FBI lab to look for traces of DNA and fingerprints, but neither form of testing yielded definitive results, the agency said. Nor was any surveillance video found that provided any investigative leads, officials added." CNN's report is here. MB: If only the Secret Service had asked Jim Comer's "investigators" for help, they probably would have found, right where the baggie was found, a leather razor blade case embossed Hunter." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The teevee pundits were not impressed. Andrew Weissmann said, "Those guys couldn't find a dead cow in a closet." ~~~

     ~~~ Donald Trump opines on who put the coke in the public cellphone cubby: "In my opinion, it's Hunter and probably Joe. Because you watch Joe at the beginning of a speech and he's got a little life -- not much -- but by the end of the speech, he's a disaster. He can't find his way off the stage. So, there's something going on there, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was for both of them. I think it's for both of them."

Marie: Speaking of teevee pundits, none of them I heard indicated they agreed with me that Trump's running for president* was no excuse for delaying his criminal trial schedule, but Jack Smith & his deputy David Harbach do: ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Special counsel Jack Smith's team sharply rebuked Donald Trump's bid to postpone until after the 2024 election his criminal trial for allegedly hoarding classified documents, characterizing the former president's call for delay as unfounded and one of his key legal arguments as 'borderline frivolous.' In an 11-page filing signed by assistant special counsel David Harbach, prosecutors said..., 'The Defendants ... should not be permitted to gesture at a baseless legal argument, call it "novel" and then claim the court will require an indefinite continuance in order to resolve it.'... [Prosecutors asserted that] federal law and the Constitution require the trial to be put on as soon as practical -- not with an 'open-ended' date built around Trump's political calendar.... The demands of Defendants' professional schedules do not provide a basis to delay trial in this case,' Harbach wrote. 'Many indicted defendants have demanding jobs that require a considerable amount of their time and energy, or a significant amount of travel. The Speedy Trial Act contemplates no such factor as a basis for a continuance, and the Court should not indulge it here.'

"The filing also provided a new glimpse into the volume of evidence prosecutors obtained, describing 4,500 pages of 'key' documents that they have flagged for Trump's attorneys out of a larger 800,000-page batch of unclassified evidence. About a third of those 800,000 pages -- a figure Trump cited as a basis to delay the trial -- are content-free email headers and footers, the special counsel team indicated.In addition, prosecutors have turned over the vast majority of unclassified information to Trump's legal team...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors investigating ... Donald J. Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election have questioned multiple witnesses in recent weeks -- including Mr. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner -- about whether Mr. Trump had privately acknowledged in the days after the 2020 election that he had lost, according to four people briefed on the matter.... Others in Mr. Trump's orbit who interacted with him in the weeks after the 2020 election, who have potentially more damaging accounts [than may Mr. Kushner] of Mr. Trump's behavior, have been questioned by the special counsel's office recently. Among them is Alyssa Farah Griffin, the White House communications director in the days after the 2020 election. Repeating an account she provided last year to the House select committee on Jan. 6, she told prosecutors this spring that Mr. Trump had said to her in the days after the election: Can you believe I lost to Joe Biden? 'In that moment I think he knew he lost,' Ms. Griffin told the House committee.... Some aides and allies [-- including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley --] who interacted with Mr. Trump in the days after the election have previously disclosed that Mr. Trump indicated that he knew he lost the election." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Kaitlan Collins & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Former Trump aide Hope Hicks also went before the grand jury, according to two sources familiar, testifying in early June. Some of the questions being asked in the grand jury were about whether Donald Trump was told he had lost the election, according to one of the sources familiar."

Michael Kranish, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump disclosed new details about roughly $1 billion in earnings in a revised financial filing covering 2021 through part of this year, including money from foreign ventures, speaking fees and a Florida golf course.... Trump's detailing of the more than $1 billion came from sources including hotel sales, golf revenue and licensing fees in the July disclosure. His April filing, which did not provide exact numbers on his income, reported more than 25 sources of income over $5 million." The fact that the director of the Office of Government Ethics did not sign off on Trump's original April filing suggests that the original filing was not satisfactory. MB: Yeah, there's kind of a difference between $1BB & $5MM. (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer & Zach Montague of the New York Times: "A butcher from Maine who assaulted five police officers during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Thursday to more than seven years in prison. The butcher, Kyle Fitzsimons, arrived at the Capitol that day in ... a traditional white coat, a black apron and rubber boots. Mr. Fitzsimons, a recreational trapper, was also carrying a six-foot-long unstrung archery bow and a fur pelt draped across his neck. Approaching a tunnel at the Capitol's Lower West Terrace, prosecutors say, Mr. Fitzsimons, 39, hurled his bow like a spear at a crowd of officers, striking one in the head. Over the next several minutes, he attacked four more officers in a spree of aggression that led prosecutors to describe him in recent court papers as 'one of the most violent' rioters." ~~~

Patriot tourist Kyle Fitzsimons -- the Butcher of Maine -- visits the Capitol January 6, 2021.     ~~~ Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "Fitzsimons, 39..., twice charged into the phalanx of officers protecting the upper West Terrace tunnel on the afternoon of Jan. 6, at one point grabbing the shield strap and wrenching the shoulder of Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell. The officer testified that the pain was so bad he considered using his gun to shoot Fitzsimons before he was freed. He suffered a partially torn rotator cuff and labrum, and was forced to take a medical retirement." MB: I reckon the Butcher of Maine looks a lot more like the crazed maniac in a "B" horror movie than like a typical patriotic tourist visiting the Capitol of an afternoon. But hey, that's just my opinion.

Rachel Weiner & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "On Jan. 6, 2021, Alan Hostetter and Russell Taylor were shoulder to shoulder in the battle they had predicted would come if the 2020 presidential election results unseating ... Donald Trump were not discarded.... But last week, the two squared off in a federal courtroom, with Taylor admitting from the witness box that what they had cast as a patriotic cause was a criminal conspiracy to keep Congress from doing its work. Hostetter, acting as his own attorney, was accusing his former friend of taking part in a much broader conspiracy orchestrated by the federal government. A police chief turned yoga instructor who helped organize a 'brigade' of Californians on Jan. 6, Hostetter was convicted Thursday of four felonies -- conspiring to obstruct and obstructing an official proceeding, and trespassing and engaging in disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon."

Extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to hijack the historically bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act to continue attacking reproductive freedom and jamming their right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people. -- Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Katherine Clark (Mass.) & Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the top House Democratic leaders, who said they would vote against the bill ~~~

~~~ Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "The fate of the annual defense bill was in doubt on Friday, after Republicans loaded the legislation with a raft of conservative social policy restrictions limiting access to abortions, gender transition procedures and diversity training for military personnel, alienating Democrats whose votes G.O.P. leaders had seen as crucial to passing the legislation. Democrats pledged to oppose the bill in a vote expected on Friday morning, accusing G.O.P. leaders of having turned what began as a bipartisan bill into a hyper-politicized salvo in a wider culture war to please a small, right-wing faction of their party."

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "A divided House voted on Thursday to restrict abortion access, bar transgender health services and limit diversity training for military personnel, potentially imperiling passage of the annual defense bill as Republicans, goaded by their right flank, loaded the measure with conservative policy dictates. The House voted 221 to 213 to overturn a Pentagon policy guaranteeing abortion access to service members regardless of where they are stationed, with Republicans propelling it to passage over near-unanimous Democratic opposition. By a vote of 222 to 211, the House also adopted a measure to bar the military's health plan from covering gender-transition surgeries -- which currently can be covered only with a waiver -- and gender-affirming hormone therapy. And the chamber voted 214 to 213 to eliminate the Pentagon's offices of diversity, equity and inclusion, along with all of their personnel."

Mychael Schnell & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "A Republican lawmaker on Thursday referred to African Americans as 'colored people' on the House floor, prompting outrage from Democrats and a quick rebuke from the chamber's presiding officer. Rep. Eli Crane (R), an Arizona freshman, was reprimanded after he took to the floor to promote an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that he says will rein in Defense Department 'wokeness' -- a racially charged concept that has divided the parties and the country in recent years." Crane later said he "misspoke."

Now, This Is Originalism. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) suggested on the House floor that because the phrase 'humanitarian aid for women and children in Afghanistan' is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, such aid is unconstitutional." MB: Never underestimate the stupidity of Congressional Republicans. I've been waiting for someone to espouse such a preposterous, uh, "literal reading" of the Constitution. I do want to thank Rep. Luna for not letting me down. I would like to suggest to her that many bills are hundreds of pages long and contain nary a phrase nor clause lifted from the Constitution.

Republicans Use Another Hearing to Prove They're Ignorant Boors. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Republicans on Thursday accused John Kerry, President Biden's special envoy for climate, of being soft on China as he prepared to travel to Beijing to restart discussions between the world's top two polluting countries. In a contentious hearing before a House Committee on Foreign Affairs panel, Republicans attacked Mr. Kerry for not doing enough to persuade China to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, several also sought to portray Mr. Kerry as putting Chinese interests above those of the United States by negotiating with America's top economic rival. Mr. Kerry expects to arrive in China on Sunday for three days of climate talks. He told lawmakers that he believes the Chinese government must reverse its growing use of coal-fired power plants, which has helped to make it the world's biggest polluter. But he also made a point of praising China for deploying more wind, solar and other renewable energy than the rest of the world combined....

"Representative Brian Mast, Republican of Florida, told Mr. Kerry he was 'not representing the United States of America' but rather a 'far-left radical agenda.' Representative Cory Mills, also a Florida Republican, sarcastically thanked Mr. Kerry for taking the time to fly in on his 'private jet.' Mr. Kerry called Mr. Mills's comment 'pretty stupid' and said he does not own a private jet but flies commercial. Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, showed charts he claimed proved the world is not warming. That prompted Mr. Kerry to call the lawmaker's views, which run counter to the conclusion of scientists around the globe, 'shocking.' Mr. Perry retorted, 'They're grifters, like you are, sir,' eliciting gasps from both sides of the aisle." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It is hardly surprising, but well-illustrated here, that Congressional Republicans understand nothing about diplomacy or negotiating tactics. The idea of speaking respectfully to those with whom you disagree is as foreign to them as China itself. In any event, I, for one, am relieved. Until I read Scott Perry's ludicrous assertions, I was beginning to lose faith in Republicans' propensity to deny climate change. So thanks, Scott. You're "pretty stupid," too.

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Democrats in Congress are making a fresh push for the nearly century-old Equal Rights Amendment to be enshrined in the Constitution, rallying around a creative legal theory in a bid to revive an amendment that would explicitly guarantee sex equality as a way to protect reproductive rights in post-Roe America. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representative Cori Bush of Missouri are set to introduce a joint resolution on Thursday stating that the measure has already been ratified and is enforceable as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The resolution states that the national archivist, who is responsible for the certification and publication of constitutional amendments, must immediately do so.... While almost 80 percent of Americans supported adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution in a 2020 Pew Research Center poll, there is little chance that the effort will draw the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.... In April, Senate Republicans blocked a similar resolution that sought to remove an expired deadline for states to ratify the amendment." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I get that a lot of Republicans -- especially men, but not only men -- are misogynists, but like racism, that's something elected politicians usually try to hide. What rationale can they say out loud to oppose equal rights for women?

How they plead poverty, that they're losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their C.E.O.s. It is disgusting. Shame on them! -- SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher ~~~

~~~ Brooks Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The Hollywood actors’ union approved a strike on Thursday for the first time in 43 years, bringing the $134 billion American movie and television business to a halt over anger about pay and fears of a tech-dominated future. The leaders of SAG-AFTRA, the union representing 160,000 television and movie actors, announced the strike after negotiations with studios over a new contract collapsed, with streaming services and artificial intelligence at the center of the standoff. On Friday, the actors will join screenwriters, who walked off the job in May, on picket lines in New York, Los Angeles and the dozens of other American cities where scripted shows and movies are made."

2020 Presidential Election. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, CNN teased an upcoming interview between host Chris Wallace and Ronna McDaniel, the ... chair of the RNC. In the clip, Wallace asks McDaniel when she stopped being an 'election denier' -- that is, someone who espouses skepticism about the validity of the election results. And, surprise! McDaniel never stopped.... 'I think there were lots of problems with 2020. Ultimately [Joe Biden] won the election, but there were lots of problems with the 2020 election,' she said [after Wallace pressed her]. 'I don't think he won it fair. I don't. I'm not going to say that.'" Since Republicans have never been able to produce any evidence of significant fraud, their fallback response is that Biden won, but only because he cheated somehow. MB: This is pathetic projection.

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "Arizona's top prosecutor is ramping up a criminal investigation into alleged attempts by Republicans to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state by signing and transmitting paperwork falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner, according to two people familiar with the investigation. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) assigned a team of prosecutors to the case in May, and investigators have contacted many of the pro-Trump electors and their lawyers, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the probe. Investigators have requested records and other information from local officials who administered the 2020 election, the two people said, and a prosecutor has inquired about evidence collected by the Justice Department and an Atlanta-area prosecutor for similar probes." (Also linked yesterday.)

Florida. Sam Levine & Andrew Witherspoon of the Guardian: "Florida Republicans have hit dozens of voter registration groups with thousands of dollars of fines, the latest salvo in an alarming crackdown on voting in the state led by Governor Ron DeSantis. At least 26 groups have cumulatively racked up more than $100,000 in fines since September of last year, according to a list that was provided by Florida officials to the Guardian. The groups include both for-profit and nonprofit organizations as well as political parties, including the statewide Republican and Democratic parties of Florida. The fines, which range from $50 to tens of thousands of dollars, were levied by the state's office of election crimes and security, a first-of-its-kind agency created at the behest of DeSantis in 2022 to investigate voter fraud. Voter fraud is extremely rare.... There has already been a drop in voter registrations this year compared with 2019 -- the last full year leading into a presidential election.... A crackdown on third-party voter registration groups is also likely to disproportionately affect Floridians of color, who are about five times more likely to register with third-party groups than white voters are."

New York. Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "A New York appeals court on Thursday ordered an independent commission to redraw the state's congressional map, signaling an opportunity for Democrats to regain House seats after redistricting contributed to Republicans flipping four districts in 2022.... But Thursday's ruling is expected to be appealed to the state's top court, the Court of Appeals, which will make the final decision."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "U.S.-provided cluster munitions have arrived in Ukraine, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said Thursday, a week after President Biden said he had made the 'very difficult decision' to provide Kyiv with the widely banned weapon." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Friday is here: "The Pentagon has assessed that Wagner, the Russian mercenary group that conducted a brief but dramatic mutiny against the Kremlin last month, is not 'participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine.'... Ukrainian forces will seek to use cluster munitions 'in a tactical environment,' unlike Russia, which has employed the munitions 'against civilian communities,' [U.S. Lt. General Douglas A. Sims II, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's director of operations,] said. Ukrainians also 'understand the potential for duds,' Sims added.... [President] Zelensky's tweet this week challenging NATO leaders on the pace of his war-torn country's admission into the alliance so roiled the White House that U.S. officials considered scaling back the 'invitation' for Kyiv to join, according to six people familiar with the matter, The Post's Michael Birnbaum reports.... The U.S. House voted against measures aimed at halting U.S. assistance for Ukraine..., The Post reported. The International Olympic Committee confirmed that Russia and Belarus will not receive formal invitations to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics." ~~~

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

Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: "Five House Republican-backed initiatives to curtail aid to Ukraine using the annual Pentagon policy bill were shot down Thursday afternoon in votes that saw a consensus from both sides of the aisle to keep money flowing to Kyiv. The Ukraine-related amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would have effectively limited or rolled back U.S. involvement in Ukraine, but a majority of Republicans joined Democrats in opposition to the proposals. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) put forth one amendment to strike $300 million in Ukraine funding that failed 89-341, with 130 Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against it. Another proposal from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), which would have prohibited all security assistance for Ukraine, similarly failed 70-358 on the House floor, with 149 Republicans opposing it."

Popov Pop-off. Paul Sonne & Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: "A top Russian general in Ukraine has lashed out at his bosses after being fired from his command, accusing them of undermining the war effort with dishonesty and politicking, in the latest sign of turmoil within the Kremlin's military leadership. In a four-minute recording released late Wednesday night, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov addressed his troops.... His firing, and the unusual public airing of his grievances, reflected the disarray that has roiled Russia's military command since a failed mutiny three weeks ago.... Since the mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group and its boss, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, several senior officers have been detained or pushed out of their posts, according to a person close to the Russian military, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons." The Guardian's story is here.

July 13, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Marie: None of the teevee pundits I heard indicated they agreed with me that Trump's running for president* should have no effect on his criminal trial schedule, but Jack Smith & his deputy David Harbach do: ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Special counsel Jack Smith's team sharply rebuked Donald Trump's bid to postpone until after the 2024 election his criminal trial for allegedly hoarding classified documents, characterizing the former president's call for delay as unfounded and one of his key legal arguments as 'borderline frivolous.' In an 11-page filing signed by assistant special counsel David Harbach, prosecutors said..., 'The Defendants ... should not be permitted to gesture at a baseless legal argument, call it "novel" and then claim the court will require an indefinite continuance in order to resolve it.'... [Prosecutors asserted that] federal law and the Constitution require the trial to be put on as soon as practical -- not with an 'open-ended' date built around Trump's political calendar.... The demands of Defendants' professional schedules do not provide a basis to delay trial in this case,' Harbach wrote. 'Many indicted defendants have demanding jobs that require a considerable amount of their time and energy, or a significant amount of travel. The Speedy Trial Act contemplates no such factor as a basis for a continuance, and the Court should not indulge it here.'

"The filing also provided a new glimpse into the volume of evidence prosecutors obtained, describing 4,500 pages of 'key' documents that they have flagged for Trump's attorneys out of a larger 800,000-page batch of unclassified evidence. About a third of those 800,000 pages -- a figure Trump cited as a basis to delay the trial -- are content-free email headers and footers, the special counsel team indicated.In addition, prosecutors have turned over the vast majority of unclassified information to Trump's legal team...."

Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors investigating ... Donald J. Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election have questioned multiple witnesses in recent weeks -- including Mr. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner -- about whether Mr. Trump had privately acknowledged in the days after the 2020 election that he had lost, according to four people briefed on the matter.... Others in Mr. Trump's orbit who interacted with him in the weeks after the 2020 election, who have potentially more damaging accounts [than may Mr. Kushner] of Mr. Trump's behavior, have been questioned by the special counsel's office recently. Among them is Alyssa Farah Griffin, the White House communications director in the days after the 2020 election. Repeating an account she provided last year to the House select committee on Jan. 6, she told prosecutors this spring that Mr. Trump had said to her in the days after the election: Can you believe I lost to Joe Biden? 'In that moment I think he knew he lost,' Ms. Griffin told the House committee.... Some aides and allies [-- including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley --] who interacted with Mr. Trump in the days after the election have previously disclosed that Mr. Trump indicated that he knew he lost the election."

Steve Holland & Essi Lehto of Reuters: "President Joe Biden on Thursday gave his assurance that the United States would stay committed to NATO despite 'extreme elements' of the Republican Party, in remarks during a visit to Finland to welcome it as the alliance's latest member. 'I absolutely guarantee it,' Biden told a press conference when pressed by a Finnish reporter about the U.S. commitment to NATO given political instability in the United States.... Donald Trump, threatened to take the United States out of the alliance.... Concern lingers in Europe about the reliability of U.S. pledges and global alliances, years after Trump's norm-busting presidency ended. Trump clashed with NATO leaders over funding the alliance and threatened to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Germany." ~~~

~~~ Michael Mitsanas of NBC News: "President Joe Biden denounced Sen. Tommy Tuberville's blockade of hundreds of military nominations during a joint press conference with Finland's president on Thursday, calling the Republican's actions 'totally irresponsible.'... 'I expect the Republican party to stand up -- stand up and do something about it,' Biden [said].... Biden's remarks come as criticism of the Senator's blockade continues to mount and shortly after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told CNN on Thursday that the impasse is affecting both national security and military readiness."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Democrats in Congress are making a fresh push for the nearly century-old Equal Rights Amendment to be enshrined in the Constitution, rallying around a creative legal theory in a bid to revive an amendment that would explicitly guarantee sex equality as a way to protect reproductive rights in post-Roe America. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representative Cori Bush of Missouri are set to introduce a joint resolution on Thursday stating that the measure has already been ratified and is enforceable as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The resolution states that the national archivist, who is responsible for the certification and publication of constitutional amendments, must immediately do so.... While almost 80 percent of Americans supported adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution in a 2020 Pew Research Center poll, there is little chance that the effort will draw the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.... In April, Senate Republicans blocked a similar resolution that sought to remove an expired deadline for states to ratify the amendment." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I get that a lot of Republicans -- especially men, but not only men -- are misogynists, but like racism, that's something elected politicians usually try to hide. What rationale can they say out loud to oppose equal rights for women?

** Matthew Perrone of the AP: "U.S. officials have approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill.... The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it cleared Perrigo's once-a-day Opill to be sold without a prescription, making it the first such medication to be moved out from behind the pharmacy counter. The company won't start shipping the pill until early next year, and there will be no age restrictions on sales.... 'This is really a transformation in access to contraceptive care,' said Kelly Blanchard, president of Ibis Reproductive Health, a non-profit group that supported the approval.... Forcing insurers to cover over-the-counter birth control would require a regulatory change by the federal government, which women's advocates are urging the Biden administration to implement." Update: A New York Times report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Alisha Gupta of the New York Times has more on the over-the-counter pill.

Carol Leonnig & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Secret Service has closed its investigation into who may have brought a plastic bag of cocaine into the White House this month after lab results were inconclusive about possible suspects, according to two people briefed on the probe. The Secret Service sent the bag that had contained the powder to an FBI lab to look for traces of DNA and fingerprints, but neither form of testing yielded definitive results, the agency said. Nor was any surveillance video found that provided any investigative leads, officials added." CNN's report is here. MB: If only the Secret Service had asked Jim Comer's "investigators" for help, they probably would have found, right where the baggie was found, a leather razor blade case embossed "Hunter."

Michael Kranish, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump disclosed new details about roughly $1 billion in earnings in a revised financial filing covering 2021 through part of this year, including money from foreign ventures, speaking fees and a Florida golf course.... Trump's detailing of the more than $1 billion came from sources including hotel sales, golf revenue and licensing fees in the July disclosure. His April filing, which did not provide exact numbers on his income, reported more than 25 sources of income over $5 million." The fact that the director of the Office of Government Ethics did not sign off on Trump's original April filing suggests that the original filing was not satisfactory. MB: Yeah, there's kind of a difference between $1BB & $5MM.

Arizona. Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "Arizona's top prosecutor is ramping up a criminal investigation into alleged attempts by Republicans to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state by signing and transmitting paperwork falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner, according to two people familiar with the investigation. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) assigned a team of prosecutors to the case in May, and investigators have contacted many of the pro-Trump electors and their lawyers, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the probe. Investigators have requested records and other information from local officials who administered the 2020 election, the two people said, and a prosecutor has inquired about evidence collected by the Justice Department and an Atlanta-area prosecutor for similar probes."

~~~~~~~~~~~

David Sanger & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden concluded a meeting of NATO allies on Wednesday in Vilnius, Lithuania, with an address to that country, and the world, comparing the battle to expel Russia from Ukraine with the Cold War struggle for freedom in Europe, and promising 'we will not waver' no matter how long the war continues. His speech seemed to be preparing Americans and NATO countries for a confrontation that could go on for years, putting it in the context of momentous conflicts in Europe's war-torn past. And he cast it as a test of wills with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has shown no interest in giving up on an invasion that has not gone according to plan, but has locked him in a war of attrition.... The speech, at Vilnius University, came after a series of important victories for Mr. Biden as NATO's de facto leader, at a time of rapid change for the alliance.

His success in cajoling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to drop his objections to Sweden's admission as the 32nd member of NATO makes it possible to turn the Baltic Sea into a region bounded almost entirely by the alliance.... NATO nations committed to boosting military spending that the United States has long complained was inadequate.... Mr. Biden managed to quash an effort by Ukraine, with the support of Poland and several of the Baltic nations, to give a timetable for Ukraine to formally enter the alliance. Under NATO's policy requiring collective defense, the president has said that admitting Ukraine with the war underway would put the United States in direct conflict with Russia." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While I agree with everyone who thinks President Biden should not run for a second term, he also is probably the most effective U.S. president since FDR (or, an argument can be made, since LBJ). As for his speech in Vilnius, it was met by wild cheers.

Michael Birnbaum & Emily Rauhala of the Washington Post: "... [President] Biden faces an increasing challenge holding together the transatlantic alliance, as other countries increasingly push plans for helping Ukraine that rush past the lines the White House believes could trigger a Russian escalation.... The calculus of wanting to contain the conflict inside Ukraine's borders and avoid nuclear escalation imbues every action the administration takes, including a complicated effort to distance NATO, as an organization, from the billions of dollars in lethal aid supplied to Kyiv. That insistence means that military aid is coordinated among the members nations outside of official NATO directives.... [President Zelensky's complaint that NATO was not doing enough for Ukraine] made members of the U.S. delegation 'furious,' one official said."

Dan Sabbagh of the Guardian: "Britain's defence secretary [Ben Wallace] and the US national security adviser [Jake Sullivan] have suggested Ukraine ought to show more gratitude for the help it has received from the west, in response to Volodymyr Zelenskiy's complaints that his country has not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato. Their unscripted remarks -- at two different events on the margins of the second day of the Nato summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius -- appeared to prompt a change of tack from the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday, who later said he was 'grateful to all leaders of Nato countries' for their support and help."

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "A group of right-wing House Republicans pushing to load up the annual defense bill with socially conservative policies on abortion, race and gender have another demand: severe restrictions on U.S. military support for Ukraine. The pressure raises the prospect of a divisive floor fight over America's backing for the war effort.... The group's proposals on military aid stand no chance of passing the House, where there continues to be strong bipartisan support for backing Ukraine's war effort, or going anywhere in the Senate. But the far right's insistence on casting votes on the matter anyway has further imperiled the defense legislation and transformed what is ordinarily a broadly supported measure...."

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Thursday is here: "President Biden is in Finland -- NATO's newest member state -- for a summit with Nordic leaders. It follows a two-day NATO summit this week that 'put to rest any doubts' about Ukraine's future membership in NATO, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address, despite the lack of a concrete timeline that Zelensky had earlier described as 'absurd.' Kyiv instead received promises of long-term military support aimed at 'defending Ukraine now and deterring Russian aggression in the future.'... At the NATO summit, President Biden sought to bridge the gap between those who want Ukraine to join the military alliance quickly and those who harbor concerns that a hasty Ukrainian accession to NATO could complicate fragile global alliances and spark a broader conflict. After a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky, Biden said the conversation went 'very well. We accomplished every goal we set out to accomplish.' NATO exempted Ukraine from the Membership Action Plan, one of two steps needed to join the alliance. The move shortens the process for Ukraine's accession to NATO....

In Russia, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov claimed he was forced to retire after highlighting problems with the army fighting in Ukraine, according to a voice message published by a Russian lawmaker. 'In the name of you and our fallen combat friends, I had no right to lie, so I outlined all the problems existing in the army,' Popov said. He cited a lack of artillery and 'mass deaths and injuries' of soldiers. Senior officials ;sensed danger in me and promptly, in one day, made up an order and got rid of me,' he said.... The Wagner mercenary group has handed over thousands of tons of weapons, ammunition and military equipment to the Russian army, Moscow said. The move shows that Russia is working to break up the mercenaries' influence, The Washington Post reported.... Russia launched a drone strike on Kyiv for the third day in a row, officials in the Ukrainian capital said early Thursday. At least two people were injured, they said. A body was also found by those extinguishing an apartment fire, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said."

Paul Sonne of the New York Times: "Gen. Sergei Surovikin of Russia, a onetime ally of the Wagner chief who hasn't been seen publicly since a short-lived mutiny last month, is 'taking a rest,' one of the country's top lawmakers said Wednesday, when pressed by a reporter." MB: Golly, I wonder if he's taking that rest anywhere near a window in a high-rise building. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "Inflation data released on Wednesday showed a pronounced cooling and offered some of the most hopeful news since the Federal Reserve began trying to tame rapid price increases 16 months ago. The Consumer Price Index climbed 3 percent in the year through June, less than the 4 percent increase in the year through May and just a third of its roughly 9 percent peak last summer. That overall metric catches big declines in gas prices and a few other products that could prove ephemeral, which is why policymakers closely watch a different measure: the change in prices after stripping out food and fuel costs. That measure, known as the core index, offered news that was even better than what economists had expected, sending stocks higher as investors bet that the news would allow the Fed to raise interest rates by less than they otherwise might have." This is part of a liveblog. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Emma Kinery of CNBC: "President Joe Biden on Wednesday celebrated new data that showed inflation cooling more quickly than expected. 'Good jobs and lower costs: That's Bidenomics in action,' Biden said in a statement. 'Today's report brings new and encouraging evidence that inflation is falling while our economy remains strong.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julie Weil of the Washington Post: "About 10 million people type their personal financial information into H&R Block, TaxSlayer and TaxAct websites every year to prepare their taxes, trusting the companies to keep their information safe. Instead, the companies shared that personal information with Google and Facebook, some going as far back as 2011, members of Congress wrote in a new report.The congressional investigation, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), follows a report last year about such data-sharing with Facebook by the technology journalism website The Markup. Warren and six other lawmakers wrote to the Justice Department on Tuesday urging criminal charges against the companies for violating laws that prevent tax preparers from sharing their clients' personal information." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed to strengthen requirements for the removal of lead-based paint dust in homes and child care facilities built before 1978, an effort to eliminate exposure to lead that could require millions of property owners to pay for abatement. Lead is a neurotoxin and exposure can damage the brain and nervous system, particularly in babies and small children. If finalized, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the regulation would reduce exposure to lead for as many as 500,000 young children per year. 'There is no safe level of lead,' said Michal Freedhoff [of the EPA]...."

Julian Barnes & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "Chinese hackers penetrated the email accounts of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other State and Commerce Department officials in the weeks before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to Beijing in June, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. The investigation of the efforts by the Chinese hackers, who likely are affiliated with China's military or spy services, is ongoing, American officials said. But U.S. officials have downplayed the idea that the hackers stole sensitive information, insisting that no classified email or cloud systems were penetrated."

Adam Goldman & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Republicans bombarded Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, with criticisms about his role in the Trump documents investigation, efforts to address extremist violence and the bureau's surveillance practices during a grim and contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Republicans on the committee, led by the chairman, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, treated Mr. Wray as if he were a hostile witness -- repeatedly interrupting his attempts to answer their rapid-fire queries. Most of the Republicans sought to portray the nation's premier law enforcement agency, and Mr. Wray, who was appointed by ... Donald J. Trump, as political tools of the Democrats.... Mr. Wray, a registered Republican, forcefully rejected accusations that he had sought to protect President Biden, or his son Hunter Biden, or that he had targeted Mr. Trump -- describing the F.B.I.'s role in the search at Mar-a-Lago last August as lawful, restrained and prompted by a court order.... Anticipating the questioning to come, the top Democrat on the committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, described the hearing as 'little more than performance art.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post story, by Devlin Barrett, is here. CNN's story, by Alayna Treene & others, is here.

Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Justice Department on Wednesday appealed the sentences handed down to seven members of the Oath Keepers -- including founder Stewart Rhodes -- for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a signal that prosecutors are not satisfied with the severity of the jail terms delivered by the federal judge overseeing the case. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in prison -- the harshest sentence for any Jan. 6 defendant -- reflecting his leadership of what Mehta characterized as a dangerous criminal conspiracy aimed at violently derailing the transfer of presidential power. Nevertheless, the sentence for the Yale Law School graduate and disbarred attorney was seven years shorter than the 25-year prison term prosecutors recommended and four years below an agreed-upon 'guidelines range' based upon Rhodes' conduct." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Andrew Weissmann said on MSNBC that it was highly unusual for the DOJ to appeal a sentencing decision & reflects the importance the Department attaches to an attempt to overturn a presidential election.

The DOJ Framed Me! Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: A number of right-wing (alleged!) miscreants claim that the DOJ framed them. Among those making the claim: "exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, who had been arrested ... on fraud charges...; fabulist Congressman George Santos (R-N.Y.)... [arrested] arrest on campaign finance charges...; former Trump aide ... Steve Bannon..., [arrested on] fraud charges...; Oath Keepers' founder Stewart Rhodes, imprisoned for seditious conspiracy and other crimes..."; and fugitive Gal Luft, whose multi-part indictment was unsealed Monday. "Republicans like [Sen. Ron] Johnson [Wis.] and [Rep. James Comer [Ky.], however, profess to accept Luft's whole, self-serving story. Their credulousness is a tribute to the ineluctable resilience of MAGA logic prevailing in the closed loop of Fox News and pro-Trump lawmakers." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I learned something this week while watching the teevee. I think it was Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) who explained it: the reason Congressional wingnuts are passing out official whistleblower ID cards to fake informants like Luft is that if an informant has whistleblower status, Republican "investigators," under House rules, do not have to share with committee Democrats interviews or documents the GOP obtains from the informants. Otherwise, the parties are required to share such information with members of the other party, or at least with the chair or ranking member of the committee or subcommittee.

Zachary Cohen of CNN: "Federal prosecutors interviewed Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for 'several hours' in March as part of the ongoing criminal probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Benson told CNN Wednesday.... While Benson did not reveal the specifics of the interview -- including whether she was asked about ... Donald Trump and whether [special prosecutor Jack] Smith was present at the meeting -- she said among the areas investigators seemed focused on was 'the impact of the misinformation on [election workers'] lives and the threats that emerged from that from various sources.' Benson's interview came after her office complied with a subpoena from Smith late last year, turning over a broad swath of documents that included communications between Michigan election officials, former Trump lawyers and individuals working for the former president's campaign. Benson told CNN Wednesday that she and her team have been in 'near constant communication with officials.'"

Craig Mauger of the Detroit News: "Laying the groundwork for potential criminal charges in a high-profile case, Oakland County[, Michigan,] Circuit Judge Phyllis McMillen ruled Wednesday it is illegal for someone to take possession of a voting tabulator without authorization from the Secretary of State's office or a court order.... The decision was sought by Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson, who's currently weighing whether to bring criminal charges against a group of supporters of ... Donald Trump who allegedly obtained voting machines after the 2020 election as they advanced false claims of widespread voter fraud. In August, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office named nine people who had allegedly conspired to gain improper access to voting machines. Nessel's office has previously said the group convinced local officials in three counties -- Barry, Missaukee and Roscommon counties -- to hand over five tabulators and then took the tabulators to hotels or rental properties in Oakland County. There, members of the group broke into the machines, printing fake ballots and performing tests on the equipment. At the time, Nessel was the Democratic incumbent running for a second term as attorney general against one of the nine people, Republican Matt DePerno. So she sought the appointment of a special prosecutor to decide whether charges should be brought."

Covert Ops. David McAfee of the Raw Story: "A former CIA official has reportedly been accused of conning an aspiring operative into having sex with him under the guise of a training program to teach her how to use her body as a weapon. Shaun Wiggins was named in the explosive new lawsuit, according to a report from the Daily Beast on Wednesday."

Cat Zakrzewski & Caroline O'Donovan of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Tuesday allowed Microsoft to move forward with its $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision, in a resounding blow to U.S. regulators' efforts to block consolidation in the tech industry. The Federal Trade Commission had asked the court to intervene in the deal after it brought an administrative lawsuit last year that alleged the acquisition was anticompetitive.... In a 53-page redacted decision, Northern California District Court Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said the FTC had not demonstrated it was likely to show that the deal would substantially limit competition." Corley is a Biden appointee. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jeffrey Fisher in a New York Times op-ed: "Add this to the ways in which the Supreme Court is increasingly resembling just another political institution: Only one side of the ideological divide has the power to set the institution's agenda.... Under longstanding tradition, it takes four votes to put a case on the court's docket.... And the Democratic appointees now seem to find themselves one vote short in case after case.... For the court to reverse a lower court decision refusing to honor a civil liberty, the case first has to be put on its docket. And that seems no longer to be happening in cases involving established rights favored by the liberal wing of the court." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Alan Feuer & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Ray Epps, the man at the center of a widespread conspiracy theory about the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing Fox News and its former host Tucker Carlson of defamation for promoting a 'fantastical story' that Mr. Epps was an undercover government agent who instigated the violence at the Capitol as a way to disparage ... Donald J. Trump and his supporters.... After the unfounded accusations about Mr. Epps were aired on Mr. Carlson's show, they quickly spread to online communities of Trump supporters and to the political world as Republicans in Congress tried to link Mr. Epps to a fictitious conspiracy theory that he was involved in planning the Jan. 6 attack. They included Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, both of whom made Mr. Epps -- a two-time Trump voter -- a focus of concern at public hearings." A CBS News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As several MSNBC hosts pointed out, a number of Republicans on Wednesday grilled FBI Director Chris Wray about Epps, either indirectly or by implication, and they accused Wray of being less than forthcoming in answering their accusations even as he attempted to respond. Wray shot down as "ludicrous" the allegation/conspiracy theory that federal agents or informants orchestrated the insurrection. Update: Philip Bump of the Washington Post elaborates on accusations Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Tex.) made against Epps & the FBI.

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Escalating its feud with an assertive reporter, the White House on Tuesday issued a formal warning to Simon Ateba that he is at risk of losing his entry pass if he continues to disrupt daily press briefings. The warning -- a first for President Biden's press office -- followed run-ins between press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the journalist from Cameroon who has interrupted her briefings to demand that he be recognized to ask a question.Jean-Pierre has declined to call on Ateba for months and has repeatedly admonished him for speaking out of turn. Ateba, the owner and White House correspondent of a news site called Today News Africa, has portrayed himself as a victim of 'racism and discrimination' by the administration."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. The Kids Are All Right. Laura Wagner of the Washington Post: How Northwestern's student newspaper, the Daily Northwestern, broke the story of systemic sexual hazing in the football program that led to head football coach Pat Fitzgerald's firing.

Presidential Race 2024

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) plans to headline an event in New Hampshire next week sponsored by the bipartisan group No Labels, a move that has stoked speculation that he could mount a third-party presidential bid in 2024 that Democrats fear could be damaging to President Biden. Manchin is scheduled to appear Monday at the group's 'Common Sense' town hall at St. Anselm College alongside former Utah governor Jon Huntsman (R). No Labels is eying a potential 'unity' ticket in 2024, though organizers say no decision has been made." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Frankenstein Effect. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Rupert Murdoch is realizing that he is stuck with the monster he created: Donald Trump.

A Methane Moment. Marie: So here's what it's like to attend a Bobby Kennedy, Jr. fundraiser. Admittedly, the report comes from the New York Post's Page Six. But hey, I'll accept it, if only because this is the first time I can recall reading about a "debater" who employed fart bombs to win his argument.

Elections 2022. Hannah Hartig, et al., of the Pew Research Center: "In midterm elections that yielded mixed results for both parties, Republicans won the popular vote for the U.S. House of Representatives largely on the strength of higher turnout. A new Pew Research Center analysis of verified voters and nonvoters in 2022, 2020, 2018 and 2016 finds that partisan differences in turnout -- rather than vote switching between parties -- account for most of the Republican gains in voting for the House last year." MB: Yo, Democrats: time for some serious GOTV efforts.

Emily Baumgaertner & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "A new United Nations analysis of Black women's experiences during pregnancy and childbirth in the Americas has concluded that systemic racism and sexism in medical systems -- not genetics or lifestyle choices -- are the main reasons they are more likely to experience serious complications or even death. The report, published Wednesday..., surveyed data from countries in the Americas, including the United States. It found that Black women were more likely than their white counterparts to report denial of medication or physical and verbal abuse in health care settings, leading to more severe complications, delayed treatment and worse."

Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "The world is hotter than it's been in thousands of years, and it's as if every alarm bell on Earth were ringing. The warnings are echoing through the drenched mountains of Vermont, where two months of rain just fell in only two days. India and Japan were deluged by extreme flooding. They're shrilling from the scorching streets of Texas, Florida, Spain and China, with a severe heat wave also building in Phoenix and the Southwest in coming days. They're burbling up from the oceans, where temperatures have surged to levels considered 'beyond extreme.' And they're showing up in unprecedented, still-burning wildfires in Canada that have sent plumes of dangerous smoke into the United States. Scientists say there is no question that this cacophony was caused by climate change -- or that it will continue to intensify as the planet warms."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Kate Brumback of the AP: "The Georgia State Election Board is asking a judge to order a conservative voting organization to produce information to help investigate its claims of ballot trafficking in the state. The Texas-based True the Vote group filed complaints with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in November 2021, including one saying it had received 'a detailed account of coordinated efforts to collect and deposit ballots in drop boxes across metro Atlanta' during the 2020 general election and in a runoff election in January 2021. True the Vote's assertions were relied upon heavily for the film '2000 Mules,' a widely debunked film by conservative pundit and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza. The film featured surveillance video from drop boxes in Atlanta's suburbs showing people depositing multiple ballots. A State Election Board investigation found that those people were submitting ballots for themselves and family members who lived with them, which is allowed under Georgia law."

Georgia. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "A Democrat who represents part of Atlanta in Georgia's House of Representatives defected to the Republican Party on Tuesday, saying she was subject to a campaign of intimidation by onetime political allies after breaking with them on school vouchers, policing and prosecutorial oversight. Mesha Mainor, a two-term representative from the 56th District in Fulton County, announced she was switching parties during a news conference outside the Capitol in Atlanta. Republicans now have a 102 to 78 majority in the House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Idaho. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The University of Idaho said on Wednesday that it would hold off on demolishing the house near its campus where four students were stabbed to death last fall, reversing its initial plan after pressure from some of the families of the victims.... The university's president, Scott Green..., said he was trying to balance the needs of students forced to walk by the house every day with those of the victims' families and others who have expressed concern that demolishing the house might hinder the prosecution of the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, who was a graduate student at a nearby university."

News Lede

New York Times: "Sweatier-than-normal summer heat is building across the southern third of the United States, with temperatures and heat index readings reaching dangerous levels. A heat dome of high pressure over the Southwest will strengthen into the weekend, raising temperatures to well above 100 degrees from portions of California to Texas. While the air will be dry, temperatures could reach record heat values, creating an extreme risk of heat-related illness. Coastal states in the South will experience above-average temperatures combined with high humidity, made worse by unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico and the western Atlantic Ocean, creating dangerous conditions, especially along the coasts from South Texas to the Carolinas. Urban areas can often be several degrees hotter than surrounding areas, with less relief at night."

July 12, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "Inflation data released on Wednesday showed a pronounced cooling and offered some of the most hopeful news since the Federal Reserve began trying to tame rapid price increases 16 months ago. The Consumer Price Index climbed 3 percent in the year through June, less than the 4 percent increase in the year through May and just a third of its roughly 9 percent peak last summer. That overall metric catches big declines in gas prices and a few other products that could prove ephemeral, which is why policymakers closely watch a different measure: the change in prices after stripping out food and fuel costs. That measure, known as the core index, offered news that was even better than what economists had expected, sending stocks higher as investors bet that the news would allow the Fed to raise interest rates by less than they otherwise might have." This is part of a liveblog. ~~~

     ~~~ Emma Kinery of CNBC: "President Joe Biden on Wednesday celebrated new data that showed inflation cooling more quickly than expected. 'Good jobs and lower costs: That's Bidenomics in action,' Biden said in a statement. 'Today's report brings new and encouraging evidence that inflation is falling while our economy remains strong.'"

Julie Weil of the Washington Post: "About 10 million people type their personal financial information into H&R Block, TaxSlayer and TaxAct websites every year to prepare their taxes, trusting the companies to keep their information safe. Instead, the companies shared that personal information with Google and Facebook, some going as far back as 2011, members of Congress wrote in a new report.The congressional investigation, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), follows a report last year about such data-sharing with Facebook by the technology journalism website The Markup. Warren and six other lawmakers wrote to the Justice Department on Tuesday urging criminal charges against the companies for violating laws that prevent tax preparers from sharing their clients' personal information." CNN's report is here.

Adam Goldman & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Republicans bombarded Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, with criticisms about his role in the Trump documents investigation, efforts to address extremist violence and the bureau's surveillance practices during a grim and contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Republicans on the committee, led by the chairman, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, treated Mr. Wray as if he were a hostile witness -- repeatedly interrupting his attempts to answer their rapid-fire queries. Most of the Republicans sought to portray the nation's premier law enforcement agency, and Mr. Wray, who was appointed by ... Donald J. Trump, as political tools of the Democrats.... Mr. Wray, a registered Republican, forcefully rejected accusations tha he had sought to protect President Biden, or his son Hunter Biden, or that he had targeted Mr. Trump -- describing the F.B.I.'s role in the search at Mar-a-Lago last August as lawful, restrained and prompted by a court order.... Anticipating the questioning to come, the top Democrat on the committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, described the hearing as 'little more than performance art.'"

Mattew Chapman of the Raw Story: "Freshman Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) was booted off Wikipedia after violating guidelines by repeatedly editing the site's article about himself, reported The Daily Beast on Wednesday.... Lawler was elected in 2022 in an upset, defeating Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who served as the chair of the Democrats' congressional fundraising arm -- one of many casualties in New York, where Democrats suffered some of their heaviest losses of the cycle." MB: The edits cited seem fairly anodyne: "Among other things, Lawler added himself as a notable alumnus of Manhattan College, wrote that he 'serves as the Ranker of the Government Operations Committee and as a member of the Aging, Banks, Education, and Housing Committees,' and updated his name from 'Mike Lawler' to 'Michael V. Lawler' on one section."

Cat Zakrzewski & Caroline O'Donovan of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Tuesday allowed Microsoft to move forward with its $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision, in a resounding blow to U.S. regulators' efforts to block consolidation in the tech industry. The Federal Trade Commission had asked the court to intervene in the deal after it brought an administrative lawsuit last year that alleged the acquisition was anticompetitive.... In a 53-page redacted decision, Northern California District Court Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said the FTC had not demonstrated it was likely to show that the deal would substantially limit competition." Corley is a Biden appointee.

Jeffrey Fisher in a New York Times op-ed: "Add this to the ways in which the Supreme Court is increasingly resembling just another political institution: Only one side of the ideological divide has the power to set the institution's agenda.... Under longstanding tradition, it takes four votes to put a case on the court's docket.... And the Democratic appointees now seem to find themselves one vote short in case after case.... For the court to reverse a lower court decision refusing to honor a civil liberty, the case first has to be put on its docket. And that seems no longer to be happening in cases involving established rights favored by the liberal wing of the court."

Presidential Race 2024. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) plans to headline an event in New Hampshire next week sponsored by the bipartisan group No Labels, a move that has stoked speculation that he could mount a third-party presidential bid in 2024 that Democrats fear could be damaging to President Biden. Manchin is scheduled to appear Monday at the group's 'Common Sense' town hall at St. Anselm College alongside former Utah governor Jon Huntsman (R). No Labels is eying a potential 'unity' ticket in 2024, though organizers say no decision has been made."

Georgia. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "A Democrat who represents part of Atlanta in Georgia's House of Representatives defected to the Republican Party on Tuesday, saying she was subject to a campaign of intimidation by onetime political allies after breaking with them on school vouchers, policing and prosecutorial oversight. Mesha Mainor, a two-term representative from the 56th District in Fulton County, announced she was switching parties during a news conference outside the Capitol in Atlanta. Republicans now have a 102 to 78 majority in the House."

Paul Sonne of the New York Times: "Gen. Sergei Surovikin of Russia, a onetime ally of the Wagner chief who hasn't been seen publicly since a short-lived mutiny last month, is 'taking a rest,' one of the country"s top lawmakers said Wednesday, when pressed by a reporter." MB: Golly, I wonder if he's taking that rest anywhere near a window in a high-rise building.

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in the NATO summit & in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is expected to meet with President Biden and join discussions with other NATO leaders on Wednesday, a day after the alliance confirmed eventual membership for Ukraine but without a timeline.... Pledges of new military aid also marked the first day of the two-day summit. Included among those was a promise from France of midrange missiles, which Russia called a mistake and warned of unspecified countermeasures.... Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, with drones early Wednesday for the second day in a row. Ukrainian officials said all of the drones were intercepted. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Biden met one on one on Tuesday, a day after Turkey dropped its objections to Sweden joining NATO." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here: "As the second day of the NATO summit got underway, Ukraine's allies indicated that they would provide Ukraine with security guarantees to bolster the country's defenses in the long term.... The announcement came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized NATO leaders for failing to provide Ukraine with a clear timeline for membership in the alliance." ~~~

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

Sean Lyngaas of CNN: "China-based hackers have breached email accounts at two-dozen organizations, including some United States government agencies, in an apparent spying campaign aimed at acquiring sensitive information, according to statements from Microsoft and the White House late Tuesday. The full scope of the hack is being investigated, but US officials and Microsoft have been quietly scrambling in recent weeks to assess the impact of the hack and contain the fallout."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., President Biden's choice to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tangled with Senate Republicans on Tuesday as they peppered him with questions about China, Ukraine and Pentagon cultural policies denounced as 'woke' by critics on the right. From the testimony's outset, Brown sought to highlight his extensive experience leading U.S. troops and allies overseas, proudly telling members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that, as a general, he had spent less time in Washington than he had 'either in conflict or preparing for conflict.'... Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) accused Brown, who has led the Air Force since 2020, of suggesting there were 'too many White officers' in the military. Schmitt cited as evidence a memo that Brown signed last year setting aspirational diversity goals for Air Force applicants.... Even though Republicans and Democrats on the committee both voiced support for Brown's nomination, it is unclear how quickly the process can move. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a member of the armed services committee, has placed a hold on the promotion of more than 250 senior military officers...."

Very White of You, Tommy. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), facing a barrage of criticism over a Monday night television interview in which he refused to say white nationalists are racists, relented Tuesday afternoon, acknowledging to reporters on Capitol Hill that they in fact are. 'White nationalists are racists,' Tuberville told reporters, after earlier exchanges with reporters in which he continued to insist that was a matter of opinion, a position that echoed his comments from an interview the night before.... Tuberville's remarks drew a sharp rebuke Tuesday from Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who urged Tuberville to apologize. 'The senator from Alabama is wrong, wrong, wrong,' Schumer said on the Senate floor. 'The definition of white nationalism is not a matter of opinion. White nationalism, the ideology that one race is inherently superior to others, that people of color should be segregated, subjected to second-class citizenship, is racist down to its rotten core. For the senator from Alabama to obscure the racist nature of white nationalism is indeed very, very dangerous.'... Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) didn't comment directly but said, 'White supremacy is simply unacceptable in our military and in our entire country.'"

Rick Maese of the Washington Post: "PGA Tour officials defended their shocking partnership with the Saudi Public Investment Fund during a Senate investigative subcommittee hearing Tuesday. But even as the hearing underscored the fragility of that relationship, a trove of documents released by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations showed the parties discussing several dramatic proposals that would significantly alter the pro golf landscape.... Tour executives made clear in the hearing that the sides still have wrinkles to work out..., and the exact size of the massive Saudi investment that tour officials say will help stabilize the fractured world of pro golf. 'There is no merger. There is no deal. There is simply an agreement to try to get to an agreement and settle lawsuits,' said Jimmy Dunne, the PGA Tour policy board member who helped broker the arrangement.... Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chair of the subcommittee, was the most pointed lawmaker in his questioning of the PGA Tour representatives -- Dunne and Ron Price, the tour's chief operating officer...."

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "Hard-right House Republicans are pushing to use the yearly bill that sets the United States military budget and policy as an opportunity to pick fights with the Biden administration over abortion, race and transgender issues, imperiling its passage and the decades-old bipartisan consensus in Congress around backing the Pentagon. Republican leaders have scheduled votes beginning on Wednesday on the $886 billion measure, but as of Tuesday evening, they had yet to dissuade their ultraconservative colleagues from efforts to load it up with politically charged provisions to combat what the G.O.P. calls 'wokeness' in the military. Those proposals -- including rolling back a Pentagon policy providing service members access to abortions and defunding the military's diversity, equity and inclusion programs -- would alienate the moderate Republicans and Democrats whose votes would be needed to get the bill through the narrowly divided House." ~~~

     ~~~ Sarah Ferris & Jordain Carney of Politico: "Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working furiously to prevent another House floor takeover by his hardest-right conservatives as the GOP prepares to tackle some of the year's biggest bills. With the House back for a final stretch before its August recess, McCarthy on Tuesday afternoon summoned a group of leaders from multiple corners of his conference to shape a strategy for staving off further right-wing revolts -- which his team can't afford this summer. Underscoring the urgency of their task, the group of GOP lawmakers met in the shadow of what could become a new right-flank rebellion over the rule for debating a must-pass Pentagon policy bill." The meeting did not go especially well.

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The co-director of a Maryland-based research group who claims to have damaging information about Hunter Biden has been charged with arms trafficking, sanctions violations and acting as an unregistered agent for China, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Monday. In an eight-count indictment, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York accused Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, of violating the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act in brokering arms deals between Chinese companies, Iran and countries in the Middle East. Mr. Luft, promoted by some congressional Republicans as a keystone witness in their efforts to show corruption by the Biden family, is a fugitive from justice.... Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, recently described Mr. Luft as a 'very credible witness on Biden family corruption' and said that he hoped to interview him, regardless of the government's allegations.... Democrats said that Mr. Comer and other Republicans have shown they are willing to go to any lengths to smear the Bidens, even to the point of accepting the word of a man accused of being a Chinese agent and illegal arms dealer over that of federal law enforcement officials." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Luft, IOW, is (allegedly!) guilty of anything he claimed Hunter Biden might have done -- and then some. He is the same supposed "whistleblower" whom Comer admitted on Fox "News" had gone "missing." He went missing, it turns out, because he was a fugitive from justice. Josh Kovensky of TPM has more: ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "House Republicans on Tuesday said they still hope to call a man indicted on charges of arms trafficking and acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Chinese entities as a witness in their investigations of President Biden and his son Hunter. Senior Republicans dismissed the importance of the charges against the fugitive defendant and instead accused the Justice Department, the FBI and other authorities of orchestrating a vast conspiracy on behalf of the first family, providing no documentation or other evidence to support their accusations." MB: I don't know how an old duffer like Joe Biden, who is apparently too addled to tie his shoes, or how a drugged-up Hunter Biden could have engineered this vast left-wing conspiracy. Maybe Joe just waved his "Article II" at DOJ lawyers and they worked it out. ~~~

     ~~~ Unfortunately, Marcy Wheeler points out another little flaw in the conspiracy theory: Luft "was charged before he started regaling dim-witted Chairmen about dirt on Hunter Biden. This prosecution can't be about retaliation for the conspiracy theories he told Comer -- the indictment precedes it all by months.... [And] well before Luft told Comer anything, he had been charged for lying at the very meeting [with DOJ investigators in Brussels, Belgium, in March 2019,] he's now claiming he was retaliated for. Comer was duped. Again. Given the precedent of Eric Swalwell, who was removed from the House Intelligence Committee after having been cultivated by a Chinese agent, Comer should be stripped of his gavel and referred to the ethics committee." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Jim Comer had a very bad Monday. Not only did his "star witness" against Hunter Biden turn out to be an (alleged!) international criminal & fugitive from justice, but also the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who charged Hunter with misdemeanors refuted another fake whistleblower's claim that Merrick Garland had constrained his investigation & limited the charges he could bring against Hunter. Fortunately for Comer, he's such an inept comic figure and his party is in such disarray, that instead of being stripped of his committee assignment as Marcy Wheeler suggested, he's pressing forward with his fake "investigation."

Kate Brumback of the AP: "A grand jury that was sworn in Tuesday in Atlanta will likely consider whether criminal charges are appropriate for ... Donald Trump or his Republican allies for their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia." The article goes on to explain how Georgia's grand jury system works. ~~~

~~~ Marshall Cohen of CNN: "The Georgia grand jury that is expected to consider charges against ... Donald Trump and his Republican allies for trying to overturn the 2020 election is being selected Tuesday in Atlanta. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, an elected Democrat, launched the investigation in early 2021, after Trump tried to overturn his defeat in the Peach State with a public and private pressure campaign targeting Georgia election officials, the governor, lawmakers and prosecutors. A special grand jury previously heard testimony from 75 witnesses, including Trump advisers, his former attorneys, White House aides, and Georgia officials. That panel issued a redacted report with charging recommendations, which will soon be weighed by the new grand jury. Willis has indicated that final decisions could come next month." (Also linked yesterday.)

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The Justice Department has taken an unusual step in court to try to protect ... Donald Trump from testifying under oath in a lawsuit from former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Lawyers from the federal agency are asking the federal appeals court in Washington, DC, to block an upcoming deposition of Trump, according to a new court filing on Tuesday. The DOJ has gone to the appeals court to try to correct what it believes was a mistake from a lower court, when Judge Amy Berman Jackson decided Trump could be deposed by Strzok's and Page's legal teams about Strzok being fired following his work on the Russia investigation."

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department said Tuesday that it will no long seek to make the U.S. government the defendants in a lawsuit filed against Donald Trump by a writer who says the former president raped her several decades ago. The decision comes after three years in which the department, under both Republican and Democratic leadership, argued that Trump was acting within his presidential duties when he denied sexually assaulting columnist E. Jean Carroll. That determination made Trump, like other federal employees acting in their official capacity, totally immune from any liability. On Tuesday, a Justice Department leader said in a court filing that two things had changed since they first moved to intervene in the case. First, a D.C. court clarified the law around what qualifies as public work, saying that ... official responses to press questions didn't always qualify and that the professional purpose can be so 'insignificant' as to be irrelevant. Second, a jury in New York State Court found that Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll, and he has been accused of defaming her again in response to that verdict. (The jury did not find that Trump raped her, and he has since accused Carroll of defamation for insisting he did)." CNN's story is here.

Brian Slodysko & Eric Tucker of the AP: "The Associated Press obtained tens of thousands of pages of emails and other documents that reveal the extent to which public colleges and universities have seen visits by [Supreme Court] justices as opportunities to generate donations -- regularly putting justices in the room with influential donors, including some whose industries have had interests before the court. The documents also reveal that justices spanning the court's ideological divide have lent the prestige of their positions to partisan activity, headlining speaking events with prominent politicians, or advanced their own personal interests, such as sales of their books, through college visits. The conduct would likely be prohibited if done by lower court federal judges.... 'The justices should be aware that people are selling access to them,' said University of Virginia law professor Amanda Frost, an ethics expert.... At least one justice, [Sonia] Sotomayor, seemed keenly aware of the peril of being in a setting with donors. Early in her Supreme Court tenure, she rejected a suggestion that she dine with major contributors to the University of Hawaii during a 2012 visit.... 'Canon 2(B) of the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges provides that a judge "should avoid lending the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others,"' [her aide wrote]." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ BUT. Brian Slodysko & Eric Tucker of the AP: Justice Sonia "Sotomayor's staff has often prodded public institutions that have hosted the justice to buy her memoir or children's books, works that have earned her at least $3.7 million since she joined the court in 2009. Details of those events, largely out of public view, were obtained by The Associated Press through more than 100 open records requests to public institutions.... The documents reveal repeated examples of taxpayer-funded court staff performing tasks for the justice's book ventures, which workers in other branches of government are barred from doing. But when it comes to promoting her literary career, Sotomayor is free to do what other government officials cannot because the Supreme Court does not have a formal code of conduct.... Supreme Court staffers have been deeply involved in organizing speaking engagements intended to sell books.... None of the justices has as forcefully leveraged publicly sponsored travel to boost book sales as has Sotomayor, according to emails and other records reviewed by the AP....

"Sotomayor's publisher, Penguin Random House, also has played a role in organizing her talks, in some cases pressing public institutions to commit to buying a specific number of copies or requesting that attendees purchase books to obtain tickets, emails show. The publisher has had several matters before the court in which Sotomayor did not recuse herself." MB: Sotomayor's Supreme Court staff also have been telling the universities how many copies of her books they should purchase. Sometimes members of the public who want to meet Justice Sotomayor have to purchase copies of her book to get into the room. (Also linked yesterday.)

Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "Several lawyers who have had business before the supreme court, including one who successfully argued to end race-conscious admissions at universities, paid money to a top aide to Justice Clarence Thomas, according to the aide's Venmo transactions. The payments appear to have been made in connection to Thomas's 2019 Christmas party. The payments to Rajan Vasisht, who served as Thomas's aide from July 2019 to July 2021, seem to underscore the close ties between Thomas ... and certain senior Washington lawyers who argue cases and have other business in front of the justice.... Legal experts said the payments to Vasisht raised red flags."

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "If you are concerned about contempt for precedent, partisan hackery and judicial hubris, take a look at what district court judges have been doing. There was U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk's atrocious ruling in April reversing the Food and Drug Administration's 2-decades-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.... And let's not forget the unsupportable ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon of Florida putting her finger on the scale to try to block the Justice Department from reviewing secret documents hoarded by ... Donald Trump.... But not to be outdone, U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty in Louisiana, in a case involving government contacts with social media companies, [ruled that government officials could not even speak to tech companies about moderating misinformation].... Trump populated the judiciary with underqualified ideologues, 10 of whom were rated unqualified by the American Bar Association. (In addition, they were overwhelmingly White and male; not a single African American judge was nominated to a circuit court.) Thanks to Ken. W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024. Shane Goldmacher & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald Trump "lashed out at Iowa's popular Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, and then his campaign informed one of the state's politically influential evangelical leaders, Bob Vander Plaats, that the former president would skip a gathering of presidential candidates this week in Des Moines. The back-to-back moves on Monday -- which the campaign of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida labeled a 'snub of Iowa conservatives' in an email on Tuesday -- show the extent to which Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, acts as if he is immune to traditional political pitfalls while he is also under indictment and his rivals are seeking to capitalize on some voters' fatigue with his antics." Politico's story is here.

Tory Newmyer of the Washington Post: "Bank of America will pay more than $250 million in refunds and fines after federal regulators found the company systematically overcharged customers, withheld promised bonuses and opened accounts without customer approval. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found the bank made 'substantial additional revenue' for years by repeatedly charging customers $35 overdraft fees on the same transaction. The bank also denied cash and points bonuses it had pledged to tens of thousands of credit card customers. And starting in 2012, Bank of America employees enrolled customers in credit card accounts without their approval, obtaining credit reports without permission to complete the applications, the bureau said."

Ben Sisario & Ryan Hooper of the New York Times: "More than four years of family conflict over the estate of Aretha Franklin ended Tuesday when a Michigan jury decided what her family could not -- which of two hand-scrawled wills represented the famed singer's true wishes for how to divide her estate. After a two-day trial in a probate court in Pontiac, Mich., a six-person jury decided after less than an hour of deliberation that a four-page document written by Franklin in 2014 -- and discovered under a couch cushion at her home, months after Franklin's 2018 death -- should serve as her will. The verdict resolved the biggest problem that had been hanging over Franklin's estate, and sets in motion a plan for how income and assets from her estate should be divided."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "Leslie Van Houten, a former Charles Manson follower who played a role in the gruesome double murder of a Los Angeles couple in the summer of 1969, was released on parole on Tuesday after serving more than half a century in prison, according to her lawyer.... The office of California Gov Gavin Newsom said this month that it would not challenge her release. Mr. Newsom had reversed Ms. Van Houten's parole grant three times since taking office, most recently in March 2022" The AP's story is here.

Iowa. Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, et al., of the Washington Post: "Iowa's Republican-controlled legislature on Tuesday passed a bill banning most abortions after about six weeks. The legislation was passed during a rare one-day special session called by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) for the 'sole purpose' of enacting new restrictions on abortion. Reynolds celebrated the bill's passage in a statement late Tuesday and said she will sign it on Friday.... Iowa's House and Senate passed the legislation along mostly partisan lines late Tuesday after hours of hearings and sometimes heated protests. It is expected to face legal challenges. Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 22 weeks of pregnancy." An NBC News story is here.

Pennsylvania. Joel Wolfram & Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: Philadelphia police officials describe "an apparent error of a 911 dispatcher that ... meant that ... deadly gunfire [in a home] was not known by authorities until the following night. By then, the man now suspected of having killed [the man in that home] had already carried out one of the city's deadliest mass shootings [the following day, July 3]." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Milan Kundera, the Communist Party outcast who became a global literary star with mordant, sexually charged novels that captured the suffocating absurdity of life in the workers' paradise of his native Czechoslovakia, died on Tuesday in Paris. He was 94.... His most enduringly popular novel [was] 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being.'"