The Commentariat -- June 12, 2021
Afternoon Update:
G7 Leaders Glad to Be Rid of Trump. Kevin Liptak, et al., of CNN: "Officials attending this week's Group of 7 summit on the Cornish coast in England are emerging shell-shocked after four years dealing with a US president who often appeared intent on injecting animosity into their gatherings. In front of cameras and behind-the-scenes this weekend, officials said the abrasive interjections and lengthy tangents Trump brought to world summits were absent, replaced by a more businesslike and predictable agenda, including on areas of serious disagreement like China. Asked alongside Biden on Saturday whether the United States was back, French President Emmanuel Macron answered yes. 'Definitely, he said.... 'Are you supposed to be looking as if you're enjoying yourself?' quipped Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who later was pictured in friendly conversation with [President] Biden and his wife outside a futuristic biosphere...."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here.
Here's a fun Washington Post slideshow of Queen Elizabeth's meetings U.S. presidents. Photos, some videos.
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The New York Times is liveblogging Saturday's G7 developments. The Guardian's liveblog is here.
Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "The United States plans to push democratic allies on Saturday to publicly call out China for forced labor practices as the Group of Seven leaders gather at a summit where they will also unveil an infrastructure plan meant to compete with Beijing's efforts in the developing world. The provocative proposal is part of President Joe Biden's escalating campaign to get fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with China in the century ahead...."
Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "Attorney General Merrick Garland affirmed Friday the expansion of voting rights as a 'central pillar' to American democracy.... He said that within 30 days the department would double the Civil Rights Division's voting rights enforcement staff and committed to working with other agencies to combat voting-related disinformation.... Garland urged Congress to enact [the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act], an unlikely proposition, but added 'we will not wait for that legislation to act.'" (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: IMO, Merrick Garland just doesn't get it. However much he does or doesn't know about the corrupt, anti-American Trump presidency, he has decided to treat it as a presidency. He probably asks himself before making a decision on a Trump-era DOJ matter, "Is this what I would do with an Obama DOJ case?" Wrong question. Garland needs to do pretty much what his boss did when he became president. Go over every damned thing his predecessor did & get rid of 95 percent of it. And that includes staff hires. And it remains to be seen how aggressively his DOJ will try to attack state voter suppression laws. ~~~
~~~ Christina Cassidy & Mark Balsamo of the AP: "The Justice Department will scrutinize a wave of new laws in Republican-controlled states that tighten voting rules, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday, vowing to take action on any violations of federal law.... 'There are many things open to debate in America, but the right of all eligible citizens to vote is not one of them,' Garland said in his first direct response to the restrictive voting laws being passed in more than a dozen states where Republicans control the legislature and governor's office."
~~~ Nicholas Riccardi of the AP explains the differences between the two voting rights bills. (Also linked yesterday.)
Brian Fung & Evan Perez of CNN: "The Department of Justice sent a broad request in February 2018 to Apple as part of its investigation that collected data on members of Congress, staffers and their families. The department demanded metadata on 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses from Apple, the company said Friday evening. Apple received the subpoena from the Justice Department on Feb. 6, 2018, but it contained no information about who the investigation was targeting or why, the company said. Apple also said determining who the targeted accounts belonged to would have required extensive research." ~~~
~~~ Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced Friday that his office is launching a probe following reports that the department had sought the records of journalists and prominent critics of ... Donald Trump on the House Intelligence Committee. In a statement, Horowitz said the review 'will examine the Department's compliance with applicable DOJ policies and procedures, and whether any such uses, or the investigations, were based upon improper considerations.'... Earlier Friday, Senate Democratic leaders on Friday demanded that former attorneys general in the Trump administration testify over secret subpoenas of [California Democrats Adam] Schiff and [Eric] Swalwell." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mary Jalonick & Michael Balsamo have the AP's story: "Senate Democratic leaders immediately demanded that former Attorneys General Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions, who both oversaw Trump's leak probes, testify about the secret subpoenas. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said in a statement that 'this appalling politicization of the Department of Justice by Donald Trump and his sycophants' must be investigated. They said that Barr and Sessions are subject to a subpoena if they refuse." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Nadler Sends a Warning to Garland. Guardian (at 18:46 in this liveblog): "Jerry Nadler, the chair of the House judiciary committee..., appears unwilling to wait for the inspector general's investigation, saying that there is 'a very short window' for the justice department to hold those responsible accountable before his committee will 'have no choice but to step in and do the work ourselves'." In a statement, Nadler said, in part, "The Department has a very short window to make a clean break from the Trump era on this matter. We expect the Department to provide a full accounting of these cases, and we expect the Attorney General to hold the relevant personnel accountable for their conduct. If the Department does not make substantial progress towards these two goals, then we on the Judiciary Committee will have no choice but to step in and do the work ourselves." ~~~
~~~ Daniel Lippman, et al., of Politico: "Former Attorney General William Barr on Friday distanced himself from reports that the Trump Justice Department seized communications records belonging to two prominent Democratic lawmakers who were spearheading investigations into ... Donald Trump. In a phone interview, Barr said he didn't recall getting briefed on the moves.... Barr said that while he was attorney general, he was 'not aware of any congressman's records being sought in a leak case.'... Trump 'was not aware of who we were looking at in any of the cases,' Barr said. 'I never discussed the leak cases with Trump. He didn't really ask me any of the specifics.'... Barr said he installed Osmar Benvenuto in DOJ's National Security Division in February 2020 to try to revive the leak investigations after Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, recommended him to Barr...."
~~~ Marie: The reporting is confusing & seemingly contradictory: Barr says on the one hand, he has no recollection of any congressman's records being sought in connection with leaks, but on the other hand, he hired a top guy to look into the leaks. Is he saying he authorized continuation of investigations of leaks but didn't know the targets of the leaks were members of Congress? As for Barr's attempts to "distance himself" from Trump's demands, that's pretty ludicrous. As Betsy Swan -- one of the reporters on the Politico story -- pointed out on Chris Hayes' MSNBC show Friday, there's plenty in the public record indicating that Trump expected Barr to come down on Adam Schiff. For instance, after repeatedly accusing Schiff of being a "liar and a leaker," in February 2020 (when Barr was AG), Trump told reporters, "They ought to investigate Adam Schiff for leaking that intelligence," where "that intelligence" referred to Russia's interference in the 2016 election. In another tweet the next day, Trump wrote about, "Just another Shifty Schiff leak. Isn't there a law about this stuff?" This was precisely at the time Barr hired Benvenuto (and others) to re-up leak investigations and about a week after Barr complained in an interview that Trump's tweets "make it impossible for me to do my job." Trump's response to Barr's complaint was a series of tweets in which he asserted that he had a "legal right" to demand that Barr intervene in criminal cases. (And it was at the same time Barr recommended a lighter sentence for Roger Stone than his own prosecutors had suggested and ordered a "review" of the criminal case of Michael Flynn, who previously had pleaded guilty to a felony.) ~~~
~~~ Anyhow, I have obtained genuine Zoom video of Barr's phone interview with a Politico reporter: ~~~
~~~ Asawin Suebsaeng & Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: "Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is telling associates he had no idea his Justice Department seized phone records of two top Democratic congressional critics of... Donald Trump.... Under Sessions, the Justice Department launched dozens of probes into leaks of classified information. Leak investigations skyrocketed 800 percent over the Obama administration -- a statistic he proudly touted in congressional testimony. One of those investigations concerned the disclosure of key details of the probe into Russian election meddling. The targeting of members of Congress' communications -- as well as the seizure of records from reporters at The New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN -- are all believed to be part of that Russia-related leak hunt." The Raw Story has a summary report here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This story, oddly enough, seems to give Barr some plausible deniability, too. DOJ accessed metadata from more than 100 phone numbers and emails associated with just Schiff & Swalwell. If they accessed approximately the same number of accounts allied with the "dozens" of other marks, that would mean they accessed hundred or thousands of accounts. So if Barr's sleuths wanted to de-emphasize their sweeping up the congressmen's metadata, they could have handed him a thick report listing thousands of names, and Barr could have missed a few "Schiffs" and "Swalwells" on that list. As for Sessions, if he really didn't know, then it seems likely Rod Rosenstein, who ran the Russia investigation, is the culprit. Both Sessions & Barr could avoid accountability, and Rosenstein could take the rap.
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration plans to restore environmental protections to Tongass National Forest in Alaska, one of the world's largest intact temperate rain forests, that had been stripped away by ... Donald J. Trump. The administration intends to 'repeal or replace' a Trump-era rule which opened about nine million acres, or more than half of the forest, to logging and road construction, according to a White House document published on Friday. The Tongass, in southeastern Alaska, is home to more than 400 species of wildlife, fish and shellfish, including nesting bald eagles, moose and the world's highest concentration of black bears. Among its snowy peaks, fijords and rushing rivers are stands of red and yellow cedar and Western hemlock as well as Sitka spruce trees at least 800 years old."
Biden Hides Trump Hotel Emoluments. Jonathan O'Connell & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "For Donald Trump's entire presidency, top congressional Democrats used every tool at their disposal to investigate the Washington hotel he leased from the federal government, issuing subpoenas, holding hearings and filing a lawsuit to try to bring the inner workings of Trump's luxury property to light.... [President] Biden's team has steadfastly defended some of the protections the Trump administration put in place to conceal Trump's financial interests. The Justice Department under Biden is appealing a lower court judgment in favor of the congressional Democrats in their suit, another move by the agency to defend Trump-era legal positions. Biden's General Services Administration, which holds the lease for the Trump International hotel, has provided only a portion of the documents Congress is seeking and asked that none of them be disclosed publicly." (Also linked yesterday.)
Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "House lawmakers on Friday introduced sweeping antitrust legislation aimed at restraining the power of Big Tech and staving off corporate consolidation. If passed, the bills would be the most ambitious update to monopoly laws in decades. The bills -- five in total -- take direct aim at Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google and their grip on online commerce, information and entertainment. The proposals would make it easier to break up businesses that used their dominance in one area to get a stronghold in another, would create new hurdles for acquisitions of nascent rivals and would empower regulators with more funds to police companies.... The introduction of the bills, which have some bipartisan support, is the most aggressive challenge yet from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley's tech giants...."
Felicia Sonmez & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "YouTube has suspended Sen. Ron Johnson from uploading videos for one week after the Wisconsin Republican's account shared a clip in which he touted the supposed benefits of hydroxychloroquine and another drug in fighting covid-19. According to Fox News Channel, a YouTube spokesperson said the video was in violation of Google's policy against medical misinformation.... Johnson's hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin claims are just the latest instance of the senator dispensing false or questionable information about covid-19 and downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic." The Hill's story is here.
Sarah Burnett of the AP: "A Chicago police officer charged with breaching the U.S. Capitol and entering a senator's office during the Jan. 6 insurrection texted photos of himself inside the building while wearing a police department sweatshirt after telling someone he was going to Washington 'to save the nation.' Karol Chwiesiuk, 29, was arrested Friday and faces five misdemeanor counts, including entering a restricted building, disrupting government business and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds with the intent to impede a congressional proceeding. Prosecutors allege in a criminal complaint that Chwiesiuk was among a mob of people who broke into and damaged the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat. They also say that days before he traveled to Washington to attend a rally supporting ... Donald Trump, Chwiesiuk said in a text to a friend that he was ... was 'Busy planning how to (expletive) up commies.' He later sent photos of himself inside the Capitol, according to prosecutors."
** Ryan Cooper of the Week: "The inspector general (IG) of the U.S. Park Police recently published a report [asserting that] ... 'evidence did not support a finding that the USPP cleared [Lafayette P]ark on June 1, 2020, so that then President Trump could enter the park.'... IG Mark Lee Greenblatt ... instead found that the park was cleared so that some fencing could be put up. Multiple news outlets repeated the IG line.... Don't be led astray by the headlines or the conservative propaganda here. This report does not actually exonerate Trump, and even the most charitable possible conception of events is hideously damning of the former president.... The report does not firmly conclude that Trump's visit had nothing to do with the park clearance, and more importantly, does not remotely count as a thorough investigation into that question.... One of the worst takes on the report (as usual these days) comes from Glenn Greenwald.... In short, whether [or not] the park clearance was initially planned as a cynical political stunt, Trump instantly turned it into one." ~~~
~~~ Marie: My first thought when I ready theNYT report on the report was that the IG report didn't make a lot of sense because officers began violently clearing the park some 45 minutes before the scheduled evening curfew began. Why would they do that if not to accommodate Trump? Thursday night, Chris Hayes of MSNBC & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post, without mentioning the timing of the attack on the protesters raised some other questions about the report's conclusions, emphasizing what Cooper also highlights: the IG didn't do much investigating. (Sorry, can't find video of the Hayes/Leonnig discussion.) Also too, Trump appointed Greenblatt to the IG position.
Volker Played Dumb. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "When ... Donald Trump faced his first impeachment in 2019, Republicans focused on a firsthand witness who they claimed helped exonerate Trump: Kurt Volker. But new evidence calls into question a key portion of Volker's testimony, in which he repeatedly downplayed personal knowledge that the investigations the Trump team sought in Ukraine involved now-President Biden.... [Volker] said hadn't been aware of a quid pro quo in which Ukraine would be given something for launching politically convenient investigations for Trump.... CNN this week published a recording of a call between Volker, Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and a top Ukrainina official, Andriy Yermak, from July 2019.... The recording obtained by CNN shows Giuliani indeed making those [quid pro quo] connections in [the] call.... [Giuliani mentioned Ukraine's investigating Biden more than once during the call.]" MB: Let's face it: anyone associated with Donald Trump is a crook, a liar or both.
Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on Friday to news organizations that provided in-depth coverage of the dramatic turns of 2020, a year dominated by a pandemic that left millions dead and a national conversation on race after the murder of George Floyd. The prize for public service, considered the most prestigious of the Pulitzers, went to The New York Times for its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, an award shared by many departments at the newspaper. The Pulitzer board also recognized journalism that examined law enforcement practices during a year of worldwide street protests inspired, in part, by the murder of Mr. Floyd, a Black man, by a police officer in Minneapolis. The national reporting award went to The Marshall Project, AL.com, IndyStar and the Invisible Institute for a collaborative investigation on police dogs used as weapons, often against innocent citizens, reporting that led to government reforms.... The board also announced that Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed the murder of Mr. Floyd, would receive a special citation." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Poynter has the list of winners here. ~~~
~~~ Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: "The Pulitzer Prize board awarded a special citation on Friday to Darnella Frazier, the teenager whose cellphone footage of George Floyd's murder last summer led to massive protests and sparked a racial reckoning in the country. Frazier was 17 at the time she filmed Floyd's death under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, and she testified at Chauvin's trial, where he would eventually be convicted. Her video contradicted the initial police account of Floyd's death. In Friday's announcement, the board said Frazier received the citation for 'courageously reporting the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Frazier herself has written, "A lot of people call me a hero even though I don't see myself as one. I was just in the right place at the right time." But that isn't quite right. Frazier showed that even as a child, she had the journalistic instincts to record a bad act, at her peril, and publish it on Facebook. The Pulitzer committee would have been egregiously remiss had it not recognized her. ~~~
~~~ Amaris Costillo of Poynter: Freelance writer Mitchell S. "Jackson, a columnist for Esquire and an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, was named a co-winner of a Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing for the essay ['Twelve Minutes and a Life,' published in Runner's World], which is a striking portrait of ... [(Ahmaud) Arbery -- a Black man -- [who] was pursued by armed white men and fatally shot while jogging in Glynn County, Georgia.... The account, published on June 18, 2020, is filled with radiant prose and draws from reporting and a bit of Jackson's own personal experience: He described himself as one of the 'rarest of Americans,' a Black Oregonian, and also wrote about the whiteness of the American pastime that is recreational running."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments are here: "Federal regulators have told Johnson & Johnson that about 60 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine produced at a troubled Baltimore factory cannot be used because of possible contamination, according to people familiar with the situation. The Food and Drug Administration plans to allow about 10 million doses to be distributed in the United States or sent to other countries, but with a warning that regulators cannot guarantee that Emergent BioSolutions, the company that operates the plant, followed good manufacturing practices. The agency has not yet decided whether Emergent can reopen the factory, which has been closed for two months because of regulatory concerns, the people said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jordan Williams of the Hill: "An advisory panel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will hold an emergency meeting on June 18 to discuss rare reports of heart inflammation after doses of COVID-19 vaccine. The meeting comes as the CDC looks into few cases of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscles, in young people and adolescents who received the shot. During a meeting of the Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee on vaccines on Thursday, the CDC revealed that it had identified 475 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis in people younger than 30 years old."
Sarah Kliff of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is reminding doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and insurers that it is illegal to bill patients for coronavirus vaccines, a letter obtained by The Times shows. The new warning responds to concerns among unvaccinated Americans that they could receive a bill with their shot. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that about a third of unvaccinated adults were unsure whether insurance covered the new vaccine." (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Missouri. AP: "Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says addressing the clemency petition for a man who's been behind bars for a triple murder for more than four decades is not a 'priority,' even though prosecutors say he didn't commit the crime. Parson noted that Kevin Strickland, 62, was tried 'by a jury of his peers' and found guilty. But he added that he knew there was 'a lot more information out there.' Parson has a backlog of about 3,000 clemency requests, the Kansas City Star reported. He issued almost no pardons before his reelection in 2020 but has since begun issuing a group of pardons monthly.... Several state lawmakers from both sides of the aisle signed a letter seeking a pardon for Strickland, who has maintained his innocence since he was convicted in the April 1978 deaths of three people in Kansas City." MB: A photo of Strickland accompanying the article suggests why Parson is too busy to pardon the victim of such a striking miscarriage of justice: Strickland appears to be Black. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course, Parson is way busy locking down other -- probably unconstitutional -- matters. ~~~
~~~ Cameron Jenkins of the Hill: "Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) on Thursday announced he will sign legislation to ban state police from enforcing federal gun laws. Under the 'Second Amendment Preservation Act,' federal gun laws that regulate registration for weapons and the tracking and possession of weapons by domestic violence offenders will no longer be enforced, according to the Kansas City Star. Gun control advocates and Democrats have slammed the bill as a 'domestic violence loophole' and dangerous, noting that Missouri faces high rates of gun violence and had the nation's third-highest per-capita rate of gun deaths in 2020.... With the passage of the Second Amendment Preservation Act, the federal law prohibiting gun possession for those convicted of domestic violence would reportedly be deemed 'invalid' in Missouri."
News Ledes
Before Rosa, There Was Martha. New York Times: Martha "White died at 99 on Saturday at a nursing home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.... White, a Black housekeeper in Baton Rouge, La., was bone-weary coming home from work one day in 1953. As she climbed aboard a city bus, she saw only one seat left, in the 'whites only' section at the front. She took it. 'I was tired,' she told Southern Digest in 2005. 'I looked at the seat, and I sat down.' That simple act was a startling move in the Jim Crow South. She was thrown off the bus, prompting Black residents of the city, Louisiana's capital, to mount a bus boycott. And that protest -- which was settled by a partial desegregation of the city's buses -- would serve as the template for the bigger and more famous bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., two and a half years later."
Another Weekend In the NRA-USA. KXAN Austin, Texas: "At least 13 people were injured in a shooting in downtown Austin early Saturday morning.... There are many bars in the area.... Two of these patients are in critical condition, according to [Police Chief Joseph] Chacon.... Chacon said he could not say there's not a danger to the public since the suspect's not in custody. However, he said the shooting appears to be isolated just to this area in downtown."
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Reader Comments (8)
A question, which I first remember asking when I heard the answers given by Reagan and others in the midst of the Iran-Contr investigation.
Why do so many in responsible government positions have such poor memories?
It's as if amnesia is a qualification for high office or is it possible the pressure of the office annihilates brain cells.
Poor Barr. Guess he's sacrificed his mind on behalf of the public good.
Ken, very perceptive. Cabinet officers, ambassadors, flag officers, governors ... their faculties are so deteriorated they need people to chauffeur them so they don't get lost, meet them at the airplane door to get them to that limo without adverse event, hand them schedules several times a day to keep them on track, dial their calls, take notes of their conversations, etc.
Truly sad.
@Ken Winkes & @Patrick: Very funny. But it is true that the higher a person climbs the ladder, the less competent s/he needs to be. As Patrick lays out, at the tippy-top of the ladder, you don't need even the most basic survival skills -- like preparing your own meals or even dressing yourself. Even someone as incompetent and unqualified as Trump had the potential to be a half-decent president, like those accidental presidents in some film comedies, if he had chosen honorable, wise advisors & Cabinet leaders. But of course that's not whom he wanted. (Michael Flynn, Betsy DeVos, etc., etc.) So worst presidency* in U.S. history.
Got to see yesterday and be infuriated by that clip 3 times, of Barr; you know the one, where Kamala eviscerates the fat f***... If his mouth is moving, like his "boss" he is lying. I look forward to His Fatness (I know, I should be doing less body-shaming, but he DESERVES every piece of shame leveled at him--) appearing before Nadler and company.
And yes, Marie, I am trying to not be impatient with the quiet decency of Merrick Garland as he tries to fix every damn thing wrong with the department of "justice" of the US. It is like what Biden has been criticized for-- what, it's six months in and he hasn't fixed everything that was smashed/changed/ruined by the previous admin. It may be his decency is getting in the way of clawing and scratching, which is so needed. Patience-- it reminds me of waiting for Obama, endlessly, to get furious and DO something nuts like quit trying to work with GQP. I am still waiting...
Fortunately, Southern Baptists leaders don't favor science and history: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/12/us/southern-baptists-conservatives.html (see above) and https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/preserve-the-base-leaked-audio-of-sbc-leaders-shows-reluctance-on-dealing-with-sex-abuse/2021/06/10/deb8d006-ca34-11eb-8708-64991f2acf28_story.html. The unraveling of this tax-exempt, racist organization is a sight for sore eyes. The SBC has been seeding and corrupting everything from the Defense Department to business to the very politics supporting the United in the United States.
Regarding the Austin, Texas shooting: Didn't Texas just pass or is preparing to pass an unrestricted open carry law, no exams, no permits?
I'm afraid that Merrick Garland is going to be the next Robert Mueller. A decent person, but an institutionalist who is not up to the job of dealing with all the extraordinary messes that the Former Guy left in the DOJ.
Also, I want to know who the judges were that signed off on all the gag orders and subpoenas to spy on Democrats and journalists.
@RAS: Good points both. The judges are supposed to have probable cause to issue those gag orders, and you'd think when two branches of government got together to secretly investigate the third, they would have nailed down something stronger than "because they're Democrats." I'm not sure, but I think extending the probe year after year would have required extending the judicial reviews; since we're told the investigators never found anything against Schiff, Swalwell, their families and staff, I don't see why a judge would extend the time of the gag orders.