Crooked Media - What A Day: Class(ified) Clown

In response to disgraced former president Trump’s temper tantrum (and an order from a Trump-appointed judge), the Justice Department submitted a new court filing last night and boy was it a doozy. 
 

• The Justice Department submitted a court filing late Tuesday painting the most detailed picture yet of its efforts to retrieve sensitive government documents Trump stole and housed improperly at Mar-A-Lago before taking the historic step to search the premises on August 8. Both the National Archives and Records Administration and DOJ were trying to chase down the materials Trump absconded with for over a year. The 36-page filing details that the search yielded three classified documents in Trump’s office desks and more than 100 documents in 13 boxes or containers with classification markings in the residence. That’s twice the number of classified documents Trump’s lawyers turned over voluntarily while swearing an oath that they had returned everything the government demanded. 
   

• Investigators developed evidence that “government records were likely concealed and removed” from the storage room at Mar-a-Lago after DOJ sent Trump’s office a subpoena for any remaining documents with classified designations. The new filing, which is a response to Trump’s request to appoint a third-party to evaluate the records retrieved from the probe, states that this led prosecutors to conclude that “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.” Federal prosecutors go on to say that Trump’s request “fails for multiple, independent reasons,” and accuse him of leveling “wide-ranging meritless accusations” against the government. Furthermore, some of the documents were so sensitive that even FBI personnel required additional clearances before they could review them.
   

• Still, it’s unclear when and if charges will be filed. Two of Trump’s lawyers, however, are likely to become witnesses or targets in this investigation, having sworn under oath that all sensitive materials had been returned before the August FBI search. The lawyers (Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb) represented Trump and acted as his proxy in communicating with the government over the May subpoena seeking additional classified materials not believed to have been returned in January. The court filing strongly suggests that Trump’s attorneys concealed documents in defiance of that subpoena. Another of Trump’s attorneys, Alina Habba, told a New York State court that she scoured Trump’s private residence for sensitive documents five days before DOJ issued its subpoena. Habba was at Mar-a-Lago looking for records related to a separate investigation, one the New York Attorney General’s office was conducting into the Trump Organization. So many crimes, so little time. 

All of this is piling up on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s desk, to his perhaps understandable dismay. The guy just wanted to do civil-rights cases!
 

• Ultimately, Garland has to weigh the balance of national-security risks, precedent, and potential political fallout that could come with bringing charges against Trump. Garland is nothing if not deeply circumspect, so if DOJ does in fact bring charges against the former president, the evidence against him will undoubtedly be unimpeachable. This would most likely be in the form of a possible violation of the Espionage Act (kind of a big one!!) and evidence of Trump and his team having concealed his possession of classified materials (also a big one!). 
   

• But the effort to hold Trump accountable is complicated by the possible national-security implications of publicizing highly-classified materials in a trial. On the other hand, the dangers of going too easy on Trump will have untold deleterious consequences as well. But perhaps the most glaring question still remains: Why did Trump take all of those highly-classified documents in the first place? What, exactly, was he planning to do with them? Normal, totally legal stuff, we’re sure. 

Systematic racism, police brutality and generational trauma all play a huge role in the mental health of the Black Community. The ladies of Imani State of Mind are taking a deep dive into what it really means to be Black in America and the harsh realities race plays on the Black community’s mental health.

 Listen to this conversation and new episodes of Imani State of Mind every Friday wherever you get your podcasts.

New Coronavirus booster shots targeting the Omicron variant were authorized by the FDA yesterday and could begin rollout within just a few days. 

The South Carolina House has passed a near-total abortion ban, with exceptions only in cases of rape or incest before the twelfth week of pregnancy. 

The highest administrative court in France released a new report concluding that artificial intelligence does not pose an existential threat to humanity, dismissing the theory of the “singularity” in which technology will eventually outsmart and control humans. Really hope this is true because the alternative sounds scary!!

Police in Columbus, OH, released body cam footage yesterday after an officer fatally shot a 20 year-old Black man while he was still in bed, seconds after entering his apartment around 2:30 a.m. to serve him with a search warrant. The officer in question was placed on leave and an investigation into the incident has been opened. 

Misdemeanor arrests in New York City have jumped 25 percent in the first six months of Mayor Eric Adams’s administration, which advocates fear will lead to a new era of mass incarceration in the city while doing nothing to actually reduce crime. 

Republican senate nominee Dr. Oz has been kind of all over the place on abortion, but in new leaked audio he staked out his most extreme position yet, telling voters at a campaign event in May that abortion at any stage of development including from the moment of conception is “still murder.” Once again we ask how does this man still have a medical license?

Germany has agreed to compensate relatives of Israelis killed during the 1972 Munich Olympics in a €28 million deal. 

An Indiana abortion clinic filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to block the state’s almost-complete ban on abortions before it takes effect in two weeks. 

Republican candidates in battleground states continue to scrub their campaign websites of language reflecting their anti-choice positions and, more recently, connections to disgraced former president Trump. 

Two Republicans on an elections board in Michigan forced the panel into deadlock, instead of signing off on a valid proposal to hold a ballot initiative to add abortion rights to the state constitution this November. The liberal leaning state Supreme Court will have the ultimate say.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced that his government will sue the FDA, claiming it has delayed the state’s attempts to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. 

The National Center for Health Statistics reported that U.S. life expectancy has fallen again in its sharpest decline in nearly 100 years, and the reduction has been particularly steep among Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

After a relatively quiet few weeks, developments in Russia’s war against Ukraine have mounted in rapid succession. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi says he wants the International Atomic Energy Agency to establish a “permanent presence” at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant that has been under Russian military occupation for weeks. The inspectors arrived at Europe’s largest power plant today seeking to safeguard the site and prevent radiation leaks amidst the war raging around it. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell renewed a call to Russia to fully demilitarize the area. Russia’s neighboring countries in the European Union are seeking unilateral measures to make it more difficult for Russians to enter their countries. For their part, Russia has completely halted gas supplies to Europe via one of its major pipelines, having already significantly reduced gas exports there. This could create a cost of living crisis in the E.U. with the winter months approaching, as the supply shutoff from Russia has sent gas prices soaring. Meanwhile Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the country’s southern region is progressing.

A pilot program for the first Advanced Placement African American Studies class is coming this fall to 60 high schools.

A Virginia judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by two Republicans attempting to limit how bookstores and public-school libraries could distribute two books dealing with sex and gender to minors. One of the books in question, I shit you not, is a fantasy novel about a fairy romance. 

California lawmakers have authorized spending millions of dollars to support people who travel seeking abortions from other states where the procedure is illegal.

The GOP’s lead going into midterms continues to shrink, with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and Student Debt Cancellation polling well nationally. 

In a new poll, almost half of 18-35 year-old voters said they were “very motivated” to vote in November, a high figure many are linking to the Dobbs decision.