What A Day: Federal Bureau of Indemnification

Time once again to check in with disgraced former president and current 2024 candidate Donald Trump.
 

• New reporting suggests that Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents squandered months arguing over how to recover stolen classified documents from Trump’s personal residence at the Mar-a-Lago Club. Prosecutors argued that new evidence pointed to the conclusion that Trump was knowingly concealing sensitive documents from his presidency there and urged the FBI to conduct an unannounced raid on the property, but two senior FBI officials in charge of leading the search pleaded for special leniency for their daddy a former president who had already spent years smearing the FBI anytime it investigated his friends or didn’t investigate his enemies. 
   

• Ultimately, DOJ prevailed and the raid uncovered over 100 classified documents, including ones describing a foreign government’s classified military and nuclear capabilities. The clash between FBI and DOJ reflects lingering enthusiasm for Trump among rank-and-file police, and the extent to which Trump’s efforts to politicize the FBI and DOJ succeeded. Months before the raid back in May 2022, FBI agents had sought to slow the probe and some field agents wanted to shutter the criminal investigation altogether, satisfied with Trump’s legal team’s assertions that they had conducted a diligent search and all classified materials had been returned.
   

• Even more damning information has been uncovered recently. A new report suggests that months after he left office, Trump directed his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to leak highly classified government records regarding Peter Strzok, the former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, to the press. Meadows removed the classified documents from the White House (seems bad already) which the two men believed would discredit Strzok. The new revelation arises just as special counsel Jack Smith (I’ll never get over what a John Doe-ass name this is) continues his federal criminal investigation to determine whether Trump should be charged for taking, concealing, and lying about these classified documents.

The tensions over what to do about this criminal who wants to be president again will only get worse as we move deeper into the 2024 election season. 

• Former president Mike Pence twice declined to commit to supporting Trump if he is the Republican presidential nominee in a Wednesday interview with CBS News, and all but confirmed that he thinks Trump shouldn’t be the nominee, saying, “I’m very confident we’ll have better choices come 2024, and that “different times call for different leadership.” Shots fired! (In fairness to Pence, who among us wouldn’t be reticent to endorse someone whose supporters demanded we be hanged?)

• There’s even more bad news for Trump coming down the pike (we love to see it). The Justice Department argued today that Trump can be sued by injured Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the January 6 insurrection, and DOJ won’t be there to help defend him. Attorneys for the Justice Department’s Civil Division wrote, “Speaking to the public on matters of public concern is a traditional function of the Presidency, and the outer perimeter of the President’s Office includes a vast realm of such speech…But that traditional function is one of public communication. It does not include incitement of imminent private violence.”

Donald Trump’s myriad crimes are of inescapable political interest, because he’s running for president again. It’s up to the Justice Department to demonstrate that running for president again won’t protect him or anyone else from accountability for breaking the law.

President Biden said he will sign a GOP-led resolution blocking the District of Columbia’s major revision of its century-old criminal code if it passes through Congress, but claims he still maintains he supports DC statehood and home rule. Not great, Joe!

The United States is broaching talks with its close international allies about the possibility of imposing new sanctions on China if Beijing provides military support to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) will join the University of Virginia as a professor after losing her primary to a Trump-backed challenger. 

Patrick Wojahn, the mayor of College Park, MD, was arrested on 56 counts of posession and distribution of child sexual abuse videos.

Republican lawmakers in Kentucky advanced a bill aimed at putting limits on drag shows. 

Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 didn’t act swiftly enough on key information and missed a significant opportunity to prevent the suicide bombing that killed 22 people at a 2017 Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. 

Twitter briefly suspended the personal account of Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) after the Republican congressman appeared to have threatened the prime minister of Japan over a detained United States Navy serviceman. Good, normal stuff, Mike! Keep it up!

A network of political nonprofits formed by hyper-conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo moved at least $43 million to a new firm he’s leading. Last August, Leo received a $1.6 billion windfall from a single donor, likely the largest political gift in history. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) says he won’t “mess with Social Security,” as everyone with eyes blasts him over past support for privatization. No one believes you, my guy!

After exaggeratedly feigning care for the average working American in the wake of the East Palestine, OH, train derailment and torching President Biden with accusations that he doesn’t, Republicans are now, of course, saying they don’t support the introduction of “burdensome regulations” for the rail industry, which is exactly how we fucking got here.

It’s been a…turbulent year for air travel (I hate myself). A new criminal complaint from the FBI reports that a 40-year-old man was arrested this week on federal charges after he checked a suitcase containing an explosive for a flight to Florida at a Pennsylvania airport. The man who tried to check the explosive was Marc Muffley from Lansford, PA, and he was headed from Lehigh Valley International Airport to Orlando when he was flagged by an alarm during his TSA screening. The FBI determined that the explosive was a “circular compound” with fuses attached inside the suitcase. Security camera footage confirms that Muffley left the airport five minutes after being asked to report to the security desk and was arrested late Monday night. The immediate area of the airport was evacuated “out of an abundance of caution.” On Wednesday, Lufthansa Flight 469 from Austin, TX, to Frankfurt, Germany was diverted to Dulles International Airport near Washington after encountering turbulence so severe that seven passengers were taken to hospitals. The plane dropped almost 4,000 feet during the turbulence. Happy travels everyone!

The Willow Project is a disastrous Western Arctic drilling plan that could generate as much carbon as 76 coal plants emit in a year, jeopardize the health and traditional practices of nearby Alaska Native communities, and devastate local wildlife like polar bears, migratory birds, and caribou. Help us stop the Willow project.
 

ConocoPhillips is planning this massive oil drilling project in the Western Arctic, and the Biden administration has less than 30 days to finalize its decision to grant or deny permits to ConocoPhillips. You can pressure the administration to do the right thing. Tell President Biden to halt it for good.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has officially called for an end to Daylight Savings, saying the semi-annual shift is detrimental to sleep health. Finally, some real allies. 

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) posted a pretty good clip of him taking Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) to school on the Capitol steps. 

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose restrictions on harmful “forever chemicals” in drinking water. Okay, thanks!