BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI & CROOKED MEDIA
Wednesday, April 10, 2019 | —Our confident, statesmanlike, humble president criticizing George Washington | Attorney General William Barr hasn’t just taken it upon himself to exonerate President Trump despite evidence that he obstructed justice. He’s now intent on counterprogramming the Mueller report by fanning conspiracy theories that the Russia investigation itself was corrupt and possibly criminal. At a Wednesday Senate hearing about the Justice Department’s budget, Barr elaborated on his plan to head yet another inquiry about the origins of the Russia investigation by making the incendiary and discredited claim that the government had “spied” on the Trump campaign. “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” Barr said, adding “I think spying did occur, yes,” and that there was “probably a failure among a group of leaders there in the upper echelon” of the FBI. In reality, the origins of the Russia investigation are well known because they have been thoroughly investigated. The FBI launched a counterintelligence investigation of members of the Trump campaign because of their suspicious contacts with Russians interfering in the election. The FBI warned the Trump campaign that Russia posed an espionage threat, only to see the Trump campaign ignore the warning. Eventually, the Justice Department engaged in surveillance of some of these aides when they left the campaign, which required officials—including Trump administration officials—to obtain repeated approval from multiple judges. By the end of the hearing Barr had largely retracted this claim, and admitted he wasn’t certain “that improper surveillance occurred.” But his initial comments were no accident and served to boost Trump politically in multiple ways: - Propaganda: Barr’s spying allegation immediately made its way into credulous headlines, which will reinforce baseless suspicions on the right that the Russia investigation itself was a scandal.
- Deflection: His intent to probe the origins of the Russia investigation suggests that as he resists congressional demands for the complete Mueller report, he will simultaneously be working to discredit the underlying investigation—at Trump’s request.
- Improper influence: The origins of the Russia investigation are already the subject of an internal watchdog inquiry, and Barr’s assertions serve to thumb the scales of that ongoing matter.
Barr is supposed to work for the United States, not the President. His proper role this past month was to provide Congress the Mueller report, without editing or mischaracterizing it, and then to move on. What he’s done instead is work in tandem with Trump to cover up Trump’s misconduct and now to frame his political enemies. Imagine Loretta Lynch had asserted Hillary Clinton’s innocence during the 2016 campaign, then concealed the evidence for her, and launched an inquiry of the people who got the email investigation started, while accusing them of misconduct. The political system would have rightly melted down, and it should be melting down right now. | A viral image of 22-year-old Alaa Salah leading chants at a protest in Sudan has called attention to the country’s anti-government demonstrations, and the women at their forefront. Since December, tens of thousands of Sudanese people have held nationwide protests calling on the country’s authoritarian leader to step down, citing rapidly rising housing and food costs, and crimes against humanity. This week, protestors braved tear gas and clashes with security to protest at the presidential palace. The image of Salah was particularly resonant because her traditional garments reference the country’s working women, and pay homage to the women who fought for the end of dictatorial rule in the country in earlier generations. | Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will miss today’s deadline Congress set to turn over President Trump tax returns so he can obtain cover from the Justice Department to break the law. Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have secured a fifth term as Israel’s Prime Minister—a victory secured with the help of voter suppression that all but ensures Israel will be led by the most extreme right-wing government in its history, and will reject a two-state solution. The Trump administration wants to make it easier for immigration officials to immediately reject asylum seekers who face persecution in their home countries. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has reintroduced his Medicare for All Act in the Senate, which includes a new proposal to cover long-term care in addition to creating a government-run health care system with no deductibles or copays. Four of Sanders’ Democratic presidential primary opponents have already cosponsored it. President Trump’s deputy attorney general nominee Jeffrey Rosen refused to say at his confirmation hearing whether he believed Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board—the cases that affirmed the right to abortion and ended segregation—were correctly decided. If confirmed he would oversee the civil rights division and the solicitor general, who makes arguments for the administration before the Supreme Court. Cool cool. New Zealand’s Parliament has passed a law banning nearly all semiautomatic weapons, with only one of 120 lawmakers voting against it, less than a month after the Christchurch massacre left 50 dead. By contrast, six months after the Tree of Life synagogue killings, Pittsburgh’s mayor has signed legislation to restrict the use of assault-style weapons in the city and the law is already mired in legal challenges. New York City has declared a public-health emergency after an outbreak of measles in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, which will require unvaccinated people in certain areas to either get the vaccine or face fines of up to $1000. The federal prosecutors overseeing the investigation of illegal hush-money payments President Trump directed to his former mistresses reportedly have much more evidence from many more of Trump’s close associates than we knew. The Trump Organization is quietly purging undocumented workers who’ve worked for Trump for years from his south Florida properties. | Question: How can you tell if online furniture is as great as it looks? Answer: Get it shipped for free and feel the quality for yourself. (Or take our word for it. 😉) At Sixpenny, we make life-friendly furniture with world-class materials, and give it to you for direct-from-maker prices that make sense. And yes, everything ships free and has a 30-day return policy. Now that’s comforting. Use the code LOVETT for 15% off your Sixpenny purchase → | Pregnancy-tracking app Ovia lets employers buy “de-identified” information about their employees’ pregnancies, including how many of them use the app, the general health of their pregnancies, and when new moms plan to return to work—a horrifying nexus of two awful problems: technology company privacy abuses and workplace discrimination against women. | After more than a decade of work by 200 researchers, led by 29-year-old Katie Bouman, scientists have captured the first-ever picture of a black hole. As a grad student at MIT, Bouman created the algorithm that allowed a network of global telescopes to create the image, and compared the challenge to trying to “[take] an image of a grapefruit on the moon, but with a radio telescope.” Thanks to her, we have the first clear visual evidence that black holes not only exist, but kinda look like Spaghetti-O’s. | Did someone forward you this email? 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