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BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, & CROOKED MEDIA Wednesday, August 28, 2019 |
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| —Brit Hume fooling no one |
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| ALERT! FRESH CRIMES! |
| On Tuesday night, the Washington Post published a story on Trump’s eagerness to build his infamous border wall which said the following:
You may wonder: Is it a big deal when the president tells subordinates it’s cool to break the law in order to fulfil and campaign promise and help him win reelection, because he can then pardon them after the fact? Why, yes! Yes it is.
In a tough category, this may be the most serious abuse of power and impeachable offense that Trump has committed.
The Constitution allows the president to pardon people who break federal law, and once a president issues a pardon or commutes a prison sentence, it cannot be reviewed. It’s a powerful power! And that means it is ripe for abuse.
But that’s also why it has long been recognized that abusing the pardon power can be considered an impeachable offense.
Of course, Trump has denied the report, but Trump loves to do two things: offer pardons, and lie about it later.
So why is this different? Trump has abused the pardon power before. And he has done it to cover up past crimes and dole out favors to cronies. Not good. But now his goal is to break the law for the explicit purpose of improving his re-election odds.
The integrity of presidential elections depends on the integrity of our laws. If he’ll dangle pardons to encourage subordinates to commit crimes to fulfill campaign promises, why not encourage aides and allies to break other laws, including campaign laws, to help him win re-election?
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| U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a policy alert today to notify us that the children of U.S. service members stationed abroad will no longer automatically be considered citizens after October 29. Instead, their parents will have to apply for citizenship on their behalf.
This is jaw-droppingly cruel to service members and one of a number of new, targeted policies the Trump administration has designed to drive out immigrants and foreigners, specifically by attacking their children, some of whom are citizens.
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| Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) ended her presidential campaign after failing to qualify for the third debate by today's deadline. "Only" 10 candidates made the cut (HALLELUJAH), which means there will only be one stage (!!!!). The debate will air September 12 on ABC News.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has decided to suspend Parliament for more than a month before Britain’s deadline to leave the European Union on October 31. Opposition lawmakers are furious because Johnson has intentionally limited the time available to them to prevent the U.K. from exiting without a deal—an outcome they (rightly) believe will create utter chaos.
Deutsche Bank has told a federal appeals court that it has portions of Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns along with other sensitive financial information Trump has provided his primary lender. Congressional investigators believe the information will paint a clearer picture of where Trump’s money has come from and what crimes he may have committed, than his tax returns alone.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) will resign at the end of the year for health reasons, which means both of Georgia’s Senate seats will be open in 2020. Although Isakson’s term lasts until 2022, Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) will appoint an interim successor who will serve until a 2020 special election, after which the winner will serve out the rest of Isakson’s term. Stacey Abrams reiterated that she will not seek election in 2020, and will focus instead on building her organization, Fair Fight, to combat voter suppression nationwide. Help her out! →
Tropical Storm Dorian strengthened to a hurricane on Wednesday and could hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane this weekend.
The Brazilian government has decided to accept $12 million in aid from Britain to fight fires in the Amazon, hours after it rejected over $20 million from the G7 (of which Britain is a member). A government spokesman said, “all external support is welcome, provided the decision over how those resources are employed is ours.”
Over a dozen women who accused Jeffrey Epstein of sex crimes spoke in court in Manhattan on Tuesday to close out the federal criminal case against Epstein. Several women called on the prosecutors to continue investigating his potential co-conspirators.
Amazon’s doorbell company, Ring, secretly provided over 400 police forces around the country access to footage from homeowners’ doorsteps. The arrangement allows police to request Ring video footage within specific times and areas, but homeowners can decline the requests.
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| The Trump administration wants to create new holes in the Fair Housing Act, but you can help fight back.
Currently, the Fair Housing Act makes it illegal for public and private entities to intentionally or unintentionally create racial disparities in housing access. But Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development has redrafted the rules to create new exemptions and conditions, including one that basically exempts all financial institutions from worrying about discrimination or segregation.
BUT! HUD has to read and address the comments and complaints it receives about the rule. Civil rights organizations have set up an online portal to submit those comments, and if you take 35 seconds to write them, you can tell HUD to ditch the changes right now.
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| The New York Times presents: The Lasting Effects of “Bad Paper” Discharges on Military Veterans—Wednesday, Sept. 11 at the University of Southern California
Since 2001, thousands of service members have been forced out of the military with “bad paper”—a less-than-honorable discharge that prevents them from accessing V.A. health care and other veterans benefits. These discharges for misconduct are often the result of PTSD or traumatic brain injury, and research shows that this can lead to higher rates of unemployment, homelessness and suicide.
On Wednesday, Sept. 11 in Los Angeles, Pulitzer Prize-winning Times journalist and Marine veteran C. J. Chivers will moderate a discussion of the issue with national correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Philipps; Rose Carmen Goldberg, a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley School of Law who represented veterans with bad paper, and Monique Jenea, a Navy veteran who was discharged with bad paper.
Get tickets: $25 for general entry, $15 with code CROOKED → timesevents.nytimes.com/AtWarLA |
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| Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg made it to Manhattan after sailing across the Atlantic for two weeks in a zero-carbon emissions vessel. Thunberg made the trip to attend the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York in September (and hopefully to save us all). |
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