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BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, & CROOKED MEDIA Thursday, August 29, 2019 |
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| —Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who has no time for your bougie nonsense |
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| COMEY DON'T PLAY THAT (THE UPDATED VERSION) |
| The Justice Department has answered President Trump’s calls to “investigate the investigators” with an internal report on former FBI Director James Comey’s conduct after Trump fired him in 2017.
Though the report essentially concludes that Trump has routinely lied about Comey (huge spoiler), it is less interesting for its content than for what it says about how Trump has turned the Justice Department into a weapon he wields against his enemies. How could that go wrong?
Here’s a rundown.
Why does this report exist? In 2017, Trump fired Comey as part of a broader scheme to obstruct the Russia investigation. After his firing, Comey relayed the contents of memos he’d written about his private interactions with Trump to a friend and lawyer named Daniel Richman. Comey asked RIchman to leak those details to the press, in the hope that the disclosures would compel the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel. (It worked! Hi Bob!) These “Comey memos” are how we know Trump demanded loyalty from Comey and asked Comey to end his investigation of disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn. Today’s DOJ report is about whether Comey violated department protocols by orchestrating the leak, or revealed classified information—a crime Trump has accused him of repeatedly.
What does it say? In short, it says Comey’s disclosures did violate DOJ protocols, that he had other means “available to him to advocate for the appointment of a Special Counsel.” It also says investigators “found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media." In a surprising turn, Trump’s full of shit.
Well, at least that’s settled, right? What a dreamer! Comey has asked for private apologies from Trump supporters who’ve lied about him, and Trump said Comey “should be ashamed of himself!”
Why should we care? Because amid all of Trump’s misconduct, the DOJ’s internal watchdog has devoted resources to scrutinizing the actions of a whistleblower who no longer worked for the government when he blew the whistle. Trump has engineered multiple investigations of people like Comey who got the Russia investigation moving, for the very purpose of generating a sense of controversy and criminality around them. It’s an abuse of office in and of itself, and it’s working. |
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| Here’s another sign that Mitch McConnell is worried Republicans might lose their Senate majority in 2020: All 53 Senate Republicans have signed a letter urging the Supreme Court to ignore a brief filed by a group of five Democratic senators earlier this year. The Democrats, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), argued that the public will eventually revolt if the Court’s long list of controversial 5-4 decisions, nearly all of which advance Republican and corporate causes, continues to grow.
“The Supreme Court is not well,” Whitehouse wrote. “And the people know it. Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be ‘restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics,’” citing a recent poll question most Americans agreed with.
What does this have to do with the Senate? The structure of the Court can’t change (by adding justices, for instance) unless Congress passes a new law. If McConnell were confident that President Trump would win and he’d hold the Senate majority, his letter wouldn’t be necessary.
Last week, McConnell published an op-ed in the New York Times warning Democrats not to abolish the filibuster—another action that only makes sense if he worries Democrats will win back the Senate.
Why not up his anxiety level? → votesaveamerica.com/getmitch |
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| The Environmental Protection Agency wants to eliminate a federal requirement that limits methane emissions by requiring oil and gas companies to install technology to monitor for and fix methane leaks. Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps heat far more effectively than carbon dioxide. Wonderful.
Florida’s governor has declared a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Dorian’s anticipated landfall this weekend as a Category 4 storm. The storm mostly spared Puerto Rico. Has anyone thought of nuking the hurricane? Might be an easy fix.
The Trump administration has delayed $250 million in military assistance to Ukraine, which we provide to check Russian military aggression, just days after he sang Vladimir Putin’s praises and downplayed Russia’s invasion of Crimea at the G7 Summit. His lawyer Rudy Giuliani, with the backing of the State Department, has tried to coerce Ukraine into ginning up an investigation of Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden.
Apple has announced that it will no longer record users’ conversations with Siri without their permission after a report last month found that contractors regularly listen to the private interactions people have after giving voice commands, which include names, medical records, drug deals, and sex noises. PRO TIP: Stop saying “Siri, hold my calls!” before...you know.
The FBI is examining two cameras that malfunctioned outside of the jail cell where Jeffrey Epstein died after two guards failed to monitor him. Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that footage from at least one camera in the hallway outside his cell was unusable. If this was a conspiracy or a murder they are being super fucking obvious about it.
The Pentagon officially established U.S. Space Command today, though Trump’s “Space Force” still does not exist. Space Command will reportedly “[enable] satellite-based navigation and communications for troops and commanders in the field and [provide] warning of missile launches abroad.” Space Force would be a separate military service. Space Farm would be a nice place in space where you could pet horses.
On the campaign trail, Joe Biden has told a moving story about a visit he made to Afghanistan to honor a military hero when he was vice president, but nearly all the details are false. According to the Washington Post, Biden seems to have mashed details of three separate events into one story. To quote our girl Sarah Palin, “say it ain’t so Joe.”
While genetics and environment play a role in shaping human sexuality, there is no one “gay gene,” according to the largest-ever study about genes and sexuality.
NFL veteran Ryan Russell came out as bisexual. There is not a single openly LGBTQ player in the NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL, at the moment. |
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| A New York law passed in June to expunge low-level marijuana convictions went into effect statewide today, clearing 10,872 records of these convictions in New York City and 13,357 more elsewhere in the state. The new law reduces the severity of possessing of between one to two ounces of marijuana, and caps fines at $200. Do the rest of the country next. |
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| High school students in Nevada’s Clark County School District are using TikTok to organize a strike in solidarity with their teachers over unfair conditions and raises they were promised, but later denied. For the uninitiated (olds), TikTok is an app that allows users to post short, funny videos, but students in this district have repurposed it to explain the situation their teachers face and encourage other students to join the strike. |
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