Punchbowl had an excellent brief summary of Trump’s legal trouble:
Here’s a taste of the Trump-related news:
→ Rudy Giuliani is a “target” in the Georgia election probe: Giuliani faces a possible indictment in the criminal probe by Fulton County prosecutors over his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, the New York Times first reported. Giuliani will go before a special grand jury in Atlanta on Wednesday. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will also have to testify before the grand jury, a federal judge said on Monday.
→ Trump’s team accessed Georgia’s voting system: Here’s the Washington Post.
A team of computer experts directed by lawyers allied with President Donald Trump copied sensitive data from election systems in Georgia as part of a secretive, multistate effort to access voting equipment that was broader, more organized and more successful than previously reported.
→ The “other” Justice Department investigation: The Justice Department’s probe of the Jan. 6 insurrection, including attempts to use “false electors” to derail the certification of Biden’s Electoral College win, continues to heat up. Former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann – one of the breakout stars of Jan. 6 select committee hearings – has been subpoenaed for documents and testimony, per Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan.
→ Longtime Trump Org. exec may plea: Allen Weisselberg, the CFO of the Trump Organization, may plead guilty later this week to tax fraud charges. Weisselberg hasn’t cooperated with the Manhattan DA’s investigation into Trump.
Merrick Garland said No, Mr TFG. It’s not yours. And then had this kindergarten teacher explain it to him.
Politico:
A new, powerful signal that Dems’ midterm hopes aren’t lost
Primary results in Washington state track with general election results — and Democrats did much better in 2022 than 2010 or 2014, though not as well as 2018.
The last two times Democrats suffered catastrophic midterm losses, an early warning of the coming earthquake came out of the Pacific Northwest.
This year, the indication from Washington state suggests something very different: a more middle-of-the-road outcome in the general election, instead of the red wave Republicans have been hoping to build.
Politico:
GOP slashes ads in key Senate battlegrounds
NRSC cancels over $10 million in ad buys as candidates struggle with fundraising.
As midterm election campaigns heat up in the Senate’s top battlegrounds, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is canceling millions of dollars of ad spending, sending GOP campaigns and operatives into a panic and upending the committee’s initial spending plan.
The cuts — totaling roughly $13.5 million since Aug. 1 — come as the Republicans’ Senate campaign committee is being forced to “stretch every dollar we can,” said a person familiar with the NRSC’s deliberations. Republican nominees in critical states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina — places the GOP must defend this fall — have failed to raise enough money to get on air themselves, requiring the NRSC to make cuts elsewhere to accommodate.
Philadelphia Inquirer:
Hey, Trump GOPers, we don’t have to imagine what cops can do to everyday citizens
In a society rife with cop brutality, the GOP freak-out over the Trump Mar-a-Lago search isn't about the rule of law, but preserving white privilege.
Like many of her Republican colleagues, [GOP Sen. Marsha] Blackburn also tied the probe of a rogue former commander-in-chief to an unrelated development — the hiring of thousands of new IRS workers and stepped-up audits of wealthy households earning more than $400,000 — to argue that a hyper-politicized new kind of police state is coming for regular folks.
Larry Levitt/NY Times:
Big Changes Are Coming for Health Care Costs
The Inflation Reduction Act is the biggest health reform initiative since passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, more than a decade ago. And the fact that this new legislation passed despite the opposition of the drug industry — which, along with most insurance companies and hospitals, largely supported the A.C.A. — makes it, in a sense, even more of a statement about what’s politically possible in reforming the health system.
Until now, the United States stood alone among high-income countries with no government control (outside of Medicaid and the Veterans Health Administration) over drug prices. That’s why prices in this country are roughly triple what other nations pay for the same brand name drugs.
Katherine Wu/Atlantic:
The Pandemic’s Soft Closing
The CDC’s latest COVID guidelines are the closest the nation’s leaders have come to saying the coronavirus crisis is done.
The shift in guidelines underscores how settled the country is into the current state of affairs. This new relaxation of COVID rules is one of the most substantial to date—but it wasn’t spurred by a change in conditions on the ground. A slew of Omicron subvariants are still burning across most states; COVID deaths have, for months, remained at a stubborn, too-high plateau. The virus won’t budge. Nor will Americans. So the administration is shifting its stance instead. No longer will people be required to quarantine after encountering the infected, even if they haven’t gotten the recommended number of shots; schools and workplaces will no longer need to screen healthy students and employees, and guidance around physical distancing is now a footnote at best.
Punchbowl:
The grudge between McCarthy and Cheney has become deeply personal. McCarthy and his allies think Cheney is an opportunist with poor political instincts. And Cheney and her team think McCarthy is a political coward who put his own ambition before the good of the country.
Both members are convinced history will prove them right.
Liz Cheney is already proven right. See also Liz Cheney’s harsh new attack on Trump is a plea for GOP sanity, from July.
In a change of subject, a welcome addition:
Edward C Holmes/The Conversation:
The COVID lab leak theory is dead. Here’s how we know the virus came from a Wuhan market
My colleagues and I published the most detailed studies of the earliest events in the COVID-19 pandemic last month in the journal Science.
Together, these papers paint a coherent evidence-based picture of what took place in the city of Wuhan during the latter part of 2019.
The take-home message is the COVID pandemic probably did begin where the first cases were detected – at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
At the same time this lays to rest the idea that the virus escaped from a laboratory.
