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Trump’s Ukraine call appears to have triggered three cover-ups

Trump’s Ukraine call appears to have triggered three cover-ups

Neal K. Katyal and Joshua A. Geltzer write: One of the first things new prosecutors at the Justice Department learn is that cover-ups are rarely singular. There is often a cover-up of the cover-up. Allegations of one cover-up, then another, emerged last week. Officials in the Trump administration tried to “lock down” the phone call memo between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine (the first cover-up), and then officials in the executive branch made efforts to keep this information…

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House investigating ‘near raw bribery’ as hotel bookings appear to be used to curry favor with Trump

House investigating ‘near raw bribery’ as hotel bookings appear to be used to curry favor with Trump

Politico reports: House investigators are looking into an allegation that groups — including at least one foreign government — tried to ingratiate themselves to President Donald Trump by booking rooms at his hotels but never staying in them. It’s a previously unreported part of a broad examination by the House Oversight Committee, included in Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, into whether Trump broke the law by accepting money from U.S. or foreign governments at his properties. “Now we’re looking at near raw…

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With impeachment looming, the news media is growing a spine. It needs stiffening

With impeachment looming, the news media is growing a spine. It needs stiffening

Margaret Sullivan writes: Scott Pelley of CBS pushed back hard when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to spin him on Sunday’s “60 Minutes.” So did Chris Wallace of Fox News when Trump aide Stephen Miller refused to accept reality on the same subject: President Trump pressing Ukraine’s president to provide dirt on his political opponent. So did Jake Tapper of CNN with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, and Chuck Todd of NBC…

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Schiff got early account of accusations as whistle-blower’s concerns grew

Schiff got early account of accusations as whistle-blower’s concerns grew

The New York Times reports: The Democratic head of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, learned about the outlines of a C.I.A. officer’s concerns that President Trump had abused his power days before the officer filed a whistle-blower complaint, according to a spokesman and current and former American officials. The early account by the future whistle-blower shows how determined he was to make known his allegations that Mr. Trump asked Ukraine’s government to interfere on his…

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How to get away with gerrymandering

How to get away with gerrymandering

David Daley writes: Luxury cabanas atop Austin’s JW Marriott kept state legislators cool poolside as August-in-Texas temperatures soared above 103 degrees during each day of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s 2019 annual meeting. The gathered Republican officials could enjoy a $14 rooftop Peppered Paloma cocktail with Patrón silver, housemade grapefruit poblano soda, and Chilean salt, all while gazing over Lady Bird Lake and the nearby state Capitol, or catching a ballgame on the cabana’s 55-inch private TV. Downstairs, meanwhile, five…

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Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: Trump is engaged in ‘sedition’ — ‘inciting violence against the legitimate government of the United States’

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: Trump is engaged in ‘sedition’ — ‘inciting violence against the legitimate government of the United States’

  Retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he thinks if President Donald Trump loses the 2020 election, he could be spending time in court, or prison, for the rest of his life.

Attorney General Barr’s international mission in the service of Donald Trump’s personal interests

Attorney General Barr’s international mission in the service of Donald Trump’s personal interests

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of possible connections between Russia and members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter. Barr’s personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment that he is helping the Trump administration use executive…

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Sen. Grassley breaks with Trump over protecting whistleblower

Sen. Grassley breaks with Trump over protecting whistleblower

Politico reports: As President Donald Trump and his allies attack the whistleblower that kicked off the House’s impeachment inquiry, the still unidentified person gained a powerful ally on Tuesday: Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. The most senior GOP senator has fashioned a career on protecting whistleblowers during presidencies of both parties. And in the middle of one of the most tempestuous political storms in two decades, the seventh-term Iowan is sticking to his position even if it’s at odds with the…

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Trump’s claims about Biden aren’t ‘unsupported’ — they’re lies

Trump’s claims about Biden aren’t ‘unsupported’ — they’re lies

Michelle Goldberg writes: On Sept. 24, 2015, Geoffrey Pyatt, then the American ambassador to Ukraine, spoke in Odessa about the scourge of corruption. It was about a year and a half after what is sometimes called the Revolution of Dignity, when Ukrainians overthrew the kleptocratic, Russian-aligned regime of Viktor Yanukovych. The country was trying to move in a more liberal, European direction. Corruption, said Pyatt, threatened to hold the new Ukraine back. Pyatt called out the office of Viktor Shokin,…

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While Boris Johnson plays games, the EU prepares to move on

While Boris Johnson plays games, the EU prepares to move on

Rafael Behr writes In a normal game of poker, a bluff cannot continue once it is called. But for Boris Johnson an exposed bluff can just be re-bluffed. The stakes get higher even when the poor hand lies open on the table. Before entering Downing Street, Johnson claimed that deficiencies in Theresa May’s Brexit deal were caused by failure of nerve, not weakness in the UK’s position. The theory was that Brussels needed to see kamikaze intent in British eyes:…

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No, Israeli democracy is not ‘fine’

No, Israeli democracy is not ‘fine’

Peter Beinart writes: Last week, Bret Stephens penned a New York Times column entitled, “Israel’s democracy is doing just fine.” With their “rebuke” of Benjamin Netanyahu at the polls, Stephens declared, “Israelis showed that demagogy doesn’t work.” This week, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin gave Netanyahu the opportunity to form Israel’s next government. Netanyahu could fail to do so, in which case his center-right rival, Benny Gantz, would likely get the chance. But there’s a real possibility that Netanyahu — a…

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Your brain chooses what to let you see

Your brain chooses what to let you see

Jordana Cepelewicz writes: Last week, Quanta reported on the filtering mechanisms that allow us to focus our attention on stimuli of interest — that let us tune out the music in a room to listen to a nearby conversation, or disregard greens, blues and yellows in a crowd when searching for a friend wearing red. That kind of processing, which involves the suppression of some sensory data to highlight signals that are more relevant, is directed by a goal. But…

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Trump and his supporters spread misinformation about requirements for whistleblowers to file urgent complaints

Trump and his supporters spread misinformation about requirements for whistleblowers to file urgent complaints

Kevin Poulsen reports: It began late Friday with a story from the conservative website The Federalist headlined “Intel Community Secretly Gutted Requirement Of First-Hand Whistleblower Knowledge.” The article claimed “the intelligence community secretly revised the formal whistleblower complaint form in August 2019 to eliminate the requirement of direct, first-hand knowledge of wrongdoing.” “It seems like they are jumping to a lot of conclusions based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the law, the regulatory framework, and the language on one form,”…

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Trump invoking ‘civil war’ over impeachment is ‘beyond repugnant’ says GOP congressman

Trump invoking ‘civil war’ over impeachment is ‘beyond repugnant’ says GOP congressman

The Washington Post reports: As Democrats begin an impeachment inquiry, President Trump spent Sunday vigorously defending himself on Twitter and sharing cable news clips of his most ardent devotees insisting that he did nothing wrong in asking the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival, former vice president Joe Biden. Trump highlighted one quote from a longtime evangelical pastor warning of particularly dire consequences if the Democrats follow through. “If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office…

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