Attention to the Unseen

The New York Times reports: With security concerns about the looming indictments in such a high-profile investigation weighing on county officials, Ms. Willis said that she would reduce staffing in her office by about 70 percent and rely on remote work on days when grand juries were in session from July 31 to Aug. 18. She said that there would be exceptions to the remote work plan, including “my leadership team” and “all armed investigators.” Ms. Willis noted in the…

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The Associated Press reports: A Massachusetts Air National Guard member charged with leaking highly classified military documents will remain behind bars while he awaits trial, a federal magistrate judge ruled Friday. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Hennessy said releasing 21-year-old Jack Teixeira would pose a risk that he would attempt to flee the country or obstruct justice. The judge cited Teixeira’s “fascination with guns,” disturbing online statements and admonitions by Teixeira’s military superiors about his handling of sensitive information before his…

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The Associated Press reports: Confidence in the Supreme Court sank to its lowest point in at least 50 years in 2022 in the wake of the Dobbs decision that led to state bans and other restrictions on abortion, a major trends survey shows. The divide between Democrats and Republicans over support for abortion rights also was the largest ever in 2022, according to the General Social Survey. The long-running and widely respected survey conducted by NORC at the University of…

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CNN reports: The National Archives has informed former president Donald Trump that it is set to hand over to special counsel Jack Smith 16 records which show Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president, according to multiple sources. In a May 16 letter obtained by CNN, acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall writes to Trump, “The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to…

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NBC News reports: A woman who said she worked for Rudy Giuliani during the last two years of the Trump administration alleged in a wide-ranging lawsuit that Giuliani, the former president’s personal attorney, discussed selling presidential pardons and detailed plans to overturn the 2020 election results. In a 70-page complaint filed in state court in New York on Monday, Noelle Dunphy said that after Giuliani hired her in January 2019 he sexually assaulted and harassed her, refused to pay her…

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The New York Times reports: John Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who for four years has pursued a politically fraught investigation into the Russia inquiry, accused the F.B.I. of having “discounted or willfully ignored material information that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia” in a final report made public on Monday. Mr. Durham’s 306-page report revealed little substantial new information about the inquiry, known as Crossfire Hurricane, and it failed to produce the…

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Ruth Marcus writes: In our judicial system, lower-court judges take instruction from the Supreme Court, not the other way around. In the case of U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, that’s too bad. Walton, appointed to the local court in the District of Columbia by Ronald Reagan and to the federal bench by George W. Bush, has a message for the justices that is appropriate, respectful — and devastating. Messages, actually, delivered in a speech Thursday about the importance of…

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NBC News reports: Former President Donald Trump’s comments Wednesday night about his handling of classified documents appeared to contradict statements by his lawyers, and provide potentially important evidence for federal prosecutors investigating whether to charge him with a crime, legal experts say. Trump’s lawyers told Congress last month that the classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago compound got there by accident. But when questioned about the issue at a CNN town hall, Trump said he had “every right” to take…

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The Lever reports: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas changed his position on one of America’s most significant regulatory doctrines after his wife reportedly accepted secret payments from a shadowy conservative network pushing for the change. Thomas’ shift also came while he was receiving lavish gifts from a billionaire linked to other groups criticizing the same doctrine — which is now headed back to the high court. The so-called “Chevron deference” doctrine stipulates that the executive branch — not the federal…

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In order to preserve the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas must resign. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington today sent a letter to Thomas calling on him to resign and outlining why his resignation is a necessity. “This is not something we do lightly,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said. “This is a place we never wanted to be, but it has become clear that Justice Thomas likely violated civil and criminal laws and has created the…

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RonNell Andersen Jones and Dahlia Lithwick write: [N]o one should lose sight of the fact that Carroll’s win actually represents a staggering turning point: Even under the most free-speech-protective standard imaginable, Trump is accountable for his lies about her. At its core, and understandably, the two-week Carroll trial homed in on the dominant harm Trump inflicted on the former columnist—a traumatizing and life-altering sexual attack in a dressing room of a department store near Trump Tower. (Disclosure: One of us…

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Dahlia Lithwick writes: In 1969, Justice Abe Fortas resigned his seat at the Supreme Court for accepting $15,000 in exchange for a series of paid lectures at American University. Part of the Fortas scandal also involved news of him accepting a stipend for doing legal work for a very rich friend (money he had actually returned when the benefactor was indicted and before the outcry). None of Fortas’ colleagues defended him for this. No one blamed the press or even…

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