Attention to the Unseen

The Washington Post reports: Prosecutors have urged a federal judge to hold Donald Trump’s office in contempt of court for failing to fully comply with a May subpoena to return all classified documents in his possession, according to people familiar with the matter — a sign of how contentious the private talks have become over whether the former president still holds any secret papers. In recent days, Justice Department lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell to hold…

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Quinta Jurecic writes: Midway through yesterday’s Supreme Court oral argument in Moore v. Harper, the case concerning the “independent state legislature” theory, Justice Elena Kagan took a moment to consider the stakes. “This is a theory with big consequences,” she noted. Kagan’s comment was a dry bit of understatement. Ever since the Supreme Court first agreed to hear the case, Moore has drawn alarm from across the political spectrum, with liberal activists and grandees of the conservative legal movement alike…

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The Washington Post reports: Democrats on a pair of congressional committees have launched an aggressive new effort to obtain information about whether Jared Kushner’s actions on U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf region as a senior White House adviser were influenced by the bailout of a property owned by his family business. Citing previously undisclosed emails and other documents related to former president Donald Trump’s son-in-law, the committees on Monday night sent letters to the State and Defense departments requesting…

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Deutsche Welle reports: In a nationwide raid, 25 suspected members and supporters of a terrorist organization were arrested early Wednesday. Officials said the network, part of a wider right-wing movement, was already well established with a concrete plan to overthrow the German state by force and install a new government. The raids were announced by Germany’s federal prosecution agency and German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann. Buschmann said the investigations were directed against a suspected terrorist network with known ties to…

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Ankush Khardori writes: As of Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump’s company is a convicted felon. The result comes courtesy of the jury in the criminal trial of the Trump Organization, which found Trump’s namesake company guilty on all 17 counts of the indictment. The result is significant but not exactly surprising. The Trump Organization was indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in the summer of 2021 along with the company’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, over a yearslong scheme to avoid paying taxes on…

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HuffPost reports: Tuesday’s verdict against the Trump Organization was bad news for former President Donald Trump, his family members and employees. On the bright side, it seemed to inspire some Twitter users to new heights of “schadenfreude,” that very apt German word that basically means “finding joy in others misfortunes.” After a jury found Trump’s company guilty of tax fraud and other crimes, people following the case expressed on social media the joy of the American ideal that no one…

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CNN reports: The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has decided to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters Tuesday. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said the committee has not narrowed down the universe of individuals who may be referred. Asked whether Thompson believed any witnesses perjured themselves, he said, “that’s part of the discussion.” When the panel makes referrals, Thompson said it will be…

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Dan Alexander writes: Donald Trump’s business attracted so much scrutiny during his time in office that it would be easy to conclude that all information about its foreign entanglements must be out by now. It is not. Buried in a heap of recently released financial paperwork sits a surprising revelation: Donald Trump had a foreign creditor he failed to disclose while running for president in 2016 and after assuming office in 2017. The documents, compiled by the Trump Organization and…

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The Washington Post reports: The White House issued a stern rebuke on Saturday after former president Donald Trump suggested suspending the Constitution in his ongoing crusade to discredit the results of the 2020 election. “Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation and should be universally condemned,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement, calling the Constitution a “sacrosanct document.” “You cannot only love America when you win,” he added….

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The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court is about to confront a new elections case, a Republican-led challenge asking the justices for a novel ruling that could significantly increase the power of state lawmakers over elections for Congress and the presidency. The court is set to hear arguments Wednesday in a case from North Carolina, where Republican efforts to draw congressional districts heavily in their favor were blocked by a Democratic majority on the state Supreme Court because the GOP…

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Frank Figliuzzi writes: Tuesday’s convictions of five Oath Keepers — including founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes and top deputy Kelly Meggs who were found guilty of the gravely serious charge of seditious conspiracy — may seem like game-winning goals, but they’re just critical points the Justice Department put on the board right before halftime. The government’s successful prosecution sidelines some strong players, but the captains and coaches we have reason to suspect called the shots on Jan. 6, 2021 (former President…

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Matthew Karnitschnig reports: On a balmy September evening last year, an Azeri man carrying a Russian passport crossed the border from northern Cyprus into southern Cyprus. He traveled light: a pistol, a handful of bullets and a silencer. It was going to be the perfect hit job. Then, just as the man was about to step into a rental car and carry out his mission — which prosecutors say was to gun down five Jewish businessmen, including an Israeli billionaire…

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Shan Wu writes: Let’s be clear: Judge Cannon tried to halt a national security investigation by enjoining DOJ from access to documents seized in the search warrant through what’s called “equitable relief’ – the powers judges use to issue injunctions. The 11th Circuit appeals judges explicitly recognized the danger in Judge Cannon’s action, noting that Trump’s arguments for a special master “would allow any subject of a search warrant to invoke a federal court’s equitable jurisdiction”–in other words, every criminal…

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The Washington Post reports: Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked information about U.S. surveillance programs, swore an oath of allegiance to Russia and has collected his Russian passport, his lawyer told state media on Friday. “Edward received a Russian passport yesterday and took the oath in accordance with the law,” lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency. “He is, of course, happy, thanking the Russian Federation for the fact that he received citizenship,”…

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Politico reports: A jury has convicted Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes of masterminding a plot to violently subvert the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, finding that he entered into a seditious conspiracy against the U.S. government. The jury also convicted Rhodes ally Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida Oath Keepers, of seditious conspiracy. But the jury acquitted three co-defendants — Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — of joining Rhodes in that conspiracy. All five,…

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