The Full Belmonte, 1/14/2023
Supreme Court Investigators Have Narrowed Leak Inquiry to Small Number of Suspects
At least one law clerk is among those suspected of leaking the draft abortion ruling in May
“WASHINGTON—Supreme Court investigators probing the May leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion overruling Roe v. Wade have narrowed their inquiry to a small number of suspects including law clerks, but officials have yet to conclusively identify the alleged culprit, people familiar with the matter said.
A day after the draft opinion was published last year by Politico, Chief Justice John Robertsassigned the Supreme Court’s marshal, Gail Curley, to investigate the leak. The court has released no information regarding the investigation since then. Little has emerged elsewhere, apart from a demand from investigators in June that justices’ law clerks sit for interviews and surrender their cellphones, prompting several of the three-dozen clerks serving in May to seek legal counsel.
A Supreme Court spokeswoman didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Congressional Republicans have complained about the lack of information regarding the source of the leak.
‘For some reason this individual has certainly been sheltered and there is absolutely evidence that there are specific people who know who this person is,’ Rep. Scott Fitzgerald(R., Wis.) said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in December, when Democrats controlled the chamber now under Republican leadership.
At the same hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), now the House Judiciary Committee chairman, said the committee should itself investigate the leak.
Ms. Curley, a lawyer and former Army officer, oversees the Supreme Court’s in-house police force, which has an authorized strength of 189 officers and principal missions of patrolling the court’s property and protecting the justices. With its own police having little experience in complex investigations, the court brought in assistance from outside government investigators, people familiar with the matter said. By early summer, investigators had significantly narrowed the field of suspects, the people said.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts at President Biden’s State of the Union address last year.PHOTO: POOL/REUTERS
The interviews were sometimes short and superficial, a person familiar with the matter said, consisting of a handful of questions such as ‘Did you do it? Do you know anyone who had a reason to do it?’ Investigators relied in part on publicly available information about court employees to develop theories, the person said.
Speaking at a judicial conference in September, Justice Neil Gorsuch said that Chief Justice Roberts had appointed an internal committee to oversee the investigation and that it was expected to issue a report. The court hasn’t said whether the report will be made public.
The May leak, while not necessarily unlawful, was an extraordinary breach of protocol at a court that tightly controls access to its deliberations. Law clerks—recent law-school graduates who win coveted one-year positions assisting a justice—are drilled in the court’s culture of confidentiality and warned to avoid reporters, lest secrets slip. Any under investigation served during the 2021-22 term.
Each justice is allotted four law clerks, but dozens of other court employees might also have had access to the draft opinion.
At times, hints of the court’s internal dynamics have emerged before decisions were published, but the leak of a complete draft opinion was unprecedented and, several justices have said, devastating to relations within the court.
The leak came amid rumors that Chief Justice Roberts was seeking to persuade some members of the court’s conservative majority to join him in a half-step that would partly curb access to abortion, rather than fully eliminating the right, which women had held since the 1973 Roe decision, to end unwanted pregnancies before fetal viability.
Following the leak, the court issued a statement asserting that the draft opinion, which bore a February date, did “not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case,” Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
When the final decision came on June 24, however, it was nearly identical to Justice Alito’s February draft. Four other conservatives joined him in the majority, while three liberal justices dissented. Chief Justice Roberts filed a concurring opinion agreeing that states should be permitted to restrict abortions prior to fetal viability, but arguing it was unnecessary in the Dobbs case, which involved the constitutionality of a Mississippi law barring the procedure after a woman was 15 weeks pregnant.” [Wall Street Journal]
The leak of a complete draft opinion last year was unprecedented and, several justices have said, devastating to relations within the court. PHOTO: JOSHUA ROBERTS/REUTERS
George Santos Raised Money for Company the SEC Says Was a Ponzi Scheme
New York congressman, under scrutiny for his finances and lies about his past, was paid by Florida-based company, now in receivership after it was sued by regulator
George Santos was hired in 2020 by Harbor City Capital, where his job was to bring in investors for the company’s financial offering, according to people familiar with the matter.PHOTO: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
“WASHINGTON—Embattled Rep. George Santos persuaded at least one person to make a six-figure investment in a Florida-based company that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission later said was a Ponzi scheme, according to people familiar with the matter and documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Santos was hired in 2020 to raise capital for the company, Harbor City Capital, and landed at least one significant investment from a wealthy investor, the people said. When the investment failed to deliver on the promised returns, according to one of the people, Mr. Santos sought to reassure the investor by saying he had personally raised nearly $100 million and had invested his own family’s money in Harbor City.
Mr. Santos, a 34-year-old freshman Republican member of Congress from Long Island, is facing calls to resign from Democrats and a number of New York Republicans amid investigations into his campaign finances and lies he told during his campaign, pertaining to his education, work history, wealth, ancestry and other matters. The Republicans’ narrow majority in the House made his vote crucial for the election of Kevin McCarthy as speaker….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Santos’s Lies Were Known to Some Well-Connected Republicans
George Santos inspired no shortage of suspicion during his 2022 campaign, including in the upper echelons of his own party, yet many Republicans looked the other way.
Representative George Santos ignored advice that he drop out of the 2022 House race because of issues uncovered in a routine background check.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
“In late 2021, as he prepared to make a second run for a suburban New York City House seat, George Santos gave permission for his campaign to commission a routine background study on him.
Campaigns frequently rely on this kind of research, known as vulnerability studies, to identify anything problematic that an opponent might seize on. But when the report came back on Mr. Santos, the findings by a Washington research firm were far more startling, suggesting a pattern of deception that cut to the heart of the image he had cultivated as a wealthy financier.
Some of Mr. Santos’s own vendors were so alarmed after seeing the study in late November 2021 that they urged him to drop out of the race, and warned that he could risk public humiliation by continuing. When Mr. Santos disputed key findings and vowed to continue running, members of the campaign team quit, according to three of the four people The New York Times spoke to with knowledge of the study.
The episode, which has not been previously reported, is the most explicit evidence to date that a small circle of well-connected Republican campaign professionals had indications far earlier than the public that Mr. Santos was spinning an elaborate web of deceits, and that the candidate himself had been warned about just how vulnerable those lies were to unraveling….” Read more at New York Times
Idaho Murders Suspect Felt ‘No Emotion’ and ‘Little Remorse’ as a Teen
Messages and online posts from the Ph.D. student now charged with four murders show that he was once detached and suicidal before he became fascinated with criminals’ minds.
By Mike Baker and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
“MOSCOW, Idaho — A criminology Ph.D. student charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students to death had written years ago of having suicidal thoughts, not being able to feel emotions and observing his own life as if it were a video game, saying he could do ‘whatever I want with little remorse.’
The new revelations about the suspect, Bryan Kohberger, come from posts he made on an online forum in which he discussed his mental health struggles, as well as from interviews with those who knew him and messages he sent to friends that were obtained by The New York Times.
They paint a portrait of an anxious, isolated and depressed teenager who turned to heroin use before eventually getting clean and becoming fascinated with studying criminal psychology, saying then that he hoped to one day provide counseling for high-profile criminals.
‘I feel like an organic sack of meat with no self worth,’ he wrote in 2011, when he was 16, adding later, in the same post: ‘As I hug my family, I look into their faces, I see nothing, it is like I am looking at a video game, but less.’
Now, Mr. Kohberger, 28, is facing murder charges, accused of sneaking into a home shared by students just off the university campus in Moscow, Idaho, and stabbing four of them to death, in the middle of the night. At the time of the killings, Mr. Kohberger was in the first semester of his Ph.D. program at Washington State University, a 15-minute drive from the crime scene.
He has maintained his innocence through his lawyer, and on Thursday waived his right to a speedy preliminary hearing. A judge set a June date for the hearing, when prosecutors will outline evidence in an attempt to prove they have probable cause to try him on murder charges.
The police have disclosed some of the evidence that led them to arrest Mr. Kohberger at his parents’ home in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, saying they had relied on DNA from a knife sheath left on a bed with two of the victims, cellphone records that suggest his phone had been in the area a dozen times before the murders occurred and surveillance footage of a white Hyundai, like the one Mr. Kohberger drove.
But the authorities have not outlined any motive for the killings, leaving families of the victims and acquaintances of the accused killer searching for answers….” Read more at New York Times
High court takes 8 new cases, 1 about a religious mailman
By JESSICA GRESKO and MARK SHERMAN
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider what employers must do to accommodate religious employees, among eight new cases it added.
The cases are expected to be argued in April. In one involving a former postal employee, the justices will consider what accommodations employers must make for religious employees. The case comes when religious plaintiffs have generally fared well at the court, which is dominated 6-3 by conservative justices.
Under a federal civil rights law, employers can’t discriminate against employees because of their religion. The law says employees’ religious practices have to be accommodated unless the employer can demonstrate doing so is an ‘undue hardship’ to the business. The justices are being asked to reconsider a 1977 Supreme Court case that challengers say means lower courts almost always side with employers ‘whenever an accommodation would impose any burden.’
The case the justices agreed to hear involves Gerald Groff, a former postal worker in Pennsylvania. Groff, a Christian, said his religious beliefs required him to be off on Sundays. Initially his bosses were able to accommodate him but eventually that ended. Groff resigned and sued the post office. Two lower courts have ruled against him.
Among other cases the justices agreed to hear:
—The case of Billy Raymond Counterman, who was charged with stalking a Colorado musician on Facebook, sending her messages over the course of two years. Counterman argued his messages were protected speech but a court found them to be unprotected ‘true threats’ and he was ultimately sentenced to more than four years in prison. An appeals court also ruled against him. The high court will consider what prosecutors must show to prove a statement is a ‘true threat.’
—The case of a 94-year-old Minnesota woman who fell behind in her property taxes, then had her home confiscated by local authorities.
Hennepin County sold Geraldine Tyler’s home for $40,000 as payment for approximately $15,000 in property taxes, penalties, interest and costs. But the county kept all the money.
Tyler’s lawyers say the practice, a version of which is used in roughly a dozen states, violates two constitutional provisions, barring excessive fines and taking property without fair payment.
—A case about reviving whistleblower lawsuits claiming that supermarket and pharmacy chains Supervalu Inc. and Safeway overcharged government health-care programs for prescription drugs by hundreds of millions of dollars.
The justices on Friday also agreed to hear appeals from the whistleblowers, who alleged that the companies defrauded the Medicare and Medicaid programs when they reported retail prices for generic prescription drugs, even though they had mainly been sold to customers at deeply discounted prices.
The cases stem from the companies’ effort to match a 2006 decision by Walmart to offer 30-day supplies of many generic drugs for $4.
Supervalu and Safeway matched the discounted price at their pharmacies, but they reported to the federal and various state governments a much higher ‘usual and customary’ price when seeking reimbursement.
An expert for the whistleblower in the Safeway lawsuit testified that the company received $127 million more than it would have gotten had it reported the discounted price, according to court papers.
In the case against Supervalu, the whistleblower said the company matched Walmart’s discounted price 6.3 million times over 11 years, according to court papers.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed both cases, holding that the companies’ decisions to report the higher prices were “not objectively unreasonable.”
In urging the high court to reject the appeals, lawyers for Supervalu wrote that the correct price to report ‘may seem easy enough to determine in the abstract, but it is far from simple.’
The Biden administration is backing the whistleblowers.” [AP News]
“Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the department will begin taking special accounting maneuvers on Jan. 19 to avoid breaching the US debt limit, urging lawmakers to boost the ceiling to avert a devastating payments default.’The period of time that extraordinary measures may last is subject to considerable uncertainty,’ Yellen wrote in a letter to bipartisan congressional leaders Friday. Still, ‘it is unlikely that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted before early June,’ she said. The letter kicks off what is likely to be a prolonged, intense political battle over US fiscal policy, a showdown that could strain financial markets and elevate dangers for an economy already facing the risk of recession. Economists expect the Treasury will run out of cash around August if the debt ceiling isn’t boosted.” —Natasha Solo-Lyons [Bloomberg]
“Former President Donald Trump’s argument that a New York law allowing older sexual-assault claims violated his constitutional rights was rejected by a judge as ‘absurd.’ US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan on Friday denied Trump’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed under the new law in November by former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who alleges Trump raped her more than two decades ago.” [Bloomberg]
Donald Trump. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
Trump Organization fined $1.6 million for tax fraud
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
“A New York judge on Friday ordered the Trump Organization to pay $1.6 million in state fines for years of providing off-the-books compensation to top executives.” [Vox] [Washington Post / Shayna Jacobs]
“The sentence comes after Donald Trump’s businesses were convicted of 17 felonies last month, including tax fraud and falsifying records.” [Vox] [CNN / Kara Scannell and Nicki Brown]
“Longtime employee Allen Weisselberg admitted to receiving an apartment, luxury cars, and private school tuition for his grandchildren under the table. He was sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty.” [Vox] [New York Times / Jonah E. Bromwich, Ben Protess, and William K. Rashbaum]
“The fine — the maximum allowed by law — will likely have little impact on Trump’s business. However, the conviction could make it tougher for the company to take out future bank loans.” [Vox] [NBC News / Dareh Gregorian and Adam Reiss]
“Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a $250 million lawsuit against Trump and his organization, alleging that they inflated property assets to banks and insurers.” [Vox] [Associated Press / Michael R. Sisak]
“Russia Claims Donbas Town But Ukraine Says It’s in Control
Kyiv rejected Russia’s claim that its troops had taken Soledar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. While the town has limited strategic value, its occupation would mark a rare triumph for Russia after months of defeats on the battlefield.” [Bloomberg]
A destroyed school and buildings near Soledar, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Source: Maxar Technologies
Brazil’s Supreme Court Authorizes Probe of Former President Bolsonaro Over Riots
Prosecutors accuse Jair Bolsonaro of spending years sowing distrust in the country’s electoral system
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro used the example of the U.S. Capitol attack to argue for getting rid of Brazil’s electronic voting system.PHOTO: MAURO PIMENTEL/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
“BRASÍLIA—Brazil’s Supreme Court authorized Friday an investigation into former President Jair Bolsonaro over accusations he incited last weekend’s riots by asserting the election that removed him from office was rigged.
Before the Oct. 30 vote won by leftist candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mr. Bolsonaro, a conservative, warned about the potential for voter fraud and some of his supporters say they don’t believe Mr. da Silva is the country’s legitimate president. Mr. Bolsonaro hasn’t conceded defeat.
Mr. Bolsonaro, who has been in the U.S. since late December, this week condemned acts of vandalism and the invasion of government buildings after thousands of his supporters attacked the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court.
Mr. Bolsonaro ‘has always repudiated all illegal and criminal acts, and always spoken publicly against such illicit conduct, just as he has always been a defender of the constitution and democracy,’ Frederick Wassef, Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyer, said in a statement Friday.
The Supreme Court’s announcement late Friday came after a request from the Brazilian prosecutor general’s office to investigate Mr. Bolsonaro over the weekend’s turmoil.
The court has powers to authorize the investigation and arrest of suspects, and it has taken an active role in thwarting what it says is antidemocratic behavior by Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters, drawing criticism of political bias from right-wing parties.
Since the riots, the court has ordered the removal of Brasília’s federal district governor, a Bolsonaro ally. It also ordered the arrest of Anderson Torres, the secretary in charge of public security in Brasília, and Fábio Vieira, commander of the military police in the city at the time of the riots….” Read more at Wall Street Journal
President Biden welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the White House.T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times
“President Biden and Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, vowed to work together to transform Japan into a military power to help deter China.” Read more at New York Times
Moscow said it seized the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar.
“Ukrainian officials, however, said fighting for control is ongoing. Russian forces spearheaded by its Wagner paramilitary group had advanced into Soledar in recent days following months of failed attempts to seize the nearby city of Bakhmut. The town is home to one of Europe's largest salt mines, which Wagner sees as a military and economic asset. The mine’s owner doubts it has military value.” [Wall Street Journal]
“Tesla drastically cut prices across its lineup in the US and major European markets, the latest effort to stoke demand after several quarters of disappointing deliveries. The company lowered the cost of the cheapest Model Y by 20% and lopped as much as $21,000 off its most expensive vehicles. Meanwhile, the expansion of Tesla’s plant in Shanghai has been delayed over Chinese concerns about control over data, partly stemming from Elon Musk’s Starlink internet-from-space initiative. Musk is headed to trial next week on charges stemming from his 2018 tweet about taking Tesla private and he is expected to take the stand.” [Bloomberg]
The changes in the US drop the price of Model 3 sedans and certain Model Y sport utility vehicles below the caps they needed to come under to qualify for as much as $7,500 electric vehicle tax credits. Photographer: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg
Johnson & Johnson slashed production of its unpopular Covid-19 vaccine.
“The pharmaceutical company ended manufacturing contracts with some companies and entered arbitration with Merck over its partnership to make the shots, which U.S. regulators approved in February 2021. J&J said it has hundreds of millions of its single-dose jabs available. The risk of a rare but serious blood-clotting condition put off some people. Roughly 400 million doses of the original Pfizer-BioNTech shot and nearly 250 million doses of the original Moderna shot have been administered in the U.S., compared with about 19 million J&J doses, the CDC said.” [Wall Street Journal]
Maine gets 1st Mega Millions jackpot with $1.35B grand prize
By BRIAN P.D. HANNON
“Maine scored its first Mega Millions jackpot — and someone beat the ill fortune of Friday the 13th— when a ticket purchased in the state matched the winning numbers for the lottery’s estimated $1.35 billion grand prize.
The lucky combination of numbers drawn late Friday night were: 30, 43, 45, 46, 61 and gold Mega Ball 14.
The winner, whose name is not yet known, overcame steep odds of 1 in 302.6 million, which led to three months of drawings without a claim on the jackpot.
‘Congratulations to the Maine State Lottery, which has just won its first-ever Mega Millions jackpot,’ Pat McDonald, Ohio lottery director and lead director of the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement early Saturday.
The jackpot was the second largest in Mega Millions history and the fourth time the game has had a billion-dollar win. The largest Mega Millions jackpot in October 2018 was $1.53 billion claimed by a single ticket holder in South Carolina….” Read more at AP News
“The former U.S. poet laureate Charles Simic filled his work with ironic humor and startling metaphors. He died at 84.” [New York Times]
Robbie Knievel, daredevil son of Evel Knievel, dies at 60
By KEN RITTER
“LAS VEGAS (AP) — Robbie Knievel, an American stunt performer who set records with daredevil motorcycle jumps following the tire tracks of his thrill-seeking father — including at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1989 and a Grand Canyon chasm a decade later — has died in Nevada, his brother said. He was 60.
Robbie Knievel died early Friday at a hospice in Reno after battling pancreatic cancer, Kelly Knievel said….” Read more at AP News