The Full Belmonte, 2/9/2024
Trump may finally get a win in court
Former President Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., after today's hearing. Photo: Rebecca Blackwelli/AP
“The Supreme Court seems likely to put former President Trump back on the ballot in GOP primaries, breaking his recent streak of legal losses, Axios' Sam Baker and Erin Doherty report.
Driving the news: A majority of the justices seemed uncomfortable today with Colorado's decision to kick Trump off the ballot over his role in Jan. 6.
‘I think that the question that you have to confront is why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States,’ Justice Elena Kagan said during the court's oral arguments.
The justices didn't seem to coalesce around one specific rationale to overturn Colorado's decision — but a clear majority seemed to know where they wanted to end up, and they have plenty of options to get there.
️ Between the lines: Any legal victory would also be a welcome change of pace for Trump and his campaign.
A New York jury last month ordered him to pay $83 million in E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit, and he's still facing a slew of criminal charges.
What's next: Just this week, a federal appeals court rejected Trump's claims that he's immune from prosecution for his role in Jan. 6. That case will likely arrive at the Supreme Court soon.” [Axios]
Special counsel says there is evidence Biden ‘willfully retained and disclosed classified materials’ but will not be charged
“Special counsel Robert Hur has declined to prosecute President Joe Biden for his handling of classified documents, but said Biden's practices ‘present serious risks to national security,’ in a long-awaited report delivered to Congress today.
‘Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,’ the report said, but the evidence ‘does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.’
Hur’s report said that during his team’s interview with Biden, he portrayed himself as ‘elderly man with a poor memory’ who would be sympathetic to a jury.
White House counsel Richard Sauber said in a statement that ‘we disagree with a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments in the Special Counsel’s report,’ but added that the decision not to charge Biden ‘is firmly based on the facts and evidence.’
Former President Donald Trump is facing a May trial date in a case involving his own handling of classified documents. The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee called the decision not to charge Biden a ‘double standard.’” [NBC News]
Biden strongly rejects memory assessment
Questions around his age and competency to serve for another four years have long dogged Joe Biden. Credit: Reuters
“US President Joe Biden didn't mince his words during a surprise news briefing that followed the publication of a report focused on his handling of classified documents from his time as vice-president. The report highlighted memory lapses that included Mr Biden's inability to recall specific years of life events, such as his term as vice-president and the death of his son, Beau. One of the report's most damning passages described Mr Biden as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’. To this, Mr Biden replied: ‘I am well-meaning, and am elderly. I know what the hell I'm doing. I put this country back on its feet.’ But as polls indicate that his age is a major concern for voters in the upcoming presidential election, the 81-year-old's incensed response to the report is unlikely to be the last word on this matter.” [BBC News]
President Joe Biden speaks in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 8. | Evan Vucci/AP
“THE STORY THAT BIGFOOTED THE COURT CASE — ‘It felt like a Comey moment for me.’
That was the assessment of a top Biden campaign official watching special counsel ROBERT HUR’s report explode yesterday.
In July 2016, FBI Director JAMES COMEY ripped into HILLARY CLINTON for being ‘extremely careless’ with classified material and noted that there was ‘evidence of potential violations’ of the law. Then he delivered the actual news: ‘no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.’ In a scathing report, the DOJ’s inspector general later harshly criticized Comey for his actions.
Like Comey, the Biden official argued, Hur put his ‘thumb on the scale during an election season.’
Biden’s lawyers raised the C-word with Hur even before the report became public. Why, they demanded, had Hur called Biden ‘totally irresponsible,’ the same words Biden used to criticize Trump’s retention of classified documents, when in other parts of the report they took pains to note the differences between the two cases? Biden's lawyers invoked the IG’s Comey report in arguing that ‘totally irresponsible’ was the new ‘extremely careless.’ They said Hur’s ‘criticism of an uncharged party violates’ DOJ protocols. (Former Attorney General ERIC HOLDER seems to agree.)
But the real peril in the report was the one highlighted by Biden’s lawyers in two pages of forceful language that laid out their shock and indignation at Hur’s repeated criticisms of Biden’s memory — an issue that, given voters concerns about the president’s age, is central to the 2024 election but seemed gratuitous in Hur’s report.
‘We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,’ Hur wrote in the most quoted line of the document.
But there was much more:
Page 9: ‘Mr. Biden's memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023.’
Page 208: ‘Mr. Biden's memory also appeared to have significant limitations … Mr. Biden's recorded conversations with [ghostwriter MARK] ZWONITZER from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries. In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden's memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).’
Page 247: ‘For these jurors, Mr. Biden's apparent lapses and failures in February and April will likely appear consistent with the diminished faculties and faulty memory he showed in Zwonitzer's interview recordings and in our interview of him.’
Biden’s lawyers pounced on the editorializing, saying the descriptions were not ‘accurate or appropriate.’
Hur’s report, they wrote, ‘uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events. Such comments have no place in a Department of Justice report, particularly one that in the first paragraph announces that no criminal charges are ‘warranted’ and that ‘the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt.’
White House officials were in the dark all week about what Hur would do, knowing the worst of what could be in the document but hoping that their back-channel appeal would force some edits. ‘Hur did not indicate whether he would make any changes,’ said a person familiar with the process.
Hur was apparently unmoved by the Biden legal team’s arguments. When White House officials saw the final version on Thursday it was all still there: the repeated references to Biden’s ‘hazy,’ ‘significantly limited,’ and ‘poor’ memory, and the comments about Biden’s ‘totally irresponsible’ actions.
But for Biden, the cheapest shot — and the one that most infuriated him — was this line: ‘He did not remember, even within several years, when his son BEAU died.’
The report was released as Biden was attending the House Democratic retreat in Virginia. The president vented about the Beau line privately during a small meet-and-greet with House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES, Democratic Caucus Chair PETE AGUILAR and party leaders (‘You think I would fucking forget the day my son died?’ he said, according to the AP).
He repeated a version of the line without the F-bomb during a Q&A with a larger group of House Dems. And, according to a source familiar with the planning for the hastily arranged news conference last night, Biden was angry and defiant and still feeling especially outraged by the Beau line when he decided to face reporters and defend himself from Hur’s slurs — and then compounded the questions about his memory issues by referring to Egyptian President ABDEL FATTAH EL-SISI as the ‘president of Mexico.’
The view from Biden world is that Hur’s gratuitous editorializing was driven by two factors:
Partisanship: ‘We have to remind people that this is a MAGA guy,’ said the campaign official.
Pride: Hur had failed to find indictable conduct.
‘The prevailing feeling is that they poured all these resources into investigating — and we were very cooperative — and he's the only special counsel investigation that’s ever not led to charges,’ said one Democratic defender of the president. ‘And I think that there's probably some frustration around that that led to this over-torquing: ‘So let me just shit on [Biden] about memory!’ And also crossing a line that very few people would ever think about crossing when it comes to Beau.’
If Biden world seems defensive, it’s because they know Hur hit on an issue that the campaign has no real way to combat with ads or fancy strategy.
‘The fact that he's a senior citizen is not going to go away,’ the Biden campaign official told Playbook. ‘What I've said to my colleagues is that we all have to remind the American people that sometimes we forget shit.’” [POLITICO]
Prescription drugs
“A Senate panel grilled pharmaceutical CEOs in a hearing Thursday about why prescription drugs have higher price tags in the US than in other countries. The chief executives of three major pharmaceutical companies — Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb — acknowledged that certain medications can cost thousands of dollars more in the US but argued it is due to complexities in the American health system. They also testified that US patients get access to prescription drugs much faster than those in other countries and that it requires a lot of revenue to develop these drugs — and that innovation comes with high costs.” [CNN]
Five U.S. Marines dead after helicopter crash in California
“Five U.S. Marines have been confirmed dead after their helicopter crashed during a training flight from Nevada to California, military officials said.
‘It is with a heavy heart and profound sadness that I share the loss of five Marines from 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and the ‘Flying Tigers’ while conducting a training flight last night,’ Maj. Gen. Michael J. Borgschulte said in a statement today.
The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing said efforts to recover the remains of the Marines and equipment have begun, and an investigation into the crash is underway.
Their names will not be released until 24 hours after all their next-of-kin have been notified, the aircraft wing said.” [NBC News]
Climate Scientist Wins $1M Verdict Over Right-Wing Bloggers
“A prominent climate scientist accused by two right-wing bloggers of manipulating his research data was awarded more than $1 million by a jury after they found the pair defamed him. Michael Mann, 58, became well known for his so-called ‘hockey stick’ graph that in 1998 predicted the climate crisis. He filed his lawsuit against policy analyst Rand Simberg and author Mark Steyn in 2012. That year, Simberg published a column with a libertarian think tank alleging that Mann had ‘molested and tortured’ his data in much the same way Jerry Sandusky, the disgraced former Pennsylvania State University football coach, had abused children. At the time, Mann was a professor at the school. For the National Review, Steyn quoted Simberg’s writing, adding that he believed Mann’s work was ‘fraudulent.’ The jury awarded Mann $1,000 from Simberg, who was cleared of other allegations of defamation in the case, and $1 million from Steyn. After the month-long trial concluded on Thursday, he told the Associated Press, ‘It feels great. It’s a good day for us, it’s a good day for science.’”
Read it at Associated Press
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan running for Senate
“Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is launching a Senate bid, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The anti-Trump Republican is expected to file for the open Senate seat on Friday, the last day of the filing deadline. Hogan is popular in Maryland and his entrance in the race is a huge recruiting coup for Republicans, but taking the spot of retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin will be an uphill battle in a deep-blue state.”
Read the latest at Washington Post
Putin tells Tucker Carlson the US ‘needs to stop supplying weapons’ to Ukraine
Russian president’s rambling, two-hour talk with commentator is his first interview with western media since the Ukraine invasion
Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin. Russian state media released this photo. Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik, via Shutterstock
Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin were in the spotlight on Thursday night, as the divisive, Trump-supporting rightwing commentator interviewed the reclusive Russian autocrat.
The rambling, two-hour interview, filmed in Moscow, was Putin’s first with a western media outlet since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
It marked a new level of infamy for Carlson, who has frequently criticized US support for Ukraine, has referred to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, as a ‘Ukrainian pimp’ and ‘rat-like.’
Carlson’s tone was less pugnacious in the interview with Putin, who he referred to as ‘Mr President’ throughout.
The decision to interview Putin had been widely criticised ahead of the interview. But the opening of the conversation between the former Fox News host and Putin was a let down.
Putin spent more than 30 minutes giving a history of Russia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, in a monologue that took viewers from the ninth century rule of Oleg the Wise, to the struggles of the 1300s, through to a critique of Lenin’s foreign policy.
When a baffled-looking Carlson finally coaxed Putin into the 21st century, the Russian president accused the US and other western countries of prolonging the war in Ukraine.
There were peace talks with Ukraine that were ‘almost finalized,’ Putin said, but then Ukraine ‘threw away all these agreements and obeyed the instructions of western countries, European countries and the United States to fight Russia to the bitter end.’
Putin laid the blame at the feet of Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, in particular. Johnson was forced out of UK parliament in June 2023, but Putin claimed that as prime minister he had dissuaded Zelenskiy from signing a peace deal in the early stages of the conflict.
‘The fact that they [Ukraine] obey the demand or persuasion of Mr Johnson, the former prime minister of Great Britain, seems ridiculous,’ Putin said.
In a video released ahead of the interview, Carlson said he was driven to speak to Putin, in part, because the American public has ‘no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now.’
It’s unclear whether viewers will come away with a clearer sense of either.
In December, the Kremlin said engaging in peace talks with Ukraine is ‘unrealistic’ – Ukraine has said peace can only be based on a full withdrawal from the territory Russia has seized since it invaded in 2022.
But in the interview, Putin told Carlson that Russia and the US still speak ‘through various agencies’ about ending the conflict.
Russia’s message to the US, Putin said, is: ‘If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons. It will be over within a few weeks.’
Putin said the last time he spoke to Joe Biden was before Russia invaded Ukraine….” Read more at The Guardian
Red Sea
“Iran-backed Houthi militants are ramping up their attacks on container ships in the Red Sea, wreaking havoc on one of the world's most important trade routes. Shipping giant Maersk said Thursday that the disruption could last up to a year. Other carriers have said the attacks can cost an extra $1 million per vessel as they are forced to add thousands of miles to their shipping routes. The resulting delays and extra bills for shipping companies have fueled concerns that consumers, still struggling after a spell of rampant inflation, could be hit with fresh price increases. The attacks have already caused Tesla to pause some of its production because of delays in the delivery of car parts to Germany and furniture giant Ikea to warn of possible product shortages.” [CNN]
“Former President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil attempted to overturn the country’s 2022 presidential election, according to accusations by the Brazilian federal police. Yesterday, police raided dozens of properties, seized his passport and arrested his close aides. An investigation also detailed what they say was a vast conspiracy by the right-wing leader and his aides to plot a coup. At one point, the report said Bolsonaro personally edited a proposed order to arrest a Supreme Court justice.” [NPR]
Jair Bolsonaro in 2022. Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
Volcano eruption
“A volcano in Iceland erupted on Thursday for the second time this year. Video shows fountains of bright-orange molten rock spewing from fissures in the ground up to 260 feet into the air. The eruption took place on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula some distance from the Grindavik fishing town and was unlikely to pose a direct threat to infrastructure. The previous eruption in the area started on January 14 and lasted roughly two days, with lava flows reaching the outskirts of Grindavik, whose nearly 4,000 inhabitants had been evacuated. The popular geothermal spa Blue Lagoon has been closed due to the possibility of further eruptions.” [CNN]
“Volodymyr Zelenskiy is rebooting Ukraine’s military with the biggest shakeup since Russia’s invasion, just as Vladimir Putin is seeking to leverage influence over Kyiv’s prime backer, the US.
President Zelenskiy’s long-anticipated replacement of his top army commander, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, takes place with Ukrainian troops on the back foot as delays in US and European military aid leave them outgunned on the battlefield.
The new top general, Oleksandr Syrskyi, played a key role in the defense of Kyiv early in the war and in pushing Russian troops out of the northeastern Kharkiv region in September 2022.
He’s tasked with prosecuting a bolder military strategy this year, after Zaluzhnyi drew the president’s ire by saying the war was at a stalemate.
Syrskyi’s a more controversial figure among frontline troops after overseeing last year’s ultimately doomed defense of the city of Bakhmut amid heavy casualties.
Putin’s two-hour interview with US commentator Tucker Carlson published online yesterday focused heavily on the Kremlin leader’s obsessive view of Ukraine’s origins as historically Russian land. Carlson admitted later he’d been ‘shocked’ by Putin’s explanation of the roots of his February 2022 invasion that went back to the ninth century.
WATCH: Putin says his country has not achieved its objectives in Ukraine yet. Source: Tucker Carlson Network
His first interview with a Western media figure since the war started was aimed at conservative supporters of Donald Trump that are Carlson’s core audience. The message was plain — halt US weapons supplies to enable a Russian victory and then ‘we’ll be able to discuss some terms.’
Trump’s Republican allies in Congress continue to hold up more than $60 billion of US aid to Ukraine that the Biden administration says is desperately needed.
The risk for Kyiv is that the Kremlin succeeds in widening a party-political divide over Ukraine’s continued defense in the US presidential election contest.
Then it will hardly matter who Zelenskiy puts in charge of Ukraine’s military. —Anthony Halpin [Bloomberg]
Zelenskiy and Syrskyi in 2023. Source: The Presidential Office of Ukraine
“Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip has been ‘over the top,’ US President Joe Biden said in an escalation of his criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war against Hamas. His comments came after the Israeli leader previewed plans for ground forces to enter the city of Rafah. Many innocent people are “in trouble and dying. And it’s got to stop,” Biden said.
For many Israelis, the defeat of Hamas is more vital than the release of hostages they are holding. As Ethan Bronner writes, while Netanyahu’s commitment to ‘total victory’ over the Iran-backed group links to his own political future — he relies heavily on pro-war, right-wing support — polls show 40% of Israeli Jews believe destroying Hamas, which carried out an Oct. 7 attack, must be the priority.” [Bloomberg]
A Palestinian boy following an Israeli airstrike in the Tel Al-Sultan district of Rafah in southern Gaza yesterday. Photographer: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg
“Selection,” Not Election
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (center) casts his ballot at a polling station during national elections in Lahore, Pakistan, on Feb. 8.Aamir Qureshi/AFP
“Pakistan held national elections to choose a new parliament on Thursday in what will be the country’s third-ever democratic transition between civilian governments. Results are expected on Friday, but experts predict that three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League party is likely to clinch the win despite early results showing independents backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party leading in multiple constituencies.
As FP’s Michael Kugelman writes in this week’s South Asia Brief, the country’s powerful military has already heavily shaped the vote’s outcome by weakening the two parties that rival Sharif’s, leading some Pakistanis to call the process a “selection” instead of a true vote.
Sharif returned from a nearly four-year self-imposed exile in October 2023 to run for reelection. Upon his return, Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned his prison sentences and lifted a lifetime ban on politicians convicted under certain provisions of the constitution, allowing Sharif to seek a fourth term. A few months later, popular opposition leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan was barred from running for reelection for the next 10 years due to convictions for corruption and selling state gifts. Khan was ousted via a no-confidence vote in April 2022 in a move that his supporters accuse the military of orchestrating.
In the months leading up to Thursday’s election, the Pakistani military arrested many of Khan’s supporters and members of his PTI party, leaving rival candidate Bilawal Bhutto Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party as Sharif’s biggest competitor. If Sharif’s party does not secure an outright majority, then experts predict that he will likely establish a coalition government with Bhutto Zardari’s support, further alienating Khan’s party.
The military deployed around 650,000 security personnel across the country on Thursday to ensure a peaceful vote. But heavy protests and violent attacks continued to mar the election. Suspected Pakistani Taliban members killed at least five police officers and a soldier in two separate assaults on Thursday. And locals reported unidentified fighters throwing grenades at polling stations in Balochistan province, where twin explosions targeting campaign offices on Wednesday killed at least 30 people. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s bombings.
Pakistan’s ruling coalition shuttered mobile phone service on Thursday due to these ‘recent incidents of terrorism,’ only to lift the shutdown hours later. Bhutto Zardari condemned the blackouts, and Khan’s PTI party criticized the internet restrictions as a ‘severe assault on democracy’ and a ‘cowardly attempt by those in power to stifle dissent, manipulate the election’s outcome, and infringe upon the rights of the Pakistani people.’ Global online freedom watchdog NetBlocks said the shutdowns follow “months of digital censorship targeting the political opposition.”
Around 128 million Pakistanis were registered to vote on Thursday. Key campaign issues centered on record-high inflation, frequent gas outages, and extremist violence from the Pakistani Taliban. Islamabad closed Pakistan’s borders with Iran and Afghanistan on Thursday as an added security measure.” [Foreign Policy]
“President Javier Milei’s quest to overhaul Argentina’s economy and tame triple-digit inflation has swerved off course. Congress rejected his administration’s request for expanded executive powers — a key element of his plan — and he responded by hastily shelving the bill and then lashing out at those who voted against him, further straining his relations with the parties he needs to push through his agenda.” ” [Bloomberg]
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he has the legal right to annihilate South Korea, in the latest move to threaten his neighbor after starting the year by removing the concept of peaceful unification from his state’s national policy.” ” [Bloomberg]
“A long-time loyalist of Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned civil society groups and the media that they risked becoming targets of a new institution, the Sovereignty Protection Agency, tasked with rolling back foreign influence in Hungary.” ” [Bloomberg]
February 9, 2024
By David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick
Good morning. We’re covering the Supreme Court arguments on Trump and the ballot —
The U.S. Supreme Court. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
Supreme skepticism
“There are still court cases that could upend this year’s presidential election, but the one involving Donald Trump’s eligibility to be on the ballot doesn’t seem likely to do so.
In a two-hour oral argument at the Supreme Court yesterday, nearly all justices appeared skeptical of Colorado’s effort to keep Trump off the ballot. Colorado officials have argued that his role in the Jan. 6 attack on Congress makes him an insurrectionist and that the 14th Amendment bars insurrectionists from the presidency. Maine has also moved to bar Trump, and other states would likely follow if the Supreme Court were to allow it.
The legal issues are complex, and we walk through them below. But the justices are surely considering a larger political question, too. As Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The Times, told us yesterday:
Donald Trump is accused of doing grave wrongs in trying to overturn the election. But who should decide the consequences of that? Should it be nine people in Washington? Should it be individual states? Should it be Congress? Or should it be the electorate of the United States, which can, for itself, assess whether Trump’s conduct is so blameworthy that he should not have the opportunity to serve another term?
As Neal Katyal, a former Obama administration official who argues before the Supreme Court, said yesterday, ‘This argument did not go well for the Trump challengers.’
Officially, the case involves Colorado’s Republican primary, which is scheduled for March 5, less than four weeks away. Many legal experts expect the court to rule quickly (as this story explains) and to issue a broad decision that applies to all states.
Here is our guide to the three biggest legal questions:
1. Who is an officer?
The best known parts of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the Civil War, bestowed citizenship on people who had been enslaved and said states must provide equal legal protection to all residents. But the amendment also included a provision to prevent former Confederates from holding office. The provision said that any ‘officer’ of the U.S. who had taken an oath to support the Constitution and then ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion’ could not hold future office.
Part of the debate at the Supreme Court yesterday revolved around whether the president is an officer. To some legal scholars, the answer is obviously yes. ‘The meaning of ‘officer’ in the 1780s was the same meaning that it has today,’ said Jason Murray, the lawyer representing Colorado voters who want to bar Trump.
Other legal scholars take a different view, and several justices seemed open to this argument. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that the amendment lists many jobs that count as officers, including senators and representatives — but not president. Justice Neil Gorsuch emphasized that the Constitution elsewhere used the term to refer to appointees to an office, rather than to presidents.
2. What can states do?
The Constitution bars several categories of people from serving as president, including anybody who is under 35 or who already served two terms as president. Murray argued that officials who engaged in insurrection are likewise ineligible because of the 14th Amendment.
But several justices questioned whether the 14th Amendment in fact gave states the power to bar officials from federal elections. If it did, individual states might have outsize power over national elections. ‘The question that you have to confront is why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States,’ Justice Elena Kagan told Murray.
John Roberts, the chief justice, pointed out that the drafters of the 14th Amendment wanted to restrict state power, and Jackson seemed to agree.
The justices instead seemed to believe that only Congress could bar candidates from federal elections. ‘The consensus at Thursday’s argument seemed to put the ball in Congress’s court,’ Adam Liptak told us. ‘But since the chances of action from that body are nil or close to it, it will be up to the voters to decide whether Trump is fit to be president.’
3. What is an insurrection?
Another major issue involves Jan. 6: Did it count as an insurrection, and did Trump take part in it?
Murray argued that the answer to both questions was yes. Jonathan Mitchell, Trump’s lawyer, countered that the events of Jan. 6 were ‘shameful, criminal, violent’ — but not an insurrection. Mitchell defined an insurrection as ‘an organized, concerted effort to overthrow the government’ with violence.
Some justices seemed open to that interpretation. Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that there was a federal statute making it a crime to incite an insurrection — and that Trump has not been charged with it. Still, yesterday’s argument did not dwell on the issue, suggesting that the ruling may focus on other questions.
What’s next
The Supreme Court may soon hear a separate case involving Trump: whether he is immune from prosecution over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A federal appeals court ruled this week that Trump can be charged.
If Trump asks the Supreme Court to take the case, as is likely, its ruling may determine if any trial will finish before the election. The timing is important: In polls, some voters say they would be less willing to vote for Trump if he were convicted.” [New York Times]
The FCC is outlawing AI-generated voices in robocalls as concerns grow around their ability to deceive voters
“The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday outlawed robocalls that contain voices generated by artificial intelligence, a decision that sends a clear message that exploiting the technology to scam people and mislead voters won’t be tolerated.” Read More at Axios
Meta considers aggressive removal of posts containing ‘Zionist,’ people involved in the private deliberations tell The Post
“Meta, formerly Facebook, is debating whether to censor some social media posts containing the word ‘Zionist’ to counter a surge of antisemitism online, according to people familiar with the deliberations and internal guidance seen by The Post. But while the approach may appeal to Jewish groups who accuse Meta of being slow to address antisemitism, it has triggered alarm among digital rights activists and pro-Palestinian groups, who say it would stifle legitimate criticism of the Israeli government during a catastrophic war.”
Read more at Washington Post
SPORTS
Caitlin Clark Matthew Holst/Getty Images
“Caitlin Clark: The Iowa superstar sits 39 points shy of the N.C.A.A. women’s basketball scoring record after tallying 27 in a win against Penn State.” [New York Times]
“N.F.L.: Lamar Jackson won the league M.V.P. award, his second. Only 10 other players have won it twice.” [New York Times]
“N.B.A.: The New York Knicks were aggressive before a trade deadline, acquiring Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks from the Detroit Pistons.” [New York Times]
Thousands of people have been watching bald eagles protecting their eggs.
The eagles with their clutch of eggs. (Friends of Big Bear Valley)
“How? A live stream on YouTube shows eagles Shadow and Jackie tending to their nest in Southern California. It has more than 241,000 subscribers.
This week: A storm dropped several inches of snow on their nest. But experts say they’re doing fine and the eggs could hatch this month.”
Read this story at Washington Post
“Lives Lived: The singer and radio host Mojo Nixon was known for intentionally offensive songs that satirize celebrity culture. He once described himself as a voice of ‘the doomed, the damned, the weird.’ Nixon died at 66.” [New York Times]