The Full Belmonte, 8/16/2022
Justice Dept. Objects to Releasing Affidavit Used to Search Trump’s Home
Prosecutors say its release would compromise the investigation into Donald J. Trump’s handling of secret documents after he left office. Now a judge must decide.
“WASHINGTON — The Justice Department objected on Monday to making public the affidavit used to justify the search of former President Donald J. Trump’s home in Florida, saying its release would ‘compromise future investigative steps’ and ‘likely chill’ cooperation with witnesses.
In a 13-page pleading, filed in a federal court in southern Florida in response to requests by The New York Times and other news organizations to make public the evidence included in the document, prosecutors suggested that the department has undertaken a broad, intensive inquiry into Mr. Trump’s handling of some of the most secret documents of the government after he left office.
The prosecutors acknowledged interviewing witnesses in connection with the investigation of Mr. Trump’s retention of the material. They also wrote that releasing the document could compromise the continuing investigation.” Read more at New York Times
Trump-allied lawyers pursued voting machine data in multiple states, records reveal
Trump attorney Sidney Powell in 2020. (Al Drago/Bloomberg News)
“A team of computer experts directed by lawyers allied with President Donald Trump copied sensitive data from election systems in Georgia as part of a secretive, multistate effort to access voting equipment that was broader, more organized and more successful than previously reported, according to emails and other records obtained by The Washington Post.
As they worked to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat, the lawyers asked a forensic data firm to access county election systems in at least three battleground states, according to the documents and interviews. The firm charged an upfront retainer fee for each job, which in one case was $26,000.
Attorney Sidney Powell sent the team to Michigan to copy a rural county’s election data and later helped arrange for it to do the same in the Detroit area, according to the records. A Trump campaign attorney engaged the team to travel to Nevada. And the day after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol the team was in southern Georgia, copying data from a Dominion voting system in rural Coffee County.
The emails and other records were collected through a subpoena issued to the forensics firm, Atlanta-based SullivanStrickler, by plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit in federal court over the security of Georgia’s voting systems. The documents provide the first confirmation that data from Georgia’s election system was copied. Indications of a breach there were first raised by plaintiffs in the case in February, and state officials have said they are investigating.
‘The breach is way beyond what we thought,’ said David D. Cross, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, who include voting-security activists and Georgia voters. ‘The scope of it is mind-blowing.’
A drumbeat of revelations about alleged security breaches in local elections offices has grown louder during the nearly two years since the 2020 election. There is growing concern among experts that officials sympathetic to Trump’s claims of vote-rigging could undermine election security in the name of protecting it.
The federal government classifies voting systems as “critical infrastructure,” important to national security, and access to their software and other components is tightly regulated. In several instances since 2020, officials have taken machines out of service after their chains of custody were disrupted.
State authorities have opened criminal investigations into alleged improper breaches of equipment in Michigan, a case that involves several people who appear in the new records. In Mesa County, Colo., a local elections official, Republican Tina Peters, was indicted on felony charges including conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempting to influence a public servant.
In two counties, SullivanStrickler’s examinations were permitted by courts, though many details surrounding those efforts have not been public. The records show how Powell’s group discussed, exchanged and paid for elections-system data. The plaintiffs intend to bring them to the attention of the judge in the case and provide them to the FBI as well as state and local elections authorities in Georgia, Cross told The Post.
Emails reviewed by The Post show that Powell told SullivanStrickler to share data obtained by the firm with other pro-Trump operatives, some of whom continue to openly push conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.” Read more at Washington Post
Rudy Giuliani, a onetime personal lawyer for Mr. Trump, was a prominent supporter of efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election result.
PHOTO: JUSTIN LANE/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Rudy Giuliani is a target of Fulton County, Ga.’s probe into the bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to one of his attorneys.
“Donald Trump’s onetime personal lawyer was a prominent supporter of the former president’s efforts to challenge the results. A spokesman for the local DA’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Also Monday, a federal judge declined to block a subpoena issued to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) in the election probe.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Biden to sign massive climate and health care legislation
FILE - President Joe Biden in the East Room of the White House, Aug. 10, 2022, in Washington. Biden is preparing to sign Democrats' landmark climate change and health care bill. It's the ‘final piece’ of the president's pared-down domestic agenda as he aims to boost his party's standing with voters ahead of midterm elections. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden will sign Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the ‘final piece ‘of his pared-down domestic agenda, as he aims to boost his party’s standing with voters less than three months before the midterm elections.
The legislation includes the most substantial federal investment in history to fight climate change — some $375 billion over the decade — and would cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 out-of-pocket annually for Medicare recipients. It also would help an estimated 13 million Americans pay for health care insurance by extending subsidies provided during the coronavirus pandemic.
The measure is paid for by new taxes on large companies and stepped-up IRS enforcement of wealthy individuals and entities, with additional funds going to reduce the federal deficit.
The House on Friday approved the measure on a party-line 220-207 vote. It passed the Senate days earlier with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a 50-50 tie in that chamber.” Read more at AP News
Cheney braces for loss as Trump tested in Wyoming and Alaska
“CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a leader in the Republican resistance to former President Donald Trump, is fighting to save her seat in the U.S. House on Tuesday as voters weigh in on the direction of the GOP.
Cheney’s team is bracing for a loss against a Trump-backed challenger in the state in which he won by the largest of margins during the 2020 campaign.
Win or lose in deep-red Wyoming, the 56-year-old daughter of a vice president is vowing not to disappear from national politics as she contemplates a 2024 presidential bid. But in the short term, Cheney is facing a dire threat from Republican opponent Harriet Hageman, a Cheyenne ranching industry attorney who has harnessed the full fury of the Trump movement in her bid to expel Cheney from the House.
‘I’m still hopeful that the polling numbers are wrong,’ said Landon Brown, a Wyoming state representative and vocal Cheney ally. ‘It’ll be a crying shame really if she does lose. It shows just how much of a stranglehold that Donald Trump has on the Republican Party.’” Read more at AP News
Kristina Karamo, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for Michigan secretary of state, speaks in Macomb County in April. Photo: Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press via Reuters
“An armada of 2020 election deniers is running in major battleground races. Lots of the candidates are winning GOP nominations.
The big picture: 54 of the 87 GOP nominees for battleground state offices with a say in election certification have questioned the 2020 presidential election results, The Washington Post reports.
Those offices include governor and lieutenant governor, secretary of state and attorney general, and members of Congress.
The list of 2020 deniers includes:
12 of 13 candidates in Arizona.
13 of 19 in Georgia.
10 of 16 in Michigan.
5 of 9 in Nevada.
1o of 19 in Pennsylvania.
4 of 11 in Wisconsin.
Nationwide, more than half of GOP primary winners have questioned the 2020 results, The Post reports.
What's next: Trump's most prominent GOP critic — Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) faces a primary tomorrow. She trails in the polls.” Read more at Axios
Jan. 6 clawback
The affidavit from the FBI in support of an arrest warrant for Scott Kevin Fairlamb. Photo: Jon Elswick/AP
“The Justice Department is targeting the cash that Jan. 6 rioters have made after the insurrection, AP reports.
Federal authorities seized tens of thousands of dollars from a defendant who sold his footage from Jan. 6.
A Florida man’s plea deal allows the U.S. government to collect profits from any book he gets published over the next five years.
Prosecutors want a Maine man who raised more than $20,000 from supporters to surrender some of the money because a taxpayer-funded public defender is representing him.
Why it matters: At sentencing, rioters often ask for leniency on the grounds that they already have experienced severe consequences for their crimes.” Read more at Axios
Trump Org. CFO expected to plead guilty in NY tax case
FILE - Law enforcement personnel escort the Trump Organization's former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, center, as he departs court, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, in New York. Former President Donald Trump’s longtime finance chief is expected to plead guilty as soon as Thursday, Aug. 18 in a tax evasion case that is the only criminal prosecution to arise from a long-running investigation into the former president’s company, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
“NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s longtime finance chief is expected to plead guilty as soon as Thursday in a tax evasion case that is the only criminal prosecution to arise from a long-running investigation into the former president’s company, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was scheduled to be tried in October on allegations he took more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation from the company, including rent, car payments and school tuition.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and Weisselberg’s lawyers met Monday with the judge overseeing the case, Juan Manuel Merchan, according to court records. The judge then scheduled a hearing in the matter for 9 a.m. Thursday but did not specify the reason.
The people who spoke to the AP did so on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case. They said the purpose of Thursday’s hearing was for Weisselberg to enter a guilty plea, but cautioned that plea deals sometimes fall apart before they are finalized in court.” Read more at AP News
Lawmakers to Investigate Sexual Abuse in Junior R.O.T.C. Programs
The House oversight committee wants the Pentagon to report on sexual misconduct in the high school programs and how it holds instructors accountable.
Lawmakers requested that the Department of Defense provide a briefing to the committee’s staff by the end of this month.Credit...Mary F. Calvert for The New York Times
“Congressional investigators have opened a review of sexual misconduct in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program of the U.S. military in the wake of reports that dozens of teenage girls had been abused at the hands of their instructors.
In a letter sent on Monday to military leaders, including Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, the lawmakers said they were seeking information on how many misconduct reports had been received, how they had been investigated and how often the military inspected school J.R.O.T.C. programs.
They said that instructors in the J.R.O.T.C. program, which provides training in leadership, marksmanship and civic responsibility in about 3,500 high schools around the country, served as trusted representatives of the military in their local communities.” Read more at New York Times
“Residents of two West Virginia counties were recovering from significant flash flooding that prompted dozens of water rescues early on Monday and destroyed at least two bridges, officials said.
Overnight, brown water rose swiftly in Kanawha and Fayette Counties, uprooting trees, engulfing cars and roads, washing out culverts and damaging at least 100 homes in Kanawha County, just east of Charleston, W.Wa., officials said.
The rain began around 3 a.m. on Monday and two to five inches fell, said Megan Kiebler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston.” Read more at New York Times
Kenya calm a day after chaotic presidential declaration
“NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya was calm on Tuesday, a day after Deputy President William Ruto was declared the winner of the narrow presidential election over longtime opposition figure Raila Odinga — a vote closely watched in the East African country that has been crucial to regional stability.
There were protests by Odinga supporters in some cities Monday night after chaos around the declaration as a majority of electoral commissioners alleged the process was ‘opaque.’ Those commissioners, appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year, gave no details about their sudden objection after an election widely seen as the most transparent ever in Kenya.
The 77-year-old Odinga, who has pursued the presidency for a quarter-century, still has made no public statement or appearance. His campaign has signaled it might challenge the election result in court and has seven days after the declaration to do so. The Supreme Court would then have 14 days to make a ruling.” Read more at AP News
Road to war: U.S. struggled to convince allies, and Zelensky, of risk of invasion
“On a sunny October morning, the nation’s top intelligence, military and diplomatic leaders filed into the Oval Office for an urgent meeting with President Biden. They arrived bearing a highly classified intelligence analysis, compiled from newly obtained satellite images, intercepted communications and human sources, that amounted to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war plans for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
For months, Biden administration officials had watched warily as Putin massed tens of thousands of troops and lined up tanks and missiles along Ukraine’s borders. As summer waned, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, had focused on the increasing volume of intelligence related to Russia and Ukraine. He had set up the Oval Office meeting after his own thinking had gone from uncertainty about Russia’s intentions, to concern he was being too skeptical about the prospects of military action, to alarm.
The session was one of several meetings that officials had about Ukraine that autumn — sometimes gathering in smaller groups — but was notable for the detailed intelligence picture that was presented. Biden and Vice President Harris took their places in armchairs before the fireplace, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined the directors of national intelligence and the CIA on sofas around the coffee table.
Tasked by Sullivan with putting together a comprehensive overview of Russia’s intentions, they told Biden that the intelligence on Putin’s operational plans, added to ongoing deployments along the border with Ukraine, showed that all the pieces were now in place for a massive assault.
The U.S. intelligence community had penetrated multiple points of Russia’s political leadership, spying apparatus and military, from senior levels to the front lines, according to U.S. officials.
Much more radical than Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and instigation of a separatist movement in eastern Ukraine, Putin’s war plans envisioned a takeover of most of the country.
Using mounted maps on easels in front of the Resolute Desk, Milley showed Russian troop positions and the Ukrainian terrain they intended to conquer. It was a plan of staggering audacity, one that could pose a direct threat to NATO’s eastern flank, or even destroy the post-World War II security architecture of Europe.
As he absorbed the briefing, Biden, who had taken office promising to keep the country out of new wars, was determined that Putin must either be deterred or confronted, and that the United States must not act alone. Yet NATO was far from unified on how to deal with Moscow, and U.S. credibility was weak. After a disastrous occupation of Iraq, the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and four years of President Donald Trump seeking to undermine the alliance, it was far from certain that Biden could effectively lead a Western response to an expansionist Russia.
Ukraine was a troubled former Soviet republic with a history of corruption, and the U.S. and allied answer to earlier Russian aggression there had been uncertain and divided. When the invasion came, the Ukrainians would need significant new weaponry to defend themselves. Too little could guarantee a Russian victory. But too much might provoke a direct NATO conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.
This account, in previously unreported detail, shines new light on the uphill climb to restore U.S. credibility, the attempt to balance secrecy around intelligence with the need to persuade others of its truth, and the challenge of determining how the world’s most powerful military alliance would help a less-than-perfect democracy on Russia’s border defy an attack without NATO firing a shot.
The first in a series of articles examining the road to war and the military campaign in Ukraine, it is drawn from in-depth interviews with more than three dozen senior U.S., Ukrainian, European and NATO officials about a global crisis whose end is yet to be determined. Some spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence and internal deliberations.
The Kremlin did not respond to repeated requests for comment.” Read more at Washington Post
“As Covid-19 lockdowns, political upheaval and soaring costs drive expats from Kong, and rival Singapore raises the bar for imported labor, young professionals looking for adventure and careers abroad are facing a dilemma. Which will be the cosmopolitan hotspots of the future with high-paid jobs and affordable luxury lifestyles? Read how a clutch of cities is emerging to challenge the old order, luring companies and start-ups to burnish their credentials as global hubs.” Read more at Bloomberg
Morning fog in Dubai. Photographer: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg
The Capri Sun recall affects about 5,760 cases of Wild Cherry Capri Sun drinks. (Sandy Huffaker/Corbis/Getty Images)
“Kraft Heinz is recalling thousands of cases of Capri Sun after announcing packets of the Wild Cherry flavor could contain cleaning solution.” [Vox] Read more at NBC News / Elisha Fieldstadt
No. 1 Alabama tops preseason AP Top 25; Ohio St, ’Dawgs next
“With two of the best players in the country leading the way — and a championship game loss as motivation — Alabama is No. 1 in The Associated Press preseason college football poll for the second straight season and ninth time overall.
Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young, national defensive player of year Will Anderson Jr. and the Crimson Tide received 54 of 63 first-place votes and 1,566 points in the Top 25 presented by Regions Bank released on Monday.
Ohio State is No. 2 with six first-place votes (1,506 points) from the media panel and defending national champion Georgia is third with three first-place votes (1,455 points). Clemson is No. 4. Notre Dame rounds out the top five, setting up a tantalizing opener at Ohio State on Sept. 3.
The Tide’s preseason No. 1 ranking is the seventh in 15 years under coach Nick Saban. Since the preseason rankings started in 1950, only Oklahoma with 10 has been No. 1 in the initial poll more often than Alabama.” Read more at AP News
Academy apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather, who refused an Oscar on Marlon Brando's behalf
Sacheen Littlefeather, who refused an Academy Award on Marlon Brando's behalf, will receive a formal apology from the Academy at an event next month.
(“CNN)Sacheen Littlefeather had only 60 seconds to speak at the 1973 Academy Awards. In her brief speech, she refused the Oscar for best actor on behalf of Marlon Brando, faced a mixture of loud boos and cheers, and defended the rights of Native Americans on national TV.
Almost 50 years later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is formally apologizing to Littlefeather for the mistreatment she experienced during her speech and in the years to follow.
‘The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified,’ former Academy president David Rubin wrote in a letter to Littlefeather. ‘The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable. For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.’
Littlefeather will appear at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures next month to discuss her history-making Oscars appearance and the future of Indigenous representation onscreen, the Academy said.” Read more at CNN
“Nicholas Evans, the British journalist turned author whose novel-turned-film, ‘The Horse Whisperer,’ broke publishing and movie records, along with the hearts of readers who made the book a best seller in 20 countries, died on Aug. 9 at his home in London. He was 72.
The cause was a heart attack, said his longtime agent, Caradoc King.
In 1993, Mr. Evans, at 43, was broke and adrift. He had been working as a journalist and documentary filmmaker, and had spent two years on a film project that ultimately collapsed, when he began casting about for an idea for a novel. It was perhaps not the most winning formula for worldly success, as he noted in retrospect on his website: ‘Why would a debut novel from an unknown author have any more chance of getting off the ground than a movie?’
Yet he had found an intriguing subject: the mystical, manly art of horse whispering. His source was a farrier, and Mr. Evans soon learned that the vocation of calming horses had a long history stretching back centuries.” Read more at New York Times