Today's US coronavirus / COVID-19 numbers in the US
From the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University
Confirmed US cases: 92,771,945
Confirmed US deaths: 1,036,567
NOTE: I'm going to stop publishing COVID stats for now, but will resume if there is another surge.
Will we find out what's in the Mar-a-Lago search warrant today?
We may already know some of it: The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon that 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked as top secret and meant to be only available in special government facilities, were removed from Mar-a-Lago on Monday. The paper reports:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation agents took around 20 boxes of items, binders of photos, a handwritten note and the executive grant of clemency for Mr. Trump's ally Roger Stone, a list of items removed from the property shows. Also included in the list was information about the "President of France," according to the three-page list.
Yesterday, AG Merrick Garland asked a court to let the Justice Department release the search warrant used to seize government documents that Trump was illegally storing at Mar-a-Lago, as well as the inventory receipt showing what FBI agents removed from the property.
Justice gave Trump copies of both the warrant and the receipt.
The federal magistrate in the Southern District of Florida who approved the search warrant and is handling Merrick's request to unseal it, gave Trump until 3 p.m. today to say whether he opposed the release.
Overnight, Trump posted on his social media site, Lies Misanthropic Truth Social, that he did not oppose the release: "Release the documents now!" he wrote. "I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents."
Hey bucko -- you have copies of all of those documents. If you're so fired up that they be made public, then you can release them. What's stopping you?
His social media post, of course, is not an official response. How much you want to bet that, like he has done so many times before, he claims that his lawyers won't let him talk/testify/release/tell the truth.
Regardless of what Trump ultimately says to the court, the magistrate could decide to release the documents anyway.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that among the documents the FBI were looking for at Mar-a-Lago were classified papers related to nuclear weapons.
WHAT?!?
That's a dramatic escalation of the tussle between the National Archives and Trump, who took lots of documents with him when he left the White House, in clear violation of federal law. What's worse, some of them were clearly marked "Classified" and "Top Secret."
Archives officials had demanded and received 15 boxes of documents from Trump's Palm Beach club in mid-January. Some of the documents had been torn up and taped back together, lending credence to news reports during Trump's presidency that he was constantly ripping up documents that were supposed to be preserved, and aides had to retrieve them from wastebaskets and tape them up.
(It's not clear if they also yanked them out of the toilets that Trump used to try to flush them away.)
Archives officials were so concerned about what they discovered that they referred the matter to the Justice Department and also notified the agency that there still were papers missing.
In May, Justice subpoenaed those documents from the Archives and also started questioning Trump-era White House officials, leading to speculation that there was a grand jury investigating the documents removal. Sure enough, Trump's team soon received a subpoena for more documents at Mar-a-Lago, and Trump handed over more.
Also sometime in the spring, FBI agents paid a visit to Mar-a-Lago to try to get more information about the documents Trump took, including whether there were still some hidden there.
They became convinced that Trump was not being honest with them. (How did they know that? His lips were moving. Ba-da-boom.) Hence the search warrant that was executed Monday.
Trump's latest brush with the law had me marveling at just how he's constantly entangled in legal messes of his own making.
Never mind that he ripped off students who signed up for Trump University, a massive scam that led to multiple lawsuits that Trump settled for $25 million.
There was the Trump Foundation, which engaged in so many unethical practices that it's mind-boggling: Mishandling of money raised for veterans' causes, never coming through with boastful promises of grants to 9/11 families, using donations made to the foundation to pay his company's legal bills, using foundation money for political uses, taking credit for foundation grants that were made using other people's donations, and so much more. His three adult children -- Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka -- were also involved, serving on the foundation's board.
Trump admitted that he had misused foundation money for personal, legal, and political purposes, paid fines, and was forced to give $2 million to charities (which must have killed him). New York authorities dissolved the foundation.
Remember that in 2007, he spent $20,000 to buy a six-foot-tall portrait of himself during a fundraiser auction at Mar-a-Lago? Yup, he used foundation money. I guess he considers himself a charity case. How sad.
I don't have the room to recount all of the small business people he refused to pay after they did work for him, or his litany of failed businesses, from casinos that went bankrupt to steaks and vodka that never sold.
His legal troubles today are far more serious.
There are lots of federal and state criminal investigations being conducted related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and his family business. There also are civil lawsuits accusing Trump of defamation and of goading the Capitol rioters to commit violence.
Oh, and on Wednesday, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 440 times, refusing to answer questions at a deposition by lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is investigating the Trump Organization's business practices.
One thing the AG is looking into is whether Trump defrauded banks, mortgage companies, and the federal government by deliberately inflating or deflating the value of his properties and companies to either get loans or avoid taxes.
The website Just Security has an exhaustive list of 19 current civil and criminal lawsuits against Trump, and another three that were recently closed. It's astounding what a nasty swamp of lies and corruption the guy inhabits.
Just Security: Litigation Tracker: Pending Criminal and Civil Cases Against Donald Trump
The Washington Post: FBI searched Trump’s home to look for nuclear documents and other items, sources say
The Wall Street Journal: FBI Recovered Eleven Sets of Classified Documents in Trump Search, Inventory Shows
Thanks to vaccine deniers, polio is back.
Three weeks ago, a man in Rockland County, N.Y., north of NYC, was diagnosed with a case of polio that left him paralyzed.
Today we found out that polio has been detected in the city's wastewater, which probably means that the dangerous virus that causes polio is circulating in the city, health authorities said.
Granted, some vaccinations and immunizations were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. But c'mon, people: You and your kids have been out and about for months. There's no excuse not to go through the polio vaccine regimen unless you've been duped into believing that vaccines are harmful.
That regimen is for kids to get four doses of the vaccine: At 2 months old, 4 months old, 6 through 18 months old, and 4 through 6 years old.
Most US adults were vaccinated as kids, but if you weren't, or never completed the regimen, you had better do so immediately.
The House is debating the Democrats' climate, energy, and health care bill today. They'll probably pass it by the end of the day, and President Biden has said he'll sign it right away.
Finally, many of you are familiar with Globe Santa, the news organization's decades-old charitable effort that buys toys, books, and other gifts for needy kids in Greater Boston for Christmas.
This year, Globe Santa is trying something new: Helping kids with back-to-school supplies. Through a Wish List on Amazon, you can choose to donate one of two bundles:
-- Elementary School Essentials for Grades 1-4 for $25.95
-- A 36-piece supply kit for grades K-12 for $17.99
I hear so often about teachers paying for supplies out of their own pocket, sometimes for the classroom, sometimes for kids in their classes whose families can't afford to buy everything that's needed. It's a terrific and kind idea to try to help out those kids and, by extension, their teachers.
Here's the Amazon link to the Globe Santa School Supplies list. And thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.