Morning Memo: Prosecutors Still Haven’t Flipped Trump Org CFO

Here’s what caught our attention.

A Tightening Noose?

Another installment in the pressure campaign to flip Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg. He could be hit with criminal charges in the Manhattan district attorney’s tax investigation as soon as this summer, according to the New York Times.

• Prosecutors have reportedly gotten ahold of the executive’s personal tax returns. None of this is good news for Trump, given how prosecutors have reportedly been trying to pressure Weisselberg to flip on his boss in their separate criminal probe into the former president’s business.

RonJohn Can’t Stop Juneteenth

The Senate unanimously passed a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.

• Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) had planned to object to the bill. Then decided not to when it became apparent to him that the legislation would survive the filibuster.
• To be clear, he still doesn’t like the notion of making Juneteenth a holiday and thinks it’s “kind of odd” to spend tax money on it.

The Right-Wing Culture War: ‘Critical Race Theory’ Edition

A GOP Alabama lawmaker who’s trying to make it illegal for teachers to teach what Republicans consider to be “critical race theory” seems to have no idea what it actually is, instead just defining it as something that “basically teaches that certain children are inherently bad people because of the color of their skin, period.”

• What he told AL.com when asked for an example of this 1984-esque nightmare being inflicted upon America’s youth: “These people, when they were doing the training programs — and the government — if you didn’t buy into what they taught you a hundred percent, they sent you away to a reeducation camp.” (This has never happened.)
• What he told AL.com when asked who exactly was teaching that: “Yeah, uh, well — I can assure you — I’ll have to read a lot more.”

A parent in Maine, furious over a school district’s letter that condemned systemic racism last year, launched a war against the school board members, accusing them of making public schools teach kids “critical race theory.”

• Part of that parent’s crusade was weaponizing the right-wing media against the board. He went on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s program to wring his hands over the issue.

NBC News reporter Ben Collins tells the full story here:

I want to tell a quick story about Tucker Carlson, a small town in Maine, and a panic over “critical race theory” stoked with the help of Fox News and viral conservative websites.

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) June 15, 2021

How Did Jan. 6 Happen?

Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton will testify about the Jan. 6 security failures before the Senate Rules Committee this afternoon.

Out-Of-Control Leak Investigations

House Judiciary Committee Democrats are “considering” issuing a subpoena for former Attorneys General Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions over the Trump DOJ’s secret seizure of Democratic lawmakers’ digital data during leak investigations, committee chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) told CNN.

Don’t Forget This Part Of The Wuhan Story

“Top Trump officials pushed the Covid-19 lab-leak theory. Investigators had doubts.” – Politico

Biden’s Agenda Across The Pond

The President met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva this morning.

Desperation Over At Arizona’s Election ‘Audit’

An auditor at the clown show that is the Maricopa County vote “audit” flagged a ballot as suspicious because “every single oval was filled out perfectly, without a single stray mark,” according to a Newsmax report at the scene that heaped praise on the shady operation.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

New York and California are lifting most of their COVID-19 restrictions.

Prayer In Schools Loophole Award Goes To …

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a new law requiring Florida K-12 schools to hold a moment of silence each day.

Slow Clap

A Jan. 6 insurrectionist who’s running against Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) found out in the middle of an interview that the Democrat he was trying to unseat was a U.S. member of Congress, not a state lawmaker as he initially thought up until that interview.

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