As the political world puzzles over how George Santos and his resume of lies slipped through a whole election largely undetected, the race itself holds some answers.
Continue reading “New York’s Redistricting Chaos Changed Santos’ Future”Santos Now Identifies as Straw Donor
There’s always been a strong Wile E. Coyote vibe to George Santos’s arc across the American political landscape. If he just keeps pretending everything’s fine and nothing matters maybe he’ll never fall off the cliff? But on Tuesday he appears to have taken a step toward falling off the cliff.
At the center of the Santos story from the beginning has been the question of how he went from being a chronic deadbeat making $50,000 a year in 2020 to making millions just two years later from his company, The Devolder Organization. He made so much that he could loan his own campaign almost three-quarters of a million dollars. Now finally we may have an answer. That money he loaned his campaign? Well, it wasn’t actually his money.
Continue reading “Santos Now Identifies as Straw Donor”Where Things Stand: Trump Lawyer Tries To Shove Exec Privilege Assertion Into The Record Before Navarro Trial
Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s contempt trial for defying the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena is coming up in less than a week. And Trump’s lawyers are asserting once more, in a last-ditch effort at proving something, that Navarro was right to have blown off the congressional subpoena because he was protected by executive privilege.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Trump Lawyer Tries To Shove Exec Privilege Assertion Into The Record Before Navarro Trial”‘Imminent’
Just to note that at that hearing today in Atlanta, County DA Fanni Willis told the court that the special grand jury which had been investigating Trump’s election meddling in Georgia for months recommended multiple indictments and Willis’s decision on whether to bring those charges is “imminent.”
Judge Hears Arguments On Whether To Release Georgia Grand Jury’s Trump Report
A Georgia state judge on Tuesday weighed whether, when, and how much of a grand jury report into President Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election result should be released.
Continue reading “Judge Hears Arguments On Whether To Release Georgia Grand Jury’s Trump Report”There’s a Difference
As you’ve seen, CNN reports that classified documents have now been found at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence. This certainly upends the media narrative of recent weeks and probably spurred a round of guffaws at the White House. But there’s a more important issue here which reporters have done too little to explain for readers. “Classified” material covers a huge range of material, from simple briefing papers that may only barely require classification to Top Secret documents. There’s compartmented information that almost no one can see unless they have a specific need to see it.
Continue reading “There’s a Difference”Classified Documents Found At The Home Of Former VP Pence
A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence found around a dozen classified documents at Pence’s Indiana home last Monday. Pence promptly turned the documents over to the FBI, according to a letter Pence representative Greg Jacob sent to the National Archives.
Continue reading “Classified Documents Found At The Home Of Former VP Pence”Some of the Big Questions about the McGonigal Case
I want to draw out a few points I mentioned last night about the arrest of Charles McGonigal. When I first heard about the indictments, I understood them to be one (D.C.) that dealt with events while McGonigal still worked at the FBI and one (New York) that dealt with events after he worked at the FBI. But as I noted last night, it’s not that clear cut. The relationship with Oleg Deripaska and a reputed former Soviet/Russian intelligence officer, Evgeny Fokin, began when McGonigal was still at the FBI.
The New York indictment is elusive about just what it’s suggesting about McGonigal and Fokin in 2018, when the former still worked at the FBI. It is also unclear about whether McGonigal was compromised by a foreign power or was simply building a relationship with Fokin and Deripaska for money he would make after he left the FBI.
Was he compromised by Russia? Or was he just compromised by Deripaska? Needless to say, there’s not necessarily a bright line separating these two scenarios.
Continue reading “Some of the Big Questions about the McGonigal Case”Senate Republicans Wish House GOP Well In Their Debt Ceiling Fight And That’s About It
It appears Senate Republicans don’t want to touch House Republicans’ plans to hold the debt ceiling hostage with a 10-foot pole.
As new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the rest of his caucus threaten to breach the debt limit if they don’t get their way on spending cuts to vital programs like Medicare and Social Security, Senate Republicans are making it clear that this is a McCarthy problem.
Continue reading “Senate Republicans Wish House GOP Well In Their Debt Ceiling Fight And That’s About It”Failed New Mexico GOP Candidate And Alleged Shooting Mastermind Denied Bail
Solomon Pena, the failed GOP House candidate who’s been arrested for allegedly orchestrating shootings at the homes of Democratic officials, was denied bail by a New Mexico judge on Monday.
Continue reading “Failed New Mexico GOP Candidate And Alleged Shooting Mastermind Denied Bail”