Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, a key figure in then-President Trump’s inner circle who pushed back against some of his attempts to subvert the election results, has reportedly reached a deal to sit for a transcribed interview before the Jan. 6 Select Committee on Friday, according to multiple reports.
Continue reading “Cipollone Reaches Deal With Jan. 6 Panel To Testify In Transcribed Interview Friday”Kentucky Guv Releases WH Emails Showing Biden Plan To Nominate Anti-Abortion Judge
After initially declining to do so, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s (D) office on Tuesday released two emails from the White House confirming President Joe Biden’s plan to nominate Chad Meredith, an anti-abortion Federalist Society member, to a federal judgeship.
Continue reading “Kentucky Guv Releases WH Emails Showing Biden Plan To Nominate Anti-Abortion Judge”DOJ Investigating Texas’ Operation Lone Star For Alleged Civil Rights Violations
This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
The Department of Justice is investigating alleged civil rights violations under Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar border initiative announced last year by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to state records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.
The Legislature last year directed more than $3 billion to border measures over the next two years, a bulk of which has gone to Operation Lone Star. Under the initiative, which Abbott said he launched to combat human and drug smuggling, the state has deployed more than 10,000 National Guard members and Department of Public Safety troopers to the border with Mexico and built some fencing. Thousands of immigrant men seeking to enter the country have been arrested for trespassing onto private property, and some have been kept in jail for weeks without charges being filed.
Since the operation’s launch, a number of news organizations, including ProPublica and the Tribune, have outlined a series of problems with state leaders’ claims of success, the treatment of National Guard members and alleged civil rights violations.
An investigation by the Tribune, ProPublica and The Marshall Project found that in touting the operation’s accomplishments, state officials included arrests with no connection to the border and statewide drug seizures. The news organizations also revealed that trespassing cases represented the largest share of the operation’s arrests. DPS stopped counting some charges, including cockfighting, sexual assault and stalking, after the publications began asking questions about their connections to border security.
Another investigation by the Tribune and Army Times detailed troubles with the National Guard deployment, including reports of delayed payments to soldiers, a shortage of critical equipment and poor living conditions. Previous reporting by the Army Times also traced suicides by soldiers tied to the operation.
Angela Dodge, a DOJ spokesperson, said she could not “comment on the existence or lack thereof of any potential investigation or case on any matter not otherwise a part of the public court record.”
“Generally, cases are brought to us by a variety of law enforcement agencies — federal, state and local — for possible prosecutorial consideration following their investigation into a suspected violation of federal law,” Dodge wrote in an email. “We consider each such case based on the evidence and what can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a federal court of law.”
But at least two Texas agencies involved in carrying out the border initiative have pointed to a DOJ investigation in records obtained by ProPublica and the Tribune through the Texas Public Information Act.
In an internal email in May, DPS officials said that the DOJ was seeking to review whether Operation Lone Star violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin by institutions receiving federal funding.
According to the emails, the federal government requested documents that include implementation plans, agreements with landowners and training information for states that have supported Operation Lone Star by sending law enforcement officers and National Guard members to Texas.
“If you are not already aware, the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ is investigating Operation Lone Star,” Kaylyn Betts, a DPS assistant general counsel, wrote in a May 23 email to a department official. She added that the agency should respond in a timely and complete manner.
In a letter sent Friday to the state’s attorney general, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice also cited a “formal investigation” of Operation Lone Star by the DOJ. The agency, which manages the state’s prison system, pointed to the investigation while fighting the release of public records sought by the news organizations.
In the letter, the department’s deputy general counsel wrote that the DOJ is investigating whether the state agency is subjecting people who are arrested as part of the border operation to “differential and unlawful conditions of confinement based on their perceived or actual race or national origin.”
None of the agencies have publicly released information related to the DOJ’s requests.
Neither DPS nor the Texas office of the attorney general, which is representing the state, responded to requests for comment. Amanda Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said in an email that her agency provided the DOJ the requested information.
“The agency has and continues to follow all state and federal laws as the state of Texas responds to the ongoing crises at the border,” she wrote in an email to the news organizations.
State and federal lawmakers as well as civil rights and immigrant groups have repeatedly called for investigations into Operation Lone Star. In the letters to the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security, the groups have cited reporting from the Tribune that shows some immigrants were illegally detained or kept in jail too long due to delays by prosecutors, in violation of state law.
“It is critically urgent that the Biden administration not only investigate but hold agencies accountable for violations of Title VI to protect the civil rights of people in South Texas,” said Kate Huddleston, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. The nonprofit, along with more than 100 other groups, filed a 50-page Title VI complaint in December with the DOJ asking it to investigate alleged civil rights violations.
Operation Lone Star, Huddleston added, “is targeting individuals for enhanced punishment and subjecting them to a separate state criminal system that is created specifically for this purpose that is riddled with civil rights violations.”
Abbott’s office has said the arrests and prosecutions under the operation “are fully constitutional.”
Thank You So Much!
You did it.
As you can see by the tracker below, at some point yesterday we hit our $200,000 goal for this year’s TPM Journalism Fund drive. We are all pretty pumped here at TPM. Happy. Relieved. Energized. This is the first of many “thank yous” you’re going to be hearing from us over the next few days.
As I said in one post during the drive I was skeptical that we’d be able to reach this goal. Or perhaps equivocal. Uncertain? I thought it would be a real challenge, even though that was really the minimum to put everything in a good place. It’s daunting to put the number out there, with a counter and everything. What if you don’t get there? And it’s out there in public for everyone to see! In the event we hit our goal in about three weeks. Which is amazing. Just shy of 2,500 TPM Readers (2,477) contributed. We really appreciate your generosity and your faith in our operation.
You can of course still contribute. But we’re closing the curtains on the hard sell phase of this year’s effort. Truly, we really appreciate it.
More to come!
Another Trump White House Staffer To Testify Publicly About Jan. 6
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
More Bombshells On The Horizon?
The House Jan. 6 Committee has subpoenaed Sarah Matthews, the Trump White House’s deputy press secretary who resigned immediately after the Capitol attack, who’s agreed to testify publicly in front of the panel as soon as next week, according to CNN.
- Matthews has defended Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide to Mark Meadows, as “anonymous sources” seek to downplay the Hutchinson’s blockbuster testimony.
- Matthews already appeared in front of the committee for a voluntary interview behind closed doors in February, according to several reports at the time.
Jan. 6 Panel Announces Next Hearing
The House Jan. 6 Committee’s next public hearing will be held on Tuesday, July 12 at 10 a.m. ET. Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) signaled on Sunday that this hearing will focus on “efforts to assemble that mob” that attacked the Capitol, looking at “who was participating, who was financing it, how it was organized” and the involvement of far-right extremist groups.
Trump Allies Subpoenaed In Georgia Election Probe
The special grand jury in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ Trump election meddling investigation subpoenaed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday.
- John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis, and Cleta Mitchell also were subpoenaed. The grand jury is examining their role in Trump’s fake elector scheme, which was partially spearheaded by Giuliani.
- The subpoena to Graham zeroed in on the GOP senator’s calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) in 2020, during which Graham allegedly suggested that Raffensperger throw out legally cast ballots.
- The subpoenas also showed that the grand jury’s looking into the origins of the lies Giuliani and Co. spread about election fraud in Georgia.
New Footage Of Subpoenaed British Filmmaker’s Trump Documentary
Politico obtained a trailer for the Trump family docuseries by British filmmaker Alex Holder, who was subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 Committee for his testimony and raw never-before-seen footage of the Trumps. Holder’s upcoming documentary covers the last six weeks of Trump’s reelection campaign, the aftermath of Trump’s defeat and the Capitol attack, which Holder was able to film.
Americans’ Confidence In U.S. Institutions Is Plummeting For Some Reason
A new Gallup poll paints a grim picture of how the country sees its biggest institutions right now, especially the Supreme Court and the presidency, where Americans’ confidence dropped by 11 and 15 points, respectively, since 2021.
(I’d just like to point out that organized labor is the only thing that hasn’t suffered a loss in confidence!)
SCOTUS’ Stark Partisan Divide
The Supreme Court’s liberal-conservative divide is deeper than it’s been in generations, a new analysis by FiveThirtyEight found.
Alleged Highland Park Shooter Charged With Seven Murders
Robert “Bobby” E. Crimo III was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday for allegedly opening fire at a July 4 parade in Highland Park, Illinois, killing seven people and injuring more than 30.
- The semiautomatic rifle Crimo allegedly used in the attack was bought legally, according to the police.
- Crimo had had two previous run-ins with law enforcement in 2019, the authorities said. The first time was when someone had reported to the police that Crimo had attempted suicide; the second was when a relative reported that he had threatened to “kill everyone” in his family. That’s when the police confiscated a sword, dagger and knives from Crimo, but no arrests were made.
Boris Johnson Ditched By His Top Ministers
The hits just keep on comin’ for scandal-plagued British Prime Minister Boris Johnson: On Tuesday, finance minister Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid both resigned amid furor over groping allegations about Johnson’s deputy chief whip that arose as the British leader grapples with backlash over his lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street.
Must Read
“With Rising Book Bans, Librarians Have Come Under Attack” – The New York Times
Mulvaney’s Still Trying To Convince Us He Isn’t Just An Ex-Trump Stooge
Mick Mulvaney, the Trump White House chief of staff-turned-CBS pundit, put out yet another op-ed yesterday about the House Jan. 6 Committee’s hearings, this time urging Republicans to “pay attention” to the hearings because Mulvaney is a Very Serious Man With Serious Takes That Should Be Taken Seriously.
“Clinging firmly to a belief based on false or incomplete information can lead to disastrous results,” Mulvaney wrote.
Excellent point, Mick!
Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!
Report: Trump’s Desire To Launch 2024 Bid Early Grew After Hutchinson’s Testimony
Former President Trump has reportedly been considering announcing his 2024 presidential bid earlier than expected — a desire that has grown in light of damning revelations during the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s public hearings that began last month, CNN reported.
Continue reading “Report: Trump’s Desire To Launch 2024 Bid Early Grew After Hutchinson’s Testimony”Where Things Stand: State And Local Authorities Try To Figure Out What To Do In Wake Of SCOTUS Gun Ruling
The Supreme Court last month struck down a century-old New York state gun restriction, broadening the Second Amendment as the nation weathers a now-familiar spate of deadly mass shootings. It was the first major gun control ruling from the High Court in a decade, and a win for the gun lobby and gun rights groups.
Though the case before the Court was a challenge to New York’s laws, the ruling will impact several others states, many home to large, dense cities, that have similar laws on the books.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: State And Local Authorities Try To Figure Out What To Do In Wake Of SCOTUS Gun Ruling”How The Fake Electors Scheme Could Give The DOJ A Way Into Trumpworld
Federal prosecutors have made high-profile moves in the past several weeks aimed at a specific aspect of Trump’s effort to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
Continue reading “How The Fake Electors Scheme Could Give The DOJ A Way Into Trumpworld”Federal Patient Privacy Law Does Not Cover Most Period-Tracking Apps
This article first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, advocates for privacy and reproductive health have expressed fears that data from period-tracking apps could be used to find people who’ve had abortions.
They have a point. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the federal patient privacy law known as HIPAA, does not apply to most apps that track menstrual cycles, just as it doesn’t apply to many health care apps and at-home test kits.
In 2015, ProPublica reported how HIPAA, passed in 1996, has not kept up with changes in technology and does not cover at-home paternity tests, fitness trackers or health apps.
The story featured a woman who purchased an at-home paternity test at a local pharmacy and went online to get the results. A part of the lab’s website address caught her attention as a cybersecurity consultant. When she tweaked the URL slightly, a long list of test results of some 6,000 other people appeared.
She complained on Twitter and the site was taken down. But when she alerted the Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees HIPAA compliance, officials told her they couldn’t do anything about it. That’s because HIPAA only covers patient information kept by health providers, insurers and data clearinghouses, as well as their business partners.
Deven McGraw is the former deputy director for health information privacy at the HHS Office for Civil Rights. She said the decision overturning Roe, called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, should spark a broader conversation about the limits of HIPAA.
“All of a sudden, people are waking up to the idea that there’s a lot of sensitive data being collected outside of HIPAA and asking, ‘What are we going to do?’” said McGraw, who is now the lead for data stewardship and data sharing at Invitae, a medical genetics company. “It’s been that way for a while, but now it’s in sharper relief.”
McGraw noted how that’s not just the case for period-tracking apps but also some apps that store COVID-19 vaccine records. Because Congress wrote HIPAA, lawmakers would have to update it to cover those cases. “Our health data protections are badly out of date,” she said. “But the agencies can’t fix this. This is on Congress.”
Consumer Reports’ digital lab evaluated eight period-tracking apps this spring and found that four allowed third-party tracking by companies other than the maker of the app. Four apps stored data remotely, not just on the user’s device. That makes the information potentially subject to a data breach or a subpoena from law enforcement agencies, though one of the companies surveyed by Consumer Reports has said it would shut down rather than turn over users’ data.
In a press release last week, HHS sought to allay worries with some advice that sounds reassuring.
“According to recent reports, many patients are concerned that period trackers and other health information apps on smartphones may threaten their right to privacy by disclosing geolocation data which may be misused by those seeking to deny care,” HHS said in the release.
The document quoted HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra about the protections provided by HIPAA: “HHS stands with patients and providers in protecting HIPAA privacy rights and reproductive health care information,” Becerra said. He urged anyone who thinks their privacy rights have been violated to file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights.
The release later acknowledged that, in most cases, HIPAA rules do not protect the privacy or security of individuals’ health information when they access or store it on personal cellphones or tablets. It offered guidance on steps people can take to protect their information.
Since the court’s decision overturning Roe, some period-tracking apps have taken steps to minimize the risk of personal information being shared. One such company called Flo said it is developing an “anonymous mode” that would not require users to provide their name or email address.
“Flo does not share or sell any health data with any other company, but wanted to take this additional step to reassure users who are living in states affected by an abortion ban,” the company said in a press release. “It is important to note that once this mode is activated, users will no longer be able to recover data when the device is lost, changed, or stolen and there may be limitations to using the app’s full personalization benefits. This is why Flo is offering Anonymous Mode as an option for concerned users instead of activating it by default.”
In a statement after the Supreme Court decision, the digital civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation said consumers should pay attention to “privacy settings on the services they use, turn off location services on apps that don’t need them, and use encrypted messaging services.
“Companies should protect users by allowing anonymous access, stopping behavioral tracking, strengthening data deletion policies, encrypting data in transit, enabling end-to-end message encryption by default, preventing location tracking, and ensuring that users get notice when their data is being sought,” the EFF statement said. “And state and federal policymakers must pass meaningful privacy legislation. All of these steps are needed to protect privacy, and all are long overdue.”
Atlanta Grand Jury Issues Subpoenas To Trump Legal Team, Lindsey Graham In Big Lie Probe
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and several members of the legal team that sought to keep former President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election were issued subpoenas from a Georgia grand jury on Tuesday.
Continue reading “Atlanta Grand Jury Issues Subpoenas To Trump Legal Team, Lindsey Graham In Big Lie Probe”