FBI agents executed a search warrant Wednesday night at the Washington, DC-area home of Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), the LA Times reports. They reportedly seized Burr’s cell phone as part of their investigation of stock trades he made while getting COVID-19 briefings as chairman of the Senate intel committee. The stock trades occurred before the full scope of the pandemic threat was publicly known in the United States.

Federal judge in Mike Flynn case appoints retired judge to brief him on whether Flynn should be held in criminal contempt for perjury. 

We’ll have more coming soon that takes up the points TPM Reader SS raises here about the oral arguments in the Mazars/Deutsche Bank cases:

I found the livestream of the arguments fascinating.  I also found, somewhat disturbingly, that none of the commentators/blogs/websites that I follow (all of a liberal bent, so to speak) seemed to speak to what I thought was the main weakness of Congress’ case.  (Note: while I’m not a practicing lawyer, I was, at one point, a member of the DC Bar).
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Follow our coverage of the Supreme Court oral arguments this morning in those critical separation of powers cases right here.

President Trump just unveiled his unofficial new campaign slogan: Transition Into Greatness! Rolls off the tongue, no?

MAGA recedes into memory. TIG limps to the fore. Big shoes to fill.

No, this is not like a pardon by other means.

The Barr Justice Department’s corrupt abandonment of the prosecution of Michael Flynn after his guilty plea is a graver threat to the rule of law than the presidential pardon we long expected.

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The corrupt, unprecedented abandonment of the prosecution of Mike Flynn by the Barr Justice Department – despite having secured a guilty plea – takes your breath away.

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Fascinating email from TPM Reader JO, whose personal bio is tailor-made for TPM:

I’m a critical care nurse working in a COVID ICU.  I’ve practiced nursing in a variety of settings, from helping to run an Ebola Treatment Unit in Liberia to coordinating mass vaccination campaigns during the H1N1 pandemic.  I’m also a former political professional who really appreciates your insight and analysis.

One thing that I feel is really missing from the public discussion about COVID is the surprisingly high rates of (likely) permanent disability among those who become critically ill.
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Trump out here moving the goalposts on coronavirus deaths like an auctioneer pic.twitter.com/nb6Eo92MYJ

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 4, 2020

As a non-expert I’ve struggled over the last week or so to make sense of the status of the pandemic in the United States, but overnight a top expert laid things out in as clear a way as I’ve seen in a while. You probably know Jeremy Konyndyk as a disaster preparedness expert who served in the Obama administration and has since become a prominent voice on the U.S. COVID-19 response.

His rundown of why things aren’t getting dramatically worse but also aren’t getting any better helps pull together the various contributing factors to the brutal daily death toll at which we seem to have plateaued. By his own admission, it is not an optimistic assessment.

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