The Daily Beast: “As Donald Trump prepares for an indictment that could come any minute now, one of his top lawyers is apparently trying to use another case to siphon information about every possible pending investigation into the former president—including ones that Trump might not even know about yet.
That covert effort was revealed this week in a previously unreported letter that the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James (OAG) submitted in state court. James and Trump’s attorneys have battled over subpoenas for weeks as her $250 million fraud suit against the Trump Organization barrels ahead.
“At least two dozen people – from Mar-a-Lago resort staff to members of Donald Trump’s inner circle at the Florida estate – have been subpoenaed to testify to a federal grand jury that’s investigating the former president’s handling of classified documents,” CNN reports.
“The staffers are of interest to investigators because of what they may have seen or heard while on their daily duties around the estate, including whether they saw boxes or documents in Trump’s office suite or elsewhere.”
New York Times: “According to two of Mr. Trump’s political allies, the campaign will aim to portray any charges as part of a coordinated offensive by the Democratic Party against Mr. Trump, who is trying to become only the second former president to win a new term after leaving office.”
“It is unclear what data points, if any, the Trump team plans to point to beyond Bragg’s party registration in order to make a case that the district attorney is part of a broader political conspiracy against the former president.”
“Eleven of the nation’s largest banks announced Thursday that they would deposit a total of $30 billion into First Republic Bank, as Wall Street and U.S. officials staged an emergency intervention aimed at quelling tremors in the financial sector,” the Washington Post reports.
“Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo announced infusions of $5 billion each for First Republic, while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will each deposit $2.5 billion. The Wall Street move, which was coordinated in part by Biden administration officials, is aimed at stabilizing First Republic and sending a signal to depositors and global markets that the U.S. financial system is secure despite the failures last week of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told NBC News that Silicon Valley Bank was “too woke to fail.”
“Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Russia from Monday to Wednesday, an apparent show of support for Russian President Vladimir Putin amid sharpening East-West tensions over the war in Ukraine and the latest sign of Beijing’s emboldened diplomatic ambitions,” the AP reports.
“Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine is expected to dominate Putin and Xi’s discussions. China has refused to condemn Moscow’s aggression and sought to project itself as neutral in the conflict even while Beijing declared last year that it had a ‘no-limits’ friendship with Russia.”
Amanda Carpenter: “The GOP primary may turn out to be a long and painful exercise in proving that anyone who genuinely believes the ideals of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law are higher political priorities than shutting down drag queen brunches has no place in the party.”
“Even so, that doesn’t leave the Pence, Haley, and McConnell types without choices.”
“DeSantis has shown himself willing to disregard both the real geopolitical stakes and the sheer human cost of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to strike a pose for MAGA. If he keeps it up, the split with him should be more than temporary.”
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and an official at the center of an alleged scheme to forcibly deport thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, CNN reports.
For those of you in the back, yes, raising the retirement age is a cut to Social Security benefits.
On Thursday, the Senate voted 68–27 to advance legislation that would repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for Use of Military Force, or AUMFs, against Iraq.
The bipartisan legislation seeks to eliminate the authorizations that opened the door for the Gulf War under President George H.W. Bush, and the invasion of Iraq under President George W. Bush. Monday will mark 20 years since the 2003 invasion.
Repealing military authorizations has been an ongoing struggle. In June 2021, the House voted 268–161 to roll back the 2002 AUMF but the effort fizzled away in the Senate.
The 2001 AUMF after September 11, however, is untouched by this legislation. In its endorsement of the legislation to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations, the Biden administration noted that the U.S. “conducts no ongoing military activities that rely primarily” on the two authorizations. “Repeal of these authorizations would have no impact on current U.S. military Operations,” the administration notes.
The 2001 AUMF has been used to justify U.S. action in Afghanistan, Cuba, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, among others. Thursday’s advancement to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations follows the House last week rejecting a War Powers Resolution that would’ve required a withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Syria. Only 56 Democrats and 47 Republicans voted in favor of the resolution.
“YouTube will lift its restrictions on former President Trump’s channel Friday,” Axios reports.
“The restrictions have prevented Trump from posting any new YouTube videos to his account, which has more than 2.6 million followers, for over two years.”
Politico: “The percolating progressive resentment comes as Democrats continue to wait for Biden to make his intentions about 2024 official. The president has both declared publicly and privately told confidants he plans to run for reelection. But the timeline for his final decision appears to continually slip as aides note Biden does not face a serious primary challenger from the left while the Republican field has been slow to form.”
“Advisers had initially looked at an announcement around February’s State of the Union, or perhaps next month, timed to campaign finance reporting deadlines. But while April is still in play, members of the president’s inner circle have begun to discuss May or June for a decision.”
“French President Emmanuel Macron shunned parliament and opted to push through a highly unpopular bill that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 by triggering a special constitutional power on Thursday,” the AP reports.
“The risky move is expected to trigger a quick no-confidence motion in Macron’s government.”
“The bill is the flagship legislation of Macron’s second term. The unpopular plan has prompted major strikes and protests across the country since January.”
New York Times: “A prominent conservative education group, whose members volunteered to review textbooks, objected to a slew of them, accusing publishers of ‘promoting their bias.’ … And in a sign of how fraught the political landscape has become, one publisher created multiple versions of its social studies material, softening or eliminating references to race — even in the story of Rosa Parks — as it sought to gain approval in Florida.”
Katherine Wu reports that an international team of scientists has found a key piece of proof that the coronavirus had purely natural roots: genetic evidence that appears to link the coronavirus’s origin to raccoon dogs being sold illegally at a wet market in Wuhan, China
Florida state Sen. Jay Collins (R) said that his office had accidentally filed legislation that would have allowed the Confederate flag to be flown outside government buildings, with a spokesperson calling it a filing made “in error.”
“House Republicans on Thursday released financial records showing that Hunter Biden and other relatives of President Biden received more than $1 million in 2017 from an associate who had entered into a business deal with a Chinese energy company, as they hunted for evidence that the president and his family have profited improperly from his position,” the New York Times reports.
“The material released by the panel did not show anything illegal or improper, and Mr. Comer conceded that he did not know the purposes of the payments or the nature of the business relationships. But he said the transactions raised important questions for his panel.”
“Hunter Biden has filed a sweeping countersuit against the computer repair shop owner who said that Biden dropped his laptop off and never claimed it, a legal action that escalates the battle over how provocative data and images of the president’s son were obtained nearly five years ago,” the Washington Post reports.
The North Dakota Supreme Court has upheld a temporary block of the state’s abortion ban, the Bismarck Tribune reports.
Time: “To the astonishment of many in Washington, the man Democrats once denounced as a threat to American democracy has become one of their most important allies in government… DeJoy may be the only person on earth who could have delivered these wins for America’s beloved, beleaguered Postal Service.”
“That’s partly because of the perverse credibility his association with former President Donald Trump and the scandalous 2020 headlines give him with Republicans. It’s also his stubborn insistence that he wasn’t going to allow allegations levied against him in the thick of an inflammatory political season define him.”
A group closely aligned with Donald Trump helped organize a “bootcamp” for GOP congressional staff this past February, training them on how to conduct aggressive oversight of the Biden administration, Politico reports.
A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds 67% of Republican voters believe that GOP leaders in Washington worked “secretly” with Democrats in 2020 to take out former President Donald Trump and make Joe Biden president.
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