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Internal strife within Trump’s legal team hampers defense in classified documents probe
- Washington Post: New infighting among Trump lawyers surfaces in classified documents case: A former top lawyer defending Donald Trump in a federal probe of how he handled classified documents told CNN that he quit last week because another member of Trump’s sprawling legal team, Boris Epshteyn, “had really done everything he could to try to block us — to prevent us from doing what we could to defend the president.” During an interview with CNN’s Paula Reid on Saturday, Timothy Parlatore said Epshteyn’s actions were making it difficult for Trump’s representatives to put together a defense strategy against an investigation being led by Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department. “In my opinion, he was not very honest with us or with the client on certain things,” Parlatore said of Epshteyn. “There were certain things like the searches that he had attempted to interfere with.”
- Guardian: Trump was warned about retaining classified documents, notes reveal: Federal prosecutors have evidence Donald Trump was put on notice that he could not retain any classified documents after he was subpoenaed for their return last year, as they examine whether the subsequent failure to fully comply with the subpoena was a deliberate act of obstruction by the former president. The previously unreported warning conveyed to Trump by his lawyer Evan Corcoran could be significant in the criminal investigation surrounding Trump’s handling of classified materials given it shows he knew about his subpoena obligations. Last June, Corcoran found roughly 40 classified documents in the storage room at Mar-a-Lago and told the justice department that no further materials remained at the property. That was later shown to be untrue, after the FBI later returned with a warrant and seized 101 additional classified documents.
- CNN: New glimpse into documents case suggests a fateful new reckoning is looming over Trump: Latest revelations from the special counsel’s probe into ex-President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents deepen a sense that a grave political moment is approaching. Possible evidence that Trump knew that his claims that he could simply declassify material on a whim were false highlight his characteristic belief that laws and codes of presidential behavior do not apply to him. This is a factor that made his White House term a daily test of America’s democracy and legal system. The latest glimpse into special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation also shows that while any charges against Trump for potential violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice might be justified in a purely legal context, they would come with a high level of responsibility to explain to the public why such a step in a potentially complex case was merited in the charged atmosphere of a presidential election.
- New York Times: Former Trump Lawyer Describes Conflict Inside Legal Team: A conflict inside former President Donald J. Trump’s legal team erupted into public view on Saturday as one of his former lawyers went on television to attack one of his current lawyers, who has been the focus of ire from others on the team. The former lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, withdrew this past week from representing Mr. Trump in the special counsel’s investigations into his handling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But Mr. Parlatore did not explain the reasons behind his departure at the time, saying only that it was not related to the merits of the inquiries. Appearing on CNN on Saturday, Mr. Parlatore disclosed that his departure had been spurred by irreconcilable differences with Boris Epshteyn, another lawyer who has been working as something akin to an in-house counsel for the former president, hiring lawyers and coordinating their efforts to defend Mr. Trump.
D.C. Police lieutenant indicted for allegedly aiding Proud Boys
- New York Times: D.C. Police Lieutenant Charged With Leaking Information to Proud Boys Leader: Federal prosecutors unsealed charges on Friday against a veteran police officer in Washington, accusing him of obstructing justice by leaking law enforcement information to Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys. Prosecutors say that the officer, Lt. Shane Lamond, 47, told Mr. Tarrio that he would not face hate crime charges after a group of Proud Boys under his command burned a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church in Washington after a pro-Trump rally in the city in December 2020. The episode took place weeks before the far-right group played a central role in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
- Washington Post: The other problem with having a Proud Boys sympathizer in the D.C. police: The indictment of a D.C. police lieutenant on Thursday is, at a minimum, disconcerting. Beyond the indictment itself, the case reflects a serious challenge for American law enforcement. What’s alleged — and will, at some point presumably, need to be proved in court — is that Shane Lamond, who led the Metropolitan Police Department’s intelligence branch, was in regular communication with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, including in the period during and after the 2020 presidential election. According to messages presented in the indictment, the relationship was not confined to intelligence gathering on Lamond’s part and, instead, included his actively assisting the Proud Boys leader.
In The States
ARIZONA: Lawsuit to protect voters in Arizona from intimidation at drop boxes is settled
- Washington Post: Groups settle Arizona lawsuit over voter intimidation at ballot boxes: An Arizona group that monitored ballot drop boxes for signs of fraud during the midterm elections has settled a lawsuit and agreed to “publicly condemn intimidation of any kind in connection with the exercise of the right to vote,” according to a statement Sunday from the League of Women Voters of Arizona, which had filed the suit. The organization last October sued the group formerly known as Clean Elections USA and its founder, Melody Jennings, alleging the tactics of the group and its allies amounted to illegal voter intimidation. The drop boxes, intended to provide a secure, convenient place to submit ballots, have become a symbol of mistrust in elections among many supporters of former president Donald Trump.
- AZCentral: In closing arguments of Kari Lake’s signature verification trial, attorneys focus on trust in elections: The closing arguments from lawyers on opposing sides of Republican Kari Lake’s election challenge delved into the details of data and signature comparison procedures, but also something bigger: trust in elections, and who was chipping away at that trust. The 80-minute arguments on Friday saw lawyers exchanging barbs, with Lake’s team alleging Maricopa County’s failures led to “fraud” and distrust, while the opposing side faulted misinformation and Lake’s refusal to concede her race. “Kari Lake lost this election, and she’s clearly unhappy about it,” said Elena Rodriguez Armenta, a lawyer at Elias Law Group, who is representing Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in the case.
TEXAS: GOP lawmakers take up anti-voting bills, threatening democracy in Harris County
- Houston Chronicle: Texas GOP’s election crackdown brings two key bills to vote today: The Texas House is set to consider a bill today that would empower the secretary of state to oversee elections and fire local election officials in counties with a “recurring pattern” of problems, including voting machine malfunctions and lax upkeep of the voter rolls. The legislation, Senate Bill 1933, would require a county placed under “administrative oversight” to clear all election policies and procedures with Secretary of State Jane Nelson, a Republican former state senator who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Nelson would also have authority to send employees from her office to observe any activities in a county’s election office. After ending the oversight period, Nelson could “enter a written order to terminate the employment” of the county’s elections administrator, if the recurring problems had not been “rectified” or were continuing to “impede the free exercise of a citizen’s voting rights in the county.” Alternatively, Nelson could choose to continue overseeing the election office until the problems were fixed. Also on Monday’s House agenda is a bill that would abolish Harris County’s elections administrator position and return the responsibilities to the elected county clerk and tax assessor-collector. It originally would have applied to every county with a population of at least 1 million, but was amended in the Senate to only affect Harris County. The bill, SB 1750, would head to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk if approved by the House without any amendments.
- Washington Post: Texas Republicans single out one blue county as they push election bills: Texas Republicans are advancing legislation that would allow state authorities to remove local election officials, designate marshals to investigate voting complaints and single out the state’s most populous county by giving it its own election rules. One bill would change who oversees elections in Harris County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Houston and its suburbs. Another would give the secretary of state the ability to order a new election in the county if ballots are temporarily unavailable. Republicans, who control the state legislature, say the measures are in part a response to problems last year in Harris, where about 10,000 ballots weren’t immediately counted in one election and in another some polling places ran out of ballots. Opponents decry the legislation as an attack on voting in a community where the majority of residents are people of color.
NORTH CAROLINA: Proposed state budget would repeal funding to join multi-state voting registration group ERIC
- The Carolina Journal: Senate budget would repeal NC’s membership in ERIC: Included in the North Carolina Senate budget proposal is repealing the State Board of Elections’ (NCSBE) authorization to join the Electronic Registration Information Center, Inc. (ERIC). ERIC was created in 2012 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization created to help election officials maintain their voter rolls. However, an April study from Judicial Watch indicated that there were problems within ERIC including allegations of a Democrat bias and data sharing with left-leaning organizations. Run by a committee of state election officials from around the U.S., ERIC is funded and governed by states that choose to join. According to its website, ERIC was created to help election officials maintain more accurate voter rolls, detect possible illegal voting, and help states reach out to potentially eligible but not yet registered individuals with information on how best to register to vote. Membership had grown to 32 states and Washington, D.C. However, several states have dropped their membership citing the potential for corruption.
GEORGIA: Fulton County District Attorney indicates charges in Trump election probe could come in early August
- New York Times: Georgia Prosecutor Signals August Timetable for Charges in Trump Inquiry: The Georgia prosecutor leading an investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his allies has taken the unusual step of announcing remote work days for most of her staff during the first three weeks of August, asking judges in a downtown Atlanta courthouse not to schedule trials for part of that time as she prepares to bring charges in the inquiry. The moves suggest that Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, is expecting a grand jury to unseal indictments during that time period. Ms. Willis outlined the remote work plan and made the request to judges in a letter sent on Thursday to 21 Fulton County officials, including the chief county judge, Ural Glanville, and the sheriff, Pat Labat.“Thank you for your consideration and assistance in keeping the Fulton County Judicial Complex safe during this time,” wrote Ms. Willis, who has already asked the F.B.I. to help with security in and around the courthouse.
What Experts Are Saying
Sara Carter, Equal Justice America Fellow in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program: “Without the pretense of election integrity, the purpose behind Florida’s and Texas’s pursuit of honest mistakes is betrayed by its likely consequence: intimidating citizens with prior felony convictions from participating in elections. And those citizens are disproportionately Black. This true aim is instructive as we evaluate supposed efforts to unearth and punish “fraud” in other states.” Brennan Center for Justice: Florida and Texas Go After Voters for Honest Mistakes
Michael Wooldridge, professor of computer science at the University of Oxford: “Prof Michael Wooldridge, director of foundation AI research at the UK’s Alan Turing Institute, said AI-powered disinformation was his main concern about the technology. ‘Right now in terms of my worries for AI, it is number one on the list. We have elections coming up in the UK and the US and we know social media is an incredibly powerful conduit for misinformation. But we now know that generative AI can produce disinformation on an industrial scale,’ he said.” Guardian
Gideon Rose, Mary and David Boies distinguished fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations: “Crucial issues from the 1850s, in other words, remain unresolved and continue to shape current American life. And longstanding social identities and communal histories fuel contemporary hatreds, as the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA, demonstrated so vividly. Yet the ways they are operationalized today differ significantly from the past. In actual Civil War battles, tens of thousands of soldiers died. The Charlottesville clashes, fought over the removal of Confederate monuments, and even the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, resulted in only a handful of casualties. They were tragic and sobering. But they were not harbingers of organized mass political violence. In the end, the 1850s comparison is both comforting and troubling. The country is not at risk of political collapse or civil war, and has, however slowly, improved dramatically over the long run. Yet somehow it is still replicating the toxic political psychology and extreme emotions of the lowest period in its national history. It is not the 1850s. But it feels as bad.” Council on Foreign Relations: Why Today Is Not Like the 1850s
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
New York Times: Taking on the F.B.I., Trump Allies Single Out a Former Agent
Politico: Trump’s Dominance in the GOP Isn’t What It Seems
Bulwark: Why Are “Former Administration Officials” Still Not Speaking Up About Trump?
Trump Investigations
New York Times: Trump Ally Could Face Perjury Charge if He Doesn’t Cooperate With D.A.
Slate: Trump Was Implicated in a Vote Machine Theft. Why Isn’t DOJ Investigating?
January 6 And The 2020 Election
Rolling Stone: The ‘Beverly Hills Insurrectionist’ and the Big Myth About Jan. 6
Daily Beast: It Cost Steve Bannon $601,000 to Ignore the Jan. 6 Committee
Opinion
New York Times: Trump Is Back, to Tear Our Families Apart Once More
Washington Post: Bragg shows a few cards. Critics should reconsider their gripes
New York Times: Ron DeSantis’s Takeover of a Progressive College
Philadelphia Inquirer: Why was this massive Trump scandal hiding in plain sight for 28 months?
New York Times: What Christian Nationalism Has Done to My State and My Faith Is a Sin
Hill: The GOP’s Tommy Tuberville problem
New York Times: There Is a Reason Ron DeSantis Wants History Told a Certain Way
USA Today: Disney nixes $1 billion Florida development, latest casualty in DeSantis’ ‘war on woke’
New York Times: Why Is George Santos Still in Office?
In the States
The Guardian: He voted in Florida for the first time in 2020. Then came the criminal charges
Orlando Weekly: Over three dozen voting-rights group urge Gov. DeSantis to veto major Florida elections bill
