Yesterday, the redacted affidavit from the Mar-a-Lago search warrant was released. So much was NOT redacted that I suspect all that was redacted was any information which might tend to identify the witnesses, or otherwise compromise DOJ sources (and also, just maybe, other Federal laws they are investigating him for). Yes, there are some all-black pages – but by my count they make up just under half of the complete document. Like all legal documents, the phrasing and vocabulary are as unsensational as possible, but the facts are there and are made clear. Of course MAGAts would not be convinced FPOTUS did anything wrong even if Jesus came back to earth and denounced him. But anyone with an open mind who can manage to get through the legalese should get it.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance – Tomorrow Before Noon
Quote – Here’s the bottom line. Kemp delayed testifying, despite the DA’s persistent efforts—first voluntary and then by subpoena, to bring him in. Now, months into the process, he says she shouldn’t be able to make him testify before his election in November, even though he’s responsible for the delay. But Kemp is a fact witness. If he’d observed a car wreck and was called to testify, would he argue he shouldn’t have to before the election? Of course not. It’s a bad argument, tantamount to asking for special treatment because he’s on the ballot and doesn’t want to have to testify against the former president before the voting starts. And I’m sure that if the court permits him to delay past November, Kemp will find fresh reasons to claim he can’t testify after the election. Kemp also argues that he has sovereign immunity as the state’s governor, which should prevent his grand jury testimony. But again, Kemp isn’t a target of the investigation, he’s just a fact witness, so that doctrine shouldn’t apply.
Click through for details. Like Richardson, Vance sends her newsletter late at night, so “Tomorrow” in her title is now “Yesterday.”
Robert Reich – My father and Senator Joe McCarthy
Quote – During the Army-McCarthy hearings, McCarthy’s chief counsel was Roy Cohn. Cohn had gained prominence as the Department of Justice attorney who successfully prosecuted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage, leading to their execution in 1953. The Rosenberg trial had brought the 24-year-old Cohn to the attention of J. Edgar Hoover, who convinced McCarthy to hire Cohn as chief counsel for McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, where Cohn became known for his aggressive questioning of suspected communists. My father thought Roy Cohn almost as despicable as Joe McCarthy. After McCarthy’s downfall, Cohn proved useful to a young New York real estate developer named Donald Trump who was then undertaking several large construction projects in Manhattan and needed a fixer and mentor. Cohn filled both roles.
Click through for story. Although I’m almost a year older than Robert, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as television until the nid-fifties, and we didn’t have one for a lot of years after that. I’m glad he did, and was old enough to remember that occasion. But … we are still (not again, still) fighting the same ogre today.
Food For Thought