memeorandum: I Wrote the Special Counsel Rules. Barr Has Abused Them. (Neal K. Katyal/New York Times)

8:20 PM ET, December 3, 2020

Top Items:

Trump aide banned from Justice after trying to get case info — WASHINGTON (AP) — The official serving as President Donald Trump's eyes and ears at the Justice Department has been banned from the building after trying to pressure staffers to give up sensitive information about election fraud …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Vanity Fair, littlegreenfootballs.com, Mediaite, KVIA-TV, Forbes, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Law & Crime, The Week, Politico, The Intellectualist, Political Wire and The Philadelphia Inquirer

Ashley Parker / Washington Post:

Farah resigns as White House communications director in tacit nod to Trump's loss — White House communications director Alyssa Farah resigned from her post Thursday after three-and-a-half years in the Trump administration. — Farah, 31, began her White House tenure as press secretary …

Discussion: Raw Story, Fox News, Washington Examiner, CNN, Politico, Axios, Talking Points Memo, IJR, Mediaite, Forbes, The Daily Caller, UPI, Political Wire, Lucianne and Townhall, more at Mediagazer »

Politico:

Trump mulls preemptive pardons for up to 20 allies, even as Republicans balk — President Donald Trump is considering preemptively pardoning as many as 20 aides and associates before leaving office, frustrating Republicans who believe offering legal reprieves to his friends and family members could backfire.

Discussion: New York Times, USA Today, NPR, news.com.au, CNN, The Intellectualist and The Hill

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Kayleigh McEnany isn't aware of anything — Fourteenth in an occasional series on White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, to prove the impossibility of speaking for President Trump. — As White House press secretary, McEnany speaks on behalf of Trump. Or, at least, that's the job description.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and Washington Examiner

Neal K. Katyal / New York Times:

I Wrote the Special Counsel Rules. Barr Has Abused Them. — There is no reason for the outgoing attorney general to appoint his preferred prosecutor for the continuing Trump-Russia inquiry. — Mr. Katyal is a law professor at Georgetown. — Attorney General William Barr's decision …

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, Washington Monthly, The Bulwark, emptywheel and Power Line

Kaitlan Collins / CNN:
Trump and Barr had ‘contentious’ White House meeting this week, source says

New York Times:

How Is Trump's Lawyer Jenna Ellis ‘Elite Strike Force’ Material? — She bills herself as a “constitutional law attorney.” Her experience doesn't align with the sort of lawyer she plays on TV. — Jenna Ellis broke into the legal profession in 2012 as a deputy district attorney in Weld County …

Discussion: Alternet.org, Law & Crime, Gothamist and Raw Story

Wall Street Journal: How Jenna Ellis Rose From Traffic Court to Trump's Legal Team

Emily Cochrane / New York Times:
McConnell and Pelosi Discuss Stimulus Bill as Pressure Mounts for a Deal

Discussion: Washington Examiner, CNBC, Raw Story, The Nevada Independent, Washington Post, The American Independent, wabe.org, The Hill, The National Interest, Foreign Policy, Roll Call, Conservative News Today, The Daily Beast and Alternet.org

The Daily Beast:

Trumpworld Declares War on ‘Fool’ Trumpist Lawyer Lin Wood — After Wood encouraged a boycott of the GA runoff, the president's campaign suggested he was a Democratic plant. — On Wednesday evening, what was left of Donald Trump's reelection campaign began insinuating that an attorney striving …

Discussion: Washington Post, Law & Crime, Media Matters for America, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Talking Points Memo, CBS News, Vanity Fair, National Review, Raw Story, The Hill, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway and NPR

Washington Post:
Trump roils Georgia GOP as party waits to see if presidential visit helps — or hurts — in crucial Senate runoffs

Discussion: The Week, Mic, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Politico, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Salon, Fox News, Washington Examiner, Conservative News Today, ABC7, wabe.org, Forbes and National Journal

Brooke Singman / Fox News:
Trump campaign, RNC raise $207.5 million since Election Day

Discussion: The Daily Beast, New York Times, Bloomberg, Politico, The Hill, The Daily Caller, OpenSecrets.org and Washington Times

Rafi Schwartz / Mic:
Trump's voter fraud fantasy is starting to muck up Republicans' chances elsewhere

Discussion: Politico, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal, Breitbart and The Week

Donesha Aldridge / WXIA-TV:
Poll results show tight races between candidates in U.S. Senate runoffs

Discussion: HotAir, POLITICUSUSA, Vox, Mediaite, National Review, The Hill and Politico

John Ratcliffe / Wall Street Journal:

China Is National Security Threat No. 1 — Resisting Beijing's attempt to reshape and dominate the world is the challenge of our generation. — As Director of National Intelligence, I am entrusted with access to more intelligence than any member of the U.S. government other than the president.

Discussion: CNN, NBC News, Washington Examiner, Fox News, Business Insider, GNEWS, IJR, Reuters, HotAir, New York Post, The Diplomat, THE MARSHALL REPORT, CNBC and Fox Business

CBS News:
Ratcliffe says Biden getting “all of the same intelligence” as Trump, warns of China threat

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Bloomberg and Breitbart

Charlie Savage / New York Times:
U.S. Used Patriot Act to Gather Logs of Website Visitors

more at Techmeme »

Dan Merica / CNN:

CNN Exclusive: Biden says he will ask Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days he's in office — Biden will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days — (CNN)President-elect Joe Biden told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday that he will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days after he takes office.

Grace Segers / CBS News:
Fauci to have first “substantive discussions” with Biden transition officials

Discussion: New York Post, Breitbart, IJR, CNN, USA Today, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Axios and Mediaite

Tom LoBianco / Business Insider:

SCOOP: Don Jr. eyes a run for NRA chief. It's one more way the Trump family is making big plays to cement itself in GOP conservative politics for the next four years. … - President Trump and his family are looking to cement their hold on the Republican Party with a series of moves aimed …

Discussion: Mic, Raw Story, TheBlaze and The Intellectualist

Kate Bennett / CNN: Plotting the future: Trump kids even look to profit from their father's fallen legacy

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

The President Is Acting Crazy, so Why Are We Shrugging It Off? — The dangerous “yeah, whatever” phase of Trump's lame-duck Presidency. — On Wednesday, more than three thousand Americans died because of the coronavirus, the nation's deadliest day yet during the pandemic.

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Bloomberg, Reuters, Fox News, Forbes, behindtheblack.com, Breitbart, Raw Story, Patterico's Pontifications and HotAir

Ted Nesi / WPRI-TV:

Raimondo: I will not be Biden's HHS secretary — PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Gov. Gina Raimondo on Thursday ruled out leaving her job to become President-elect Joe Biden's health and human services secretary, seeking to put the idea to rest after a flurry of reports that she was a finalist for the job.

Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times:

Find Your Place in the Vaccine Line — A vaccine may be around the corner, but how long will it be until you get the shot? Health officials are considering vaccine timelines that give some Americans priority over others. If you're a healthy American, you may wait many months for your turn.

Carla Marinucci / Politico:

Prominent Democratic strategist and Newsom adviser facing domestic violence charges — SAN FRANCISCO — Prominent California Democratic strategist Nathan Ballard — a longtime friend and adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom — was arrested and jailed on two felony domestic violence charges in Napa …

Discussion: Mercury News and Los Angeles Times

Matt Negrin / Washington Post:

A political litmus test for Republicans: Fail it, lose your TV slot — Time for a rapid test for the voter fraud delusion — Almost a month has passed since Joe Biden won the election, and the Republican Party still refuses to acknowledge him as president-elect.

Politico:

Wikipedia page for Biden's new Covid czar scrubbed of politically damaging material — Jeff Zients, the man President-elect Joe Biden has put in charge of his administration's response to Covid-19, “fell in love with” the culture at Bain & Co. He later founded his own private equity firm, Portfolio Logic.

Discussion: Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Beast

Politico:
Zients, Murthy tapped to head up Biden's Covid-19 response

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Daily News, Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo, New York Post, Washingtonian, The Week, GovExec.com, STAT, KVIA-TV and CNN

Russ Buettner / New York Times:

Tenants Sue Trump Over Scheme That Drove Up Their Rents — The latest legal front against the outbound president involves a maneuver that earned him and his siblings millions while lowering their taxes. — President Trump will face a raft of potential legal challenges when he leaves office …

Discussion: Raw Story

Teo Armus / Washington Post:

Trump campaign's star witness in Michigan was deemed ‘not credible.’ Then, her loud testimony went viral. — Weeks after Melissa Carone was tapped by the Trump campaign as a star witness in Michigan, little appeared to be going as planned with the contract IT worker's testimony …

Discussion: MLive.com, Washington Examiner, The Stream, The Cut, The Mary Sue, Crooks and Liars, RedState, Vanity Fair, The Root, The Guardian, Raw Story, Mediaite, Detroit News and The Daily Beast

Jerusalem Demsas / Vox:
Rudy Giuliani's bizarre legal strategy, in two clips

Discussion: The Wrap, Mic, Michigan Advance, Spectator USA, Jezebel and Raw Story

Hailey Branson-Potts / Los Angeles Times:

Angry parents won't let officials slide over closed playgrounds, packed malls — Sydney Beckman ran beneath the yellow caution tape surrounding the empty playground equipment and flopped her tiny body over a swing. — The 2-year-old had tried opening a gate blocking the big green slide …

Jeffery Martin / Newsweek:

Roger Stone Says North Korean Boats Delivered Ballots Through Maine Harbor As Trump Boosts Fraud Claims — Former Trump adviser Roger Stone claimed on Wednesday that North Korea had interfered in the U.S. presidential election. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continued to assert …

Discussion: Newsmax, Juanita Jean's and Mock Paper Scissors

KTLA:

Residents in city of Los Angeles to ‘remain in their homes’ amid COVID-19 surge, mayor's office says — All residents within the city of Los Angeles should continue to remain in their homes and follow the city's “safer-at-home” order, which mirrors guidance from L.A. County, according to the mayor's office.

Discussion: KRON4, Fortune, RedState, California Globe, Breitbart, TheBlaze, Conservative News Today, HotAir, The Daily Caller and The Last Refuge

New York Times:

Google Researcher Says She Was Fired Over Paper Highlighting Bias in A.I. — Timnit Gebru, one of the few Black women in her field, had voiced exasperation over the company's response to efforts to increase minority hiring. — A well-respected Google researcher said she was fired …

Discussion: Protocol, Engadget, The Verge, Fortune and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Samir Ferdowsi / VICE:

Mysterious Monolith Update: Racists Destroy California Monolith, Proclaim Christ Superior to Space Aliens — A group of men shouting “Christ is King” and “America First” destroyed a new monolith and replaced it with a wooden cross. — SF — The new California monolith was torn …

Discussion: Mic, Observer, The Mary Sue and National File

Washington Post:

Reps. Meeks, Scott elected chairs of House Foreign Affairs and Agriculture committees, first Black lawmakers to lead the panels — House Democrats and Republicans on Thursday approved their committee chairs and members for the 117th Congress, with Black lawmakers set to helm the Foreign Affairs …

Discussion: Axios and The Hill

Zachary Petrizzo / Mediaite:

Mark Levin Has Been Claiming For a Month He's Going to Leave Twitter and Facebook (In Repeated Posts on Twitter and Facebook) — Fox News host Mark Levin wants you to know (really wants you to know) that he will be logging off of Twitter and Facebook forever very soon, yet after making …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, more at Mediagazer »

Sarah K. Burris / Raw Story:

‘Russia and China have to be laughing’: Mitt Romney goes off on Trump's voter fraud conspiracy theories — Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) went off in an interview with CNN on Thursday. — Speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Romney was asked about President Donald Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 election …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

U.S. Department of Justice:

Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Facebook for Discriminating Against U.S. Workers — Lawsuit Alleges Facebook Favors H-1B Visa Workers and Other Temporary Visa Holders over U.S. Workers — The Department of Justice announced today that it filed a lawsuit against Facebook Inc. for discriminating against U.S. workers.

Scott Bauer / Associated Press:

Wisconsin high court declines to hear Trump election lawsuit — MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday refused to hear President Donald Trump's lawsuit attempting to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the battleground state, saying the case must first wind its way through lower courts.