memeorandum: David Kay, weapons inspector who helped disprove Iraqi WMDs, dies at 82 (Phil Davison/Washington Post)

11:05 PM ET, August 22, 2022

Top Items:

Trump Had More Than 300 Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago — The National Archives found more than 150 sensitive documents when it got a first batch of material from the former president in January, helping to explain the Justice Department's urgent response.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Reuters, Rolling Stone, Insider, The Hill, HuffPost, Patterico's Pontifications, Alternet.org, Raw Story, PoliticusUSA, Deadline, Public Notice and TheBlaze

CNN:

Exclusive: Justice Department issues new subpoena to National Archives for more January 6 documents — Why new Trump lawsuit shows disagreement behind the scenes 03:35 — The Justice Department has issued a new grand jury subpoena to the National Archives for more documents as part …

Discussion: Insider

John Solomon / Just The News:

Biden White House facilitated DOJ's criminal probe against Trump, scuttled privilege claims: memos — Long before it professed no prior knowledge of the raid on Donald Trump's estate, the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to instigate …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Ty Ross / Occupy Democrats:

JUSTIFIED: Fox News just published an editorial that you won't believe came from them — After widespread criticism and deflection by Republican allies of Donald Trump — all scrambling to condemn the FBI's search of the ex-President's Palm Beach home — an unlikely source has pushed …

Bradley Moss / Fox News:

The Trump Mar-a-Lago search was justified — Fox News Flash top headlines for August 22 — Ever since news broke two weeks ago that the FBI had executed a search warrant on former President Donald Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago, the political world has been aflame with hyperbole, accusations, innuendo, and hysteria.

Discussion: Mediaite and Alternet.org

Washington Post:

Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers — Sensitive election system files obtained by attorneys working to overturn President Donald Trump's 2020 defeat were shared with election deniers, conspiracy theorists and right-wing commentators, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.

Discussion: Washington Examiner

CNBC:

Trump sues to block DOJ from reviewing materials FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago until watchdog appointed — Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to appoint a special watchdog to review documents seized from his Florida home by the FBI as part of a criminal investigation …

Discussion: Insider, Mediaite, ABC News, The Guardian, NBC News, CNN, HuffPost, HotAir, The Hill, Fox News, The Hill, The Liberty Loft, CNN, Axios, RADAR, WCDC-TV, Townhall, UPI, CBS News, National Review, Reuters, Washington Times, Sacramento Bee, Raw Story, PoliticusUSA, The Hill, American Greatness, NewsNation, Washington Examiner and Alternet.org

Andrew Desiderio / Politico:

Gang of 8 wants to see Trump Mar-a-Lago search docs — The group of congressional leaders charged with reviewing the most sensitive intelligence information has asked the Biden administration for access to the documents seized from former President Donald Trump's private residence in Florida …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Raw Story, Townhall and Political Wire

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Judge says FBI's evidence for searching Mar-a-Lago is ‘reliable’

New York Times:

An Unusual $1.6 Billion Donation Bolsters Conservatives — A low-profile Republican financier donated his company to a new group run by the influential operative Leonard A. Leo. — WASHINGTON — A new conservative nonprofit group scored a $1.6 billion windfall last year via a little-known donor …

Discussion: Insider, Fox News, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Streams of Crunchiness, Daily Kos, Democracy Through …, Twitchy, Raw Story, driftglass, Common Dreams, Alternet.org, Talking Points Memo and Wide World of News

ProPublica:

How a Secretive Billionaire Handed His Fortune to the Architect of the Right-Wing Takeover of the Courts — In the largest known political advocacy donation in U.S. history, industrialist Barre Seid funded a new group run by Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo, who guided Trump's Supreme Court picks …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Yasmeen Abutaleb / Washington Post:

Fauci plans to step down in December after half a century in government — Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's preeminent infectious-disease expert who achieved unprecedented fame while enduring withering political attacks as the face of the coronavirus pandemic response under two presidents …

CNN:

White House leaning toward canceling $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who make less than $125,000 — . CNN's Blake Essig reports. — ' data-duration="02:56" data-source="CNN" data-affiliate-source-link="https:// www.cnn.com/" data-show-name="" data-show-url="" class="video-playlist__item" >

Discussion: Insider, Forbes, The Daily Caller and IJR

Lisa Friedman / New York Times:

Democrats Designed the Climate Law to Be a Game Changer. Here's How. — In a first, the measure legally defines greenhouse gases as pollution. That'll make new regulations much tougher to challenge in court. — When the Supreme Court restricted the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency …

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Walker, criticizing climate law, asks: 'Don't we have enough trees around here?'

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and No More Mister Nice Blog

Roger Sollenberger / The Daily Beast:

Matt Gaetz Fraudster Gets Five Years for $25 Million Scheme — ALFORD PLEA — A federal judge on Monday sentenced Florida man Stephen M. Alford to 63 months in prison, followed by three years supervised release for his role in a scheme to defraud the family of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

Discussion: Raw Story

Los Angeles Times:

These celebrities are accused of drought restriction violations — They're among the biggest names in entertainment and sports: Sylvester Stallone, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Hart, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian. — And as Southern California struggles with a third year of punishing drought …

Discussion: Breitbart

Emily Crane / New York Post:

64-year-old NYC man savagely beaten with rock in subway attack — A 64-year-old man was beaten with a rock in a brutal attack on a Brooklyn subway platform this weekend, cops said. — Intazar Dar was on his way home from work when he was randomly attacked at the Avenue H station in Midwood …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and PIX11

Stephen Groves / Associated Press:

Ethics board: SD Gov. Noem may have ‘engaged in misconduct’ — A South Dakota ethics board on Monday said it found sufficient information that Gov. Kristi Noem may have “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened in her daughter's application for a real estate appraiser license that it could take action against her.

Discussion: Occupy Democrats and Just The News

Annie Todd / Argus Leader:
Attorney general's office to investigate ethics complaint against Gov. Kristi Noem

Discussion: Democrats

Phil Davison / Washington Post:

David Kay, weapons inspector who helped disprove Iraqi WMDs, dies at 82 — He concluded that no weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq and that intelligence agencies had badly misjudged the available evidence — David A. Kay, the weapons proliferation expert who led a CIA-run operation …

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill and HuffPost

Melanie Mason / Los Angeles Times:

California congressman becomes latest Republican to invoke Nazis to defend Trump, bash Biden — Rep. Mike Garcia, a Republican who faces one of the most competitive House races in the country, likened the Biden administration to the Nazi regime during an interview on a conservative podcast last week.

Discussion: CNN

Arthur Delaney / HuffPost:

Liz Cheney Dares Kevin McCarthy And Jim Jordan To Subpoena Her — “I will welcome the opportunity to come and explain to them exactly what we found and the threat that Donald Trump poses,” the Wyoming Republican said. — Liz Cheney would be happy to testify if Republicans sent her a subpoena …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Victoria Eavis / Casper Star-Tribune:
Did opposition to Liz Cheney boost far-right candidates in Wyoming?

Discussion: RedState and Reuters

Mallory Moench / San Francisco Chronicle:

Despite Newsom's veto, S.F. might push ahead with supervised drug consumption sites anyway — Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed pilot programs where people could use drugs under the supervision of trained staff in San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles …

Discussion: HotAir, Fox News, CNN, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, New York Post, RedState, Sacramento Bee, The Daily Wire, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times and ABC7

Geneva Sands / CNN:

ICE officials under Trump told to wipe phones when leaving agency — The phones of several top Trump-era Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were deactivated when they left their positions and the data contained on them likely wiped, a court filing released late last week shows.

Discussion: Political Wire

KSAT-TV:

$27 billion class action lawsuit announced for Uvalde victims and survivors — Charles Bonner of Bonner & Bonner Law is also representing victims in the Buffalo shooting — UVALDE - Some of the families affected by the Robb Elementary School mass shooting are now a part of a major lawsuit.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and The Free Press

Dave Levinthal / Insider:

Trump PAC's $650,000 ‘charitable contribution’ to the Smithsonian will pay for portraits of Donald and Melania Trump — Save America, one of Donald Trump's political committees, donated $650,000 to the Smithsonian. — A Smithsonian official confirmed to Insider that the money will fund portraits of Donald and Melania Trump.

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Politico, Raw Story, USA Today, Financial Times, Occupy Democrats and Axios

Saja Hindi / Denver Post:

Colorado GOP Sen. Kevin Priola switches party affiliation to Democrat, citing election conspiracies and climate denialism — Colorado Sen. Kevin Priola, a Henderson Republican, announced Monday morning that he is changing his party affiliation to Democrat. — Priola, considered …

Discussion: Colorado Senate Democrats, Juanita Jean's, The Colorado Sun, Associated Press, TheBlaze, Insider, Raw Story, Occupy Democrats, Alternet.org, The Hill, HuffPost and Axios

Richard Spencer / The Times:

Saudis sentence teenagers to death despite vow to stop — Saudi Arabia has resumed sentencing teenagers to death for protesting against the regime, despite promising earlier to end the practice. Human rights monitors have recorded seven cases in which the death penalty has been sought …

Nolan Hicks / New York Post:

NYC could spend $300M annually to house migrants in hotels — The Big Apple could be on the hook for more than $300 million per year to provide shelter space in hotels for newly arrived migrants, a Post analysis shows. — City officials have either rented or announced plans …

Olivia B. Waxman / TIME:

African-American History Finally Gets Its Own AP Class—And Historians Say It's More Important Than Ever — On the first day of one of the first AP African American Studies classes ever taught, Marlon Williams-Clark rattled off a list of Black luminaries to see how many his students had heard of.

Zvi Mowshowitz / Don't Worry About the Vase:

On Car Seats as Contraception — Or: Against Car Seat Laws At Least Beyond Age 2 — (Note: This post takes the perspective of strongly preferring higher American fertility to lower American fertility on anything close to current margins. I endorse this view and consider it very overdetermined …

Alex Bollinger / LGBTQ Nation:

GOP candidate said it's “totally just” to stone gay people to death — A GOP candidate in Oklahoma is getting attention for comments he made several years ago when he justified the death penalty by stoning for gay people. When asked recently about it, he didn't disavow his previous comments.

Discussion: Raw Story, Comic Sands and The Oklahoman

Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner:

Biden bottoms out, pops back to 47% approval — With the help of Democrats bailing out his sinking approval ratings, President Joe Biden has started to recover just in time to begin a national 2022 election trip. — Rasmussen Reports, the sole pollster still conducting daily presidential approval ratings …

Discussion: Rasmussen Reports

Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The Jolt: National Republicans bolster Herschel Walker with Senate control on the line — Republicans need a net gain of just one Senate seat to take control of the chamber in a political climate that favors the GOP. So why is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lowering expectations of a flip?

Discussion: NBC News, Insider, New York Times, HuffPost, Digby's Hullabaloo, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Rolling Stone, The Hill, Raw Story, Washington Examiner, PoliticusUSA and Politico

Jon Allsop / Columbia Journalism Review:

The horribly timed defenestration of Brian Stelter — In the spring of 2018, CJR's Pete Vernon profiled Brian Stelter, CNN's chief media correspondent. It was the height of the Trump era, so the media—and Trump's relentlessness in attacking it—was a major story, and Stelter was ubiquitous in covering and analyzing it.