memeorandum: Biden administration says Mohammed bin Salman should be granted sovereign immunity in Khashoggi civil case (Stephanie Kirchgaessner/The Guardian)

7:50 AM ET, November 18, 2022

Top Items:

McCarthy skips Pelosi's retirement speech as some Republicans pay grudging respect — WASHINGTON — When Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement from congressional leadership on Thursday, the House chamber was packed with Democratic lawmakers in anticipation of the announcement from an icon of American politics.

Discussion: New York Post, Slate, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Voice of America, Breitbart, Washington Free Beacon and PoliticusUSA

NBC News:

Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, says she'll step down as Democratic leader — Pelosi, 82, has been the Democratic leader for two decades. She is expected to remain a member of the House, at least temporarily. — WASHINGTON — Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House …

Lisa Mascaro / Associated Press:

Pelosi's big decision: 'There's a life out there, right?' — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the attack on her husband, Paul, by an intruder in their family home made her think about staying on as the House Democratic leader because she “couldn't give them that satisfaction” of intimidating her out of politics.

Discussion: The American Independent, KRON4, KTLA and Roll Call

Reuters:

Hakeem Jeffries favored to lead U.S. House Democrats after Pelosi exit — U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to step down from her leadership role after her fellow Democrats lost their majority in last week's midterm elections positions Hakeem Jeffries …

Edward Luce / Financial Times:
Nancy Pelosi's tenure as House Speaker is unlikely to be surpassed

Discussion: Daily Kos and Bloomberg

Molly Ball / TIME:
Nancy Pelosi Reflects On the Not-Quite-End of An Era

Discussion: Vox, Politico, Robert Reich, Los Angeles Times, Mollyesque, USA Today, CNN and New Republic

The White House:
Statement by President Joe Biden On Speaker Nancy Pelosi Stepping Down from Democratic Leadership in the House of Representatives

Discussion: Randall Cadenhead Politics, CBS News, Conservative Brief, HuffPost, Washington Times, The Hill, Instapundit, PBS NewsHour, The Western Journal, UPI, CNN, Insider, USA Today, Breitbart and Political Wire

Andrew Ferguson / Washington Free Beacon: Good Riddance, Madame Speaker

New York Times:

Resignations Roil Twitter as Elon Musk Tries Persuading Some Workers to Stay — Mr. Musk, Twitter's new owner, had given employees a Thursday deadline to decide whether to leave or stay “to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0.” — Hours before a Thursday deadline that Elon Musk …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Gizmodo, Fox News, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, The American Conservative, Full Feed, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Verge, The Daily Wire and Balloon Juice

The Verge:

Hundreds of employees say no to being part of Elon Musk's ‘extremely hardcore’ Twitter — Musk gave Twitter staff a deadline to say if they are staying for his cultural reset of the company. And right on deadline, the farewell emojis started pouring into Twitter's Slack.

Washington Post:

Hundreds said to have opted to leave Twitter over Musk ultimatum — The number of likely departures prompted Musk to ease his return-to-office edict and managers to meet to decide which engineers to ask back — SAN FRANCISCO — Hundreds of Twitter employees refused Thursday to sign a pledge …

Discussion: Bloomberg, BBC, CNN, RedState, Wired, The Verge, The Hill and Twitter is Going Great!, more at Techmeme »

Diane Bartz / Reuters:
Democratic U.S. senators accuse Musk of undermining Twitter, urge FTC probe

Discussion: Associated Press, Twitter is Going Great!, The Hill and Bloomberg

Associated Press:

US moves to shield Saudi crown prince in journalist killing — The Biden administration declared Thursday that the high office held by Saudi Arabia's crown prince should shield him from lawsuits for his role in the killing of a U.S.-based journalist, a turnaround from Joe Biden's passionate …

Discussion: middleeastmonitor.com and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:

Biden administration says Mohammed bin Salman should be granted sovereign immunity in Khashoggi civil case — Court filing says Saudi crown prince's promotion to the role of prime minister meant that he was ‘the sitting head of government and, accordingly, immune’

Discussion: Washington Examiner and Informed Comment

Reuters:
Biden administration says Saudi prince has immunity in Khashoggi killing lawsuit

Discussion: Insider, Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Bloomberg, DAWN, CNN, The Daily Wire and The Hill

Ben Hubbard / New York Times:
US Backs Immunity for Saudi Leader in Lawsuit Over Khashoggi Murder

Discussion: Common Dreams

David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Biden rewards Saudi leader's impunity with legal immunity

Discussion: Vox

Rachel Weiner / Washington Post:

GOP operative found guilty of funneling Russian money to Donald Trump — A Republican political strategist was convicted of illegally helping a Russian businessman contribute to Donald Trump's campaign in 2016. — Jesse Benton, 44, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a different campaign finance crime …

Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story

Washington Post:

Rep. Lauren Boebert race too close to call, with margin inside recount threshold — With nearly all votes counted, the Republican incumbent led Democrat Adam Frisch by a small margin — Rep. Lauren Boebert, a far-right Republican from Colorado, was locked in a race that was too close …

Discussion: Insider, New York Times, The Colorado Sun, Colorado Newsline, Raw Story and FiveThirtyEight

Jesse Bedayn / Associated Press:
Republican Boebert's tight race likely headed to recount

Discussion: Colorado Public Radio, Breitbart, USA Today, RedState, The Right Scoop, The Colorado Sun, Associated Press, Conservative Brief and Mercury News

Tony Romm / Washington Post:

Congress took millions from FTX. Now lawmakers face a crypto reckoning. — The stunning collapse of the world's third-largest exchange has forced politicians to grapple with the costs of legislative inaction — The sudden collapse of one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges rattled …

Discussion: New York Times, WFLA-TV, CoinDesk and Political Wire, more at Techmeme »

Semafor:
Bankman-Fried parts ways with Paul Weiss lawyers

Discussion: Fortune, The Federalist, CoinDesk and Tangle, more at Techmeme »

Financial Times:
Let crypto burn

Discussion: American Prospect, CoinDesk and Bloomberg

Associated Press:

North Korea test-fires ICBM with range to strike entire US — North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed near Japanese waters Friday in its second major weapons test this month that showed a potential ability to launch nuclear strikes on all of the U.S. mainland.

Discussion: CNN, CBS News, Washington Examiner, Reuters, UPI, Metro.co.uk, New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, Associated Press, The Times of Israel, Euractiv, Voice of America, TASS, Just The News and RedState

Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:

Writer Who Accused Trump of Rape to File New Defamation Lawsuit — E. Jean Carroll, whose first defamation lawsuit faced challenges because Donald J. Trump was then the president, will sue him again over similar statements he made after leaving office. — When the writer E. Jean Carroll …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, UPI, New York Post, New York Daily News, HuffPost, Law & Crime and Bloomberg

Burgess Everett / Politico:

'You've gotta have a war every five or 10 years' — It's not every day that a senator quotes a famous mob movie to describe the state of his political party after a week of infighting. — “You've gotta have a war every five or 10 years to get rid of the bad blood,” Sen. John Kennedy …

Discussion: The Hill

Graham Kates / CBS News:

Trumps had role in fraud scheme, Allen Weisselberg testifies at company's trial — Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg testified in court Thursday, describing how Donald Trump and two of his children allegedly participated in a scheme to defraud tax authorities.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Law & Crime, Associated Press, CNN, NBC News, New York Times, The Gateway Pundit, PoliticusUSA, New York Post, New York Daily News, Politico, UPI, Raw Story, Mediaite, Daily Kos and Vanity Fair

NBC News:

Jan. 6 committee interviews former Trump Secret Service agent Bobby Engel — WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee on Thursday interviewed Bobby Engel, who was the lead Secret Service agent for then-President Donald Trump when the insurrection took place, three sources familiar with the session said.

Discussion: Insider, CBS News, HuffPost, UPI, Mediaite, Breitbart, PoliticusUSA, The Hill and CNN

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:
Cheney hits back as Pence says January 6 committee has ‘no right’ to testimony

Discussion: The Guardian, Daily Kos, Occupy Democrats, Washington Examiner, HotAir, CNN, New Republic, CBS News, New York Post, Insider, The Hill, Washington Times and Reuters

Nicole Chavez / CNN:

4 largest cities in America will be led by Black mayors — When Rep. Karen Bass is sworn in as Los Angeles mayor next month, Black people will be leading the four largest cities in America. — “As Black mayors continue to win elections this cycle, we are excited that, for the first time …

Discussion: Plain Dealer and Bloomberg

Nancy Cook / Bloomberg:

Biden's Top Aides Plan Exit as Economy Takes Center Stage in 2024 Election — President Joe Biden's top economic adviser, Brian Deese, is expected to leave the White House next year, part of a broader reshuffle that will offer Biden a chance to make over his coterie of aides on an issue central to an expected reelection bid.

Discussion: Reuters, Breitbart and Washington Examiner

Noam Scheiber / New York Times:

Starbucks Workers Strike at Dozens of Stores Nationally — Workers said they were protesting the company's refusal to bargain in good faith and other anti-union activity. — Starbucks employees went on strike on Thursday at dozens of unionized locations nationwide, citing …