memeorandum: Trump's most important legal team isn't in court. It's on Fox News. (MSNBC)

1:15 PM ET, May 20, 2024

Top Items:

Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC: Applications for arrest warrants in the situation in the State of Palestine — Today I am filing applications for warrants of arrest before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court in the Situation in the State of Palestine.

CNN:

EXCLUSIVE: ICC seeks arrest warrants against Sinwar and Netanyahu for war crimes over October 7 attack and Gaza war — The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes …

Financial Times:

Why we support ICC prosecutions for crimes in Israel and Gaza — The attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7 and the military response by Israeli forces in Gaza have tested the system of international law to its limits. This is why, as international lawyers, we felt compelled to assist …

Discussion: Marin Independent Journal, New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Washington Examiner, Mediaite and Odin's B-Log

Kara Kennedy / Washington Free Beacon:
ICC Seeks Arrest Warrants Against Israeli Leaders

Discussion: Reuters, Forbes, New Republic, RTÉ, New York Post, The Times of Israel, Middle East Monitor, TMZ.com, New York Times, The Guardian, Just Security, Associated Press, Politico and Washington Post

Dan Mangan / CNBC:

Trump trial: Michael Cohen admits he ‘stole from the Trump Organization’ in testimony … Michael Cohen, the former fixer and personal lawyer for Donald Trump, admitted during cross-examination Monday that he stole from Trump's company by holding on to money given to him that should have gone to a tech contractor.

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, Washington Examiner, CNN, Breitbart, UPI, WLTX-TV, Courthouse News Service, Raw Story, RTÉ, Forbes, Mediaite, Associated Press, The Guardian and WKBN-TV

Politico:

Trump claims he wants to testify at his trial. No one else thinks he should. — “Anybody testifying for their own sake, it doesn't play out well,” said one Trump ally. — On the eve of his criminal trial, Donald Trump told reporters in Florida that he would take the stand and testify if necessary.

Discussion: New York Times, New Republic, New Jersey Online, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Reuters and IJR

New York Times:

Closing Arguments in Trump's Trial Will Likely Be Next Week, Judge Says — Defense lawyers have the opportunity to call witnesses, including their client, former President Donald J. Trump, but whether he will testify is not clear. Then the case goes to the jury.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, WKBN-TV and Raw Story

Jon Gambrell / Associated Press:

Iran's president, foreign minister and others found dead at helicopter crash site, state media says — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and others have been found dead at the site of a helicopter crash Monday after an hourslong search through a foggy …

Reuters:
Iranian President Raisi feared dead as helicopter wreckage found

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Beast, Tasnim News Agency, Algemeiner.com, Al-Monitor, Interesting Engineering, Al Jazeera, Fox News, The Sun, The Kyiv Independent, Associated Press, Washington Post and Reuters

ABC News:
Iran's President Raisi dead in helicopter crash, former foreign minister blames US sanctions

Farnaz Fassihi / New York Times:
Helicopter Carrying Iran's President Has Crashed, State Media Reports

ProPublica:

Toxic Gaslighting: How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe — Decades ago, Kris Hansen showed 3M that its PFAS chemicals were in people's bodies. Her bosses halted her work. As the EPA now forces the removal of the chemicals from drinking water …

Discussion: New Yorker

Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Scared about America losing democracy? Texas is already gone — “I might go to Dallas to murder looters,” a then-active duty U.S. Army sergeant named Daniel Perry texted a friend in the spring of 2020, as protest marches over the police murder of George Floyd swept across Texas and the nation.

Discussion: Digby's Hullabaloo

Victoria Guida / Politico:

Senate Banking Chair Brown calls on Biden to replace embattled FDIC head — FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg testified at hearings before House and Senate lawmakers last week, where Democrats stopped just shy of calling for his ouster. — Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown on Monday called …

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

Liz Dye / Public Notice:

Why isn't Donald Trump in jail already? — Donald Smith would be in a cell by now! … “Why isn't Donald Trump in jail already?” — It's a fair question, particularly in light of the flagrant gag order violations in Trump's Manhattan criminal trial, both by the man himself and his surrogates.

Discussion: Kansas Reflector

Chris Geidner / Law Dork:

Exclusive: Justice Alito sold Bud Light stock amidst anti-trans boycott effort — At 4:37 p.m. on Sunday, August 13, 2023, far-right, anti-LGBTQ influencer Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok posted a pre-transition photograph of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, calling her “a dude,” on Twitter, now known as X.1

Discussion: New Republic and Althouse

Isabel Keane / New York Post:

Biden bizarrely suggests he was VP during pandemic in latest blunder — President Biden bizarrely declared Sunday that things got “kinda bad” when he was vice president during the pandemic — even though COVID-19 hit three years after the Obama administration left office.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Fox News, The Post Millennial and New York Times

Victoria Bekiempis / The Guardian:
Biden vows to fight ‘poison of white supremacy’ at Morehouse speech

Discussion: USA Today, New York Post, BizPac Review, NPR, Fox News, The Root, Outside the Beltway, IJR, Axios, New York Times, Mediaite, Associated Press, Washington Post, Reuters, The Daily Beast, Business Insider, RedState, UPI, WFLA-TV, Politico, NBC News and Al Jazeera

David Smith / The Guardian:

Biden: what would Trump have done if the Capitol riots had been led by Black Americans? — The US president Joe Biden asks at civil rights event: ‘what do you think he would have done ... if Black Americans had stormed the Capitol?’ — Joe Biden has launched one of his most scathing attacks yet …

Discussion: HotAir, Pew Research Center, Crooks and Liars, CBS News and PJ Media

Stephen Neukam / Axios:

In Nevada, another GOP Senate contender downplays stance on abortion … - Brown is seeking the GOP nomination to unseat Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) in a state that is a key battleground for the presidential race and the fight over which party will control the Senate.

Discussion: Potomac Local News