August 23, 2025

 

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

~~~ Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: “It’s going to take a long time to fix all the horrible overreaches of this president.... Now he thinks our tortured history of slavery is getting in the way of America being 'the HOTTEST country in the world.' (The Saudis told this to Trump to puff him up, and he’s been repeating it ever since.)... He’s tried to restore Confederate statues and names. He’s retreating from the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His flunkies have downplayed Black icons like Harriet Tubman, the Tuskegee Airmen and Jackie Robinson.... Trump whitewashing slavery is the ultimate act of white privilege from a nepo baby who is the apotheosis of white privilege.... Abe Lincoln ... urged Americans to move past the Civil War 'with malice toward none, with charity for all.' Trump has malice for all, charity toward none.”

Up to Their Usual Tricks. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “The overwhelming majority' of documents the Justice Department gave Congress in response to a subpoena for all information from its investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein had already been publicly released, the top Democrat on the House’s principal investigative committee said on Saturday. The Justice Department began sending material on Friday to the House Oversight Committee, which had demanded all records by Aug. 19, providing a total of 33,295 pages. But Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the panel, said that of the files the committee had received, only 3 percent contained new information. The remaining 97 percent of the pages, he said, had information previously released by the Justice Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s office.”

Marie: Chris Cameron, et al., of the New York Times name five takeaways from Todd Blanche's interview of Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted sex criminal and one-time friend of Donald Trump, who wishes her well. Blanche, despite his job as No. 2 at DOJ, remains Trump's attorney, as he attested during his confirmation hearing. Here's my favorite of the five takeaways: 

“At several crucial moments in the expansive interview, Mr. Blanche peppered Ms. Maxwell with questions about some of Mr. Epstein’s associates, while dropping other lines of questioning when the conversation appeared to be politically inconvenient. Mr. Blanche, for example, asked many more questions about Mr. Epstein’s relationship with former President Bill Clinton than he did about Mr. Epstein’s relationship with Mr. Trump. In the end, Ms. Maxwell denied that either had engaged in sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior, and said neither had visited Mr. Epstein’s private islands.... 

“'Some [associates of Epstein] are in your cabinet, who you value as your co-workers,' Ms. Maxwell said. ... At another point she said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, once joined Mr. Epstein on a trip to hunt for dinosaur bones in the Dakotas.... Mr. Blanche immediately moved on, and the claim that other associates of Mr. Epstein work in the Trump administration was never brought up again.” MB: Not exactly a search for the truth.

Even the righty-right-wing editors of the Wall Street Journal are disgusted with Trump: ~~~ 

~~~ Wall Street Journal Editors: “...  it is increasingly clear that vengeance is a large part, maybe the largest part, of how [Donald Trump] will define success in his second term. His revenge campaign took an ominous turn Friday as FBI agents raided the home and office of Mr. Trump’s first-term national security adviser John Bolton.... It’s hard to see the raid as anything other than vindictive.... The presidential id is now unchained. Mr. Trump made clear that he was out for blood against Mr. Bolton when he pulled the former adviser’s protective detail after his re-election.... This is the kind of gratuitous viciousness that has increasingly defined Mr. Trump’s return to office.... The real offender here is [not Mr. Bolton but] a President who seems to think he can use the powers of his office to run vendettas. We said this was one of the risks of a second Trump term, and it’s turning out to be worse than we imagined.” The link appears to be a gift link.

Yahoo! Business has republished a Fortune story by Marco Quiroz-Guitierrez about Donald Trump's post-inaugural bond-buying spree. Akhilleus linked the original Fortune article a couple of days ago. 

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Your Friday Afternoon Data Dump 

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime confidante of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, told a top administration official she never saw ... [Donald] Trump engage in improper or illegal acts during his long friendship with Mr. Epstein, according to interview transcripts released late Friday. The transcripts and audio, covering two days of discussions between Ms. Maxwell and Todd Blanche, a former Trump defense lawyer tapped to the No. 2 post at the Justice Department, are likely to raise as many questions as they answer.... Ms. Maxwell, who is seeking a pardon or reduction of her long prison sentence for sex trafficking, downplayed the president’s relationship with Mr. Epstein, a serial predator, and went out of her way to praise him.” The story has been substantially updated, with four additional reporters added to the byline. Like this: “She described Mr. Trump as 'a gentleman in all respects.'” Right. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update 2. I have switched the link above to what appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Politico's report is here. The AP's story is here. AND here are transcripts and audio recordings, via the DOJ. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I listened to some of the tapes MSNBC played on-air. Maxwell doesn't absolve only Trump; she also absolves herself, and -- most importantly -- Epstein himself. She said the women she observed with Epstein were all happy to be with him -- Blanche coached her to use the term "consensual sex." If you believe she was truthful about Epstein's innocence, then and only then does it follow that she was truthful about Trump's innocence. This entire exercise was such a farce it's clear that everyone involved -- Trump, Bondi, Blanche, Maxwell -- has bathed him-/herself in filth. ~~~

~~~ Michael Gold of the New York Times: “The Justice Department on Friday began providing Congress with thousands of pages of documents from its investigation into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, responding to a subpoena from the House’s principal investigative committee. The batch of material missed a Tuesday deadline set by the panel for the Justice Department to produce all of its files related to Mr. Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence, and did not include all of the investigative material.... It was not known what was in the files provided to the panel, which have not been publicly released.” Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Natalie Allison & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: “Days before his former national security adviser’s home and office were raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday..., Donald Trump had trained his sights on his onetime aide, publicly rebuking John Bolton for criticizing his policy toward Russia.... 'Putin has already won,' Bolton told The Atlantic in a story that published Aug. 12, ahead of Trump’s meeting with the Russian president in Alaska. 'He is the leader of a rogue state, and he’ll get a picture on U.S. soil with the president of the United States.' 'Very unfair media is at work on my meeting with Putin,' Trump posted the morning after the Atlantic story published. 'Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton....' That same day in the White House, a senior White House official blasted the piece, dismissing it as a story that had been sourced to anonymous European officials.... Four days later, in a Sunday night Truth Social post, Trump again pointed a finger at Bolton....

“While Trump said Friday he had not been aware of the FBI’s investigation into Bolton, [JD ]Vance in [an] NBC interview, taped a few hours after the raids began..., [said,] 'We’re in the very early stages of an ongoing investigation into John Bolton,' ... adding that 'classified documents are certainly part of it.' An administration official with knowledge of the situation, not authorized to discuss it publicly, said Vance had not been briefed before the FBI search.” MB: Several pundits noted that JayDee used repeatedly used "we" and "our" when describing who carried out the raids of Bolton's home & office.

Washington Post Editors: “Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, Trump made clear that he sees the raid [on John Bolton's home] as fair-game payback for the legal travails he endured during his years out of power. The president complained that FBI agents went through his son’s bedroom and his wife’s drawers when they searched Mar-a-Lago in 2022.... While wearing a hat proclaiming 'TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING,' ... Trump [said] that he did not have advance knowledge of the search, although it would have been fine if he had because he is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.... Trump’s promises of retribution and revenge make the government’s motives suspect. So does FBI Director Kash Patel putting Bolton on a list of members of the 'deep state' in his 2023 book 'Government Gangsters.'... The pursuit of ... Bolton underscores the danger of putting partisan hacks in top law enforcement jobs.... Trump hardly has the moral high ground in any discussion about the handling of classified material, but accusing others of what he himself has been accused of has long been part of his M.O.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unfortunately, the board had to muck up its editorial with a "both-sides" finale. But Jeff Bezos is the controlling "editor" at the WashPo, so maybe the both-sides coda was a prerequisite to publication. ~~~

~~~ Joseph Gedeon of the Guardian: “Friday’s FBI search of the former national security adviser John Bolton’s home and office, reportedly to find classified documents, marks the fifth investigation targeting people from Patel’s book.... Bolton’s investigation, like those into the other four on Patel’s list, is unprecedented in how it is calculated to target a critic.... Trump’s reaction to the Bolton investigation undermines claims of prosecutorial independence. Asked about the raids, the president claimed ignorance while launching familiar attacks: Bolton was 'sort of a lowlife' and 'could be a very unpatriotic guy – we’re going to find out', he told reporters on Friday.”

Friday's Epstein Diversionary Exercises 

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “When federal agents armed with a search warrant showed up at John R. Bolton’s home outside Washington at dawn on Friday, it was a display of one of the government’s most intimidating powers, in this case deployed against a fierce and high-profile critic of ... [Donald] Trump. It is not yet clear what evidence the Justice Department cited in convincing a federal judge to sign off on the search warrant, or what culpability Mr. Bolton might have in an on-and-off investigation into whether he mishandled classified information dating back to when he served as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser during the president’s first term. But the episode illustrated how Mr. Trump’s campaign of retribution has undercut the principle that law enforcement should keep a substantial distance from politics, stoking questions about whether even legitimate investigations are colored by the president’s insistence on putting his perceived enemies through the same treatment he faced as a target of multiple inquiries.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: Speculation on the teevee is that the FBI raid of Bolton's property was to distract attention from the fact that DOJ has said it would release part of the Epstein files to the House Oversight Committee. Among the speculators: Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D). ~~~

~~~ Peter Alexander, et al., of NBC News: “The FBI raided former national security adviser John Bolton's home in Bethesda, Maryland, on Friday as part of a “national security investigation in search of classified records,” a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.... In a post on X early Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote, 'NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.' Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino also appeared to refer to the raid in posts on X. 'America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always,; Bondi wrote early Friday. 'Public corruption will not be tolerated,' Bongino wrote.... The probe was looking into the handling of classified materials and potential instances of such documents being used in leaks to news media, [a] source said. The search was related to an investigation that began during the Biden administration that did not go further at that time, the source added.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Devlin Barrett & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “A representative for the [F.B.I.] said agents were 'conducting court-authorized activity in the area' after agents wearing F.B.I. jackets were seen entering Mr. Bolton’s house in the Maryland suburbs early Friday with empty document boxes. Other bureau officials were observed leaving his office in downtown Washington. The sight of federal agents entering the home of a prominent Trump critic raises fresh concerns about the degree to which Mr. Trump is deploying government agencies, and the machinery of criminal justice, to pursue perceived enemies....  [Because the searches occurred in two separate federal district, a different magistrate judge would have had to sign off on each search.] The evidence used to justify Friday’s searches may remain under seal for some time, unless a judge decides otherwise. 

“The investigation into Mr. Bolton seeks to determine whether he illegally shared or possessed classified information, according to people familiar with the case.... The information that provided the basis for the warrant to search Mr. Bolton’s home was based on intelligence collected overseas by the C.I.A., according to people briefed on the matter. John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, provided limited access to the intelligence to Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director. The intelligence involved the possible mishandling of classified material by Mr. Bolton, the people said.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times liveblogged developments. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Last of the Bulwark has a tick-tock of the hoohah surrounding Bolton's possible misuse of classified information. It was not, as Alexander's story seems to imply, the result of a Biden-era investigation. Rather, the dispute began when the first Trump administration delayed vetting a book Bolton had written about his time as national security advisor to Trump. Bolton claimed he received oral permission to publish, so the publisher went to print & sent advance copies to the press. This prompted the Trump administration to try to obtain an injunction to prevent release, to bring a civil suit & to initiate a criminal inquiry. Trump tried to seize Bolton's profits from the book. "In June 2021 [i.e., during Biden's administration], the Department of Justice, under new leadership, dropped its investigation and ended its attempt to hijack the proceeds from book sales." Thanks to akaWendy for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Luke Broadwater & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Friday that he planned to target Chicago and New York for his next federal crackdown on crime, suggesting he was willing to use active-duty troops on city streets. At an event in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump credited his federal takeover of Washington’s police force and the deployment of the National Guard for cleaning up the city.... 'We haven’t had to bring in the regular military, which we’re willing to do if we have to,' Mr. Trump said.  'After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe.' Mr. Trump then called Chicago 'a mess' and said that 'we’ll straighten that one out.'” More on Trump's D.C. takeover linked below.

How Very Communisty! Tripp Mickle, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Friday that Intel, the troubled Silicon Valley chipmaker, had agreed to sell the U.S. government a 10 percent stake in its business, worth $8.9 billion, in one of the largest government interventions in a U.S. company since the rescue of the auto industry after the 2008 financial crisis. At a news conference, Mr. Trump said the agreement had come out of negotiations last week with Lip-Bu Tan, Intel’s chief executive.... Intel said the United States would invest $8.9 billion in its stock, on top of $2.2 billion that the government has paid the company under the CHIPS and Science Act, a federal program signed into law in 2022 that delivered billions in grants to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. The government will not take a board seat or have other governance rights at Intel.” 

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Friday that he was nominating his head of presidential personnel appointments, Sergio Gor, to be the U.S. ambassador to India. Mr. Gor previously helped create a publishing venture that paid millions of dollars to Mr. Trump to produce his books when he was out of office, and he ran a super PAC supporting the president in 2024.... His nomination to the ambassadorship comes as a sudden rift has developed between the United States and India amid Mr. Trump’s threats of punishing tariffs, rocking a friendship between the world’s two largest democracies that had seemed to be flourishing just months ago.” Politico's report is here.

Tony Romm & Colby Smith of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Friday that he would fire Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board, if she did not resign her post, as he looked to leverage new allegations around her past mortgage applications in a bid to remake the top ranks of the nation’s central bank. Mr. Trump issued his latest threat, which would most likely face severe legal obstacles, two days after Bill Pulte, the federal housing director, accused Ms. Cook of falsifying records to obtain favorable loan terms. Mr. Pulte referred the matter to the Justice Department, a representative of which said the case 'requires further examination.'” (Also linked yesterday.) A CNBC report is here. ~~~

~~~ Gina Heeb & Brian Schwartz of the Wall Street Journal: “The Trump administration has a new weapon at its disposal in its efforts to take down Democrats and their appointees: mortgage records. Members of the administration have now alleged three public officials have committed mortgage fraud, referring each to the Justice Department. The administration has signaled that it has just gotten started: U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin was recently tapped 'to investigate fraud by public officials in mortgages,' according to a letter Martin sent. The targets have denied wrongdoing, but the probes represent an aggressive new spin on opposition research that has long dug into tax records and financial disclosures public officeholders have to make. Mortgage applications go beyond the typical disclosure requirements. Another twist is the allegations are coming from a government official overseeing an agency able to access massive amounts of mortgage data. At the forefront of the campaign is Bill Pulte, a homebuilder heir Trump tapped to lead the government agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest players in the mortgage market.” MB: The link sure looks like a gift link, and I was a giftee.

Nobody Is Safe. Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts fired its director of dance programming on Thursday, in another attempt to reshape the institution since ... [Donald] Trump took control of it this year. The director, Jane Raleigh, and the two other full-time dance programmers in her department were dismissed amid tensions with the center’s leadership, they said in interviews.... The firings followed a meeting last week between the three-member dance programming team and Richard Grenell, the Kennedy Center’s president.... As an example of the type of programming he was thinking about, [during the meeting,] Mr. Grenell cited 'So You Think You Can Dance,' the TV dance competition show on Fox.... Ms. Raleigh said she felt that she had understood the direction Mr. Grenell wished to take and was working on further proposals when, a week later, she and the other two employees were called into a meeting and fired. They were later escorted out of the building by security.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: “Russia’s top diplomat said in an interview released on Friday that 'there is no meeting planned' between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. It was the Kremlin’s most direct declaration yet that a summit the White House had said was imminent was nowhere close to materializing. 'Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda would be ready for a summit,' Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia said in comments on 'Meet the Press With Kristen Welker' that were released by NBC News. 'And this agenda is not ready at all,' Mr. Lavrov said.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So this is Russia's top diplomat explaining to U.S. President* Know Nothing and his Team of Novices how international diplomacy works. Sure, a world leader will show up for an impromptu meeting if he has a lot to gain (see Alaska), but he won't participate in a "peace" summit if diplomatic staff have not already negotiated the outcome. Sad! See also Broadwater & Barnes' NYT article, linked yesterday.

Marie: Oops! I meant to link this earlier this week, and I forgot. RAS has reminded me. Clearly I needed the reminder because, as Paul Campos writes, the "biggest financial corruption scandal in presidential history does not generate much news coverage." See also Campos' explanations as to why what should be a "big corruption scandal" got so little attention. I would add this to Campos' list: "Trump pulls so many other outrageous stunts on any given day that it's almost impossible not to miss one or two." So here we are, better late than never ~~~

     ~~~ Steve Kopack of NBC News: "... Donald Trump has purchased at least $103 million worth of corporate and municipal bonds since he took office in January, according to new filings from the Office of Government Ethics. The documents, released late Tuesday, show that Trump began the bond-buying spree one day after he was sworn in on Jan. 20 and that it includes debt sold by companies, local governments and entities that could be directly affected by his sweeping agenda. All told, Trump made about 690 purchases from Jan. 21 through Aug. 1. The active trading by a president of the United States is unprecedented, and it puts Trump in a direct position to benefit — or lose out — if any of the entities that own the bonds he has purchased succeed or fail. It’s also another example of Trump’s pursuing business endeavors and transactions to increase his wealth in office."  (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: See also Akhilleus' commentary yesterday on the same. It does appear that Trump's increasingly aggressive demands that the Federal Reserve cut interest rates is not so much about his desire to boost the economy for all Americans but to significantly goose the value of his own portfolio -- because when interest rates fall, bond values rise. We might call this "a very special kind of insider trading." When the president* does it, it's not illegal. Just ask Nixon. And Trump. And John Roberts.

Warren Strobel & Noah Robertson of the Washington Post: “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the latest senior military or intelligence officer to lose his position in a wider purge of national security agencies’ top ranks.... The firing follows a preliminary assessment from the DIA — the Pentagon’s main intelligence wing — of the military strikes on Iran’s three main nuclear sites in June, which prompted vicious backlash from the Trump administration after it was first reported by CNN and the New York Times. That preliminary report assessed that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been set back only a matter of months, in contrast to Hegseth’s and ... Donald Trump’s statements that the capabilities had been 'obliterated.'” (Also linked yesterday.) The AP's report is here. 

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “National Guard members participating in the military deployment that ... Donald Trump has ordered in Washington, D.C., will 'soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons,' the Pentagon said in a statement Friday, following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s formal authorization allowing troops to carry firearms in the nation’s capital. The authorization applies to members of Joint Task Force-D.C., the military mission that includes both members of the D.C. National Guard and six states that are involved in the deployment, the Pentagon said in a statement.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

DHS Routinely Violates Public Records Law. Minho Kim of the New York Times: “The Department of Homeland Security rebuffed a request for public records related to the National Guard deployment in Los Angeles this summer, saying that the agency had not maintained text message data among top officials since early April, according to its communications with a nonprofit watchdog group.... Under the Federal Records Act, government agencies are required to preserve all documentation that officials and federal workers produce while executing their duties, and they have to make federal records available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act unless they fall under certain exemptions. The responses from the department indicate that officials there are failing to preserve internal communications, which would violate federal law, said Chioma Chukwu ... of American Oversight.”

Laura Romero of ABC News: "Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported in March before being brought back to the U.S., has been released from criminal custody in Tennessee and is on his way to Maryland, an attorney for Abrego Garcia told ABC News. The Salvadoran native has been in criminal custody since the federal government brought him back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges. Once he is is released, immigration authorities will not be allowed to detain Abrego Garcia due to a ruling from a federal judge who last month ordered the government to return him to Maryland and blocked the administration from deporting him upon his release in Tennessee." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Maria Sacchetti & Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “However, soon after his release, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement notified Abrego that he could be deported to Uganda as soon as next week.... A federal judge in Maryland previously ordered immigration officers to give Abrego 72 hours’ notice of his potential removal to a third country, a time frame that excludes weekends. His lawyers are expected to challenge the possible removal.... Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem lashed out at 'activist liberal judges' in a statement on social media and called Abrego a  'monster.'”

Sudhin Thanawala of the AP: “A judge ruled late Friday the Trump administration cannot deny funding to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and 30 other cities and counties because of policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration efforts. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco extended a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from cutting off or conditioning the use of federal funds for so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions. His earlier order protected more than a dozen other cities and counties, including San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.... Orrick also blocked the administration from imposing immigration-related conditions on two particular grant programs.”

Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: “Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida vowed on Friday to defend an immigration detention center in the Everglades despite a federal judge’s order that it be shut down....'We had a judge try to upset the apple cart with respect to our deportation and detention processing center down in South Florida,' Mr. DeSantis said at an event in Panama City, Fla. He said the outcome was  'preordained' by Judge Kathleen M. Williams of the Federal District Court in Miami, whom he called 'an activist judge that is trying to do policy from the bench.'”

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is refusing to defend a lawsuit challenging a federal program that provides $350 million in grant funding to colleges with large populations of Hispanic students, a move that threatens the future of similar programs to help minority students. The decision, confirmed by the Education Department, stems from a lawsuit brought against the agency by the state of Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions to end the Hispanic-Serving Institutions program, which provides federal grants to colleges and universities where more than 25 percent of the student body is Hispanic. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in June, claims the program is discriminatory and unconstitutional.... Late last month the Justice Department informed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) that it would not defend the case.”

Lisa Friedman, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Friday ordered that all construction stop on Revolution Wind, a $4 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that is already mostly built. The 65-turbine project had obtained all necessary permits from the Biden administration, and nearly 70 percent of the turbines have been installed. The developers behind the project had said it was on track to produce enough electricity for more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut by next spring. Matthew Giacona, the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, issued a letter on Friday to Orsted, the Danish company building the wind farm, ordering it to 'halt all ongoing activities' because of unspecified issues.... In a statement, Orsted said that it was 'evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously,' including 'potential legal proceedings.'... Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, said the state was 'evaluating all legal options to protect Connecticut’s interests.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll bet if Denmark would hand over Greenland to Trump, even this dreaded wind-power project would get a green light.  

Ry Rivard of Politico: “Legal turmoil is accelerating in New Jersey’s federal court after a judge this week rejected ... Donald Trump’s use of a loophole to keep Alina Habba in charge of the federal prosecutor’s office. Shortly after U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann ruled Thursday that Habba was acting illegally as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, another judge delayed the sentencing of a CEO convicted of scheming to mislead investors during the pandemic. The new sentencing delay, ordered by U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, appears to be the first instance of fallout from the Habba ruling, which declared that Habba must be disqualified from participating in any of the office’s cases as its leader.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Elsewhere in New Jersey. Tracey Tully of the New York Times: “During his trial on federal corruption charges, Robert Menendez, the former senator from New Jersey, tried unsuccessfully to blame much of his trouble on his wife, Nadine. But as she seeks to avoid a lengthy prison sentence of her own, Ms. Menendez and her lawyers are now taking a swipe at her husband and his defense strategy as she presents herself as a gullible wife scarred from a series of abusive relationships. Ms. Menendez, 58, was a 'convenient scapegoat' for her husband and the men convicted of bribing him, her lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo filed on Friday.... In a letter of support for his wife, written from a Pennsylvania penitentiary where he is serving an 11-year term, Mr. Menendez expressed regret for permitting his lawyers to depict his wife as desperate, broke and on the take.”

Colby Smith of the New York Times: “Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, on Friday used a closely watched speech to send his strongest signal yet that the central bank is preparing to soon restart interest rate cuts, highlighting the labor market’s vulnerabilities even as inflation accelerates. Mr. Powell held back from explicitly endorsing a reduction in borrowing costs at the Fed’s next meeting in September. But his emphasis on the prospects of a weakening economic backdrop made clear that a cut is likely next month.” (Also linked yesterday.)  

David Goodman of the New York Times: “The Texas Legislature gave final approval on Saturday to an aggressively redrawn congressional map that kicked off a redistricting race between the parties that is likely to affect the fight for Congress long before any ballots are cast in the 2026 midterm elections. Gov. Greg Abbott has said he would sign the map into law once it reaches his desk.The State Senate passed the map in a party-line vote just days after it was approved by the Texas House on Wednesday. The new lines on Texas’ congressional districts were drawn to deliver Republicans up to five U.S. House seats and help preserve the party’s thin majority.”

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California. Angie Hernandez & Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: “Lyle Menendez was denied parole Friday.... Menendez was denied parole for three years after an 11-hour hearing in California that focused on his use of contraband cellphones during his time in prison, and on acts of dishonesty after the murders, such as asking witnesses to lie for him, according to the Los Angeles Times, the only outlet allowed to witness the proceeding. He was also questioned by the parole board about the murders and the brothers’ claim that they were repeatedly abused in the home, the L.A. Times reported.... His younger brother, Erik Menendez..., was also denied parole after a 10-hour hearing Thursday.”