November 14, 2025

Say, guess what you churn up when you demolish a large building constructed in the U.S. in the 1940s and you don't get building permits? C'mon, guess. ~~~

~~~   Dr. Mark Abdelmalek, et al., of ABC News (Oct. 30): "Days after the abrupt demolition of the East Wing of the White House, critics are questioning whether the Trump administration and contractors involved in razing the historic structure adhered to federal health and safety standards, including those governing the handling of hazardous materials like asbestos, a dangerous and potentially deadly substance widely used during the period of the East Wing's original construction. On Thursday, Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., penned a letter to executives at the firm responsible for the demolition seeking evidence that the company complied with regulations dictating the safe removal of asbestos and lead -- or if, instead, they 'cut corners' and 'gambled with people's health.'... 'Federal law requires comprehensive asbestos inspection, notification, and abatement before any demolition,' wrote the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) last week. 'No publicly available information demonstrates that these statutory obligations have been fulfilled.' A White House official ... said that 'any hazardous material abatement was done in September," prior to the demolition earlier this month.'" Because no White House, unnamed or named, would lie about adhering to environmental laws. ~~~

     ~~~ Terri Oppenheimer of Mesothelioma.net: "Concerns about the White House work and increased mesothelioma risk have been raised by Senate leaders as well as the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, a highly respected advocacy group that warns that anyone who inadvertently breathes in airborne asbestos fibers launched by construction work could face heightened risk of lung diseases and cancer. Despite long-standing regulations, images [at the White House demolition site] have shown clouds of dust and workers with no personal protective equipment. Of equal concern was the presence of tourists and crowds gathered nearby to watch the work..., , as well as residents living near the park where the project’s dirt was taken. Though the White House has claimed that abatement work was performed, no supporting information has been released, and The Washington Post reported that the company doing the work, ACECO, is not licensed to abate asbestos in Washington, D.C."

Giddy-yap! High Plains Grifters. Justin Elliott, et al., of ProPublica: “On Oct. 2..., Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived at Mount Rushmore to shoot a television ad. Sitting on horseback in chaps and a cowboy hat, Noem addressed the camera with a stern message for immigrants: 'Break our laws, we’ll punish you.' Noem has hailed the more than $200 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign as a crucial tool to stem illegal immigration. Her agency invoked the 'national emergency' at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process.... A Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides at DHS [is] running the Mount Rushmore shoot[, C]alled the Strategy Group, [its name] does not appear on public documents about the contract. The main recipient listed on the contracts is a mysterious Delaware company, which was created days before the deal was finalized. No firm has closer ties to Noem’s political operation than the Strategy Group. It played a central role in her 2022 South Dakota gubernatorial campaign. Corey Lewandowski, her top adviser at DHS, has worked extensively with the firm. And the company’s CEO is married to Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So the full message “Break our laws, we’ll punish you” should include the caveat, “But when we break out laws, we don't punish ourselves.” 

Kate Brumback of the AP: “A longtime prosecutor announced he will take over the Georgia election interference case against ... Donald Trump and others, after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was removed from the case and no one else wanted the job. The nonpartisan Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia was tasked with replacing Willis after she was disqualified over an 'appearance of impropriety' created by a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she’d chosen to lead the case. The organization’s executive director, Pete Skandalakis, said Friday that he would take the case on himself. 'Several prosecutors were contacted and, while all were respectful and professional, each declined the appointment,' Skandalakis said in an emailed statement. Legal action against Trump is unlikely while he is president. However, 14 other defendants still face charges, among them former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani as well as former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Trump earlier this week announced pardons for people accused of backing his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election — including those charged in Georgia — but Skandalakis has said that has no bearing on these state charges.”

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Marie: There seems to be a big Internet outage this morning as some major sites/apps like WhatsApp, Reddit & Comcast are down. Update: Things seem to be back up & running -- at least the "things" I need. I'll do a little more later this morning.

Since When Is “Because I Said So” a Legal Justification for Murder? Since Trump. Charlie Savage & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: “A secret Justice Department memo blessing ... [Donald] Trump’s boat strikes as lawful hangs on the idea that the United States and its allies are legally in a state of armed conflict with drug cartels, a premise that derives heavily from assertions that the White House itself has put forward, according to people who have read it. The memo from the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which is said to be more than 40 pages long, signed off on a military campaign that has now killed 80 people in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. It said such extrajudicial killings of people suspected of running drugs were lawful as a matter of Mr. Trump’s wartime powers. In reaching that conclusion, the memo contradicts a broad range of critics, who have rejected the idea that there is any armed conflict and have accused Mr. Trump of illegally ordering the military to commit murders.... The accounts of the memo offer a window into how executive branch lawyers signed off on Mr. Trump’s desired course of action, including appearing to have accepted at face value the White House’s version of reality.” ~~~

~~~ Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “The U.S. military on Wednesday killed another four people accused by the Trump administration of trafficking narcotics by sea, Pentagon officials said, in a strike that brings the known death toll in the administration’s lethal campaign to 80 since early September. The officials said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was waiting for video of the strike — the 20th known strike since ... [Donald] Trump authorized military action against drug cartels — before announcing it on social media. Mr. Hegseth later wrote on social media that the campaign would be called 'Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR,' though he did not confirm the latest strike.... There were no survivors, a Defense Department official said on condition of anonymity because the attack had not yet been announced.”

Michael Gold of the New York Times: “A House investigation [into the Epstein scandal] that the G.O.P. has tried to use to deflect calls for more transparency [and to direct attention away from Donald Trump] has yielded striking revelations that have only fueled the Epstein saga.... Republicans are still toiling to balance their constituents’ calls for more transparency and their loyalty to Mr. Trump, who has made it clear he wants the Epstein talk to disappear.”

Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “Former swimsuit model Stacey Williams, who dated the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 1993, told CNN on Thursday that she was once 'delivered' by Epstein to ... Donald Trump’s office at the time 'to be groped by him.' Reacting on CNN’s Erin Burnett Outfront to one of Epstein’s newly-released emails, in which he boasted that he 'gave' Trump one of his 'girlfriends,' Williams said, 'It screams about, you know, the mindset of these men. You know, the same two men who did what they did to me when Jeffrey Epstein walked me into Donald Trump’s office to be groped by him. Clearly we are these objects, these trophies, and it’s deeply misogynistic. It’s horrifying.'” Read on. Includes video.

“Best Friends Forever” Are Ba-a-a-ck. Joe Heim of the Washington Post: “The mystery artists responsible for several statues and installations mocking ... Donald Trump that have appeared on the National Mall over the past year have found a new location to display their work. On Thursday morning, they installed their 10-foot-tall statue of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein — holding hands and each with a foot raised behind themselves — in front of the Busboys and Poets restaurant at 14th and V streets NW.... Andy Shallal, the founder and CEO of Busboys and Poets and a longtime liberal activist in Washington, [said the restaurant would host the statue for a few days]....”

Jesse Bedayn of the AP: “By the time Jeffery Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, he had established an enormous network of wealthy and influential friends. Emails made public this week show the crime did little to diminish the desire of that network to stay connected to the billionaire financier. Thousands of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday offer a new glimpse into what Epstein’s relationships with business executives, reporters, academics and political players looked like over a decade.... The emails do not implicate [Epstein's] contacts in [his] alleged crimes. They instead paint a picture of Epstein’s influence and connections over the years he was a registered sex offender.” ~~~

~~~ BUT. Charlie Warzel of the Atlantic: The House Oversight Committee's docu-dump of Epstein correspondence forms “a skeleton key for understanding the dynamics of Donald Trump’s America, one in which the wealthy and powerful appear not as master operators but as bumbling sycophants, eager to cozy up to influence no matter how villainous or depraved.... His interlocutors ask for favors, seeking insight or dirt on Trump, or advice.... . The messages certainly suggest that Epstein and Trump had a longer and closer relationship than the president previously said, and they imply that Trump had, at minimum, firsthand knowledge of Epstein’s depravity.... It’s hard not to see these emails as something like a final nail in the coffin when it comes to a broader distrust and contempt for the ruling class of lawmakers, gatekeepers, and the ultra-wealthy. [The emails]shatter the myth of genius and merit that the ruling class tries carefully and spends exorbitantly to cultivate, and they affirm the worst suspicions of the conspiracy-minded.”

Marie: Yesterday, readers complained about all the attention to the Epstein affair. I'm sympathetic to that. As a criminal matter, the victims of the Epstein sex ring should receive monetary compensation for the crimes against them, and the perps should not only pay with fines but also with jail time. Parts of the story, IMO, that are front-page news should be so only where the perps themselves are household names, like the fellow formerly known as Prince Andrew. The larger implications of the story, however, are a morality play on where we are as a society: one that continues to define crimes as acts committed by people who are not rich, White & (usually) male. The fact that the most famous elderly White man in the U.S. was involved with this particular gang of criminals therefore puts the Epstein story on the front page, and certainly evidence of Donald Trump's participation -- participation he has repeatedly denied* -- makes these revelations big news. Not only that, the POTUS* and the entire top tier of his Department of Justice -- his attorney general, his associate attorney general and his FBI director -- are all involved in lying about the evidence, covering it up and even denying it exists. These are the people we have entrusted to carry out the laws of the nation, and instead they are aggressively subverting the course of justice. Because they are such important government officials, their acts and statements undermining the law are necessarily front-page news. 

Another reason the Epstein scandal is worth covering is that it just might remove some scales from the eyelids of a few in the MAGA crowd. This isn't just Pizzagate for liberals; it's a real Pizzagate that could get through to some of the original Pizzagate believers. That is to say, the story could put a few foolish MAGA/QANON voters in touch with reality. 

*Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out last night that Trump's denials of knowledge of Epstein's criminal enterprise are implausible. Trump and Epstein associated with each other for 15 years; it took Howard Lutnick -- not known to be a particularly bright man -- and his wife only about five minutes to figure out that the massage table in Epstein living room meant they never wanted to have anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump had a duty to report Epstein and others who were abusing young girls. He did not. Trump of course was one among many who failed to end Epstein's crimes. A number who failed or refused were law enforcement officials. 

Andrew Egger of the Bulwark: "Ordinarily, a person who responds to serious accusations by telling colossal, ridiculous lies, trying frantically to change the subject, demanding an end to all inquiries, and trying to obstruct all investigation into the matter is all but telling you that those accusations are true. But ... Trump ... does that sort of thing all the time.... But ... my resolve in this department is starting to crack. Because as astonishing revelations about Trump’s relationship with Epstein keep piling up, a few simple facts keep getting clearer. Trump has never given and still cannot give a satisfactory account of his friendship with the late sexual predator, about which he continues to tell the most brazen lies. His behavior toward the investigation ... has grown steadily more frantic.... And we shouldn’t lose sight of one more thing: Trump, at least, seems very much to believe there are still more damaging revelations to come. He wouldn’t have cranked up the pressure on Boebert and company yesterday if he thought the stuff we’d already seen was the worst of it." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jill Filipovic on Substack: “The coverup effort is happening right out in the open. And [many] ... MAGA supporters ... decided to put the issue to bed the second it seemed Trump might be implicated.... This is an administration that has built its identity on white male power unfettered by 'political correctness' or basic decency, unimpeded by the law or old norms, and unchallenged by the women or racial minorities who were increasingly competing with white men for power.... This is a MAGA-cult problem for sure, and the clearest test yet of whether there are any limits to what Trump can do and still maintain the support of his base. But it’s also a problem of the conservative He-Man Woman-Hater ideology this administration has embraced. Trump is a notorious moral reprobate..., and using his current position to pardon violent criminals, do favors for 'friends' he expects to repay him many times over, and enrich himself and his family. It is no surprise that his leadership has made a party that once boasted about their superior morality and 'draining the swamp' into a pedophile protection racket.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Matt Gaetz, Junior Epstein. Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “Representative Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican..., was investigated by the Justice Department for child sex trafficking but never charged. Following the election last year, he was ... [Donald] Trump’s first choice to serve as attorney general. He subsequently resigned from Congress, and then withdrew from consideration as attorney general under a storm of scrutiny. A bipartisan House Ethics Committee investigation later determined there was substantial evidence that he had sex with [a] 17-year-old and the report included testimony from the girl about how she was paid by Mr. Gaetz for the sex. For all the public furor over Mr. Gaetz..., little attention has been given to the story of the girl.... Last month, in response to a request from the McClatchy newspaper chain, a federal judge in Florida unsealed court documents from a related civil case that shed some light on her background. The documents included a description of the girl that said that at the time she met Mr. Gaetz she was 'a then-homeless 17-year-old high schooler.'” The story goes on report on documents brought in various suits & investigations related to the cases against Gaetz & others. Gaetz describes himself as a victim of the homeless girl and says he never had sex with her.

They NEED Their Conspiracy Theories, Bongo. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “As the conflagration over the Epstein files rages within Republican ranks, another obsession of the far right threatens unity in the Trump coalition: the stalled investigation into the planting of pipe bombs outside party headquarters in Washington the night before Jan. 6, 2021. Administration officials — most notably the F.B.I. deputy director, Dan Bongino — have pushed back hard against a report from the The Blaze, a far-right news outlet founded by Glenn Beck, that named a law enforcement official as the suspect based on a computer analysis of the way the person walked. The crime remains unsolved.... The editors at The Blaze defended their reporting but hedged some of their claims. Even so, the account had the effect of dropping a match onto MAGA kindling, sparking renewed complaints about the lack of substantial progress in tracking down those responsible for planting the bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican committees, not far from the Capitol.” MB: Me? I just want to find out the sex/gender of the perp.

Mark Landler of the New York Times: “The BBC apologized to ... [Donald] Trump on Thursday for a misleadingly edited documentary about the attacks on the U.S. Capitol, but it refused to pay him any compensation. It was not clear whether this would forestall a $1 billion lawsuit that Mr. Trump’s lawyer threatened to file in a Florida court. The lawyer, Alejandro Brito, demanded an apology, a retraction of the film and damages that 'appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.' The BBC said it would not rebroadcast the documentary, 'Trump: A Second Chance?,' which originally aired in Britain in October 2024, on any of its platforms. But it added, 'We strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.'” Politico's story is here.

Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration is preparing broad exemptions to certain tariffs in an effort to ease elevated food prices that have provoked anxiety for American consumers.... The change would apply to certain reciprocal tariffs the president announced in April, including on products coming from countries that have not struck trade deals with the administration.... The exemptions are expected to include beef and citrus products, although [sources] cautioned that ... [Donald] Trump had not made a final decision.... If the proposal goes forward, it would be the latest rollback of one of the president’s key economic policies over growing concerns about affordability, even as Mr. Trump has insisted — wrongly — that prices are down.” ~~~

~~~ David Gilmour of Mediaite: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) scolded the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans for 'gaslighting' Americans over the cost-of-living crisis and warned them not to 'deny what is happening.' Greene, who has clashed with Trump on spending and foreign policy in recent weeks, rejected the idea repeated by ... Donald Trump that groceries are 'at the lowest prices they have ever been.'... Speaking on The Sean Spicer Show on Thursday, Greene told host Sean Spicer, a former press secretary for the Trump White House, that the message was 'infuriating' voters and could backfire. 'President Trump and his administration [do] deserve a lot of credit for lowering inflation and holding it steady, but that doesn’t bring prices down. And so gaslighting the people and trying to tell them that prices have come down is not helping,' she said.”

Alec Dent of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department on Thursday joined a lawsuit seeking to block California’s new congressional map, the latest chapter in a nationwide redistricting battle sparked by ... Donald Trump’s push for red states to add more Republican-leaning districts ahead of next year’s midterm elections.... '[Gov. Gavin] Newsom should be concerned about keeping Californians safe and shutting down Antifa violence, not rigging his state for political gain,' Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a post on X.” MB: Funny Bondi isn't suing Texas Republicans for rigging Texas' districts for political gain -- at Donald Trump's insistence. This overt use of the DOJ as a means to put the GOP at an unfair advantage is a corrupt misuse of government resources. California should counter-sue.

Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A federal judge expressed deep skepticism Thursday about whether a federal prosecutor handpicked by ... Donald Trump to bring criminal cases against his political rivals was legally appointed to the role. It’s unclear whether U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie’s open doubts about the appointment of Lindsey Halligan will sink the cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. But the Clinton-appointed judge’s ruling, which she said would come before Thanksgiving, could derail both.”

In Our Names. More Documentation of Trump/Rubio-Facilitated Torture. Robert Tait of the Guardian: “More than 252 Venezuelans expelled to El Salvador under Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy suffered systematic and prolonged torture and abuse, including sexual assault, during their detention, according to a report published on Wednesday. The report, compiled jointly by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Cristosal – a group investigating violations in Central America – says conditions at El Salvador’s sprawling 'terrorist continent center' (Cecot) breached the UN’s standard minimal rules for the treatment of prisoners. It cites 'inhumane prison conditions, including prolonged incommunicado detention, inadequate food' and other shortcomings. The groups accuse the Trump administration of willful complicity in the suffering deportees endured after being flown to El Salvador in March and April, insisting that it ordered the men’s deportation while fully aware that they would be mistreated or even face threats to their lives.”

In Our Names. More Documentation of Trump/Miller Fake Immigration Enforcement. Melissa Sanchez, et al., of ProPublica: “... Donald Trump’s administration released a slickly produced video of [a dramatic, dead-of-night late-September raid on a Chicago apartment building]. Officials said they had captured two 'confirmed' members of Tren de Aragua, including one on a terrorist watch list. Stephen Miller, the White House homeland security adviser and architect of the nationwide immigration crackdown, declared that the building was 'filled with TdA terrorists,' that the raid had 'saved God knows how many lives' and that it was 'one of the most successful law enforcement operations that we’ve seen in this country.' A ProPublica investigation, however, has found little evidence to support the government’s claims. ProPublica has discovered the names of 21 of the detained Venezuelan men and women and interviewed 12 of them. We also spoke with dozens of their relatives, friends and neighbors. And we reviewed U.S. public records databases and court websites, examined court documents and social media accounts, obtained audio and video recordings made that night, and attended immigration court hearings. Federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against anyone who was arrested. Nor have they revealed any evidence showing that two immigrants arrested in the building belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, or even provided their names. ProPublica was nonetheless able to identify one of them, Ludwing Jeanpier Parra Pérez, from a press release that did not connect him to the raid. Parra denied that he is a member.”

Isabela Dias of Mother Jones: “When President Barack Obama established DACA more than 13 years ago, he explained that protecting undocumented youth was simply 'the right thing to do.'... That commitment enjoyed public support, even if the administration conceived of DACA as a stopgap — a temporary fix until Congress could help Dreamers, as the young people who came to the country as children are often called, get a path to permanent legal status.... Hundreds of thousands of Dreamers ... took the administration at its word.... But Congress never acted, and then Donald Trump won the presidency twice on a platform that demonized immigrants.... [Now,] many [Dreamers] have been arrested, detained, and put in removal proceedings, despite having protection from deportation under the [DACA] policy.... For immigrant rights advocates, the arrests and detention of immigrants with valid DACA protection is proof that the administration is trying to create something of a loophole: undermining the program’s core protections piecemeal without formally — and publicly — terminating it through regulation.” ~~~

     ~~~  Marie: The impotence of Congress, as demonstrated here, is breathtaking. How can a group of legislators go for a decade-and-a-half without solving a huge but very simple problem when a popular solution is staring them in the face?  

Reiterating the Facts about SNAP Will Get You Fired. Mariana Alfaro & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: “The Agriculture Department is preparing to fire an employee in the division that handles food benefits after she publicly warned that the shutdown could have negative impacts on the millions of Americans who rely on the federal government to put food on the table.... The employee, Ellen Mei, a program specialist at the Food and Nutrition Service, was interviewed on MSNBC on Oct. 2, during the early days of the shutdown, to talk about how the impasse in Washington would impact her team, as well as the work it does. Mei is also president of the National Treasury Employees Union’s Chapter 255, which represents employees at USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service in the Northeast. While Mei’s co-workers went back to work Thursday as the government reopened, she was placed on administrative leave.... The agency accused Mei of discussing USDA programs and funding 'without prior approval.'...

“In the MSNBC interview, host Chris Jansing also explained that Mei was speaking as herself and a union leader, not as a USDA employee.... The threat of Mei’s dismissal has sparked concerns and outrage among other USDA workers and members of the Federal Unionists Network, who argue that the move is part of a concerted effort by the Trump administration to chill speech among federal employees. At the time Mei spoke to MSNBC, the information she shared was publicly available through a variety of news articles and guidance from anti-hunger advocates, think tanks and organizations.” ~~~

~~~ AND. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “A National Institutes of Health employee who has been publicly critical of the Trump administration’s health policies said she was placed on 'nondisciplinary' administrative leave when she returned to work on Thursday after the government reopened. The employee, Jenna Norton, said in a TikTok video that the move 'was designed to scare and silence me.' Dr. Norton was a key organizer of 'The Bethesda Declaration,' a scathing public letter issued in June to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the N.I.H. director. The letter, signed by dozens of N.I.H. employees, denounced what it described as the degradation of the American medical research apparatus under ... [Donald] Trump.” ~~~

~~~ But What About a Nazi Racist & (Alleged!) Sexual Harasser? More Power to Him! Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump has tapped Paul Ingrassia, the unsuccessful nominee to run the Office of Special Counsel, to become deputy general counsel of the General Services Administration, which oversees federal real estate. Ingrassia — who is currently the Department of Homeland Security liaison to the White House — withdrew his OSC nomination last month after several GOP senators said they could not support him following reports that he texted other Republicans racist slurs and said he had 'a Nazi streak.' He also was subject to a sexual harassment investigation in recent months, according to Politico.... Ingrassia could play a role in Trump’s efforts to redesign government buildings in neoclassical styles, which Ingrassia has also supported.” Politico's story, which broke the news of Ingrassia's new job, is here.

Another Fake Pulte Criminal Referral. Katherine Doyle of NBC News: "A top housing official in ... Donald Trump's administration has referred California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell to the Justice Department for a potential federal criminal probe, based on allegations of mortgage and tax fraud related to a Washington, D.C., home.... He is the fourth Democratic official to face mortgage fraud allegations in recent months. Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, alleged in a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday that Swalwell may have made false or misleading statements in loan documents. The matter has also been referred to the agency's acting inspector general, this person said.... The Wall Street Journal reported this week that multiple Fannie Mae watchdogs who were removed from their jobs had been investigating whether Pulte improperly obtained mortgage records of several other Democratic officials, including [New York State Attorney General Letitia] James, citing 'people familiar with the matter.'" 

     ~~~ John Yoon of the New York Times: “Mr. Swalwell denied the allegations in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday, saying that he had only one mortgage and a residence in California. He added that the Justice Department had not told him anything.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Pulte referred the case to the acting IG because Pulte fired the real one (whom he bypassed -- in violation of ethics rules -- when he made earlier referrals to DOJ). Strangely, Pulte has been unable to find any Republicans guilty of what he calls mortgage fraud -- even though ProPublica quickly found three members of Donald Trump's own Cabinet who had committed the same kind of "fraud" for which Pulte is referring Democrats on Trump's "enema list." It appears to me that the only criminal here is Pulte, who is using his government position for corrupt partisan purposes. 

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: “The Trump administration announced Thursday that oil and gas drilling would be allowed in a fragile expanse of tundra and wetlands in northern Alaska that is home to caribou, grizzly bears and thousands of migratory birds. The move reverses actions taken during the Biden administration to restrict development in half of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, 23 million acres of federal land in the North Slope. Despite having 'petroleum' in its name, the expanse is some of the last remaining pristine wilderness in the country and contains some of the most important wildlife habitat in the Arctic. The administration said in June that it planned to open the reserve to drilling and mining; Thursday’s announcement was the final step. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said it would 'unlock Alaska’s energy potential, create jobs for North Slope communities and strengthen American energy security.'”

Zack Colman of Politico: “Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) will arrive Friday at the COP30 climate summit — making him the sole U.S. federal representative at United Nations talks that the Trump administration is skipping. Whitehouse’s office said he will meet in the Amazonian port city of Belém, Brazil, with elected officials along with business and global climate leaders. It said his goal is to show that the U.S. public still broadly supports addressing climate change despite Trump abstaining from the negotiations.”

Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) was hospitalized in Pittsburgh following a fall near his home caused by a heart rhythm issue that made him feel lightheaded, his office said Thursday.” Politico's story is here.

Ry Rivard & Matt Friedman of Politico: “A federal judge on Thursday declined to toss federal assault charges against New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver. The first-term Democrat was charged with assaulting law enforcement officers following a chaotic scrum outside an immigration detention facility in May. McIver argued that the prosecution — led by Alina Habba, a former personal attorney to ... Donald Trump whom he picked to be the state’s top federal prosecutor — was unfair and that she was shielded from the charges by the Constitution’s 'speech or debate' clause, which grants members of Congress a form of immunity that is mostly impenetrable in investigations relating to the official duties of  lawmakers. U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, disagreed and refused to toss two of the three counts, while reserving judgment on a third until he sees more evidence. 'Defendant’s active participation in the alleged conduct removes her acts from the safe harbor of mere oversight,' he said. 'Lawfully or unlawfully, Defendant actively engaged in conduct unrelated to her oversight responsibilities and congressional duties.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “Law enforcement authorities on Thursday were seeking a man who brought a bat to the office of the acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, Alina Habba.... The man appeared outside the Newark office on Wednesday evening but was barred by security from entering with the bat, the people said. However, when the man returned without the bat, security officers allowed him to enter the building. He then went to the floor where Ms. Habba’s office is and began yelling incoherently and smashing property, the people said. It is unclear whether he made specific threats against Ms. Habba.”

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Washington State. Seattle Mayoral Election. Anna Griffin of the New York Times: “Katie Wilson, a community organizer and first-time candidate who pushed for higher taxes on the wealthy, will be Seattle’s next mayor, unseating the incumbent, Bruce Harrell, who conceded on Thursday following one of the tightest elections in the city’s history. Ms. Wilson’s election is a Pacific Coast victory for progressive Democrats that matches Zohran Mamdani’s rise in New York.... Ms. Wilson is a co-founder of the Transit Riders Union, an advocacy group behind a number of local measures to expand transit access, increase renter protections and add housing through new and higher taxes on the rich. She had never sought public office before this year, and was prompted to enter Seattle’s mayoral race only after the incumbent, Bruce Harrell, became the public face of an effort to block a new tax on high earners to pay for housing construction.”