View in Browser | Unsubscribe

Or continue below

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that “close associates” of Donald Trump expect the Justice Department’s Jack Smith–led investigation into his handling of classified documents to result in an indictment—which, for those of you keeping up at home, would make him the first president in US history to be indicted twice. (To be clear, he’s also the first president in US history to be indicted once.) And according to a new report, Trump’s own legal team is making the same prediction.

According to Rolling Stone, several attorneys representing Trump—as well as political advisers—have “bluntly informed him that they expect the Justice Department to charge him in the criminal investigation into his hoarding of highly classified documents following the end of his presidency,” according to two people familiar with the matter. While reportedly insisting to the former guy that they believe the probe is “bullshit,” these people have nevertheless apparently told him that “they would be surprised at this point if he wasn’t charged—particularly for alleged obstruction of justice—and have urged Trump to prepare for yet another historic fight.” As one of the sources put it to the outlet: “Looks like they’re going for it. People close to the [former] president have discussed with him what we think is going to happen soon, and how he and everyone else needs to be ready for it…it would be crazy not to.”

Not surprisingly, Trump, in at least one of theses chats, has reacted “angrily,” asking, “What about Joe Biden?” (Classified documents were found at several locations used by Biden, and shortly thereafter, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed another special counsel to investigate the matter. Documents were also found at former vice president Mike Pence’s home. An important point that appears to elude the ex-president: Neither the president nor Pence refused to comply with a government request to retrieve the documents.) In April, Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr said in an interview that the classified-documents probe was the one Trump should be “most concerned about.” In another interview earlier this month, he told CBS News: “He wouldn’t get in trouble, probably, just for taking them…. The problem is what did he do after the government asked for them back and subpoenaed them. And if there’s any games being played there, he’s going to be very exposed.” 

Speaking of what Trump did after the government asked for him to return the documents—which they began requesting in May 2021—here’s a new and interesting report from The Washington Post:

Two of Donald Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the former president’s Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena—timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter…. On the evening of June 2, the same day the two employees moved the boxes, a lawyer for Trump contacted the Justice Department and said officials there were welcome to visit Mar-a-Lago and pick up classified documents related to the subpoena. [Senior Justice Department lawyer Jay] Bratt and the FBI agents arrived the following day.

As part of that visit, Bratt and the agents were invited to visit the storage room where Trump aides said boxes of documents from his time as president were kept. Court papers filed by the Justice Department say the visitors were told by Trump’s lawyers that they could not open any of the boxes in the storage room or look at their contents. When FBI agents secured a court order to search Mar-a-Lago two months later, they found more than 100 additional classified documents, some in Trump’s office and some in the storage area.

According to the Post, Jack Smith’s team has also found evidence that before Trump was subpoenaed—but well after the government had started asking for the documents to be returned—he conducted a “dress rehearsal” for moving documents he didn’t want to give back. And, that he “at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others,” according to people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors also reportedly said in an August filing they had evidence that “obstructive conduct” took place in response to the May 2022 subpoena.

As has been the case with all of the various investigations into his conduct, Trump has denied all wrongdoing. In a statement, a spokesman told the Post: “This is nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump that is concocted to meddle in an election and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House.”

She says she’d definitely sign one as president, but expressed skepticism about the GOP having the votes.

The Supreme Court decides to make it easier to pollute wetlands

Which is very much in character for the Court’s conservative majority. Per The New York Times:

The Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to police millions of acres of wetlands, delivering another setback to the agency’s ability to combat pollution. Writing for five justices, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said that the Clean Water Act does not allow the agency to regulate discharges into wetlands near bodies of water unless they have “a continuous surface connection” to those waters.

The decision was a second major blow to the EPA’s authority and to the power of administrative agencies generally. Last year, the court limited the EPA’s power to address climate change under the Clean Air Act. Experts in environmental law said the decision would leave many wetlands subject to pollution without penalty, sharply undercutting the EPA’s authority to protect them under the Clean Water Act.

Patrick Parenteau, a professor at Vermont Law School, told the Times that the decision is “a really disastrous outcome for wetlands, which have become absolutely vital for biodiversity preservation and flood control.” In a surprise twist, Brett Kavanaugh sided with the Court’s liberal justices, writing in a concurring opinion that the decision will have “significant repercussions for water quality and flood control throughout the United States.” In a separate concurring opinion, Elena Kagan noted that the Court restricted the EPA’s ability to regulate power plant emissions last year under the apparent belief that it knows more about the environment than environmental experts, writing: “There, the majority’s non-textualism barred the EPA from addressing climate change by curbing power plant emissions in the most effective way. Here, that method prevents the EPA from keeping our country’s waters clean by regulating adjacent wetlands. The vice in both instances is the same: the Court’s appointment of itself as the national decision-maker on environmental policy.”

Ron DeSantis apparently thinking about taking a page from Trump’s playbook on January 6

GOP lawmaker stands up for the underrepresented little guys

Want more Bess Levin in your life?