Sorry to nicki minaj’s cousin’s friend whose alibi for getting swollen nuts and having his wedding called off is about to fall apart under the intense scrutiny of the global media.
To explain, the whole basis for this indictment is that (a) DOJ hazily contends that Sussman represented the Clinton campaign and (b) Jim Baker doesn't remember him saying that he did and this other guy's hearsay notes suggest he said he wasn't there on behalf of a client...
As with other pre-indictment stories on federal investigations, I’ll caution this news likely comes via the defense lawyers and may reflect their particular lens on the case or their desire to position it a particular way in the public sphere. nytimes.com/2021/09/15/us/…
On the other hand, the Durham investigation has been pretty peculiar so maybe it is doing something outlandish.
So with that throat clearing out of the way, the allegation as presented in the story is that a Perkins lawyer went to the FBI to present the Alfa bank research and, in some prefatory remarks recalled by the FBI GC, misrepresented on whose behalf he was doing it.
It’s apparently so little represented anywhere on the news that I guess I should spell out my own view of the recall election.
California is an idiosyncratic state. It has a truly massive Democratic supermajority in the electorate, a rump Republican party that’s given over to extremism, and a byzantine initiative and referendum system everyone responsible despises (but can’t manage to reform).
One feature of that referendum system is that it’s ridiculously easy to trigger a recall and, crucially, gain an outside chance of electing a fringe candidate. Because if the recall question succeeds, the top vote getter on the replacement question takes over the office.
I remember in like 2004-07 there were all these random startups flying 777s in an exclusively business-class configuration—silverjet, maxjet, EOS—and throwing in loads of other fancy perks. Every single one went bankrupt and liquidated, and not because of security requirements.
Also, the piece makes a big thing out of its lead anecdote about a TWA pilot ordering off-airport pizzas for stranded passengers, and how such a thing could never ever happen after 9/11. But it has.
New from me— Texas still has thousands of untested rape kits
A statement from Abbott's office: “Even with the strongest laws and best enforcement, evil people will do evil things...” nycsouthpaw.com/p/texas-still-…
Some new figures I got from DPS:
There are 1,716 sexual assault kits sitting untested in the state crime lab system. Of these, 1,081 were received after Sep. 2019 when the Lavinia Masters Act--which requires testing to be completed within 90 days--became effective.
“We feel it is important to note a majority of those kits are being processed within 90 days of submission," a DPS spokesperson wrote.
What's going on with the 635 kits from before Sep. 2019 is unclear.