I'm here at the E. Barry Prettyman Courthouse in D.C. preparing to cover a 10 a.m. hearing regarding Special Counsel Jack Smith's motion for a partial gag order on former President Trump.

Context & background here: themessenger.com/politics/gag-o…

https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1713904832182927719

Trump is not expected to be present today. But at least one of his allies is — Rep. Marjorie Tayor Greene was amid the members of the public in line to enter the courtroom a few moments ago.

NEW: Ron DeSantis now says he "rejected the political leftism" he found at Harvard and Yale.

But in a little-examined period of his life shortly before entering politics, DeSantis co-founded a test prep firm and spoke glowingly about elite institutions. themessenger.com/politics/ron-d… I examined the period between DeSantis' honorable discharge from active duty Navy service in 2010, and his 2012 Congressional run by looking at website archives, YouTube videos with only a handful of views, financial disclosure forms and other records.

Worth a closer look at this part of the DOJ memo to Barr recommending not to charge Trump with obstruction:

"The [Mueller] Report makes clear that the President equated a witness's decision to 'flip' with being induced by prosecutors to manufacture false evidence against others" The Mueller Report says Trump — in his statements dangling a pardon for Paul Manafort — was making it clear that he "did not want Manafort to 'flip' and cooperate with the government." (Volume II, p. 131)

Many of the statements on student loan forgiveness you'll read today will be written by Congressional staffers whose student loans were repaid by taxpayers under 2 U.S.C. § 4536 — which established a program specifically to repay student loans for House employees. (Worth noting the program specifically excludes Members of Congress themselves) law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/…

New filing in Mar-a-Lago docket: DOJ asks court to deny motions by media and others to unseal the search warrant affidavit.
But DOJ does not object to unsealing cover sheets, government's motion to seal, and court's sealing order. DOJ says of affidavit: "the redactions necessary to mitigate harms to the integrity of the investigation would be so extensive as to render the remaining unsealed text devoid of meaningful content, and the release of such a redacted version would not serve any public interest"

These the criminal statutes the Mar-a-Lago search warrant was issued in relation to a violation of, according to a copy of the warrant obtained by Breitbart:

* 18 U.S.C. § 793
* 18 U.S.C. § 2071
* 18 U.S.C. § 1519 18 U.S.C. § 793: Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18…

Significant that one of two DOJ officials who signed today's motion to unseal the Mar-a-Lago search warrant material is Jay Bratt, chief of DOJ's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. The Counterintelligence and Export Control Section "supervises the investigation and prosecution of cases affecting national security, foreign relations, and the export of military and strategic commodities and technology." justice.gov/nsd/sections-o…

.@CNN reports Trump attorneys Christina Bobb and Evan Corcoran had sit down discussions in June with DOJ officials at Mar-a-Lago.

Here are the dates and amounts of payments ⁠— totaling $94K ⁠— from Trump's Save America PAC to Bobb and to Corcoran's law firm this year: The discussion took place in early June, CNN reports.

FEC records show Save America paid Bobb $994 for travel reimbursement on June 3.

UPDATE: In a letter Monday primarily citing @gridnews' reporting, House Oversight Committee Chairwoman @RepMaloney is requesting answers from @Meta about fake accounts on Facebook behind organizing and fundraising efforts related to the protests Canada.

https://twitter.com/BySteveReilly/status/1491168971152044033

"These reports are particularly alarming given Facebook’s history of amplifying toxic content, extremism, and disinformation, including from Russia and other foreign actors," Maloney wrote.

The Telegram groups where a D.C. convoy is being discussed are full of references to January 6.

- "How many yall have done this type of thing before? Any J6 vets here?"
- "Yes sir. Many J6 folks as well as folks ranging from truckers to militia and everywhere in between." "Make J6 look like a picnic!"

NEW: Our research early this week into who was behind a huge network of Facebook groups supporting the Freedom Convoy led us to a hacked account in Missouri.

Next it led us to Bangladesh — and ended with the deactivation of some of the largest active groups.

Follow along:🧵⬇️ Until Thursday afternoon, Facebook users searching for protest organizer Tamara Lich were led to a "Public figure" page that used Lich's likeness and appeared to act like it was her.

It had more than 6,000 loyal followers.

But some users were on to the fact it was fake.

Facebook users searching for Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich are running into an odd issue:

The "Public figure" Facebook page that purports to be Lich apparently is not her.

She apparently texted a supporter about the group: "Not me. Report." Yet it is still up. The page has amassed more than 6,500 followers since it was started on Feb. 7, with many posts receiving more than 1,000 comments.

But its reach goes beyond that. facebook.com/Tamara-Lich-11…

We researched some of the biggest Facebook groups promoting the Canadian trucker protest before they were shut down yesterday, and noticed something was a bit off.

The only individual admin running some of the most active groups was one woman in Missouri. Or so it seemed.🧵⤵️ The woman's years-old Facebook account had no real history of political activity until January 2022, when it suddenly posted a fundraiser for Donald Trump.

Below the post was a comment from the woman's daughter:

"I like how you hacked my moms shit but you won't answer my dm."

I tweeted the phrase "hacked Facebook account" because our latest story involves one, and was immediately spammed by this extremely cool and legitimate Twitter account offering to help out. cc: @TwitterSecurity Wow, so many people are willing to help!

NEW w/@jason_paladino: Where do fraudsters get high-quality PDFs of the Covid vaccine card to print out?

In some cases it's the CDC's own website. grid.news/story/science/… In early 2021 @CDCgov advised state health departments to remove PDFs of the vaccine card from their website, citing "misuse," @kevincollier and @oneunderscore__ reported (nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…)

Yet CDC *still to this day* hosts a high-quality PDF on its own website.

If the White House wants to know about the costs and benefits of sending COVID tests to every American — instead of mocking reporters for asking about it — it could look at Singapore, which sent 6 tests to every household in September. straitstimes.com/singapore/heal…

https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/1467988633307205637

This chart shows daily Covid deaths per million people in Singapore in the U.S. between September 1 and today.

In that period, daily Covid deaths peaked above 6 per 1 million people in the U.S. but remained below 3 per million people in Singapore. (Source: @OurWorldInData)

Read this closely.
EPA's new FOIA regulations — reportedly to be introduced without public comment this week — would allow political appointees to make determinations on FOIA requests claiming "no records" exist, even when they do. s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspect… As others have pointed out, the D.C. Circuit has ruled this to be unlawful

https://twitter.com/JamesValvo/status/1143523212392882176