Day 1240: "That’s what it is."

WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

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1/ The Republican-controlled House voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated Biden’s handling of classified material and declined to bring charges. Despite the Justice Department previously making the full transcript public, Republicans on the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees issued two subpoenas for the audio recordings. Garland refused to turn over the audio, saying it would set a bad precedent to share audio for cases that do not lead to criminal charges. Garland also told lawmakers that he didn’t see a “legislative purpose” for Congress needing the audio when “the words are the same on the transcript as the audio.” Further, Biden asserted executive privilege over the recordings. Nevertheless, House Republicans argued that the audio recording was crucial to their impeachment inquiry into Biden, which remains stalled after their key witness was charged with lying. The vote was 216-207, and marks the third time a sitting attorney general was held in contempt of Congress. It is unlikely that the Justice Department — which Garland oversees — will prosecute him. (New York Times / Washington Post / Politico / Associated Press / Axios / CNN / NBC News)

2/ Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is mad that a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalism organization did its job and reported on the lavish gifts and travel that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted – but didn’t disclose – from a Republican megadonor. At an event hosted by the Supreme Court Historical Society, Alito was recorded criticizing ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that won a Pulitzer Prize for its series on ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices. Alito argued that ProPublica was not engaging in legitimate journalism, but instead claimed without evidence that they were reporting on the court because “they don’t like our decisions, and they don’t like how they anticipate we may decide some cases that are coming up. That’s the beginning of the end of it.” He added, “There are groups that are very well-funded by ideological interests that have spearheaded these attacks. That’s what it is.” When asked to elaborate, Alito responded: “ProPublica gets a lot of money, and they have spent a fortune investigating Clarence Thomas, for example. You know, everything he’s ever done in his entire life. And they’ve done some of that to me, too. They look for any little thing they can find, and they try to make something out of it.” In 2023, ProPublica published a series of i...

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