“Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday released a report alleging Obama administration officials manipulated intelligence related to Russian interference in the 2016 election,” The Hill reports.
“Gabbard asserted in a statement that former officials engaged in a ‘treasonous conspiracy’ and said her office was turning over evidence to the Justice Department for possible criminal referrals.”
“The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Friday to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecution of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as President Trump seeks to dispel a storm of criticism and conspiracy theories coming from many of his supporters,” the New York Times reports.
“The government also sought the unsealing of grand jury testimony from the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite who in a 2021 trial was convicted of helping Mr. Epstein facilitate his sex trafficking scheme and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.”
“President Donald Trump is filing a libel lawsuit against the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and reporters who wrote a story about a collection of letters gifted to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, including a note bearing Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman,” CNN reports.
Update: “A person close to Trump’s legal team told Business Insider that the president has not yet filed his lawsuit over The Wall Street Journal report, and that his legal complaint is still in the works.”
I discussed Donald Trump’s very bad week with the great Julie Mason this afternoon.
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“President Trump held a ceremonial swearing-in on Friday in the Oval Office for Billy Long, the new commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, in a sign of the unusually close relationship Mr. Trump has sought with the typically apolitical tax agency,” the New York Times reports.
“The swearing-in, experts said, was also unusual, as presidents have historically left the IRS at arm’s length.”
“The Trump administration completed a large-scale prisoner swap with Venezuela on Friday,” CNN reports.
“About 250 Venezuelans deported from the United States who are currently detained in a maximum-security prison in El Salvador were sent back to their home country in exchange for the remaining American hostages held in Venezuela, the sources said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media 10 Americans were now ‘on their way to freedom’ as part of the swap.”
“President Donald Trump on Friday signed the first major congressional overhaul of cryptocurrency rules into law, delivering on a campaign promise to boost digital asset firms and cementing the industry’s rise as a force in Washington,” Politico reports.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said that FBI agents assigned earlier this year to review investigative files in the criminal case against notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were instructed to “flag” any documents that mentioned President Trump, CNBC reports.
“Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is moving forward with plans to force a vote on requiring the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, despite attempts by President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to take steam out of his efforts,” Axios reports.
“The push by Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has proven popular in Congress, with most Democrats and some on the GOP’s right flank supporting it.”
“They tried under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Newt Gingrich gave it a go when he controlled the House, and Bob Dole did, too, when he held power in the Senate,” the New York Times reports.
“But for five decades, Republicans failed time and again to choke off federal funding for public broadcasting. Some were afraid of being accused of avicide (for ‘killing Big Bird’ of Sesame Street), while others appreciated their local public stations (and the airtime they personally received) — always stopping the party short of turning their threats against PBS and NPR into law.”
“That they have finally been able to do it now, voting on Friday to claw back $1.1 billion in public broadcasting funds, on one level speaks to the power of President Trump. His threat to support primary challenges against any Republicans who might try to block the cuts all but guaranteed they would go through this time.”
“But the willingness of congressional Republicans to vote for a complete cutoff of federal money to public broadcasting also says a lot about sweeping changes in media…”
Punchbowl News: “It’s hard to see how this week could’ve gone worse for President Donald Trump and House Republicans.”
“Paralyzed by infighting over the scandal surrounding the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, GOP lawmakers spent the week alternating between bickering among themselves or lamely trying to blame the Democrats for the Epstein debacle. They never came close to figuring out what to do next or how to do it. And at the end of the week, House Republicans left town in the middle of the night with the scandal only getting worse, not better…”
“Trump tried falsely blaming Democrats for the Epstein scandal, including former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, as well as former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former FBI Director James Comey. The Justice Department even fired Maurene Comey – James’ daughter and a longtime federal prosecutor who worked on the Epstein case – this week.”
“Yet this seemed to make things worse, not better. It was a hugely uncharacteristic moment for Trump since his return to the White House. Trump has had an iron grip over the GOP and his base. This week showed that even Trump has limits.”
“A top Secret Service official was the target of a ‘swatting’ incident at his home on the Fourth of July,” Axios reports.
“While the incident didn’t lead to any harm, it’s another example of just how difficult it’s become for law enforcement to reign in the the wave of hoax calls.”
“For the last 30-plus years, New Mexico residents have had the option to register to vote while getting a new driver’s license or updating their vehicle registration,” the Albuquerque Journal reports.
“But the state is now automatically registering eligible residents to vote while they’re interacting with Motor Vehicle Division field offices statewide, under the latest Democratic-backed plan to expand voting access.”
Wall Street Journal: “Altman was estranged from Musk, his OpenAI co-founder, and Musk’s new position as ‘first buddy’ had kept Altman out of meetings at Mar-a-Lago and in the overflow room at the inauguration rather than on the dais with his fellow tech CEOs.”
“So Altman bided his time, quietly maneuvering around Musk. He put together AI infrastructure deals that Trump supported and avoided his former friend, who had sued OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, for allegedly betraying its mission.”
“Altman forged his own relationship with the president, dining with him at Mar-a-Lago in March and speaking to him on the phone from time to time. A longtime Democrat who had once compared Trump to Hitler, Altman told associates he now regretted his harsh criticism during Trump’s first campaign and term.”
“The director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency visited Washington this week seeking U.S. help in convincing countries to take hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza,” Axios reports.
NBC News: “The move represents a trend in Congress during President Donald Trump’s second term. Republican lawmakers across the ideological spectrum keep casting votes in favor of bills even while warning that they’re deeply flawed and may require fixing down the road. In some cases, lawmakers explicitly threaten to vote ‘no’ on bills before eventually folding and voting ‘yes.'”
“It isn’t unusual for lawmakers to back legislation they call imperfect. But this year, that contrast has become more stark. It comes as Trump has solidified his grasp over the GOP base, resulting in lawmakers growing increasingly leery of crossing him and risking their political futures.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.