(WED 9/7/22)
Nuking Mar-a-Lagogate… A document describing a foreign government’s military defense, including nuclear capabilities was found by FBI agents in their August 8 search of Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club, The Washington Post reports. (Picture above is for illustration purposes only -- NOT the document(s) in question.) The FBI also discovered documents so sensitive that only the current, sitting president, some of his cabinet members or near-cabinet level officials “could authorize other government officials to know details of a special access program,” the report states, citing unnamed sources.
On August 8, serving a Justice Department warrant, the FBI found documents stored at Trump’s Florida estate, more than 300 of them classified, with “uneven security,” 18 months after the former president dragged himself out of the White House, WaPosays.
Who has the nukes?: Sources declined to identify to the WaPo the government involved. It’s unclear what level of nuclear capability might be involved, but for the record, here’s the list of known nuclear weapon powers, beside the United States, according to World Population Review: Israel, North Korea (where the former president has had a “love affair” with its leader), Pakistan, India, China, France, the United Kingdom and, of course, Russia.
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Bannon indicted again … Ex-President Trump confidant Stephen K. Bannon is expected to surrender to New York State prosecutors Thursday over a new criminal indictment over the $25 million “We Build the Wall” fundraiser, The Washington Post reports. The indictment alleges that Bannon and “several others” defrauded contributors who thought they were funding a portion of then-President Trump’s wall on the southern border with Mexico.
Uh-oh: Trump pardoned Bannon in 2020 over federal charges in the “We Build the Wall” scheme, but presidential pardons do not apply to state prosecutions.
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Massachusetts primary… Donald J. Trump-backed candidate Geoff Diel won Tuesday’s Republican primary for governor, 55.6% to moderate Chris Doughty’s 44.4%, according to Ballotpedia, despite no reports of Democratic Party money helping his campaign. Diel, who is fervently anti-abortion and was the state chairman for Trump’s 2016 campaign, faces Maura Healey on November 8. Healey took 85.4% of the Democratic primary vote Tuesday, and her only challenger, Sonia Chang-Diaz, who unofficially withdrew.
Healey is now a heavy favorite to win the general election to replace outgoing Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and would become the state’s first openly gay governor. While outsiders think of Massachusetts as deep-blue, it has had only one Democratic governor since 1990, Deval Patrick.
Note: The reality of Massachusetts is that it has a socially liberal, fiscally conservative constituency, according to Newsweek.Considering its gubernatorial history of the past 32 years, it seems an ideal place for the vastly diminished moderate wing of the GOP.
--Todd Lassa
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