Politics

Courthouse News reports: A jury has been seated in the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on tax evasion and bank fraud charges. A jury of six men and six women has been sworn in for the trial, and four alternate jurors, three women and one man, have also been selected. Opening arguments will begin later Tuesday afternoon. …

Via press release: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today released the D.A.’s Office’s new policy to decline to prosecute marijuana possession and smoking cases, effective tomorrow, August 1. The policy, which is included below, is expected to reduce Manhattan marijuana prosecutions from approximately 5,000 per year to fewer than 200 per year, a 96% reduction. “Every day I …

Via press release: Today, U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA) and Tom Carper (D-DE), both members of the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced the Census Equality Act, legislation to require the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure the approximately 10 million Americans who identify as LGBTQ are properly counted for and represented in Census data collection efforts. The Census …

CNBC reports: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has committed to remaining in his post through the 2020 election, according to two White House officials. Kelly, who hit his one-year mark in the White House on Monday, had been expected to step aside as early as this summer. But President Donald Trump, who asked Kelly to stay on, has …

The New York Times reports: Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to three people briefed on the matter. In a series of briefings on Capitol Hill this week, the company told …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is considering bypassing Congress to grant a $100 billion tax cut mainly to the wealthy, a legally tenuous maneuver that would cut capital gains taxation and fulfill a long-held ambition of many investors and conservatives. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Group of 20 …

Mediaite reports: Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called on Twitter to ban a candidate running for Congress who referred to First lady Melania Trump as a “hoebag” in a tweet. The House candidate in question is Mark Roberts, an Independent running to represent Oregon. He has a very bizarre Twitter presence, where he refers to himself as a “superfan” of television …

Deutsche Welle reports: A Berlin regional court on Monday ordered the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and its board member Georg Pazderski to publicly retract false claims that the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) donated millions of dollars to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. An AfD press release, authored by Pazderski and published in November 2016, stated that the …

The Associated Press reports: Eight states are filing suit against the Trump administration over its decision to allow a Texas company to publish downloadable blueprints for a 3D-printed gun, contending the hard-to-trace plastic weapons are a boon to terrorists and criminals and threaten public safety. The suit, filed Monday in Seattle, asks a judge to block the federal government’s late-June …

When you’re not extreme enough for the Koch Brothers: The powerful Koch political network won’t help the Republican nominee in a crucial Senate race less than 100 days before the midterm elections, saying Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) doesn’t do enough to further the Koch’s policy issues to warrant their help in the race. The announcement — made in front of …

Italy’s The Local reports: US President Donald Trump receives Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday, welcoming to the White House a European populist with like-minded views on immigration and trade. The visit will begin with a one-on-one meeting followed by more extensive bilateral discussions, the White House said. Trump praised Conte as “great” after meeting him at the recent …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis’ latest ad in his Republican primary race for governor features him teaching his children with a curriculum heavy in the ways of President Trump. “Build the wall,” he says as his son piles brick-like blocks on top of each other. “Then Mr. Trump said, ‘you’re fired.’ I love that part,” DeSantis reads …

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports: Sen. Rand Paul said Monday he will support Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, paving the way for a likely confirmation in the Senate. “After meeting Judge Kavanaugh and reviewing his record, I have decided to support his nomination,” Paul tweeted Monday. Paul met with Kavanaugh earlier this month, according to his chief strategist Doug …

It’s rather interesting that this is just coming to light: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2012 sided with the future U.S. president’s casino in a case over unionization, Bloomberg reported. Kavanaugh threw his weight behind Trump Entertainment Resorts’ successful attempt to end a unionization effort at one of its casinos six years ago. He voted with two other Republican-nominated …

Politico reports: Some of the biggest winners from President Donald Trump’s new tax law are corporate executives who have reaped gains as their companies buy back a record amount of stock, a practice that rewards shareholders by boosting the value of existing shares. A POLITICO review of data disclosed in SEC filings shows the executives, who often receive most of …

CNN reports: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she hopes to stay on the Supreme Court until the age of 90. “I’m now 85,” Ginsburg said on Sunday. “My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years.” She has already hired law clerks for at least …

ABC News reports: Documents show that U.S. President Donald Trump’s family business has “destroyed the vast majority” of an environmentally sensitive area of sand dunes near its golf course north of Aberdeen in Scotland. Scottish Natural Heritage, which is responsible for the management and monitoring of sites of special scientific interest, has found that construction of the golf course has …

The Associated Press reports: A black man yelled at former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in a bookstore and accused Spicer of calling him a racial slur when they were students at a prep school decades ago. Spicer was “taken aback” by the man’s “outrageous claim” and had no recollection of him or of being in school with him, …

Rudy Giuliani this morning tweeted the single word “You” before posting a second tweet promoting his appearances on this morning’s Sunday news shows, saying “I know what’s in the remaining tapes a lot of them. More disgusting deception about not recording. A lot more support for what should be obvious the President did nothing wrong.” Twitter, of course, is having …

Politico reports: Gov. Rick Scott’s family fortune could be upwards of $500 million, a number much larger than he has reported in the past because Florida did not require the governor to include massive investments held by his wife, according to federal financial disclosure forms filed Friday. The forms were filed as part of Scott’s bid for the U.S. Senate, …