August 9, 2022

Vol. 11, No. 1778

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Target Trump: Former President Donald Trump said that the FBI armed with a warrant had searched his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach and broken into a safe looking for materials Trump may have taken from The White House when he left.

  “My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a statement last night.

  The FBI would have needed to convince a judge of the probability that Trump had committed a crime in order to get the warrant. “It is a federal crime to remove classified documents wrongly. And so if you are filling out that affidavit and you have to list the crime, you can list that as the crime,” said Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor who is a CNN legal analyst.

  The Secret Service was notified in advance but the White House was not. 

  Trump was in New York doing a telephone rally for Alaska’s Sarah Palin, who is running for Congress. His son, Eric, told him about the search.

  The National Archives had previously gotten Trump to return some documents. The FBI was verifying that everything had been returned and evidently it had not.

  Republicans are accusing the FBI of acting on political prejudice. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California said, “When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned.”

Vote Investigation: The Michigan attorney general is investigating a scheme in which Trump partisans working on behalf of Donald Trump were able to take possession of voting machines and dismantle them looking for irregularities. 

  One of the people involved was Matthew DePerno, who is now the presumptive Republican nominee for attorney general.

  Local election clerks had been told that their machines were needed for an investigation and turned them over. In effect, election officials were deceived and the machines illegally examined. The AG’s office says DePerno was a key orchestrator of “a conspiracy” to gain improper access to machines in three counties. 

The Obit Page: Olivia Newton-John, who played the cute curly blonde teenager opposite John Travolta in the 1978 movie, “Grease,” and went on to release #1 hit songs in the 70s and 80s, died yesterday at age 73 at her California ranch. She was 73.

  She had been diagnosed with breast cancer 1992 and announced in 2017 that it had returned and spread. 

  Her role in “Grease” released two #1 hits, “You’re the One That I Want” and the doo-wop song. “Summer Nights.” Her other #1 songs were “I Honestly Love You,” followed by “Have You Never Been Mellow.” 

— David McCullough, the best-selling author of histories and an appealing television host and narrator with an enviable voice of authority, died yesterday outside Boston. He was 89. McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for his presidential biographies, “Truman,” 1992, and “John Adams,” 2001. 

The Spin Rack: The House January 6^th panel is scheduled to interview former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today. — Three towns on Maryland’s Eastern Shore have agreed to pay $5 million to the family of Anton a Black 19-year-old who was held face down by three police officers for 6 minutes until he died. Black had been a high school athlete and had a possible career as a model. The officers were never charged.

High Priced: The New York Times surveyed the new high prices of lunch and treats in the city and found the following: Bagel, $3.50; Ice cream, $3.75; French fries, $15; Sandwich, $18; Blueberries, $8.

Too Hot: The weather is hot and muggy and we have no air conditioning where we are for a few days. So the editorial staff is drawing this to a close this morning and going swimming. 

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