-Brave free-thinker Hugh Hewitt, on why he never talks about January 6

Donald Trump spent four years violating federal law by destroying mountains of presidential records and then decamped with many others, but let’s keep this in perspective: We nearly had a president who sometimes used private email to do work. 
 

• The National Archives had to visit Mar-a-Lago last month to retrieve 15 boxes of documents and other items that Trump improperly took with him when he left the White House, instead of turning them over to the agency in adherence with the Presidential Records Act. Those boxes reportedly included Trump’s “love letters” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, along with other correspondence, gifts, and mementos. The Archives said in a statement that Trump representatives are “continuing to search” for additional records.
   
• In other egregious law-flouting, it seems that Trump’s custom of ripping up White House documents was more extensive than previously known, and continued throughout his presidency—despite warnings to knock it off from at least two chiefs of staff and the White House counsel. It’s unclear how many records were permanently destroyed; one senior Trump White House official said that he and other aides frequently put documents into “burn bags” based on their own unauthorized decisions about what needed to be preserved. 
   
• While Trump is easily the worst violator of the Presidential Records Act in its 44-year history, according to presidential historians, he’s unlikely to be held accountable for it. The law has no real enforcement mechanisms; it takes for granted that presidents and administrations will make good-faith efforts to comply, failing to anticipate that Americans might one day elect a sociopathic, lifelong criminal. In Trump’s final month in office, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) introduced legislation to give the records act a few teeth, but it hasn’t picked up much momentum.

Fortunately for House investigators, it’s a little harder to rip up eyewitness testimony.
 

• As the attack on the Capitol unfolded on January 6, Trump was confused about why White House staffers weren’t clapping and cheering as he rewound his favorite moments to watch them again, according to a new Associated Press report. Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who was serving as then-Vice President Mike Pence’s national security advisor, reportedly told the January 6 committee that staff urged Trump to take immediate action to address the violence, but he refused. The panel continues to seek voluntary testimony from Ivanka Trump about what Trump was(n’t) doing during those hours.
   
• The committee is also still preparing to go public: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said on Sunday night that while televised hearings had been delayed as a result of stonewalling from Trump’s inner circle, the panel hoped to begin holding them in April. Meanwhile, with most Republicans refusing to comment on the RNC’s resolution censuring Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and calling the events of January 6 “legitimate political discourse,” Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) stuck his neck out and condemned it by, uh, calling the GOP a “fringe group.” Getting warmer!

The Presidential Records Act may be difficult to enforce, but if Trump shredded any of those documents to cover up criminal wrongdoing or hide evidence from Congress, he’s broken a whole other set of laws. Congress and DOJ should probe Trump’s destruction of records just as intensively as it’s investigating the insurrection, and if and when his crimes are taped back together, he should be prosecuted. 

Crooked’s video series Campaign Experts React is back! This episode, host Dan Pfeiffer is joined by the Lincoln Project's Stuart Stevens to break down Republican midterm political ads from candidates like Dr. Oz and the MAGA Mom to Mallory Staples. Check out the video on Crooked Media’s YouTube channel and subscribe to never miss an episode.

French President Emmanuel Macron met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a comically long table in Moscow on Monday, and called for Russia to de-escalate its threats to further invade Ukraine: “I believe that our continent is today in an eminently critical situation, which requires us all to be extremely responsible.” Later in the day, President Biden held his first meeting with new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz amid concerns that Scholz wasn’t joining in on threats of consequences for Putin. Biden said that the U.S. and Germany were “working in lockstep” to deter Russian aggression, and that Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline project connecting Russia and Germany, would not go forward if Russia invades Ukraine. Russia has amassed 70 percent of the forces it would need to launch a full-scale invasion, according to U.S. officials.

• The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, allowed Alabama to use its new congressional map that violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting Black votes, putting on hold a lower court order that required the creation of a second majority-Black district. Chief Justice John Robert and the three liberal justices dissented.
   
• Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) distanced himself from his own campaign Twitter account after it attacked a high school student on Saturday night, calling the tweet “unauthorized.” The teen, Ethan Lynne, called it “bullying” and said he hasn’t been contacted by Youngkin’s office.
   
• Govs. Philip Murphy (D-NJ) and John Carney (D-DE) announced they’ll lift their states’ school mask mandates next month, with Murphy calling the move “a huge step back to normalcy for our kids.” 
   
• Joe Rogan apologized after a compilation video of him using the N-word went viral, and Spotify quietly removed dozens of episodes of his podcast, but CEO Daniel Elk said there are no plans to stop paying Rogan millions of dollars for his content:  “I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.”
   
• COVID-19 survivors face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, even if their infections didn’t land them in the hospital, according to a comprehensive study of data from the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare databases.
   
• The Alaska House of Representatives lacks the votes to punish GOP state Rep. David Eastman for his membership in the Oath Keepers, despite intense public pressure.
   
• A Missouri man who sought to ban LGBTQ+ books from schools now faces a felony child-molestation charge, raising the distinct possibility that the people trying to remove books from libraries are not actually concerned with protecting children. 
   
• Frontier and Spirit Airlines have announced a merger to become the country’s fifth-largest airline, monopolizing the market for drunken fistfights in the sky.
   
• Leslie Jones said that NBC has asked her to stop live-tweeting the Olympics, in a devastating blow to the Olympics. 

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has declared a state of emergency to address the hundreds of truckers that have blocked downtown streets for more than week in protest of coronavirus measures. While the “Freedom Convoy” began in reaction to vaccine mandates for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border, it quickly evolved into a broader demonstration against public health measures and attracted support from the American far-right. "Somebody's gotta stand up. Whether it's putting your semi in the middle of a town and honking the horn, or whatever,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said on Monday. The demonstrators have also displayed Confederate flags and swastikas, desecrated war memorials, and tormented residents with all-night horn-blaring. Ottawa police issued more than 500 tickets over the weekend, and have now begun trying to choke off supply lines of fuel and food. 

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Congressional staffers have launched an effort to unionize, with the support of Democratic lawmakers.

The University of California, Irvine has received a $57.7 million gift to establish a depression research center. 

Two Missouri groups have launched the Banned Book Program, which will send free copies of challenged books to Missourians who request them.

Priscila Coronado has been named the first Latina president of the Harvard Law Review.