Comey’s Indictment and the F-Word

Today’s notice: Comey indicted. Republicans call for a change of tone. A “mob boss-style extortion from Trump.” Have you heard of Reid Hoffman? And: What Chris Wright and Paul Pelosi have in common.

THE LATEST

The indictment: The federal prosecution of James Comey — promised and pushed by Donald Trump — is now underway. Let’s start with the details.

Prosecutors didn’t get everything they wanted. The grand jury charged Comey on two counts: making false statements to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, both stemming from a 2020 hearing on the FBI’s probe into links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. A third count of lying to Congress, NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery reports, was rejected by jurors, a rare development given that grand juries don’t often dismiss prosecutors’ charges.

This all happened very quickly. The new acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan — formerly a White House aide and Trump’s personal attorney — made the arguments to the grand jury herself, just days after Trump suggested he put her in the role to make indictments like Comey’s happen.

Republicans have their talking point: “No one is above the law,” Rep. Tim Burchett told the NOTUS Hill team, echoing a line repeated by several of his GOP colleagues last night. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel both used the phrase as well.

“One of the most sickening abuses of power in the history of the DOJ” was the way Rep. Jim Himes described it to the team, summarizing the general outrage from Democrats.

Comey was defiant in the face of prosecution. “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I’m innocent,” he said in an Instagram video. “So let’s have a trial. And keep the faith.”

What comes next? Trump has asked for other political enemies like New York AG Letitia James to be prosecuted. The fact that Thursday’s indictment happened at all suggests a new chapter is beginning for the U.S. attorneys working for Halligan.

Open tabs: FEC Loses Another Commissioner (NOTUS); Surprisingly strong GDP report undermines economic slowdown narrative (Axios); Trump Will Slap Tariffs on Imported Drugs, Trucks and Household Furnishings (NYT)

THE BIG ONE

The F-word: “I’ve used the word before and I’ll use it again if I think it is applicable to where we are,” former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said of Republican complaints that fascist should be eliminated as a political descriptor for them after Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Democrats are mostly calling bullsh*t. They point to MAGA language and the steady stream of insults hurled at them by Trump and say the recent call for A New Tone is hypocritical at best. They note they’ve been called fascists, too, plenty of times, NOTUS’ Alex Roarty reports.

But the word is becoming a conservative rallying cry, even among MAGA-skeptical ones. They say the term contributes to political violence. “I think it’s wrong for Dems to be calling GOP fascists,” Republican Rep. Don Bacon said. “It adds to the demonization and it radicalizes some.”

From the shutdown debate

Threats land with a thud: A “mob boss-style extortion from Trump” was how Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat, described an Office of Management and Budget memo vowing mass layoffs if the government shuts down.

House Democrats are scheduled to have a virtual meeting this afternoon to go over strategy, but they appear to be standing together and dismissing the threat, NOTUS’ Oriana González and Daniella Diaz report.

On the record and off, Democrats roundly greeted the OMB memo as desperate. Several strategists we spoke with yesterday were unimpressed, despite the fact there is really no way to know what a shutdown under this White House will look like. (Which was the point of the OMB memo.) The messaging push has begun.

Exclusive: New ads going up with Democrats’ argument. Since the start of this session, Democrats and their allies have said the shutdown fight is about health care. So expect to hear a lot about that in paid and earned media. Unrig Our Economy, a center-left spending group, is going up today with new ads targeting 14 House Republicans as part of the group’s promised seven-figure midterms buy.

Republicans have their own argument. Newt Gingrich tried to box Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee in… with the OMB memo. “Why did Congresswoman Spanberger vote against the continuing resolution to keep the government open,” he wrote on X. “She should be voting to keep the government open and federal employees in the jobs, not for a shutdown and layoffs or even firings for her constituents.”

Just one problem: Abigail Spanberger is no longer in Congress. (Gingrich later walked back his X post).

From the White House

Trump’s latest crackdown list: “[George] Soros is a name certainly that I keep hearing,” the president said yesterday as he threatened to go after “the left” for a rise in political violence. “I hear names of some pretty rich people that are radical-left people. Maybe I hear about a guy named Reid Hoffman. Somebody, he’s a pretty rich guy, I guess. I hear about him.”

Bondi did not confirm or deny whether there’d be an actual investigation into Soros, responding to a question from Jasmine while standing next to Trump. “Everything’s on the table right now,” Bondi said, vaguely. The president added, “I guess he’d be a likely candidate.”

NEW ON NOTUS

Firefighter safety setback: That’s the takeaway from a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report on Trump’s cuts to the Forest Service workforce. The report found that the cuts disrupted congressionally mandated efforts to fix wildland firefighter communications systems, NOTUS’ Anna Kramer reports.

Tom Schultz, the Trump-appointed chief of the Forest Service, objected to the findings and asked the GAO to make changes to the report. The GAO declined, listing specific projects that have been postponed since Trump took office.

What Chris Wright and Paul Pelosi have in common: The energy secretary reported putting between $1.1 million and $5 million into a pair of obscure real-estate investment vehicles that specialize in high-end commercial properties in San Francisco, Dave Levinthal reports for NOTUS. Paul Pelosi has invested in one of the exact same vehicles, and several more like them.

More: Jeffries Calls for Probe Into Trump Admin’s Release of NJ Democrat’s Military Records, by Amelia Benavides-Colón

Congresswoman Prepping Articles of Impeachment Against RFK Jr., by Amelia Benavides-Colón

NOT US

• Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals, by Tara Copp, Dan Lamothe, Alex Horton, Ellen Nakashima and Noah Robertson for The Washington Post
  
• Zuckerberg and Altman move closer to Trump since Musk rift, by Joe Miller, Hannah Murphy and George Hammond for the Financial Times
  
• RFK Jr. Mulls Adding Autism Symptoms to Vaccine Injury Program, by Rachel Cohrs Zhang, Madison Muller and Gerry Smith for Bloomberg

BE SOCIAL

Congress vs. the lanternflies.

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