bonginoreport--2020-05-13--State Department Docs Expose Contracts Between U.S. Embassy and Burisma

During President Trump ’ s impeachment , former U.S .
Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch testified to Congress that she knew little beyond an initial briefing and “ press reports ” about Burisma Holdings , the Ukrainian natural gas firm that had hired Vice President Joe Biden ’ s son Hunter and was dogged by a corruption investigation .
“ It just wasn ’ t a big deal , ” she declared under oath on Oct. 11 , 2019 .
But newly unearthed State Department memos obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show Yovanovitch ’ s embassy in Kiev , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ several discussions and meetings about Burisma as the gas firm scrambled during the 2016 election and transition to settle a long-running corruption investigation and polish its image before President Trump took office .
Yovanovitch , for instance , was specifically warned in an email by her top deputy in September 2016 — three years before her testimony — that Burisma had hired an American firm with deep Democratic connections called Blue Star Strategies to “ rehabilitate the reputation ” of the Ukrainian gas firm and that it had placed “ Hunter Biden on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She also met directly with a representative for Burisma in her embassy office , less than 45 days before Trump took office , a contact she did not mention during her impeachment deposition .
The discussions about Burisma inside Yovanovitch ’ s embassy were so extensive , in fact , that they filled more than 160 pages of emails , memos and correspondence in fall 2016 alone , according to the State Department records obtained under FOIA by the conservative group Citizens United .
The contacts included a detailed private letter hand-delivered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s lawyers in September 2016 , a briefing later that month from her staff on Burisma ’ s issues , and a meeting scheduled between the ambassador and a Burisma representative shortly before Christmas 2016 as the Obama administration was preparing to leave office .
Yovanovitch , who recently retired from State , did not respond Tuesday to a message sent to her private email seeking comment .
Her lawyer during the impeachment proceedings , Lawrence S. Robbins , also did not respond to an emailed request for comment .
David Bossie , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adviser to Trump who runs Citizen United , said the documents his group obtained raise questions about Yovanovitch ’ s testimony last fall and what else Congress may not know about the embassy ’ s involvement with the Hunter Biden-connected Burisma firm .
`` These new records clearly do n't support Ambassador Yovanovitch 's testimony under oath during [ Rep. Adam ] Schiff 's sham impeachment .
Her sworn testimony must be investigated and scrutinized just like in the case of General [ Michael ] Flynn , ” he said .
“ You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ''
The impeachment hearings last fall , which focused on efforts by Trump and his lawyer Rudy Guiliani to find evidence inside Ukraine on the Bidens and Burisma and to remove Yovanovitch from her job as U.S. ambassador , included testimony from Yovanovitch herself .
During that deposition in October 2016 , she made no mention of direct contact with Burisma representatives and instead suggested her knowledge about the company and its legal travails was limited mostly to a briefing she received in preparation for Senate confirmation as ambassador in summer 2016 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden ’ s work for one of Ukraine ’ s largest energy companies , which generated more than $ 3 million in payments to his American firm over two years , stirred controversy in both Ukraine and the United States because his father oversaw U.S. policy for Ukraine while Burisma was long a focus of a criminal corruption probe in Ukraine .
State Department officials have said they believed the relationship created the appearance of a conflict of interest .
“ What do you know about the investigation of Burisma ?
” Yovanovitch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ October testimony .
“ Not very much .
And , again , that happened before I arrived , ” she testified .
“ … Burisma wasn ’ t a big issue in the fall of 2018 — 2016 when I arrived.
” “ Were you aware at that time of Hunter Biden ’ s role with Burisma ?
” she was asked at another point .
“ Yes .
As I mentioned , I became aware during the Q & A in the prep for my testimony , ” she answered .
Yovanovitch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reports that Burisma ’ s criminal case had been dormant by the time she arrived in Kiev in late summer 2016 .
“ I ’ m trying to understand your testimony , because earlier in the day you said that , based on press reports , your understanding was that it was dormant .
You may have had additional information it was dormant , or you don ’ t know ?
” Rep. Lee Zeldin , R-N.Y. , inquired at one point .
“ Yes .
And all I can tell you is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it just wasn ’ t a big issue , ” she said .
“ So I just want to understand your position .
Obviously , you knew that Burisma was dormant , based on press reports .
That was what you stated earlier , ” Zeldin pressed .
“ But you ’ re saying that you may have had other information , but you don ’ t recall that now ?
” the lawmaker followed .
“ I may have had other information , but I don ’ t recall how I had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ During a nationally televised impeachment hearing a month later in the House , Yovanovitch doubled down on her testimony that Burisma and Hunter Biden were n't on her radar when she took over as ambassador .
`` It was not a focus of what I was doing in that six-month period , '' she testified anew .
But the memos show Yovanovitch was informed that the criminal cases were actively being settled in fall 2016 and that Burisma and its founder Mykola Zlochevsky were trying to repair the company ’ s reputation with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a briefing memo prepared for Yovanovitch ’ s 30-minute meeting Dec. 8 , 2016 inside the U.S. Embassy with Burisma representative Karen Tramontano noted that Tramantano worked for the lobbying and strategy firm Blue Star Strategies .
“ An Atlantic Council member and Washington veteran , Tramontano informally represents Mykola Zlochevsky , the Burisma CEO , who has long been the target of law enforcement proceedings in Ukraine , ” the memo stated .
The memo added that “ his [ Zlochevsky ’ s ] official US representatives sent a letter in September @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reconsider its position on him.
” Read the memos by clicking on the `` Dig In '' button above .
The new memos are n't the first to raise questions about Yovanovitch 's testimony .
Last November , Fox News challenged another portion of her testimony denying she had contact with a Democratic House staffer after the network said it obtained emails showing Yovanovitch did in fact have the contact on her private email , and not her official State email .
Sen. Ron Johnson , R-Wis. , the chairman of the Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been trying to subpoena documents about Blue Star Strategies and its work for Burisma for weeks but has been blocked by opposition from Republican Sen. Mitt Romney , whose friend serves on the Burisma board .
Johnson and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley , R-Iowa , are now seeking to interview witnesses at the embassy , including Kent .
The memos show that both Blue Star Strategies and the Atlantic Council , a nonprofit policy organization , played a role in fall 2016 pressing the U.S. embassy in Kiev to change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whom the embassy viewed as corrupt .
Zlochevsky has long denied any wrongdoing .
For instance , after the U.S. Agency for International Development , the State Department foreign funding arm , was told by the embassy ’ s Deputy Chief of Mission George Kent not to accept a $ 7,500 donation for Burisma for a clean energy event in Ukraine in late summer 2016 , a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine named John Herbst working for the Atlantic Council reached out .
Herbst asked to meet with Yovanovitch in September 2016 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kent in Ukraine , the memos show .
“ I will factor into our conversation the Zlochevsky Affair , ” Herbst wrote to Kent as he prepared for their dinner .
Kent , long a critic of Burisma , went out of his way to mention the Burisma-Hunter Biden connection during one of his pre-dinner email exchanges with Herbst in which he decried alleged “ payoffs ” to Ukrainian officials “ to do nothing ” about the Burisma investigation .
“ I have no doubt such arrangements were made , apart from Mr. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the board of his Burisma Energy company ) , ” Kent wrote .
One of the maneuvers Blue Star planned was to take the new Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko , who held the fate of Burisma in his hands , to the United States for an event with the Atlantic Council , a move that would have created positive press for Lutsenko in both countries , the memos state .
Kent discouraged doing so and eventually sent a memo to Yovanovitch alerting her that “ Lutsenko now likely not to go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ followed up with a request to be briefed .
“ Thanks George .
At some point appreciate discussing in more detail some of the folks referenced , ” the ambassador wrote in a Sept. 4 , 2016 email .
Within a few days , Yovanovitch received a direct letter from one of Burisma ’ s American lawyers , John Buretta of the Cravath , Swaine and Moore law firm in New York , alerting her that Lutsenko ’ s office was dropping a long-running corruption investigation of Burisma without filing charges based on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Buretta ’ s letter to Yovanovitch said the allegations against Zlochevsky were “ baseless , ” and the lawyer asked the U.S. embassy to drop its long-running narrative that Burisma was somehow corrupt .
“ We respectfully request that Your Excellency take into consideration these objective facts when considering the narrative promoted by some , and no doubt to be repeated again , in disregard of the facts and the law and the decisions by courts , ” Buretta wrote the ambassador .
Yovanovitch immediately forwarded the letter to Kent .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emailed .
Kent , the memos show , then arranged a special briefing for Yovanovitch later in September to get up to speed .
The planned subject of the briefing , the memos show , was “ Zlochevsky , Burisma , Cravath and image rehab campaigns.
” One of the topics for the briefing , Kent wrote colleagues on Sept. 16 , 2016 , was “ Zlochevsky/Burisma – asset recovery and past crimes of the Yanu regime as they intersect U.S. corporate/individual interest , ” an apparent reference to Hunter Biden ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ separate email to Yovanovitch , Kent was more explicit about the Biden connection .
“ This is further to the Blue Star effort to rehabilitate the reputation of their non-client in the US , former ministry of ecologies Zlochevsky , who clearly has retained the services of a blue chip law firm ( Cravath ) and his energy company Burisma , which in turn has Hunter Biden on its board , ” Kent emailed the ambassador .
By November 2016 , with Trump now the president-elect , Burisma ’ s American emissaries were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corruption case against Burisma — this one involving tax evasion — settled in Ukraine .
They succeeded by early January , just days before Trump took office .
The American legal team for Burisma also wanted to improve relations between the gas firm , where Hunter Biden worked , and the U.S. embassy and USAID , the foreign aid arm , the memos show .
The Dec. 8 , 2016 briefing memo prepared for Yovanovitch detailed the lobbying efforts by Blue Star .
“ USAID spoke to Blue Star Strategies representative Sally Painter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be open to discussing other forms of cooperation between USAID and Burisma , and agreed to meet with Burisma Government and Public Affairs representative Vadim Pozharskyi , ” the memo to Yovanovitch explained .
“ In the November meeting , Pozharskyi briefed USAID on Burisma and the gas sector more broadly but did not propose specific ideas for cooperation.
” U.S. officials directly familiar with the Dec. 8 , 2016 meeting confirmed it took place and that Yovanovich attended , but did not know whether the ambassador read the briefing memo beforehand .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Tramantano , word surfaced in Ukraine that Zlochevsky had settled the second case against Burisma with a fine , and the Ukrainian news media was up in arms , critical that the owner and his company with Hunter Biden on its board had escaped more serious penalty .
One headline forwarded by email to the ambassador read , “ Activists cry foul as courts , prosecutors clear Zlochevsky.
” “ Lots of accusations/innuendo , ” a State official wrote Yovanovitch and Kent on Dec. 29 , 2016 , forwarding another news article @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gas into the market as a political payoff for getting off in the criminal case .
“ Mentions Biden ’ s son and Kwasniewski are on board of Burisma , which allegedly had a subsidiary dump natural gas recently as a way to pay bribes ” to Ukrainian officials , the State official wrote Yovanovitch .
A few hours later on that same day , the embassy ’ s deputy economic counselor followed up with Yovanovitch about the payoff allegations .
“ The dumping part is true , ” the official wrote .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Joe Biden prepared to make a final visit to Ukraine before leaving office , officials around Yovanovitch worried the Burisma scandal might taint the visit .
They forwarded news articles to the ambassador , some which were critical of the Bidens .
A Jan. 7 , 2017 email from a State official to Yovanovitch , for instance , provided a summary of recent news reports about the impending Biden visit .
“ Ukrainian political scientists speculate on the purpose of the visit , ” the email told Yovanovitch .
One of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden “ has a business interest ” in Ukraine because his son worked for Burisma .
“ Perhaps the behind the scenes part of the visit can be attributed to the fact that the Ukranian authorities guaranteed some business positions to the former Vice President and his family , ” the memo quoted one Ukrainian figure as saying .
Kent had long feared the Bidens had created the appearance of a conflict of interest with the Burisma relationship and testified during impeachment he tried to warn the vice president about his concerns in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media speculation about Biden ’ s last visit got more intense and nasty , Kent lamented to colleagues in a Jan. 17 , 2017 email that copied Yovanovitch : “ Burisma – gift that keeps on giving.
” For the Atlantic Council and Herbst , Kent ’ s line was prophetically , and literally , true .
On Jan. 13 , 2017 , Herbst emailed Kent that the Atlantic Council had just accepted a donation from Burisma .
“ I wanted you to know before it becomes public that the Atlantic Council decided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Burisma , ” Herbst wrote .
“ We looked at the matter closely and weighed it over for a month .
Information provided by the Cravath lawyer for Burisma in the London case was an important factor , although some uneasiness remains .
”

During President Trump’s impeachment, former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch testified to Congress that she knew little beyond an initial briefing and “press reports” about Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian natural gas firm that had hired Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and was dogged by a corruption investigation.
“It just wasn’t a big deal,” she declared under oath on Oct. 11, 2019.
But newly unearthed State Department memos obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show Yovanovitch’s embassy in Kiev, including the ambassador herself, was engaged in several discussions and meetings about Burisma as the gas firm scrambled during the 2016 election and transition to settle a long-running corruption investigation and polish its image before President Trump took office.
Yovanovitch, for instance, was specifically warned in an email by her top deputy in September 2016 — three years before her testimony — that Burisma had hired an American firm with deep Democratic connections called Blue Star Strategies to “rehabilitate the reputation” of the Ukrainian gas firm and that it had placed “Hunter Biden on its board,” the memos show.
She also met directly with a representative for Burisma in her embassy office, less than 45 days before Trump took office, a contact she did not mention during her impeachment deposition.
The discussions about Burisma inside Yovanovitch’s embassy were so extensive, in fact, that they filled more than 160 pages of emails, memos and correspondence in fall 2016 alone, according to the State Department records obtained under FOIA by the conservative group Citizens United.
The contacts included a detailed private letter hand-delivered to Yovanovitch by one of Burisma’s lawyers in September 2016, a briefing later that month from her staff on Burisma’s issues, and a meeting scheduled between the ambassador and a Burisma representative shortly before Christmas 2016 as the Obama administration was preparing to leave office.
Yovanovitch, who recently retired from State, did not respond Tuesday to a message sent to her private email seeking comment. Her lawyer during the impeachment proceedings, Lawrence S. Robbins, also did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
State officials declined comment.
David Bossie, a former congressional investigator and current outside adviser to Trump who runs Citizen United, said the documents his group obtained raise questions about Yovanovitch’s testimony last fall and what else Congress may not know about the embassy’s involvement with the Hunter Biden-connected Burisma firm.
"These new records clearly don't support Ambassador Yovanovitch's testimony under oath during [Rep. Adam] Schiff's sham impeachment. Her sworn testimony must be investigated and scrutinized just like in the case of General [Michael] Flynn,” he said. “You can't have two sets of rules."
The impeachment hearings last fall, which focused on efforts by Trump and his lawyer Rudy Guiliani to find evidence inside Ukraine on the Bidens and Burisma and to remove Yovanovitch from her job as U.S. ambassador, included testimony from Yovanovitch herself.
During that deposition in October 2019 she made no mention of direct contact with Burisma representatives and instead suggested her knowledge about the company and its legal travails was limited mostly to a briefing she received in preparation for Senate confirmation as ambassador in summer 2016 and subsequent news media reports.
Hunter Biden’s work for one of Ukraine’s largest energy companies, which generated more than $3 million in payments to his American firm over two years, stirred controversy in both Ukraine and the United States because his father oversaw U.S. policy for Ukraine while Burisma was long a focus of a criminal corruption probe in Ukraine. State Department officials have said they believed the relationship created the appearance of a conflict of interest.
“What do you know about the investigation of Burisma?” Yovanovitch was asked at one point during her October testimony.
“Not very much. And, again, that happened before I arrived,” she testified. “… Burisma wasn’t a big issue in the fall of 2018 — 2016 when I arrived.”
“Were you aware at that time of Hunter Biden’s role with Burisma?” she was asked at another point.
“Yes. As I mentioned, I became aware during the Q&A in the prep for my testimony,” she answered.
Yovanovitch said she believed she learned from press reports that Burisma’s criminal case had been dormant by the time she arrived in Kiev in late summer 2016.
“I’m trying to understand your testimony, because earlier in the day you said that, based on press reports, your understanding was that it was dormant. You may have had additional information it was dormant, or you don’t know?” Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., inquired at one point.
“Yes. And all I can tell you is it was a long time ago and it just wasn’t a big issue,” she said.
“So I just want to understand your position. Obviously, you knew that Burisma was dormant, based on press reports. That was what you stated earlier,” Zeldin pressed.
“Uh-huh,” she answered.
“But you’re saying that you may have had other information, but you don’t recall that now?” the lawmaker followed.
“I may have had other information, but I don’t recall how I had that impression …” she answered.
During a nationally televised impeachment hearing a month later in the House, Yovanovitch doubled down on her testimony that Burisma and Hunter Biden weren't on her radar when she took over as ambassador. "It was not a focus of what I was doing in that six-month period," she testified anew.
But the memos show Yovanovitch was informed that the criminal cases were actively being settled in fall 2016 and that Burisma and its founder Mykola Zlochevsky were trying to repair the company’s reputation with the U.S. Embassy.
For instance, a briefing memo prepared for Yovanovitch’s 30-minute meeting Dec. 8, 2016 inside the U.S. Embassy with Burisma representative Karen Tramontano noted that Tramantano worked for the lobbying and strategy firm Blue Star Strategies.
“An Atlantic Council member and Washington veteran, Tramontano informally represents Mykola Zlochevsky, the Burisma CEO, who has long been the target of law enforcement proceedings in Ukraine,” the memo stated.
The memo added that “his [Zlochevsky’s] official US representatives sent a letter in September (attached) asking that the embassy reconsider its position on him.”
Read the memos by clicking on the "Dig In" button above.
The new memos aren't the first to raise questions about Yovanovitch's testimony. Last November, Fox News challenged another portion of her testimony denying she had contact with a Democratic House staffer after the network said it obtained emails showing Yovanovitch did in fact have the contact on her private email, and not her official State email.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has been trying to subpoena documents about Blue Star Strategies and its work for Burisma for weeks but has been blocked by opposition from Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, whose friend serves on the Burisma board. Johnson and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, are now seeking to interview witnesses who previously served at the embassy.
The memos show that both Blue Star Strategies and the Atlantic Council, a nonprofit policy organization, played a role in fall 2016 pressing the U.S. embassy in Kiev to change its position on Burisma and Zlochevsky, whom the embassy viewed as corrupt. Zlochevsky has long denied any wrongdoing.
For instance, after the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State Department foreign funding arm, was told by the embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission George Kent not to accept a $7,500 donation for Burisma for a clean energy event in Ukraine in late summer 2016, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine named John Herbst working for the Atlantic Council reached out.
Herbst asked to meet with Yovanovitch in September 2016 and secured a private dinner date instead with Kent in Ukraine, the memos show. “I will factor into our conversation the Zlochevsky Affair,” Herbst wrote to Kent as he prepared for their dinner.
Kent, long a critic of Burisma, is one of the witnesses Johnson and Grassley are seeking to interview. He went out of his way to mention the Burisma-Hunter Biden connection during one of his pre-dinner email exchanges with Herbst in which he decried alleged “payoffs” to Ukrainian officials “to do nothing” about the Burisma investigation.
“I have no doubt such arrangements were made, apart from Mr. Zlochevsky (who also put Hunter Biden on the board of his Burisma Energy company),” Kent wrote.
One of the maneuvers Blue Star planned was to take the new Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko, who held the fate of Burisma in his hands, to the United States for an event with the Atlantic Council, a move that would have created positive press for Lutsenko in both countries, the memos state.
Kent discouraged doing so and eventually sent a memo to Yovanovitch alerting her that “Lutsenko now likely not to go to DC with Blue Star.”
She followed up with a request to be briefed. “Thanks George. At some point appreciate discussing in more detail some of the folks referenced,” the ambassador wrote in a Sept. 4, 2016 email.
Within a few days, Yovanovitch received a direct letter from one of Burisma’s American lawyers, John Buretta of the Cravath, Swaine and Moore law firm in New York, alerting her that Lutsenko’s office was dropping a long-running corruption investigation of Burisma without filing charges based on a Ukrainian court ruling favorable to Zlochevsky.
Buretta’s letter to Yovanovitch said the allegations against Zlochevsky were “baseless,” and the lawyer asked the U.S. embassy to drop its long-running narrative that Burisma was somehow corrupt.
“We respectfully request that Your Excellency take into consideration these objective facts when considering the narrative promoted by some, and no doubt to be repeated again, in disregard of the facts and the law and the decisions by courts,” Buretta wrote the ambassador.
Yovanovitch immediately forwarded the letter to Kent. “What is this about?” she emailed.
Kent, the memos show, then arranged a special briefing for Yovanovitch later in September to get up to speed. The planned subject of the briefing, the memos show, was “Zlochevsky, Burisma, Cravath and image rehab campaigns.”
One of the topics for the briefing, Kent wrote colleagues on Sept. 16, 2016, was “Zlochevsky/Burisma – asset recovery and past crimes of the Yanu regime as they intersect U.S. corporate/individual interest,” an apparent reference to Hunter Biden’s role with the company.
In a separate email to Yovanovitch, Kent was more explicit about the Biden connection. “This is further to the Blue Star effort to rehabilitate the reputation of their non-client in the US, former ministry of ecologies Zlochevsky, who clearly has retained the services of a blue chip law firm (Cravath) and his energy company Burisma, which in turn has Hunter Biden on its board,” Kent emailed the ambassador.
By November 2016, with Trump now the president-elect, Burisma’s American emissaries were in full motion to get a second corruption case against Burisma — this one involving tax evasion — settled in Ukraine. They succeeded by early January, just days before Trump took office.
The American legal team for Burisma also wanted to improve relations between the gas firm, where Hunter Biden worked, and the U.S. embassy and USAID, the foreign aid arm, the memos show.
The Dec. 8, 2016 briefing memo prepared for Yovanovitch detailed the lobbying efforts by Blue Star.
“USAID spoke to Blue Star Strategies representative Sally Painter by phone and indicated that we would be open to discussing other forms of cooperation between USAID and Burisma, and agreed to meet with Burisma Government and Public Affairs representative Vadim Pozharskyi,” the memo to Yovanovitch explained. “In the November meeting, Pozharskyi briefed USAID on Burisma and the gas sector more broadly but did not propose specific ideas for cooperation.”
U.S. officials directly familiar with the Dec. 8, 2016 meeting confirmed it took place and that Yovanovich attended, but did not know whether the ambassador read the briefing memo beforehand.
After Yovanovitch met with Blue Star’s Tramantano, word surfaced in Ukraine that Zlochevsky had settled the second case against Burisma with a fine, and the Ukrainian news media was up in arms, critical that the owner and his company with Hunter Biden on its board had escaped more serious penalty.
One headline forwarded by email to the ambassador read, “Activists cry foul as courts, prosecutors clear Zlochevsky.”
“Lots of accusations/innuendo,” a State official wrote Yovanovitch and Kent on Dec. 29, 2016, forwarding another news article that alleged Burisma may have dumped natural gas into the market as a political payoff for getting off in the criminal case.
“Mentions Biden’s son and Kwasniewski are on board of Burisma, which allegedly had a subsidiary dump natural gas recently as a way to pay bribes” to Ukrainian officials, the State official wrote Yovanovitch.
A few hours later on that same day, the embassy’s deputy economic counselor followed up with Yovanovitch about the payoff allegations. “The dumping part is true,” the official wrote.
By early January 2017, as Vice President Joe Biden prepared to make a final visit to Ukraine before leaving office, officials around Yovanovitch worried the Burisma scandal might taint the visit. They forwarded news articles to the ambassador, some which were critical of the Bidens.
A Jan. 7, 2017 email from a State official to Yovanovitch, for instance, provided a summary of recent news reports about the impending Biden visit. “Ukrainian political scientists speculate on the purpose of the visit,” the email told Yovanovitch.
One of the speculations quoted in the memo was that Biden “has a business interest” in Ukraine because his son worked for Burisma. “Perhaps the behind the scenes part of the visit can be attributed to the fact that the Ukranian authorities guaranteed some business positions to the former Vice President and his family,” the memo quoted one Ukrainian figure as saying.
Kent had long feared the Bidens had created the appearance of a conflict of interest with the Burisma relationship and testified during impeachment he tried to warn the vice president about his concerns in 2015 but got rebuffed. As the media speculation about Biden’s last visit got more intense and nasty, Kent lamented to colleagues in a Jan. 17, 2017 email that copied Yovanovitch: “Burisma – gift that keeps on giving.”
For the Atlantic Council and Herbst, Kent’s line was prophetically, and literally, true.
On Jan. 13, 2017, Herbst emailed Kent that the Atlantic Council had just accepted a donation from Burisma.
“I wanted you to know before it becomes public that the Atlantic Council decided to accept support for its program from Burisma,” Herbst wrote. “We looked at the matter closely and weighed it over for a month. Information provided by the Cravath lawyer for Burisma in the London case was an important factor, although some uneasiness remains.”


bonginoreport--2020-05-13--Federal Judge in Michael Flynn Case Appoints Judge to Argue Against Dismissal

Federal Judge Orders Arguments on Whether Michael Flynn Should Be Jailed for Perjury Federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan late Wednesday issued a stunning ruling in the prosecution of Michael Flynn , President Donald Trump ‘ s former National Security Advisor .
The two-pronged order ( 1 ) appoints a former federal judge to argue against dismissing the case ; and ( 2 ) considers holding Flynn in criminal contempt for perjury .
“ Upon consideration of the entire record in this case , it is hereby ORDERED that the Court exercises its inherent authority to appoint The Honorable John Gleeson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to present arguments in opposition to the government ’ s Motion to Dismiss , ” the judge wrote .
“ [ I ] t is further ORDERED that amicus curiae shall address whether the Court should issue an Order to Show Cause why Mr. Flynn should not be held in criminal contempt for perjury pursuant to 18 U.S.C .
§ 401 , Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 42 , the Court ’ s inherent authority , and any other applicable statutes , rules , or controlling law.
” Judging by the order , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up the court ’ s time by pleading guilty , firing his lawyers , hiring new lawyers , and moving to withdraw his guilty plea .
As if that wasn ’ t enough , the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss its case against Flynn .
Gleeson , a Bill Clinton nominee to a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of New York , was previously an Assistant United States Attorney for the same district .
As a prosecutor , Gleeson secured a conviction against mobster John Gotti .
He also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Street , ” Jordan Belfort .
He retired as a judge to pursue a career in private practice .
The statute Sullivan cited , 18 U.S.C .
§ 401 , reads as follows : A court of the United States shall have power to punish by fine or imprisonment , or both , at its discretion , such contempt of its authority , and none other , as — ( 1 ) Misbehavior of any person in its presence or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice ; ( 2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in their official transactions ; ( 3 ) Disobedience or resistance to its lawful writ , process , order , rule , decree , or command .
Criminal Procedure Rule 42 deals with criminal contempt proceedings .
It requires , in part , that criminal contempt “ be prosecuted by an attorney for the government , unless the interest of justice requires the appointment of another attorney.
” The rule also contains an escape hatch for the judge in the event the government refuses .
“ If the government declines the request , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prosecute the contempt.
” Earlier Wednesday , Sullivan again pumped the brakes on attempts by the Department of Justice and Flynn ’ s legal team to have the criminal against Flynn dismissed .
Sullivan told a group of Watergate prosecutors to stand down in their attempt to suggest Flynn could be sentenced regardless of the consecutive attempts of the actual litigating parties to toss the case .
Flynn told the prosecutors — whose histories Law & Crime has detailed — to wait for the court to establish a calendar for amicus curiae proceedings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ argued this week that the case should be dismissed immediately .
Sullivan was nominated to judgeships by presidents Clinton and Ronald Reagan .
Sullivan wants to know why … by Law & Crime on Scribd Editor ’ s note : this piece began as a breaking news report ; it has been updated multiple times .

Federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan late Wednesday issued a stunning ruling in the prosecution of Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump‘s former National Security Advisor. The two-pronged order (1) appoints a former federal judge to argue against dismissing the case; and (2) considers holding Flynn in criminal contempt for perjury.
“Upon consideration of the entire record in this case, it is hereby ORDERED that the Court exercises its inherent authority to appoint The Honorable John Gleeson (Ret.) as amicus curiae to present arguments in opposition to the government’s Motion to Dismiss,” the judge wrote. “[I]t is further ORDERED that amicus curiae shall address whether the Court should issue an Order to Show Cause why Mr. Flynn should not be held in criminal contempt for perjury pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 401, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 42, the Court’s inherent authority, and any other applicable statutes, rules, or controlling law.”
Judging by the order, Sullivan is not pleased that Flynn took up the court’s time by pleading guilty, firing his lawyers, hiring new lawyers, and moving to withdraw his guilty plea. As if that wasn’t enough, the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss its case against Flynn.
Gleeson, a Bill Clinton nominee to a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of New York, was previously an Assistant United States Attorney for the same district. As a prosecutor, Gleeson secured a conviction against mobster John Gotti. He also prosecuted the so-called “Wolf of Wall Street,” Jordan Belfort. He retired as a judge to pursue a career in private practice.
The statute Sullivan cited, 18 U.S.C. § 401, reads as follows:
A court of the United States shall have power to punish by fine or imprisonment, or both, at its discretion, such contempt of its authority, and none other, as —(1)Misbehavior of any person in its presence or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice;(2)Misbehavior of any of its officers in their official transactions;(3)Disobedience or resistance to its lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command.
Criminal Procedure Rule 42 deals with criminal contempt proceedings. It requires, in part, that criminal contempt “be prosecuted by an attorney for the government, unless the interest of justice requires the appointment of another attorney.”
The rule also contains an escape hatch for the judge in the event the government refuses. “If the government declines the request, the court must appoint another attorney to prosecute the contempt.”
Earlier Wednesday, Sullivan again pumped the brakes on attempts by the Department of Justice and Flynn’s legal team to have the criminal against Flynn dismissed. Sullivan told a group of Watergate prosecutors to stand down in their attempt to suggest Flynn could be sentenced regardless of the consecutive attempts of the actual litigating parties to toss the case. Flynn told the prosecutors — whose histories Law&Crime has detailed — to wait for the court to establish a calendar for amicus curiae proceedings.
Flynn’s legal team has argued this week that the case should be dismissed immediately.
Sullivan was nominated to judgeships by presidents Clinton and Ronald Reagan.
READ the order below.
Sullivan wants to know why … by Law&Crime on Scribd
Editor’s note: this piece began as a breaking news report; it has been updated multiple times.
[Image via SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images]


bonginoreport--2020-05-13--Keeping Schools Closed in the Fall Would Make No Sense

By fall , students should be back on campus , remaining cautious but allowed to return to the rigorous and engaging academic environment schools owe them .
The lockdown can not last forever .
States across the country are slowly lifting restrictions as the nightmare of containment and cabin fever is gradually coming to an end .
One area in which reopening is still completely up in the air , with no sign of resolution soon , is education .
Whether colleges and many K-12 schools will return to in-person classes in the fall is still up for debate .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ later in the summer , to wait for the trajectory of the disease .
Even Dr. Anthony Fauci , in his Senate testimony yesterday , did not have a concrete suggestion for schools in the fall .
Colleges and universities must make a decision soon .
And that decision should be to open for in-person classes this fall .
It is wholly unfeasible for the country to endlessly continue under stay-at-home orders .
Universities have four months until students will be returning for fall classes , which is more than enough time to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plans to keep students , faculty , and staff healthy while learning .
Distance learning is far from an ideal educational environment .
It is in fact worse than in-person classes for the students and teachers .
Students are struggling against difficult home environments , limited access to the internet , lack of access to libraries , and challenges finding a quiet or academic setting in which to study and complete assignments .
Colleges are aware of these challenges , as demonstrated by their alternative grading policies , which ranged from automatic As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ period , or extended deadlines for deciding to take a class pass/fail .
Further , there is more to college than just the classes .
Part of what drove students towards the institution they chose is the experience .
Access to professors , sports , performing arts groups , clubs , and camaraderie with classmates are all important aspects of college , none of which can be replicated through Zoom sessions .
The shift to online learning has hurt colleges as much as , if not more than , the students .
Schools @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of room and board unused due to the untimely end of the spring semester .
However , this reimbursement is not enough for many students and their families who feel shortchanged by the shift online , since an in-person college experience is a part of the package promised in exchange for colossal tuition rates .
As such , there are several class-action lawsuits seeking a refund of tuition and other fees .
Should college be exclusively online next fall , these academic institutions will not be able to maintain the same exorbitant tuition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prepared to face more lawsuits .
Further , new students are about to arrive on campuses to begin their freshman years .
If the first few months of college are destined to be virtual , many schools are likely to face incredibly small freshman classes , as the number of deferments for gap years will increase dramatically .
Moreover , opening schools is important for the large staff required to keep them up and running .
While professors can continue to lecture from their homes , many people who work on college campuses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remotely .
There have already been sizable layoffs and furloughs for non-faculty employees , numbers that would only grow during an extended period of virtual learning .
Resuming classes in the fall could help protect the livelihoods of the hardworking men and women who work in the dining halls , dorms , libraries , campus stores , facilities , and security .
While universities are still engaging in distant learning , primary and secondary school students across Europe are returning to classes .
High schoolers in Germany , Hungary , and Luxembourg are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with younger students returning grade by grade .
Elementary schoolers in Norway are also already in school .
France and Poland are bringing back primary school students voluntarily .
Denmark reopened a month ago , and Sweden never closed .
The schools are being regularly disinfected .
Classes are limiting the number of students per room in order to maintain social distance .
Lunch periods are staggered , as are arrivals and departures .
Hand washing is increasingly frequent .
While these measures will not wholly eradicate the risks of disease transmission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ begin to safely allow students and teachers to return to schools .
The United States should take its cue from these countries , and methodically return to normalcy in education .
By fall , my classmates and I should be back on our campuses , remaining cautious but allowed to return to the rigorous and engaging academic environment promised by our schools .

The lockdown cannot last forever. States across the country are slowly lifting restrictions as the nightmare of containment and cabin fever is gradually coming to an end.
One area in which reopening is still completely up in the air, with no sign of resolution soon, is education. Whether colleges and many K-12 schools will return to in-person classes in the fall is still up for debate. Many universities have postponed the decision to later in the summer, to wait for the trajectory of the disease. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, in his Senate testimony yesterday, did not have a concrete suggestion for schools in the fall.
Colleges and universities must make a decision soon. And that decision should be to open for in-person classes this fall.
It is wholly unfeasible for the country to endlessly continue under stay-at-home orders. Universities have four months until students will be returning for fall classes, which is more than enough time to put in place health precautions and make plans to keep students, faculty, and staff healthy while learning.
For the Students
Distance learning is far from an ideal educational environment. It is in fact worse than in-person classes for the students and teachers. Students are struggling against difficult home environments, limited access to the internet, lack of access to libraries, and challenges finding a quiet or academic setting in which to study and complete assignments.
Colleges are aware of these challenges, as demonstrated by their alternative grading policies, which ranged from automatic As, universal pass/fail, an elongated add/drop period, or extended deadlines for deciding to take a class pass/fail.
Further, there is more to college than just the classes. Part of what drove students towards the institution they chose is the experience. Access to professors, sports, performing arts groups, clubs, and camaraderie with classmates are all important aspects of college, none of which can be replicated through Zoom sessions.
For the University
The shift to online learning has hurt colleges as much as, if not more than, the students. Schools were forced to reimburse for the portion of room and board unused due to the untimely end of the spring semester.
However, this reimbursement is not enough for many students and their families who feel shortchanged by the shift online, since an in-person college experience is a part of the package promised in exchange for colossal tuition rates. As such, there are several class-action lawsuits seeking a refund of tuition and other fees. Should college be exclusively online next fall, these academic institutions will not be able to maintain the same exorbitant tuition of previous years, unless they are prepared to face more lawsuits.
Further, new students are about to arrive on campuses to begin their freshman years. If the first few months of college are destined to be virtual, many schools are likely to face incredibly small freshman classes, as the number of deferments for gap years will increase dramatically.
Moreover, opening schools is important for the large staff required to keep them up and running. While professors can continue to lecture from their homes, many people who work on college campuses cannot continue to do their jobs remotely. There have already been sizable layoffs and furloughs for non-faculty employees, numbers that would only grow during an extended period of virtual learning. Resuming classes in the fall could help protect the livelihoods of the hardworking men and women who work in the dining halls, dorms, libraries, campus stores, facilities, and security.
Education Re-Opened Abroad
While universities are still engaging in distant learning, primary and secondary school students across Europe are returning to classes. High schoolers in Germany, Hungary, and Luxembourg are already back to prepare for end-of-year exams, with younger students returning grade by grade. Elementary schoolers in Norway are also already in school. France and Poland are bringing back primary school students voluntarily. Denmark reopened a month ago, and Sweden never closed.
The schools are being regularly disinfected. Classes are limiting the number of students per room in order to maintain social distance. Lunch periods are staggered, as are arrivals and departures. Hand washing is increasingly frequent. While these measures will not wholly eradicate the risks of disease transmission, Europe is showing how countries can begin to safely allow students and teachers to return to schools.
The United States should take its cue from these countries, and methodically return to normalcy in education. By fall, my classmates and I should be back on our campuses, remaining cautious but allowed to return to the rigorous and engaging academic environment promised by our schools.
Paulina Enck is a writer who recently graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with a degree in Global Business. Follow her on Twitter at @itspaulinaenck.


bonginoreport--2020-05-13--Pentagon Watchdog Cautions on Risk of ISIS Prison Breaks in Syria

FILE - In this Feb. 22 , 2019 file photo , U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces ( SDF ) fighters stand guard next to men waiting to be screened after being evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State group militants , near Baghouz , eastern Syria .
The coalition has had “ little or no direct access ” to the facilities since Turkey ’ s October invasion .
Thousands of ISIS fighters held by the Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria continue to pose a “ high-impact risk of a mass breakout ” — but since the U.S. withdrawal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not have access to the prison facilities to assess the severity of that risk , the Pentagon ’ s inspector general warned in a report released Wednesday .
“ If not adequately addressed , these populations of fighters pose one of the most significant risks to the success of the [ anti-ISIS ] mission , in addition to posing a threat to U.S. and Coalition partner national security , ” the U.S.-led mission in Iraq and Syria reported to the lead inspector general , Sean O ’ Donnell .
Since Turkish forces invaded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has “ little or no direct access ” to the facilities and “ is no longer able to track comprehensive data on the foreign fighter population or the level of security at the SDF detention centers where they are being held , ” the report said .
The coalition ’ s knowledge of the situation relies solely on information from the SDF .
Ongoing riots and small-scale escape attempts “ underscore the risk , ” the report found , although the U.S. mission reported that it found no change this quarter in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ detention centers .
( It also reported no improvements in perimeter security . )
Ever since President Trump decided last fall to withdraw troops in the face of Turkey ’ s imminent incursion , senior U.S. national security officials have harbored fears that thousands of ISIS fighters held in the SDF ’ s makeshift prisons will break free .
There were reports of small numbers of fighters escaping during the invasion , and a March 29 riot at a detention center at Hasakah raged for 24 hours before the SDF was able to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media reports that “ ISIS militants began breaking down doors and digging holes in walls between cells.
” “ The rioting was brought under control the next morning , but erupted again with gunfire heard inside and ambulances called in to help the wounded , ” the report said .
Dozens of fighters are crammed in a single cell , security cameras don ’ t work or aren ’ t available , and cheap cement walls are crumbling , officials who have visited the prisons say .
Although the United States has provided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and training , the SDF has pleaded for more support to help hold the fighters and put down riots and escape attempts .
The SDF currently holds about 2,000 foreign fighters and about 8,000 Syrian and Iraqi fighters , according to the report .
Although the U.S. and the UN have urged nations to repatriate their fighters , domestic political and legal concerns have kept many nations from agreeing and , in some cases , have led countries to strip ISIS fighters of their citizenship .
The problem of what to do with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ although the SDF has remained committed to holding the detainees , “ officials said that the longer the foreign fighters were held , the more they become radicalized , and the greater potential for them to organize breakouts , ” the report warned .
The risk of escapes drew much of the Western media attention during the Turkish invasion ; critics argued that Trump had paved the way for potential breakouts by not doing more to stop Ankara .
At the time , the SDF promoted false accounts about Kurdish prison guards leaving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ along the Turkish border .
The stories , an SDF spokesman told the New Yorker , “ made the international community pay attention .
”

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bonginoreport--2020-05-13--Buzzfeed to Close Operations in UK and Australia

Buzzfeed is closing its dedicated UK and Australian news operations , resulting in staff being furloughed and stood down .
The decision to stop covering local news in the two countries has been made “ both for economic and strategic reasons ” , a spokesperson said .
Buzzfeed continues to publish news in the US and said it plans to retain some UK staff to cover global news for its American audience in areas such as social news , celebrity and investigations .
Some ten UK staff are understood to have been furloughed .
The move comes as the global @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caused by the coronavirus crisis , with thousands of staff put on furlough in the UK alone and some titles having been suspended .
Buzzfeed News , which launched in the US in 2011 and expanded to the UK in 2013 , is dependent on advertising as its main source of income .
The digital-only news outfit made a loss of £9.4m in the UK in 2018 , with turnover down nearly £12m .
A Buzzfeed spokesperson said : “ Both for economic and strategic reasons , we are going to focus on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States during this difficult period .
“ Therefore , we will notify staff in the UK and Australia that we are not planning to cover local news in those countries .
“ We will be consulting with employees on our plans regarding furloughs and stand-downs in these regions .
“ In the UK , we still plan on retaining some employees who are focused on news with a global audience — social news , celebrity , and investigations.
” Buzzfeed UK has faced repeated staffing cuts in the last two years , with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2018 .
Cuts to 15 per cent of Buzzfeed ’ s global workforce at the start of 2019 further reduced the UK newsroom to 20 journalists .
Former Guardian journalist Stuart Millar took over as Buzzfeed UK editor from Janine Gibson last year .
Ben Smith , the founding editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News , left the news website to join the New York Times in January this year , eight years after helping to launch its US newsroom .

The Buzzfeed newsroom in New York. Picture: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
Buzzfeed is closing its dedicated UK and Australian news operations, resulting in staff being furloughed and stood down.
The decision to stop covering local news in the two countries has been made “both for economic and strategic reasons”, a spokesperson said.
About ten UK staff have been furloughed until the end of June and face redundancy when the scheme ends.
Buzzfeed News UK journalists put on furlough:
Related
Stuart Millar – editor Alan White – news editor Elizabeth Pears – news editor Alex Wickham – politics editor Emily Ashton – senior political correspondent Alex Spence – senior political correspondent Hannah Al-Othman- political correspondent Patrick Strudwick – LGBT editor Emily Dugan – senior reporter Matthew Champion – deputy world news editor Joey D’Urso – media and politics reporter Georgia Chambers – curation editor / reporter
Two of the journalists affected are currently on maternity leave – Elizabeth Pears and Emily Dugan, who won the Private Eye Paul Foot Award last year.
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Patrick Strudwick won the British Journalism Award for Specialist Journalism in 2018.
Buzzfeed continues to publish news in the US and said it plans to retain some UK staff to cover global news for its American audience.
Eleven UK staff will remain in total: six on the investigations team – including Alberto Nardelli and former BJA New Journalist of the Year Richard Holmes – two on social news and three on celebrity news.
The move comes as the global news industry is facing an advertising downturn caused by the coronavirus crisis, with thousands of staff put on furlough in the UK alone and some titles having been suspended.
Buzzfeed News, which launched in the US in 2011 and expanded to the UK in 2013, is dependent on advertising as its main source of income.
The digital-only news outfit made a loss of £9.4m in the UK in 2018, with turnover down nearly £12m.
A Buzzfeed spokesperson said: “Both for economic and strategic reasons, we are going to focus on news that hits big in the United States during this difficult period.
“Therefore, we will notify staff in the UK and Australia that we are not planning to cover local news in those countries.
“We will be consulting with employees on our plans regarding furloughs and stand-downs in these regions.
“In the UK, we still plan on retaining some employees who are focused on news with a global audience — social news, celebrity, and investigations.”
A number of journalists and high-profile figures took to Twitter to share their sadness at news of Buzzfeed News UK’s closure. Celebrity cook Nigella Lawson said it was “very depressing – for them and us”.
Guardian columnist Marina Hyde said: “Such a massive loss. I’ve found out so much from Buzzfeed over the past few years, been informed and made to laugh so many times a day by their brilliant, idiosyncratic and dedicated staff.”
Former Buzzfeed UK investigations reporter Jane Bradley, who moved to the New York Times in December, tweeted: “…my heart is bursting/breaking with all the tweets about BuzzFeed & what a blow it is to journalism to lose such a talented, scrappy news team…”.
Buzzfeed UK has faced repeated staffing cuts in the last two years, with some 23 editorial staff made redundant in 2018.
Cuts to 15 per cent of Buzzfeed’s global workforce at the start of 2019 further reduced the UK newsroom to 20 journalists.
Millar took over from Janine Gibson as UK editor last year.
Ben Smith, the founding editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News, left the news website to join the New York Times in January this year, eight years after helping to launch its US newsroom.
Picture: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog


bonginoreport--2020-05-13--Federal Reserve: Nearly 40% of Households Earning Under $40k/Year Lost a Job in March Alone

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said `` the reversal of economic fortune '' brought on by the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ months in the United States `` has caused a level of pain that is hard @ @ @ @ @ '' Statistics , though , can help paint a clearer picture of the crisis .
@ @ @ @ @ Powell said the Fed is releasing a survey Thursday which found that among people who @ @ @ @ @ nearly 40 percent of those in households making less than $ 40,000 per year lost @ @ @ @ @ All told , Powell said , `` the scope and speed of this downturn are @ @ @ @ @ worse than any recession since World War II . ''
He also warned that the @ @ @ @ @ damage .
Read the full address here .
Tim O'Donnell

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said "the reversal of economic fortune" brought on by the coronavirus pandemic over the last two months in the United States "has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words."
Statistics, though, can help paint a clearer picture of the crisis. In the same address, Powell said the Fed is releasing a survey Thursday which found that among people who were working in February, nearly 40 percent of those in households making less than $40,000 per year lost a job in March.
All told, Powell said, "the scope and speed of this downturn are without modern precedent, significantly worse than any recession since World War II." He also warned that the pandemic could leave lasting economic damage. Read the full address here.


bonginoreport--2020-05-13--Uber Discussing $7.2 Billion Buyout of Grubhub

• Grubhub may fetch as much as $ 75 per share in an Uber takeover , according to a Wednesday note from Barclays.Â • That 's a 25 % premium from where shares of the food delivery company traded at Tuesday 's close.Â • `` UBER potentially doing this before the industry acceleration is priced into GRUB shares ( and before UBER 's ride-hail business recovers ) is opportunistic , in our view , '' a group of analysts led by Deepak Mathivanan wrote.Â • Still , a deal might not come to fruition .
On Wednesday , CNBC 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's all-stock proposal , as the two companies remained at odds over price .
Grubhub could get as much as $ 75 per share in an Uber takeover , according to a Wednesday note from Barclays.Â That 's a roughly 25 % premium from where shares of the food-delivery platform traded at Tuesday 's close .
Grubhub gained 29 % to $ 60.39 per share Tuesday following reports that Uber made an offer for the company.Â '' In addition to meaningful upside , we note that this deal allows GRUB shareholders to participate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strong ride-hail industry recovery in 2020-2021 , '' a group of analysts led by Deepak Mathivanan wrote.Â Still , a deal might not come to fruition .
On Wednesday , CNBC 's David Faber reported that Uber rejected Grubhub 's all-stock proposal , as the two companies remain at odds over price .
Shares of Grubhub fell more than 7 % during intraday trading Wednesday.Â Read more : These 25 under-the-radar companies have been neglected for years - but BTIG says that makes them tempting M & A targets with big stock upside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense , the Barclays analysts said , citing `` the meaningful opportunity for both revenue and cost synergies .
`` Â If Uber does pay $ 75 per share , the total transaction would be about $ 7.2 billion , according to the note .
Barclays raised its Grubhub price target to $ 79 from $ 55 .
The firm kept its Uber price target flat at $ 36 , but noted that if a deal were formally announced it could see shares of the ride-hailing company reach its upside valuation of $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ UBER potentially doing this before the industry acceleration is priced into GRUB shares ( and before UBER 's ride-hail business recovers ) is opportunistic , in our view . ''

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Grubhub could get as much as $75 per share in an Uber takeover, according to a Wednesday note from Barclays.
That's a roughly 25% premium from where shares of the food-delivery platform traded at Tuesday's close. Grubhub gained 29% to $60.39 per share Tuesday following reports that Uber made an offer for the company.
"In addition to meaningful upside, we note that this deal allows GRUB shareholders to participate in what we think could be a strong ride-hail industry recovery in 2020-2021," a group of analysts led by Deepak Mathivanan wrote.
Still, a deal might not come to fruition. On Wednesday, CNBC's David Faber reported that Uber rejected Grubhub's all-stock proposal, as the two companies remain at odds over price. Shares of Grubhub fell more than 7% during intraday trading Wednesday.
Read more: These 25 under-the-radar companies have been neglected for years — but BTIG says that makes them tempting M&A targets with big stock upside
A merger between Uber and Grubhub makes sense, the Barclays analysts said, citing "the meaningful opportunity for both revenue and cost synergies."
If Uber does pay $75 per share, the total transaction would be about $7.2 billion, according to the note. Barclays raised its Grubhub price target to $79 from $55.
The firm kept its Uber price target flat at $36, but noted that if a deal were formally announced it could see shares of the ride-hailing company reach its upside valuation of $43 per share.
Mathivanan continued: "UBER potentially doing this before the industry acceleration is priced into GRUB shares (and before UBER's ride-hail business recovers) is opportunistic, in our view."
Grubhub has gained 24% year-to-date through Tuesday's close.


bonginoreport--2020-05-13--John Brennan Has a Lot to Worry About

John Brennan Has a Lot to Worry About

President Trump 's spy chief is reportedly declassifying information that shows CIA Director John Brennan `` suppressed '' intelligence on Russia wanting Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 election .
Fox News chief White House correspondent Ed Henry said Tuesday evening that `` it could get sticky '' for Brennan , who served as CIA director under President Barack Obama , due to his role in developing the 2017 intelligence community assessment on Russian election interference that determined with `` moderate '' to `` high '' confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin sought to boost Trump 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other intel that may have been more serious suggesting that Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win , rather than balancing that out in the assessment they put out there in that assessment , and set the narrative that Russia wanted Trump to win , '' Henry reported on Tucker Carlson Tonight .
Noting that Fred Fleitz , a former CIA officer and National Security Council chief of staff , first blew the whistle on Brennan 's alleged efforts to hide this information , Henry said he has a separate intelligence source who confirmed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ five batches of documents that Richard Grenell , the acting director of national intelligence , is working to declassify .
This follows Grenell declassifying a list of Obama administration officials involved in the `` unmasking '' of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn in intelligence community intercepts of conversations the incoming Trump national security adviser had with a Russian envoy during the presidential transition period .
Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russia ’ s then-ambassador to the United States , but he later declared his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the FBI .
The Justice Department filed to drop its criminal case against Flynn on Thursday , saying in a court filing that after reviewing newly disclosed materials , the agency agreed with Flynn ’ s attorneys that his interview with the FBI that took place in late January 2017 should never have taken place because his conversations with the Russian diplomat were `` entirely appropriate . ''
Instead of agreeing to dismiss the case immediately , the D.C. federal judge presiding over it , Emmet Sullivan , opened the matter to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a stern rebuke from Sidney Powell , a former federal prosecutor who took over representation for Flynn last summer .
Last week , in a private conversation with former administration officials that was leaked to Yahoo News , Obama said the Justice Department 's recent actions show the `` rule of law is at risk . ''
His criticism came after the release of documents , which have raised questions about the extent to which Obama and Joe Biden , his vice president and now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee , were privy to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the case against Flynn in the waning days of the previous administration .
Henry said a DOJ representative confirmed to him that U.S. Attorney John Durham is looking into the Flynn `` unmasking '' issue `` among others . ''
Durham , the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut , is conducting a criminal investigation of the Russia inquiry , which ultimately did not establish any criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin Grenell delivered his unmasking list to the Justice Department last week .
The Washington Examiner reported on Monday that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Attorney General William Barr and that the declassified list also likely includes the names of officials involved in other unmaskings near the end of Obama 's second term .
Henry reported the Justice Department told him it is not going to release the information being declassified , instead waiting for Grenell to do it himself .
Republicans have alleged since 2017 that Obama-era officials improperly unmasked associates of then-candidate Trump ’ s presidential campaign during the Russia investigation .
Democrats have defended the intelligence-gathering process , arguing that the collection of identifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerns about Barr and Grenell taking actions that are influenced by politics .
Earlier this week , a letter was released that was signed by 2,000 former DOJ and FBI officials opposing the Trump administration ’ s decision to drop the case against Flynn .
Capping his report , Henry said there is criticism about his reporting .
`` There are a lot of critics out there saying , 'This is hype ; there ’ s nothing here , ' '' he told host Tucker Carlson .
But he also stressed that `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` Wait '' because `` there ’ s a whole lot more coming . ''
In a Fox News op-ed last month , Fleitz , who was John Bolton ’ s former chief of staff , said House Intelligence Committee members told him that Brennan `` suppressed facts or analysis that showed why it was not in Russia ’ s interests to support Trump and why Putin stood to benefit from Hillary Clinton ’ s election .
They also told me that Brennan suppressed that intelligence over the objections of CIA analysts .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ me that after an exhaustive investigation reviewing intelligence and interviewing intelligence officers , they found that Brennan suppressed high-quality intelligence suggesting that Putin actually wanted the more predictable and malleable Clinton to win the 2016 election , '' he added .
`` Instead , the Brennan team included low-quality intelligence that failed to meet intelligence community standards to support the political claim that Russian officials wanted Trump to win , House Intelligence Committee staff revealed .
They said that CIA analysts also objected to including that flawed , substandard information in the assessment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 158-page bipartisan report , which was heavily redacted upon release last month , said investigators found no evidence of political pressure to reach a specific conclusion and determined that the assessment by the CIA , FBI , and National Security Agency “ presents a coherent and well-constructed intelligence basis for the case of unprecedented Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
” Brennan , a vocal Trump critic , said that the Senate Intelligence Committee report `` totally validated '' the 2017 intelligence community assessment .
`` I ’ m just very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came out with a report that totally validated the intelligence community ’ s assessment about Russian interference in the election in 2016 to help Donald Trump , ” Brennan told Politico .
“ Donald Trump continues to call all these things hoaxes .
They ’ re not .
The only hoax is his representation of the facts .
That ’ s the hoax .
It ’ s because , I think , he has this quite understandable insecurity about what he ’ s done — well , this is what others have done @ @ @ @ @ @ @ released in 2018 , a product that was not bipartisan , came to a different determination than the one in the Senate .
The GOP-led effort in the House concluded , “ The majority of the Intelligence Community Assessment judgments on Russia 's election activities employed proper analytic tradecraft '' but found that the `` judgments on Putin 's strategic intentions did not.
” The Democrats on the panel released their own assessment that said they found `` no evidence '' to cast doubt on the ICA 's assessment .
Fleitz , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra , argued the House Republicans got it right .
He said , `` Intelligence officers likely told different stories to Republican House Intelligence Committee and bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigators because of the strong political bias within intelligence agencies against President Trump . ''
Putin , standing alongside Trump during a joint news conference in July 2018 , said he wanted Trump to win the 2016 election `` because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal . ''

President Trump's spy chief is reportedly declassifying information that shows CIA Director John Brennan "suppressed" intelligence on Russia wanting Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 election.
Fox News chief White House correspondent Ed Henry said Tuesday evening that "it could get sticky" for Brennan, who served as CIA director under President Barack Obama, due to his role in developing the 2017 intelligence community assessment on Russian election interference that determined with "moderate" to "high" confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin sought to boost Trump's 2016 election chances.
"There's other intel that may have been more serious suggesting that Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win, rather than balancing that out in the assessment they put out there in that assessment, and set the narrative that Russia wanted Trump to win," Henry reported on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Noting that Fred Fleitz, a former CIA officer and National Security Council chief of staff, first blew the whistle on Brennan's alleged efforts to hide this information, Henry said he has a separate intelligence source who confirmed this intelligence is among the four or five batches of documents that Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, is working to declassify.
This follows Grenell declassifying a list of Obama administration officials involved in the "unmasking" of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn in intelligence community intercepts of conversations the incoming Trump national security adviser had with a Russian envoy during the presidential transition period.
Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russia’s then-ambassador to the United States, but he later declared his innocence and argued he was set up by the FBI.
The Justice Department filed to drop its criminal case against Flynn on Thursday, saying in a court filing that after reviewing newly disclosed materials, the agency agreed with Flynn’s attorneys that his interview with the FBI that took place in late January 2017 should never have taken place because his conversations with the Russian diplomat were "entirely appropriate."
Instead of agreeing to dismiss the case immediately, the D.C. federal judge presiding over it, Emmet Sullivan, opened the matter to outside opinions on Tuesday, which earned a stern rebuke from Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor who took over representation for Flynn last summer.
Last week, in a private conversation with former administration officials that was leaked to Yahoo News, Obama said the Justice Department's recent actions show the "rule of law is at risk." His criticism came after the release of documents, which have raised questions about the extent to which Obama and Joe Biden, his vice president and now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, were privy to the actions taken by the FBI in the case against Flynn in the waning days of the previous administration.
Henry said a DOJ representative confirmed to him that U.S. Attorney John Durham is looking into the Flynn "unmasking" issue "among others." Durham, the top federal prosecutor in Connecticut, is conducting a criminal investigation of the Russia inquiry, which ultimately did not establish any criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin
Grenell delivered his unmasking list to the Justice Department last week.
The Washington Examiner reported on Monday that making the information public will be up to Attorney General William Barr and that the declassified list also likely includes the names of officials involved in other unmaskings near the end of Obama's second term.
Henry reported the Justice Department told him it is not going to release the information being declassified, instead waiting for Grenell to do it himself.
Republicans have alleged since 2017 that Obama-era officials improperly unmasked associates of then-candidate Trump’s presidential campaign during the Russia investigation. Democrats have defended the intelligence-gathering process, arguing that the collection of identifying information is inevitable, and have raised concerns about Barr and Grenell taking actions that are influenced by politics.
Earlier this week, a letter was released that was signed by 2,000 former DOJ and FBI officials opposing the Trump administration’s decision to drop the case against Flynn.
Capping his report, Henry said there is criticism about his reporting.
"There are a lot of critics out there saying, 'This is hype; there’s nothing here,'" he told host Tucker Carlson. But he also stressed that "people on the inside" say, "Wait" because "there’s a whole lot more coming."
In a Fox News op-ed last month, Fleitz, who was John Bolton’s former chief of staff, said House Intelligence Committee members told him that Brennan "suppressed facts or analysis that showed why it was not in Russia’s interests to support Trump and why Putin stood to benefit from Hillary Clinton’s election. They also told me that Brennan suppressed that intelligence over the objections of CIA analysts."
"House Intelligence Committee staff told me that after an exhaustive investigation reviewing intelligence and interviewing intelligence officers, they found that Brennan suppressed high-quality intelligence suggesting that Putin actually wanted the more predictable and malleable Clinton to win the 2016 election," he added. "Instead, the Brennan team included low-quality intelligence that failed to meet intelligence community standards to support the political claim that Russian officials wanted Trump to win, House Intelligence Committee staff revealed. They said that CIA analysts also objected to including that flawed, substandard information in the assessment."
The Senate intelligence panel's 158-page bipartisan report, which was heavily redacted upon release last month, said investigators found no evidence of political pressure to reach a specific conclusion and determined that the assessment by the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency “presents a coherent and well-constructed intelligence basis for the case of unprecedented Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”
Brennan, a vocal Trump critic, said that the Senate Intelligence Committee report "totally validated" the 2017 intelligence community assessment.
"I’m just very glad that the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday came out with a report that totally validated the intelligence community’s assessment about Russian interference in the election in 2016 to help Donald Trump,” Brennan told Politico. “Donald Trump continues to call all these things hoaxes. They’re not. The only hoax is his representation of the facts. That’s the hoax. It’s because, I think, he has this quite understandable insecurity about what he’s done — well, this is what others have done."
A House Intelligence Committee report released in 2018, a product that was not bipartisan, came to a different determination than the one in the Senate.
The GOP-led effort in the House concluded, “The majority of the Intelligence Community Assessment judgments on Russia's election activities employed proper analytic tradecraft" but found that the "judgments on Putin's strategic intentions did not.” The Democrats on the panel released their own assessment that said they found "no evidence" to cast doubt on the ICA's assessment.
Fleitz, who was a senior aide to former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra, argued the House Republicans got it right. He said, "Intelligence officers likely told different stories to Republican House Intelligence Committee and bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigators because of the strong political bias within intelligence agencies against President Trump."
Putin, standing alongside Trump during a joint news conference in July 2018, said he wanted Trump to win the 2016 election "because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal."


bonginoreport--2020-05-13--Supreme Court Wrestles With Electoral College Cases

An audio feed of Supreme Court oral arguments in Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Deutsche Bank AG , dealing with the subpoenas from the US Congress to obtain US President Donald Trumps financial records , is heard via a teleconference due to COVID-19 , known as coronavirus , as seen on a laptop in Washington , DC , May 12 , 2020 .
The Supreme Court on Wednesday wrestled with a dispute over whether Electoral College voters have a constitutional right to diverge from their state 's popular vote in two cases that could have implications for November 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about what would happen if electors were to take a bribe , get hacked by a foreign government or vote for a giraffe .
The justices heard from attorneys for presidential electors in Colorado and Washington state who refused to back Hillary Clinton in 2016 despite her victories in those states .
Like most states , Colorado and Washington both require Electoral College voters to vote in line with the state popular vote .
The question in the cases is whether Electoral College voters can be penalized under state law if they do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state popular vote .
Lower courts in Colorado and Washington came down on opposite sides of the issue .
In January , the top court agreed to weigh in .
A so-called `` faithless elector '' has never affected the outcome of a U.S. presidential election .
Attorneys on both sides , however , have warned that it could happen in a close race .
The justices ' questions largely focused on what limits applied to both electors and states in regulating voting in the Electoral College , America 's system for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an attorney for the Washington electors , and Jason Harrow , who represented electors in Colorado , argued that states could only remove Electoral College voters for offenses such as bribery once they had been convicted .
While the state can require electors to take a pledge to support the candidate who wins the popular vote , they can not punish an elector who violates that pledge , they argued .
Attorneys for the states argued that electors can be regulated far more strictly .
Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser said that under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bar electors from submitting a vote for a candidate who did not visit the state .
Forty-eight states , with the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska , allocate all of their Electoral College votes to the winner of the state popular vote .
In 32 states and Washington , D.C. , there are laws on the books requiring electors to vote for their pledged candidate .
The justices seemed to be seeking a middle ground that could enable states to remove electors who solicited bribes without giving states unbridled authority to dictate for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The arguments began at 10 a.m .
ET and lasted just under two and a half hours .
They were conducted over the phone as a precaution against the spreading coronavirus and streamed live to the public .
The cases came to the high court just months before President Donald Trump will face off against apparent Democratic nominee Joe Biden in November 's contest .
Decisions in the cases are expected over the summer .
Commentators noted that the arguments lacked the partisan furor that has animated several of the court 's other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tribe , a leading constitutional scholar at Harvard Law School , wrote in a post on Twitter that the arguments `` displayed nine really good constitutional thinkers trying to work their way through a complex and unsettled legal issue where the justices ' partisan and ideological leanings offered no guidance . ''

An audio feed of Supreme Court oral arguments in Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Deutsche Bank AG, dealing with the subpoenas from the US Congress to obtain US President Donald Trumps financial records, is heard via a teleconference due to COVID-19, known as coronavirus, as seen on a laptop in Washington, DC, May 12, 2020.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday wrestled with a dispute over whether Electoral College voters have a constitutional right to diverge from their state's popular vote in two cases that could have implications for November's presidential election.
The arguments featured hypotheticals about what would happen if electors were to take a bribe, get hacked by a foreign government or vote for a giraffe.
The justices heard from attorneys for presidential electors in Colorado and Washington state who refused to back Hillary Clinton in 2016 despite her victories in those states. Like most states, Colorado and Washington both require Electoral College voters to vote in line with the state popular vote.
The question in the cases is whether Electoral College voters can be penalized under state law if they do not vote for the candidate who wins the state popular vote. Lower courts in Colorado and Washington came down on opposite sides of the issue. In January, the top court agreed to weigh in.
A so-called "faithless elector" has never affected the outcome of a U.S. presidential election. Attorneys on both sides, however, have warned that it could happen in a close race.
The justices' questions largely focused on what limits applied to both electors and states in regulating voting in the Electoral College, America's system for indirectly selecting presidents.
Larry Lessig, an attorney for the Washington electors, and Jason Harrow, who represented electors in Colorado, argued that states could only remove Electoral College voters for offenses such as bribery once they had been convicted.
While the state can require electors to take a pledge to support the candidate who wins the popular vote, they cannot punish an elector who violates that pledge, they argued.
Attorneys for the states argued that electors can be regulated far more strictly. Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser said that under his view, a state could even bar electors from submitting a vote for a candidate who did not visit the state.
Forty-eight states, with the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska, allocate all of their Electoral College votes to the winner of the state popular vote. In 32 states and Washington, D.C., there are laws on the books requiring electors to vote for their pledged candidate.
The justices seemed to be seeking a middle ground that could enable states to remove electors who solicited bribes without giving states unbridled authority to dictate for whom electors may cast their votes.
The arguments began at 10 a.m. ET and lasted just under two and a half hours. They were conducted over the phone as a precaution against the spreading coronavirus and streamed live to the public.
The cases came to the high court just months before President Donald Trump will face off against apparent Democratic nominee Joe Biden in November's contest. Decisions in the cases are expected over the summer.
Commentators noted that the arguments lacked the partisan furor that has animated several of the court's other high-profile arguments of the term.
Laurence Tribe, a leading constitutional scholar at Harvard Law School, wrote in a post on Twitter that the arguments "displayed nine really good constitutional thinkers trying to work their way through a complex and unsettled legal issue where the justices' partisan and ideological leanings offered no guidance."
"A breath of fresh air," he wrote.


bonginoreport--2020-05-14--Florida Got It Right

Florida Got It Right

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bonginoreport--2020-05-14--SCOTUS Ruled Last Week Against Improper Use of Amicus Briefs – Which is What Flynn Judge is Doing

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week against the improper use of amicus briefs by judges to shape a court case as they wish — which is what Judge Emmet G. Sullivan is doing , critics say , in the ongoing Michael Flynn case .
On Tuesday , Judge Sullivan announced that he would accept amicus briefs about whether he should grant the Department of Justice ’ s ( DOJ ) motion to dismiss the case against Flynn .
On Wednesday , Sullivan went a step further , appointing retired judge John Gleeson as amicus curiae ( “ friend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against dismissal , and to argue Flynn be held in criminal contempt .
But last week , in the case of U.S. v. Sineneng-Smith , the Supreme Court held that the Ninth Circuit acted improperly by appointing three amici and directing them to brief issues that the judges wanted to consider — but the litigants had not raised .
In our adversarial system of adjudication , we follow the principle of party presentation … [ O ] ur system “ is designed around the premise that [ parties represented by competent counsel ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and are reponsible for advancing the facts and argument entitling them to relief.
” Id.
, at 386 ( Scalia , J. , concurring in part and concurring in judgment ) .

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week against the improper use of amicus briefs by judges to shape a court case as they wish — which is what Judge Emmet G. Sullivan is doing, critics say, in the ongoing Michael Flynn case.
On Tuesday, Judge Sullivan announced that he would accept amicus briefs about whether he should grant the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) motion to dismiss the case against Flynn. On Wednesday, Sullivan went a step further, appointing retired judge John Gleeson as amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) to argue against dismissal, and to argue Flynn be held in criminal contempt.
(Gleeson had already expressed his views in an op-ed in the Washington Post on Monday, attacking the DOJ’s motion.)
But last week, in the case of U.S. v. Sineneng-Smith, the Supreme Court held that the Ninth Circuit acted improperly by appointing three amici and directing them to brief issues that the judges wanted to consider — but the litigants had not raised.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for a unanimous Court, held:
In our adversarial system of adjudication, we follow the principle of party presentation … [O]ur system “is designed around the premise that [parties represented by competent counsel] know what is best for them, and are reponsible for advancing the facts and argument entitling them to relief.” Id., at 386 (Scalia, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment).