talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-07--Health Officials Wanted to Close a Meatpacking Plant. The Governor Said No.

This story first appeared at ProPublica .
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom .
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On Tuesday , March 31 , an emergency room doctor at the main hospital in Grand Island , Nebraska , sent an urgent email to the regional health department : “ Numerous patients ” from the JBS beef packing plant had tested positive for COVID-19 .
The plant , he feared , was becoming a coronavirus “ hot spot.
” The town ’ s medical clinics were also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ JBS workers .
The next day , Dr. Rebecca Steinke , a family medicine doctor at one of the clinics , wrote to the department ’ s director : “ Our message is really that JBS should shut down for 2 weeks and have a solid screening plan before re-opening.
” Teresa Anderson , the regional health director , immediately drafted a letter to the governor .
But during a conference call that Sunday , Gov .
Pete Ricketts made it clear that the plant , which produces nearly 1 billion pounds of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s largest employer , would not be shut down .
Since then , Nebraska has become one of the fastest-growing hot spots for the novel coronavirus in the United States , and Grand Island has led the way .
Cases in the city of 50,000 people have skyrocketed from a few dozen when local health officials first reported their concerns to more than 1,200 this week as the virus spread to workers , their families and the community .
The dismissed warnings in Grand Island , documented in emails that ProPublica obtained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ law , show how quickly the virus can spread when politicians overrule local health officials .
But on a broader scale , the events unfolding in Nebraska provide an alarming case study of what may come now that President Donald Trump has used the Defense Production Act to try to ensure meat processing plants remain open , severely weakening public health officials ’ leverage to stop the spread of the virus in their communities .
Ricketts spokesman Taylor Gage said the governor explained on the call with local officials that the plant would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ essential industry by the federal government .
Two and a half weeks later , as cases were rising among the state ’ s meatpacking workers , Ricketts , a Republican businessman whose father founded the brokerage TD Ameritrade , held a news conference and said he couldn ’ t foresee a scenario where he would tell the meatpacking plants to close because of their importance to the nation ’ s food supply .
“ Can you imagine what would happen if people could not go to the store and get food ?
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mad people were when they couldn ’ t get paper products.
” “ Trust me , ” he added , “ this would cause civil unrest.
” In the last two weeks , small meatpacking towns across Nebraska have experienced outbreaks , including at a Tyson Foods beef plant in Dakota City , a Costco chicken plant in Fremont and a Smithfield Foods pork plant in Crete .
With the governor vowing to keep plants open , the companies have only in recent days decided to close for deep cleanings as cases have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Island , two hours west of Omaha , the consequences of the governor ’ s decision came quickly .
The CHI Health St. Francis hospital , which has 16 intensive care beds , was soon overwhelmed .
At one point in April , it had so many critical patients that it had to call in three different helicopter companies to airlift patients to larger hospitals in Lincoln and Omaha , said Beth Bartlett , the hospital ’ s vice president for patient care .
JBS workers felt the strain , too .
Under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flowing , some of the plant ’ s 3,500 workers , many hailing from Latin America , Somalia and Sudan , said they were told to report for work regardless .
In a letter to the governor last week , Nebraska Appleseed , a nonprofit advocacy group , said a JBS worker had been told by his supervisor that if he tested positive , he should come to work anyway and “ keep it on the DL ” or he ’ d be fired .
Some workers who ’ d been told to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week that they were called back to work before the 14-day window recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — even if they felt sick .
One worker in the offal , or entrails , section recently fainted in the plant , they said , but was told he couldn ’ t go home .
Cameron Bruett , head of corporate affairs for JBS , said the company has worked in partnership with local officials to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and did not influence the governor ’ s decision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pointed to comments made recently by University of Nebraska Medical Center officials who toured the plant , who said JBS has put in place some “ best practices , ” including installing barriers on the meat cutting line , communicating new precautions in multiple languages and ensuring the proper use of masks .
Bruett said no one is forced to come to work or punished for calling in sick .
“ Such actions , if true , would be grotesque and a clear violation of our culture , ” he said .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health officials have traced 260 cases to the JBS plant .
But that was nearly two weeks ago and almost certainly underestimates the total .
Anderson , who directs the Central District Health Department , said she hasn ’ t had enough tests to do targeted testing of JBS employees and is only testing people when they ’ re symptomatic .
In Grand Island and its surrounding county , 32 people have died from the virus .
According to workers , at least one of those was a JBS employee .
Across the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been linked to meatpacking plants , and at least three dozen workers are known to have died , a ProPublica review of news reports and government health data shows .
While cases in the worst hit urban areas like New York appear to have plateaued , the nation ’ s meatpacking towns have continued to see spikes .
A few large outbreaks have dominated public attention , but COVID-19 cases have popped up in well over 100 plants in mostly rural communities .
There the virus ’ s impact is magnified by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with multiple generations of immigrant and refugee families often residing together in apartments , houses and trailers .
Before Trump ’ s order , more than 30 plants had shut down at least briefly to increase cleaning and control the spread among their workforces .
The various closures have cut beef and pork production by more than a third compared with last year , causing supply chain disruptions for some supermarkets and fast-food chains .
Some of those closures show the role public health officials have had in the actions of large @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beef , pork and poultry plants in 27 states .
In Colorado , Dr. Mark Wallace of the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment and state health director Jill Hunsaker Ryan grew worried that that if the coronavirus spread at JBS ’ Greeley plant , it would have a “ devastating ” effect on the community that “ would quickly overwhelm the medical resources available in the hospitals.
” Unlike Nebraska , Colorado ’ s health officials eventually ordered the JBS plant to close .
But documents obtained by ProPublica show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decision , with JBS invoking the governor to question the formal closure order .
By the time the order was issued , some public officials felt the virus had been given too big a head start .
Like Grand Island , Greeley officials were already hearing by the end of March that hospital emergency rooms were seeing a “ high number of JBS employees , ” according to an email Wallace sent April 1 to the plant ’ s occupational health director .
“ Their concern , and mine , is far too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and spreading infection to others , ” Wallace wrote , urging the plant to take additional safety measures .
Three days later , Wallace wrote a more detailed letter to JBS ’ human resources director , Chris Gaddis , documenting the virus ’ s spread and threatening to shut the plant down if it didn ’ t screen employees and ensure they could work 6 feet apart .
But as days passed , the situation in Greeley didn ’ t improve .
“ Want you to know my colleagues are not reassured by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being implemented , ” Wallace wrote to Gaddis .
“ ‘ The cat ’ s out of the bag ’ is what all health care providers are saying — too many sick people already , too much spread already , etc.
” After nine days of back-and-forth , JBS agreed to close the plant and Hunsaker Ryan and Wallace issued a formal shutdown order .
But negotiations seemed to stretch until the last minute , emails show .
After Hunsaker Ryan sent JBS the order on the afternoon of April 10 , Gaddis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understanding from the telephone conversation that the governor did not want this letter sent , ” Gaddis wrote .
“ Please confirm it was properly sent.
” Bruett said the company ’ s impression was that the governor didn ’ t feel a formal order “ was necessary given our voluntary decision to shut down.
” But Conor Cahill , a spokesman for Gov .
Jared Polis , said : “ Of course the governor wanted the health order sent .
The governor has been clear that JBS needs to be more transparent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the situation at their plant.
” Notified of the shutdown by his staff , Greeley Mayor John Gates wrote in an email , “ In my opinion , that should have happened a week ago for the health and safety of their employees.
” On Wednesday , the state announced the latest numbers on the JBS outbreak : 280 employees had tested positive for COVID-19 , and seven of them had died .
The Grand Island beef plant opened in 1965 in a sugar beet farming area .
In recent decades , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Central America , and more recently refugees from Somalia and Sudan .
In a sign of the area ’ s shifting workforce , Somali residents have opened a mosque in the old El Diamante nightclub and a community center in the former Lucky 7 Saloon next to a Salvadoran restaurant named El Tazumal .
Members of those communities became among the first to hit the area ’ s medical clinics as the virus began to spread .
By the last week in March , the Family Practice of Grand Island , where Steinke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clinic to handle COVID-19 patients .
That week , six of the patients had come from JBS .
But over three days from March 30 to April 1 , the clinic saw 25 patients that carried JBS insurance , indicating they were either employees or their dependents .
Danny Lemos ’ father was one of the first JBS workers to get sick from the virus in late March .
The 62-year-old , who ’ d worked at the plant for a year , had developed a fever and a cough .
“ One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ living room on a chair , wrapped up in a blanket , shivering , ” Lemos said .
“ My mom takes his temperature , and he had a temperature of 105 and he was really having trouble breathing.
” His father was rushed to the hospital and put on a ventilator .
Within days , Lemos said he also started having trouble breathing and joined his father in the ICU .
Lemos , 39 , was put in a medically induced coma and given a 20 % chance of living , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he eventually recovered and was released from the hospital in late April .
His father , Danny Lemos Sr. , has been in the hospital for more than a month , most of the time on a ventilator , and is only now starting to recover .
Lemos said JBS should have taken better precautions .
“ Shutting down right away , I think , probably would have helped a ton , ” he said .
“ Do I think it would have kept everybody from getting sick ?
No , because those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out and about in the community .
But just being so many people in one building , it was like a ticking time bomb.
” In an interview this week , Steinke said that it was hard to get the message across to JBS that more needed to be done .
“ Even if they did not stop or shut down , if they would have put in better protections right from the start , ” she said , “ we would not have seen such a rapid rise in cases.
” At @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decision , the emails ProPublica obtained show , officials found language on the U.S. Department of Agriculture ’ s website that said local authorities could close a plant and the USDA would follow those decisions , potentially giving the health district some leverage .
“ I guess I will send it to … HR there and maybe he will take us more seriously , ” Anderson , the local health director , wrote in an email to the city administrator .
Under Trump ’ s executive order , that guidance has been reversed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local decisions if federal officials disagree .
That could pose a risk to the USDA ’ s own workforce of federal food inspectors , who work inside the plants to ensure the meat is safe to eat .
According to the emails , some inspectors at the JBS plant also tested positive .
Because inspectors sometimes monitor multiple sites , one inspector noted that she had recently worked in two other plants that have also had outbreaks , potentially spreading the virus within other plants .
“ From my perspective , ” temporarily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reduced the transmission , ” Anderson said in an interview this week .
“ But if you shut down a plant and your 3,700 employees have nowhere to go , where are they going to go and how far is the spread going to be outside the plant vs. inside the plant ?
And if you end up going a month , what happens to their ability to feed their families ?
” Anderson said that the “ general feeling ” she got from the call with the governor was that they needed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the governor blocked the effort to close the plant , she continued to try to work collaboratively with JBS to encourage more testing of their employees .
In the emails , JBS officials said they were open to testing but repeatedly expressed concern about public disclosure of the results .
“ We want to make sure that testing is conducted in a way that does not foment fear or panic among our employees or the community , ” JBS chief ethics and compliance officer Nicholas White wrote in an email to Anderson on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after the number of JBS cases was released by Anderson , Tim Schellpeper , president of the company ’ s U.S. beef processing operations , emailed her that he was worried about the amount of national attention it was attracting .
“ Have you given more thought to adding clarity/correction around this in your comments today ?
” he asked .
As JBS officials fretted about the optics of testing their employees , tensions within the families of the workers mounted .
As the number of sick workers grew , the daughter of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was panicking about what would happen to her mother , who worked on the plant ’ s kill floor .
At the end of every shift , she said , she called her mother to make sure she was okay .
“ It was dreadful , ” said Miriam , who asked that her last name not be used to protect her mother from retaliation .
“ It was just kind of living in fear waiting for the day she would have a fever .
We knew it was going to happen because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We didn ’ t think it was preventable anymore.
” Then , one day , she got a call from her mother , telling her that she had developed a fever and was being sent home .
“ As she was changing in the locker room , she calls me and you can just hear the fear in her voice , ” Miriam said .
Shortly after , her father tested positive for the virus too .
Thankfully , she said , both her parents had only mild symptoms and have since recovered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have done more , Miriam said .
“ It just seemed like they were kind of careless , ” she said .
“ I think it would have been a smart idea if not to close down the plant , to take more action to help the employees .
They ’ re essential , but they need protection .
They need to be kept safe.
” In the meantime , Ricketts has said that his approach of keeping the state “ open for business ” worked .
And at a news conference Friday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meatpacking industry to the state ’ s economy , proclaiming May as “ Beef Month ” in Nebraska .

This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
On Tuesday, March 31, an emergency room doctor at the main hospital in Grand Island, Nebraska, sent an urgent email to the regional health department: “Numerous patients” from the JBS beef packing plant had tested positive for COVID-19. The plant, he feared, was becoming a coronavirus “hot spot.”
The town’s medical clinics were also reporting a rapid increase in cases among JBS workers. The next day, Dr. Rebecca Steinke, a family medicine doctor at one of the clinics, wrote to the department’s director: “Our message is really that JBS should shut down for 2 weeks and have a solid screening plan before re-opening.”
Teresa Anderson, the regional health director, immediately drafted a letter to the governor.
But during a conference call that Sunday, Gov. Pete Ricketts made it clear that the plant, which produces nearly 1 billion pounds of beef a year and is the town’s largest employer, would not be shut down.
Since then, Nebraska has become one of the fastest-growing hot spots for the novel coronavirus in the United States, and Grand Island has led the way. Cases in the city of 50,000 people have skyrocketed from a few dozen when local health officials first reported their concerns to more than 1,200 this week as the virus spread to workers, their families and the community.
The dismissed warnings in Grand Island, documented in emails that ProPublica obtained under the state’s public records law, show how quickly the virus can spread when politicians overrule local health officials. But on a broader scale, the events unfolding in Nebraska provide an alarming case study of what may come now that President Donald Trump has used the Defense Production Act to try to ensure meat processing plants remain open, severely weakening public health officials’ leverage to stop the spread of the virus in their communities.
Ricketts spokesman Taylor Gage said the governor explained on the call with local officials that the plant would stay open because it was declared an essential industry by the federal government. Two and a half weeks later, as cases were rising among the state’s meatpacking workers, Ricketts, a Republican businessman whose father founded the brokerage TD Ameritrade, held a news conference and said he couldn’t foresee a scenario where he would tell the meatpacking plants to close because of their importance to the nation’s food supply.
“Can you imagine what would happen if people could not go to the store and get food?” he asked. “Think about how mad people were when they couldn’t get paper products.”
“Trust me,” he added, “this would cause civil unrest.”
In the last two weeks, small meatpacking towns across Nebraska have experienced outbreaks, including at a Tyson Foods beef plant in Dakota City, a Costco chicken plant in Fremont and a Smithfield Foods pork plant in Crete. With the governor vowing to keep plants open, the companies have only in recent days decided to close for deep cleanings as cases have grown to staggering levels.
In Grand Island, two hours west of Omaha, the consequences of the governor’s decision came quickly. The CHI Health St. Francis hospital, which has 16 intensive care beds, was soon overwhelmed. At one point in April, it had so many critical patients that it had to call in three different helicopter companies to airlift patients to larger hospitals in Lincoln and Omaha, said Beth Bartlett, the hospital’s vice president for patient care.
JBS workers felt the strain, too. Under pressure to keep the food supply chain flowing, some of the plant’s 3,500 workers, many hailing from Latin America, Somalia and Sudan, said they were told to report for work regardless. In a letter to the governor last week, Nebraska Appleseed, a nonprofit advocacy group, said a JBS worker had been told by his supervisor that if he tested positive, he should come to work anyway and “keep it on the DL” or he’d be fired. Some workers who’d been told to quarantine after being exposed told ProPublica this week that they were called back to work before the 14-day window recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — even if they felt sick. One worker in the offal, or entrails, section recently fainted in the plant, they said, but was told he couldn’t go home.
Cameron Bruett, head of corporate affairs for JBS, said the company has worked in partnership with local officials to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and did not influence the governor’s decision to keep the plant open. He pointed to comments made recently by University of Nebraska Medical Center officials who toured the plant, who said JBS has put in place some “best practices,” including installing barriers on the meat cutting line, communicating new precautions in multiple languages and ensuring the proper use of masks.
Bruett said no one is forced to come to work or punished for calling in sick. “Such actions, if true, would be grotesque and a clear violation of our culture,” he said.
The emails obtained by ProPublica show that local health officials have traced 260 cases to the JBS plant. But that was nearly two weeks ago and almost certainly underestimates the total. Anderson, who directs the Central District Health Department, said she hasn’t had enough tests to do targeted testing of JBS employees and is only testing people when they’re symptomatic. In Grand Island and its surrounding county, 32 people have died from the virus. According to workers, at least one of those was a JBS employee.
Across the country, more than 10,000 COVID-19 cases have been linked to meatpacking plants, and at least three dozen workers are known to have died, a ProPublica review of news reports and government health data shows.
While cases in the worst hit urban areas like New York appear to have plateaued, the nation’s meatpacking towns have continued to see spikes. A few large outbreaks have dominated public attention, but COVID-19 cases have popped up in well over 100 plants in mostly rural communities. There the virus’s impact is magnified by the workers’ sometimes cramped living conditions, with multiple generations of immigrant and refugee families often residing together in apartments, houses and trailers.
Before Trump’s order, more than 30 plants had shut down at least briefly to increase cleaning and control the spread among their workforces. The various closures have cut beef and pork production by more than a third compared with last year, causing supply chain disruptions for some supermarkets and fast-food chains.
Some of those closures show the role public health officials have had in the actions of large meatpacking companies like JBS, which has beef, pork and poultry plants in 27 states.
In Colorado, Dr. Mark Wallace of the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment and state health director Jill Hunsaker Ryan grew worried that that if the coronavirus spread at JBS’ Greeley plant, it would have a “devastating” effect on the community that “would quickly overwhelm the medical resources available in the hospitals.”
Unlike Nebraska, Colorado’s health officials eventually ordered the JBS plant to close. But documents obtained by ProPublica show the protracted debate that came before that decision, with JBS invoking the governor to question the formal closure order. By the time the order was issued, some public officials felt the virus had been given too big a head start.
Like Grand Island, Greeley officials were already hearing by the end of March that hospital emergency rooms were seeing a “high number of JBS employees,” according to an email Wallace sent April 1 to the plant’s occupational health director.
“Their concern, and mine, is far too many employees must be working when sick and spreading infection to others,” Wallace wrote, urging the plant to take additional safety measures.
Three days later, Wallace wrote a more detailed letter to JBS’ human resources director, Chris Gaddis, documenting the virus’s spread and threatening to shut the plant down if it didn’t screen employees and ensure they could work 6 feet apart.
But as days passed, the situation in Greeley didn’t improve.
“Want you to know my colleagues are not reassured by what I’m sharing about measures being implemented,” Wallace wrote to Gaddis. “‘The cat’s out of the bag’ is what all health care providers are saying — too many sick people already, too much spread already, etc.”
After nine days of back-and-forth, JBS agreed to close the plant and Hunsaker Ryan and Wallace issued a formal shutdown order. But negotiations seemed to stretch until the last minute, emails show.
After Hunsaker Ryan sent JBS the order on the afternoon of April 10, Gaddis appeared confused. “It is our understanding from the telephone conversation that the governor did not want this letter sent,” Gaddis wrote. “Please confirm it was properly sent.”
Bruett said the company’s impression was that the governor didn’t feel a formal order “was necessary given our voluntary decision to shut down.” But Conor Cahill, a spokesman for Gov. Jared Polis, said: “Of course the governor wanted the health order sent. The governor has been clear that JBS needs to be more transparent with their staff and the public about the situation at their plant.”
Notified of the shutdown by his staff, Greeley Mayor John Gates wrote in an email, “In my opinion, that should have happened a week ago for the health and safety of their employees.”
On Wednesday, the state announced the latest numbers on the JBS outbreak: 280 employees had tested positive for COVID-19, and seven of them had died.
The Grand Island beef plant opened in 1965 in a sugar beet farming area. In recent decades, the plant has drawn immigrants from Mexico and Central America, and more recently refugees from Somalia and Sudan. In a sign of the area’s shifting workforce, Somali residents have opened a mosque in the old El Diamante nightclub and a community center in the former Lucky 7 Saloon next to a Salvadoran restaurant named El Tazumal.
Members of those communities became among the first to hit the area’s medical clinics as the virus began to spread. By the last week in March, the Family Practice of Grand Island, where Steinke works, had opened a special respiratory clinic to handle COVID-19 patients. That week, six of the patients had come from JBS. But over three days from March 30 to April 1, the clinic saw 25 patients that carried JBS insurance, indicating they were either employees or their dependents.
Danny Lemos’ father was one of the first JBS workers to get sick from the virus in late March. The 62-year-old, who’d worked at the plant for a year, had developed a fever and a cough.
“One day, he was laying in the living room on a chair, wrapped up in a blanket, shivering,” Lemos said. “My mom takes his temperature, and he had a temperature of 105 and he was really having trouble breathing.”
His father was rushed to the hospital and put on a ventilator.
Within days, Lemos said he also started having trouble breathing and joined his father in the ICU. Lemos, 39, was put in a medically induced coma and given a 20% chance of living, he said.
Surprisingly, he said, he eventually recovered and was released from the hospital in late April. His father, Danny Lemos Sr., has been in the hospital for more than a month, most of the time on a ventilator, and is only now starting to recover.
Lemos said JBS should have taken better precautions.
“Shutting down right away, I think, probably would have helped a ton,” he said. “Do I think it would have kept everybody from getting sick? No, because those same people are still going to be out and about in the community. But just being so many people in one building, it was like a ticking time bomb.”
In an interview this week, Steinke said that it was hard to get the message across to JBS that more needed to be done.
“Even if they did not stop or shut down, if they would have put in better protections right from the start,” she said, “we would not have seen such a rapid rise in cases.”
At one point before the governor’s decision, the emails ProPublica obtained show, officials found language on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website that said local authorities could close a plant and the USDA would follow those decisions, potentially giving the health district some leverage.
“I guess I will send it to … HR there and maybe he will take us more seriously,” Anderson, the local health director, wrote in an email to the city administrator.
Under Trump’s executive order, that guidance has been reversed: The USDA could try to overrule local decisions if federal officials disagree.
That could pose a risk to the USDA’s own workforce of federal food inspectors, who work inside the plants to ensure the meat is safe to eat. According to the emails, some inspectors at the JBS plant also tested positive. Because inspectors sometimes monitor multiple sites, one inspector noted that she had recently worked in two other plants that have also had outbreaks, potentially spreading the virus within other plants.
“From my perspective,” temporarily closing the JBS plant “would have reduced the transmission,” Anderson said in an interview this week. “But if you shut down a plant and your 3,700 employees have nowhere to go, where are they going to go and how far is the spread going to be outside the plant vs. inside the plant? And if you end up going a month, what happens to their ability to feed their families?”
Anderson said that the “general feeling” she got from the call with the governor was that they needed to do more testing. So after the governor blocked the effort to close the plant, she continued to try to work collaboratively with JBS to encourage more testing of their employees.
In the emails, JBS officials said they were open to testing but repeatedly expressed concern about public disclosure of the results. “We want to make sure that testing is conducted in a way that does not foment fear or panic among our employees or the community,” JBS chief ethics and compliance officer Nicholas White wrote in an email to Anderson on April 15.
A week later, after the number of JBS cases was released by Anderson, Tim Schellpeper, president of the company’s U.S. beef processing operations, emailed her that he was worried about the amount of national attention it was attracting. “Have you given more thought to adding clarity/correction around this in your comments today?” he asked.
As JBS officials fretted about the optics of testing their employees, tensions within the families of the workers mounted. As the number of sick workers grew, the daughter of one worker, Miriam, said she was panicking about what would happen to her mother, who worked on the plant’s kill floor. At the end of every shift, she said, she called her mother to make sure she was okay.
“It was dreadful,” said Miriam, who asked that her last name not be used to protect her mother from retaliation. “It was just kind of living in fear waiting for the day she would have a fever. We knew it was going to happen because she’s a JBS employee. We didn’t think it was preventable anymore.”
Then, one day, she got a call from her mother, telling her that she had developed a fever and was being sent home.
“As she was changing in the locker room, she calls me and you can just hear the fear in her voice,” Miriam said.
Shortly after, her father tested positive for the virus too. Thankfully, she said, both her parents had only mild symptoms and have since recovered. But JBS and the governor should have done more, Miriam said.
“It just seemed like they were kind of careless,” she said. “I think it would have been a smart idea if not to close down the plant, to take more action to help the employees. They’re essential, but they need protection. They need to be kept safe.”
In the meantime, Ricketts has said that his approach of keeping the state “open for business” worked. And at a news conference Friday, he underscored the importance of the meatpacking industry to the state’s economy, proclaiming May as “Beef Month” in Nebraska.


talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-07--Schiff Releases 57 Transcripts From House Intel Trump-Russia Probe

Fifty-seven interview transcripts from the House Intelligence Committee ’ s investigation into allegations of collusion between President Trump and the Russian government during the 2016 election were released to the public on Thursday , after a year-and-a-half long redaction process in which the White House demanded to review and redact the testimony before its public release .
House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff ( D-CA ) made the transcripts — including interviews with former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince , Presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner , and Trump 2016 campaign chairman Steve Bannon — available on the House website @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of National Intelligence Richard Grenell told lawmakers in a letter that the White House was dropping its demand to redact the documents .
Instead , career intelligence staff redacted the transcripts for potentially sensitive information .
“ These transcripts should have been released long before now , but the White House held up their release to the public by refusing to allow the Intelligence Community to make redactions on the basis of classified information , rather than White House political interests , ” Rep. Schiff said in a statement .
“ Only now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has the President released his hold on this damning information and evidence.
” The release comes hours after the Justice Department moved to drop charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn , saying it could not prove the allegations to which Flynn pleaded guilty in court .
The transcripts offer a fuller account of the committee ’ s investigation , led by the then-Republican majority and its then-chair , Rep. Devin Nunes ( R-CA ) .
Nunes sent the transcripts for classification review in September 2018 .
The release includes correspondence between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It also includes a letter that Rep. Schiff sent to Attorney General Bill Barr in April 2019 referring Erik Prince for prosecution for allegedly lying to the committee .
“ Like the Ukraine investigation that would follow it , the investigation into the Trump campaign ’ s effort to seek and utilize Russian help in 2016 and to obstruct justice , reveal a President who believes that he is above the law , ” Schiff said in the statement .
“ But we are a country where the truth still matters and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the Trump campaign , and the evidence we uncovered despite formidable obstruction , affirms that .
”

Fifty-seven interview transcripts from the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into allegations of collusion between President Trump and the Russian government during the 2016 election were released to the public on Thursday, after a year-and-a-half long redaction process in which the White House demanded to review and redact the testimony before its public release.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) made the transcripts — including interviews with former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, Presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Trump 2016 campaign chairman Steve Bannon — available on the House website.
The move came after acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell told lawmakers in a letter that the White House was dropping its demand to redact the documents.
Instead, career intelligence staff redacted the transcripts for potentially sensitive information.
“These transcripts should have been released long before now, but the White House held up their release to the public by refusing to allow the Intelligence Community to make redactions on the basis of classified information, rather than White House political interests,” Rep. Schiff said in a statement. “Only now, and during a deadly pandemic, has the President released his hold on this damning information and evidence.”
The release comes hours after the Justice Department moved to drop charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, saying it could not prove the allegations to which Flynn pleaded guilty in court.
The transcripts offer a fuller account of the committee’s investigation, led by the then-Republican majority and its then-chair, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). Nunes sent the transcripts for classification review in September 2018.
The release includes correspondence between the panel and attorneys for the witnesses. It also includes a letter that Rep. Schiff sent to Attorney General Bill Barr in April 2019 referring Erik Prince for prosecution for allegedly lying to the committee.
“Like the Ukraine investigation that would follow it, the investigation into the Trump campaign’s effort to seek and utilize Russian help in 2016 and to obstruct justice, reveal a President who believes that he is above the law,” Schiff said in the statement. “But we are a country where the truth still matters and where right still matters. Our investigation into the Trump campaign, and the evidence we uncovered despite formidable obstruction, affirms that.”


talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-07--Tara Reade Calls For Joe Biden To Withdraw Presidential Bid

Tara Reade , a former staffer in Joe Biden ’ s Senate office who has accused him of sexual assault , on Thursday called for Biden to drop his presidential bid .
In an interview with Megyn Kelly , Reade said Biden “ should not be running on character for the President of the United States.
” “ You want him to withdraw ?
” Kelly asked .
“ I wish he would .
But he won ’ t , ” Reade replied .
“ But I wish he would .
That ’ s how I feel emotionally.
” In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ progressive journalist Katie Halper , Reade alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 , penetrating her with his fingers without consent .
In an interview on MSNBC ’ s “ Morning Joe ” earlier this month , Biden “ unequivocally ” denied the allegation .
Reade initially told a local California paper last year that Biden “ used to put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck.
” Those initial allegations of harassment did not include the allegation of sexual assault that she later made to Halper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was pushed out of her job in Biden ’ s office after filing a complaint about Biden ’ s behavior , but she has said that the complaint details the allegation of harassment and not the allegation of assault .
Reade ’ s former neighbor , a former colleague , and her brother have said that Reade shared aspects of her allegations with them in the 90s .
“ This happened , and I know it did because I remember talking about it , ” Reade ’ s former neighbor Lynda LaCasse told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Kelly , Reade said that she would be willing to go under oath and subject herself to cross examination regarding her assault claim .
She said she would participate in a polygraph test “ if Joe Biden takes one ” as well .

Tara Reade, a former staffer in Joe Biden’s Senate office who has accused him of sexual assault, on Thursday called for Biden to drop his presidential bid.
In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Reade said Biden “should not be running on character for the President of the United States.”
“You want him to withdraw?” Kelly asked.
“I wish he would. But he won’t,” Reade replied. “But I wish he would. That’s how I feel emotionally.”
MK EXCLUSIVE: #TaraReade responds to #JoeBiden; calls for him to drop out pic.twitter.com/jxHAUYaWVU — Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 7, 2020
In March, during an interview with the progressive journalist Katie Halper, Reade alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993, penetrating her with his fingers without consent.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” earlier this month, Biden “unequivocally” denied the allegation.
Reade initially told a local California paper last year that Biden “used to put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck.” Those initial allegations of harassment did not include the allegation of sexual assault that she later made to Halper.
Reade has also alleged that she was pushed out of her job in Biden’s office after filing a complaint about Biden’s behavior, but she has said that the complaint details the allegation of harassment and not the allegation of assault.
Reade’s former neighbor, a former colleague, and her brother have said that Reade shared aspects of her allegations with them in the 90s.
“This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it,” Reade’s former neighbor Lynda LaCasse told Business Insider.
Separately in the interview with Kelly, Reade said that she would be willing to go under oath and subject herself to cross examination regarding her assault claim. She said she would participate in a polygraph test “if Joe Biden takes one” as well.


talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-07--McCabe Blasts DOJ’s Decision To Drop Flynn Case As ‘Pure Politics’ To Please Trump

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe derided the Justice Department ’ s decision to drop its criminal case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn Thursday as “ pure politics designed to please the president.
” In a statement , McCabe sketched out the reasoning behind the FBI ’ s interview of Flynn , which the DOJ attacked in Thursday ’ s filing .
“ The FBI was obligated to interview him to better understand why he was talking to Russian officials , ” McCabe said .
“ During the interview , he lied about the substance of his conversations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s position that the FBI had no reason to interview Mr. Flynn pursuant to its counterintelligence investigation is patently false , and ignores the considerable national security risk his contacts raised , ” he added .
In the motion to dismiss the charges , signed by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea , the FBI is painted to have acted in bad faith during the investigation .
“ The government is not persuaded that the Jan. 24 , 2017 , interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s statements were material even if untrue , ” it said .
The motion also made the claim that because the FBI already had transcripts of Flynn ’ s calls with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak , there was no need to interview him , an act “ undertaken only to elicit those very false statements and thereby criminalize Mr. Flynn.
” The dismissal of the case against Flynn , during which he has pleaded guilty twice , is the newest step in Attorney General Bill Barr ’ s redirection of the DOJ in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ counsel Robert Mueller .
President Donald Trump found out that the dismissal had been made public Thursday during a press gaggle .
“ He was an innocent man , ” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office .
“ He is a great gentleman .
He was targeted by the Obama administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a president , and what they ’ ve done is a disgrace , and I hope a big price is going to be paid.
” “ Now in my book @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he added .
“ We opened the Russia investigation to determine if the Russian government coordinated with the Trump campaign .
Mr. Flynn had prominent , high level interactions with Russian officials , so we investigated whether he might be that point of coordination .
We received incontrovertible evidence that Mr. Flynn spoke to the Russian ambassador on more than one occasion , that he actively tried to influence the actions of Russian officials , and that those officials acceded to his requests .
The FBI was obligated to interview him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Russian officials .
During the interview , he lied about the substance of his conversations with those officials .
His lies added to our concerns about his relationship with the Russian government .
Later , under oath in Federal Court , he twice admitted to lying to the FBI .
“ The Department ’ s position that the FBI had no reason to interview Mr. Flynn pursuant to its counterintelligence investigation is patently false , and ignores the considerable national security risk his contacts raised .
Moreover , the Department ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Special Counsel and the Office of the Inspector General .
“ Today ’ s move by the Justice Department has nothing to do with the facts or the law — it is pure politics designed to please the president .
”

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe derided the Justice Department’s decision to drop its criminal case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn Thursday as “pure politics designed to please the president.”
In a statement, McCabe sketched out the reasoning behind the FBI’s interview of Flynn, which the DOJ attacked in Thursday’s filing.
“The FBI was obligated to interview him to better understand why he was talking to Russian officials,” McCabe said. “During the interview, he lied about the substance of his conversations with those officials.”
“The Department’s position that the FBI had no reason to interview Mr. Flynn pursuant to its counterintelligence investigation is patently false, and ignores the considerable national security risk his contacts raised,” he added.
In the motion to dismiss the charges, signed by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea, the FBI is painted to have acted in bad faith during the investigation.
“The government is not persuaded that the Jan. 24, 2017, interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn’s statements were material even if untrue,” it said.
The motion also made the claim that because the FBI already had transcripts of Flynn’s calls with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, there was no need to interview him, an act “undertaken only to elicit those very false statements and thereby criminalize Mr. Flynn.”
The dismissal of the case against Flynn, during which he has pleaded guilty twice, is the newest step in Attorney General Bill Barr’s redirection of the DOJ in regards to cases originally brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.
President Donald Trump found out that the dismissal had been made public Thursday during a press gaggle.
“He was an innocent man,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “He is a great gentleman. He was targeted by the Obama administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a president, and what they’ve done is a disgrace, and I hope a big price is going to be paid.”
“Now in my book he’s an even greater warrior,” he added.
Read McCabe’s full statement here:


talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-07--Trump Campaign Calls Itself The Death Star. Twitter Points Out That’s A Bad Idea.

Brad Parscale , the campaign manager for President Donald Trump ’ s reelection campaign , compared the campaign to the Death Star , a fictional superweapon from Star Wars designed to blow up entire planets , on Thursday .
A number of people on Twitter were left wondering how anyone could possibly think that particular analogy in context of electoral politics was a good one .
“ For nearly three years we have been building a juggernaut campaign ( Death Star ) , ” Parscale tweeted .
“ It is firing on all cylinders .
Data , Digital , TV @ @ @ @ @ @ @ etc.
” “ In a few days we start pressing FIRE for the first time , ” he added with a GIF of the Death Star firing at an unsuspecting planet .
People pointed out that hyping a campaign with comparisons to a WMD wielded by a tyrannical regime to kill millions of people en masse isn ’ t exactly smart politics , especially considering the fact that the weapon and regime both ultimately get destroyed by rebels fighting for a return to democracy .
And in the middle of a global pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans so far , it ’ s not exactly the best timing for the message .
Later , Parscale insisted that it was the media , not him , who referred to the campaign as the Death Star , even though the fact that that ’ s exactly what he did in the original tweet .
But no matter : Parscale cheerfully embraced it anyway .
“ However , I am happy to use the analogy , ” he tweeted .
“ The fact is , we haven ’ t used it yet @ @

Brad Parscale, the campaign manager for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, compared the campaign to the Death Star, a fictional superweapon from Star Wars designed to blow up entire planets, on Thursday.
A number of people on Twitter were left wondering how anyone could possibly think that particular analogy in context of electoral politics was a good one.
“For nearly three years we have been building a juggernaut campaign (Death Star),” Parscale tweeted. “It is firing on all cylinders. Data, Digital, TV, Political, Surrogates, Coalitions, etc.”
“In a few days we start pressing FIRE for the first time,” he added with a GIF of the Death Star firing at an unsuspecting planet.
For nearly three years we have been building a juggernaut campaign (Death Star). It is firing on all cylinders. Data, Digital, TV, Political, Surrogates, Coalitions, etc. In a few days we start pressing FIRE for the first time. pic.twitter.com/aJgCNfx1m0 — Brad Parscale – Download our Trump 2020 App today! (@parscale) May 7, 2020
People pointed out that hyping a campaign with comparisons to a WMD wielded by a tyrannical regime to kill millions of people en masse isn’t exactly smart politics, especially considering the fact that the weapon and regime both ultimately get destroyed by rebels fighting for a return to democracy.
And in the middle of a global pandemic that’s killed more than 75,000 Americans so far, it’s not exactly the best timing for the message.
Dude, the Death Star gets blown up at the end of every Star Wars movie. Why don’t you just brag about the Great Pumpkin rising from the pumpkin patch at the end of the campaign? As much money as you’ve grifted off of Trump, spend a few dollars streaming some movies. https://t.co/ZWqT8dQBqw — Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) May 7, 2020
So you’re saying that your campaign has a fundamental design flaw creating a vulnerability which if targeted by the opposition could cause it to self-implode? Sounds genius. https://t.co/hmsJqzr5g3 — Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) May 7, 2020
Nicknaming your presidential reelection campaign "Death Star" in the middle of a pandemic that has already killed 70K+ people is an interesting choice https://t.co/2cxIxT70LD — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 7, 2020
What are the chances Trump realizes his campaign is packed with grifters before the Death Star explodes? — Anita Creamer (@AnitaCreamer) May 7, 2020
Death Star is pretty apt given how many people in America have died during the Trump administration due to gun violence, opioid addiction and COVID-19. https://t.co/Yb3WZjscUL — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) May 7, 2020
Got a fun story for you about what happens to the Death Star https://t.co/vaqUgzq79y — Rob Flaherty (@Rob_Flaherty) May 7, 2020
"First we'll commit mass murder, then we'll get destroyed" is actually a pretty good slogan for Trump 2020 … https://t.co/Vsebzw83En — Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz) May 7, 2020
Well in the movie Darth Vader totally wins so this makes a lot of sense. Wait. https://t.co/7nz06NHXXp — Molly Jong-Fast? (@MollyJongFast) May 7, 2020
Later, Parscale insisted that it was the media, not him, who referred to the campaign as the Death Star, even though the fact that that’s exactly what he did in the original tweet.
But no matter: Parscale cheerfully embraced it anyway.
“However, I am happy to use the analogy,” he tweeted. “The fact is, we haven’t used it yet.”


talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-07--Ohio Republicans Take Action Against Health Director, Though DeWine Signals Veto

Republicans in Ohio ’ s House of Representatives moved Wednesday to limit the authority of state Health Department Director Amy Acton , who has been criticized by those chafing under the COVID mitigation orders in recent weeks .
One of the bills they passed would limit health department orders to 14 days before requiring approval from at least six lawmakers on a 10-member panel .
Another would reduce the penalties associated with violating the orders .
Gov .
Mike DeWine ( R ) , who has been vocal in his defense of Acton , signaled a veto should the Republican-controlled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrote on Twitter that his administration is focused on the double-pronged task of tamping down the novel coronavirus and keeping the economy afloat .
“ Ohioans need their legislators focused on these important issues , ” he said .
“ Creating more uncertainty regarding public health and employee safety is the last thing we need as we work to restore consumer confidence in Ohio ’ s economy.
” Democrats in the House blasted the first bill , which Republicans amended to curtail the health department ’ s orders .
“ The Ohio Department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ powers since it was established in 1886 and its director has never before needed JCARR oversight – until that director in charge of a pandemic was a woman , ” said House Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes ( D ) in a statement , referring to the legislature ’ s Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review .
“ This is what happens when a single party of mostly men are permitted to dominate both chambers of the state ’ s legislature – their fragile egos are hurt that a woman has more power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Rep. Brigid Kelly ( D ) , the ranking member on the House State and Local Government Committee , called the measure limiting the orders a “ last minute ” addition to legislation that had been presented to the committee just hours before Republicans voted it to the floor .
She added that it “ flies in the face of reason.
” Both bills will now go to the Senate .
Acton , who signs the state ’ s stay-at-home orders , has become a particular target for proponents of a faster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group of protesters gathered in front of her house in the Columbus suburbs , accusing her of “ Over-Re-Acton ” to the pandemic .
Rep. Nino Vitale ( R ) called her a “ globalist , ” a common antisemitic codeword used by some on the right .
Acton is Jewish .
“ Your basic human rights of life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not come from an unelected Globalist Health Director , who signed the order in the dark of night , ” he wrote on Facebook .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can not be bought , sold , traded or taken from you.
” A few weeks before that , Sen. Andrew Brenner ( R ) amplified his wife ’ s Facebook post that compared an idea Acton entertained , about giving out certificates to those who recovered from coronavirus , to Nazi Germany .
He has since apologized .
DeWine has encouraged those opposed to the stay-at-home orders to target him rather than Acton , saying that he ’ s the one who ran for elected office and who makes the policy decisions @

Republicans in Ohio’s House of Representatives moved Wednesday to limit the authority of state Health Department Director Amy Acton, who has been criticized by those chafing under the COVID mitigation orders in recent weeks.
One of the bills they passed would limit health department orders to 14 days before requiring approval from at least six lawmakers on a 10-member panel. Another would reduce the penalties associated with violating the orders.
Gov. Mike DeWine (R), who has been vocal in his defense of Acton, signaled a veto should the Republican-controlled Senate also pass the legislation.
He wrote on Twitter that his administration is focused on the double-pronged task of tamping down the novel coronavirus and keeping the economy afloat.
“Ohioans need their legislators focused on these important issues,” he said. “Creating more uncertainty regarding public health and employee safety is the last thing we need as we work to restore consumer confidence in Ohio’s economy.”
Democrats in the House blasted the first bill, which Republicans amended to curtail the health department’s orders.
“The Ohio Department of Health has had quarantine and isolation powers since it was established in 1886 and its director has never before needed JCARR oversight – until that director in charge of a pandemic was a woman,” said House Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes (D) in a statement, referring to the legislature’s Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review. “This is what happens when a single party of mostly men are permitted to dominate both chambers of the state’s legislature – their fragile egos are hurt that a woman has more power and is more relevant than they are.”
Rep. Brigid Kelly (D), the ranking member on the House State and Local Government Committee, called the measure limiting the orders a “last minute” addition to legislation that had been presented to the committee just hours before Republicans voted it to the floor. She added that it “flies in the face of reason.”
Both bills will now go to the Senate.
Acton, who signs the state’s stay-at-home orders, has become a particular target for proponents of a faster reopening.
On Saturday, a small group of protesters gathered in front of her house in the Columbus suburbs, accusing her of “Over-Re-Acton” to the pandemic.
Rep. Nino Vitale (R) called her a “globalist,” a common antisemitic codeword used by some on the right. Acton is Jewish.
“Your basic human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not come from an unelected Globalist Health Director, who signed the order in the dark of night,” he wrote on Facebook. “Your basic human rights are inalienable and cannot be bought, sold, traded or taken from you.”
A few weeks before that, Sen. Andrew Brenner (R) amplified his wife’s Facebook post that compared an idea Acton entertained, about giving out certificates to those who recovered from coronavirus, to Nazi Germany. He has since apologized.
DeWine has encouraged those opposed to the stay-at-home orders to target him rather than Acton, saying that he’s the one who ran for elected office and who makes the policy decisions.


talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-07--DOJ Is Dropping Case Against Flynn

DOJ Is Dropping Case Against Flynn

The Justice Department is dropping its case against former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn , according to documents filed in court Thursday that were first reported by the AP .
The move is the latest in what has been a series of steps by the Justice Department , since Attorney General Bill Barr took over , to change direction in cases first brought by special counsel Robert Mueller .
President Trump has been a vocal critic of the prosecution of his former close advisor , who had pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI that prior January @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the January 24 , 2017 interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn ’ s statements were material even if untrue , ” the Justice Department said in the new filing .
“ Moreover , we do not believe that the Government can prove either the relevant false statements or their materiality beyond a reasonable doubt.
” The Justice Department described the counterintelligence probe to which Flynn lied in the filing as “ a no longer justifiably predicated investigation.
” “ Continued prosecution of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal interest , ” the filing reads .
Flynn set off alarm bells in December 2016 with five phone calls to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak , and by subsequently lying to incoming Trump administration officials about their contents .
Specifically , Flynn lied about whether he discussed sanctions and their potential removal with Kislyak , on the same day that the outgoing Obama administration hit the Russian government with an array of sanctions in response to Moscow ’ s meddling in the 2016 presidential election .
The filing — signed by U.S. Attorney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — advances a narrative of the FBI ’ s actions in the Flynn investigation that suggests the bureau was acting in bad faith .
It points to Trumpworld bogeymen Peter Strzok and Lisa Page to put forth the argument that the interview in which Flynn lied was needlessly and baselessly arranged .
In the government ’ s new view , Strzok — then the FBI ’ s deputy assistant director — was able to arrange the interview only because “ the counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn was , unexpectedly , still formally open.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ only occurred because the closure of the counterintelligence probe “ had not been timely executed.
” As to what caused the probe ’ s reopening — Flynn ’ s cell phone conversations with Kislyak — the government says the following : “ The FBI had in their possession transcripts of the relevant calls.
” The filing cites purported conflict between then-FBI Director James Comey and Sally Yates , the deputy attorney general at the time .
The government says that “ matters came to a head ” on the day of Flynn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yates that FBI agents were en route to the White House to interview the national security adviser , causing “ senior DOJ officials ‘ hit the roof.
’ ” The government then shifts more suspicion on Comey , Strzok , and Page .
It was Comey who , per the filing , decided that FBI agents “ would go interview Mr. Flynn the following day without notifying either DOJ or the White House.
” In the government ’ s new telling , Yates and Comey are at odds over whether to tell Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ descriptions of Mr. Flynn ’ s calls with Kislyak were not accurate.
” The government goes on to say that it can ’ t penalize Flynn for a crime , to which he pleaded guilty , “ that it is not satisfied occurred and that it does not believe it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
” “ Mr .
Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements that were not ‘ material ’ to any investigation , ” the filing reads .
The government goes on to argue that Flynn ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ To make the case , it advances a theory of lying to federal agents shocking to anyone with a passing familiarity with the FBI : law enforcement can ’ t go “ fishing for falsehoods merely to manufacture jurisdiction over any statement — true or false — uttered by a private citizen or public official.
” Judge Sullivan ’ s earlier tongue-lashing of Flynn during his abortive December 2018 sentencing also earns a mention , in which the government alludes to how dramatically its own position has changed .
The filing acknowledges that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s statements sufficiently ‘ material , ' ” but advises Sullivan that he “ did so , however , based on the Government ’ s prior understanding of the nature of the investigation , before new disclosures crystallized the lack of a legitimate investigative basis for the interview of Mr. Flynn.
” Judge Sullivan , who scolded Mueller ’ s prosecutorial team at Flynn ’ s original December 2018 sentencing for recommending a sentence of little to no jail time , will decide whether to accept the case ’ s dismissal .
At @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Flynn for his admitted lies .
“ I want to be frank with you , this crime is very serious , ” Sullivan told Flynn at the time .
“ Not only did you lie to the FBI , you lied to senior officials in the incoming administration.
” “ I am not hiding my disgust , my disdain for your criminal offense , ” Sullivan added .
The government heaps disdain on the FBI team in charge of investigating Flynn throughout the filing .
At one point , the government says that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ undertaken only to elicit those very false statements and thereby criminalize Mr. Flynn.
” The Trump administration makes that argument in part by discarding any idea that there was something worth investigating in Flynn ’ s calls with Kislyak and subsequent lies about them , saying that “ the calls were entirely appropriate on their face.
” In this brazen new understanding , nothing was “ said on the calls themselves to indicate an inappropriate relationship between Mr. Flynn and a foreign power.
” The FBI “ had in its possession word-for-word transcripts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Mr. Kislyak ” which , in the government ’ s newfound view , destroyed any predicate for a new investigation .
The government argues that the presence of transcripts from a recent phone call obviated the need to interview Flynn .
“ Whatever gaps in his memory Mr. Flynn might or might not reveal upon an interview regurgitating the content of those calls would not have implicated legitimate counterintelligence interests or somehow exposed Mr. Flynn as beholden to Russia , ” the filing reads .
Government officials involved at the the time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then-acting assistant attorney general , said in an exhibit attached to the filing that the interview transcripts “ were ‘ worse ’ than she initially thought ” upon seeing them .
The government suggests that since the Kislyak calls weren ’ t a legitimate basis to keep the Flynn investigation open , the agents who pushed for the interview “ sidestepped ” civil liberties protections that limit “ the investigative reach of law enforcement : the predication threshold for investigating American citizens.
” Describing the rationale for the Flynn investigation as “ frail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says that its own investigators “ were eager to interview Mr. Flynn irrespective of any underlying investigation.
” The DOJ takes it a step further , saying that the Flynn probe was so illegitimately founded that his lies would fail to meet the standard by which a false statement must “ be capable of influencing an agency function or decision.
” “ Even if he told the truth , Mr. Flynn ’ s statements could not have conceivably “ influenced ” an investigation that had neither a legitimate counterintelligence nor criminal purpose , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Mr. Flynn ’ s plea , ‘ prosecutors have a duty to do justice , ’ the government concludes .
The DOJ ’ s move to dismiss the case came not long after a former member of special counsel Robert Mueller ’ s team who had continued to be involved in Flynn ’ s prosecution indicated he was leaving the case .
The notice , which is required under the court ’ s local rules , did not given any reason for why Brandon Van Grack was withdrawing , but nonetheless was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the case .
Van Grack has been a persistent target of Flynn ’ s attorneys as they lobbed accusations of prosecutorial misconduct .
Their court filings repeatedly called him out by name .
Flynn was supposed to be sentenced more than a year ago .
After Flynn hired a prominent anti-Mueller critic to replace the lawyers who negotiated his plea deal , his case has devolved into a protracted fight over whether his plea can be withdrawn , with his new attorneys pushing for the entire prosecution to be dismissed .
Their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alleged that Van Grack had hid from Flynn a “ side deal ” he had made with Flynn ’ s original legal team not to prosecute Flynn ’ s son in exchange for the plea agreement .
Conservative media had also zeroed in on Van Grack with regards to Flynn ’ s other claims that prosecutors had failed to turn over FBI internal documents that they were allegedly obligated to produce to Flynn .
Legal experts told TPM last week that the claims against the prosecutors were overhyped and that it did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Flynn ’ s team got their hands on the internal FBI documents — which included notes and communications discussing the FBI ’ s strategy going into the Jan. 2017 interview with Flynn — as part of a review of Flynn ’ s case Attorney General Bill Barr tasked to a U.S. Attorney in Missouri .
Some former DOJ prosecutors have compared the move as similar to Barr ’ s meddling in the Roger Stone case .
Barr watered down the sentencing recommendation the career prosecutors — which included Mueller team alum — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many of them to withdraw from the prosecution .
Read the government ’ s motion to dismiss here :

The Justice Department is dropping its case against former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, according to documents filed in court Thursday that were first reported by the AP.
The move is the latest in what has been a series of steps by the Justice Department, since Attorney General Bill Barr took over, to change direction in cases first brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.
President Trump has been a vocal critic of the prosecution of his former close advisor, who had pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI that prior January.
“The Government is not persuaded that the January 24, 2017 interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn’s statements were material even if untrue,” the Justice Department said in the new filing. “Moreover, we do not believe that the Government can prove either the relevant false statements or their materiality beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The Justice Department described the counterintelligence probe to which Flynn lied in the filing as “a no longer justifiably predicated investigation.”
“Continued prosecution of the charged crime does not serve a substantial federal interest,” the filing reads.
Flynn set off alarm bells in December 2016 with five phone calls to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and by subsequently lying to incoming Trump administration officials about their contents. Specifically, Flynn lied about whether he discussed sanctions and their potential removal with Kislyak, on the same day that the outgoing Obama administration hit the Russian government with an array of sanctions in response to Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The filing — signed by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea — advances a narrative of the FBI’s actions in the Flynn investigation that suggests the bureau was acting in bad faith. It points to Trumpworld bogeymen Peter Strzok and Lisa Page to put forth the argument that the interview in which Flynn lied was needlessly and baselessly arranged.
In the government’s new view, Strzok — then the FBI’s deputy assistant director — was able to arrange the interview only because “the counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn was, unexpectedly, still formally open.” The filing suggests that the interview only occurred because the closure of the counterintelligence probe “had not been timely executed.”
As to what caused the probe’s reopening — Flynn’s cell phone conversations with Kislyak — the government says the following: “The FBI had in their possession transcripts of the relevant calls.”
The filing cites purported conflict between then-FBI Director James Comey and Sally Yates, the deputy attorney general at the time. The government says that “matters came to a head” on the day of Flynn’s interview, with Comey allegedly telling Yates that FBI agents were en route to the White House to interview the national security adviser, causing “senior DOJ officials ‘hit the roof.’”
The government then shifts more suspicion on Comey, Strzok, and Page. It was Comey who, per the filing, decided that FBI agents “would go interview Mr. Flynn the following day without notifying either DOJ or the White House.”
In the government’s new telling, Yates and Comey are at odds over whether to tell Trump and his incoming administration that their public “descriptions of Mr. Flynn’s calls with Kislyak were not accurate.”
The government goes on to say that it can’t penalize Flynn for a crime, to which he pleaded guilty, “that it is not satisfied occurred and that it does not believe it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements that were not ‘material’ to any investigation,” the filing reads.
The government goes on to argue that Flynn’s lies weren’t “material.” To make the case, it advances a theory of lying to federal agents shocking to anyone with a passing familiarity with the FBI: law enforcement can’t go “fishing for falsehoods merely to manufacture jurisdiction over any statement — true or false — uttered by a private citizen or public official.”
Judge Sullivan’s earlier tongue-lashing of Flynn during his abortive December 2018 sentencing also earns a mention, in which the government alludes to how dramatically its own position has changed.
The filing acknowledges that Sullivan “previously deemed Mr. Flynn’s statements sufficiently ‘material,'” but advises Sullivan that he “did so, however, based on the Government’s prior understanding of the nature of the investigation, before new disclosures crystallized the lack of a legitimate investigative basis for the interview of Mr. Flynn.”
Judge Sullivan, who scolded Mueller’s prosecutorial team at Flynn’s original December 2018 sentencing for recommending a sentence of little to no jail time, will decide whether to accept the case’s dismissal. At the 2018 hearing, Sullivan ripped into Flynn for his admitted lies. “I want to be frank with you, this crime is very serious,” Sullivan told Flynn at the time. “Not only did you lie to the FBI, you lied to senior officials in the incoming administration.”
“I am not hiding my disgust, my disdain for your criminal offense,” Sullivan added.
The government heaps disdain on the FBI team in charge of investigating Flynn throughout the filing. At one point, the government says that the interview “seems to have been undertaken only to elicit those very false statements and thereby criminalize Mr. Flynn.”
The Trump administration makes that argument in part by discarding any idea that there was something worth investigating in Flynn’s calls with Kislyak and subsequent lies about them, saying that “the calls were entirely appropriate on their face.”
In this brazen new understanding, nothing was “said on the calls themselves to indicate an inappropriate relationship between Mr. Flynn and a foreign power.” The FBI “had in its possession word-for-word transcripts of the actual communications between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak” which, in the government’s newfound view, destroyed any predicate for a new investigation.
The government argues that the presence of transcripts from a recent phone call obviated the need to interview Flynn. “Whatever gaps in his memory Mr. Flynn might or might not reveal upon an interview regurgitating the content of those calls would not have implicated legitimate counterintelligence interests or somehow exposed Mr. Flynn as beholden to Russia,” the filing reads.
Government officials involved at the the time contradict that view. Mary McCord, then-acting assistant attorney general, said in an exhibit attached to the filing that the interview transcripts “were ‘worse’ than she initially thought” upon seeing them.
The government suggests that since the Kislyak calls weren’t a legitimate basis to keep the Flynn investigation open, the agents who pushed for the interview “sidestepped” civil liberties protections that limit “the investigative reach of law enforcement: the predication threshold for investigating American citizens.”
Describing the rationale for the Flynn investigation as “frail and shifting,” the government now says that its own investigators “were eager to interview Mr. Flynn irrespective of any underlying investigation.”
The DOJ takes it a step further, saying that the Flynn probe was so illegitimately founded that his lies would fail to meet the standard by which a false statement must “be capable of influencing an agency function or decision.”
“Even if he told the truth, Mr. Flynn’s statements could not have conceivably “influenced” an investigation that had neither a legitimate counterintelligence nor criminal purpose,” the government says.
“Irrespective of Mr. Flynn’s plea, ‘prosecutors have a duty to do justice,’ the government concludes.
The DOJ’s move to dismiss the case came not long after a former member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team who had continued to be involved in Flynn’s prosecution indicated he was leaving the case.
The notice, which is required under the court’s local rules, did not given any reason for why Brandon Van Grack was withdrawing, but nonetheless was seen as a sign of potential turmoil in the case.
Brandon Van Grack, a veteran of Mueller’s team, has sought to withdraw from the Flynn case pic.twitter.com/e18ZS0WAej — Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) May 7, 2020
Van Grack has been a persistent target of Flynn’s attorneys as they lobbed accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. Their court filings repeatedly called him out by name.
Flynn was supposed to be sentenced more than a year ago. After Flynn hired a prominent anti-Mueller critic to replace the lawyers who negotiated his plea deal, his case has devolved into a protracted fight over whether his plea can be withdrawn, with his new attorneys pushing for the entire prosecution to be dismissed.
Their latest accusations, filed last month, alleged that Van Grack had hid from Flynn a “side deal” he had made with Flynn’s original legal team not to prosecute Flynn’s son in exchange for the plea agreement. Conservative media had also zeroed in on Van Grack with regards to Flynn’s other claims that prosecutors had failed to turn over FBI internal documents that they were allegedly obligated to produce to Flynn.
Legal experts told TPM last week that the claims against the prosecutors were overhyped and that it did not appear that the documents were inappropriately withheld.
Flynn’s team got their hands on the internal FBI documents — which included notes and communications discussing the FBI’s strategy going into the Jan. 2017 interview with Flynn — as part of a review of Flynn’s case Attorney General Bill Barr tasked to a U.S. Attorney in Missouri.
Some former DOJ prosecutors have compared the move as similar to Barr’s meddling in the Roger Stone case. Barr watered down the sentencing recommendation the career prosecutors — which included Mueller team alum — had made in the case, prompting many of them to withdraw from the prosecution.
Read the government’s motion to dismiss here:


talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-07--Government Stockpile Secretary Under Scrutiny For Business Ties To Pharma

Just a few years ago , the federal government was paying $ 4.27 per dose for a smallpox vaccine to stock the Strategic National Stockpile .
By 2018 , it started paying $ 9.44 per dose — part of a 10-year , 18 million-dose deal with the pharmaceutical firm Emergent BioSolutions .
For one thing , Robert Kadlec became the Department of Health and Human Services ’ assistant secretary for preparedness and response , an office that in 2018 began overseeing the stockpile .
Four days after Kadlec ’ s nomination for the job , Emergent acquired the rights to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s previous supplier .
And as secretary , Kadlec pressed to increase the government ’ s supply of the vaccines .
Here ’ s the twist : Four years prior to his nomination , Kadlec worked as a consultant for Emergent .
Thirty months before the nomination , he was part-owner of a separate start-up endeavor with BioSolutions ’ founder and chairman .
The Washington Post had the full story on Monday .
And it gets worse : Despite his industry work , Kadlec responded “ none ” on the Senate questionnaire asking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he ’ d had a business relationship in the past five years .
As one of the Trump administration ’ s top officials on the COVID-19 crisis , Kadlec is in a brighter spotlight than ever before .
His emails have leaked to the New York Times , he ’ s been grilled in congressional hearings .
And now , his old business ties are under scrutiny .
“ My standing guidance for this contract , and all contracts , is to get the best value and most protection for the American people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a statement .
It didn ’ t help that at the same time the Post story was brewing , Kadlec had a major falling out with a former colleague — Dr. Rick Bright , who until recently led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority ( BARDA ) .
We ’ ve covered Bright before : He alleged after his recent demotion that the move was retaliation for his opposition to hydroxychloroquine , the anti-malaria drug that Trump endlessly hyped as a potential COVID-19 cure .
Bright said that Trump officials had bent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the drug widely available around the county .
And in a whistleblower complaint this week , Bright alleged that his speaking to a Reuters reporter about his concerns over hydroxychloroquine was what led to his removal at BARDA .
The other allegations in Bright ’ s complaint have gotten a little less attention , but they ’ re explosive : Bright accused Kadlec of pushing government contacts based on political and personal connections .
Beginning in 2017 , Bright alleged , “ HHS leadership pressured Dr .
Bright and BARDA to ignore expert @ @ @ @ @ @ @ based on political connections and cronyism.
” Referring to a “ cottage industry ” of marketing consultants , political influence and government contracts , Bright paid specific attention to John Clerici , an industry consultant with ties to Kadlec .
In one instance , Clerici allegedly emphasized to Bright that a CEO client of Clerici ’ s was “ friends with Jared [ Kushner ] ” and was “ the kind of person who would write stories about you for the newspapers.
” Separately , Bright recalled how Kadlec awarded a contract for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s client , Partner Therapeutics , “ on the basic of industrial mobilization ” — that is to say , “ the urgent need to keep a company financially viable , ” despite several other companies that produced similar radiation drugs .
“ ASPR instructed the [ stockpile ] to buy the drug exclusively from Partner Therapeutics to prevent the company from becoming bankrupt , ” Bright alleged .
Clerici claimed to the New York Times that the conversation in question “ never happened.
” Here ’ s what else we were watching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Firms Linked To Trump Get Millions In Coronavirus Small Business Aid • None Trump Taps One Of His Top Donors To Lead USPS As POTUS Trashes Agency

Just a few years ago, the federal government was paying $4.27 per dose for a smallpox vaccine to stock the Strategic National Stockpile. By 2018, it started paying $9.44 per dose — part of a 10-year, 18 million-dose deal with the pharmaceutical firm Emergent BioSolutions.
What changed?
For one thing, Robert Kadlec became the Department of Health and Human Services’ assistant secretary for preparedness and response, an office that in 2018 began overseeing the stockpile.
Four days after Kadlec’s nomination for the job, Emergent acquired the rights to the smallpox vaccine from the government’s previous supplier. And as secretary, Kadlec pressed to increase the government’s supply of the vaccines.
Here’s the twist: Four years prior to his nomination, Kadlec worked as a consultant for Emergent. Thirty months before the nomination, he was part-owner of a separate start-up endeavor with BioSolutions’ founder and chairman.
The Washington Post had the full story on Monday.
And it gets worse: Despite his industry work, Kadlec responded “none” on the Senate questionnaire asking for potential conflicts of interest with whom he’d had a business relationship in the past five years.
As one of the Trump administration’s top officials on the COVID-19 crisis, Kadlec is in a brighter spotlight than ever before. His emails have leaked to the New York Times, he’s been grilled in congressional hearings. And now, his old business ties are under scrutiny.
“My standing guidance for this contract, and all contracts, is to get the best value and most protection for the American people,” Kadlec told the Post in a statement.
It didn’t help that at the same time the Post story was brewing, Kadlec had a major falling out with a former colleague — Dr. Rick Bright, who until recently led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
We’ve covered Bright before: He alleged after his recent demotion that the move was retaliation for his opposition to hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that Trump endlessly hyped as a potential COVID-19 cure. Bright said that Trump officials had bent to political pressure in attempting to make the drug widely available around the county.
And in a whistleblower complaint this week, Bright alleged that his speaking to a Reuters reporter about his concerns over hydroxychloroquine was what led to his removal at BARDA.
The other allegations in Bright’s complaint have gotten a little less attention, but they’re explosive: Bright accused Kadlec of pushing government contacts based on political and personal connections.
Beginning in 2017, Bright alleged, “HHS leadership pressured Dr. Bright and BARDA to ignore expert recommendations and instead to award lucrative contracts based on political connections and cronyism.”
Referring to a “cottage industry” of marketing consultants, political influence and government contracts, Bright paid specific attention to John Clerici, an industry consultant with ties to Kadlec.
In one instance, Clerici allegedly emphasized to Bright that a CEO client of Clerici’s was “friends with Jared [Kushner]” and was “the kind of person who would write stories about you for the newspapers.”
Separately, Bright recalled how Kadlec awarded a contract for a radiation exposure therapy to Clerici’s client, Partner Therapeutics, “on the basic of industrial mobilization” — that is to say, “the urgent need to keep a company financially viable,” despite several other companies that produced similar radiation drugs.
“ASPR instructed the [stockpile] to buy the drug exclusively from Partner Therapeutics to prevent the company from becoming bankrupt,” Bright alleged.
Clerici claimed to the New York Times that the conversation in question “never happened.”
Here’s what else we were watching this week:


talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-08--ICYMI: Weekend Reads From TPM

ICYMI: Weekend Reads From TPM

The news moves so fast these days , it ’ s nearly impossible to keep up with every headline .
Here are some key TPM stories from this week to help you catch up .
A stunning conclusion to a strange saga .
The Department of Justice on Thursday dropped its criminal case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn .
Trump cheered the news , and Attorney General Bill Barr said it was an “ easy ” call to make .
The final call on the case is ultimately up to the judge .
Here ’ s a sampling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bubbling up this week : • A state lawmaker in Ohio refuses to wear a mask because it covers the “ image of God.
” • A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice compared the state ’ s stay-at-home-order to the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII .
• Michigan ’ s GOP-controlled legislature sued Gov .
Gretchen Whitmer over her extension of the state ’ s stay-at-home order .
• Ohio Gov .
Mike DeWine came to the defense of the state ’ s health director , who had faced anti-semitic attacks and protests .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ City and other major metropolitan areas starts to ebb , less populous areas are beginning to see a spike in cases .
A CDC document projects that more than 3,000 Americans will die of COVID-19 every day by June 1 .
President Trump has ditched his earlier death toll projections , and now acknowledges that as many as 100,000 people could die from the virus .
And the CDC released a tool earlier this week that calculates excess deaths in the U.S. amid the pandemic .

The news moves so fast these days, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with every headline. Here are some key TPM stories from this week to help you catch up.
DOJ Drops Case Against Flynn
A stunning conclusion to a strange saga. The Department of Justice on Thursday dropped its criminal case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Trump cheered the news, and Attorney General Bill Barr said it was an “easy” call to make. The final call on the case is ultimately up to the judge.
Coronavirus Flashpoints Across The Country
Here’s a sampling of some of the local coronavirus stories bubbling up this week:
A state lawmaker in Ohio refuses to wear a mask because it covers the “image of God.”
A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice compared the state’s stay-at-home-order to the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.
Michigan’s GOP-controlled legislature sued Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over her extension of the state’s stay-at-home order.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine came to the defense of the state’s health director, who had faced anti-semitic attacks and protests.
Grim Figures
As the coronavirus outbreak in New York City and other major metropolitan areas starts to ebb, less populous areas are beginning to see a spike in cases. A CDC document projects that more than 3,000 Americans will die of COVID-19 every day by June 1. President Trump has ditched his earlier death toll projections, and now acknowledges that as many as 100,000 people could die from the virus. And the CDC released a tool earlier this week that calculates excess deaths in the U.S. amid the pandemic.


talkingpointsmemo--2020-05-08--In A Bold Stand, Sessions Insists He Didn’t Beg For AG Gig Four Times

Jeff Sessions is walking a shaky tightrope as he tries to win a Senate seat in Trump-loving Alabama while fending off the President ’ s burning and often-vocalized hatred .
In his most recent attempt to make a stand , Sessions insisted Friday that he did not beg for the attorney general post four times , as President Donald Trump claimed during today ’ s interview on Fox News .
“ I didn ’ t want to make him Attorney General , but he was the first senator to endorse me .
So , I felt a little bit of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the interview .
“ He came to see me four times just begging me to be attorney general .
He wasn ’ t equipped to be attorney general , but he just wanted it , wanted it , wanted it .
“ I never begged for the job of Attorney General , not 4 times , not 1 time , not ever , ” he said .
“ The President offered me the job , I took it , I stood up for the truth and performed at the highest levels.
” He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has “ enormous appreciation ” for the President who constantly insults him in public , and that he looks forward to voting for him in the fall .
During the Friday interview , Trump also called him a “ very average guy ” and a “ disaster ” of an attorney general .
Trump has never forgiven Sessions for recusing himself during the Russia probe , and blames him for the ensuing “ witch hunt.
” Sessions will battle former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville in a Republican primary runoff pushed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus pandemic .
The winner will take on incumbent Sen. Doug Jones ( D-AL ) in November .
“ I have enormous appreciation for President Trump and all that he has done for our country .
I will be voting for him this fall , and working hard to pass his agenda when I return to the Senate next year .
“ The specific law for the Department of Justice required that I recuse myself from the Russian collusion investigation .
To not recuse myself from that investigation , of which I was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a witness , would have been breaking the law .
I do not and will not break the law .
On this matter , I agree with the late Tom Petty ’ s famous lyric – ‘ you can stand me up to the gates of hell , but I won ’ t back down.
’ “ I did the right thing for the country and for President Trump .
If I , as a target of the investigation , had broken the law by not recusing myself , it would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ law and for the President .
The Democrats in Congress and the politically motivated bureaucrats all over Washington would have had a field day , alleging a Nixonian cover-up , and the President would not have been fully exonerated .
“ Let ’ s not forget , the notion that we on the Trump campaign colluded with Russia has been proven to be a complete hoax , and the President has been exonerated .
“ Finally , I never begged for the job of Attorney General , not 4 times , not 1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offered me the job , I took it , I stood up for the truth and performed at the highest levels .
Doing the right thing is not weakness , it is strength .
My foundation is built on rock , not sand .
”

Jeff Sessions is walking a shaky tightrope as he tries to win a Senate seat in Trump-loving Alabama while fending off the President’s burning and often-vocalized hatred.
In his most recent attempt to make a stand, Sessions insisted Friday that he did not beg for the attorney general post four times, as President Donald Trump claimed during today’s interview on Fox News.
“I didn’t want to make him Attorney General, but he was the first senator to endorse me. So, I felt a little bit of an obligation,” Trump said in the interview. “He came to see me four times just begging me to be attorney general. He wasn’t equipped to be attorney general, but he just wanted it, wanted it, wanted it.
Sessions rebutted the claim in a statement.
“I never begged for the job of Attorney General, not 4 times, not 1 time, not ever,” he said. “The President offered me the job, I took it, I stood up for the truth and performed at the highest levels.”
He hedged his pushback, adding that he has “enormous appreciation” for the President who constantly insults him in public, and that he looks forward to voting for him in the fall.
During the Friday interview, Trump also called him a “very average guy” and a “disaster” of an attorney general.
Trump has never forgiven Sessions for recusing himself during the Russia probe, and blames him for the ensuing “witch hunt.”
Sessions will battle former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville in a Republican primary runoff pushed to the end of July due to the coronavirus pandemic. The winner will take on incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) in November.
Read Sessions’ full statement here: