Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with an afternoon thunderstorm, and a high of eighty-one. Sunrise is 6:02 AM and sunset 7:56 PM, for 13h 53m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 22.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks & Rec Board meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1862, the 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry musters in:
On this date in Milwaukee, the 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry was mustered in. The 24th was organized in late 1862 from the Milwaukee and the surrounding areas under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Herman L. Page. The regiment was encamped at Camp Sigel in Milwaukee. Page resigned one day after the muster in and Charles H. Larrabee was appointed Colonel. On September 5th, the regiment left Wisconsin for Kentucky. At Louisville they were assigned to the 37th Brigade, under Colonel Gruesel, of the 11th Division, under General Phillip Sheridan. The 24th was mustered out on June 10, 1865. [Source: 24th Wisconsin Infantry page]
Recommended for reading in full —
Craig Gilbert remarks on the Wisconsin vote in yesterday’s fall primary:
with the caveat that these things are NOT always predictive of the fall, it’s worth noting that it looks like Dem turnout clearly outstripped GOP turnout in WI even though GOP primary was closer and had much higher spending #WIPrimary https://t.co/qI3S365LjE
— Craig Gilbert (@WisVoter) August 15, 2018
Norman Eisen unpacks Presidential pardons and obstruction of justice:
- If a president were to issue pardons in order to block an investigation for a wrongful purpose—like a president protecting himself because he believed that someone who was pardoned would disclose incriminating evidence against that president—that would constitute obstruction of justice.
- Congress has said that it is a crime in the United States to obstruct justice.
- There’s a debate over whether a sitting president can be prosecuted.
- Another option would be for the Department of Justice to refer the case to Congress. With (or without) a report, Congress could have hearings in the House Judiciary Committee as to whether a president committed obstruction of justice by giving a pardon with corrupt intent to himself or those around him.
- Trump’s frequent use of pardons has broader implications.
- Many analysts and advisers to President Trump have reported that President Trump is delighted by his power to pardon, viewing it as a sign of unconstrained authority.
- Trump may be issuing pardons strategically, “dangling” pardons before witnesses who might testify against him to disincentivize them from cooperating with investigations.
- The signal of impunity this may send to witnesses, subjects, targets, and defendants participating in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is profoundly troubling.
The Committee to Investigate Russia writes Court Upholds Mueller Authority:
“By investigating and prosecuting Concord, the Special Counsel did not exceed his authority,” [Judge Dabney] Friedrich wrote in her opinion.
She also rejected the company’s argument that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, acting on behalf of Attorney General Jeff Sessions after his recusal, was out of bounds in bringing in Mueller to investigate the alleged Russian meddling.
Concord’s lawyers, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday, had argued that Rosenstein violated the Appointments Clause of the US Constitution in hiring Mueller in May 2017. Friedrich ruled that US Supreme Court and circuit court rulings made clear Rosenstein did have statutory authority to bring in Mueller.
Helene Cooper and Julian E. Barnes report U.S. Officials Scrambled Behind the Scenes to Shield NATO Deal From Trump:
The work to preserve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreement, which is usually subject to intense 11th-hour negotiations, came just weeks after Mr. Trump refused to sign off on a communiqué from the June meeting of the Group of 7 in Canada.
The rushed machinations to get the policy done, as demanded by John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, have not been previously reported. Described by European diplomats and American officials, the efforts are a sign of the lengths to which the president’s top advisers will go to protect a key and longstanding international alliance from Mr. Trump’s unpredictable antipathy.
Allied ambassadors said the American officials’ plan worked — to a degree.
Mr. Trump did almost blow up the two-day meeting in Brussels that began on July 11. He issued a vague threat that the United States could go its own way if allies resisted his demands for additional military spending. After the gathering, he also questioned a pillar of the alliance: that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all.
This Car Wash Serves the Best Filipino Food: