The News Not Noise Letter: Congress Urges the DOJ to Prosecute Trump
The Jan. 6th Committee makes history. Plus, Harvey Weinstein guilty, again; Sam Bankman-Fried is headed home-ish and Snoop Dogg offers his services to Twitter.
Welcome to the News Not Noise Letter on our new platform. Today we are bringing you news in context, jargon explained, nuance included. In the coming weeks we’ll experiment with other content. I’ll share observations about the changing information landscape and the challenges of doing the news in an era of viral outrage and algorithms tuned to Kim Kardashian’s bare-it-all selfies. We promise not to get mired in the awful. At the end of this newsletter – and on most Fridays – we remind you of the causes for joy and laughter with News That Doesn’t Suck. Please tell us what you like and share your questions in comments. Thank you for being here.
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Here are today’s top headlines:
‘Twas the Criminal Referral Before Christmas: For the first time in US history, Congress is urging the Department of Justice to prosecute a former president. On Monday, the House Jan. 6th Committee held its final meeting and voted to refer Donald Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. The bipartisan committee accuses him of insurrection and the following charges: conspiracy to defraud the U.S., obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, and conspiracy to make a false statement.
This referral is a “suggestion.” The House does not have the power to bring charges against Trump. Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel Jack Smith will ultimately decide whether or not to prosecute.
In today’s opening remarks, Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice chairwoman, explained that every American president has accepted the peaceful transfer of power — except one.
The Committee found that Ivanka Trump and former Trump aides Kayleigh McEnany and Hope Hicks were “not forthcoming” and “evasive” in their testimonies. The Jan. 6th committee is expected to release its final report on Wednesday.
Trump’s bad week doesn’t end there. Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee will discuss what to do with six years of his tax returns. If they release them publicly, it’ll likely be before year’s end.
Weinstein Found Guilty: Content warning: This story is about rape and sexual assault. If that’s triggering for you please skip ahead to the next item. A Los Angeles jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty on one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, all stemming from the account of Jane Doe 1, who accused Weinstein of raping her and forcing her to perform oral sex in a Los Angeles hotel room in 2013.
44 witnesses offered emotional and sometimes graphic testimony. Among them was Jennifer Siebel Newsom, California governor Gaven Newsom’s wife, who tearfully described the night Weinstein allegedly raped her in a hotel room many years ago.
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York. He was convicted of third-degree rape and criminal sexual act in the first degree there in 2020. He now faces up to 24 years in California prison as well.
Confusion on the Border: Chief Justice John Roberts put a temporary hold on the Trump-era immigration policy known as Title 42, which is set to expire on Wednesday. This means it is still in place — for now.
Rewind: Title 42 is the pandemic-era policy that allows the US to quickly expel migrants from certain countries (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Venezuela) without legal processing. It was enacted as a public health policy in March 2020 at the start of COVID lockdown. Biden vowed to end it.
There has been a ton of back and forth on the policy. A federal judge ordered the Biden administration to end Title 42 by Dec. 21, but 19 GOP-led states sued to keep it in place. The Supreme Court has ordered it upheld for 24 hours while the Biden administration is given a chance to respond.
Last week, at least 2,500 migrants a day crossed the border near El Paso, Texas. Many of them arrived from Nicaragua. Border towns are expecting a huge influx of asylum seekers when/if the policy is lifted.
This is another reminder that Congress has failed to modernize immigration laws so the courts and the executive are left to find workarounds during times of crisis.
Winter in Europe: The European Union finally agreed to cap natural gas prices and limit the amount of money households and businesses will have to spend on energy during the cold winter months. The goal: limit Russia’s ability to spike energy prices and undermine the resolve of European countries to stay allied in the fight in Ukraine.
Russia cut off most gas deliveries to Europe, driving up energy bills and pushing inflation to record-highs.
Starting in February, if EU gas prices exceed 180 euros ($191.22 USD) per megawatt hour for three days, a cap will be triggered so prices can’t go higher. The bloc’s gas storage levels are around 84%, which is comfortable for now.
See You in Court, SBF: Today, Sam Bankman-Fried agreed to be extradited to the U.S. from the Bahamas. The disgraced FTX crypto exchange founder was arrested in Nassau at the request of the U.S. government last week. He’s facing US fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering charges and was denied bail in the Bahamas last week for being a flight risk.
SBF’s legal team was expected to fight extradition, so this is something of a surprise. It’s not clear when Bankman-Fried will return to the U.S. An initial extradition hearing was set up for February 8th, but his agreement could speed that up.
SBF is accused of using billions of dollars from FTX investors to cover debts from his hedge fund, Alameda, and then lying about it. He was also charged with tens of millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to both Democrats and Republicans.
NYTimes Crossword Critique: This isn’t quite news, but we didn’t want to treat it as noise either. The design of this week’s New York Times’ Sunday Crossword puzzle, released on the first day of Hanukkah, seemed to resemble a swastika. When the Times was called out, the paper responded saying: “This is a common crossword design: Many open grids in crosswords have a similar spiral pattern because of the rules around rotational symmetry and black squares.” We believe this, understand that there is a design challenge and accept that sometimes we don’t see the ways our work might upset others. We also wish that the Times had acknowledged that sensitivity matters during a time of rising antisemitism and vowed to be more mindful of these concerns going forward.
A little Noise and News That Doesn’t Suck
A Nation in Celebration: On Sunday, Argentina won the World Cup. Tuesday is a national holiday so the entire country can “express their deepest joy for the national team.” The scenes from Buenos Aires have been stunning; thousands, if not millions swarming the streets, tears of joy streaming down their faces.
A former NNN team member is in Buenos Aires and videos and pictures from the streets. Check those out here.
To Spud or Not To Spud: It’s time to show potatoes a little love. According to a study from Edith Cowan University, potatoes have gotten a bad reputation over the years. Old research indicated that the spuds possibly increased the likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes, but new data suggests this is outdated. Phew.
While potatoes aren’t the healthiest veggie, the study finds that health issues associated with them have less to do with the actual potato and more to do with how it’s prepared.
Preparing potatoes without cream, butter or oil and boiling them rather than frying them allows the fiber and nutrients in the spuds to shine through. The study went as far as to call boiled potatoes a “good quality of carbohydrate” compared to white rice.
Big opportunity to launch a boiled potato franchise!
Rule by Snoop? For those of you boycotting all things Twitter, stop reading here. For the rest, our favorite tweet of the week comes from Snoop Dogg. After Elon Musk surveyed Twitter to ask if he should step down as CEO (the response: YES!), Snoop Dogg offered to step into the breach. Would he be known as Tha Twizit?
Want more information?
We’ve got it for you. Check out the News Not Noise Podcast. Here are a few episodes that are worth your time this holiday season.
🎙️ Managing Anxiety in a Stressful World with Tara Brach.
🎙️ The New Archetype of Women CEOs with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin.
🎙️ What's Going On In The Housing Market with Skylar Olsen.
🎙️ Big Tech, The Middle Class and America “Adrift” with Scott Galloway.
We live in "Interesting Times".