Politics

This morning in a London court, a jury handed down a verdict. The actor Kevin Spacey stood accused of nine counts of sexual assault, which had sparked up in the aftermath of #MeToo; six years later, the jury acquitted him of all of them. Though he had remained stoic during the trial, he cried as the final “not guilty” was read aloud. The two-time Oscar winner, star of House of Cards and American Beauty, former artistic director of the famous Old Vic theater and reluctantly outed gay man was free. He turned sixty-four years old today.   To some, this is a massive miscarriage of justice.

Fresh off a narrow defeat in her gubernatorial race, Kari Lake is seeking to remake the Arizona GOP in her image — rather than in John McCain’s. Her moves include plans to primary Republicans who did win their elections as recently as last November — and they come as the former journalist is keeping multiple professional irons in fires, all while freezing the GOP field in next year’s high-stakes Senate race.  While most Arizona strategists expect Lake to announce a Senate campaign this fall, there is also speculation that she is competing to be Donald Trump’s running mate. “We drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine,” Lake bragged.

Hunter Biden will appear at a Wilmington court on Wednesday to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay taxes. These charges are the result of the prolonged investigation that has been the subject of serious claims of political interference from two IRS whistleblowers. Along with a pretrial agreement relating to a felony gun charge, the misdemeanors make up what many in Washington see to be a sweetheart deal for the president’s son.  Assuming Hunter’s lawyer can concentrate between bong rips, and Hunter himself manages to tear himself away from Nobu Malibu and make it to court on time, it should be a fairly routine appearance.

One of the few notable things about the low-key launch of Joe Biden’s reelection bid earlier this year was the prominence of his unpopular deputy. Kamala Harris featured heavily in the video in which he announced his run.  At the time, White House insiders acknowledged sotto voce that Biden’s age meant his vice president would have to take on a bigger role than is normal for running mates. An octogenarian candidate might not be able to handle the punishing campaign trail schedule, and voters would need to be comfortable that the woman only a heartbeat away from the presidency was up to the job.  For the White House, acknowledging the need for a bigger role for Harris meant addressing her unpopularity: Joe needed a Kamala relaunch.

Thursday’s explosive congressional Weaponization subcommittee hearing didn’t uncover any new evidence on government censorship, but it did serve as an unofficial excommunication of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the Democratic Party.  During the House Judiciary Committee's three-hour hearing, Kennedy was relentlessly characterized by Democrats as a racist bigot spewing misinformation and hate. He was repeatedly denied the opportunity to respond to accusations or even answer questions by members of his own party who no longer claim him.  For House Democrats, it seems that Kennedy is the new Donald Trump.

The centrist group No Labels held a coming out party for itself in New Hampshire this week. In an event at St. Anselm College — a regular stop for presidential hopefuls — West Virginia senator Joe Manchin and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman talked up the prospects of a third-party run and the market for a ticket that appeals to the exasperated and underserved middle ground of American politics.  Meanwhile, No Labels is getting more specific about what its approach to 2024 will be. Until this week, the group had been noncommittal about exactly which Democratic and Republican candidates it would challenge, and when it would make a call on entering the race.

Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has received notice he is a target in the federal criminal investigation into the January 6 riot and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.  “Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.  Two sources with direct knowledge of the grand jury probe confirmed to NBC News that Smith had sent Trump the target letter.

The Department of Energy was besieged with ethics complaints this week as energy secretary Jennifer Granholm stares down accusations of corruption and demands from Congress that she fire Christopher Smith, a top aide and former Ford lobbyist. Senator John Barrasso, one of the most powerful Senate Republicans, faulted Granholm for “repeated lapses in upholding basic ethical standards” and demanded she “remove Ford’s lobbyist from [her] advisory board,” while laying out how Ford has basically taken over the Energy Department. “Just over two months after Ford’s top lobbyist was appointed to the [Secretary of Energy Advisory Board], the department announced a $9.