Florida Dems elect Nikki Fried to lead the party after 'horrific November'

MAITLAND, Fla. — Florida Democrats on Saturday elected Nikki Fried to what many Democrats consider the worst job in state politics.

Democrats picked Fried, the state’s former agriculture commissioner who also ran for governor last year, to be the party’s chair, replacing Manny Diaz, who stepped down in January. Diaz abruptly resigned following midterm elections that saw an across-the-board thumping by Republicans.

Fried overcame a somewhat divisive and spirited battle against former state Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Miami-area Democrat who ran for governor as well as Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.)’s congressional seat in 2022. Fried also faced animosity from some progressive elements of the party who went so far as to call Fried a “Republican operative” because she previously helped and donated money to GOP candidates.

In her remarks following her victory, Fried vowed to unite the party, and work to deny the White House to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to run for president.

“You better believe we are going to take it to Ron DeSantis every damn day,” Fried told a crowded room of Democrats gathered at a hotel just north of Orlando. Fried also vowed to send Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who is up for re-election in 2024, “home to Naples” next year.

A few months ago, Fried told reporters and fellow Democrats that she wasn’t interested in becoming party chair. But now she’s in charge of an undercapitalized and deeply demoralized party that was crushed by Republicans last November. DeSantis defeated Democratic nominee Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points, Republicans gained a supermajority in the Legislature and the GOP picked up four more congressional seats, which helped them retake the U.S. House.

One of the most obvious signs of Republican dominance is that Florida flipped from a state where Democrats held a voter registration advantage to one where the GOP now has 417,000 more active registered voters.

In the 2022 elections, national Democrats largely abandoned the state and did not put any significant amounts of money in any of the statewide or congressional races.

Some Florida Democrats, such as Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, have insisted that Democrats will not walk away from Florida in 2024, when President Joe Biden is expected to be on the ballot. Biden lost the state to former President Donald Trump by 3 percent.

Fried, who acknowledged Democrats had a "horrific November election," pledged to ramp up “low dollar donations” while saying she has been talking to Democratic donors and national groups about reengaging with the state. She also discussed extending money to local Democratic groups and organizations and getting involved in more down ballot races.

“When we are showing success, when we are showing that we got a plan for success, the donors will be here,” said Fried.

Fried also argued that national groups will get more involved in the state because it is “ground zero” of the “radicalization of the Republican Party.” During her remarks to Democratic executive committee members before the vote, Fried also said she had been fighting against a "zealous fascist dictator," though she didn't say DeSantis by name at that time.

Republicans took glee in Fried’s selection, pointing how she was soundly defeated by Crist in the Democratic primary last August.

Christian Ziegler, who last week was elected chair of the Republican Party of Florida, said before Fried can even address all the Democratic Party shortcomings “she is going to have to start by convincing the 65 percent of Democrats who rejected her just months ago.”

“Fried drew the short straw,” Zielger said via text. “The losing by Democrats will continue and Florida will better because of it.”

A significant number of Democrats pushed back against Fried after she jumped into the race for chair less than two weeks ago.

Some of those hesitant to support Fried said her decision to run for party chair would put her on the sidelines in the near term and take her out of the running to challenge someone like Scott. Samantha Hope Herring, a Democratic National Committee member from north Florida, said anyone who becomes chair will get “dirtied up.”

Steve Schale, a political strategist who directed Barack Obama’s Florida campaign in 2008, said that “the reality is, to do this job right you are going to have to make decisions to anger people who elected you to this job.”

“You can’t go into it with a mindset you will run,” said Schale, who said the main directive of the new party chair should be to raise money and register voters.

Thomas Kennedy, a Democratic National Committee member from Florida who backed Taddeo for chair, added that “it’s a punching bag job.”

“We need a chair that’s not interested in running again in 2024 or 2026 and is interested in the job,” Kennedy said. “You unseat Rick Scott and you’re a goddamn hero.”

When asked, Fried said she had not made any promises to Democratic executive committee members that she would forgo any future political campaigns in the next two cycles.

But she added she planned to be chair for “the foreseeable future” and that “no matter who wants to run for statewide office in the future we got to make sure the structure is here.”

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Belarusian leader, a key Putin ally, plans state visit to China next week

Lukashenko has backed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and allowed Belarusian territory to be used in the Russian assault.

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Why Russia's war is causing blackouts in Asia

Europe was expecting to freeze when Russia invaded Ukraine. Instead, the war’s shock waves left some Asian nations in the dark.

After a year of fighting, Europe's gas reserves are bulging and its leaders are moving forward with ambitious plans to green their economies. But it's starkly different thousands of miles away, where poor Asian countries are scrounging for fuel after liquefied natural gas cargoes were rerouted to wealthy European markets.

Some nations, including India and Indonesia, have resorted to burning more coal — a setback for the global fight against climate change. Others, like Bangladesh and Pakistan, have endured blackouts due to abrupt fuel shortages.

One year into Russian leader Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine, deep fault lines are being exposed in the global energy system — especially between rich and poor nations. Those that can afford to pay rising prices are buying up energy resources such as natural gas, while preparing for climate change by developing renewable power such as wind and solar. Those that can't are slipping back into the grip of dirtier fuels — or going dark.

“I think there will be greater gaps between countries,” said Jane Nakano, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The war’s impact was also felt across parts of Africa, where millions of people lost electricity as rising prices for fuel and food compounded the impacts of climate change and Covid-19.

The scramble by countries worldwide for coal, gas and oil supplies helped drive greenhouse gas emissions close to an all-time high last year, just as the clock is ticking on global climate efforts. Scientists say the world has nine years at current emissions rates until the rise in global temperatures since the dawn of the industrial era eclipses 1.5 degrees Celsius, the threshold for dire harm to people, economies and ecosystems.

Emerging economies in southern Asia, in particular, are vital to global climate efforts because their growing populations demand higher amounts of energy. They are also among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Pakistan, a country of 220 million people, is perhaps the most dramatic example. The country, already gripped by political turmoil, experienced devastating floods last year that caused more than $30 billion in damages.

The war made it worse.

More than a quarter of the gas that Pakistan used for power plants, factories and cooking food in 2021 came from international shipments of LNG, according to data from BP. But last year, companies rerouted much of it to wealthier ports in Europe, and to richer Asian nations that could still afford the higher prices.

Nine shipments bound for Pakistan were diverted to other countries, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Prices for imported coal also soared, prompting Pakistan to increase its domestic production of lignite — a carbon-intensive form of fuel.

It still wasn't enough energy.

The shortage collided with an extreme heat wave whose impact, scientists said, was multiplied by human-caused climate change. As electricity demand surged, Pakistan turned to emergency measures. The government ordered malls to close early, and it shut off streetlights.

Then last month, one attempt to ration fuel backfired spectacularly: Coal and nuclear plants that had been shut down overnight to conserve resources failed to restart. The nation went dark for 15 hours.

“When you’re desperate, you do what you need to do,” said Ahmad Faruqui, a Pakistani-born economist who tracks the country’s energy system.

Natural gas goes global

The world has experienced global energy crises before, such as the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970s. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spawned the first true global gas crisis.

Gas is traditionally a regional commodity transported through pipelines. That is especially true in Europe. Gas produced in Siberia is piped across Russia and into Europe, where it feeds power plants, factories and home furnaces. In 2021, about 40 percent of European gas consumption was supplied by Russia, according to the International Energy Agency.

Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022 at a moment of transition in gas markets. Liquefied natural gas, which is chilled to negative-260 degrees Fahrenheit and loaded on ships, was previously a niche market between countries like Qatar and Japan.

But LNG has gone global in recent years, fueled in part by a glut of cheap gas and new export terminals in the United States. The U.S., which shipped its first cargo of LNG in 2016, was the world’s largest exporter during the first half of 2022, before a Texas terminal caught fire and crimped U.S. shipments, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

So when Putin ordered the attack on Ukraine, Europe retaliated by turning to the U.S. and a few other countries to replace the gas it once received from Russia. U.S. shipments to Europe more than doubled in 2022, to 2.7 trillion cubic feet, according to Energy Department figures.

Europe’s efforts to stockpile gas stoked resentment in other parts of the world.

The frustrations came as U.S. gas shipments once bound for Asia were being diverted to Europe, sending prices soaring. In China, LNG demand tumbled 20 percent in the face of high prices and lower economic growth stemming from its pandemic lockdowns. The impact of high prices was particularly acute in South Asia, where countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh saw demand fall by a combined 16 percent, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Before the war, analysts expected that rising LNG demand in emerging Asian markets would rival that of China and India over the next 20 years.

Now, the picture is less clear. In its latest world energy outlook, the IEA projected a diminished role for natural gas in developing Asia, in part because of concerns about affordability.

Future decisions by developing countries may come down to which fuel is affordable and available, said Sam Reynolds, an energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “And as the past year has shown, LNG meets neither of those criteria.”

‘Debt distress’ versus the climate crisis

Some countries are hedging their bets.

Coal generation in India spiked 21 percent between April and July of last year, when a heat wave baked the country. Some officials say coal will remain a vital part of the country’s energy mix well into the future. At the same time, India is working to build hundreds of gigawatts of renewable energy.

South Africa, Vietnam and Indonesia — all major coal consumers — have agreed to reduce coal use and cut carbon emissions in return for clean energy funding as part of Just Energy Transition Partnerships, an initiative led by the U.S. and other Group of Seven countries.

Officials in the Philippines have sought to boost their renewable energy targets, too, in a bid to generate more power domestically and cut emissions. They say part of that strategy depends on having gas as a backup.

But the war is making that difficult.

Several planned liquefied natural gas projects in the Philippines are being delayed, in part because of high gas prices and a lack of long-term contracts that would ensure consistent supplies. That’s creating uncertainty about LNG investments.

“Our objective, if possible, is how to reduce the cost of energy,” said Michael Sinocruz, director of the policy and planning bureau at the Philippines Department of Energy. “And to do that, we need to study carefully what would be the best mix for the Philippines.”

More renewables could spare the Philippines from volatility in the price and supply of fossil fuels. But if more renewables come online, the country would also need to invest in batteries, storage and backup energy, Sinocruz said.

“So in that case we need to balance,” he added.

Analysts say more international funding and private-sector investment are needed to accelerate clean energy transitions in emerging economies. Without it, countries may follow Pakistan’s path.

Soaring fuel costs have drained the country’s coffers. The IEA estimates that at least 30 percent of Pakistan’s import payments went to oil and LNG over the last nine months of 2022 — revealing a desperate attempt to keep its economy functioning. The central bank now has enough foreign exchange reserves to cover just three weeks of imports, Reuters reported this month.

The economic crisis means Pakistan lacks the creditworthiness to attract private investment in renewable energy infrastructure, said Rishikesh Ram Bhandary, assistant director of the Global Economic Governance Initiative at Boston University.

“If you’re Pakistan and you’re actually in debt distress, you’re not going to be able to borrow to build these gigantic things,” Ram Bhandary said.

So the country turned to coal.

Pakistan plans to halt LNG imports and quadruple domestic coal production, its energy minister told Reuters.

The announcement is all the more notable because coal generation was virtually nonexistent in Pakistan as recently as 2010. That changed when Pakistan exploited a domestic coal seam with financing from China. Later, it began importing coal. Last year, coal accounted for 30 percent of Pakistan’s power generation, according to the IEA.

“I don’t think, honestly, they are going to let go of coal. It is a prized resource to them,” said Faruqui, the economist. “Climate change is a long-term issue. In the near term we need to keep the lights on.”

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Russia may supply Iran with fighter jets, Kirby says

U.S. officials believe that Russia may provide Iran with fighter jets, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday, in the latest sign of the growing defense cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.

Iran has been supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine for months, Kirby emphasized to reporters. In November, Iran shipped artillery and tank rounds to Russia for use in Ukraine. Now, Russia is planning to cooperate with Iran to obtain more military equipment in return.

“Russia has been offering a lot of unprecedented defense cooperation, including on missiles, electronics and air defense,” Kirby said.

Iran is also seeking to purchase attack helicopters, radars and combat trainer aircraft, he said. In total, Iran is hoping to obtain “billions of dollars” worth of military equipment from Russia.

When asked for details on the type of fighter jets or when they may be delivered, Kirby refused to elaborate.

“That's really as far as I'm going to be allowed to go here,” Kirby said. “We're going to be watching this very closely to see what, if anything, actually transpires.”

A closer military alliance between the two countries could make Western efforts in Ukraine and elsewhere more complicated, he said.

“It's not only certainly going to make things in the Ukraine more difficult, but it could certainly make the security situation in the Middle East more difficult for our partners and friends there," he added.

Last year, the U.S. sanctioned Iran for allegedly planning to sell or already selling Russia weapons, including drones and surface-to-surface missiles.

In December, senior Biden administration officials said Moscow was providing “unprecedented” military and technical support to Tehran in exchange for weapons, NBC News reported. Last spring, officials said Iranian pilots trained in Russia to fly a Russian fighter jet, indicating that Iran “may begin receiving the aircraft within the next year.”

Alexander Ward contributed to this report.

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George Santos lied to a judge in 2017 bid to help a ‘family friend’ charged with fraud

NEW YORK — George Santos lied to a Seattle judge about working for Goldman Sachs while speaking at a 2017 bail hearing for a “family friend” who later pleaded guilty to fraud in an ATM skimming scheme, according to an audio recording of the proceeding and court records.

“So what do you do for work?” King County Superior Court Judge Sean O’Donnell asked Santos at the May 15, 2017 arraignment of defendant Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha.

“I am an aspiring politician and I work for Goldman Sachs,” Santos replied.

“You work for Goldman Sachs in New York?” the judge asked.

“Yup,” Santos responded.

The New York Republican did indeed have a political future. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a Long Island swing district last November based on a largely fabricated résumé that included the claim he worked for Goldman Sachs, one of the largest investment banks in the world.

A spokesperson for the bank told The New York Times in its original investigation into Santos’ background that there was no record of him working there. He later admitted in a New York Post interview he “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs, but claimed a financial firm he was employed at, LinkBridge Investors, had “limited partnerships” with the bank.

Santos now faces investigations by state, federal and international agencies on a range of potential crimes from campaign finance violations to pet charity fraud. He has refused to resign from Congress despite bipartisan calls for him to step down, arguing he never broke any laws, but he did forgo committee assignments citing the “ongoing attention surrounding both my personal and campaign financial investigations.”

Santos’ attorney Joe Murray did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Santos appeared at the 2017 hearing on behalf of Trelha using his full name, George Anthony Devolder Santos. He told the judge he would secure “a long extended-stay apartment through Airbnb” in Seattle during the case if the defendant was released on bail.

“How do you know this man?” the judge asked.

“We’re family friends. Our parents know each other from Brazil,” Santos said.

Trelha was ultimately deported to Brazil in early 2018 after serving seven months in jail and pleading guilty to felony access device fraud. In a telephone interview, Trelha said Santos lied about their relationship, too. Trelha, through a translator, said he met Santos in the fall of 2016 on a Facebook group for Brazilians living in Orlando, Fla., and that his mother died in 2012.

Trelha eventually moved into Santos’ Winter Park, Fla., apartment in November 2016, according to a copy of the lease viewed by POLITICO. Santos had moved south from New York City, after he was transferred to a new position at the hospitality website HotelsPro, according to Lilian Cabral, a coworker at HotelsPro in Orlando.

A federal prosecutor who ultimately handled the case described the fraud as “sophisticated,” saying Trelha’s three-day skimming spree in Seattle was only “the tip of the iceberg,” according to a court transcript first reported by CBS News.

A person close to the investigation who is not authorized to speak publicly said prosecutors ultimately didn’t dig much deeper. The person didn’t remember seeing any forensic reports on Trelha’s phone and said prosecutors didn’t seem eager to pursue any international or domestic co-conspirators.

New York-based lawyer Tiffany Bogosian, a former friend of Santos who helped him duck a theft charge in 2020 involving the use of canceled checks to purchase puppies from Amish farmers in Pennsylvania, told POLITICO in a Feb. 7 interview that Santos said he was an “informant” in Trelha’s case.

Santos told Bogosian a warrant for his arrest in the Pennsylvania case was somehow tied to his work as an informant in the Trelha investigation, she said. Bogosian, believing his story at the time, said she called Seattle police detective Lawrence Meyer, who didn’t verify the term “informant” but confirmed Santos had “pointed them in the right direction” and offered some names of people involved in the credit card fraud. POLITICO could not reach Meyer to confirm the exchange.

When Trelha was arrested on April 27, he was caught on a security camera removing skimming equipment from a Chase ATM on Pike Street in downtown Seattle. He had a fake Brazilian ID card and 10 suspected fraudulent cards in his hotel room, according to arrest documents. An empty Fed-Ex package police found in his rental car was sent from the Winter Park apartment he shared with Santos. Trelha declined to say who sent the package from the apartment.

His plan was to spend a week skimming numbers and making fraudulent cards using gift cards bought at stores, Trelha said, and then another week taking out the maximum ATM withdrawals with pin numbers captured by the skimmers and cameras he installed.

“You go at 11 p.m. so you can max it out and then when it turns midnight you take the max amount again,” he said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Emily Langlie, said sometimes identity and credit card thieves go far from home to collect numbers, so there is less chance of the stolen numbers being connected to the perpetrators later. Langlie told POLITICO she didn’t have any information about Santos’ involvement in the Trelha investigation.

Trelha said that after he was arrested in Seattle he reached out to a friend who contacted Santos to help him, he said. “He was American and spoke English, so we thought he could help me the most,” Trelha recalled. By then, Santos had moved back north to help care for his sick mother.

“Mr. Devolder lives in New York,” Trelha’s public defender Virginia Branham said at the bail hearing. “I have spoken to him multiple times over the last few weeks. This is the second time he’s flown out here to assist Mr. Trelha. He has arranged an extended Airbnb for Mr. Trelha to stay at during the pendency of this case,” Branham said in the recording.

Santos told the judge he’d known Trelha “for a few years,” adding they’d “lost touch [but] got back in touch in September last year in Orlando when I was relocated from New York.”

Santos said he was staying at a hotel “by the Space Needle” until the judge’s bail decision. At the hearing, Trelha’s bail was reduced from $250,000 to $75,000 — still well above the $10,000 requested by his counsel. Trelha said he was unable to post bail because he didn’t have a local guarantor.

A Google account under the name George Devolder, with reviews of Brazilian restaurants in Queens and rental car companies in Miami, left a negative review of a Seattle Domino’s Pizza location in 2017, two miles from King County Jail and close to the Space Needle.

“1 hour viewing the tracker not move! very very very slow giving the time ordered (late night) called the store was on hold for 35mins with no answer!!!! NEVER order from this store, not worth the agrevation!!!”

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Seen in East Palestine: Buttigieg, Giuliani and a total political circus

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Pete Buttigieg rolled into this deep-Republican village in his government-issued SUV on Thursday, looking to address the public uproar over this month’s toxic train wreck.

He found a community where the circus had arrived.

Former President Donald Trump had visited the day before, offering pallets of self-branded “Trump Water” and seeking to energize his 2024 campaign. A producer for Sean Hannity was in town later Thursday, buttonholing locals during happy hour at The Original Roadhouse. Rudy Giuliani was in town too, for some reason.

And people living in East Palestine said they were unsure about many things — whether the water was safe to drink, whether to remain in their homes, how to explain their headaches and bloody noses. And what to think about the VIPs making appearances in their hometown.

“They come for an hour or so, and they leave,” said Nora Wright, an assistant director for area nursing facilities, describing the “publicity stunts" by visiting politicians. “They don’t find out how we feel.”

“I don’t trust the government,” said Joe Botinovch, a self-employed flower shop owner who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 but is shopping for a different candidate now and likes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He, too, hasn’t enjoyed the sudden burst of attention from former presidents and presidential candidates.

“The only presidents I want to see are dead presidents in my wallet,” he said. “They’re using East Palestine like China and Russia and the U.S. are using Ukraine. It’s a proxy war.”

Buttigieg, who offered a public mea culpa for not speaking up about the derailment sooner, said he could tell how frustrated people here are.

“You can sense, when you talk to local leaders and local residents, that they're getting pretty sick of the politics," President Joe Biden’s Transportation secretary said in response to a question from POLITICO during a half-hour news conference near the accident site.

The politics showed no signs of leaving, though.

The Feb. 3 derailment by the 150-car Norfolk Southern train triggered a flaming wreck, spewed plumes of black smoke and left lingering worries about the safety of the town’s air, water and soil, along with fierce GOP criticism of how Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation has responded to the disaster. The Biden administration, in turn, has pointed to actions by the Trump-era DOT that weakened safety standards for trains carrying hazardous chemicals — although Buttigieg has expressed hope that Republicans will now embrace tougher regulations.

The unusually persistent glare of national attention has brought a trail of big-name and less-than-famous visitors to East Palestine.

Hannity’s producer, for example, was asking residents whether Buttigieg’s visit had made a difference — though none of them had witnessed it.

Giuliani, who was gathering social media content and audio for his Common Sense podcast, gaggled with local reporters, tooled around town with a crew of hangers-on and met with East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway. (A Giuliani groupie handed a local two $100 Sparkle grocery gift cards.)

Conaway, a registered Republican, also met with Buttigieg. He said he and the DOT leader bonded over their shared experience as Midwestern mayors, and had a “productive meeting.”

Outside a Rite Aid, a TikTok and YouTube user from Columbus who gave his name only as Xkitzo was broadcasting live from the parking lot, with his phone ensconced on a tripod.

The environmental activist Erin Brockovich arrives for a town hall Friday.

None of this has ended the tide of rumors and conspiracy theories surrounding the derailment, Conaway said in an interview.

“There’s continuing misinformation,” the mayor said, calling the municipal water safe to drink. He also dismissed the persistent, unfounded rumor that a controlled burn of the train’s toxic cargo of vinyl chloride — one that produced a large plume and forced residents to evacuate — was unnecessary and reckless. (One local TV report on the incident produced a headline that went viral: “We basically nuked a town with chemicals.”)

“There were only two options,” Conaway told POLITICO of the train’s payload. “It was either it blew up or we blew it up.”

Mistrust was not hard to find, though.

Wright, the assistant nursing director and a mother of six grown children, said she doesn’t feel safe in her childhood home, which is within a mile of the derailment site, so she is letting the bank take it.

“If you walk into my house right now, you can smell it,” she said, describing the sulfur-like odor that lingers from the controlled burn. Her chest hurts. She has a sore throat. “I try to not spend too much time here.”

Wright also won’t drink the water here, even though Environmental Protection Agency leader Michael Regan and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine drank from the taps earlier this week to instill public confidence in the quality of EPA testing.

Neither will Courtney Miller, a mother of two, who lives with the train tracks in her backyard. She rose to viral fame after throwing a rock into a stream behind her house, turning up an oily glisten, and appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox.

On Thursday, she posed with Giuliani and recorded content for his podcast as he visited her home, decorated with “God, Guns, and Trump” and “Fuck Biden — Not My President” banners.

Signs posted through East Palestine’s downtown also capture the divided mood.

“Closed until further notice,” said a construction-paper sign on the door of a knickknack boutique called Mama’s Attic. It added that after the derailment, “my family is trying to pick up the pieces.”

“We are East Palestine,” reads another sign in town. “Get ready for the greatest comeback in American history.”

Buttigieg, who published a 224-page book called “Trust” three years ago, offered some explanations Thursday for why it’s so absent here.

One reason, he said, is the “national ideological layer” that some people have added to the derailment’s aftermath. “And there’s no question that there have been enormous amounts of both information and misinformation injected into this situation, none of which is to the benefit of the community.”

East Palestine is solidly Trump country — in 2020, the former president won 72 percent of the vote in surrounding Columbiana County. The only thing more ubiquitous here than Trump signs are the workers in bright yellow vests who dot the village.

But on this too, not everyone agrees.

Amy Britain, a Democrat and a retired physical therapy assistant, pulled through the Rite Aid parking lot to pick up some donated bottled water. She was happy about Buttigieg’s visit but rolled her eyes at Trump’s, and at the national coverage implying that the former president is the only politician welcome in the village where she grew up.

“We’re a microcosm of what’s going on in the entire country,” she said.

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Judge won’t unseal details of Trump's privilege fight over Jan. 6 grand jury

A federal judge has rejected a bid by two news outlets to obtain access to details of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to block testimony by aides to a grand jury investigating his effort to derail the transfer of power after the 2020 election.

In a ruling on Thursday, Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington said a federal court rule mandating grand jury secrecy precluded the release of court opinions and other filings about disputes she has ruled on behind closed doors.

“Accordingly, [the grand jury secrecy rule] does not permit such disclosure, at least for now and perhaps forever, and so petitioners’ applications are denied,” Howell wrote in a 32-page opinion.

POLITICO and The New York Times had both petitioned Howell to unseal portions of the grand jury proceedings in October, citing the historic nature of the secret rulings she had issued. The Justice Department opposed the unsealing, prompting Howell’s decision.

“The continued secrecy of certain details about that investigation is required for the sake of grand jury witnesses and the government’s investigation,” Howell wrote.

Both POLITICO and The Times indicated they were considering whether to appeal.

“POLITICO is committed to the principle that a government of, for and by the people is transparent with the people on such an important matter,” company spokesperson Brad Dayspring said. “We are reviewing the decision and evaluating next steps.”

A spokesperson for The Times, Danielle Rhoades Ha, said: “We are disappointed in the ruling. We will make a decision about whether to pursue further legal steps once we've had time to process the opinion that sets forth the rationale for the decision.”

In recent months, aides to former Vice President Mike Pence have appeared at the courthouse to testify behind closed doors after Howell rejected an effort by Trump to claim privilege over their testimony. Other top Trump allies have been seen heading into the federal courthouse’s sealed grand jury rooms — including former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and his onetime deputy Pat Philbin.

Press reports, typically attributed to people familiar with the proceedings, have also detailed a series of fights over legal privilege issues and a bid by Trump to assert executive privilege to keep some aides from testifying.

One grand jury-related dispute, involving an objection by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) to prosecutors’ seizure of his cellphone last year in an election-related probe, was argued before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday in a session held partly in public and partly in secret. POLITICO revealed the details of that grand jury fight ahead of the appeals panel’s decision to partially unseal the arguments.

Howell seemed to evince discomfort about aspects of her latest ruling, particularly what she termed the “ironic” result that because cases of significant interest to the public often draw extensive news coverage and speculation about grand jury activities, the governing legal standards can require courts to withhold information in such cases even though court rulings on grand jury subpoenas in routine cases are often released with the names of those involved blacked out.

Redaction would be ineffective in the current dispute, the chief judge said, because it would simply be too easy for those reading the opinions or filings to infer the identities of those involved in the litigation.

“Redacting information in those materials would not sufficiently uphold that secrecy because matters occurring before the grand jury are so deeply intertwined with non-secret information would prove useless, or worse, misleading,” the chief judge wrote.

Howell, who will hand over the chief judge’s post and decision-making authority in grand jury matters to a colleague next month, also dinged the Justice Department for failing to address how Attorney General Merrick Garland’s public announcement in November of the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith might have undercut the justification for secrecy in the ongoing probe.

“When asked to address the impact of this DOJ announcement on grand jury secrecy in the instant applications … the government simply ignored this portion of the Order and chose not to respond to the fact of the Special Counsel’s appointment,” Howell wrote.

Howell used her 32-page opinion to throw considerable shade at a 2019 decision in which the D.C. Circuit overruled her and held that judges lack discretion to release grand jury materials for reasons not specifically enumerated in a federal court rule governing disclosures. In that ruling, the appeals court said historical interest was not a sufficient basis for a judge to make grand jury-related information public.

Howell pointed to what she portrayed as a series of oversights in the appeals court’s decision, even as she acknowledged that it binds her legally.

The Supreme Court declined to review the D.C. Circuit ruling, leaving it as the established law for federal grand juries in Washington.

However, then-Justice Stephen Breyer issued a statement noting that three other federal appeals courts had found more flexibility for judges to release grand jury-related records. Calling it an “important question,” Breyer urged a federal panel overseeing court rules to dive into the issue and determine whether changes to the policy are appropriate.

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