What the Reflecting Pool Really Mirrors: Corruption
And Contrarians are fighting back: Publisher’s Roundup 73
A 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist, finishing a long bike ride on a sunny June morning, swings by the Lincoln Memorial. A concerned citizen, he wanted to see for himself what had happened to the nation’s cherished Reflecting Pool. Despite doing nothing wrong, within moments he was in handcuffs.
That is the story of Davey Hearn — and it is the newest of the over 300 legal cases and matters that your paid subscriptions help make possible, Contrarians.
Few of those cases capture the absurdity of this moment quite like Davey’s. As a U.S. canoeist in three Olympics and eight World Championships, he was celebrated for representing his country on the water. Now he is being prosecuted for touching it.
As I told Chris Hayes when Davey and I appeared together on MSNow on Monday: There is no crime here. Instead what we have is, as The New York Times reported Tuesday, a White House that knew much earlier than it admitted that the pool was deteriorating — and was looking for others to blame.
The targeting of Davey is an example of what makes this such a dangerous moment for American democracy and the American people. We’ve seen what this administration does to Americans who dare to question ICE’s actions, or demand accountable government, or object when their rights are violated. By standing up and speaking out, Davey has demonstrated bravery. We at Democracy Defenders Fund are proud to represent him together with the Washington Litigation Group, and we will vigorously contest these charges.
Davey’s courage is also helping shine a light on corruption. The Reflecting Pool fiasco is of a piece with other major Trump corruption cases of the moment: the Kennedy Center renaming, the $1.8 billion slush fund, and the Epstein files. Each of these four breakthrough scandals follows the same autocratic playbook: abuse power, make a mess, then dodge accountability. And in each case, my colleagues and I are fighting back with the help of your paid subscriptions.
On the slush fund, we at Democracy Defenders Action filed another brief last week with Platkin LLP on behalf of our 35 former federal judges, supporting the court’s inquiry into whether it was defrauded. At the Kennedy Center, we and the Washington Litigation Group got Trump’s name off the building — but the administration erected a tarp over the facade in what our client Rep. Joyce Beatty called a “petty act of defiance.” After we petitioned the court, the judge ordered the administration to explain itself.
On Epstein, we are so proud of our colleague Katie Phang, who just won a preliminary injunction in her case to enforce the Epstein Files Transparency Act, represented by Brendan Ballou and our other friends at the Public Integrity Project. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche now has one week to start producing critically important documents he has been withholding — or show cause why he should not do so. That includes disclosing documents or removing redactions on emails, FBI reports, and draft indictments revealing the identity of possible additional wrongdoers and co-conspirators — plus much more.
This week, my Democracy Defenders colleagues and I also filed a complaint to the New York State Bar on behalf of over 100 judges. Working with Lawyers Defending American Democracy, we are calling for a professional responsibility investigation into Blanche. He is the same Blanche who, as former DOJ Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer documented this week, broke prison rules to move Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security facility. She appears to be the only convicted sex offender ever to have received such an exemption. Blanche’s July confirmation hearing is going to be a doozy.
We, our wonderful clients and partners and the democracy coalition writ large are winning on the corruption front — as on so many others.
Take election protection. This week also saw a series of court triumphs on election issues in which the pro-voter coalition has been successfully fighting back against Trump since day one. That includes not only litigation breakthroughs by the coalition but also limiting the post-Callais damage in the South to just three stolen congressional seats this cycle. Any stolen seat is terrible, but this could’ve been so much worse.
And all of that is before decisions next week on two landmark Supreme Court cases in which we and our wonderful partners are hopeful of success: the Cook case upholding the independence of the Federal Reserve and the birthright citizenship case upholding the 14th Amendment guarantee of citizenship to all born in the United States.
You help make all that possible, Contrarians. It is the most unique bargain in American journalism. Your paid subscriptions help fund our over 300 legal cases and matters like representing Davey Hearn against wrongful criminal prosecution. And you also support our scintillating pro-democracy journalism, as you can see for yourself in our weekly roundup of the best of The Contrarian.
What Comes Next
America 250: Our Progress. Our Peril. Our Path Forward.
Tim Dickinson kicked off our America 250 coverage with a prescription to counter the MAGA “revolution”: a new (or, rather, old) refresh of the Bill of Rights.
America’s Best Kept Secret: Progressiveness Is Popular
Jennifer Rubin wrote on why Republicans, not Democrats, should be in a defensive crouch. “The cliché that we are a “divided” country is a dodge to avoid recognizing how badly MAGA is faring.”
Trump’s Troubling Health & Mamdani the Kingmaker?
On the podcast this week, Katie Phang and Simon Rosenberg discussed Tuesday’s primary results and the tea leaves around Donald Trump’s recent health reports. “As somebody who’s more of an establishment Democrat … I welcome all these debates. I’m not scared of them.”
Removing the Roadblocks to Political and Economic Change
Nat Kendall-Taylor shared new research on the rising demand for sweeping reforms in the face of an affordability crisis and still-encroaching authoritarianism: “71% of our research participants say our political system needs major changes or to be completely reformed.”
Iran & Israel
The Iran Deal’s Real Consequence
Brian O’Neill analyzed the settling dust on Trump’s Iran agreement: an attempt at closure from which China and other global players may take a very different lesson. “They watched Washington improvise its way from bombing to bargaining, and they’ll adjust accordingly.”
Jen wrote on attempts by MAGA pols and dark money groups to define who is pro-Israel— and how Trump, his white Christian nationalist allies, and AIPAC have done incalculable harm to Middle East stability, Israel’s security, and the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Healthcare in Danger
On The Dobbs Anniversary, Taking Stock of Women’s Health
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Joyce Vance marked the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to roll back not just abortion rights but also women’s health and freedoms writ large by decades. “[This] is and always has been about amassing power and exerting control.”
Reuben Steiger wrote on the AI-automated processing systems that are now slashing Medicare coverage — and violating the fundamentals of due process. “We have a government that can refuse you anything and explain nothing.”
Public Health Is About to Get Sicker
Dr. Mariam Rashid and Dr. Perry N. Halikitis wrote on a new federal rule seeking to defund public health degrees, even as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-DEI, pro-“efficiency” crusade endangers care capacity. “The hantavirus does not check passports. Contaminated water does not stop at Zip code boundaries.”
Fighting Back
To Defeat Authoritarianism, Start Here
Ami Fields-Meyer drew on interviews with political dissidents across five continents to give us new answers on how any American can fight democratic backsliding. “Individual acts of courage matter more than you think.”
Speak Up For the First Amendment, Protect Peace
In this week’s Calls to Action, opportunities to tell off the Federal Communications Commission, defend voting rights, oppose Rick Perry’s proposed elimination of the Peace Corps, protect ICE protestors, mobilize for All of Us 250, and more. And if your state’s primary dates are still to come: VOTE!
The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement
This week, we saw continued celebrations of Juneteenth, protests in Oregon and Illinois, support for the Prairieland defendants, ongoing Albania protests, and more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.
Cartoons, Culture, & Fun Stuff
This week, our cartoonists took on a money pit (Charity Case, RJ Matson), a cesspit (Color Guard, Michael de Adder; Crime and Punishment, Nick Anderson) and the pits in human form (Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).
A Sitcom’s Message of Tolerance 50 Years Ago
Frederic J. Frommer wrote on the groundbreaking episode of The Bob Newhart Show that featured an openly gay character in a storyline of dignity and acceptance. “Newhart, an actor known for his own sense of decency, certainly lived up to that reputation.”
“If It’s Too Loud, Turn It Up”
Alan Light spoke with the incomparable Tori Amos on In Times of Dragons, a fiery protest album by way of the saga of an imagined relationship with a “Lizard Demon” businessman. “I don’t believe that you can sit on the sidelines, not right now, not anymore.”
The Culture Wars Feel Inescapable. It Wasn’t Always This Way.
Meredith Blake wrote on Isaac Butler’s new book, The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America’s Culture Wars, which looks to the twilight of the Reagan years for the origin of a present in which “seemingly every choice we make — from the sports we enjoy to the music we listen to — feels like a political statement.”
Syrian-Inspired Lazy Girl Chickpeas and Rice
Emily Beyda gave us a quick-and-easy recipe perfect for keeping your cool in the hot, hot heat of summer.
I continue to be horrified by the so-called administration and I thank you for keeping up the pressure through litigation. I am very happy to be a subscriber.
Thank you Norman for all you and others to fight and speak truth to power. Huzzah!