Today\u2019s notice: Bruce Springsteen\u2019s feud with Trump hits D.C. A Supreme Court son and scoop. Will a pair of deadlines and an investigation force the administration to disclose more about the deadly boat strikes? And: The top HHS attorney who is willing to talk stock trades.<\/p>\n
THE LATEST<\/p>\n
The Boss v. the Boss: Treasonous. Corrupt. That\u2019s how Bruce Springsteen described Donald Trump last night at his sold-out tour finale at Nationals Park in D.C., before belting out the stratospheric hit \u201cWar\u201d first made popular as an anti-war protest song by Black singer and songwriter Edwin Starr. Later, he called the war with Iran \u201cincompetent, unwise and illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet \u2019em hear you at the fucking White House,\u201d Springsteen, coined \u201cthe Boss\u201d by his fans, said as he led an \u201cICE out now\u201d chant almost four miles away from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for America\u2019s boss.<\/p>\n
Springsteen\u2019s nearly six-minute call to action against the president and his agenda at the end of his set shows why some Republican superfans were reluctant to attend. \u201cCan\u2019t piss off Trump,\u201d one GOP operative told NOTUS\u2019 Sam Fortier<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t think it would be a good look for me personally in my career,\u201d another operative said.<\/p>\n All of the consternation among the Republican class about attending the \u201cNo Kings\u201d tour \u2014 as it\u2019s been unofficially dubbed \u2014 is just another sign that culture wars (in addition to actual wars) are still raging. And in a city where tepid criticism or even brief hesitation (*ahem* John Cornyn) is seen as a lack of loyalty, some Republicans say there can only be one boss.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re watching Donald Trump on a revenge tour, and as incredible as it sounds, it is not out of the realm of possibility that somebody could be spotted at this concert and be told they don\u2019t need to show up for work on Monday,\u201d Doug Heye, a GOP consultant and die-hard Springsteen fan, told Sam.<\/p>\n Springsteen\u2019s comments in the president\u2019s temporary backyard are just the latest in the back-and-forth between the pair. Trump escalated his feud with the musician last month by calling him a \u201cdried up prune\u201d with \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome.\u201d And Springsteen played one of the final episodes of \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert,\u201d a program Trump loudly celebrated once it was canceled.<\/p>\n Open tabs: Jill Biden says she was \u201cfrightened\u201d by Joe Biden\u2019s debate performance, thought he was having a stroke<\/a> (CBS); Exclusive: Justice Department launches criminal investigation into Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll<\/a> (CNN); Trump backs off pledge to suspend federal gas tax<\/a> (USA Today); Reflecting Pool Contract Has \u2018Inflated\u2019 Profit Margin, Government Analysis Finds<\/a> (NYT)<\/p>\n FROM THE AGENCIES<\/p>\n A progeny of the highest court in the land is flying under the radar in a politically appointed role, NOTUS\u2019 Jose Pagliery scoops<\/a>. Philip Alito, the son of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, quietly landed a job in the Treasury\u2019s Office of the General Counsel at the start of Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n On the Treasury Department website, it\u2019s as if Philip doesn\u2019t exist, and he does not have a LinkedIn or a public r\u00e9sum\u00e9. One former official said \u201che\u2019d just say, \u2018Phil,\u2019 not \u2018Phil Alito\u2019\u201d when he introduced himself.<\/p>\n The arrangement could present a host of conflict-of-interest issues. Justice Alito did not recuse himself from reviewing a lawsuit against the Treasury challenging Trump\u2019s use of emergency powers<\/a> to issue tariffs, and court documents made no mention of his son\u2019s job. And legal challenges against the Treasury-managed $1.776 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund could make its way to the Supreme Court soon.<\/p>\n The Treasury Department did not respond to questions about whether Philip Alito worked on legal matters pertaining to cases his father may hear or has heard. A communications officer for the court did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n NOTUS INTERVIEW<\/p>\n Look who\u2019s talking now: Most stock-trading government officials don\u2019t want to talk about their buying and selling \u2014 or they pawn off responsibility to their financial advisers. But not Mike Stuart, the general counsel to the Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n In an interview with NOTUS\u2019 Dave Levinthal<\/a>, Stuart said he proudly makes his own stock trades, including a purchase of shares in the industrial glass company Corning, which happens to sell HHS gobs of products.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I see something I like, I buy it,\u201d he told Dave, denying that he knew the company did business with the department. \u201cI don\u2019t use any information I would glean inappropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n But last week, when the Office of Government Ethics refused to certify Stuart\u2019s disclosure for \u201cnon-compliance\u201d with an ethics agreement he previously signed, Stuart said he simply sold the stock. And he\u2019s defending himself publicly.<\/p>\n \u201cMy whole career, I\u2019ve never had even a whiff of an ethical issue,\u201d he said. Stuart\u2019s other recent stock trades include hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of defense contractor stocks, purchased the week after the U.S. attacked Iran. \u201cI\u2019m extra careful that I am completely in compliance\u201d he added.<\/p>\n THE BIG ONE<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s strikes on boats of alleged narco-terrorists in the Caribbean and Pacific are facing a moment of truth. Deadlines in two separate lawsuits and an investigation launched by the Defense Department\u2019s inspector general are reigniting calls for accountability \u2014 though Brian Finucane, a former State Department career attorney, told NOTUS\u2019 Akbar Shahid Ahmed<\/a> he sees no end in sight of what he called a \u201ckilling spree on autopilot.\u201d<\/p>\n The deadly campaign has been overshadowed by other U.S. military actions, like the Venezuela operation and the Iran war. Former career DOD attorney Sarah Harrison said it\u2019s \u201cterrifying\u201d to see Trump \u201cusing the desensitization about the expansion of wars among the American public to now go out and murder without limitation.\u201d Harrison claimed Trump\u2019s recently released counterterrorism strategy<\/a>, which lists narco-terrorists as the top threat, asserts \u201ca license to kill.\u201d<\/p>\n These pushes for accountability may not yield new public disclosures on the strikes because the U.S. government can cite privileged attorney-client discussions and classified military information.<\/p>\n A secret legal memo justifying the strikes does exist. Many lawmakers, including Sen. Eric Schmitt and Rep. Jason Crow, have already seen it \u2014 and their takeaways are split down partisan lines. Schmitt, a Republican, found the administration\u2019s reasoning \u201csound\u201d and sees the campaign as \u201cvery effective.\u201d Crow, a Democrat, said his \u201cgeneral sense is they don\u2019t want to make it public because it\u2019s a pretty farcical analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n NEW ON NOTUS<\/p>\n Sen. Ruben Gallego is launching a legal defense fund \u2014 not in direct response to an investigation from the Trump administration, but rather to get ahead of any potential fallout from a congressional ethics complaint, NOTUS\u2019 Jenna Monnin reports<\/a>. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in April shared unsubstantiated allegations against Gallego, days after the Arizona senator\u2019s longtime ally, Eric Swalwell, resigned from Congress over bombshell accusations of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n From Gallego\u2019s team: \u201cSenator Gallego is under attack from right-wing conspiracy theorists like Anna Paulina Luna, the Trump Administration, and their cronies,\u201d spokesperson Jacques Petit told NOTUS in a statement. \u201cThis White House has made clear it is their priority to abuse their power and target political enemies. Senator Gallego will not stand for it.\u201d<\/p>\n NOT US<\/p>\n Thank you for reading! If you liked this edition of the NOTUS newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please sign up<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s free! Have a tip? Email us at tips@notus.com<\/a>. And as always, we\u2019d love to hear your thoughts at newsletters@notus.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The newsletter was produced by Kelly Poe, Kate Nocera and Andrew Burton. Image by Kelley French.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s notice: Bruce Springsteen\u2019s feud with Trump hits D.C. A Supreme Court son and scoop. 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