On October 6, 2018, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court, making history on a number of fronts. He was the first person to sit on the court who’d mentioned his love for beer nearly three-dozen times over the course of his Senate confirmation hearing. He was the first person to sit on the court who’d specifically told the the members of the Senate Judicial Committee: “We drank beer. My friends and I. Boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer. I liked beer. Still like beer. We drank beer.” He was the first person to respond to a sitting senator’s question of whether he’d ever blacked out by asking, “Have you?” He was the first person to read aloud from a calendar entry that said, “Tobin’s House—Workout / Go to Timmy’s for [brewskis] w/ Judge, Tom, PJ, Bernie, Squi.” He was the first person, very likely in not just the U.S. but in world history, to openly weep about calendars in general.

Yet somehow, none of that was the most troubling part of Kavanaugh being confirmed to a lifetime appointment on the most powerful court in the country. More concerning than Kavanaugh’s weirdly emotional take on calendars and defensiveness about blacking out was, of course, the credible allegations against him of sexual assault. While the FBI was said to have conducted a “supplemental investigation” of claims against Kavanaugh made by Christine Blasey Ford, Democrats said at the time that the probe was a “farce,” a “sham,” and a “horrific cover-up” that crucially omitted key witnesses at the White House’s request. Now, that investigation may be getting a second look. Per The Guardian:

Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator and former prosecutor who serves on the judiciary committee, is calling on the newly-confirmed attorney general, Merrick Garland, to help facilitate “proper oversight” by the Senate into questions about how thoroughly the FBI investigated Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing…. Among the concerns listed in Whitehouse’s letter to Garland are allegations that some witnesses who wanted to share their accounts with the FBI could not find anyone at the bureau who would accept their testimony and that it had not assigned any individual to accept or gather evidence. “This was unique behavior in my experience, as the Bureau is usually amenable to information and evidence; but in this matter the shutters were closed, the drawbridge drawn up, and there was no point of entry by which members of the public or Congress could provide information to the FBI,” Whitehouse said.

He added that, once the FBI decided to create a “tip line,” senators were not given any information on how or whether new allegations were processed and evaluated. While senators’ brief review of the allegations gathered by the tip line showed a “stack” of information had come in, there was no further explanation on the steps that had been taken to review the information, Whitehouse said. “This ‘tip line’ appears to have operated more like a garbage chute, with everything that came down the chute consigned without review to the figurative dumpster,” he said…. Whitehouse said he is seeking answers about “how, why, and at whose behest” the FBI conducted a “fake” investigation if standard procedures were violated, including standards for following allegations gathered through FBI “tip lines.”

In addition to questions about the FBI investigation as they related to the sexual-assault allegations, all of which Kavanaugh denies, Whitehouse has also asked Garland to look into the credit card debt the Supreme Court justice had that mysteriously disappeared. As MotherJones wrote back in 2018:

Not long after Trump nominated him, The Washington Post reported that since joining the DC Circuit Court of Appeals as a judge in 2006, Kavanaugh had run up a significant amount of debt that often appeared to exceed the value of his cash and investment assets. His debts on three credit cards, as well as a loan against his retirement account, totaled between $60,000 and $200,000 in 2016, according to his financial disclosure forms. The next year, his debts vanished. When he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week for his confirmation hearing, his financial disclosure form listed no liabilities aside from his $815,000 mortgage. His disclosures don’t show any large financial gifts, outside income, or even a gambling windfall, as Sotomayor’s had when she hit the jackpot at a Florida casino in 2008 and won $8,283.

Unfortunately, it’s not at all clear that Garland will take Whitehouse up on any of this, and it’s even less likely that, if he did, anything would come of it. In 2019, numerous Democrats, including Kamala Harris, Julián Castro, and Elizabeth Warren, called for Kavanaugh’s impeachment and Rep. Ayanna Pressley filed a resolution against him, the first step required to open an impeachment proceeding. It didn’t end up going anywhere, but it is important to note that Supreme Court Justices can be removed from the bench via impeachment. In case anyone was wondering!

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Pfizer looks forward to a time when it can jack up the price of the COVID vaccine, says Pfizer exec

The company is anxiously awaiting the day that it’s considered socially acceptable to increase the price of a lifesaving drug. Per the New York Post:

Pfizer is looking to turn its lucrative coronavirus vaccine into an even bigger cash cow. The drugmaker sees a “significant opportunity” to charge more for the groundbreaking shot once it gets to the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, one top executive says…. For instance, Pfizer is charging the U.S. government $19.50 per dose—well below the $150 or $175 per dose it typically pulls in for a vaccine, [chief financial officer Frank] D’Amelio said on the company’s February earnings call. But “normal market conditions will start to kick in” as the global pandemic shifts into an endemic, D’Amelio said last week…. Those profits could get even larger once Pfizer gets out of the “pandemic-pricing environment,” D’Amelio told investors last month.

“Obviously, we’re going to get more on price,” D’Amelio said. “And clearly…the more volume we put through our factories, the lower unit cost will become.” In 2021 alone, the pharma giant is expected to rake in $15 billion in sales from its two-dose vaccine, the Post noted. But once the situation is less dire, it expects to charge a boatload more than it is at present, and foresees an unending stream of cash given the increasing likelihood that people will need an annual booster shot due to the coronavirus variants that have emerged around the world. “We don’t see this as a onetime event, but we see this as something that’s going to continue for the foreseeable future,” D’Amelio said.

You’ll never believe it, but Russia tried to meddle in the 2020 election

Who could have seen this coming other than everyone who lived through 2016? Per CNN:

The U.S. intelligence community said in a landmark report Tuesday that the Russian government meddled in the 2020 election with an influence campaign “denigrating” President Joe Biden and “supporting” former president Donald Trump, detailing a massive disinformation push that successfully targeted, and was openly embraced, by Trump’s allies. Russia’s objectives were not limited to hurting Biden’s candidacy and aiding Trump’s reelection bid, the report says, as U.S. intelligence found that Moscow also sought to undermine “public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbate sociopolitical divisions in the U.S.”

Democrats were quick to highlight that the U.S. intelligence community’s findings underscore the warnings coming from lawmakers in the months leading up to the November election. “The Intelligence Community Assessment released today underscores what we all knew already—that Russia interfered to support former president Trump, hurt President Biden, and undermine confidence in our electoral process. Through proxies, Russia ran a successful intelligence operation that penetrated the former president’s inner circle,” Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Tuesday.

Perhaps equally important: The report notes that there are “no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 U.S. elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results.” Just in case someone whose name rhymes with Bonald Bump is considering trying to revive any of his baseless voter-fraud claims.

Jared Kushner left taxpayers a little treat on his way out the door

A five-figure hotel bill, according to the Daily Beast:

About four weeks before Donald Trump vacated the White House to make way for President Joe Biden, presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner jetted off on his last official trip to Israel—and U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for $24,335 in room and board. “KUSHNER VISIT DEC 2020,” the expenditure is marked, which is filed under the category “Accommodation and Food Services” in a publicly available spending database maintained by the federal government.

While there, Kushner visited the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, which Trump ordered relocated from Tel Aviv in a contentious 2018 move, for a ceremony in which the compound’s courtyard was named in his honor.

To be fair, Kushner’s tab is a relative pittance compared to the bills other family members ran up over the last four years. In 2018, then first lady Melania Trump stuck taxpayers with a hotel bill for $95,000 during trip to Cairo, despite not actually staying the night. The year prior she somehow spent $174,000 on accommodations during a day trip to Toronto.

Dr. Deborah Birx is still haunted by Donald Trump’s stupidity

Elsewhere!

After weeks of declining cases, echoes of hot spots emerge in Upper Midwest, New York City area (The Washington Post)

New EPA Chief Michael Regan Vows Assault on Environmental Injustice (Bloomberg)

Bill Gross Says He Made $10 Million Betting Against GameStop (Bloomberg)

Biden to hold first formal news conference next week (ABC News)

Warren Buffett’s $1 million March Madness bracket challenge is back (NYP)

How Amazon Crushes Unions (NYT)

North Korea breaks silence to warn U.S. against “causing a stink” (CNN)

Spain will experiment with four-day workweek (The Washington Post)

Mother and daughter arrested after allegedly casting hundreds of fraudulent Homecoming Court votes (ABC News)

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