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Presented by Facebook: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | | | 
| That was what a large portion of the eagerly anticipated Justice Department documents regarding the FBI’s search of DONALD TRUMP’s Mar-a-Lago compound looked like, as large swaths of pages were redacted — underscoring the lengths that officials are undertaking to protect “a significant number of civilian witnesses,” our ace colleagues Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney write. But while the redacted affidavit and redacted memorandum of law describing the significance of the details in the affidavit were heavy on the black ink, they also provided some new details about the saga. Kyle and Josh write: “Records the FBI obtained from Trump’s Florida home in advance of the Aug. 8 search bore indications they contained human source intelligence, intercepts under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and signals intelligence, as well as other tags indicating high sensitivity. Several of those tightly-controlled documents contained Trump’s ‘handwritten notes,’ the partially-redacted affidavit detailing the Justice Department investigation says.” Read the memorandum … Read the affidavit The top takeaways: — One of the key sections left untouched provides some new deets about the scope of the documents that agents recovered from Mar-a-Lago. The big takeaway: 184 documents “bearing classification markings” were found in the first 15 boxes — including 25 that were marked “top secret.”
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| — DOJ also provided more information about why it asked Trump’s team to secure his storage room at Mar-a-Lago — an explanation that “wasn't as benign as Trump and his allies have described,” Kyle notes.
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| — Kyle also notes that “Trump has repeatedly described his interactions with DOJ as friendly and cooperative up until the moment of the search. But correspondence from his attorney dated May 25 shows that is simply not true.” — A redacted list of the itemized redactions was also released : “Agent safety” was the sole entry left unredacted. WILD ONE — The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Michael Sallah and Jonathan Silver and the Organized Crime Corruption and Reporting Project’s Kevin Hall and Brian Fitzpatrick have a deeply reported investigation into a fake heiress of a European banking dynasty who gained access to Mar-a-Lago — even playing a round of golf there last year with Trump and Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.). “But the 33-year-old woman was not a member of the famous banking family, and is now a subject of a widening FBI investigation that has delved into her past financial activities and the events that led her to the former president’s home,” they write. “A year before the FBI’s spectacular raid of the former president’s seaside home, the woman whose real name is INNA YASHCHYSHYN , a Russian-speaking immigrant from Ukraine, made several trips into the estate posing as a member of the famous family while making inroads with some of the former president’s key supporters. “The ability of Ms. Yashchyshyn — the daughter of an Illinois truck driver — to bypass the security at Mr. Trump’s club demonstrates the ease with which someone with a fake identity and shadowy background can get into a facility that’s one of America’s power centers and the epicenter of Republican Party politics.” JUST POSTED — Alex Isenstadt scoops: “Document reveals identity of donors who secretly funded Nikki Haley’s political nonprofit”: “Many of the GOP’s biggest donors are among those who funneled anonymous contributions to former U.N ambassador NIKKI HALEY’s nonprofit as she lays the groundwork for a prospective 2024 presidential bid, according to previously unreported tax documents obtained by POLITICO.” Happy Friday afternoon. Playbook PM will be off for a summer break next week — but we’ll still be in your inbox every morning!
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Learn more about our work ahead. | | | WHAT POWELL SAID — Our colleague Victoria Guida has the download on Fed Chair JEROME POWELL’s big speech from Jackson Hole, Wyo. Here’s the shortest possible summary of Powell’s remarks: He’s not backing down. “In a closely watched speech at the Fed’s annual conference in Wyoming, Powell foreshadowed not only further interest rate increases but also warned that rates might need to stay high for some time to ensure that price spikes do not persist,” Victoria writes. Here’s Powell: “We must keep at it until the job is done. Restoring price stability will take some time and requires using our tools forcefully to bring demand and supply into better balance.”
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Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks to attendees of the central bank's annual symposium on Friday, Aug. 26. | Amber Baesler/AP Photo | The stepback: “Powell’s words are a stark about-face from his remarks at the same conference last year, when he said elevated inflation was likely to prove temporary. Now, his message is intended not only to warn the American people that economic pain is ahead but also to deter financial markets from expecting the Fed to reverse course next year.” — The latest inflation reading: Earlier today, the Commerce Department released its latest report on consumer spending, a favorite measuring method for the Fed. CNBC’s Jesse Pound has a good breakdown: “Fed’s preferred inflation measure shows price pressures eased in July” By the numbers:
- “The personal consumption expenditures price index came in with a year-over-year rise of 6.3% in July, down from 6.8% in June. The index actually fell 0.1% month over month.”
- “The core PCE index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, showed a 4.6% rise year over year and a gain of 0.1% month over month in July, coming in softer than forecasts on both counts.”
FWIW, this was Powell’s reaction this morning: “While the lower inflation readings for July are welcome, a single month’s improvement falls far short of what the committee will need to see before we are confident that inflation is moving down.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE IS READING — New Emerson College Polling: “August National Poll: Biden Bounces Back On Approval and 2024 Ballot; Voters Split on Student Debt Relief and Student Loan Program Value”
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | SCHUMER SITDOWN — Ben Jacobs has a fun read up for N.Y. Mag on Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER’s recent string of success: “Everything’s Coming Up Schumer” “Chuck Schumer had the ease of someone already on summer vacation. ‘I’d much rather be in New York than Washington any day of the week,’ he said during a Zoom conversation from his Manhattan office in mid-August. The Senate Democrats had just passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a climate and tax law that constitutes the centerpiece of Joe Biden’s reform agenda, and as the majority leader responsible for saving this legislation — and, perhaps with it, Biden’s presidency — from what appeared to be certain defeat, Schumer could be forgiven for not merely taking a well-earned break but also resting on his laurels a bit. “‘People are just so positive,’ he gushed, claiming that Democratic incumbents in battleground states are thrilled to run on the IRA in the upcoming midterms. ‘They said they’ve never seen more energy.’” ALL POLITICS AD WARS — NYT’s Malika Khurana, Ang Li, Jonathan Weisman and Jon Huang have a deep dive on one of the biggest trends in this year’s midterms as Democrats meddle in races to boost far-right candidates. The immersive story takes you through a slew of ads that Dems have deployed on behalf of these candidates where they use careful language to convey their intended message. The deets: “Democrats have spent nearly $44 million across five states — California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania — running such ads about at least seven far-right candidates who they have said will be easier to beat in November. In some cases, the Democrats spent far more money on ads about these candidates than the candidates spent promoting themselves.” HOW IT’S PLAYING — Democrats got their signature bill passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. It was a whipsaw of negotiations before they secured final passage. But the challenge isn’t over — now they have to sell it. “Now that Biden has signed it into law, Democrats across the country are searching for ways to translate the 273 pages of legislative text into support at the ballot box,” WaPo’s Annie Linskey writes . “While many are upbeat they have something new to run on in the face of Republican attacks, they are also clear-eyed about the potential difficulties that lie ahead this fall. Some of the law’s signature benefits for seniors do not take effect until 2023 to 2026, while the high price of food, housing and fuel is stretching budgets across age groups right now.” GEORGIA ON MY MIND — HERSCHEL WALKER was known during his football days as a bruising running back. But now, as he tries to take down incumbent Sen. RAPHAEL WARNOCK, Walker’s campaign seems to be running thin. He has no shortage of critiques for his opponent, tabbing the Democrat as a “yes-man” for Biden. “Yet when asked for concrete alternatives to ‘the Biden-Warnock agenda,’ Walker defaults mostly to generalities and stem-winding tangents — or he turns the question around,” AP’s Bill Barrow writes. “The broader approach tracks the way many political challengers — including Warnock two years ago — try to put incumbents on the defensive.” POLL POSITION — Michigan Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER appears to be opening up a big lead over her Republican challenger TUDOR DIXON, the Detroit Free Press’ Arpan Lobo writes . “Head to head, 50% of respondents said they would vote for Whitmer, a Democrat seeking her second term as governor, compared with 39% choosing Dixon,” according to a poll published by EPIC-MRA, a Michigan-based research firm. — In the Los Angeles mayoral race, Rep. KAREN BASS is also pulling away from her competition, L.A. Times’ Benjamin Oreskes writes. “Since beating [ RICK] CARUSO in the June primary by 7 points, Bass has widened her advantage over the businessman to 43%-31%, with 24% undecided, according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental studies poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.”
| | | | A message from Facebook:   | | | THE PANDEMIC HEADS UP — “Secret Service recovers $286 million in stolen Covid relief funds,” by NBC’s Julia Ainsley and Sarah Fitzpatrick SHOT SQUABBLE — Moderna is suing Pfizer and BioNTech “accusing the vaccine competitors of copying its messenger RNA technology that was the novel basis for Covid vaccines,” Lauren Gardner reports . “Moderna said it’s not seeking to have the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine removed from the market, nor is it seeking an injunction preventing future sales. But the company suggested it is seeking damages as of March 8, when it updated its pledge not to enforce any patents pertaining to Covid during the pandemic.” MONKEYPOX LATEST — “Monkeypox Cases Are Declining in New York City and Globally,” by NYT’s Lola Fadulu: “The World Health Organization on Thursday reported that monkeypox cases globally dropped 21 percent last week. But the overall trend masked rising cases in other parts of the world, including Latin America and Africa.” WAR IN UKRAINE — At the outset of Russia’s war in Ukraine, governors and other state officials pledged that they would quickly sever financial ties with Russia. But the reality is a little different, AP’s Geoff Mulvihill reports. “Six months into a war that has killed thousands of Ukrainians and displaced over 12 million more, most of the pledges to drop Russian investments — some made with great fanfare during news conferences — have gone unfulfilled, according to an Associated Press review, state retirement administrators and firms that invest state funds.” — “With Military Attacks and Mockery, Ukraine Pokes the Russian Bear,” by NYT’s Andrew Kramer: “Driven by deep anger at Russia and the need to rally support at home and abroad, Ukraine is regularly goading its much more powerful antagonist.”
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | MEDIAWATCH PUMPING THE BRAKES ON PRIME TIME — “NBC Considers Cutting Back Programming Hours in Prime Time,” by WSJ’s Joe Flint: “Under the scenario being discussed, NBC would stop programming the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. hour and give those seven hours per week to local TV stations to program, the people said.” FOOD FOR THOUGHT — “‘Are We the Problem?’ The New Dean of Columbia J-School Wrestles With Its Place in the Industry,” by Calder McHugh for POLITICO Magazine: “Does J-school even matter any more? JELANI COBB is on a mission to mold the next generation of journalists. But first comes fundraising.” PLAYBOOKERS PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — “Daniel Boulud Has Closed His First and Only DC Restaurant,” by Washingtonian’s Anna Spiegel: “DBGB Kitchen & Bar shuttered quietly at CityCenterDC.” SBA DEPARTURE LOUNGE — Natalie Madeira Cofield is leaving the Small Business Administration as assistant administrator to return to the private sector, per Bloomberg’s Mario Parker. “She was the first Black woman to head the Office of Women’s Business Ownership at the SBA and was also co-chair of the agency’s equity initiative alongside SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman.”
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