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BLOOMBERG The Big Take newsletter from Bloomberg for August 30, 2022 
Members of the right-wing group Patriot Front march across Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC.Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images Original article: Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | ||
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By Danielle Balbi August 30, 2022 at 8:58 AM EDT In its early years, YouTube—like many of its Silicon Valley peers—policed itself with the populist spirit of the early web. Moderators were told to leave videos up, so long as they didn’t show or incite over-the-top violence. “Use your judgment!” suggested one page in the company’s manual. It wasn’t long until the limits of that philosophy became obvious, as detailed in an exclusive excerpt from Mark Bergen’s upcoming book, “Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube's Chaotic Rise to World Domination.” With the rise of the Islamic State came the rise in slick, cinematic propaganda on the site. One former publicist remembers dealing with a “beheading every day.” The content was a nightmare for YouTube, and incited a video purge to boot terrorism off its platform and stem an advertiser exodus. But its approach to extremism had a glaring blind spot: White nationalism. Read The Big Take. From today's story “The individual claimed that he was not a frequent commenter on extreme right-wing sites, and that YouTube was, for him, a far more significant source of information and inspiration.” —An excerpt from New Zealand’s government report on the shooter who took 51 lives at a mosque and Islamic center. ICYMI:
Up Next DOJ Says Some Records FBI Seized at Mar-a-Lago May Be Privileged Politics
By Erik Larson August 29, 2022 at 10:36 AM EDTUpdated onAugust 29, 2022 at 4:39 PM EDT The US Department of Justice said it already screened documents seized from Donald Trump’s Florida home for attorney-client privilege, potentially casting doubt on the former president’s lawsuit seeking third-party review of the records. Trump claims a so-called special master is necessary to determine if some of the documents were privileged, and a federal judge suggested over the weekend that she was inclined to grant the request. But in a Monday court filing that was its first reaction to the suit, the Justice Department suggested that it had already addressed those concerns. A privilege review team identified a “limited set” of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information and has now completed its review of those materials, the government said in its filing in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Justice Department said it would file a more substantive response on Tuesday. US District Judge Aileen Cannon has set a Sept. 1 hearing on the matter. Though the government hasn’t yet said if it’s opposed the appointment of a special master, legal experts said the work of the privilege team may have obviated the need for a third-party review. “There may be little need for a special master, especially if the filter team acted properly,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor. Trump’s lawyer in the case, James Trusty, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Similar Playbook The dispute over privileged material is separate from whether Trump broke any laws by taking hundreds of classified documents -- some of them marked top secret -- from the White House after leaving office. But in calling for a special master, Trump followed a similar playbook as two of his former lawyers who were subject to Federal Bureau of Investigation searches. A retired federal judge was appointed in both instances to review whether any material seized from Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen was subject to attorney-client privilege. In a Friday filing to Cannon, Trump’s lawyers repeatedly cited the case of Rudy Giuliani, who is under investigation for illegal foreign lobbying but has not been charged, as precedent for the appointment of a special master. But both those men were lawyers themselves, and federal agents seized from them hard drives and electronic devices containing thousands of documents. Even then, the special master found only a handful of documents she deemed protected by attorney-client privilege. Kevin O’Brien, a former federal prosecutor, said he didn’t think the privileged documents the Justice Department found at Mar-a-Lago would prove significant. “It would not be surprising if some privileged materials are found, since we know Trump has been represented by counsel during the process of his negotiations with the government over the return of the materials,” said Kevin O’Brien, a former federal prosecutor who’s now a white-collar criminal defense attorney. DOJ’s use of a privilege team is “standard operating procedure.” Read more: Trump’s Stash at Mar-a-Lago Included Highly Classified Documents That FBI affidavit backing the Aug. 8 search, which was released Friday in heavily redacted form, sets out procedures for handling any attorney-client privileged material. According to the affidavit, the government can seek a court order to determine privilege, keep privileged documents away from criminal investigators or ask Trump to assert privilege in detail. Former federal prosecutor Brandon Fox said a key question is whether the documents have already been shared beyond the Justice Department’s privilege review team. “If the investigators already have access to documents seized, the bigger fight may not be about whether there should be a special master,” Fox said. “Instead, the issue is going to be whether the investigators have been tainted by documents that Mr. Trump claims are privileged.” Attorney-client privilege covers many communications between a lawyer and client, but there are important exceptions, including for communications that are made in furtherance of a crime. Such privilege also only applies to legal advice. The Mar-a-Lago situation is further complicated by the fact that Trump’s suit not only asserted attorney-client privilege but executive privilege as well. The Justice Department’s filing on Monday doesn’t include a reference to any such material, and many legal experts doubt that an ex-president can assert that privilege. In the Giuliani case, the special master was appointed by the same judge who issued the warrants to search the former New York mayor’s home and office. Trump, on the other hand, bypassed the warrant case being heard by US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart and filed a separate suit that ended up in front of Cannon, whom he appointed to the bench. In his Aug. 22 suit, Trump complained that Reinhart approved the Justice Department’s filter protocol “without input from the defense.” “The result is a protocol that is plainly ineffective -- it simply does not ensure that prosecution team members will not access or become aware of privileged materials particularly as the filter team’s leader is a deputy to the lead prosecutor in this matter,” according to Trump’ suit. National Security Assessment In her Saturday order, Cannon further directed the Justice Department to file under seal a more detailed list of property seized from Trump’s home and explain the status of the government’s own review of the material. The sealed document must describe “any filter review conducted by the privilege review team and any dissemination of materials beyond the privilege review team,” she said. The Justice Department in its Monday filing said it was currently undertaking a review of the material along with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was also undertaking a separate assessment of whether the documents compromised national security. Trump has denied wrongdoing and offered a variety of explanations for the presence of classified documents at his home, including that he had a “standing order” to declassify records he took and that FBI agents may have planted evidence during the search. The case is Trump v. United States of America, 22-cv-81294, US District Court, Southern District of Florida (West Palm Beach). Russia-Ukraine Latest News Updates: August 30
Ukraine reported heavy fighting as it started an offensive in the region around Kherson, a river port that was one of the first cities to fall to Russian forces at the start of the war. Artillery hit Russian positions around the Kherson region, according to the Ukrainian military’s southern command, which said a counteroffensive began Monday along several points on the front. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the attacks in a statement, and said the push “failed miserably.” Most Read
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