Special Legislative Session Today. And, already it’s weird. The House Agenda is about what we expected: Passage of the legislation enabling the NCC Property tax bills to go out now that the Delaware Supreme Court has affirmed the Chancery Court ruling. Consideration of the bill decoupling Delaware from the federal giveaways to corporations, legislation intended to help close a projected $400 million revenue gap.
There’s also a passing strange bill that, well, let’s just quote from the synopsis:
…changes the Rules of the House of Representatives of the 153rd Assembly by permitting remote attendance and participation by members at a special session, so long as a quorum of the House is physically present in Dover. Authorization of the Speaker of the House is required for remote participation. The definition of “special session” in this substitute differs in that for purposes of remote participation by a member, it is only allowed “during any portion of the calendar year that does not fall between the second Tuesday in January and the first day of July.”
Its presence as the first item on the Agenda makes clear (at least to me) that it’s being done to enable ‘remote’ voting for today’s session. I’ve bolded a section of the synopsis just to raise the question–can the Speaker arbitrarily authorize some participants while excluding others? This is clearly designed for some someones. We just don’t know who.
Here’s where it gets weirder. Click on the Senate Agenda and you get this:
The Senate will convene the 1st Extraordinary Session of the 153rd General Assembly in accordance with the Proclamation issued by Governor Matthew S. Meyer on October 31, 2025. This session will be procedural in nature, and no legislation will be considered. The Senate will reconvene the 1st Extraordinary Session at a later date, as appropriate, for purposes of consideration of House Bill No. 255.
So…the Senate won’t consider HB 255 today, assuming it passes the House? Uh, why?
I know that someone out there is more wired in than I am. What’s the story, Morning Glory?
This Epstein Stuff Is Popcorn-Worthy:
President Trump’s long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein came to an apparent end in the mid-2000s. But Mr. Epstein remained intently focused on Mr. Trump for years afterward, seeking to exploit the remnants of their relationship up until his arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019.
In more than 20,000 pages of Mr. Epstein’s typo-strewn emails and other messages released by a congressional committee on Wednesday, Mr. Epstein insulted Mr. Trump and hinted that he had damaging information on him.
By turns gossipy, scathing and scheming, the messages show influential people pressing Mr. Epstein for insight into Mr. Trump, and Mr. Epstein casting himself as the ultimate Trump translator, someone who knew him intimately and was “the one able to take him down.”
What’s obvious is that Trump is doing everything he can to stop the release of all the documents:
Top Trump administration officials met Wednesday with a key GOP lawmaker about an effort in the US House to force a vote on releasing Justice Department case files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged the meeting later Wednesday when asked about reporting that administration officials were huddling with GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert.
“Doesn’t that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?” she told reporters at the press briefing.
That’s not transparency, it’s brow-beating. Hmmm, ‘brow-beating’ is a weird term. Let’s suss out its origin. You just learned something today. So did I. But, I digress.
Time For The ‘Wag The Dog’ Diversion:
When Donald Trump started sending warships, marines and reaper drones to the Caribbean in August to torment Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, the US’s former ambassador in Caracas, James Story, suspected the deployment was largely for show: a spectacular flexing of military muscle supposed to force the authoritarian leader from power.
But in recent days, as the world’s largest aircraft carrier and its strike group powered towards the region and the US president continued to order deadly airstrikes on alleged narco-boats, the diplomat’s thinking has shifted.
“Facts on the ground have changed tremendously,” Story said as the USS Gerald R Ford headed west amid the US’ largest military buildup in Latin America in decades.
Many observers believe the most likely next phase of Trump’s campaign – which, officially, has been ordered to fight a “narco-terrorist” drug cartel the US accuses Maduro of running – will be some kind of air strike, perhaps targeting a military installation or guerrilla base.
Is this mic on? Trump has to get L’affaires Epstein out of the spotlight. Don’t look for logic to play any role in what he decides to do in Venezuela.
The Scandal Within A Scandal. Featuring Letitia James And Bill Pulte. As a TPM member, I’m just cut-and-pasting this one:
The Trump DOJ’s bogus prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James just got a lot more difficult to pull off, with what appears to be a major administration coverup of the origins of the case against her.
In a new report, the WSJ has fleshed out a Reuters account from last week about the ousting of the acting inspector general at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It gets a little complicated, but stick with me. It’s important.
As you well know by now, FHFA director Bill Pulte is the instigator of the bogus mortgage fraud investigations of James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA). The Trump administration has seized on Pulte’s bogus claims to, variously, indict James, attempt to fire Cook, and launch a criminal investigation of Schiff.
It’s the James case that’s of most interest here. She is seeking to dismiss the indictment against her on the grounds that it is a vindictive and selective prosecution. The new revelations bolster her arguments for dismissal.
Watchdogs at Fannie Mae had been looking into whether Pulte had “improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials,” including James, the WSJ reports:
Fannie’s ethics and investigations group had received internal complaints alleging senior officials had improperly directed staff to access the mortgage documents of James and others, according to the people. The Fannie investigators were probing to find out who had made the orders, whether Pulte had the authority to seek the documents and whether or not they had followed proper procedure, the people said.
The investigation into who was rifling around in the personal mortgage records of prominent Democrats was serious enough, apparently, to bring it to Joe Allen, the acting inspector general for FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (For those keeping score at home, Pulte is not just just the director of FHFA, he’s also chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.)
Still with me?
Last week’s Reuter’s report went further in describing the connection between Allen’s work and the James prosecution (emphasis mine):
Allen received notice of his termination from the White House after he made efforts to provide key information to prosecutors in that office, according to four sources. The information he turned over was constitutionally required, two of them said, while a third described it as being potentially relevant in discovery.
The description by Reuters is vague, but it suggests that Allen was attempting to give exculpatory evidence to the prosecution team, which, generally speaking, the government is legally required to share with the defendant — in this case, James.
In her motion last Friday to dismiss the case for vindictive prosecution, James referenced the Reuters’ report and indicated that she had not received from prosecutors whatever it was that Allen had turned over.
Allen wasn’t the only one ousted. About a dozen officials within Fannie Mae’s ethics and internal investigations unit were fired on Oct. 29 in the wake of the probe into origins of the bogus mortgage fraud claims and who had access to the personal mortgage records of James and others.
To sum up: Internal government watchdogs who were looking into the origins of the bogus mortgage fraud claims emanating from the Trump administration were fired en masse, but not before the acting inspector general for the FHFA managed to turn over what appears to be exculpatory evidence to federal prosecutors in the James case.
Absolute corruption.
A Medical School For Delaware? Could be–if Delaware gets the funding it seeks:
Delaware is seeking its piece of $50 billion in funding made available by the federal Rural Health Transformation Program.
Rural Delawareans make up about 26% of the state’s population, according to USDA data. And the state Division of Public Health reports the bulk of the state is considered medically underserved.
Gov. Matt Meyer said he wants $1 billion of those funds to go toward 15 projects aimed to help Delaware’s rural residents. His plan depends on the program’s application. If approved, some of the funding would go toward opening a four-year medical school.
Meyers said an in-state med school will build a more sustainable health care workforce in the First State.
“We’re going to establish Delaware’s first med school where we want to create a train here, stay here, pipeline for physicians…” Meyer said. “It’s not possible for us to address the health care crisis impacting too many Delaware families unless we truly address that workforce shortage.”
Delaware’s application also names one of its projects as establishing a network of mobile health units for rural Kent and Sussex Counties to address transportation barriers.
“We can truly make a transformational difference in lives across our state by deploying more mobile health units to schools, churches and community centers, offering screenings for chronic disease, maternal health care, behavioral health sciences and more,” Meyer said. “Medical professionals can diagnose early and improve healthy habits, ultimately saving lives before they need saving.”
The application also includes plans for new Hope Center locations in Kent and Sussex, modeled after the New Castle County location that provides housing, health care and social services. It also seeks funding for telehealth tools, school-based health centers and a Rural Diabetes Wellness Pilot Program.
Say what you will about Matt Meyer and, believe me, his first year has been quite the mixed bag. But would John Carney even have thought about something this bold and potentially empowering? Rhetorical question. He had eight years. Budget-smoothing.
What do you want to talk about?