u/SeriousSalmon4

Looks like another loss in the courts today for Trump. The ACLU brought this one on behalf of Accountability NOW, which brought First Amendment claims against the Park Services.

The judge held that Accountability NOW USA’s signage referencing sexual misconduct allegations against Trump was not legally obscene and that its “8647” flag did not constitute a true threat to Trump or incitement of violence, conditions which would have allowed the government to restrict such messaging without violating the First Amendment.  The judge has now enjoined the parks from withholding permits for the group.

Notably - this ruling will also impact the Comey indictment, where the terms "8647" is at issue.

Monday morning rumor mill is open.

Before the press releases drop and the spin machines start working, let’s hear it. What’s the first whisper of the week currently hitting your Signal chats?

Friday happy hour thread is live.

before you hit the bars or mute your Slack notifications for the weekend, drop the best unverified scoop, hill gossip, or general chaos you heard this week.

burner accounts obviously welcome. off the record starts now. go.

Per a high-level senior Hill source:

Been whispered for the last few weeks that [Speaker] Johnson won’t call the House back after the planned July 4th recess. With all the Trump drama on the Hill this week, it’s looking like this is more likely.

That would leave the House in recess until the end of August and would leave only 15 session days before the midterm elections.

Speculation is that Johnson wants to avoid the SAVE Act drama. Ironic since he was the one who rallied the SAVE Act earlier this year as a self-serving strategy to deflect negative press and Congressional blowback over his FISA failure. Now both issues are unmitigated disasters for him.

The extended recess would mean the SAVE Act is moot. And that will anger Trump and other GOP members. But so many things have been a shit show it’s anyone’s guess.

According to a source, GSA is moving all their employees out of their current HQ for renovations and into the OPM building. They’ve not told any of the employees yet that the OPM building has untreated asbestos, and allegedly agency leadership has decided to only tell the employees about the asbestos *after* the move is complete.

Is there a reason we can’t just let these people WFH? Why are we exposing them to asbestos?

Midweek media check-in is live.

Let’s look behind the bylines and the polished press releases for a minute. Who is quietly jumping ship? Which comms shop is scrambling after a personnel shakeup?

Drop the unverified hires, looming departures, agency gossip, reporter moves, beat changes, or off record whispers below.

Sounds like Tillis has plans to work with moderate dems and republicans after he leaves office. Whether that’s with a private company or a non-profit org is unclear, but he’s officially moving away from the Republican Party as it exists today.

A source out of the White House shared that staff are so embarrassed by the reflecting pool nightmare that there’s a cohort working in secret to get it fixed.

Reid Hoffman is promoting a new scifi book on his summer reading list - Archipelago of Light by Dmitri Mehlhorn. His overview: "A bit further out, but excited to spotlight Dmitri Mehlhorn’s debut novel. It’s the first of a trilogy and runs from the early 2000s into a near-future 2039. The novel is built around three forces already reshaping our world: modern politics, accelerating AI, and the precarious state of the planet. It's a sharp piece of speculative fiction for anyone thinking about where our society is headed."

Looks interesting, and terrifying, anyone going to order?

Seems like we're finally seeing a divide between the police and ICE (yes, they're still here). ICE was patrolling a DC neighborhood yesterday looking for a man "on their list" and stopped a number of cars for questioning. After grilling a woman who showed them her work permit, the police intervened and told them to leave her alone and let her go.

Seriously - let's get these guys out of here once and for all . . .

In his recent substack, Rick Wilson called Susan Collins ". . . the fake orgasm of moderate politics; unconvincing except to the inexperienced." Either he's a great writer or he's trained his AI really, really well.

Starting a new Wednesday weekly thread where we want to know: what are you hearing from reporters, outlets, newsletters, and comms shops?

Share the gossip you're hearing in the comments below.

I used to make this recipe for myself when I did the whole gluten-free paleo thing a number of years back, but now I make these for my toddler and it is her favorite thing. Also great for kids with allergies because you can adjust however you need.

The base is 1 banana, 2 eggs. After that you can add what you like - I do peanut butter, greek yogurt, chia, cinnamon, handful of berries. Use a soup spoon to portion them out and you have breakfast for your kid for 2-3 mornings!