DOJ appoints war crimes prosecutor from The Hague to investigate Trump

Trump, of course, took the news with typical stride, by which we mean making a hysterical statement in all caps to Fox News, saying, “I’ve been going through this for six years — I’ve been going through this for six years, and I will.” don’t go through it anymore. And I hope Republicans have the courage to fight it. For six years I’ve been proven innocent of everything from fake impeachments to [Robert] miller, who didn’t find any secret agreements, and now I have to do more? It’s not acceptable. It’s so unfair. It’s so political.” He added that he will not be “participating” in the investigation, but whether that means he is simply not cooperating or will actively try to obstruct justice, which is very much his thing, is unclear .

Oh, also, in case it was unclear, that statement was full of lies

Nothing says “We do not condone illegal activity” like a six-figure raise

The Trump family continues to look extremely bad. Per the New York Post:

Donald Trump’s children gave Allen Weisselberg a whopping $200,000 pay raise — rather than punishing him — after discovering his dodgy tax practices, the Trump Organization’s ex-CFO told jurors on Friday. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. In 2017, Weisselberg, 75, and two other top executives learned they’d received convenient perks for not reporting their taxes — yet no one was penalized, Weisselberg said before the tax fraud trial in Manhattan Supreme Court against the Trump Org out.

The sons learned about the tax fraud during a “purge process” the company went through with tax inspectors when Trump took office as president, Weisselberg said. As a prosecutor Susan Hoffinger Asked the longtime chief financial officer if the Trump Org had demoted or penalized him in light of the discovery, he said no. “Did you actually get a raise…that came out to about $200,000?” Hoffinger asked. “Right,” Weisselberg replied on his last day of testimony.

The Trump Organization has continued to insist that it is innocent of the allegations made against it last year.

Elsewhere!

Hakeem Jeffries starts to be offer Nancy Pelosis successor (CNN)

Biden administration asks Supreme Court to reinstate student loan forgiveness program (The Washington Post)

Elon Musk‘s “Hardcore” Twitter Ultimatum backfired. What now? (vf)

How FTX’s sister company brought down the crypto exchange (NYT)

GOP agent convicted of facilitating foreign contributions to 2016 Trump campaign (CNN)

Lauren Boeberthis rival, adam fresh, concedes her home race in Colorado (NYT)

Council race in the city of Michigan, which was governed by two slips (AP)

What happens when 10,000 minks are released? A district finds out. (The Washington Post)