Citizen Cartwright

Media's take as Trump is first current or former president to be indicted

The indictment is under seal, and the Lawfare blog says "we encourage all commentators to refrain alike from triumphant claims that the rule of law has been vindicated or from clucking about witch hunts. There will be plenty of time for that later.”

Sounds sensible to me.

So here is “background material on the fact pattern that has reportedly given rise to the indictment,” from Lawfare.

And here is a “what to know about Alvin Bragg” — the Harlem-raised, Harvard Law-educated Manhattan district attorney who convened the grand jury that indicted Trump — by The Associated Press.

Here is a “what happens next,” with Trump expected to turn himself in next week, also from AP. “There is no playbook for booking an ex-president with U.S. Secret Service protection,” AP says.

If you’re interested, here is a roundup of reaction to the indictment from Trump — "This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” he says — and others, from Reuters.

And here is reaction from Trump’s 2024 GOP rivals, from Fox News.

Finally, here is what I find interesting possible schadenfreude from our British friends at BBC News:

"In some ways, a former head of state being charged with a crime and possibly even going to prison is not news. It's happened all over the world down the ages: hundreds of presidents, prime ministers and military leaders turfed out of palaces and straight into prisons.

"But America regards itself as exceptional; and Washington, the city on a hill that provides a moral and democratic beacon for the world.

"Historians refer to the 20th Century as The American Century — will they do the same for this one?"

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‘Epic’ win for climate justice at UN

The countries of the United Nations led by the island nation of Vanuatu adopted on Wednesday what they say is a historic resolution calling for the U.N.’s highest court to strengthen countries’ obligations to curb climate change.

Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau says the consensus vote at the General Assembly, co-sponsored by about 130 nations, is “a win for climate justice of epic proportions.” 

The United States did not support the resolution. "We believe that diplomacy – not an international judicial process – is the most effective path forward for advancing global efforts to tackle the climate crisis," says a senior Biden administration official.

Vanuatu, in the south Pacific, has been slammed by powerful climate-fueled cyclones, including two this month that have left 10 percent of its population in evacuation centers.

Pacific island law students are celebrating the vote, four years after they suggested the resolution to Vanuatu officials.

Bangladesh's foreign secretary calls the resolution's passage a "defining moment" that can help bridge the gap between climate finance promises made to vulnerable countries and what's delivered.

It could take the International Court of Justice about 18 months to issue an advisory opinion that could clarify financial obligations countries have on climate change; help them revise and enhance national climate plans submitted to the Paris Agreement; and strengthen domestic policies and legislation, Reuters says.

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Blame spreads wide at hearing on Silicon Valley Bank collapse

“The first congressional hearing on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank was a frenzy of finger-pointing that set up further scrutiny of bank executives and regulators who let the turmoil unfurl on their watch,” says Politico.

“Once again, small businesses and workers feared they would pay the price for other people’s bad decisions,” Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said at Tuesday’s hearing. “And we’re left with many questions — and justified anger — toward bank executives and boards, toward venture capitalists, toward federal and state bank regulators, and toward policymakers.”

“It’s ultimately, in the first instance, bank management’s responsibility to fix these problems. And they failed to do it,” said Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Michael Barr. “We didn’t take enough action at the Federal Reserve. Supervisors didn’t take enough action. We’re going to be talking about that in our review.”

Barr is overseeing the Fed’s review of what went wrong in the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank; the report is due out by May 1. 

Democrats urged Barr and FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg to strengthen regulations on banks through rules rather than wait for action by Congress, reports Roll Call.
 
“Each of you at this table has authority that you can exercise right now: Strengthen rules for big banks to ensure that our banking system and our economy are safer,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, said. 

In response to Warren’s questions, Barr said he expects to increase capital and liquidity standards for banks with more than $100 billion in assets.

The FDIC is reviewing the collapse of Signature Bank, which it oversaw, and the Fed’s inspector general on March 14 opened a review of the conduct of the Fed Board of Governors and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s supervision.

But some lawmakers want more, says The New York Times. A group of Democrats on Tuesday asked the Government Accountability Office to examine the supervisory practices of bank regulators.

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Netanyahu delays Israel judicial overhaul amid mass protests

The political factions opposed to Prime Minister Netanyahu have started setting up negotiating teams Tuesday after he paused the judicial overhaul plan that had set off unprecedented street protests, The Associated Press reports.

In recent weeks, Netanyahu had been unyielding in his pursuit of the overhaul, even as protests drawing hundreds of thousands erupted across the country, says The New York Times. On Sunday, he fired his defense minister, who’d spoken out against the plan.

That sent civil unrest to new heights, with work stoppages hitting hospitals, airports and schools and dissent increasing in the military.

“When there is a possibility of preventing a civil war through dialogue, I, as the prime minister, take a timeout for dialogue,” Netanyahu said in a speech announcing the postponement.

Netanyahu’s political skills enabled him to take power for the first time in 1996, defeating Shimon Peres after overcoming a 20-point deficit in the polls, says a Times analysis. And his ability to bounce back returned him to power, first in 2009 and then again late last year, despite a corruption trial.

But his decision to stay in politics despite being investigated, charged and tried for corruption led to a rift between him and more moderate allies, leaving him few potential coalition partners except among the far-right and ultraconservative parties.

That made him beholden to his allies’ priorities, including "profound judicial change,” says the Times.

Critics say Netanyahu has his own reasons for trying to undermine the judiciary: to derail his prosecution, an accusation he denies. But it was Netanyahu’s coalition allies, Yariv Levin and Simcha Rothman, who drove the judicial overhaul in recent weeks, not Netanyahu himself, the Times says.

Beyond the judiciary, Netanyahu’s coalition partners are also undermining some of the foreign policy goals that most preoccupy him, including establishing ties for the first time between Israel and Saudi Arabia, strengthening the bond he helped create in 2020 between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and encouraging the United States to help Israel target Iranian nuclear infrastructure.

Netanyahu has put himself in an impossible bind, says a senior U.S. official, telling American officials and the Israeli public that he was looking for compromise, and yet trying to hold together the right-wing coalition members whom he needs to remain in power — and who refused to back down.

But late Monday, as news that Netanyahu had backed away spread in Washington, the question turned to how long he could last, says yet another Times article. His reputation for political skill and the ability to press for compromise has been tarnished, several officials say. The chances that his fragile, bare majority will hold seem slim.

Here is a compilation of experts’ views on what’s happening, by The Atlantic Council.

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Cigna’s system to ‘instantly’ reject healthcare claims

The company — one of America’s biggest health insurers — has built a system that enables its doctors to instantly reject a claim on medical grounds without opening the patient file, leaving people with unexpected bills, says a ProPublica article co-published with The Capitol Forum. 

Over a period of two months last year, Cigna doctors denied more than 300,000 requests for payments using this method, spending an average of 1.2 seconds on each case, according to corporate documents.

Insurance laws and regulations in many states require that before health insurers reject claims for medical reasons, company doctors must review them, ProPublica/Capitol Forum say. Medical directors are expected to examine patient records, review coverage policies and use their expertise to decide whether to approve or deny claims, regulators say. This helps avoid unfair denials.

But a Cigna review system bypasses those steps. Medical directors don't see any patient records or put their medical judgment to use, say former company employees familiar with the system. Instead, a Cigna algorithm flags mismatches between diagnoses and what the company considers acceptable tests and procedures for those ailments. Company doctors then sign off on the denials in batches, according to interviews with former employees.

“We literally click and submit,” one former Cigna doctor says. “It takes all of 10 seconds to do 50 at a time.”

Not all claims are processed using this review system. For those that are, it's unclear how many are approved and how many are funneled to doctors for automatic denial, ProPublica/Capitol Forum say.

Cigna says the reporting by ProPublica/Capitol Forum is “biased and incomplete.” The company says its review system was created to “accelerate payment of claims for certain routine screenings. This allows us to automatically approve claims when they are submitted with correct diagnosis codes.”

Ron Howrigon, a former Cigna executive, says: “Put yourself in the shoes of the insurer. Why not just deny them all and see which ones come back on appeal? From a cost perspective, it makes sense.”

Cigna knows that many patients will pay such bills rather than deal with the hassle of appealing a rejection, according to Howrigon and other former Cigna employees.

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