WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, September 1, 2022

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1/ The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas pressed lawmakers to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in both Arizona and Wisconsin. It was previously reported that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas emailed 29 Arizona state lawmakers in November and December 2020, urging them to ignore Biden’s popular-vote victory and instead “choose” their own presidential electors. New emails, however, show that Thomas also urged at least two Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin, including the chair of the Senate elections committee, to overturn Biden’s win. The Jan. 6 committee asked Thomas to sit for a voluntary interview in June. At the time, Thomas said she “can’t wait” to talk to the committee, but later said she didn’t believe there was “sufficient basis” for her to sit for an interview. (Washington Post / Associated Press)

2/ A federal judge ordered Lindsey Graham to testify before a grand jury investigating efforts to overturn Trump’s election loss in Georgia. The judge, however, limited the scope of questions that Graham could be asked “about investigatory fact-finding” he conducted in phone calls made to state elections officials. It’s the second time that Judge Leigh Martin ruled that Graham must testify in the probe by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who intends to question Graham about two phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the aftermath of the 2020 election. (Washington Post / Politico / Bloomberg / Associated Press)

3/ Trump and the Mazars USA accounting firm agreed to turn over some “key financial documents” to the House Oversight and Reform Committee as part of its investigation into his potential conflicts of interest and foreign financial ties. The deal ends Trump’s yearslong effort to prevent Congress from obtaining his private financial records from Mazars USA. In April 2019, the committee subpoenaed Mazars USA for financial information from Trump dating back 10 years. (Associated Press / Axios / CNBC)

4/ 2021 was one of the hottest years on record as the world saw record-high greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean heat, and sea level rise, according to the annual State of the Climate report. Depending on the dataset referenced, 2021 was either the fifth- or sixth-warmest on record, making the last seven years, from 2015-2021, the seven warmest years on record. The global average sea level rose to a record-high for the 10th consecutive year, and global ocean heat content saw record levels in 2021. (CBS News /