Mother Jones Daily: He’s Pete Hegseth’s Wealth Manager. He Also Pushes “Pro-Israel Policies” Like War With Iran., How Lindsey Graham, eager to serve Trump, became a useful idiot for Putin, Trump's energy policies are “fattening the wallets of his cronies” at public expense, A little law gives hope that government can suck less and make people’s lives better, DOJ subpoenas New York Times reporters after Air Force One story, Sam Bankman-Fried recounts FTX’s collapse and why he feels he was wrongly convicted of fraud 13JUL26

 

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July 13, 2026 Lindsey Graham's late-stage evolution from Trump foe to Trump sycophant is well known. But David Corn is here to remind us of another important legacy: Graham's acrobatic flip-flop on the Trump-Russia scandal.  From David: Eventually Graham got on board with Trump’s Russia denialism. He mounted a side investigation that focused not on Putin’s operation but on the FBI’s investigation of the Russian operation and the Steele dossier, the series of memos produced by a former British intelligence official that contained uncorroborated allegations of Trump-Russia collusion. Attacking the FBI probe and the Steele dossier—which was paid for by an opposition research firm retained by a lawyer working for the Clinton campaign—became the Republican’s main tactic to divert attention from Putin’s assault on the 2016 campaign and from Trump’s complicity (that is, his false insistence that there had been no Russian intervention). This isn't just some minor detail. In fact, it is key to understanding what was most important to Graham: the influence gained by willfully serving a demagogue. It is how a man goes from calling Donald Trump a "race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot" to closely trailing God.  —Inae Oh

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He’s Pete Hegseth’s Wealth Manager. He Also Pushes “Pro-Israel Policies” Like War With Iran. How the man working to make the defense secretary richer helped lay the groundwork for Trump's disastrous attack. BY DAN FRIEDMAN AND GLEN STELLMACHER

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How Lindsey Graham, eager to serve Trump, became a useful idiot for Putin BY DAVID CORN Trump's energy policies are “fattening the wallets of his cronies” at public expense BY DHARNA NOOR A little law gives hope that government can suck less and make people’s lives better BY SOPHIE HURWITZ DOJ subpoenas New York Times reporters after Air Force One story BY ALEX NGUYEN

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Sam Bankman-Fried recounts FTX’s collapse and why he feels he was wrongly convicted of fraud Through exclusive prison interviews with Sam Bankman-Fried and others, we put fresh eyes on the dramatic collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. BY REVEAL

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