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Happy Tuesday. Here’s what’s happening:

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If you have somehow missed it, the biggest story of the day is a leaked draft opinion from The Supreme Court that shows a majority of justices have likely voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that created federal protections for abortion. POLITICO broke the news last night:

The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.
The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision — Planned Parenthood v. Casey — that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.” “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

Reaction continues to pour in on the news, including from President Joe Biden, who called the draft opinion ‘radical,’ The Associated Press reports. Chief Justice John Roberts also confirmed the draft is authentic and said in a statement the court would open a leak investigation:

President Joe Biden on Tuesday blasted a “radical” Supreme Court draft opinion that would throw out the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling that has stood for a half century and warned that other rights including same-sex marriage and birth control are at risk if the court follows through.
Across the nation, Americans grappled with what might come next as the Democratic-controlled Congress and White House both vowed to try to blunt the impact of such a ruling. But their prospects looked dim.
The court confirmed the authenticity of the leaked draft, which was dated to February, and Chief Justice John Roberts said he had ordered an investigation into what he called an “egregious breach of trust.” A court statement emphasized that the draft is not the justices’ final word.
Opinions often change in ways big and small in the drafting process, and a final ruling has not been expected until the end of the court’s term in late June or early July.
A decision to overrule Roe would have sweeping ramifications, leading to abortion bans in roughly half the states, sparking new efforts in Democratic-leaning states to protect access to abortion, and potentially reshaping the contours of this year’s hotly contested midterm elections.

The Hill: Sen. Susan Collins said on Tuesday that a leaked Supreme Court draft ruling was ‘completely inconsistent’ with what Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch told her during their private conversations as Supreme Court nominees.

Axios: Democrats are calling for the Senate to eliminate its filibuster so it can codify abortion rights into federal law, following the leak.

POLITICO @politico

“The Republican-appointed Justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v. Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.” – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a joint statement

Democrats hope draft abortion opinion will jolt midterm electionsThe Supreme Court’s potential move to overturn Roe v. Wade sparked frustration and vows to protect abortion rights from governors, senators and House members.politico.com

The New York Times @nytimes

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, called the leaked draft decision an “attack on the independence of the Supreme Court.” In a statement, he called on the Supreme Court and the Justice Dept. to investigate and pursue criminal charges.

Supreme Court Live Updates: Calls For an Investigation and Possible Charges After Draft LeakedThe draft opinion, which could change before it is finalized, indicated that the court would let individual states determine abortion’s legality. Chief Justice John G. Roberts called for an investigation of the leak, and Mitch McConnell said the person responsible should face criminal charges.nyti.ms

Kevin Baron @DefenseBaron

Daylight between VP and POTUS? After Biden statement last night omits court stacking option, VP Harris says bluntly, "This is the time to fight for women and for our country with everything we have."

Barack Obama @BarackObama

Here’s my statement with Michelle on the draft Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Washington Post-ABC News poll: 57 percent of Americans oppose a ban after 15 weeks; 58 percent say abortion should be legal in all or most cases; and 54 percent say the court should uphold Roe, compared with 28 percent who say the ruling should be overturned.

NPR: The original Roe v. Wade ruling was leaked, too.

CNN continues to update new developments here.

The Washington Post reports that The Trump Organization and former president Donald Trump’s presidential inaugural committee have agreed to pay Washington, D.C. $750,000 to settle a lawsuit the city filed alleging the organizations misused nonprofit funds to benefit the former president and his family:

The city’s Office of the Attorney General filed a lawsuit in 2020 in D.C. Superior Court alleging the inaugural committee, a nonprofit corporation, coordinated with Trump’s family to overpay for event space in the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington and even paid for space on days when it did not hold events. Lawyers for the District also accused Trump’s organization of improperly using nonprofit funds to throw a private party on Jan. 20, 2017, for Trump’s children — Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric — which cost $300,000. The city also alleged the Trump Organization, the inaugural committee and the Trump International Hotel misused $1.1 million.
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine said the settlement enables the city to “claw back money” Trump’s inaugural committee misused.
“After he was elected, one of the first actions Donald Trump took was illegally using his own inauguration to enrich his family,” Racine said in a statement. “We refused to let that corruption stand. No one is above the law — not even a president. Nonprofit funds cannot be used to line the pockets of individuals, no matter how powerful they are. Now any future presidential inaugural committees are on notice that they will not get away with such egregious actions.”
Nonprofits such as Trump’s committee cannot use funds to give private benefits to its leaders. Trump was not formally an officer of the inaugural committee, but Racine has asserted that for the purposes of the lawsuit, Trump and his family should still be treated as its leaders because they exercised control off the books.
Lee Blalack, counsel for the inaugural committee, in a statement, described the attorney general’s claims as “baseless” and said the group settled to avoid litigation costs, which would have been covered by its insurance company, but could have exceeded the agreed-upon settlement amount. Blalack added that if the case had gone to trial, the organization would have “prevailed based on the evidence.”
Eric Lipton @EricLiptonNYT
NEW: Trump Org and the Trump inauguration committee agree to return $750,000 to DC to settle a lawsuit that the 2017 inauguration sent excessive payments to the Trump hotel. Trump Settles Suit Over Payments to Hotel for 2017 InaugurationThe lawsuit brought by the attorney general in Washington, D.C., claimed that the Trump hotel accepted excessive payments from the inaugural committee.nytimes.com
May 3rd 2022
127 Retweets235 Likes

A Washington Post-ABC News poll finds a slight majority of Americans think former president Donald Trump should be charged with a crime for urging his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol on January 6:

The poll finds 52 percent saying Trump should be charged and 42 percent saying he should not. Opinions are very similar to a Post-ABC poll taken one week after the attack, when 54 percent said Trump should be charged for inciting the attack and 43 percent opposed charges.
The new Post-ABC poll also shows that majorities of Republicans and Democrats want party leaders to follow Trump and President Biden, respectively. Trump is on stronger footing inside his party than Biden, but both face sizable percentages who say they want to go a different direction.
The 45th president has repeatedly denied responsibility for the Capitol siege by a pro-Trump mob. The attack came after Trump spoke at the Ellipse, where he urged supporters to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol.

Voters in Ohio are heading to the polls today to vote in primary elections. CBS News previews the races, including a closely watched U.S. Senate primary featuring JD Vance, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump:

From Axios: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he envisions a 2024 presidential primary field with 15 or more Republicans — not necessarily including former President Trump — scrambling for Trump's base, while ‘I want to go in a completely different direction, and I think that lane is wide open:'

We spoke with Hogan ahead of his speech tonight at the Reagan Library in California. In prepared remarks reviewed by Axios, he doesn't say he's running but tells fellow Republicans, "We won’t win back the White House by nominating Donald Trump or a cheap impersonation of him. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."
Hogan is taking part in the "Time for Choosing" conservative speakers' series.
Hogan told Axios that after this year's midterms "people will not be nearly as afraid and won't feel like it's a requirement to pair with what Trump's saying or need his endorsement to win an election because, I think, most of the people that he's endorsing are going to lose."
His speech will be a roadmap for the themes of a potential Hogan campaign.
"The truth is, the last election was not rigged and it wasn’t stolen ... Jan. 6 was not a bunch of overeager tourists misbehaving," he says in the prepared remarks.
"The fact that so many politicians know that but repeat the lie is just more of the phony politics that has voters so fed up with Washington in the first place."
He blasts President Biden for promising to govern "from the center and unite the country, but instead he caters to the far-left extremes of his party and flails from crisis to crisis, showing weakness to the world." Hogan hits Biden over inflation, crime and emboldening enemies and rivals from Russia and China to Iran and North Korea.
But he said "Americans don’t just blame the Democratic Party" for a feeling the country is on the wrong track. "They’re fed up with the divisive politics and the extremes of both parties."
"I'm not convinced that Trump will be a candidate and I think it'll be a wide-open field," Hogan told Axios. "But I think it may be just the opposite of what happened in 2016."
"I think there may be 15 or 16 people running in the same lane, fishing in the same pond, trying to just appeal to base Trump voters," he said.
Hogan also told Axios: "I've never given any consideration to becoming an independent. Although I'm frustrated with where we are and where some of the other members of the party are ... I want to do what I can to make a difference and steer us back to what I would would consider a more traditional Republican Party."
CBS Mornings @CBSMornings
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Trump should not seek the White House in 2024 and urged fellow Republicans to resist nominating a "cheap impersonation" of Trump in the 2024 presidential primary race. Hogan says Trump should not run in 2024 and GOP should “move on,” resist “cheap impersonation”“I just think he’s enjoying playing golf five or six days a week. I think — his ego wouldn’t take losing another election,” Hogan said.cbsn.ws
May 3rd 2022
1 Retweet10 Likes

Axios: Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, has joined Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's campaign team as a senior adviser.

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Former President Donald Trump told supporters of David Perdue that a vote for Kemp is a vote for Democrat Stacey Abrams because GOP turnout in November will nosedive if the governor is the party’s nominee.

CBS News: U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado will serve as New York's next lieutenant governor.

AP: An Oklahoma judge ruled Monday that a lawsuit seeking reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre can proceed, bringing new hope for some measure of justice for three survivors of the deadly racist rampage who are now over 100 years old and were in the courtroom for the decision.

AP: Employers posted a record 11.5 million job openings in March, meaning the United States now has an unprecedented two job openings for every person who is unemployed.

Vice: The CDC bought access to location data harvested from tens of millions of phones in the U.S. to perform analysis of compliance with curfews, track patterns of people visiting K-12 schools, and specifically monitor the effectiveness of policy in the Navajo Nation, according to CDC documents obtained:

The documents also show that although the CDC used COVID-19 as a reason to buy access to the data more quickly, it intended to use it for more general CDC purposes.
Location data is information on a device’s location sourced from the phone, which can then show where a person lives, works, and where they went. The sort of data the CDC bought was aggregated—meaning it was designed to follow trends that emerge from the movements of groups of people—but researchers have repeatedly raised concerns with how location data can be deanonymized and used to track specific people.
The documents reveal the expansive plan the CDC had last year to use location data from a highly controversial data broker. SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data to, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.
The CDC used the data for monitoring curfews, with the documents saying that SafeGraph’s data “has been critical for ongoing response efforts, such as hourly monitoring of activity in curfew zones or detailed counts of visits to participating pharmacies for vaccine monitoring.” The documents date from 2021.
Zach Edwards, a cybersecurity researcher who closely follows the data marketplace, told Motherboard in an online chat after reviewing the documents that “The CDC seems to have purposefully created an open-ended list of use cases, which included monitoring curfews, neighbor to neighbor visits, visits to churches, schools and pharmacies, and also a variety of analysis with this data specifically focused on ‘violence.’” (The document doesn’t stop at churches; it mentions “places of worship.”)
Motherboard @motherboard
The CDC bought access to location data from millions of phones in the US to asses compliance with curfews, track patterns of people visiting K-12 schools, and specifically monitor the effectiveness of policy in the Navajo Nation. CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown OrdersNewly released documents showed the CDC planned to use phone location data to monitor schools and churches, and wanted to use the data for many non-COVID-19 purposes too.trib.al
May 3rd 2022
7 Retweets8 Likes

Sky News: Patients who overcome severe COVID infections suffer the same cognitive impairment that people generally go through between the ages of 50 and 70, a new study has found.

NBC News reports the first civilians fleeing the besieged steel plant that has been Mariupol's last holdout have reached relative safety in a Ukrainian-controlled city:

The successful evacuation follows weeks of failed efforts to help those trapped in the key port city, which is almost entirely under Russian control. It comes as Russian forces launch a renewed attack on the Azovstal plant, where hundreds of civilians have been sheltering for weeks with Mariupol's last Ukrainian defenders.
Even with the Kremlin's invasion struggling to make progress, a senior U.S. official has warned that Moscow will try to annex large parts of eastern Ukraine as soon as this month as it seeks to bring swaths of the country under its control for the long term.
Kyiv's fierce defense has helped rally Western allies to offer growing support, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressing the country's parliament in a speech that hailed "Ukraine's finest hour."

CBS News reports that Fiji's High Court on Tuesday ruled that a massive Russian-owned yacht can be seized by U.S. authorities.

ESPN reports that The U.S. government now considers WNBA star Brittney Griner to be wrongfully detained by the Russian government, signaling a significant shift in how officials will try to get her home.

ABC News reports that President Joe Biden met with parents of American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria.

The Wall Street Journal reports CIA Director William Burns made an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia last month to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as the Biden administration pushes to repair ties with a key Middle East security partner:

The visit took place in mid-April in the coastal city of Jeddah, where the Saudi leadership spent much of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. While details of what the two men discussed weren’t available, recent sources of U.S.-Saudi tension include oil production, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Iran nuclear deal and the war in Yemen.
“It was a good conversation, better tone than prior U.S. government engagements,” one American official said of the top U.S. spy’s meeting with Prince Mohammed, who runs Saudi Arabia’s daily affairs on behalf of his 86-year-old father, King Salman.
Mr. Burns is a former deputy secretary of state who studied Arabic and held postings in the Middle East, as well as having prior experience in covert diplomacy. During the Obama administration, he helped lead secret talks with Iran that led to a multination accord in 2015 to limit Tehran’s nuclear development in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Mr. Burns traveled to Saudi Arabia with the relationship between Washington and Riyadh at its lowest point in decades, with then presidential candidate Joe Biden saying in 2019 that the kingdom should be treated like a pariah over human-rights issues such as the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. A secret U.S. intelligence assessment, released last year by Mr. Biden, determined that Prince Mohammed approved an operation to capture or kill Mr. Khashoggi, which led to his 2018 murder and dismemberment inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The Wall Street Journal @WSJ
CIA Director William Burns made an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia last month to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, U.S. and Saudi officials said, as the Biden administration pushes to repair ties with a key Middle East security partner on.wsj.com/3OU5qKz
May 3rd 2022
23 Retweets49 Likes

ABC News: The corrections officer and escaped murder suspect who have been missing for days had ‘a special relationship,’ the local sheriff now says.

Inmate Casey White and Lauderdale County Assistant Director of Corrections Vicki White -- who are not related -- went missing from Florence, Alabama, on Friday.
"Investigators received information from inmates at the Lauderdale County Detention Center over the weekend that there was a special relationship between Director White and inmate Casey White," Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said in a statement Tuesday. "That relationship has now been confirmed through our investigation by independent sources and means."
Vicki White "participated" in the escape with Casey White, Singleton said Monday, adding, "Whether she did that willingly or she was coerced, threatened ... not really sure."
Casey White was charged with two counts of capital murder in September 2020 for the stabbing of 58-year-old Connie Ridgeway, authorities said. He could face the death penalty if convicted, the sheriff said.
On Friday morning, Vicki White allegedly told her colleagues that she was taking Casey White to the Lauderdale County Courthouse for a "mental health evaluation," though he didn't have a court appearance scheduled, Singleton said. Vicki White violated policy by escorting Casey White alone, the sheriff said.
Vicki White also allegedly told her colleagues that she was going to seek medical attention after dropping the inmate off at court because she wasn't feeling well, but Singleton said his office confirmed that no appointment was made.
Fox News @FoxNews
Alabama investigators confirm ‘special relationship’ between escaped inmate, missing guard Alabama investigators confirm ‘special relationship’ between escaped inmate, missing guardAlabama investigators have confirmed a “special relationship” between a missing jail official and the murder suspect she’s accused of helping to escape, according to the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office.fxn.ws
May 3rd 2022
32 Retweets82 Likes

A judge is letting Johnny Depp move forward with his libel suit against his ex-wife after the actor rested his case and lawyers for Amber Heard asked the judge to dismiss the case, The AP reports:

But the judge, Penney Azcarate, said the standard for dismissing a case at this point in the trial is exceedingly high, and that the case should be allowed to move forward if Depp has provided even a “scintilla” of evidence backing up his claims.
The trial will move forward Tuesday afternoon with Heard’s team beginning to present its witnesses after more than three weeks of testimony from Depp’s witnesses, including four days on the stand from Depp himself.
Depp and his lead lawyer, Benjamin Chew, patted each other on the back after the judge ruled the case can proceed.
Chew argued that the jury has a wealth of evidence to conclude that Heard falsely accused Depp of abuse. In fact, he said, the evidence shows that “Ms. Heard physically abused him. She’s the abuser.”
Heard’s lawyer, J. Benjamin Rottenborn, said the evidence is clear over the last three weeks of testimony that Heard’s allegations of abuse are truthful.
“We haven’t gotten to put on our case yet,” he said. “This is all evidence that has come in while plaintiff controls the playing field.”
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million in Fairfax County Circuit Court after Heard wrote a December 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” The article never mentions Depp by name, but Depp’s lawyers say he was defamed nevertheless because it’s a clear reference to abuse allegations Heard levied in 2016, in the midst of the couple’s divorce proceedings.

Authorities in Las Vegas say a barrel containing human remains was discovered in Lake Mead, and more could turn up amid a drought that has dropped the lake's water level to historic lows, USA Today reports:

The barrel was discovered Sunday afternoon by boaters who alerted the National Park Service. The agency said in a statement that rangers searched an area near Hemenway Harbor and found the barrel with skeletal remains. They are working with Las Vegas police.
The Clark County coroner’s office will determine the person's identity.
Las Vegas police told 8 News Now the person probably was killed in the 1980s based on items found in the barrel, though authorities did not elaborate. Lt. Ray Spencer told the CBS affiliate more bodies are expected to be discovered as the lake, which is east of Las Vegas and borders Nevada and Arizona, recedes.
“It’s going to be a very difficult case,” Spencer told the outlet. “I would say there is a very good chance as the water level drops that we are going to find additional human remains.”
Spencer said investigators are examining growth on the barrel in hopes of tracing when it was placed in the lake and started to erode.

WSJ: The SEC will boost the size of its special unit devoted to investigating cryptocurrency frauds and other misconduct, a move that follows the agency’s aggressive push to get the unregulated industry to come under federal supervision.

WSJ: Roku has teamed with private-equity firm Apollo Global Management to bid for a minority stake in the pay-TV and streaming service Starz.

CNBC: Vice Media, the digital media company once valued at $5.7 billion, has hired bankers to seek a sale.

Twitter is testing a new ‘Twitter Circle’ feature, designed to allow people to share their tweets with a smaller crowd, MacRumors reports:

With Twitter Circle, Twitter users can share their tweets with up to 150 people, rather than sharing their content publicly. Each user will be able to create a Twitter Circle that consists of people who will be able to see the user's Twitter Circle tweets.
It is similar to the "Close Friends" story sharing feature on Instagram, which allows users to select a group of people to share stories with in lieu of publicly sharing stories with all followers.
Twitter says that some Twitter users will be able to create a Twitter Circle starting today. Those who have the feature available will be able to choose up to 150 followers to add to the Circle after being prompted with the new Circle interface, and only people selected for the user's Twitter Circle will be able to see and reply to Circle tweets.
Twitter Circle participants can be edited at any time. There is no word yet on when this feature will see a wider rollout.
TechCrunch @TechCrunch
Twitter Circle, a 'Close Friends'-like feature, is testing tcrn.ch/38My6o8 by @asilbwritesTwitter Circle, a ‘Close Friends’-like feature, is testing – TechCrunchTwitter Circle, the app’s spin on an Instagram-like “Close Friends” feature, is finally testing. The feature was teased as one of many potential product updates in July, and last month, it cropped up live on the site due to a bug. Now, a small number of users can shitpost to their…tcrn.ch
May 3rd 2022
17 Retweets31 Likes

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022