Thomas Hofeller was certainly committed.
Hofeller, who The New Yorker describes as the "master of the modern gerrymander," compiled scores of notes, spreadsheets, and emails before his death in Aug. 2018. The GOP operative was famously discreet and urged his fellow Republican strategists to keep their methods quiet, and it appears the discretion was for good reason — the unearthed files raise "new questions about whether Hofeller unconstitutionally used race data to draw North Carolina's congressional districts in 2016," writes The New Yorker.
The documents illuminate his extensive efforts to use demographic data and voting records to push for stark gerrymandering, strict voter ID laws, prison gerrymandering, and adding a citizenship question to the census. He kept detailed records on racial breakdowns in various districts and worked not only in North Carolina, where his efforts were most prominent, but also with GOP officials in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
All of these efforts were part of a major redistricting strategy intended to strengthen Republican strongholds and make inroads in Democratic districts. His records show he had a little fun with the notion of making life hell for Democrats, too. After he was diagnosed with lung cancer and a kidney tumor, he pledged to a friend over email not to take his foot off the gerrymandering pedal just yet. "I still have time to bedevil the Democrats with more redistricting plans before I exit," he wrote. Read more about his work at The New Yorker. Summer Meza
Edward Snowden's book, Permanent Record, was only released Tuesday, but it's already causing trouble for the author.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit the same day against Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked classified information from the NSA in 2013. The lawsuit is centered on Snowden publishing the memoir without approval, which the Justice Department is alleging violates non-disclosure agreements Snowden signed with the government.
The point of the lawsuit, however, is not to prevent the the publication or the distribution of the book; the Justice Department just wants to make sure Snowden doesn't get paid for it. Therefore, the department is seeking the proceeds Snowden earns from the book's sales. "Intelligence information should protect our nation, not provide personal profit," G. Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. "This lawsuit will ensure that Edward Snowden receives no monetary benefits from breaching the trust placed in him."
Permanent Record reportedly reveals new details about Snowden's decision to steal files from the NSA's collection of phone and internet metadata and release them to journalists. Read more at The Washington Post and NBC News. Tim O'Donnell
The U.S. might soon have a new old friend, Bloomberg reports.
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk on Tuesday, and now the U.S. reportedly plans to return an ambassador to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, for the first time in 11 years, and vice versa; Hale called it a "historic" first step in restoring bilateral ties. The freeze in diplomatic relations between the countries began in 2008 because the U.S. made allegations of human-rights abuses by the Belarusian government, which has been led by Lukashenko, who has been called the "last dictator in Europe," for the last 25 years.
Hale said Lukashenko has taken "concrete steps" toward improving the relationship between Washington and Minsk, though it's unclear what those were. While there's no indication the disagreement over human-rights issues was resolved, Washington is reportedly keen on keeping Russia at bay in Eastern Europe. As it stands, Moscow is Lukashenko's "main ally and patron," Bloomberg reports, but Minsk has reportedly been reluctant to get much closer with Russia, which has its eyes on the formation of a "union state" with Belarus. So, perhaps, the renewed relationship is meant to serve as a buffer for Russian influence not just on Belarus, but the region as a whole.
Lukashenko also reportedly told Hale that as long as it doesn't undermine Belarus' security, he would not allow the deployment of short- or medium-range missiles in the country, which Moscow has hinted at in the past. Read more at Bloomberg. Tim O'Donnell