Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Hurricane Lane: “Hawaii residents strapped in and forecasters warned of ‘life-threatening impacts’ for the arrival of what could turn out to be the strongest hurricane to hit the islands in a quarter-century.”
* A major update to a story we discussed earlier: “David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer and longtime friend of President Donald Trump, has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors in their investigation into Michael Cohen, a person with knowledge of the matter told NBC News on Thursday.”
* False alarm? “The Democratic National Committee said late Wednesday that it had mistaken an ‘unauthorized’ security test for an attempt to hack into its voter database.”
* A stiff sentence for Reality Winner: “A former government contractor who pleaded guilty to leaking U.S. secrets about Russia’s attempts to hack the 2016 presidential election was sentenced Thursday to five years and three months in prison.”
* Mollie Tibbetts’s family has asked that her death not be exploited for political purposes. By all appearances, the White House is ignoring their appeals.
* I think Rachel may have a bit more on this tonight: “Buried in the legal documents released Tuesday as part of Cohen’s guilty plea on eight felony counts, there was a new, previously unreported payment Cohen made in 2016 to help Trump: $50,000 for work that prosecutors say Cohen ‘solicited from a technology company during and in connection with the campaign.’” * Quite a story: “When a woman Scott Lloyd slept with got pregnant, he took her to get an abortion. Now he’s on a crusade to stop migrants from having their own.” * It’s still amazing the Imran Awan story became a topic of fascination for Trump and his followers: “A former congressional technology staffer who became the target of a litany of political conspiracy theories was sentenced to time served Tuesday for lying on a loan application as a federal judge in Washington condemned his ongoing harassment by the ‘highest’ levels of government over unfounded conspiracies.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
