Exceptionally sordid We’re going to start today with this “Absolutely huge scoop from the brilliant @skirchy,” as Paul Lewis tweets. He links to Stephanie Kirchgaessner’s investigation for The Guardian, which found that Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s phone was ‘hacked by Saudi crown prince,’ suggesting the Washington Post owner was targeted five months before murder of Jamal Khashoggi. A WhatsApp message sent from MBS’s number is believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated Bezos’s phone. “Large amounts of data were exfiltrated from Bezos’s phone within hours,” Kirchgaessner reports. 
To be clear, “When this headline says ‘Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s phone “hacked by Saudi crown prince”’ it doesn’t mean it figuratively — Mohamed bin Salman personally hacked Jeff Bezos’ phone. Incredible,” tweets Tom Gara. We’re with Jason Wilson: “what the.” But also, “This is why I, personally, always ignore MBS’s WhatsApp messages,” tweets Mike Madden. For more background on this story, read Revealed: the Saudi heir and the alleged plot to undermine Jeff Bezos, also by Kirchgaessner. “Murky and interesting. High risk hacking v high risk reporting. Await developments,” tweets Michael White. Adds Radley Balko, “For all the nuttiness of the past few years, the MBS-Kushner-Trump-Keshoggi mess is looking exceptionally sordid.” Mehul Srivastava of the Financial Times has more details on the alleged hack, including the fact that that the two men exchanged numbers at a dinner in Los Angeles during MBS’s 2018 U.S. tour. FT also has a screenshot of the WhatsApp message MBS sent Bezos. Gara weighs in again: “Saudi magical realism is Mohamed bin Salman looking at Jeff Bezos’ hacked emails, discovered Bezos had been privately warned via email about Saudi hacking, and sending Bezos a message telling him to ignore that warning he got.” As Binyamin Appelbaum says, “We’re about to find out whether messing with a billionaire’s phone is going to be a bigger international problem for Saudi Arabia than killing one of that billionaire’s employees.” The U.N. is expected to release a report detailing a forensic investigation into long-standing allegations by Bezos, and it will say the Saudi crown prince is implicated in the hack of Jeff Bezos’s phone, write Marc Fisher and Steven Zeitchik of The Washington Post. In case you need it, Nicholas Thompson offers this “Pro tip: if you are a technology mogul, seemingly WhatsApp chatting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, don’t download any video files. You might get malware.” An outrageous assault on press freedom Meanwhile, Ernesto Londono of The New York Times reports that Glenn Greenwald has been charged with cybercrimes in Brazil for his role in bringing to light cellphone messages that have embarrassed prosecutors and tarnished the image of an anti-corruption task force. Gonna go with Andrew Couts on this one: “holy shit.” Also, for the people in the back, “JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME,” Matt Pearce emphasizes. “Regardless of your personal feelings about Glenn, this is a regime with deep authoritarian tendencies personally targeting a critical journalist. It’s a horrendous abuse of power that everyone should denounce,” says Dylan Matthews. Adds Susan Hennessey, “Glenn Greenwald has called me a ‘deceitful’ mouthpiece of the national security state and I assure you I’ve rarely had a nice thing to say about him. But this is an outrageous assault on press freedom that should alarm every American.” Miriam Berger covers the story for The Washington Post, Brazil charges American journalist Glenn Greenwald for reports exposing alleged corruption. On Twitter, Terrence McCoy shares, “I just got off the phone with Glenn Greenwald. The allegations took him by complete surprise, considering the federal police had, in December, just cleared him of any suspicion and went so far as to praise how cautious he'd been in his work.” A mix of hostility and ignorance The hits keep coming today. “If you thought ‘fake news’ was worrisome, get a load of how CEOs are now trying to scare employees out of talking to the media. An ugly development,” tweets Nick Wingfield, putting it mildly. Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel of The Information found out that Quibi’s CEO Meg Whitman compared reporters to sexual predators during an “all-hands” staff meeting last Thursday. “The mix of hostility and ignorance that many in the tech industry, up to the very senior ranks of companies, have towards the media and how reporters do their jobs is truly concerning,” says Alex Heath. The gravity of the task 
Lest we forget, there’s an impeachment trial going on in the U.S. Seung Min Kim tweets what happened “Inside the lunch, GOP senators were upset that the two-day timeline (requested by WH) for opening arguments gave the appearance they were rushing Trump’s trial, and that not admitting evidence only gave Ds ammo to call them unfair. The acrimony dramatically escalated in the final hours of the first day when the House managers and Trump’s lawyers engaged in language considered so toxic for the staid Senate that Chief Justice Roberts admonished both sides.” Those are a few highlights from her reporting with Felicia Sonmez and Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post. Their latest: Senate adopts ground rules for impeachment trial, delaying a decision on witnesses until after much of the proceedings. They note that McConnell “was forced to revise his proposed rules at the last minute to accommodate a brewing rebellion in his ranks.” “Perhaps the gravity of the task is sinking in,” Kevin Riordan hopes. The drama continued when, two minutes before midnight, OMB released 192 pages of Ukraine-related records to American Oversight, including emails that have not been previously released. “The volume of material released tonight highlights just how much the administration has hidden from Congress and the American public,” American Oversight notes. Also reporting for The Post, Rachael Bade and Robert Costa, along with Seung Min Kim, reveal that Senate Democrats have been privately mulling a Biden-for-Bolton trade in the impeachment trial. Costa explains, “These Democrats said they believe having Hunter — or possibly Joe Biden — testify could backfire on Trump and the GOP, giving Biden and the party a platform to strike back and paint Republicans and the White House as obsessed with trying to damage Biden.” Try to keep up Charlie Savage of The New York Times reveals that AG Barr Once Contradicted Trump’s Claim That Abuse of Power Is Not Impeachable. In a memo he wrote in June 2018 for the Trump team during the Russia investigation, Barr, then in private practice, argued that presidents who misuse their authority are subject to impeachment. But, writes Savage, “The result of Mr. Barr’s main argument in 2018 and the Trump team’s theory in 2020 is identical: Both posited that facts were immaterial, both in a way that was convenient to counter the threat Mr. Trump faced at that moment.” 
And then there’s the guy who contradicts himself. CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski dug up a 1999 “Crossfire” clip from the archives in which Mitch McConnell said he supported “whatever the House managers wanted in terms of putting on their trial” including “live witnesses.” “I voted for live witnesses myself,” he added. Meanwhile, speaking to reporters as he left Davos, Trump again blasted the impeachment “hoax,” CBS News reports. He ran through his usual hits, including the “perfect” phone call and the “major sleazebag” Democrats. Using another go-to complaint, he said the WTO has been “very unfair” to the U.S., and, of course, he blamed his predecessors for “letting that happen.” Also, CBS News tweets, “When asked about the 11 U.S. servicemen injured in the Iran airstrikes, President Trump told @weijia he didn’t ‘consider them serious injuries relative to other injuries I’ve seen.’” Undermining enforcement with a smile Richard J. Tofel links to “The latest in the important @propublica series by @paulkiel on what happens when the IRS is gutted.” That’s Paul Kiel’s piece for ProPublica, The IRS Decided to Get Tough Against Microsoft. Microsoft Got Tougher. “It’s the biggest audit in IRS history. Of what has been the largest company in the world. It’s taken over a decade. And it’s still not done. And it’s not going well for the gutted IRS. @paulkiel’s amazing story,” tweets Jesse Eisinger. Adds Kiel, “My story today is about the biggest audit in the history of the IRS, but it’s also about how corporations undermine enforcement with a smile. Sure, they can fight back hard. But they’d rather not have to.” Mr. Creosote has left the building A legend is gone. As BBC News reports, Monty Python star Terry Jones has died following a battle with a rare form of dementia. “And then there were four,” tweets Kyle Smith. “RIP Terry Jones. Thanks for all the laughs,” tweets Jon Resnick. 
You’ll find plenty of lovely tributes to Jones, the co-founder of Monty Python who was also a director and prolific writer with a passion for ancient and medieval history. Andrew Pulver writes the obit for Jones at The Guardian, Terry Jones, Monty Python founder and Life of Brian director, dies aged 77, and Neil Genzlinger has the New York Times obit for Terry Jones, a Python and a Scholar. As Sean Means puts it, “Mr. Creosote has left the building. Terry Jones was not just one of the Pythons, though that would be enough for immortality. He also directed ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian,’ and co-directed ‘Holy Grail’ and ‘The Meaning of Life.’” Jones also wrote a number of children’s books and was an authority on Chaucer. As Genzlinger points out, The Boston Globe once called him “a warped Renaissance man.” For one more, read Alex Ritman’s tribute at The Hollywood Reporter, Terry Jones, ‘Monty Python’ Co-Founder and British Comedy Icon, Dies at 77. “Sadly, not spam, spam, spam, spam. RIP,” tweets Michael Rapoport. “May the Knights who say ‘NI!’ greet him,” adds Jessica Machetta. Literal goddesses 
We’ll leave you with this today, because it looks like you need it. As Pearl Gabel tweets, “yassss represent queen - like a technicolor venus rising from the winter of our discontent.” Lizzo’s on the cover of Rolling Stone, and Brittany Spanos’s profile reveals The Joy of Lizzo and How She Became a New Kind of Star. “The literal goddess @ohheybrittany on the literal goddesss Lizzo is everything I ever wanted,” tweets Ilana Kaplan. Adds Eric Thurm, “waking up to ANOTHER #BrittanySpanos cover story? we simply love to see it.” Wednesday round-up - As Julie Rovner says, “there is other news today...including some important news…” She links to Roni Rabin’s reporting at The New York Times as the First Wuhan Coronavirus Patient is Identified in the United States (65,000+ shares). A man in Washington State is infected with the mysterious respiratory virus that has killed at least six people and sickened hundreds more in Asia. Federal officials plan to expand screenings for the infection at major airports.
- Charles Johnson summarizes this next story thusly: “Dave Portnoy has to tell all his employees they have the legal right to unionize and cannot be smashed for doing so.” Andrew Wallender of Bloomberg Law reports that Barstool Sports has reached an informal settlement with the National Labor Relations Board that calls for the deletion of the tweets and removal of other anti-union material created by the company.
- “Alright, alright, alright: Matthew McConaughey is in @TheAthletic’s new round of investors, which values the company at a half billion.” Chris Krewson links to Sara Fischer’s story at Axios with all the details, The Athletic reaches $500 million valuation in sign investors are bullish on subscriptions.
- “While we were sleeping…” Helene Cooper links to Hiding in the Grass: Fear and Confusion as Fighters Overran a U.S. Airfield, her latest with Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Eric Schmitt and Charlie Savage of The New York Times. Dan Lamothe praises this “Good long look at the Manda Bay attack.” “Once again @USAfricaCommand suffers a stinging defeat, Americans die, confusion reigns, & the bosses say basically zilch. Late-stage Global War on Terror w unreliable partners, scant articulation of strategy & the feeling that no one is in charge,” tweets C.J. Chivers.
- Jennifer Agiesta reports on a new CNN poll that finds Bernie Sanders surging to join Biden atop Democratic presidential pack. The poll marks the first time Joe Biden has not held a solo lead in CNN’s national polling.
- Steve Cuozzo links to this “Great, sad scoop” by Lisa Fickenscher of The New York Post, Fairway planning to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, will close all stores. As Ron Lieber says, “This news, of the looming death of an iconic NYC institution, is brought to you by the private equity industry.”
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