Vox Sentences: “Anthony Weiner” and “emails” should never be in the same sentence

Admit it. If the 2016 election were a show, it would have jumped the shark by now; get acquitted of occupying a federal wildlife refuge using this one weird trick; battle in Aleppo intensifies.

Anthony Weiner's sexts take center stage in 2016 presidential election

Harry Hamburg / NY Daily News Archive via Getty

• The FBI isn't through with Hillary Clinton's private server. On Friday, FBI Director James Comey said authorities had discovered new emails from a separate investigation that could feed its inquiry into Clinton's private email server. [Vox / Jeff Stein, Libby Nelson, and Andrew Prokop]
• In a bizarre twist, the new emails were found on the computer of disgraced former New York City Rep. Anthony Weiner. Weiner has been under investigation for allegedly sexting with a teenage girl. [The Washington Post / Rosalind S. Helderman, Matt Zapotsky, and Sari Horwitz]
• We don't know yet how or if the emails discovered through the Weiner investigation tie into the FBI investigation into Clinton's private server. They may prove explosive — or tell us nothing new at all. And, short of that, the best thing to do is probably wait. [Vox / Ezra Klein]
• Naturally, the absence of clear information didn't prevent a partisan fallout that was swift and brutal. Tribalism reigned supreme as both liberals and conservatives quickly spun Comey's letter as they saw fit. [Slate / Jamelle Bouie]
• The simplest interpretation is that Comey has received new information that may complicate his earlier decision that she hadn't broken a law. [Lawfare / Benjamin Wittes]
• The FBI's Clinton investigation should be separated from the half-dozen or so other Clinton-related "email scandals." Many of these — over WikiLeaks and the Clinton Foundation, to name two — have no relevance at all to the FBI's investigation or today's news. [Vox / Jeff Stein]

(The trick is being white)

Multnomah County Sheriff's Office via Getty

• On Thursday night, Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, and five others who spent weeks in an armed occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Reserve in Oregon this January were acquitted of federal charges in the occupation. [LA Times / Matt Pearce and Rick Anderson]
• To be clear: The Bundys and company definitely occupied federal buildings. They definitely said they were trying to take the land back from the federal government. And they definitely had a lot of guns with them when they did it. [Vox / Jennifer Williams]
• The fact that several of the defendants were acquitted of carrying firearms in a federal building, when there are literally pictures of them doing just that, is evidence that the jury was engaging in a little "jury nullification" — acquitting someone because you don't think what he did ought to be illegal. [Vox / German Lopez]
• It's not that the Bundys and company are terribly popular in the area of Oregon where the occupation took place. Several Bureau of Land Management employees have had to move to avoid threats from Bundy-sympathetic activists. [The Guardian / Sam Levin]
• But the prosecution might have overplayed its hand on the court case, by charging everyone (no matter their role in the occupation) with "conspiracy" to keep federal employees from coming to work. [Huffington Post / Dana Liebelson and Nick Baumann]
• That charge isn't just about what they did; it's about what their intent was in doing it. And as one juror explained Friday in an anonymous letter, the prosecution simply didn't do enough to establish intent — and didn't charge them with lesser crimes that were more easily proven. [The Oregonian / Maxine Bernstein]
• Now, would the jury have been so discerning if the Malheur occupants weren't white? No, no, and hell no. [Vox / German Lopez]
• The Bundy saga isn't over. The brothers still have to go on trial in Nevada for their roles in an armed standoff there in 2014. [Oregon Public Broadcasting / Bradley W. Parks and John Rosman]
• Ammon Bundy's lawyer actually ended the Oregon trial Thursday by demanding his client be allowed to walk free before the Nevada trial — he was surrounded by six US Marshals and (after the courtroom had been emptied of spectators) tased. Because there are no heroes in this story. [The Oregonian / Maxine Bernstein]

Counteroffensive for Aleppo

Mahmoud Faisal/Anadolu Agency via Getty

• Rebel forces launched a major counterattack against the Syrian government Friday in an attempt to break the government's siege of Aleppo. [Reuters / Ellen Francis and Angus McDowall]
• The counterattack is the latest development in a human rights crisis that's been going on for years, and has been especially acute since July. [Vox / Zack Beauchamp and Sam Ellis]
• If the rebel offensive works, it would be a turning point in the civil war, setting President Bashar al-Assad — who's looked relatively more secure for the past year than he was earlier in the war — back on his heels. [BuzzFeed News / Borzou Daragahi]
• When we say "government forces," of course, we mean partly the Syrian military but partly Iranian-trained militias. And when we say "rebels," we mean a very loose confederation of forces, many of which have no local ties to Aleppo. [NYT / Anne Barnard]
• Neither side has clean hands. The latest bombing of a school, which killed dozens (at least some of whom were children), was an attack on rebel-held territory — but the 37 other attacks on schools in Syria this year alone have taken place in rebel- and government-held areas alike. [NPR / Merrit Kennedy]
• In theory, the UN is trying to help rebuild from the rubble. But it can only work with Syrian government–approved partners — and, reportedly, that means hiring Assad's relatives and friends. [The Guardian / Emma Beals and Nick Hopkins]

Miscellaneous

• Florida, a swing state, is in the headlines. Florida Men often make headlines. The Tampa Bay Times rounded up some Florida Men from previous stories and asked whom they were voting for. It's glorious. [Tampa Bay Times / Christopher Spata]
• Graded exercise therapy has become the "de facto standard" for treating chronic fatigue syndrome. But the scientific case for it is collapsing — and it could have made patients worse. [UnDark / David Tuller]
• You need to read all five parts of this Washington Post series on pop culture and cop culture. Seriously, go do it now (or this weekend at the latest). [Washington Post / Alyssa Rosenberg]
• The tick-tock inside story of why star chef José Andrés pulled out of Donald Trump's new DC hotel you never knew you needed. [Washingtonian / Jessica Sidman]
• Plenty of groups are experimenting with using genetic manipulation to change mosquito populations (as a way to fight diseases like Zika). But is this a task better left to public health agencies and nonprofits, or private businesses? [MIT Technology Review / Antonio Regalado]

Verbatim

• "The 4-year-old’s case is a rare public look at one corner of the American legal system that explicitly uses race and gender to determine how much victims or their families should receive in compensation when they are seriously injured or killed." [Washington Post / Kim Soffen]
• "That day, her fans, known as her Animals, threw glitter across the steps of the courthouse, a reminder for her that whatever happened, she was still their queen." [NYT Magazine / Taffy Brodesser-Akner]
• "It’s time to consider who is being left out by the web’s aesthetic." [Backchannel / Kevin Marks]
• "The most lovingly photographed black penis I’ve ever seen on TV belonged to a corpse in the show’s morgue." [NYT Magazine / Wesley Morris]
• "Isn't that something...?" [Bob Dylan to Edna Gunderson / The Telegraph]

Watch this: Voting while disabled

Inside the struggle millions of Americans go through to vote. [YouTube / Liz Plank]

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