Eroded

Good morning!

The Trump administration wouldn’t fork over federal disaster aid for a blizzard in February. Will they green light relief for Jersey Shore towns after last weekend’s nor’easter?

Gov. Mikie Sherrill told reporters Tuesday that asking the White House for help is a possibility, remarks she made while inspecting the widespread beach erosion and storm damage down in Brigantine, according to Eric Conklin at NJ Advance Media.

Brigantine Mayor Vince Sera said the town will probably need to launch an emergency project to replenish the beaches before next summer. Such projects can cost tens of millions of dollars.

But the White House’s response to Conklin makes it clear that New Jersey better not count on any help from the feds here.

“The Trump administration remains committed to empowering and working with state and local governments to invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes, making response less urgent and recovery less prolonged,” White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Lauren Bis said.

Elections: The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey is threatening a legal battle with GOP officials in Ocean County, where the group claims Bay Head Republicans are illegally targeting Democratic and unaffiliated voters and attempting to drop them from voter rolls. Ocean GOP head George Gilmore, also the longtime chairman of Ocean County’s election board, told Dana DiFilippo his board is merely asking for information from voters in response to a complaint that some may not live in Bay Head. “This has been our practice for over 30 years, and it’ll continue to be our practice until a court tells us we cannot do it,” he said.

Housing: Gov. Mikie Sherrill appeared at an Atlantic City conference yesterday to say her administration is increasing the number of housing units the state wants constructed on state-owned property. The plan is contained in a new report that calls for the state to examine 2,300 acres of state property for the creation of affordable housing. “We’re doubling the number of new homes on state land. We’re investing tens of millions in affordable and workforce housing, and we’re getting shovels in the ground faster,” Sherrill said.

Courts: Thirty people say they were victims of abuse while jailed as minors, accusations made in new lawsuits accusing New Jersey of negligence. The plaintiffs accuse officials of hiring, training, and supervision failures that created a decades-long “culture of abuse” in New Jersey’s youth prisons. Dana notes that since the state expanded the statute of limitations for sex crimes, nearly 500 lawsuits alleging sex abuse of children in state custody have been filed.

Immigration: The Trump administration is abandoning plans to house immigrant detainees at Fort Dix, Benjamin Hulac at NJ Spotlight News reports. A Government Accountability Office report from last week says the feds “no longer plan to build detention facilities on other military installations” after a detention site opened at Fort Bliss in Texas.

Caldwell: Our now-former lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell, who resigned Friday after a Sherrill administration report accused him of multiple ethical lapses, is fighting back now, for some reason? Joe Seewald at the New Jersey Globe has some kind of document from Caldwell where he rebuts charges from the report, a move that I suppose is an attempt to rehab his reputation (he’s also doing a round of media interviews). “There is no credible evidence of sexual harassment in the report,” Caldwell wrote. “There is no credible evidence of intentional ethical violations in the report either.” OK, why resign then?

More: Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn (R) says the Sherrill administration should hand over any underlying documents regarding the report that led to Caldwell’s resignation, noting that Democrats in the Legislature demanded such documents in the Christie administration’s probe of the Bridgegate affair. "Now we have an investigative report saying one thing and the former lieutenant governor saying something very different," Flynn said. "That's exactly why the underlying record matters.”

D.C.: Jack Smith, the former counsel who prosecuted Donald Trump over claims that he broke the law in trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential race and stole classified documents after he left the White House, appeared before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to defend his role in those investigations. Republicans on the panel accused Smith of weaponizing the Department of Justice. “I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including my decision to bring charges against President Trump,” Smith said. “I made those decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.”

One of the more notable moments from the hearing was when Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt delivered what he expected to be a gotcha moment — he accused Smith of attending an Atlanta basketball game with Trump foe Fani Willis, an accusation that came replete with props — but the moment fizzled when a confused Smith said, no, I was at a Maryland basketball game, not in Georgia with Willis (video backs Smith up on this).

Republican Alabama Sen. Katie Britt’s face during the exchange sums it up:

Trump: Democrats say President Trump is using $20 million in Homeland Security funding to pay for television ads that heavily feature him and are running in advance of November’s midterm elections. One of the ads is nearly identical to an ad the Trump campaign ran in 2024 as he sought the White House again. Some Republicans have joined Democrats to criticize Trump for the use of taxpayer funding. “I don’t think any public official, including President Trump … should spend public money on private ads for themselves,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) told CBS.