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   DealBook: Epstein topples a legal titan
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   Also, A.I. spending fears hit Google.
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             February 5, 2026
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         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          Good morning. Andrew here.
         </span>
         <span>
          The Epstein fallout has claimed its latest high-profile casualty: Brad Karp, a consigliere to many powerful C.E.O.s, has stepped down from his longtime role as chairman of the law firm Paul Weiss.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Karp’s position had grown increasingly precarious after a highly contentious settlement with the Trump administration — a move pushed largely by Scott Barshay, the firm’s star rainmaker. Now Barshay is set to lead Paul Weiss, symbolizing a shift at the firm that was once defined by an elite litigation department and is now defined by a huge corporate M.&amp;A. shop.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          We also take a look at Alphabet’s earnings and big — as much as $185 billion — A.I. spending plans, as well as cracks in the private credit market, which I’ve been worried about for a while. More below. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you?
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         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Sign up here.
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          )
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            <img alt="Brad Karp, in a blue suit, shirt and tie." class="css-3vswge" height="400" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F02%252F05%252Fmultimedia%252F05db-karp-mcqb%252F05db-karp-mcqb-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzAyOTgwNzguOTIwNjk2N30:1vnzOo:hcl9PXMkDu0G6eVthWpdAWpfYbzCPlfRg5bcUyT7r74" style="width:100%;height:auto;display:block;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:8px" width="600"/>
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             Newly published files showed that Brad Karp had visited Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan mansion and sought a job for his son on a Woody Allen movie, among other revelations.
            </span>
            <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em">
             Joshua Bright for The New York Times
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        <h2 class="css-10nzuqq" style="color:#000;font:700 25px/32px arial,sans-serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          Epstein ties cost a top lawyer his job
         </span>
        </h2>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The Justice Department’s latest release of files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has led to the downfall of a
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          senior British politician
         </a>
         <span>
          , spurred an examination of an
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          N.F.L. team co-owner
         </a>
         <span>
          and raised questions about the
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          U.S. commerce secretary
         </a>
         <span>
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          They have now also
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          cost Brad Karp
         </a>
         <span>
          , one of corporate America’s top legal advisers, his job, as the world continues to scrutinize Epstein’s ties throughout Wall Street, Silicon Valley and beyond.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          Karp resigned suddenly last night as chairman of Paul Weiss,
         </span>
         <span>
          a major law firm. (He’ll be replaced by Scott Barshay, the firm’s top M.&amp;A. rainmaker, though he will continue to advise corporate clients.) The move came after the Epstein file release revealed that Karp had been a guest at the convicted sex offender’s New York mansion and had exchanged several emails with Epstein. Karp had also asked for help getting his son a job on a Woody Allen movie.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          At Paul Weiss, some lawyers expressed anger and embarrassment about the revelations, The Times reports.
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Senior partners had deliberated for hours
         </a>
         <span>
          about the consequences of the revelations before Karp announced his resignation as chair, according to The Financial Times.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Karp had already drawn criticism last year over a
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          deal with President Trump
         </a>
         <span>
          to have Paul Weiss sidestep an executive order punishing some law firms seen as adverse to the president.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          The fallout from the Epstein files continues.
         </span>
         <span>
          Another
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          email exchange between Epstein and Kathy Ruemmler
         </a>
         <span>
          , now Goldman Sachs’s general counsel, raised questions about what she knew about the financier’s activities, The Financial Times reports. (Goldman has defended Ruemmler; a representative for Ruemmler told The FT that she didn’t know about Epstein’s crimes.)
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The release also shed more light on
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Paul Barrett
         </a>
         <span>
          , the trader who managed Epstein’s money in his later years.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          Silicon Valley is reckoning with its own ties to Epstein,
         </span>
         <span>
          who networked at events like TED talks and forged relationships with
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          prominent investors and entrepreneurs
         </a>
         <span>
          , The Times’s Ryan Mac, Erin Griffith and Matthew Goldstein report. Among his connections:
         </span>
        </p>
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              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                Epstein made an early investment in Coinbase via Brock Pierce, the crypto entrepreneur with a
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                checkered financial past
               </a>
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                .
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                He and his financial advisers got opportunities to back SpaceX via Deutsche Bank and other connections.
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                Epstein invested in Valar Ventures, Peter Thiel’s investment firm. And Thiel offered him investment advice, including when to potentially invest in his own company, Palantir.
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                He invested in Jawbone, the connected device maker, though he later made legal threats against the company’s co-founder, Hosain Rahman, when it liquidated itself in 2017. Epstein even hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Rahman.
               </span>
              </li>
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Epstein also met with
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Masha Bucher
         </a>
         <span>
          (then known as Masha Drokova), a P.R. specialist who eventually became an investor, to connect with tech journalists from Forbes, The Times and other publications.
         </span>
        </p>
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           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span>
             HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING
            </span>
           </h3>
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          Bitcoin plunges after Scott Bessent rules out a rescue.
         </span>
         <span>
          The cryptocurrency dropped below $70,000 this morning, the first time since 2024, after Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said at a House hearing yesterday that he
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          didn’t have the authority
         </a>
         <span>
          to invest U.S. tax dollars in the token. Bitcoin has lost about 40 percent of its value since breaking $120,000 in October, as investors moved to precious metals and other safe-haven assets.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          The Washington Post cuts almost 40 percent of its journalists.
         </span>
         <span>
          The newspaper laid off
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          about 30 percent of its staff
         </a>
         <span>
          , including 300 of its 800 journalists, and will shutter its books and sports sections. The cuts underscore how Jeff Bezos, who has owned the publication since 2013, has failed to stem years of financial losses; Bezos has drawn criticism for his recent oversight of the company, including the blocking of an endorsement of Kamala Harris before the 2024 election.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          A federal agency accuses Nike of discriminating against white workers.
         </span>
         <span>
          The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said it was investigating “
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          systemic allegations of D.E.I.-related intentional race discrimination
         </a>
         <span>
          ” against white employees and job applicants at the sportswear maker. It appears to be the first time that the commission has said that diversity, equity and inclusion practices can amount to workplace discrimination, a stance in line with President Trump’s claims of “reverse racism” in American business and education.
         </span>
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        <h2 class="css-10nzuqq" style="color:#000;font:700 25px/32px arial,sans-serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          Google opens its wallet
         </span>
        </h2>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Not even Google is immune to market worries about an
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          artificial intelligence bubble
         </a>
         <span>
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Shares in Alphabet, the tech giant’s parent, fell
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          as much as 7 percent
         </a>
         <span>
          in after-hours trading yesterday, despite it beating expectations for its bottom line. The reason: Google announced plans to keep investing heavily in A.I. infrastructure, even taking on significant debt to do so, raising questions about whether the effort will pay off.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          The latest:
         </span>
         <span>
          Alphabet’s fourth-quarter revenue rose 18 percent year-on-year, to $113.8 billion, while net income grew 30 percent, to $34.5 billion. But investors focused on the tech giant’s announcement that spending on capital expenditures would double in 2026 to
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          $175 billion to $185 billion
         </a>
         <span>
          , largely because of A.I. expenses.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s C.E.O., defended increased spending as being supported by a rise in profits in its advertising and cloud computing arms. “Our capex spend this year is an
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          eye towards
         </a>
         <span>
          the future,” he said, adding that the demand for its services was “exceptionally strong” — as was the need to keep investing in A.I.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          Big Tech is going into debt.
         </span>
         <span>
          Alphabet sold
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          $25 billion in corporate bonds
         </a>
         <span>
          in November, and its long-term debt quadrupled year-on-year in 2025 to $46.5 billion. Morgan Stanley expects so-called hyperscalers to invest $3 trillion in A.I. infrastructure by the end of 2028, much of it funded by debt. (More on the growth of A.I.-related debt fears below.)
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          Profits aren’t enough.
         </span>
         <span>
          The reaction to Google’s earnings is similar to
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          what happened to Microsoft
         </a>
         <span>
          last week. Investors also appear to have changed their mind about Meta, whose
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          stock initially rose
         </a>
         <span>
          after disclosing huge spending plans last week because the company was able to draw a direct line between A.I. investments and its core advertising business. Shares in Meta have fallen since then and are now close to flat.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          This is potentially ominous for smaller tech companies like Oracle, which are
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          looking to raise huge sums
         </a>
         <span>
          of debt and equity to keep up in A.I. without the huge profit streams of Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft.
         </span>
        </p>
        <div style="margin:0 auto;max-width:600px;width:100%">
         <table>
          <tbody>
           <tr>
            <td style="padding:0 0 5px">
             <ul class="css-1dtd48z" style="color:#000;font:20px georgia,serif;text-align:left;padding-left:50px;list-style-type:square;margin-bottom:10px">
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                In other A.I. news: Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft are reportedly weighing a
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                combined up to $60 billion investment
               </a>
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                in OpenAI’s latest funding round, raising further questions about the
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                circular investments in the A.I. industry
               </a>
               <span style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;vertical-align:middle">
                .
               </span>
              </li>
             </ul>
            </td>
           </tr>
          </tbody>
         </table>
        </div>
        <table width="100%">
         <tbody>
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           <td class="css-36ugzx" style="padding-bottom:15px">
           </td>
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           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <h2 class="css-10nzuqq" style="color:#000;font:700 25px/32px arial,sans-serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          Chart of the day: software slams private credit
         </span>
        </h2>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          sell-off in software stocks
         </a>
         <span>
          has been swift and brutal, as concerns about the potential disruption of artificial intelligence tools like Anthropic’s Claude erased hundreds of billions in market value.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Now those worries have spread into the credit market, Niko Gallogly writes. Yesterday, the price of the average software loan fell to its lowest point this year, to 90.5 cents on the dollar from 94.7 on Jan. 1, according to PitchBook.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          It shows how A.I. fears are spreading into other parts of the market.
         </span>
         <span>
          Loans are typically considered less risky than stocks because debt holders are repaid before equity investors.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          As of late January, $25 billion of loans traded on the Morningstar LSTA US Leveraged Loan Index were considered distressed.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          All of this is alarming for private credit investors
         </span>
         <span>
          ,
         </span>
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
         </span>
         <span>
          who are heavily exposed to software. (Private credit, loans made by nonbank institutions, has been
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          growing rapidly in recent years
         </a>
         <span>
          .) About 17 percent of investments from so-called business development companies — publicly traded investment funds that are mostly managed by private credit firms —
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          are in software companies
         </a>
         <span>
          , according to PitchBook.
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
         <tbody>
          <tr>
           <td style="text-align:center">
            <img alt="A chart showing private credit investments in percentages by sector with data from PitchBook" class="css-xsf469" height="260" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2026%252F02%252F05%252Fbusiness%252F05DB-CHART-1%252F05DB-CHART-1-jumbo.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3NzAyOTgwNzguOTIxMTQ5N30:1vnzOo:-yO9-srN5nG3qPYVf_0-bZ7lCLVkJ6mfa38JQ6aCpGs" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:20px;line-height:0" width="500"/>
           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Shares in many publicly traded players in private credit have been hammered lately: those in
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Blue Owl Capital
         </a>
         <span>
          , a major lender, are down 16 percent over the past five days.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:#000">
          The pain could also trickle down.
         </span>
         <span>
          Retail investors are
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          increasingly buying into private credit
         </a>
         <span>
          after regulatory changes lowered barriers for individuals. “Your mom and grandma and your friend from high school” could be caught up in this, Finian O’Shea, an analyst at Wells Fargo, told DealBook.
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
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           </td>
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           <td>
            <div style="width:100%;text-align:center;line-height:0">
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        <h2 class="css-10nzuqq" style="color:#000;font:700 25px/32px arial,sans-serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          State budget officials push back against ICE
         </span>
        </h2>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Democrats are proposing
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          conditions for continuing to fund the Department of Homeland Security
         </a>
         <span>
          , including restrictions on federal agents carrying out President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          But pushback on the aggressive tactics used by Border Patrol and ICE agents has also come from a more surprising group: state fiscal officers.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          A group of state treasurers, auditors and comptrollers — all Democrats — from 15 states sent a letter to Trump yesterday, expressing their “outrage and alarm” over the enforcement actions. They argued that ICE crackdowns were bad for
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          local businesses
         </a>
         <span>
          and tax revenues,
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          The Times reports
         </a>
         <span>
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The officials said that forcing them to absorb the fiscal effect of the enforcement activities was “ not acceptable.” They added that many of their states sent more tax dollars to Washington than they had received in federal support.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Here’s an excerpt from
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          the letter
         </a>
         <span>
          :
         </span>
        </p>
        <p class="css-14jlz04" style="font:17px/25px georgia,serif;margin:0 50px 15px;color:#666">
         <span>
          The economy fundamentally depends on people producing goods, providing services and participating in commerce as workers, consumers and business owners. For an economy to function, people must feel safe to go to work, operate businesses, travel to commercial districts and engage in everyday economic activity. When fear disrupts these basic conditions, production slows, consumption declines and the economic system that supports public revenues begins to break down.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p class="css-14jlz04" style="font:17px/25px georgia,serif;margin:0 50px 15px;color:#666">
         <span>
          Our responsibilities require us to safeguard state fiscal health, manage public funds prudently and ensure the economic stability our budgets depend upon. The enforcement operations currently underway across multiple states threaten to produce economic harm that directly undermine these obligations.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:20px 0 15px">
         <span>
          Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said yesterday that the federal government would
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          withdraw 700 law enforcement officers from Minnesota
         </a>
         <span>
          , leaving about 2,000 officers.
         </span>
        </p>
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          We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support.
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           <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
            <span>
             THE SPEED READ
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                , a rival to Nvidia in making chips for artificial intelligence, raised $1 billion in funding at a $23 billion valuation before an expected I.P.O. (Bloomberg)
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                had not “committed a crime
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                .” (FT)
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                moving billions over borders” (FT)
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