Zientsology, S.B.F.’s Judge, The Russian Sinkhole

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon compendium of Puck’s latest reporting.

Today, we lead off with Tara Palmeri’s behind-the-curtain peak at the game of musical chairs inside Biden’s White House—the rise of centimillionaire-ish former private equity exec Jeff Zients to chief of staff, the mounting complexities in the Dunn-Bauer dynamic, and the former campaign foe receiving a shot at redemption.

Plus, below the fold: Eriq Gardner identifies the legal backstory of the judge fighting the media over S.B.F.’s criminal case, and a new twist in the Disney proxy battle drama (before Nelson Peltz went after Iger, there was the wedding planner...). Then, on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby huddles up with Julia Ioffe to discuss the long tail consequences of Russia’s latest geopolitical misfire.

TARA PALMERI

News and notes on the latest innerworkings and shifts in Bidenworld: Zients tea leaf reading, the complexities of the Dunn-Bauer dynamic, and the resurgence of a campaign foe.

ERIQ GARDNER

News and notes on Bankman-Fried’s mystery financial backers, Baldwin’s manslaughter case, the Biden administration’s legal war with Hollywood, and more.

PETER HAMBY, JULIA IOFFE, BEN LANDY, and ERIQ GARDNER

Julia Ioffe joins Peter Hamby to discuss Russia’s massive geopolitical misfire. Then Ben Landy and Eriq Gardner dig into the Alec Baldwin suit.

MATTHEW BELLONI

The second installment of Puck’s original study reveals how few consumers can remember whether the shows they like are on Apple TV+, Peacock, Netflix, or somewhere else, and why that matters to the future of digital platforms.