Welcome to another edition of Washington Secrets. Today, we take a look at the Republican Party in North Carolina, where officials simply can’t bring themselves to admit they made a mistake in allowing a convicted sex offender to become a leading fundraiser, and we finally have a date for the end of the American war in Iran …

For the past six years, conservatives in North Carolina have made the Down East Judicial Picnic a crucial stop on the fundraising circuit. Attendees pay up to $1,500 to chow down on hors d’oeuvres and rub shoulders with state supreme court justices and officeholders.