Right-Wing Influencers Allegedly Duped By Russian Election Interference Scheme

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

Extraordinary

I’m not sure we’re close to getting our collective heads around the malign influence of foreign governments in U.S. elections even as we are in the midst of the third consecutive presidential election cycle in which it is a significant dynamic.

Even if you were to somehow set aside the unprecedented nearly-decade-long willingness of Donald Trump and the Republican Party to accept, encourage, and benefit from foreign election interference, it would still be an enormously complex, difficult, and hard-to-combat national security issue.

The details that emerged yesterday in the new federal indictment announced by the Justice Department in the most high-profile of ways offers an extraordinary glimpse of how brazen Russia’s influence operations within the United States have been – and of the extreme gullibility of right-wing influencers who were the highly paid alleged victims of the Russian-backed scheme.

It helps to remember that the Justice Department has two roles here: prosecuting criminal wrongdoing and thwarting future attacks on the U.S. election system, which is what these foreign interference campaigns amount to. In service of both parts of its mission, the Justice Department released highly detailed charging documents that go well beyond what’s needed to establish the elements of the alleged crimes. In doing so, it’s trying to expose the full extent of the kinds of methods Russia uses in order to scuttle future Kremlin efforts. One former U.S. official called the charging documents “an absolute intelligence gold mine.”

Among the right-wing commentators who were allegedly duped by the lucrative-to-them Russian scheme are some familiar names: Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Lauren Southern, and Dave Rubin.

Tucker Carlson’s ‘Overt Shilling’ Was Too Much Even For Russia

My favorite part of the indictment:

Trump’s Arlington Cemetery Fiasco

• I joined my former colleague Greg Sargent, now at The New Republic, on his podcast The Daily Blast for a lively conversation about authoritarianism, the MAGA threat, and Trump’s outright denial that any kind of altercation took place between his campaign staff and an Arlington National Cemetery staffer trying to enforce the rule against political activities. My thanks to Greg having me on:

• Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen: Politics has no place at Arlington’s Section 60
• New reporting this week from NPR on the lead-up to the incident:

A source familiar with the event said the cemetery staff worked with the staff of Republican Congressman Brian Mast of Florida, who joined Trump at Arlington. Arlington Cemetery staff dealt directly with Mast’s chief of staff, James Langenderfer, briefing him extensively on the rules, which include no campaign events at the cemetery. They also reiterated that only an official Arlington National Cemetery photographer — and no campaign photographer — could be used at Section 60. The source said Langenderfer told them the Trump campaign agreed to these rules. NPR reached out to Mast’s staff and asked if Langenderfer was briefed and relayed that information to the Trump campaign. They did not address the questions but instead released a statement, which said: “President Trump conducted no politics at Arlington National Cemetery.”

The Racist Jihad Against Non-Citizen Voting

The NYT joins the party on the GOP’s pretend obsession with the noncitizen voting, which isn’t allowed and doesn’t happen in federal elections. The story does a good job of not accepting the premise – “false theories,” “supposed scourge,” “they claim, inaccurately,” – but it doesn’t fully the capture how the GOP jihad is rooted in and appeals to racist xenophobia.

Yes, it can also be a pretext for new voting restrictions that may have broader effects on voting, but at its core it’s a rallying cry against immigrants that echoes elements of the Great Replacement Theory.

That’s why it has campaign appeal to Republican electeds and why the House GOP is threatening a government shutdown during the stretch run of the election over noncitizen voting.

2024 Ephemera

• CNN/SSRS poll: Among likely voters in the battleground states:
  • Wisconsin: Harris 50%, Trump 44%
  • Michigan: Harris 48%, Trump 43%
  • Georgia: Harris 48%, Trump 47%
  • Nevada: Harris 48%, Trump 47%
  • Pennsylvania: Harris 47%, Trump 47%
  • Arizona: Trump 49%, Harris 44%
• Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) announced that she will vote for Kamala Harris for President.
• After milking the issue for a few days, Kamala Harris has agreed to the terms of the ABC News debate with Donald Trump: The candidates’ microphones will be muted when it’s not their turn to speak.

Trump Prosecution Watch

• Jan. 6 case: U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is holding a status conference this morning, the first time she’s convened the parties since the Supreme Court’s notorious decision on presidential immunity. TPM’s Kate Riga is at the DC federal courthouse and will spearhead our coverage.
• Mar-a-Lago case: I didn’t pay much attention to the amicus brief filed by CREW with the 11th Circuit that urges it to remove U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, but Roger Parloff makes a convincing case that the brief deftly threads the needle of avoiding the weakest arguments for her removal while bolstering the strongest ones.
• Hush money case: Trump is still scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18, but all eyes are on Judge Merchan to see whether he postpones sentencing until after the election, as Trump has requested.

Stark

The number of federal criminal trials faced before the November election:

• Hunter Biden: 2
• Donald Trump: 0

Ginni Thomas Privately Praised Anti-SCOTUS-Reform Group

ProPublica: “Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, privately heaped praise on a major religious-rights group for fighting efforts to reform the nation’s highest court — efforts sparked, in large part, by her husband’s ethical lapses.”

Remember This One?

A few weeks ago, I flagged the QAnon brain worms infesting a small town police department outside of Nashville. Yesterday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation raided the police department at Millersville City Hall and also searched the home of the assistant police chief:

The exact focus of the investigation is not clear, but reporting from NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams offers some potential clues:

Two local district attorneys have previously confirmed to NewsChannel 5 Investigates that the TBI has been asked to investigate the possible use of sensitive law enforcement data to dig up dirt on potential political enemies.

The TBI is also investigating possible perjury of a Millersville detective, stemming from his testimony in what appears to have been a botched child predator sting.

All of this comes against the backdrop of the police chief and assistant police chief espousing extreme right-wing QAnon-flavored conspiracy theories, which of course means that now the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is in on the conspiracy.

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