A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Why Didn’t Trump Go To SCOTUS?
Late last evening, President-elect Donald Trump made a final, half-hearted effort to block the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report. In a quick ruling, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied Trump’s request to extend her injunction blocking the report’s release.
After that, Trump did not seek further review from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court and thus Cannon’s injunction expired at midnight ET. Why Trump did not push the matter further, if for no other reason than to try to run out the clock as he has so many times before, is a curiosity for which I have no satisfying answer.
In the wee hours, the Justice Department turned over Volume I on the Jan. 6 case to Congress and then released it publicly. It contains no major revelations or surprises. That has been one of the surreal elements of the past week and a half of legal wrangling over the report’s release, and in a sense it’s a microcosm of the Trump era.
Extra and sometimes extreme effort is required to follow through with and maintain normal processes and procedures, in this case the release of a special counsel report. History shows they largely mirror the contours of the by-then-well-established cases as they played out in court and on appeal. They tend toward self-justification and rationalizing their existence, not blockbuster reveals. But the fight to release the report had the effect of raising the stakes of the report itself.
Volume II, on the Mar-a-Lago case, is not being released because for now the prosecution of Trump’s former codefendants continues. But that prosecution is likely to be corruptly deep-sixed by the Trump DOJ, and Volume II is at risk of never being released to the public.
One minor point on the overnight coverage, which largely focused on Smith’s assessment that he would have won a conviction of Trump had the case gone to trial. The coverage largely treated that assertion like Smith’s ultimate conclusion in the report rather than a predicate to seeking an indictment in the first place. Prosecutors aren’t supposed to bring cases they don’t think they can win.
Surveying The Wreckage
And so it is that the work of Jack Smith has now come to an end, with the most serious crimes a president has even been accused of remaining untried in a court of law. The constellation of factors that led to this point is well known. Among the most critical were the Roberts Court’s unprecedented decisions on the Disqualifications Clause and on presidential immunity combined with Trump’s historic re-election. The damage done to the rule of law, the constitutional structure, and the norms and traditions that gird democracy have been incalculable. The consequences of this miscarriage of justice and breakdown in the rule of law will be reverberating in unknowable and unforeseeable ways for decades.
None of that is Jack Smith’s fault. His prosecution of both cases against Trump were sharply and professionally handled. There were no obvious self-owns or major missteps. He seemed to anticipate correctly the challenges each case posed legally and prepared accordingly. What was within his power to control, he handled well. His office was sufficiently resourced, and some of the best and brightest minds that the Justice Department has to offer contributed to the prosecutions and the complex appellate work involved.
Smith and the members of his team now face years of uncertainty over the threats Trump has repeatedly levied at them and over whether they will be targeted by the incoming Trump administration. In his cover letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland accompanying the report, Smith devotes a few poignant lines to the personal toll those threats have taken on the members of his team and their families:
The intense public scrutiny of our Office, threats to their safety, and relentless unfounded attacks on their character and integrity did not deter them from fulfilling their oaths and professional obligations. These are intensely good people who did hard things well. I will not forget the sacrifices they made and the personal resilience they and their families have shown over the last two years. Our country owes them a debt of gratitude for their unwavering service and dedication to the rule of law.
As our democratic institutions are undermined, they provide less support and protection for the individuals who staff them. Smith and his team — like the prosecutors, investigators, and judges in all the Trump cases — have already paid a personal price no one should have to pay. The threats, the bullying, and the promises of retribution will linger for years. As Smith wrote to Garland:
While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters. I believe the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the personal costs matters. The facts, as we uncovered them in our investigation and as set forth in my Report, matter. Experienced prosecutors know that you cannot control outcomes, you can only do your job the right way for the right reasons.
Not everyone is up for the rigors of public service in this environment. They can hardly be blamed. But it makes the efforts of people like Smith and his team all the more commendable.
The Other Special Counsel Report
As the legal battle over the Jack Smith report trundled toward its conclusion, the Justice Department released Special Counsel David Weiss’ report on his prosecutions of Hunter Biden.
LIVE: Hegseth Confirmation Hearing
The first confirmation hearing of a Trump nominee gets underway at 9:30 a.m. ET with Pete Hegseth appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. TPM’s Kate Riga is in the hearing room and TPM will be liveblogging the proceedings.
To prep for the shitshow of Senate Republicans turning a blind eye to Hegseth’s lack of qualifications and of fitness to serve as defense secretary, a rundown of key new stories:
- Nashville Tennessean: Why Pete Hegseth nomination is a milestone for the rightwing Christian movement he follows
- The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer: The Pressure Campaign to Get Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Defense Secretary
- WaPo: FBI did not interview Hegseth accuser ahead of hearing, people familiar say
Headline Of The Day
WSJ: Zuckerberg Debuts ‘Real Mark’ in Push to Woo Trump
Los Angeles Fire Threat Still At Dangerous Levels
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