18 People Indicted In Arizona Fake Electors Scheme

Posted on by David Kurtz

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

Just A Gobsmacking Amount Of Important News

Good lord what a two-day run of news we’re having. Today’s Morning Memo is going to focus on four things: Trump prosecutions, abortion, campus protests, and carbon emissions. A lot of other stuff happened, but we’ll get to that (maybe) in future MMs. Let’s dive in.

Hello, Arizona!

A sweeping state indictment in Trump’s 2020 fake electors scheme targets 11 (presumably all in-state) named defendants and seven as-yet-unnamed (and presumably all out-of-state) defendants who haven’t yet been served.

The case was investigated and is being brought by Attorney General Kris Mayes (D).

The Defendants

The 11 named defendants are:

  • Kelli Ward, former chair of the Arizona Republican Party and Trump fake elector
  • Michael Ward, Kelli Ward’s husband and Trump fake elector
  • Tyler Bowyer, Trump fake elector
  • Jacob Hoffman, Trump fake elector
  • Anthony Kern, Trump fake elector
  • James Lamon, Trump fake elector
  • Greg Safsten, former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party and Trump fake elector
  • Nancy Cottle, Trump fake elector
  • Loraine Pellegrino, Trump fake elector
  • Robert Montgomery, Trump fake elector
  • Samuel Moorhead, Trump fake elector

The seven redacted defendants, based on context and outside reporting, appear to be:

  • Mark Meadows
  • Rudy Giuliani
  • John Eastman
  • Boris Epshteyn
  • Christina Bobb
  • Jenna Ellis
  • Mike Roman

The Epshteyn indictment is a big deal given his central role in organizing Trump’s criminal defense team in the numerous cases against him. Bobb is a highly ironic defendant to have in an election interference case since she was just named the RNC’s new “election integrity” chief.

The Charges

  • Count 1: Conspiracy
  • Counts 2-3: Fraud
  • Counts 4-9: Forgery

Because the names of some of the defendants remain redacted in the indictment, it’s not entirely clear if each defendant is charged with all nine counts, but it appears that way based on the formatting of the redactions.

Among the unindicted conspirators in the case: Trump himself, Kenneth Chesebro, state Sen. Kelly Townsend, former state Rep. Mark Finchem, and former Arizona GOP lawyer Jack Wilenchik.

Trump Is An Unindicted Co-Conspirator In AZ And MI

What a twofer. On the same day Trump emerged as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Arizona fake electors indictment, an investigator in Michigan testified in open court that Trump is also an unindicted co-conspirator in that state’s fake electors scheme, along with Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani.

This Shouldn’t Be A Close Call At SCOTUS

The Supreme Court hears oral arguments at 10 a.m. ET today on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from prosecution.

TPM’s Kate Riga will be live blogging the oral arguments here.

You’ll hear lots today about this being a momentous and historic case, but it really didn’t need to be. The Supreme Court could have kept this narrow and discrete, but by agreeing to take the case it’s looks to be on track to turn this into a more complicated matter than it needs to be. That’s by choice, their choice.

Trump will not be in attendance at the Supreme Court because he must attend his ongoing criminal trial in New York City.

Dueling Live Blogs At TPM!

The Trump criminal trial in the Manhattan hush money case continues this morning, with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker back on the stand.

TPM’s Josh Kovensky will be at the courthouse live blogging the trial here.

One additional note: Judge Juan Merchan has not yet issued a ruling on whether Trump has violated the gag order imposed on him in the case. I expected the ruling yesterday and it’d be a little surprising if we don’t get it today.

Trump Was A Walking Classified Info Disaster

Important new reporting from ABC News on how Trump’s mishandling of and casual attitude toward classified information well pre-dated his absconding to Mar-a-Lago post-presidency with a trove of classified documents:

In interviews with investigators last year, former aides and national security officials who were close to Trump in the White House described a president who could erupt in anger when presented with intelligence he didn’t want to hear, who routinely reviewed and stored classified information in unsecured locations, and who had what some former officials described as “a cavalier attitude” toward the damage that could be done by its disclosure, according to sources.

Worth a read, both in the context of the Mar-a-Lago case and of Trump’s possible return to the Oval Office.

I Can’t Emphasis Enough How Bad SCOTUS Was Yesterday

The oral arguments over Idaho’s abortion ban and whether it trumps federal law that requires hospitals to give pregnant patients emergency medical case may have marked a new low for this court.

It was so bad that even Justice Amy Coney Barrett said she was “shocked” by the position Idaho was taking. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar (ironically, a former Miss Idaho) is as cool and collected a Supreme Court advocate as has ever argued there, but even she seemed genuinely dismayed by the lengths the conservative justices were willing to go to ignore settled law.

To catch up:

  • TPM’s live blog of the oral arguments
  • Kate Riga: Conservatives Weave Anti-Abortion Fantasyland To Allow Emergency Room Abortion Bans
  • Esther Choo: I’m an E.R. doc. Idaho’s argument to SCOTUS reveals an ignorance of what I do.
  • Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern: The Lawyer Defending Idaho’s Abortion Ban Irritated the One Justice He Needed on His Side

Arizona House Votes To Repeal Civil War-Era Abortion Ban

The third time was the charm. The Arizona House voted to repeal the newly revived Civil War-era abortion ban after three Republicans crossed the aisle and joined with all Democrats to push it over the finish line. (In retaliation for crossing the aisle, one of the Republicans was stripped of his committee assignment.) Two previous repeal efforts had been blocked by state House Republicans. The state Senate is expected to take up the repeal bill next week.

For The Right Wing, Campus Protests Are The New BLM

This week may end up marking the moment when Republicans and the far-right hijacked the campus protest movement and tried to turn it into the same bogeyman they made of Black Lives Matters protests in 2020.

Radical lefties needing to be taken down by force plays to the right’s pre-existing authoritarian tendencies, and is a handy election-year cudgel for Republicans. That’s an explosive combination that has little or nothing to do directly with Israel, Palestine, or the new wave of antisemitism in America.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s exploitive visit to Columbia University yesterday was one indication. Johnson echoed Republican senators who are clamoring for the National Guard to be dispatched Kent State-style to break up the protests at the Ivy league school. Another was Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) crowing about sending in the state police to the University of Texas campus in Austin to remove pro-Palestinian protestors. Nearly three dozen arrests were made there.

The complexities of U.S. policy toward Israel, Israel’s own internal politics, the plight of the Palestinians, and the tit-for-tat violence in the Middle East will be totally drowned out if right-wingers co-opt the issue for themselves as a pre-text for state violence.

Also Really Important!

The Biden administration is unveiling new regulations today to dramatically limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. “Taken together, the regulations could deliver a death blow in the United States to coal, the fuel that powered the country for much of the last century but has caused global environmental damage,” the NYT reports.

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Chef’s Kiss

Posted on by Josh Marshall

There’s going to be a lot to talk about tomorrow with these new fake electors indictments out of Arizona. In fact, there’s so much happening in the news at the moment it’s a bit hard to keep your head straight. But I wanted to note just one exquisite point. One of the indictees is Christina Bobb, OANN talking head turned Trump lawyer, who just last month was appointed as the new head of the RNC’s “election integrity” chief. So yes, the GOP’s head of election integrity has now been charged with election subversion and election fraud. So we’re off to a strong start.

George Santos Decides Suing Jimmy Kimmel Is Better Way To Get Attention Than Running For Congress

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

When expelled-Rep. George Santos’ (R-NY) campaign committee reported no fundraising and no expenditures in March, the former congressman — who had launched a new, long shot bid for the First Congressional District in New York — offered up a very Santosian excuse for why exactly his campaign was broke: he didn’t want people to think that he, a notorious fabulist and admitted liar, was scamming everyone again.

“I will not be raising a single dime until I’m confirmed on the ballot, unlike many in the media speculating I’m only running to ‘grift’ I’m setting the standard that only confirmed ballot access candidates should raise money,” Santos told The Daily Beast at the time.

At the start of last month, Santos sought to piggyback on Biden’s fiery State of the Union speech by announcing his plans to run as an Independent against his former colleague and lingering foe Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY).

The bid was largely viewed as a frivolous ploy for attention after the ex-congressman lost his political relevance and was hit with 23 federal counts for allegations including fraud. And even though he had spoken previously about his personal dislike of LaLota, he claimed to the Daily Beast that the only reason he was running in a new district, further from New York City, was so that he and his “husband” could have chickens in their yard. (I put husband in quotes because Santos used the late-Sen. Diane Feinstein’s (D-CA) death to soft launch a relationship that he had never previously mentioned.) Per the Beast:

“My husband and I both enjoy that kind of life. We’re dying to have a chicken coop and stuff like that, and in Suffolk County, it’s much easier to get that,” Santos told The Daily Beast earlier this month. “In Nassau County, it’s full of restrictions on where and how much, and can you get chickens and can you get roosters because of neighbors and noise and that stuff.”

But whether he was running against LaLota as payback for his expulsion from Congress or to enter a new farmstead era with his alleged husband, his candidacy clearly wasn’t garnering the headlines he was hoping for. Santos announced Tuesday that he is no longer running for Congress.

“It’s only goodbye for now, I’ll be back,” he announced on Twitter. His motivation for dropping the charade was simple: “I don’t want to split the ticket and be responsible for handing the house to Dems.”

In his tweet Santos went on to explain that “with the rise of antisemitism in our country” he didn’t want to be responsible for handing the House back to Democrats who, he claims, “have a very large issue with antisemitism in their ranks.”

(This is of course all coming from someone who lied about being Jewish and having family members murdered in the Holocaust, only to backtrack when he got caught lying to claim he meant he was “Jew-ish.”)

But the grifter’s true motivation for dropping out of the race may be as simple as the fact that he is more focused on his other ploy for attention. After Santos was expelled from Congress he created a Cameo account to earn a few extra bucks. It was a lucrative move for the former congressman — the account quickly attracted trolls far and wide, including late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who ordered up some Cameos which he then aired on his show. Santos is now suing Kimmel, ABC and Walt Disney, accusing Kimmel of fraud and copyright infringement for allegedly tricking Santos into making the videos, and using them in a way that he was not permitted to — as part of a segment on his show called, “Will Santos Say It?” Santos filed the suit in Manhattan federal court in February and is seeking $150,000 in statutory damages per video.

Kimmel, for his part, has mostly laughed off the suit. Before Santos filed suit in December, Kimmel mocked his threats on his show.

“Could you imagine if I get sued by George Santos for fraud? I mean, how good would that be? It would be like a dream come true,” he said.

The Best Of TPM Today

Catch up on Kate Riga live coverage of of today’s SCOTUS oral arguments here: Case Highlighting The Cruelty Of Anti-Abortion Regimes Hits The Supreme Court

And takeaways here: Conservatives Weave Anti-Abortion Fantasyland To Allow Emergency Room Abortion Bans

Yesterday’s Most Read Story

Former Tabloid Exec David Pecker Back On Stand After Trump Contempt Hearing — Josh Kovensky

What We Are Reading

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to let Arizona doctors provide abortions in California — Seattle Pi

New York governor to Mike Johnson: Stay in Washington — Politico

Former Republican mayoral candidate gets 10 days in prison in Jan. 6 case — NBC News

Conservatives Weave Anti-Abortion Fantasyland To Allow Emergency Room Abortion Bans

Posted on by Kate Riga

Prolapsed umbilical cord. Septic shock. Ruptured amniotic sac. Hysterectomy. 

These, the gruesome reality of pregnancy loss, are not words we often hear during Supreme Court oral arguments, buttoned-up proceedings where the justices prefer theory and abstraction to blood and organs. 

On Wednesday, the right-wing justices really preferred the safe world of legal abstraction, where they could pretend that Idaho’s abortion ban — which only has an exception to save the woman’s life — won’t inevitably leave women to gruesome suffering. 

The Court’s conservative wing tried with increasing and atextual persistence to convince listeners that Idaho’s strict ban still allows emergency room doctors to provide abortions to women in varying states of medical distress, and not just when doctors are sure the patient is facing death. They crafted a kind of anti-abortion fantasyland where not only do exceptions work, but that the narrowest ones will amenably stretch to cover all the sympathetic cases. 

Continue reading “Conservatives Weave Anti-Abortion Fantasyland To Allow Emergency Room Abortion Bans” →

Case Highlighting The Cruelty Of Anti-Abortion Regimes Hits The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a case centered on whether emergency room doctors can provide abortions to women who need them to avoid serious illness and permanent damage — or whether they have to withhold medical care until those women are nearly dead.

The case comes out of Idaho, where the Biden administration says that the state’s abortion ban — with only an exception to prevent the death of the woman — must be superseded by a federal statute requiring hospitals taking in Medicare funds to stabilize patients by whatever means necessary.

The Supreme Court already interceded unusually early to let the Idaho ban go into effect while the case is litigated (not a good sign for abortion rights).

A Poll Obsessive Gives You a Calm and Sober Read

Posted on by Josh Marshall

I routinely tell people not to look at every single poll but to focus on trends over time. That is, if you want to look at them at all. We’ll go into Election Day with the polls tight and the outcome still uncertain. I can say this because I actually watch them very, very closely … like unhealthily closely. It’s characterological. I don’t advise it for anyone else. But if you must, it’s okay, and I can relate.

This morning there’s a new batch of swing-state polls from Bloomberg/Morning Consult showing Trump ahead in all but one of those states and growing his lead versus the last of these polls a month ago. That’s not great at all. But as usual I would not invest too much weight in a single poll. These numbers are not in sync with other recent swing-state polls, though actually we have pretty few quality swing-state polls recently. But the overall trend over the last six or seven weeks still seems like what we’ve discussed in the last several posts on this topic. After several months of being behind by a small but real amount (2-4 percentage points), Biden has moved into roughly a tie.

Continue reading “A Poll Obsessive Gives You a Calm and Sober Read” →

Trump Lawyer Loses All Credibility With Trial Judge

Posted on by David Kurtz

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

Gag Order Ruling Could Come At Any Time

Judge Juan Merchan heard arguments Tuesday about whether Trump had or had not already violated the gag order against him in the case multiple times. He didn’t rule from the bench, but with no trial today, I’d be surprised if he didn’t issue his ruling before trial resumes tomorrow.

Merchan was unsparing in his criticisms of the arguments made by Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, at one point telling him: “You’re losing all credibility with the court.” (The jury was not present for this exchange.) Merchan gave no indication how he would rule or the punishment, if any, he would impose.

I have no sympathy for Blanche or the role he’s put himself in, but clearly his effort to channel Trump himself is antagonizing the judge. No surprise there, really. Trump is his own worst enemy, and he’s taking a scorched-earth approach to the trial that is eliciting little sympathy from anyone and foreclosing viable defenses that, while they wouldn’t necessarily lead to acquittal, might soften the blow of a conviction.

Trump is all in on demonizing the whole process, denigrating anyone associated with it, and delegitimizing the court itself. It’s an all-or-nothing approach that would drive most criminal defense attorneys mad.

As if to make the point, Trump arguably violated the gag order again in an appearance on local TV in Pennsylvania later in the day.

Stay tuned today for a possible ruling from Merchan.

No Trial Today

After two partial days of testimony, the hush-money trial stands in recess today. It will resume Thursday.

Because of Passover and a juror’s dental issue, we’ve had a halting start to the trial proper. Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker has only testified for a couple of hours so far.

Things ended yesterday with a bit of cliffhanger, as prosecutors had walked Pecker to the cusp of testifying about the Stormy Daniels story. Expect them to pick back up there tomorrow.

Trump And The Tabloid World He Came From

David Pecker’s testimony pulled back the curtain on the bizarro, self-aggrandizing world of Trump and the tabloid world from which he emerged. We knew all of this already, in a way, but it was striking to hear it straight from one of the principal operators in that seedy-but-lucrative publishing backwater:

  • WaPo: A secret pact at Trump Tower helped kill bad stories in 2016
  • Philip Bump: Ted Cruz spotted the Trump-National Enquirer alliance in 2016
  • WaPo: Trump’s long, strange history with the tabloids

Coverage Tips

For the dedicated obsessives, a few deep-dive links:

To its credit, the New York court system will be posting daily transcripts of the trial here (it looks like we’ll get those on the following day, not the same day, but beggars can’t be choosers).

Quote Of The Day

SCOTUS Takes Up Trump Immunity Claim Thursday

Ahead of tomorrow’s momentous Supreme Court oral arguments over Donald Trump’s strained claim of presidential immunity, Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann argue the high court has already botched the case.

Trump Executive Privilege Claims May See Light Of Day

Politico won an appeals court ruling ordering the unsealing of the court records in as many as five battles over executive privilege that Special Counsel Jack Smith fought to get high-level Trump White House officials to testify in his investigations of Trump.

Ukraine Aid Passes Senate

The Senate passed the foreign aid package that includes military assistance to Ukraine late Tuesday but not before Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) happily used the occasion of the bill’s imminent passage to slam Tucker Carlson:

Abortion Watch

  • The Supreme Court takes up another post-Dobbs abortion case today. The issue is whether a federal law requiring emergency abortions to protect pregnant patients in medical distress overrides Idaho’s abortion ban. TPM’s Kate Riga will be on our coverage.
  • Arizona Democratic legislators are expected to try today for a third time to repeal the state’s newly revived Civl War-era abortion ban.
  • President Biden ripped Trump on abortion in a Tampa speech:

2024 Ephemera

Who Is ‘We’ Exactly?

The Republican National Committee co-chair and daughter of its presumptive presidential nominee is just out there touting the Big Lie and threatening voters with prosecution:

Great Work, Tennessee

AP:

Protesters chanted “Blood on your hands” at Tennessee House Republicans on Tuesday after they passed a bill that would allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on public school grounds, and bar parents and other teachers from knowing who was armed.

Huge Legal And Business News

The Federal Trade Commission banned noncompete agreements for most employees in a remarkable 3-2 vote Tuesday.

In my brief legal career 20 years ago, I spent more time litigating noncompete agreements (on both sides) than on any other single area of law. It was a weird and rapidly evolving area of the law back then. Weird because noncompete agreements were generally disfavored at law as anti-competitive (duh!), but over time numerous exceptions had been carved out that left plenty of room both for trying to enforce them and trying to defend against their enforcement. Hence, lots of litigation.

My understanding is the new FTC rule still allows the kind of noncompetes I was typically dealing with: binding either top executives or former owners who had signed a noncompete as part of the sale of their business. Because of more equal bargaining power, those types of noncompetes are less objectionable from a public policy point of view.

The FTC targets noncompetes for employees, whose bargaining power is more limited and for whom the widespread and indiscriminate use of noncompete agreements does begin to have real anticompetitive effects in the labor market.

Have A Whimsical Day!

Kites fly during the 37th International Kite Festival (RICV), at the beach of Berck-sur-Mer, northern France, on April 23, 2024. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP) (Photo by SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images)

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