The Insurrectionists Still 100% Control The House

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.

Showing Exactly Who He Is

This is as remarkable a window into the House GOP as anything we’ve seen since Jan. 6, 2021.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), eager to release more Jan. 6 surveillance footage as fodder for right-wing revisionism, says it will take some time because they need to blur the faces of people caught on the videos … to prevent the Justice Department from prosecuting them:

The reaction was swift and fierce:

One point worth adding here: The FBI has had access to the Jan. 6 surveillance footage for years now, so Johnson’s reasoning is as flawed as it is dangerous.

Now It’s Getting Good

Since the indictment of Donald Trump last August for trying to overturn the 2020 election, Special Counsel Jack Smith hasn’t offered much publicly to advance the underlying narrative. But that changed yesterday with a new filing that vividly describes how prosecutors want to frame up their case against Trump for jurors.

In a filing that the rules require, Smith revealed other bad acts and conduct that he intends to introduce against Trump at trial. What emerges is a compelling argument that Trump’s own anti-democratic statements and conduct began years before the 2020 election and continued well after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. But it goes even further than that.

I’m going to cheat and just share the subheads that Smith used in the filing because they elegantly show the framing of the case:

  1. Historical Evidence of the Defendant’s Consistent Plan of Baselessly Claiming Election Fraud
  2. Historical Evidence of the Defendant’s Common Plan to Refuse to Commit to a Peaceful Transition of Power
  3. Evidence of the Defendant and Co-Conspirators’ Knowledge of the Unfavorable Election Results and Motive and Intent to Subvert Them
  4. Pre- and Post-Conspiracy Evidence That the Defendant and Co-Conspirators Suppressed Proof Their Fraud Claims Were False and Retaliated Against Officials Who Undermined Their Criminal Plans
  5. Pre- and Post-Conspiracy Evidence of the Defendant’s Public Attacks on Individuals, Encouragement of Violence, and Knowledge of the Foreseeable Consequences

The filing is only nine pages long, but it’s chockablock with specific instances and examples that show the contours of the prosecution’s case against Trump. I’d urge you to read it.

A Small Point Of Pride

I remain immensely proud of this piece by then-TPMers Tierney Sneed and Matt Shuham from late January 2021 in which they made a heroic effort to place the Jan. 6 attack in the broader context of the vast, months-long effort to subvert the election: The Capitol Mob Was Only The Finale Of Trump’s Conspiracy To Overturn The Election.

I mention it now because that piece led with a description of the disturbance caused by pro-Trump supporters trying to stop the counting of votes at the TCF Center in Detroit shortly after Election Day 2022 – and in yesterday’s filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith he revealed new information about the origins of that near-riot to block the ballot counting.

In a partially redacted section of the filing, Smith states (emphasis mine):

The Government also plans to introduce evidence of an effort undertaken by an agent (and unindicted co-conspirator) of the defendant who worked for his campaign (“the Campaign Employee”) to, immediately following the election, obstruct the vote count. On November 4, 2020, the Campaign Employee exchanged a series of text messages with an attorney supporting the Campaign’s election day operations at the TCF Center in Detroit, where votes were being counted; in the messages, the Campaign Employee encouraged rioting and other methods of obstruction when he learned that the vote count was trending in favor of the defendant’s opponent.

That’s a remarkable revelation. If only we’d known it then! It’s not clear who the “Campaign Employee” is or whether this is a new co-conspirator or one of the unnamed co-conspirators in the indictment.

It’s Coming …

At what point do prosecutors and investigators start gathering evidence for the open, blatant, transparent Trumpian plan to abuse the powers of government to retaliate against his perceived enemies?

Take a listen to this appalling brag from former Trump Pentagon apparatchik Kash Patel:

The fact that this is so far outside the CIA’s lane is just icing on the cake of underlying wrongness and bad faith.

Lest you be tempted to dismiss comments like these as the florid paeans of sycophants, here’s another new warning about Trump from his own former secretary of defense:

Oh, Well, Then …

Trump: I won’t be a dictator ‘except for day one’

Buck Up! Don’t Despair!

Greg Sargent:

It’s sometimes said that our institutions and civic culture have withered so much that resistance to Trumpian tyranny would be incapacitated, rendering its onset all but inevitable.

Such a reading of the moment risks leading us astray. It fails to account for much of the good that transpired during the Trump years, from which there is plenty to learn. Undue fatalism could even prove counterproductive, de-energizing voter opposition exactly when Trump is brazenly projecting his dictatorial intentions.

Colorado High Court Hears DQ Clause Case

Oral arguments today in the 14th Amendment Disqualification Clause case to keep Trump off the Colorado ballot. It’s not clear yet, but this could be the case that the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately weighs in on.

Judge Irked By Rudy’s No-Show For Hearing

With his defamation trial looming next week, Rudy Giuliani annoyed U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell by not showing up for a pre-trial hearing yesterday. By her order, parties were to supposed to attend the hearing in person. It would have been the first time Giuliani would have faced Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in person.

Ukraine Aid Is In Real Trouble

It’s hard to overstate how insane it is that Ukraine aid has been successfully held hostage by Republicans, with the ransom demand being an array of aggressive new U.S. border policies. And it’s not just crazies in the House. This short thread by PBS NewsHour correspondent Lisa Desjardins nicely captures the Senate Republican pathology:

Antisemitic NYC Attack Yields Hate Crime Charges

A NYC man was charged with hate crimes after allegedly stalking and harassing Israeli tourists in Times Square before punching one of them in the head. The man was allegedly taunting:

  • “Hamas should kill more of you.”
  • “May Allah kill you.”
  • “May Allah kill all the Jews.”
  • “All Jews should die.”
  • “I will die for Gaza.”

2024 Ephemera

  • President Biden, on his re-election campaign: “If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running.”
  • LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, the billionaire Democratic donor, gave $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Nikki Haley.
  • Special election to fill the seat of ex-Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is set for Feb. 13, 2024.

How Far Will The Conservative Supreme Court Go?

Another bellwether case before the Supreme Court yesterday that will test how far the supermajority of Republican appointees will go in validating obscure conservative pet legal theories.

A Proper Tribute To Sandra Day O’Connor

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Moms For Liberty Weighs In On Florida GOP Threesome-ing Power Couple Rape Allegation

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

By now you likely know the bizarre and disturbing details of the sexual assault allegations against Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler, as well as the salaciously convoluted relationship between him, his wife Bridget Ziegler and the couple’s threesome partner.

If not, I wrote about the initial reports here and my colleague Josh Marshall provides a detailed update here.

Continue reading “Moms For Liberty Weighs In On Florida GOP Threesome-ing Power Couple Rape Allegation” →

Prosecutors Accuse Trump of Wide-Ranging Efforts Pre And Post-2020 To ‘Encourage’ Violence and Lies

Posted on by Josh Kovensky

It was one day after the 2020 election, and vote-counting in multiple key swing states was starting to speed up. The results weren’t looking good for Trump.

Continue reading “Prosecutors Accuse Trump of Wide-Ranging Efforts Pre And Post-2020 To ‘Encourage’ Violence and Lies” →

Approaching the Day After

Posted on by Josh Marshall

With the Israeli army surrounding the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza strip and the Israel-Hamas war assuming a grim regularity, I wanted to note a few developments which give perhaps a glimpse of how this all ends and what comes after. To frame the question, I want to flag to your attention this article by Hussein Ibish in The Atlantic. It’s one of the most clear-eyed discussions of the war and its aftermath I’ve seen over the last two months. Ibish’s central argument is that the war certainly won’t end with any kind of final defeat of Hamas or its destruction as an organization. This is an impossible standard since under almost any scenario at least some remnant of the group will emerge from its tunnels at the end of the war and declare victory on its own terms for having survived. But, as Ibish argues, that will be a hollow and pyrrhic victory … unless Israel decides to remain in Gaza with the goal of permanently or indefinitely delaying that hollow declaration of victory. In that scenario either Hamas, or some future reconstituted version of itself, really will have managed a major victory, placing itself at the head of the Palestinian national movement in a permanent state of war with Israel.

Continue reading “Approaching the Day After” →

Gorsuch Warns Congress Is Coming For Your Savings In Totally Real, Not Made Up Threat

Posted on by Kate Riga

To take Justice Neil Gorsuch at his word, the Supreme Court’s consideration of Moore v. United States Tuesday was littered with landmines and replete with the threat of an avaricious Congress targeting regular people’s savings as a tax windfall. 

Continue reading “Gorsuch Warns Congress Is Coming For Your Savings In Totally Real, Not Made Up Threat” →

Trump Serves Up Grossest Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theories To Get Himself Off The Hook

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.

Speaking In Code

A keen-eyed story from the WaPo observing that some of the fringiest conspiracy theories about what happened on Jan. 6 have made it into Trump’s legal filings in his federal prosecution in DC.

Trump has been trying to rattle the cage of prosecutors (and amp up his supporters) by seeking discovery on some of the most bogus and debunked conspiracy theories around Jan. 6 — and by baselessly suggesting the government is hiding information.

Among the things Trump has sought to amplify via his legal filings:

  • Rioters nicknamed by conspiracy theorists as “Fence Cutter Bulwark” and “Scaffold Commander” whom they claim are government instigators of the Capitol attack.
  • Ray Epps, the Trump supporter falsely accused by conspiracists of being an undercover operative, who has pleaded guilty to a Jan. 6 related crime.
  • Antifa and “informants, cooperators [and] undercover agents … involved in the assistance, planning, or encouragement” of the events of that day.

Worth a read.

Jury Selection Underway in Trump Jan. 6 Trial?

NBC News has obtained what appears to be “pre-screening” form for potential jurors in the Jan. 6 election interference trial in DC.

What matches up? The form seeks information about potential jurors’ availability to appear Feb. 9 to complete a written questionnaire for a trial set to start March 4 and last three months (not including jury selection).

Additional Reading

Dennis Aftergut on Trump’s two immunity defeats, with a focus on Judge Chutkan’s “artful” ruling.

If Trump Wins

The Atlantic devotes an entire issue to what a second Trump term would look like. A sampling:

  • Franklin Foer: Donald Trump and his cronies left his first administration with a playbook for self-enrichment in a second term.
  • McKay Coppins: In a second Trump term, there would be no adults in the room.
  • Adam Serwer: In a second term, Donald Trump would appoint more judges who don’t care about the law.

The NYT, Too

The latest installment from the NYT in its loose series on a Trump second term: Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First

Counterpoint: Marcy Wheeler continues to bang on the NYT for not fully grasping how the first Trump impeachment, Ukraine and the bogus Biden impeachment are all connected. More on that from me below.

Why Liz Cheney Is Important

She’s not the most articulate Trump critic, she doesn’t come with the least baggage, and she no longer holds elected office or much sway in official GOP circles, but former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and people like her could serve as an important bridge for conservatives looking to re-enter normal, consensus-based, majority-rule politics. That’s an important function – creating and serving as a form of permission structure – for eventually bringing wayward conservatives back into the fold. I admit that “eventually” is doing a lot of work there.

Trump Gag Order In NY Trial Not Going Away

Donald Trump missed a deadline for expedited review of the gag order imposed in the New York civil fraud trial, meaning it will likely remain in place through the remainder of the trial.

Bogus Biden Impeachment Is Back On

The House GOP is gearing up its bogus Biden impeachment just in time for the 2024 campaign season. The timing is no accident of course. Here’s the latest:

It’s All Connected

The Biden impeachment is a direct result of the Trump effort to manufacture dirt on the Bidens in Ukraine even if it meant extorting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which of course led to the first Trump impeachment.

The impact has been an especially egregious setback for Ukraine, which lost or at least saw serious erosion of the bipartisan support in the U.S. for its defense. The fact that Ukraine funding is now being held hostage to performative border security agita by House Republicans is just the latest manifestation of the GOP’s anti-Ukraine/pro-Russian bent, which really got kicked off by Trump’s July 2019 “perfect call” with Zelensky.

2024 Ephemera

  • Four candidates have qualified for Wednesday night’s GOP presidential primary debate in Tuscaloosa (which Donald Trump is again skipping): Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
  • WSJ: “With President Biden struggling to bring his polling numbers up, he and his fellow Democrats are sharpening their focus on a different task—pushing former President Donald Trump’s numbers down.”
  • North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) suspends his long-shot presidential campaign.

U.S. Ambassador Was Allegedly A Covert Agent For Cuba

Initial reporting that a former U.S. ambassador was charged with secretly acting as an agent of Cuba sounded like another run-of-the-mill lobbying-without-registering FARA case.

It IS a FARA case, but it’s hardly run of the mill, and doesn’t really involve lobbying.

The charging document unveiled Monday is much more in the vein of a classic counterintelligence investigation, alleging that former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia Manuel Rocha has served as a covert agent of Cuba’s intelligence services since 1981.

How he got caught and the self-ownage involved is a story in its own right, as TPM’s Hunter Walker reports.

Sign O’ The Times

Expelled Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is now on Cameo, and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) saw an opportunity to troll indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ):

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Did Hamas Short the Israeli Economy?

Posted on by Josh Marshall

This is a fascinating story amidst the general tragedy and bleak carnage of the last two months. Two scholars analyzed trading in the days just before the October 7th massacres in southern Israel and put together a pretty strong case that someone essentially shorted the Israeli economy based on foreknowledge of the attacks. Specifically, they tracked short selling of an exchange traded fund, which gave investors broad exposure to the Israeli economy.

Continue reading “Did Hamas Short the Israeli Economy?” →

House GOPer Moves To Cut Off Pension Benefits For Ousted Members

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

Times are tough.

Today we learned that expelled-Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is using the website Cameo to sell videos for cash now that he no longer has a congressional salary and has been accused of, among many other things, misappropriating campaign funds to bankroll his expensive taste.

Continue reading “House GOPer Moves To Cut Off Pension Benefits For Ousted Members” →

Court Documents Describe Shocking Sting That Led A Former U.S. Ambassador To Be Accused Of Spying For Cuba

Posted on by Hunter Walker

Manuel Rocha, the former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia was, in his own words, “pissed.” It was June 23, 2023, and he was in a Miami food court meeting with a man named “Miguel” whom he believed was working with Cuba’s Directorate of Intelligence.

“The Dirección wants to ensure that you are still a Compañero of ours,” Miguel asked, using the Spanish name for the Cuban intelligence agency. “Are you still with us?” 

The question set Rocha off..

“I am angry,” he said. “It’s like questioning my manhood … It’s like you want me to drop them … and show you if I still have testicles.”

An indignant Rocha then proceeded to outline his bona fides as a Cuban agent to Miguel.

What Rocha did not know was that Miguel was in fact an undercover FBI employee.

The tense scene was outlined by an FBI special agent in a criminal complaint wherein Rocha was charged with having “acted for decades as a covert agent” of Cuban intelligence. Based on the court document, Rocha was providing Havana with information — and misleading his State Department colleagues — as he rose through the diplomatic ranks including serving on the White House national security council. 

Rocha was hit with multiple federal charges on Dec.1 including acting as an agent of a foreign government. The criminal complaint accuses him of working with Havana from the very beginning of his State Department career and describes the series of cloak and dagger meetings where the alleged betrayal unraveled. 

According to an archived biography on the State Department website, Rocha joined the agency in 1981 and worked in Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, and Havana. He worked on the NSC between 1991 and 1994 as Director for Inter-American Affairs where his purview included issues involving Cuba. 

Rocha became the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia in 2000 and remained in this capacity until he left the State Department in 2002. Following his departure from State, Rocha worked as a special advisor to the U.S. military commander of SOUTHCOM and held multiple high profile jobs in the private sector. 

The criminal complaint says the FBI became aware of Rocha’s work as an agent of Cuba’s intelligence agency “prior to November 2022.” That month, an undercover agent messaged Rocha on Whatsapp.

“Good Afternoon ambassador, my name is Miguel and I have a message for you from your friends in Havana. It is in regards to a sensitive matter. Are you available for a telephone call?” the undercover agent wrote. 

“I don’t understand but you can call me,” Rocha replied.

The pair set up a phone call where Miguel told Rocha they were “ordered … to make contact with you to give you a message.”

“I know that you have been a great friend of ours since your time in Chile,” said Miguel.

According to the complaint, Rocha subsequently set up three meetings with Miguel including the June 2023 conversation at the food court. En route to each of those conversations, the FBI observed Rocha using tactics that the criminal complaint described as “consistent” with Cuban intelligence “tradecraft” including taking an “indirect” route and watching the meeting location  “for several minutes … from a safe distance.”

Despite Rocha’s precautionary measures, according to the complaint, when he sat down with Miguel, the former ambassador “repeatedly described and celebrated his activity as a DGI agent.” The FBI taped and filmed these encounters and translated them from Spanish to English. 

During the conversations, Rocha allegedly asked Miguel to send “my warmest regards to the Dirección” and boasted of the loyalty to Cuba’s revolutionary communist government that he felt while working in the State Department. 

“My number one concern, my number one priority was … any action on the part of Washington that would … endanger the life of … the leadership … or the revolution itself,” Rocha said. 

Rocha also allegedly described how Cuban intelligence worked with him throughout his diplomatic career.

“I went little by little,” Rocha explained. “lt was a very meticulous process … obviously the Dirección accompanied me.”

Having a high-level diplomat working as a double agent would have been an immense coup for Cuba, which has had a contentious relationship with America for decades. During his conversations with Miguel, Rocha allegedly touted the importance of his subterfuge.

“What we have done … it’s enormous … more than a grand slam,” Rocha said. 

The criminal complaint provides some hint of what led Rocha to let his guard down with the undercover agent. Along with learning about Rocha’s alleged involvement with Cuban intelligence, U.S. law enforcement seems to have found out specific signals he used with his handlers. In comments quoted in the document, Rocha indicated that he had been expecting someone named Miguel and that it was significant for this person to have referenced “Chile” when they reached out to him.

“They must have told you something because you mentioned Chile. … That … inspired trust in me,” Rocha said. 

During his meetings with Miguel, the criminal complaint said Rocha also used a Colombian peso note as a signal. Along with describing his past work with Cuban intelligence — which included meetings in Havana — Rocha also allegedly expressed his desire to remain helpful. The charges against Rocha include some related to false statements he allegedly made to obtain a passport he used for some of his travel to Cuba. According to the Washington Post, Rocha faces up to 10 years in prison.

Following his lengthy diplomatic career, Rocha held multiple positions in the private sector including serving on the board of a cannabis business and working as a vice president at a coal company. On his Linkedin page, Rocha also described himself as a “senior international business adviser” at Foley & Lardner, a prominent white shoe law firm.

Rocha, who had an initial court appearance on Monday and did not enter a plea, could not be reached for comment. A phone number associated with Rocha in public records databases led to Foley & Lardner and an automated recording: 

“Manuel Rocha is no longer with the firm.” 

Inside the Tunnels

Posted on by Josh Marshall

I’ve mentioned a few times over the last eight weeks that one of the key challenges in reporting on or making sense of events in Gaza right now is that at the most basic level we don’t know what is happening in the military engagement or even precisely what the aims are. According to the latest reports, some 15,800 residents of Gaza have died in the fighting over the last two months, just a staggering number. Some percentage of those are Hamas combatants. The Gazan health ministry doesn’t disagree. But the great majority are civilians. (The Gaza health ministry is run by Hamas but in previous conflicts there numbers have proven generally accurate.) At the same time Israel has estimated that it has killed some two or three thousand Hamas fighters, just a tiny percentage of a fighting force reputed to total 30,000 or more.

Continue reading “Inside the Tunnels” →