This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
Having negotiated “record contracts” with the Big Three – and seen the bulk of its rank-and-file members approve them – the United Auto Workers says its work isn’t done.
Continue reading “Next On The Docket: UAW Works To Persuade Rest Of US Auto Industry Workers To Join The Union”The judge overseeing Trump’s RICO prosecution in Georgia indicated during a marathon Friday hearing that he was unsure if the case could go to trial by August 2024, the time that state prosecutors have proposed. The judge did not seem to think the case could go to trial before August and expressed some concern about it happening on Election Day, suggesting it might get pushed to 2025 or beyond.
Continue reading “Judge In Georgia RICO Case Skeptical About A 2024 Trial Date”As members of the House of Representatives debated the expulsion of Rep. George Santos (R-NY) on Thursday, Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) stood and leveled a blockbuster allegation.
“I myself have been a victim of George Santos,” Miller declared, before turning to face Santos and adding, “You sir, are a crook.”
Miller elaborated on his claim in an email to colleagues shortly before the expulsion vote on Friday. TPM obtained a copy of the email, which was previously reported by Punchbowl. In it, Miller explained the “personal impact” Santos had on him.
“Earlier this year, I learned that the Santos campaign had charged my personal credit card — and the card of my Mother — for contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits. Neither my Mother nor I approved these charges or were aware of them,” Miller wrote.
Miller went on to claim he had “seen a list of roughly 400 other people to whom the Santos campaign allegedly did this.”
TPM published the first report in January on indications the Santos campaign improperly charged donors’ credit cards. In October, Santos was indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of credit card fraud and identity theft for an alleged “scheme” to bilk donors. Miller’s email is the first indication of the full scope of the alleged fraud.
In the wake of a damning Ethics Committee report detailing alleged misuse of campaign funds by Santos, the House voted to expel Santos on Friday, making him the first person in history to be removed from Congress without being convicted of a crime or being part of the Confederacy. According to Rep. David Joyce (R-OH), Miller’s email was the final straw that convinced some House members who had been concerned about the precedent of expelling a colleague without a criminal conviction to vote for Santos’ ouster.
When Miller first alluded to his accusation on Thursday, Santos angrily demanded that the comment be “stricken from the record.” His request was rejected as “not timely.” Santos, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story, blasted the remarks as “hypocrisy” in light of the fact that Miller has faced domestic violence allegations.
“We all have pasts,” Santos said.
Yesterday The New York Times published a major article about Hamas’ October 7th massacres in southern Israel. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, I’m going to provide a brief summary and then share a few thoughts on how to contextualize the news.
The gist is that Israel had a lot of intelligence about Hamas’ plans to mount an attack something like the one that occurred on October 7th. And in the last year, Israeli intelligence got ahold of plans for an attack pretty much exactly like the one that unfolded on October 7th. (The Israelis gave the plan, some forty pages in length, the code name “Jericho Wall.”) But mid-level and, in some cases, high-level intelligence and military leaders dismissed the intelligence, considering it either aspirational, something Hamas lacked the resources to accomplish or something that conflicted with its current strategy of seeking “quiet” to focus on effective governance within Gaza.
Continue reading “About that Big Israeli Intel Story in the Times”An appellate court unanimously found on Friday that Donald Trump can face civil lawsuits over claims that he incited violence on Jan. 6, allowing cases to go forward while permitting Trump to re-raise immunity defenses down the line.
Continue reading “Trump Can Be Sued Over Jan. 6 For Now, Appeals Court Says”Rep. George Santos’ (R-NY) short, but, by any measure, extraordinary political career crashed to its ignominious end Friday as he was expelled from Congress by over a third of his own conference.
Continue reading “George Santos Becomes Sixth House Member Ever To Be Expelled From Congress”A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Quite a sequence of events yesterday in the NY civil fraud trial of Trump:
Trump earlier on Thursday disseminated social media posts falsely attributed to the wife of New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, based on blog posts by far-right influencer and known conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer. The ex-InfoWars contributor screenshot social media posts from a since-shuttered account with the name “Dawn Marie” on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Loomer presented no evidence that the account belonged to Engoron’s wife, who denied it was hers — and told Newsweek that she never had an account on that social media platform. New York’s court system officially corroborated that on Thursday.
While posting false attacks on the NY judge’s wife, Trump also found time to repost this call for the Capitol Police attacked on Jan. 6 to be charged criminally:
A series of related updates on the state-level fake electors criminal investigations:
In hearings this morning at 10:30 ET and this afternoon at 1:30 ET, the trial judge in the Georgia RICO will hear arguments on substantive pre-trial motions.
A strong, across-the-board analysis by Ilya Somin of the legal, political and democratic values underlying the 14th Amendment’s Disqualification Clause:
Ultimately, barring some types of dangerous people from public office is a useful tool for protecting both democracy and other liberal values. It is far from the only such tool; others include judicial review and separation of powers. But disqualification is valuable in cases where there may be no other way to prevent dangerous authoritarians from reaching positions of power.
A floor vote is expected this morning on whether to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY) from the House. Democrats are lined up to vote to expel him, but it’s harder to get a read on where the House GOP stands.
Notably, the House GOP leadership is not whipping its members on this and is barely taking a public position on how it will vote. A few days ago, expulsion seemed like a sure thing. I think it remains more likely than not, but a lot more doubt about it exists now.
TPM’s Kate Riga filed this dispatch from a surreal Santos press conference early yesterday morning.
We’ll keep you posted today.
Like Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) lists no checking or savings accounts on his financial disclosure form, prompting NewsChannel 5 in Nashville to ask where he obtained the $320,000 he told the FEC that he loaned to his 2022 campaign.
The Senate Judiciary Committee finally authorized subpoenas for Clarence Thomas whisperers Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow, but not before Republican members of the committee threw every procedural monkey wrench into the works. For his part, Leo says he will not comply with any forthcoming subpoena.
It was a made-for-Fox News debate hosted by Sean Hannity between two polar-opposite governors so it’s really not worth spending too much time thinking about it. But DeSantis is truly a peculiar character whose peculiarities were heightened, isolated, and thrust into the limelight under Newsom’s relentless attack, so you might enjoy watching a bit of it:
I’m going to let Nicole Lafond catch you up on this but let me tease the details a little bit: Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler accused of rape by a woman in a throuple with him and his wife Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder of the extremist pro-Trump group Moms for Liberty. Yeah.
NYT: Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago
Josh Marshall: Why Did So Many People Hate Henry Kissinger So Much?
I can’t stop watching the interview that Elon Musk gave to “Jonathan” Ross Sorkin:
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It’s hard to know where to start with this. But here goes.
Christian Ziegler is the chairman of the Florida Republican party. His wife Bridget is a member of the Sarasota County School Board and cofounder of Moms for Liberty. Today Trident News revealed that Christian Ziegler is currently under criminal investigation after a woman accused him of raping her. The woman filed a complaint with the Sarasota Police Department on October 4th; the alleged rape took place on October 2nd.
The story gets significantly more complicated.
According to the woman’s complaint she was involved in a consensual three-way sexual relationship with Christian and Bridget Ziegler. Christian Ziegler recorded videos of the threesome having sex together. Sources told Trident that police have done a forensic examination of Christian Ziegler’s phone, possibly looking for evidence of those videos.
Continue reading “Florida GOP Power Couple hit With Allegations of Rape, Three-Way Lifestyle”There’s a lot going on here, so bear with me.
Continue reading “Florida GOP Chair/Husband Of Moms For Liberty Co-Founder Accused Of Sexual Assault By Couple’s Third”A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss the ascendant Nikki Haley, the war on the administrative state and Hunter Biden’s journey towards Congress as George Santos is on his way out.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
