Long-vexed advocates cheered when Senate Judiciary Democrats finally stepped up their efforts to target corruption at the Supreme Court, setting aside their favored strongly worded letters and fist-shaking floor speeches for subpoenas.
But the plan to authorize those subpoenas, unveiled on Oct. 30, has yet to come to fruition with yet another vote planned for Thursday canceled at the last minute.
“Markup was canceled due to CR votes and wrap up happening last night,” a Judiciary Committee spokesperson told TPM, referring to the continuing resolution to temporarily keep the government funded.
The House Ethics Committee unanimously found “substantial evidence” that Rep. George Santos (R-NY) committed federal crimes, it said in a Thursday report which portrayed the congressman as a “fabulist” and “high roller” who spent campaign money on botox, trips to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and designer clothing.
The appearance of FBI Director Chris Wray on the Hill Wednesday offered another bracing example of how far off the rails the House GOP has gone.
Obsessed with conspiracy theories, performative politics, and pugilism, the worst of the House Republicans show little interest in governing but have enormous appetites for getting in front of cameras.
It’s bad every single day, but it comes into stark relief during committee hearings, when serious, well-informed witnesses with expertise and responsibilities are used as would-be punching bags. Bewildered, confused, not up to speed on the latest bogus conspiracy theories, the witnesses are often left grasping for what the members are even talking about.
So it went yesterday with Wray …
Ghost Buses?!?!
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) has DONE … HIS … OWN … RESEARCH, y’all.
His latest conspiracy theory is that conspicuously white buses were used to transport FBI personnel and informants disguised as pro-Trump protestors to the Jan. 6 attack.
Higgins made a fool of himself quizzing FBI Director Chris Wray about it in a congressional hearing yesterday:
Wray: If you are asking whether the violence the Capitol on Jan 6th was part of some operation orchestrated by operatives/sources, the answer is no
Higgins: Do you know what a ghost bus is? These are nefarious in nature and were filled FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters pic.twitter.com/t8wgitZRy0
The House Ethics Committee is expected to release an initial report on Rep. George Santos (R-NY) by the end of week. It will not recommend sanctions. Proponents of expelling Santos are expected to use the report to push for another expulsion vote.
Getting To Know Mike Johnson
Politico: Mike Johnson is a board member of a Christian publishing house that called ‘monkeypox’ a penalty for being gay
NBC News: Speaker Mike Johnson says separation of church and state is a ‘misnomer’
Politico on Mike Johnson’s House: ‘Same clown car with a different driver’
The Latest In The Georgia RICO Case
Expect a protective order soon from the judge overseeing Fani Willis’ RICO case after all the parties came to a broad agreement during a hearing yesterday on what it should say.
The incipient protective order comes after proffer videos of defendants who had pleaded guilty were leaked to the press. A lawyer for one of the Coffee County scheme defendants admitted to the judge during the hearing that he had been a source of the leak.
Former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss will seek between $15.5 million and $43 million from Rudy Giuliani at a defamation trial slated to begin next month in a Washington, D.C., federal court, attorneys for the mother and daughter wrote in court documents filed Tuesday.
Marcy Wheeler: Trump Continues To Disavow The Mob That Sacrificed Their Lives For Him
Closing Arguments In Colorado DQ Clause Case
After closing arguments late yesterday in the Colorado Disqualification Clause case against Trump, the judge said she plans to release her decision Friday.
Meanwhile, a Michigan judge has allowed Trump to stay on the ballot for the GOP presidential primary.
Arrest Made In Pro-Palestinian Protest Outside DNC HQ
About 150 pro-Palestinian demonstrators surrounded the Democratic National Committee headquarters near the Capitol Wednesday evening, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, the third-ranked Democratic leader were inside.
Capital Police reported that one person was arrested for assault on a police officer, and six officers were treated for injuries “ranging from minor cuts to being pepper sprayed to being punched.”
As is often the case in such situations, there’s quite a bit of dispute over what exactly happened. Semafor’s Dave Weigel was on the scene and his observations contradict initial claims that protestors tried to storm the building and used pepper spray against the police.
A Snapshot From The West Bank
This NPR piece does a really good job of capturing the quotidian indignities visited upon West Bank Palestinians. While the piece is ostensibly about how tensions have ramped up since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, what it depicts is the kind of the routine inconvenience, deprivation, and restriction that are hallmarks of the occupation.
This Is Who Elon Musk Is
Yair Rosenberg: On Wednesday night, Elon Musk affirmed on Twitter/X the deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history.
BREAKING …
WSJ: President Biden Expected to Face Harsh Criticism in Classified-Document Probe But No Charges
Hunter Biden Throws A Hail Mary Subpoena
In the federal firearms case against him, Hunter Biden is seeking to subpoena Donald Trump, Bill Barr, former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue to obtain evidence that his prosecution was driven and tainted by political pressure.
These kinds of selective or vindictive prosecution claims almost always fail, but … rarely does the defendant have the kind of public record of political interference to draw on that Biden does here.
Ohhh …
WaPo: Pressure mounts on CPAC chief Matt Schlapp as legal costs spiral
2024 Ephemera
Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman, twin brother of Alex, both of whom were caught up in the first Trump impeachment, is planning to run for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA).
Politico: Progressives facing primary challenges over Israel demand more help from Jeffries
Just as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) managed to keep the government open by following the Kevin McCarthy playbook, so too will the party’s right flank not veer from its McCarthy-era (no, the other McCarthy era) retaliatory tactics.
The group of Ukrainians who flung byzantine and self-serving allegations about corruption in the Biden family were hit on Monday with treason charges over the effort.
Despite the extracurricular antics I will describe further down, the House managed to avoid a government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution with more Democratic support than Republican. The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to concur, and President Biden is expected to sign it.
A near-term disaster was averted, but this had red flags all over it.
After ousting Kevin McCarthy as speaker and spending three weeks fumbling for a replacement, the House GOP is right back where it was to begin with: unwilling and incapable of governing, eager to tear things down and engage in performative politics, and beholden to a pro-insurrection far-right fringe.
One can imagine a scenario where the turmoil of October would have had some kind of cathartic effect, forcing an internal reckoning in the House GOP and changing the underlying power dynamics. But there was no real indication that that had happened, and the funding impasse serves as powerful evidence that we remain in the same predicament as before.
It was a day where men fought on things that didn’t matter, folded on things that did, and congratulated themselves heartily for being jagoffs. Let’s run through the three incidents:
Elbowed In The Back!
NPR reporter Claudia Grisales unexpectedly found herself in the midst of a near-scuffle between Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN) and Kevin McCarthy. Burchett claimed McCarthy elbowed him in the back while walking by during a hallway interview with Grisales and chased after McCarthy. Grisales trailed him and caught audio of the ridiculous exchange:
Is ‘Smurf’ The Best You Can Come Up With?
Democrats on the Chairman James Comer’s Oversight Committee are becoming more aggressive in challenging his bogus investigations, and Comer doesn’t like it one bit:
Comer flips out when he gets confronted on the loan to his brother by Moskowitz pic.twitter.com/LO5YqqZtdQ
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) picked a fight with Teamsters president SeanO’Brien, who was testifying before Chairman Bernie Sander’s HELP Committee:
Kudos to Sanders, whose dyspeptic orneriness was perfect for the moment.
“Stop it. Sit down. You’re a United States senator,” Sanders implored, before adding, “This is a hearing. And God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress. Let’s not make it worse.”
Santos Fundraiser Pleads Guilty
Sam Miele, a one-time fundraiser for Rep. George Santos (R-NY), has pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge after, among other misdeeds, impersonating the then-chief of staff for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to raise funds for Santos.
1) Engoron said his "chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages" since trial began.
The indictment of Donald Trump in the Jan. 6 case in DC was so sweeping and broad that sometimes its specific impact can be missed. For example, because it didn’t allege that Trump incited the attack on the Capitol, it was interpreted as demurring to First Amendment concerns, which is both true but perhaps misses the point.
In recent days, Smith has gone out of his way to suggest that the indictment should not be read as narrow, constrained, or limited. In the first example a few days ago, in a filing that offered a preview of the evidence Smith intends to present at trial, prosecutors revealed that they would be making the case that the rioters themselves said Trump summoned them and directed them to the Capitol and that they were following his direction.
Yesterday, Smith was even more direct: “Although the indictment does not charge the defendant with incitement to insurrection … it squarely alleges that he is responsible for the events of January 6, 2021.” That plain statement, made in a filing to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering the gag order imposed in the case, sets up a trial where Jan. 6 is front and center, not something Smith is dodging.
Fani Willis Seeks Emergency Protective Order
After the leak of proffer videos, Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis rushed to court yesterday to renew her pending request for a protective order in the case. Notably, in her filing she identified an email (Exhibit B here) in which one of the defendants’ lawyer seems to admit to having leaked the proffer videos, before retracting it in a subsequent email and claiming it was a “typo.”
State Judge Scott McAfee has scheduled a hearing on Willis’ emergency request for 1:30 p.m. ET today via Zoom. Trump and other defendants are opposed to the protective order.
Willis: RICO Trial Won’t Be Finished Before 2024 Election
“I believe in that case there will be a trial. I believe the trial will take many months. And I don’t expect that we will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025,” Willis said.
2024 Ephemera
Politico: Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom announces bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola
WaPo: Univision, the Spanish language news giant, shifts its approach to Trump
Politico: New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy enters US Senate race to replace Menendez
Helpful!
A useful analysis of the Supreme Court’s new ethics code and how it differs from other judicial ethical guidelines.
Women On The Verge
Greene: My colleague who is 80 years old just said we’re on the verge of a shutdown. She probably just forgot she voted for the CR,we are not on the verge of a shutdown.
DeLauro: What the gentlelady doesn’t know is there is another body attached to the Congress called the Senate pic.twitter.com/CU2GRA2NrW
Look, I get it, the recess bell hasn’t rang in 10 weeks. The tryptophan nap in your dad’s Lazy Boy and the football pickup game down the street is calling your name.
The House passed a two-step stopgap Tuesday, which will keep the government funded until mid-winter. The continuing resolution passed with more Democratic votes than Republican ones. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) lost 93 Republican votes, spelling trouble ahead when the CRs — and his honeymoon period — run out in January and February.
While many on the right flank of the party are unhappy, they’re not ready to punish Johnson yet, figuring that he’s still new to the job. The impending holiday has also lessened the thirst for speaker punishment.
So Johnson took a page from McCarthy’s book — keeping the government open with mostly Democratic support, and promising the right flank some red meat down the road (when none of these dynamics will have changed).
The House of Representatives passed a clean continuing resolution Tuesday with hefty bipartisan support, averting the shutdown that would have followed the expiration of the last stopgap, which cost former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) his job.
How did Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pull off such a feat? He did essentially the exact same thing McCarthy did, avoiding a similar fate by dint of such incidentals as his newness in the post and members’ eagerness to get home for Thanksgiving.
A Michigan judge on Tuesday ruled that Donald Trump can stay on the ballot at least through the 2024 presidential primaries in the state, deciding a batch of three separate cases addressing the Constitution’s Disqualification Clause.
