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

Will Judge Chutkan Take Notice?

Nothing happened inside the courtroom on the first day of the New York state civil fraud trial of Donald Trump that was as important as the attacks he launched in the courthouse hallways on the judge and the legal system:

Trump: This is a judge that should be disbarred. This is a judge that should be out of office. This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he's doing. He’s interfering with an election pic.twitter.com/VCJKNFqvTK

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 2, 2023

Trump’s latest attack comes as Special Counsel Jack Smith is pushing U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to issue a limited gag order against Trump in his Jan. 6 case. Add this to the long list of recent examples.

Why won’t the New York state judge doing anything about it? He might. But, remember, this is a judge-tried case. There’s no jury pool for Trump to taint, and no jury for him to tamper with. So there’s not a direct, immediate threat to the integrity of the proceedings.

No, No, No

When you try to apply the tired old campaign and election tropes to cover rising authoritarianism, attacks on the legitimacy of the courts and other democratic institutions, and the use of mass media to stoke anger and resentment in service of your own business, legal and political ends, you get badly framed stories like these:

• AP: Trump turns his fraud trial into a campaign stop as he seeks to capitalize on his legal woes
• Politico: As Trump goes on trial for business fraud, he treats courthouse like campaign stop

It’s only been eight years since Trump emerged as a national political figure.

Trump Trial, Day 1

• NYT: Key Takeaways From the First Day of Trump’s Civil Fraud Trial
• The Messenger: Apparently Trump goofed and failed to ask for a jury trial, which is why he is stuck with a judge-tried case in front a judge who has repeatedly ruled against him in this case.

Jack Smith To Donald Trump: You’re Fooling No One

Special Counsel Jack Smith keeps on calling out Donald Trump and his delay tactics for what they are. Yesterday, Smith landed a one–two punch on Trump’s elaborate effort to push back his April 2024 trial date in the Jan. 6 case in DC.

John Kelly Tests Whether Late Really Is Better Than Never

The former Trump chief of staff and cabinet secretary finally goes on the record with some of his worst Trump stories.

Clarence Thomas Recuses In Jan. 6 Case

A very intriguing recusal by Justice Clarence Thomas in a case brought by former Trump attorney John Eastman, who unsuccessfully sought to keep his emails from the Jan. 6 committee.

You’ll recall that a federal judge in California ultimately ruled that attorney-client privilege didn’t apply because Eastman and Trump used their relationship to engage in criminal activity. The Supreme Court declined to take up the case, meaning the lower court ruling stands as is.

It’s not clear why Thomas recused, but Eastman, a former Thomas clerk, was corresponding with Thomas’ wife Ginni in the post-election period in 2020.

Important Read On The ‘Polarization’ Narrative

I’ve been waiting for this dismantling of “polarization” for a long time. Thomas Zimmer really brings it in the second installment of his manifesto on the subject.

Gaetz Pulls Pin And Rolls Grenade Into Middle Of House GOP

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) filed his motion to vacate last night, the first step in his attempted ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker of the House. I don’t have any special insights or predictions here. I’m going to sit back and watch. In the words of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA): “Not my monkey; not my circus.”

The comedic value is high:

Just did. https://t.co/zdQk3GblbV

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 2, 2023

The flailing is real, on both sides, meaning things are very fluid. A vote on the motion could come at any time over the next 48 hours.

A sampling of the coverage:

• Aaron Blake: Democrats can’t really save Kevin McCarthy
• Punchbowl: Is it too late for McCarthy?
• WSJ: What Is a Motion to Vacate, and How Could McCarthy Defeat It?

Congressman Carjacked In DC

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) was carjacked in DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood Monday night. He was unhurt, and his car was later recovered.

Hunter Biden To Enter Not Guilty Plea Today

The president’s son is scheduled to enter a not guilty plea in person in Delaware federal court today on gun charges.

Meanwhile, DC U.S. Attorney Matt Graves is scheduled to sit today for a voluntary interview with the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee, which is looking for more ways to make political hay.

Elon Musk Sued For Defamation

A 22-year-old Jewish man is suing Elon Musk for defamation after Musk personally promoted on Twitter a false conspiracy theory that the man was a federal agent involved with a neo-Nazi group.

The lawyer handling the lawsuit is Mark Bankston, the Texas attorney who won a $45 million judgment against Alex Jones on behalf of two Sandy Hook parents.

Riding Shotgun With SBF

Michael Lewis timed today’s release of his new book on crypto-king Sam Bankman-Fried with the start of SBF’s trial. Lewis sat down with 60 Minutes and talked about the countless hours he spent “riding shotgun” with SBF as his fame and then his life exploded:

How Will You Fare?

The most detailed interactive map yet of the US’ vulnerability to dangers such as fire, flooding, and pollution was released on Monday by @EnvDefenseFund and @TAMU https://t.co/wRa4rASZ0y

— grist (@grist) October 2, 2023

A link to the full report, where you can search by county or census tract.

A Coda To Yesterday’s Nobel Prize In Medicine

I just want to make sure that you saw that the Nobel Prize in physiology was shared by Katalin Karikó. It was Karikó who was ignored, belittled, denied tenure, and ultimately left Penn’s medical school despite the groundbreaking mRNA research that ultimately led years later to the COVID vaccines. From the Glamour profile of her in 2021:

That morning at the lab, Karikó’s old boss had come to see her off. She did not tell him what a terrible mistake he was making in letting her leave. She didn’t gloat about her future at BioNTech, a pharmaceuticals firm that millions now associate with lifesaving vaccines but was then a relative upstart in the field. Instead the woman who had bounced from department to department, with no tenure prospects and never earning over $60,000 a year, said with total confidence: “In the future, this lab will be a museum. Don’t touch it.”

A great read.

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

Big Decision For Chutkan

Special Counsel Jack Smith is keeping the pressure on Trump to knock off the constant stream of threats against the court, prosecutors, and witnesses. In a new filing late Friday, Smith put in front of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan another batch of recent examples of Trump doing things most criminal defendants would get in big trouble for doing.

It’s shaping up to be the first big decision by Chutkan in the case.

Motion practice is a like a waltz. Its typical three steps are the motion, the response, and the reply. The reply is usually pretty meh. It gives the movant a chance to rebut the arguments raised by the opponent in their response and to reiterate the reasons for the motion in the first place. But Smith’s reply brief was fire – and it contained a slew of new examples of Trump’s threatening extrajudicial statements since Smith filed his original motion:

• Truth Social posts by Trump going after the judge, individual prosecutors, and witnesses, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley;
• That Meet the Press interview in which Trump targeted one witness (Bill Barr) and discussed the potential testimony of another witness (Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger);

Smith seized on the opportunity of the reply to put all of these new examples in front of Chutkan as she considers whether to impose some kind of modified gag order on Trump and his attorneys.

In a remarkable argument at one point in the reply, Smith shows a sophistication about Trump, misinformation, and the right-wing feedback loop that I wish more political reporters had.

Zeroing in on the recent Trump campaign stop at a gun store in South Carolina, and the controversy over whether Trump bought a Glock in violation of the law and his terms of release, and the subsequent walk-back by a Trump spokesperson, Smith said, “The defendant should not be permitted to obtain the benefits of his incendiary public statements and then avoid accountability by having others—whose messages he knows will receive markedly less attention than his own—feign retraction.”

Then in a footnote, Smith uncoiled this line for the ages: “The defendant either purchased a gun in violation of the law and his conditions of release, or seeks to benefit from his supporters’ mistaken belief that he did so.”

Chutkan has set a hearing on this matter for Oct. 16. I was slightly surprised she set the hearing so far out. But it makes me think by the time we get there, she will have tentatively sketched out an order tailored to the circumstances of this case, and I would expect we would get a ruling fairly quickly.

Trump’s Crazy Ass California Speech

Coming one day after President Biden’s powerful speech on democracy and the threat the former president poses, it was hard not to see Donald Trump’s speech Friday in California as both a response to and proof of Biden’s point:

Trump: "Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store. Shot!" pic.twitter.com/mJQJ9ZF41x

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 29, 2023

That was probably the most egregious moment in the speech, but it was sheer madness throughout, like King George III level madness. Just scroll through Aaron Rupar’s running clips here to get a better sense of what 2024 and beyond could hold.

‘Wannabe Dictator’ Alert

🚨🚨🚨Wow, outgoing CJS Chair Milley hits Trump at retirement ceremony: "We don't take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator …we take an oath to the Constitution … and we're willing to die to protect it". pic.twitter.com/AH2eQObge4

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) September 29, 2023

Why Did Trump Pick THAT Gun Store?

Lucian K. Truscott IV: The mainstream media completely missed the story when reporting on Trump’s visit to the South Carolina gun store

TNR: The Sick, Racist Message Behind Why Trump Chose That Particular Gun Store

First Trump Co-Defendant Pleads Guilty

Scott Hall, a defendant in the Georgia RICO case involved in the Coffee County election, pleaded guilty Friday in an unscheduled hearing in which he was sentenced to probation and fined $5,000.

Hall is reportedly the brother-in-law of David Bossie, a deputy campaign manager for Trump 2016 and the man behind the Citizens United campaign finance case.

As part of the plea agreement, Hall promised to cooperate with DA Fani Willis’ investigation. The other defendants with the most to worry about from Hall appear to be Sidney Powell, who was allegedly deeply involved in the Coffee County fiasco, and Jeff Clark, with whom Hall had a 63-minute phone call on Jan. 2, 2021, according to the indictment.

Georgia RICO Miscellany

• Trump DOJ official Jeff Clark loses his bid to remove his case to federal court.
• The same federal judge who rejected Clark’s removal bid also shot down the removal requests from three fake electors in the case.
• A judge denied Kenneth Chesebro’s motions to dismiss his case and to suppress evidence at trial.
• DA Fani Willis plans to offer plea deals in the coming days to Chesebro and Powell, her office told the state court judge overseeing their case.
• Jury selection in the speedy trial of Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell is set to start Oct. 20.

Michigan: New Disqualification Clause Case Against Trump

One the groups dotting the country with Disqualification Clause challenges to Trump’s 2024 candidacy has filed a similar lawsuit in Michigan, the biggest swing-state target to date to their legal campaign.

Trump Goes On Trial Today In New York

New York Attorney General Letitia James’s civil trial against Trump, his adult sons, and his business empire starts in New York. This is a bench trial so no jury selection. The judge already granted partial summary judgment in favor of the state, so the range of issues to be tried has narrowed considerably. The biggest issue to determine at trial is damages. James is seeking $250 million.

James and Trump are both expected to attend opening statements today in person.

Supreme Court Begins October Term

The Supreme Court reconvenes today to begin its October term with the conservative supermajority poised to steer the law farther to the right.

IRS Contractor Charged In Leak Of Trump’s Tax Return Leak

Charles Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., was charged with allegedly leaking a trove of private tax information to news outlets:

• Littlejohn was charged via a “criminal information” instead of an indictment, which often signals that a plea deal is in the works.
• The charging document doesn’t identify whose tax information was leaked, but Politico confirmed that it included Donald Trump’s tax returns.
• While it doesn’t identify which news outlets were the beneficiaries of the leak, the charging document matches the known leaks to ProPublica and the NYT.

Shutdown Shitshow

Welp, we went into the weekend facing the prospect of potentially long government shutdown, with no obvious resolution in sight. But by Saturday afternoon, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said fuck it and rolled over his right-wing flank with Democratic support to pass a 45-day continuing resolution to fund the government while negotiations on a long-term budget deal proceed.

Could we be here again in mid-November. Most certainly! But I suspect the way things broke loose here will be enough to change the underlying power dynamic and arrive at a long-term deal.

The Price McCarthy Will Pay

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is the leading the right-wing charge to remove McCarthy as speaker as soon as this week. As you watch that play out, bear in mind:

• Gaetz is even less popular among Republicans than McCarthy.
• If not McCarthy, then whom?
• Gaetz et al. have no plan for what comes next, and other members know it.

What’s your favorite popcorn?

Good Read

TPM’s Josh Kovensky: “Inside The Menendez Indictment: An American Roller Skater Maimed In Egypt And $300M“

Laphonza Butler Appointed To Feinstein’s Seat

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint Emily’s List President Laphonza Butler, an LGBTQ+ woman of color, to finish the remainder of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term.

Keep An Eye On This Idaho Abortion Case

The Justice Department is now asking the entire Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider on an expedited basis last week’s ruling by a three-judge panel of Trump appointees to allow Idaho’s abortion ban to go into effect. DOJ argues that the relatively rare request for an en banc review of the panel’s decision is necessitated by, among other things:

• The Idaho legislature waited 11 months before seeking a stay of the injunction that had been blocking enforcement of the law for a year.
• The district judge had found in favor of the government on every factor for granting a preliminary injunction.
• The law had never taken effect because the government had moved to block it before its effective date.

You can read the powerfully argued request for en banc review here.

WARNING: Watching This Will Make You Dumber

MTG to @mkraju:

Democrats are clearly fine with shut downs. They shut down the whole country over COVID for far too long… People here in Washington need to understand how it feels to be shut down.” pic.twitter.com/MrmnYtGqIB

— Alan He (@alanhe) September 29, 2023

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