After losing his job as a congressman, George Santos is apparently trying to cash in on his infamy by selling videos on the online service Cameo.
Within the past few days, Santos added a link to the site where a motley assortment of largely lower grade celebrities and influencers sell text messages and personalized videos, to his Twitter page. Santos’ Cameo account bills him as a “Former congressional ‘Icon’!💅🏼” and “the Expelled member of Congress from New York City.” He’s selling “personal” videos for $150 and text messages for $10. Santos did not immediately respond to requests for comment about his new venture.
Santos’ brief political career erupted into scandal shortly after he won a House seat last November when a local newspaper and the New York Times revealed he had lied about several aspects of his professional and personal history. As the spotlight fell on Santos, multiple reports — including several exclusives from TPM — uncovered irregularities in his campaign finances and allegations he ripped off donors’ credit cards. Santos subsequently faced criminal charges and a House Ethics Committee investigation that precipitated his expulsion. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him and dismissed the Ethics probe as a “slanderous report.”
The various investigations into Santos have painted a picture of him living a high roller lifestyle while operating on financial fumes and allegedly making up the difference by misappropriating campaign funds. Becoming just the sixth person expelled from Congress left Santos without a salary and, if the Cameo is any indication, needing to turn to new inventive sources of income.
A lot happened on Friday, and I unpack most of it below. But unquestionably the two most significant events were separate court rulings on the limits of presidential immunity.
The first decision came from the DC Court of Appeals and ruled that a civil lawsuit by members of Congress and law enforcement against Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 attack can proceed despite Trump’s claims of civil immunity. This was the less consequential decision of the day because while a blow to Trump it largely punted for now the question of whether Trump’s conduct as a losing candidate and around the Jan. 6 attack was within the scope of his duties as president. That’s a factual question that will need to be developed at the trial court level, and we are likely to see this issue back before the appeals court before all is said and done.
Later in the day, in a more significant decision, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump’s ahistorical argument that the president enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution. This is Trump’s boldest, most sweeping legal defense and threatens to undermine any prosecution of him from his time in office. It’s also absurd, and Chutkan was unmoved by Trump’s arguments.
Importantly, the immunity argument is part and parcel of Trump’s delay strategy to push his prosecutions until after the 2024 election, gambling that he will win and then can use the powers of the office to make his personal criminal liability go away. The immunity ruling is appealable now and will likely end up at the Supreme Court, all of which takes time. This doesn’t, as Joyce Vance notes, fall into the category of preposterous Trump delays. “Appeals mean delay—not the sort of strategic, excessive delay that is Trump’s hallmark in court proceedings, but delay as a necessary incident to the process.” Still, time is short.
Rule Of Law Porn
So satisfying to read these lines from Judge Chutkan’s ruling against absolute immunity from criminal liability for American presidents:
Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong “get-out-of-jail-free” pass.
“If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny.”
(quoting Justice Felix Frankfurter)
Every President will face difficult decisions; whether to intentionally commit a federal crime should not be one of them.
By definition, the President’s duty to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’ does not grant special latitude to violate them.
Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens.
Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability. Defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office.
A former President’s exposure to federal criminal liability is essential to fulfilling our constitutional promise of equal justice under the law.
Georgia RICO Trial Date In Doubt
The trial judge overseeing Atlanta DA Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution of Trump et al. expressed skepticism from the bench Friday that the August 2024 trial date she is seeking is realistic.
Love To See The Trump Pardon Coverage
Trump’s pardons remain among the most corrupt acts of his presidency, so I happily wallow in any coverage that seeks to unpack what happened and why. Two gems over the weekend:
WaPo: Trump pardoned them. Now they’re helping him return to power.
Amanda Carpenter, a one-time aide to Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) who has become a relentless Trump critic, offers a helpful breakdown of three categories of what she calls Trump’s “henchmen pardons”:
WATCH: @amandacarpenter explains Trump's “henchmen pardons” & the 3 categories of this new class of pardons that threaten to create a license for future political violence if Trump is reelected.
Rudy In The Wringer As Defamation Trial Approaches
The DC federal judge overseeing the defamation case against Rudy Giuliani by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss has rejected his attempt to avoid the jury trial set to begin next week.
Giuliani had argued inexplicably that because a default judgment on liability was entered against him (as a sanction for not complying with his pre-trial discovery obligations), a jury trial on damages was somehow inappropriate.
Sorry, no dice, the judge breezily ruled. Trial is set for Dec. 11.
WARNING: Trump Is Still At It
Even as we contend with the slow-moving legal accountability for Donald Trump’s past misdeeds, he continues to engage in the same conduct that led to his indictment for subverting the 2020 election and is now directing it toward the 2024 election.
Trump contends that the 2020 election was stolen and that he’ll prove it in court:
Trump claims that when he goes to trial in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, "we want to redo the election." pic.twitter.com/ybZQZc9yei
Trump is seeking to delegitimize, undermine and indeed threaten free and fair elections in majority Black urban areas in 2024:
Trump: The most important part of what is coming up is to guard the vote, and you should go into Detroit, Philadelphia, and some of these places, Atlanta, and you should go into some of these places, and we have to watch those votes.. pic.twitter.com/wDJ4QrlBBx
Trump’s rhetoric is once again forcing election officials to defend publicly the integrity of the process. “When a former president is spreading disinformation, it’s up to us to be truth tellers,” said Philadelphia elections official Lisa Deeley.
Liz Cheney Keeps Sounding The Alarm
Goodbye, George Santos
Not even this House GOP, with its band of crazies and super-thin majority, could stomach any more of George Santos. That fellow members of the GOP conference were alleged victims of Santos, too, didn’t help.
There’s Effing Video??!?
The tale of the Florida GOP chairman and his Moms For Liberty wife who had a threesome with a woman who accused him of subsequently raping her – with me so far? – got a bit more sordid with the release of investigators’ search warrant affidavit:
Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler admitted to police that he recorded a video of the Oct. 2 encounter that led to the rape allegation. He initially deleted the video.
Bridget Ziegler acknowledged that she, her husband and the victim had sex together more than a year before the alleged rape. Christian Ziegler had known the alleged victim for more than 20 years.
Christian Ziegler said he and the victim had sex during the Oct. 2 encounter but that it was consensual.
The victim said she had agreed to meet with both Zieglers on the day in question but canceled when she learned Bridget Ziegler wouldn’t be coming, too.
After the alleged rape, the victim, with police monitoring her communications, engaged with Christian Ziegler via text and telephone until he started to suspect he was being recorded.
Christian Ziegler has denied wrongdoing.
Appeals Court Sinks Abbott’s Rio Grande Buoys
The 5th Circuit ruled against Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and in favor of the Biden administration, ordering Texas to remove the border buoys in the Rio Grande. The buoys were but a part of Abbott’s long-running performance pretending that Texas is still a republic and in control of the border with Mexico.
I’m Sensing A Pattern Here
September: Unapologetic ex-ambassador avoids prison in illicit lobbying case
December: Former US ambassador arrested in Florida, accused of serving as an agent of Cuba
Sandra Day O’Connor, 1930-2023
(Original Caption) July 15, 1981 – Washington: President Reagan sits with Sandra O’Connor in the Rose Garden. Judge O’Connor, on a courtesy call to the President, was chosen by Reagan to be the first woman Supreme Court Justice.
The first woman on the Supreme Court lived long enough to see four women sitting on the high court simultaneously.
As you’ve no doubt seen, the series of ceasefires and prisoners-for-hostages exchanges have come to an end and hostilities between the Israeli military and Hamas has resumed. Through several channels Hamas officials have now said that they won’t release any more hostages until the war is over. Though the details are murky it appears that only a small number of female civilians and children remain in captivity. Israel puts the number at 17. Those that remain are male civilians and soldiers.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Quite a sequence of events yesterday in the NY civil fraud trial of Trump:
An appeals court reinstated the gag orders on Trump and counsel that prevent them from attacking the judge’s staff, including his beleaguered law clerk. The appeals court order was issued without comment.
The trial judge in the case noted the appeals court ruling in open court and said he would vigorously enforce the reinstated gag orders.
Later in the day, Trump flagged on Truth Social an anti-Trump posting falsely attributed to the judge’s wife as further proof of the injustices being committed against him. Confused? Here’s a succinct rundown of what happened:
Trump earlier on Thursday disseminated social mediaposts 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.
This Is How Trump Backs The Blue
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:
Donald Trump reshares a post calling for the prosecution of Capitol Police officers for defending the Capitol on Jan. 6 pic.twitter.com/2w4B5Pz8Rt
A series of related updates on the state-level fake electors criminal investigations:
Nevada: Former Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro “has agreed to sit down with Nevada investigators in hopes of avoiding prosecution” in the fake electors probe there, CNN reports. He is expected to testify to a grand jury in Nevada next week, the WaPo reports.
Arizona: Investigators there also want to talk to Chesebro, the WaPo reports, but don’t seem as far along in their probe as Nevada.
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.
Is Today The End Of Road For Rep. Santos?
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.
Hmmm …
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.
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:
Newsom: I’m the only guy here that is a border state governor. You’re trolling folks trying to find migrants to play political games to get some news so you can out-Trump Trump and by the way… how is that going for you? You’re down 41 pts in your own state pic.twitter.com/RezT7tlIT3
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.
Brutal
NYT: Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago
Fair Question
Josh Marshall: Why Did So Many People Hate Henry Kissinger So Much?
Can We Go Back To That Elon Musk Interview?
I can’t stop watching the interview that Elon Musk gave to “Jonathan” Ross Sorkin:
Elon Musk: “The only reason I am here, Jonathan, is because you are a friend.”
