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

Well, Well, Well …

I know the web of Trump legal entanglements is hard to keep track of, but this is a salient development in a very live case where a judgment is soon expected that could force Trump to disgorge millions of dollars and bar him from the New York real estate biz.

Longtime Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg is in talks with the Manhattan DA’s office to plead guilty to committing perjury during his testimony in the civil fraud trial brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, the NYT is reporting. I should emphasize that the plea deal isn’t final yet, and the NYT report is based on unnamed sources.

According to the report, Weisselberg would admit to lying on the stand and to lying under oath in an interview with James’ office.

Prosecutors have been leaning on Weisselberg to flip against Trump for a very long time. But this new report suggests even a perjury conviction isn’t going to be enough to flip Weisselberg, who already spent time in jail for his conviction on engaging in fraudulent business practices while at the Trump Org: “The deal being negotiated would most likely not require Mr. Weisselberg, 76, to turn on his former boss.”

Still, Weisselberg was at the center of the Stormy Daniels’ hush money scheme, for which Trump is set to go to trial in coming weeks, in what will now likely be his first criminal trial, and a guilty plea here could bolster Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s case while undermining Trump’s defense.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the verdict on damages and penalties in the underlying civil fraud case. The judge had set a self-imposed deadline for himself to rule of Jan. 31, but the court confirmed yesterday that the ruling won’t come until early to mid-February. Not clear if the delay is in any way related to separate Weisselberg prosecution.

Yup, Trump DC Trial Ain’t Happening In March

What’s been obvious for weeks – that the DC trial of Donald Trump for election subversion won’t be happening in March – was further confirmed yesterday when the trial date was removed from the court calendar and reports emerged that the trial judge has acknowledged in open court that her March calendar is now open for other matters.

A Curious Report On The MAL Case

A new ABC News report suggests the FBI in its August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents either missed or ignored two areas in Trump’s private residence there: a closet and a “hidden room.” Joyce Vance explains.

Didn’t See This Coming

Walt Nauta, Trump’s valet and co-defendant in the Mar-a-Lago case, was accused by three female service members of a years-long pattern of sexual misconduct that included his time with Trump in the White House, the Daily Beast reports:

Navy officials had escorted him off White House grounds, reassigned him to a new post, and docked his White House security clearance in response to accusations of fraternization, adultery, harassment, and other inappropriate sexual conduct, including “revenge porn,” two people with direct knowledge of the matter told The Daily Beast.

Despite the allegations, Trump brought Nauta down to Palm Beach later that same year to work for him there.

Georgia RICO Update

• Today is the deadline for Atlanta DA Fani Willis to respond formally via court filing to the allegation that she engaged in a romantic relationship with one of the prosecutors she hired to lead the RICO prosecution of Trump and multiple co-defendants.
• Willis has no plans to recuse herself from the case.

Quote Of The Day

What concerns me most when I hear Trump’s use of terms like “vermin” and “poisoning the blood of the country” is the lack of reaction to it. The fact that both voters and the establishment — most importantly Republicans themselves — all just shrug. That worries the hell out of me.

Harvard political science professor of Steven Levitsky, author of How Democracies Die

So Damn Grim

Wired: A Decapitation May Have Roots in Far-Right Border and Immigrant Paranoia

FFS: A Swatting “Service”???

A 17-year-old from California is accused of running a “swatting service” via a Telegram account:

Alan Filion is accused of running a swatting service since 2022, targeting high schools, historically Black colleges and universities as well as FBI agents’ homes. For $35 to $75, Filion allegedly offered to report mass shootings, bomb threats and gas leaks among other emergencies to spark massive responses from law enforcement.

Perhaps my favorite detail, though, is what he did to try to avoid suspicion: “In an apparent effort to deceive law enforcement, he allegedly swatted his own home multiple times, something he boasted about on his Telegram channel, the affidavit states.”

Clever enough to swat himself; dumb enough to brag about it.

Dark Brandon Alert

President Biden is reported to be unsparing in his private criticisms of Donald Trump, calling him a “sick fuck” and “a fucking asshole.”

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The Civil War Settled This

Jamelle Bouie: Nikki Haley Has Got Secession All Wrong

Headline Of This Election Cycle

“Biden continues to lead among those who dislike both him and Trump“

2024 Ephemera

• NJ-Sen: Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) leads in a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll of likely Democratic primary voters: Kim 32%, first lady Tammy Murphy 20%, Sen. Bob Menendez 9%, Patricia Campos Medina 8%.
• CA-Sen: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) pulls a trick out of former Sen. Claire McCaskill’s old playbook: Boost your preferred GOP opponent in TV ads.
• Politico: Inside Kevin McCarthy’s vengeance operation against the Republicans who fired him

For Your Radar …

Anti-abortion advocates have gone to the right-wing’s favorite federal judge in Texas to try to dismantle Planned Parenthood in the state, TPM’s Kate Riga reports.

Oregon Doing Oregon Things

WaPo:

The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday barred 10 Republican state senators from seeking reelection after a record-long walkout from the legislature last year spurred by objections to a measure intended to protect abortion rights and gender-affirming health care.

Oregon voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2022 that disqualified legislators with 10 or more unexcused absences during a legislative session from holding office in the subsequent term. The measure was aimed at preventing future boycotts amid an increasing frequency of legislative walkouts in the state.

WWE’s Vince McMahon Under Federal Investigation

Just out this morning from the WSJ:

Federal authorities have been investigating sexual assault and sex trafficking allegations against WWE co-founder Vince McMahon, according to people familiar with the investigation. 

Prosecutors in New York in recent months have been in contact with women who have accused McMahon of sexual misconduct, the people said. 

The new report comes a week after a former WWE employee filed a lawsuit against McMahon, WWE and another former executive alleging sex trafficking and containing startling allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Arc Of Larry Kudlow Is Long …

… and it bends toward absurdism:

Kudlow on the economy: From bust to slump to “I was wrong” pic.twitter.com/HjygBNLfe9

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 2, 2024

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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.

A Political Travesty

Donald Trump’s various campaign committees spent in the vicinity of $50 million on legal fees in 2023 as he and his associates mounted criminal defenses to indictments in four different jurisdictions.

Before you ask: Yes, this is perfectly legal. For a mafia don.

But it should be, in a normal world at least, a political travesty. A deal killer. A campaign ender. A blight from which no presidential contender should be able to recover.

Instead, everything just cruises right along, with Trump having already essentially secured the GOP nomination and Republican elected officials who should know better falling right in line behind him.

A few caveats and cautions:

• Not all of the legal fees went to criminal defense attorneys, but the vast majority of it did. Legal fees are usually a nominal share of campaign committees’ expenditures. In Trump’s case, it was one-quarter of what his committees took in in 2023.
• It’s not straightforward to track which monies went to which defendants or witnesses. You have to cross reference the law firms (47+!) identified as recipients in the filings with the lawyers who work there and then back your way into which defendant or witness they represent.
• It’s often not easy to track the spending among and transfers between his various committees. So this is not an exact science. These expenditures are ongoing and will continue through 2024, probably at a greater pace than they did in 2023.

Trump using campaign funds to defend himself is one thing, but it’s the use of those dollars to provide criminal defenses to co-defendants, witnesses, and other associates that pushes the political envelope in ways we’ve never really seen before. He’s buying loyalty. He’s paying for adherence to the defense strategy his lawyers are mapping out for him. He’s circling the wagons to protect himself at the expense of others and of the public good. And he’s doing it at the same time he’s running for president again.

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Mark Meadows aide, is the most vivid example of the price to be paid for being part of the Trump’s legal defense circle. Her testimony to the Jan. 6 committee was limited and incomplete until she ditched her Trump-bought lawyer for independent representation and then told the committee her whole story. Bombshell.

But Hutchinson’s not the only one. Yuscil Taveras, an IT worker at Mar-a-Lago, gave false testimony to the grand jury investigating Trump’s unlawful retention of classified documents when he was represented by a Trump-paid lawyer, but then recanted after a judge appointed independent counsel to represent him.

In truth, Trump-paid lawyers are ethically bound to remain independent and represent only their client’s interest. But in practice, things get murky and gray. Very gray. Ask yourself this: Would the notoriously cheap deadbeat Donald Trump be squandering millions of dollars on legal fees for other people without the expectation that he himself would get something out of it?

Finally

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon held a three-hour ex parte hearing with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team yesterday in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. This is a normal procedure in a CIPA classified documents case so that the government can justify to the judge that withholding classified discovery from the defense or modifying it is to protect sensitive information, but Cannon had resisted and delayed it for months. I’m not sure we’ll know how it went unless she makes egregious decisions coming out of the hearing that Smith is forced to appeal (and, yes, he can appeal that).

DC Preps Security For Trump Trial

While the DC Circuit takes its own sweet time on Trump’s immunity appeal, all but guaranteeing the trial will be pushed back from its March date, officials in the capital are conferring over what security measures will be needed around the federal courthouse during the trial.

California Senate Fundraising Totals

FEC reports are in for Q4, and the contributions to the main candidates for Senate in California stack up like this:

• Rep. Adam Schiff (D): $6.2 million 
• Rep. Katie Porter (D): $3 million
• Rep. Barbara Lee (D): $1.05 million
• Steve Garvey (R): $610,920

Arizona Senate Fundraising Totals

Same drill in Arizona for Q4 contributions:

• Rep. Reuben Gallego (D): $3.3 million
• Kari Lake (R): $1.02 million
• Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I): $595,000

New Jersey Senate Fundraising Totals

Zeroing in on the Democratic primary, the Q4 contribution totals are:

• First lady Tammy Murphy (D): $3.2 million
• Rep. Andy Kim (D): $1.8 million

2024 Ephemera

• SC GOP primary: Trump 58%, Haley 32% among potential GOP primary voters in South Carolina, according to a new WaPo-Monmouth University poll.
• Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll: “The poll found that 53% of voters in the seven closely watched battleground states would be unwilling to vote for Trump in the general election if he were found guilty of a crime, a figure that grows to 55% if he’s sentenced to prison.”
• AJC: “The Fair Fight political and advocacy organization that Stacey Abrams founded is laying off staffers and narrowing its mission as it struggles with mounting debt from lengthy court battles over voting rights that racked up massive legal bills.”

House Overwhelmingly Passes Election-Year Tax Cut

By a 357-70 margin, the House last night passed a $78 billion tax cut bill. But the bill faces an uphill climb in the Senate. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) inexplicably explains why: “I think passing a tax bill that makes the president look good, may allow checks before the election — means that [Joe Biden] could be reelected and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax bill.”

[Sponsored] An Inside Story Of The Democratic Party At A Moment Of Great Peril

The Truce, from journalists Hunter Walker (of Talking Points Memo) and Luppe B. Luppen, explores the major fault lines that define Democratic politics today and asks big questions about the future of the party. An engrossing page-turner, The Truce grapples with the dangers that threaten American democracy and the complicated cast of characters who are trying to save it.

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Disney Loses First Round To DeSantis

A Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida has thrown out Disney’s lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) alleging it was retaliated against in violation of its First Amendment rights for opposing the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. The judge ruled that Disney had failed to establish standing or jurisdiction. Disney says it will appeal the decision.

Texas Keeps Texas’ing

The latest news and commentary:

• Texas Tribune: Texas’ standoff with the feds in Eagle Pass is igniting calls for secession and fears of violence
• Joyce Vance: Texas Ignores the Constitution and the Rule of Law
• Steve Vladeck: The Biden-Abbott Border War Is a Mess, but It Is Not a Constitutional Crisis

Difficult To Read

The NYT compiles the eyewitness accounts of Alabama’s execution of Kenneth Smith last week using a never-before-tried nitrogen gas technique.

Meditative

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