From Morning Memo:
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has told a judge he’d rather be taken into custody pre-trial than reveal the donors who co-signed on his $500,000 bond.
What Does The Newest Wrinkle In The MAL Probe Mean?
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Wait, A FLORIDA Grand Jury?
The day’s coverage of the Mar-a-Lago documents case was focused on Trump’s legal team meeting with Special Counsel Jack Smith at Main Justice. But the interesting new tidbit that emerged had nothing to do with that high-profile meeting.
New reporting yesterday emerged that Smith has been running a federal grand jury in Florida under the radar in tandem with the DC federal grand jury where most of the action in the Mar-a-Lago case has been.
The reporting was somewhat threadbare, but here’s what’s been pieced together:
- WSJ: “In recent days, Smith’s prosecutors have also sought testimony related to the documents probe before a grand jury in southern Florida, in what some people familiar with the process said appeared to be an effort to tie up several loose ends.”
- WaPo: “In addition, testimony from at least one witness related to the documents probe has also been sought by Smith’s investigators before a federal grand jury in southern Florida, a jurisdiction that includes Mar-a-Lago, a person familiar with the investigation said.”
- NYT: “Prosecutors are expected to question a new witness in front of a federal grand jury sitting in Florida later this week, according to people familiar with the matter. At least one other witness has already appeared before the Florida grand jury, which is separate from the one that has been sitting for months in Washington. It is not clear why a second grand jury is taking testimony in Florida.”
For a few weeks now, I’ve been telling you that Smith’s core investigative work has been largely completed and a charging decision is imminent. That’s mostly still true, but the not-previously-known activity of the Florida grand jury – which is scheduled to hear witnesses tomorrow – is good reason to be very careful about making predictions about the timing and nature of any charges in the case.
Why a Florida grand jury?
Legal commentators were quick to note the venue issue. Will Smith be able to make his case in DC, which nearly everyone considers a more favorable venue for prosecutors than South Florida, or will he be forced to proceed on Trump’s home turf? I won’t get into the complicated legal analysis, but it requires analyzing a complex interconnected series of factors, including the underlying conduct, where it occurred, which defendant is charged, and the laws being charged.
I don’t have any special insight here, but I would remind you that many observers consider it likely that Trump will not be the only person charged. Most of the analysis of the venue question has been focused on Trump since he’s the big fish, but venue for other defendants may be even harder to establish in DC, which means Smith could need a Florida grand jury for them.
The main takeaway here though remains that we simply don’t know yet the full scope of Smith’s probe let alone all the particulars. While indictments in the next few days still seems likely, be wary of what we don’t know.
You Truly Can’t Make This Up
CNN:
An employee at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence drained the resort’s swimming pool last October and ended up flooding a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
While it’s unclear if the room was intentionally flooded or if it happened by mistake, the incident occurred amid a series of events that federal prosecutors found suspicious.
At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the sources.
Texas Sheriff Wants Criminal Charges For DeSantis Migrant Flights
The Bexar County, Texas sheriff is recommending criminal charges arising from the migrant flights organized by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard last year. The recommended charges include both misdemeanor and felony unlawful restraint. The charging decision will be made by the county prosecutor, who now has the sheriff’s completed investigation.
Another Migrant Flight Lands In Sacramento
On the same day a Texas sheriff recommended criminal charges for the first round of DeSantis migrant flights, another round of flights from Texas to California continued, prompting threats of criminal prosecution there, too, from angry state officials who are accusing DeSantis of being behind this stunt. For his part, DeSantis isn’t claiming responsibility or denying his involvement.
The GOP War On Transgender People
Notorious Spy Robert Hanssen Dies In Prison
Robert Hanssen, perhaps the single most damaging spy against the United States, was found unresponsive in his jail cell at the SuperMax prison in Florence, Colorado, where he was serving a life sentence. He was 79.
Major Ukrainian Dam Breached
A major hydroelectric project on the Dnipro River in Ukraine has been breached, unleashing significant flooding downstream.
Atmospheric CO2 At New Record Level
Guess We Won’t Hear Much About This
The Atlantic: The Murder Rate Is Suddenly Falling
Couldn’t Happen To Nicer Folk
The voter fraud hucksters at True The Vote, which we’ve covered since its infancy more than a decade ago, are accused of using the organization to enrich themselves.
George Santos Falls On Sword For Mystery Donors
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has told a judge he’d rather be taken into custody pre-trial than reveal the donors who co-signed on his $500,000 bond.
2024 Ephemera
- TPM’s Kate Riga: Republican Presidential Candidates Show What A Dangerous Issue Abortion Is For Them
- Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) will launch his quixotic campaign for the GOP nomination for president tonight in New Hampshire.
Just Making Things Up As He Goes
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Schrodinger’s Candidates: They’re Running and Not Running at the Same Time
It probably goes without saying if you think about it. But it’s worth saying it out loud in any case. Aside from Trump, all of the people running for President in the GOP primary, with the semi-exception of Ron DeSantis, aren’t actually running for President. Normally, long shot entrants at least think they have some chance or they have some plan for career advancement by making a solid showing. But in this race, every candidate is in that category. And not just random mayors or people who’ve been out of politics for years. But senators, big-state governors and more. The thinking seems to be: “I’ll have some name recognition for 2028. And who knows? He might die and then I’ll have a campaign already in place! Why not?”
Continue reading “Schrodinger’s Candidates: They’re Running and Not Running at the Same Time”Where Things Stand: Could The Political Theater Be Any Clearer?
There’s not one piece on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political stunt of an election-police task force that we’ve published in the past year or so that didn’t spell out in greater detail what we’ve seen to be true since the beginning: that this sham election crimes force was created for the purposes of boosting DeSantis’ 2024 bid and scaring certain voters away from the polls.
This new reporting from the Orlando Sentinel only adds to that rather solid hypothesis.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Could The Political Theater Be Any Clearer?”Meatball Ron Returns to the Scene of the Crime
I mentioned over the weekend that we have another example of migrants being hoodwinked into getting on a plane and then sent somewhere they didn’t know they were going to. Just like when Ron DeSantis did it last year with those folks he sent to Martha’s Vineyard, the aim is to “own the libs” and use vulnerable people for a partisan political stunt. I didn’t want to get ahead of the facts yesterday. But as one might have expected we now have the first indications it was DeSantis behind it again.
About that Big CNN Article
You’ve probably heard about The Atlantic article which has painted a devastating picture of network CEO Chris Licht and the state of the network on his watch. (CNN has had some time slots where Newsmax has managed to beat it of late.) There are several moving parts to this story. After what turned out to be a woefully mismanaged acquisition by AT&T, CNN and its parent Time Warner were picked up cheap by Discovery, a cable news heavyweight known for producing cheap shows with solid viewership. That was a bad sign for CNN and HBO — both in their in own spheres premium properties. The results for CNN, judged in viewership, have been abysmal. But for all the grief Licht is getting, this is fundamentally a failure not of execution but of strategy.
Put simply, the theory behind the current revamp of CNN is the network got “too liberal” and gave on-air hosts too much leeway for personal commentary and advocacy. But did CNN get “too liberal”? Or did the national political environment become so polarized and so knocked off the kilter of democratic norms that news coverage forced some level of confrontational stance? We’re back to the old problem of whether to prioritize “balance” or “accuracy.” Which of those two is more important shapes everything about how you approach journalism.
Continue reading “About that Big CNN Article”True The Vote Leadership Accused of Using Donations for Personal Gain
This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
Conservative activists Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips used the nonprofit True the Vote to enrich themselves, according to a complaint filed to the IRS.
On Monday, the nonprofit watchdog group Campaign for Accountability called for an investigation into True the Vote, which has made repeated false claims about voter fraud in elections. The complaint said True the Vote may have violated state and federal law when the charity used donations to issue loans to Engelbrecht, its founder, and lucrative contracts to Gregg Phillips, a longtime director. The organization also failed to disclose the payments to insiders in its tax returns, including excessive legal bills paid to its general counsel at the time, who filed election-related lawsuits in four states, the complaint said.
“Such disclosure lapses heighten suspicion regarding whether True the Vote and or its current or former officers and directors intended to conceal the payments from the public or IRS,” the complaint said. The self-dealing contracts and loans were first reported by Reveal.
Engelbrecht started Texas-based True the Vote in 2010 after getting involved in Tea Party activism in the Houston area. Over the years, she and Phillips have promoted probes into voter fraud in their fundraising efforts, but they have failed to deliver evidence of such activity for years. The pair catapulted to national prominence when conservative provocateur Dinesh D’Souza featured the nonprofit’s discredited work in the film “2,000 Mules,” which played in theaters across the country.
Engelbrecht and Phillips have defended their voting work, and their attorney has previously said there was nothing wrong about the loans and contracts. True the Vote’s attorneys, Engelbrecht and Phillips did not respond to requests for comment.
The federal government allows nonprofit organizations to operate tax-free, and in return they are required to disclose substantial information about their finances to make sure donor funds are used appropriately. Charities like True the Vote are also not allowed to engage in certain political activity.
“I hope that the IRS and other applicable authorities take seriously what appears to be a pattern of bad behavior by Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, and that makes the pursuit of accountability that much more important,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of Campaign for Accountability. The organization previously filed a separate complaint in 2020 about True the Vote engaging in political activity with Georgia’s Republican Party. The IRS did not respond to that complaint.
The group’s legal woes have mounted following the D’Souza movie. A Georgia voter sued the pair and D’Souza for defamation because he said he was wrongfully accused of committing voter fraud. The case is pending. A state investigation found the voter was dropping off ballots for himself and family members, which is legal. Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office asked federal authorities to investigate True the Vote’s finances after Engelbrecht and Phillips did not produce purported evidence on voter fraud to investigators in 2022.
James Bopp Jr., the former general counsel, is now suing True the Vote in federal court for breach of contract for nearly $1 million in unpaid legal bills dating back several years, according to court records obtained by ProPublica. True the Vote has countersued Bopp’s law firm, denying the unpaid invoices and accusing it of engaging in fraud and substandard lawyering, the records show.
In an interview with ProPublica, Bopp said that True the Vote’s counterclaim has no merits. “We were shocked they responded this way. They did nothing but praise our work,” he said. “This is what unscrupulous people will do when they try to avoid the repayment of debt.”
In January, ProPublica and The Dallas Morning News reported Engelbrecht and Phillips created another charity, the Freedom Hospital. It aimed to help children and elderly people affected by the war in Ukraine with medical care. Its website, which has since been taken down, said it raised halfway to $25 million for a mobile hospital. ProPublica and the News found the effort never materialized. Attorneys for Engelbrecht and Phillips said that it was a good-faith effort and that his clients only raised $268 for the project through PayPal. Lawyers said donations were returned “at Mr. Phillips’ direction.”
In its most recently available tax return, True the Vote in 2021 raised about $1.7 million but fell $289,157 into the red. The 2021 return no longer includes Phillips as a director. In 2020, the organization raised $5 million. For 2019, the organization had given a reporter and the IRS two widely different tax returns that were riddled with inconsistencies over key questions about governance and Engelbrecht’s $113,000 loan. At the time, True the Vote said it planned to file an amended return. It does not appear to have been filed with the IRS.
Despite Texas law stating directors of nonprofits can’t receive loans from their own organizations, Engelbrecht — who was a director and an employee at the time — regularly received loans from the nonprofit, ranging from about $40,000 to $113,000, according to tax filings. She also earned a salary.
Phillips first joined True the Vote as a board member in 2014. Phillips received at least $750,000 related to a research analysis contract. The Campaign for Accountability, in its complaint, raised questions about what, if any, services were actually rendered.
Bopp was paid approximately $280,000 over a seven day period related to filing and supervising attorneys on election-related lawsuits to challenge the results in key states, according to court records. Originally, there were seven lawsuits planned to be filed, but Bopp filed only four. He quickly withdrew them. Bopp previously justified the costs to file the complaints as legitimate because each state had different laws.
“Such legal fees seem excessive for a few days of work in lawsuits that never proceeded past an initial complaint and which The Bopp Law Firm voluntarily dismissed shortly after filing,” the complaint said.
In 2020, True the Vote did not report those contracts in its tax returns, which are required for contracts above $100,000. “Ms. Engelbrecht, as President of True the Vote, appears to have voluntarily and intentionally filed a false, incorrect, and incomplete Form 990,” the complaint said.
Republican Presidential Candidates Show What A Dangerous Issue Abortion Is For Them
Deflection, ducking and hasty backpedaling have been the hallmarks of many of the 2024 Republican president candidates’ approach to abortion, a sea change from the not-so-distant past when it was their party’s key electoral carrot.
Continue reading “Republican Presidential Candidates Show What A Dangerous Issue Abortion Is For Them”No, Jack Smith Isn’t Leaking All The Damning Mar-A-Lago Evidence
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Where’s It Coming From?
I’ve had quite a few questions in recents weeks from lay persons and readers about the stream of revelations coming out about the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation.
The short answer is that the sources of the flurry of stories we’ve seen are witnesses in the case or, more precisely, their lawyers. Trump World figures, in responding and reacting to some of the disclosures, have divulged some new information, too, but that’s been less revealing of the underlying facts than of potential defenses they might use and the public narrative they want to create.
None of the big reveals about the MAL evidence from the last few weeks bear much sign of having come from Smith, the FBI, or DOJ more broadly.
Kurt Eichenwald, the veteran investigative reporter, had a good thread on the dynamics:
As Eichenwald notes, the timing of these revelations is probably another sign that we’re nearing the end of the pre-indictment phase of the case.
Is This The Week?
The core investigative work of Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team has appeared from the outside at least to have been done for some time. Now we have the steady stream of leaks about the evidence, and a few other signals that indictments may be forthcoming:
- The MAL grand jury in DC is expected to reconvene this week after a month-long hiatus, NBC News reports. This is fueling speculation that Smith is bringing the grand jury back in to issue indictments. That’s not confirmed, or even the only possible reason for the grand jury work to resume. For what it’s worth, this grand jury has typically met on Thursdays and Fridays.
- CBS News’ Robert Costa had a cryptic tweet yesterday that Trump lawyers “could meet” with DOJ this week. Defense lawyers meeting with prosecutors one last time to try to stave off indictment would not be uncommon. But the vague wording of Costa’s tweet doesn’t offer much concrete to go on:
Another Recording That Is Bad For Trump In MAL Case
The drip, drip, drip of evidence in the MAL case includes new reporting from the NYT on a voice memo that Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran made about his representation of Trump that Jack Smith now has.
Oops!
Trump attorneys have not found the classified document that the former president was apparently referring to on a recording made of him in 2021 that is now in the hands of Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Smith subpoenaed the document about a potential attack on Iran and related materials in March after he came into possession of the recording.
Does Trump still have the document? Did Trump already return it to the National Archives? Does the document even exist or was Trump engaging in puffery on the recording? It’s not clear.
Not Sure What To Make Of This
The WaPo had a story Friday about Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis’ criminal investigation of election interference in the 2020 election that said it “has broadened to include activities in D.C. and several states, according to two people with knowledge of the probe.”
A thread throughout the WaPo story is that Willis is pushing the bounds, overreaching with her ambition, and stretching the state’s RICO statute in what the paper calls her “ever-widening scope.” I’m not sure what that criticism is based on at this point, since very little is known about her theory of the case.
It’s not even clear to me from the WaPo article whether Willis is really broadening the scope of her probe to other states or is merely seeking evidence in other states to tie up loose ends and firm up her narrative of the case.
DOJ Closes Pence Classified Doc Probe
The Justice Department notified former Vice President Mike Pence last week that it has closed its investigation of his improper retention of classified materials without bringing charges.
Pence, who is launching his presidential campaign Wednesday, was never expected to be charged. He had initiated a search of his own home for such materials after the Mar-a-Lago classified docs investigation blew open and President Biden’s lawyers had found classified documents at Biden’s home and DC think tank. Pence voluntary turned over the documents and otherwise cooperated with the investigation.
No More Screen Time For You!
Secret Service agents missed the intruder entering and leaving the DC home of Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in part because they were distracted by their personal phones, CNN reports.
Fighter Jets Scrambled Over DC
In an incident that has many of the hallmarks of cabin depressurization, a wayward private plane flew through restricted airspace over Washington, D.C., Sunday afternoon, forcing fighter jets from Joint Base Andrews and two other military bases to scramble to intercept it. The pilot of the plane was non-responsive, and it eventually crashed in rural Virginia. President Biden was playing golf at Andrews around the time of the incident. A Florida businessman listed as owner of the plane told news outlets that his daughter and granddaughter were among those aboard. The wreckage of the plane was found late Sunday. There were no survivors.
ICYMI
Tim Alberta’s devastating profile of CNN CEO Chris Licht confirms most of the suspicions about the cable news net’s lurch to the center.
Tennessee Drag Ban Unconstitutional
A federal judge has ruled Tennessee’s drag show ban an unconstitutionally vague affront to the First Amendment.
Another Migrant Relocation Stunt?
Under circumstances that remain very murky, a group of about 16 migrants were taken from Texas to New Mexico and then flown by private chartered plane to Sacramento and left at a church there, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
You’ll recall last year’s stunt by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in which the state took migrants from Texas and flew them to Martha’s Vineyard and dumped them there with no support.
One potential wrinkle of note in the Sacramento case: California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the migrants were “in possession of documentation purporting to be from the government of the State of Florida.”
Quote Of The Week
Sci-fi writer Ted Chiang:
There was an exchange on Twitter a while back where someone said, “What is artificial intelligence?” And someone else said, “A poor choice of words in 1954.” And, you know, they’re right. I think that if we had chosen a different phrase for it, back in the ’50s, we might have avoided a lot of the confusion that we’re having now.
I Love This So Much
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) put out a video claiming she refused to cast a vote on the debt ceiling package last week as a “protest” – but here’s video of her racing up the steps of Capitol the night of the vote and being told by a CNN producer that the vote had already closed:
Elon Musk’s Twitter adding a fact-check to the Boebert tweet is the cherry on top.
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DeSantis Copycat?
We have another mystery on our hands. Someone bused more than a dozen migrants from El Paso into New Mexico and then put them on a private jet which flew them to Sacramento. They were then dropped off in front of a Catholic church with no pre-arrangement or warning. Like the the DeSantis/Martha’s Vineyard stunt last year the migrants were apparently lured or tricked into getting on the plane. California authorities are now trying to get to the bottom of who was behind it.