Like, I suppose, most people in the world, I’m still trying to make sense of what happened in Russia over the weekend. But what information I’ve been able to gather this morning tells me that this ended very much as a draw. Prigozhin doesn’t seem to be slinking off into obscurity or through a helpfully open window, though the latter could certainly happen at any moment. In fact, he released a message today in which he continued to make the case for his one-day mutiny and actually in a way upped the ante.
Continue reading “Not Over”Bring It On
With the news that Kevin McCarthy has now switched his focus to impeaching Merrick Garland, I’d draw your attention to last week’s piece on learning to love impeachment.
Supreme Court Denies Louisiana’s Fast-Track Attempt To Keep Map That Dilutes Black Voters’ Power
The Supreme Court on Monday denied Louisiana’s attempt to block a lower court’s order that it redraw its congressional maps. That court found that the state had likely diluted the power of Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Continue reading “Supreme Court Denies Louisiana’s Fast-Track Attempt To Keep Map That Dilutes Black Voters’ Power”MTG Finds It ‘Unfortunate’ That Everyone Now Knows She Called Boebert A ‘Little B*tch’
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) accused Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) of leaking the details of the tense argument they had on the House floor last week to the press, continuing the rift that opened up between the two far-right lawmakers.
Continue reading “MTG Finds It ‘Unfortunate’ That Everyone Now Knows She Called Boebert A ‘Little B*tch’”Keep A Close Eye On Jack Smith’s Percolating Jan. 6 Probe
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Summertime Indictments?
With the Mar-a-Lago indictments secured, it’s time to check back in on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of the higher-ups in the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
A spate of new reporting over the last 72 hours suggests Smith’s Jan. 6 probe remains quite active even as his office handles the MAL case. Immunity deals are a big deal and suggest a willingness to sacrifice convictions of mid-level wrongdoers in favor of securing evidence against top-tier culprits:
- CNN: “Special counsel Jack Smith has compelled at least two Republican fake electors to testify to a federal grand jury in Washington in recent weeks by giving them limited immunity, part of a current push by federal prosecutors to swiftly nail down evidence in the sprawling criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.”
- NYT: “Michael Roman, a top official in former President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 campaign, is in discussions with the office of the special counsel Jack Smith that could soon lead to Mr. Roman voluntarily answering questions about a plan to create slates of pro-Trump electors in key swing states that were won by Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to a person familiar with the matter.”
Both CNN and the NYT report that the pace of activities by the Jan. 6 grand jury has picked up in recent days, after a period of relative quiescence. CNN puts a finer point on it, noting that Smith’s office isn’t giving witnesses a chance to postpone their testimony:
Prosecutors have played hardball with some of the witnesses in recent weeks, refusing to grant extensions to grand jury subpoenas for testimony and demanding they comply before the end of this month, sources said. In the situations where prosecutors have given witnesses immunity, the special counsel’s office arrived at the courthouse in Washington ready to compel their testimony after the witnesses indicated they would decline to answer questions under the Fifth Amendment, the sources added.
A caveat that the dribs and drabs that emerge from counsel for defendants and witnesses aren’t necessarily a good reflection of where the case actually stands – and that while it may appear from some vantage points that the probe slowed then quickened, that may not be the same impression from every vantage point.
Jack Smith Tries To Fast-Track MAL Case
A round of motions filed late Friday by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago case gives us a more reasonable picture of the timeline for a trial of former President Trump and suggests again that Smith and his team are keenly aware of the time pressures they’re under with the 2024 election looming.
Smith is asking for a Dec. 11 trial date, a more realistic timeframe than the August placeholder the judge penciled in originally. That will give the judge time to consider all the various pre-trial motions under the Classified Information Procedures Act, which Smith kicked off with a primer to the judge and a request for a CIPA hearing soon.
Trump will, of course, try to delay the trial. Think of this as a strong opening bid by Smith that will get negotiated down some. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon helped Smith with an aggressive initial placeholder, but it’s not clear yet how quickly she’ll decide to move things along.
Informed reaction from a former DOJ official who was a top attorney on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team:
The Evidence That Tipped The Scale In The MAL Case
WSJ:
What turned the tide was an audio tape and other evidence investigators confirmed around February from meetings Trump held almost two years earlier and a thousand miles from the former president’s Palm Beach, Fla., resort, according to people familiar with the matter.
That crucial evidence, along with notes from a Trump lawyer describing his response to the investigation, helped spur prosecutors to push forward with a criminal case, the people said—an unprecedented step that might have been avoided if Trump had cooperated even late last year, as some of his lawyers had urged him to do.
House GOP About To Go Crazy Over Merrick Garland
Former President Trump is using the House GOP majority as a spear in his multi-pronged attack on the rule of law to save his own skin – and Speaker Kevin McCarthy is happy to go along, even if that means trying to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland over his handling of the Hunter Biden prosecution.
Just a reminder: Garland left the Trump-appointed prosecutor handling the case in place, gave him full charging authority, and arguably gave him more autonomy than a special counsel.
Rudy Sanctioned By Judge
Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay the attorney fees of two Georgia election workers suing him for defamation, after a judge found he failed to comply with his obligations to turn over evidence in the case.
US District Judge Beryl Howell entered an order on Friday directing Giuliani to cover what it cost the lawyers for Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss to pursue their successful motion to compel him to produce information.
Trump Coughs Up $5.5M In Carroll Defamation Case
So that he can appeal E. Jean Carrol’s $5 million defamation and sex abuse judgment against him, former President Trump has deposited $5.5 million with a New York federal court in lieu of an appeal bond.
Don’t Sleep On Smartmatic
Rolling Stone: Newsmax Staffers Hit With Subpoenas in Smartmatic’s 2020 Election Defamation Suit
Another Reason Trump Is Running For POTUS
NYT: As Legal Fees Mount, Trump Steers Donations Into PAC That Has Covered Them
The Dwindling Non-MAGA GOP Is Getting Desperate
Former federal Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig in the NYT:
If the indictment of Mr. Trump on Espionage Act charges — not to mention his now almost certain indictment for conspiring to obstruct Congress from certifying Mr. Biden as the president on Jan. 6 — fails to shake the Republican Party from its moribund political senses, then it is beyond saving itself. Nor ought it be saved.
Beyond saving?
Anything Happen In Russia Over The Weekend?
Amazing how much can come and go between the Friday and Monday iterations of the Morning Memo:
- David Remnick: Putin’s Weakness Unmasked
- Yaroslav Trofimov: “One widely shared conclusion in Russia and abroad … was that none of the key players in the power struggle—beginning when Prigozhin seized the southern city of Rostov Saturday—has been strengthened by the ordeal that brought the country to the edge of civil war.”
The GOP’s Anti-Abortion Stunt In Ohio
The bizarro GOP flipflop on special elections in Ohio in order to take a whack at abortion rights is causing havoc for beleaguered elections officials.
John Goodenough, 1922-2023
A reminiscence of John B. Goodenough by a former profiler of his:
Speaking Of Batteries …
The former president went on a misinformation-laden rant against electric vehicles and Biden while on a campaign trip to Michigan:
Driven by his ridiculous regulations, electric cars will kill more than half of U.S. auto jobs and decimate the suppliers that they decimated already — decimate the suppliers and it’s going to decimate your jobs and it’s going to decimate more than anybody else, the state of Michigan. … It’s is going to be decimation it’s going to be at a level that that people can’t even imagine.
Fact-free fear-mongering.
Quite A Weekend
Like Morning Memo? Let us know!
Last But Not Least
Plenty of Russia Mutiny content below. But don’t forget to contribute to our TPM Journalism Fund fundraiser.
Scenes from the Wagner Mutiny That Shook Russia
Rostov residents pose for selfies with Wagner mercenaries
Rostov residents pose for selfies with Wagner mercenaries
Teen poses for selfie with Wagner troops
Wagner Group soldiers stand guard during Wagner’s control of Rostov
Members of Wagner group sit on the sidewalk as they patrol the center of Rostov
Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves Rostov to cheers from city residents
Civilian sits atop armored vehicle as Wagner Group occupies Rostov
Head of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves Rostov to cheers
President Putin delivers fiery remarks on Wagner “treason”
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin making a speech after his troops take military headquarters in Rostov
Sergei Surovikin asks Wagner troops not to turn against President Putin
Wagner chief Prigozhin after Headquarters of the Southern Military District surrounded by fighters of the paramilitary Wagner group
People look at a tank near a circus building in the city of Rostov
Members of Wagner group sit atop of a tank in a street in the city of Rostov
Trucks brought in to block Wagner troops en route to Moscow
Wagner shared video of purported airstrike attack on Wagner troops
Members of Wagner group detain a man in the city of Rostov
Members of the Wagner Group prepare to depart from the Southern Military District’s headquarters
Residents cheer Wagner troops
A woman shows her mobile phone as she speaks with a member of the Wagner group
A woman poses for a photo in front of the Wagner Group military vehicle
Members of Wagner group stand on the balcony of the circus building in the city of Rostov
A local resident speaks with a member of Wagner group in Rostov
Russian police officers patrol in an area outside PMC Wagner Centre in Saint Petersburg
In 2010 Prigozhin leads Putin on school lunch factory inspection
In 2016 Prigozhin attends meeting with foreign investors in St Petersburg
The First After-Action Reports
We’re starting to get some first after-action reports from highly knowledgable observers of just what that wild 24 hours of the Wagner Mutiny in Russia was about. Here are two threads I recommend. I can’t know whether they’re right. But they’re both from highly knowledgable people. It’s worth hearing their take. First is this thread from Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at the Center for Naval Analysis. The second is from Tatiana Stanovaya, another widely respected Russia analyst who I believe is currently based in France. I recommend both. But here are my overarching takeaways — again, none of this my analysis, just summarizing and trying to capture the gist of theirs and others.
Continue reading “The First After-Action Reports”How 2024 GOP Candidates Contradict Themselves With Vows To Pardon Jan 6 Rioters
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
In the past 10 years, there has been an increase in far-right political violence in the United States. While scholars have pointed to several possible reasons – and often, combinations of explanations – the trend is clear.
Continue reading “How 2024 GOP Candidates Contradict Themselves With Vows To Pardon Jan 6 Rioters”Remnick on Putin
If you have a chance, read this piece by The New Yorker’s David Remnick. As always with David, it’s very good. He interviews an independent Russian journalist who left the country after Russia invaded Ukraine. As both make clear, it’s very hard to know what’s really happening in Russia, even for Russians and even for Russians who have a strong understanding of the internal mechanisms of power. Opacity is an intrinsic feature of Russian political culture. The gist is that that this makes a major dent in Putin’s power and likely hastens his exit from the scene. But there’s no guarantee that departure is any time soon. It’s probably a good thing for Ukraine, unless it isn’t. We also can’t rule out some dramatic worsening of the situation if Putin’s escalates in an effort to reassert power and dominance or if he is succeeded by a more violent and fanatic figure.
Continue reading “Remnick on Putin”