Trumpers are going full stations of the cross with Trump’s doleful procession into Jerusalem New York City …
DC Insiders and GOPs Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
It seems like the whole political world is waking up to the reality that absent some dramatic and unlikely new development, the 2024 GOP primary isn’t just Donald Trump’s to lose, it’s very difficult to come up with a scenario in which he does lose. One new poll illustrates numerically what is clear enough from the news in front of us. In a head-to-head race, A Yahoo/Yougov poll showed Donald Trump jumping to a 26-point lead over Ron DeSantis (57%–31%) from a 8-point lead less than two weeks ago. As recently as February, it was a 4-point lead. In a ten-candidate field — the more real-world scenario — Trump holds 52% support while DeSantis falls to 21%.
Continue reading “DC Insiders and GOPs Wake Up and Smell the Coffee”Now That Trump’s Been Indicted, Jim Jordan Wants To Defund The Police
Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that House Republicans are considering using their thin majority to make a fuss about funding for federal law enforcement.
Continue reading “Now That Trump’s Been Indicted, Jim Jordan Wants To Defund The Police”60 Minutes Gets MTG To Open Up About … Dems Being Pedophiles?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) defended calling Democrats “a party of pedophiles” in a widely panned “60 Minutes” segment Sunday, seemingly claiming that politicians who support children receiving gender-affirming care meets the definition of pedophilia.
Continue reading “60 Minutes Gets MTG To Open Up About … Dems Being Pedophiles?”Did Trump Himself Rifle Through MAL Docs After Grand Jury Subpoena?
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Jack Smith Zeroes In On Obstruction In MAL Case
While we wait to see what’s actually in the Trump indictment in New York state, some potential bombshell news in the Mar-a-Lago documents probe.
The Washington Post story published Sunday seems to rely on the accounts of witnesses who have been questioned by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team. What they recount suggests an increasing focus on the obstruction of justice aspect of the probe.
To be clear, obstruction has been a key element of this probe for a while now. It was cited in the search warrant for MAL. But as WaPo puts it:
The new details highlight the degree to which special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the potential mishandling of hundreds of classified national security papers at Trump’s Florida home and private club has come to focus on the obstruction elements of the case —whether the former president took or directed actions to impede government efforts to collect all the sensitive records.
But the bombshell in the story is the suggestion that Trump himself may have gone through the documents in question after a federal grand jury in DC issued a subpoena for their return:
In the classified documents case, federal investigators have gathered new and significant evidence that after the subpoena was delivered, Trump looked through the contents of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession, the people familiar with the investigation said.
Investigators now suspect, based on witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence, that boxes including classified material were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area after the subpoena was served, and that Trump personally examined at least some of those boxes, these people said.
More on this in the coming days.
Big Week Ahead!
Former President Donald Trump’s expected arraignment Tuesday in New York City will of course be the story of the week. Some key points:
- We still don’t know what’s in the indictment! It’s expected to be unsealed tomorrow. Will it stick closely to the Stormy Daniels hush money scheme or go deeper into Trump business practices? Not clear.
- Trump to arrive in NYC today, with some supporters expected to rally at Trump Tower at 11 a.m. ET.
- Trump will surrender at the DA’s office Monday before his arraignment in the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building. Another protest is planned nearby midday Tuesday, the NYT reports.
- WaPo: “An advance team of Secret Service agents — mostly comprised of New York field office agents — conducted a site tour of the courthouse on Friday to map Trump’s path in and out of the building, according to a law enforcement official involved in the planning.”
- The Guardian: “Donald Trump vows to escalate attacks against Alvin Bragg”
- Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance on the week ahead.
- For those dismissing the hush money scheme as small potatoes, a reminder that Trump was cheating to win the 2016 election and then spent years trying to cover it up.
- Former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance was doing interviews over the weekend and made some news by revealing that the Southern District of New York had asked his office to stand down in the hush money investigation. For the better part of a year and half Vance’s office did stand down, he said, but after SDNY obtained the conviction of Michael Cohen the case went dark.
Fox Takes Huge Hit In Dominion Case
Dominion Voting Systems won a huge victory Friday in its billion-dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News. The judge denied Fox News’ motion for summary judgment in its favor and granted in part Dominion’s motion for summary judgment on liability.
In his ruling, the judge said it was “CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” meaning that Dominion has already won on the issue of falsity. The jury won’t even get to consider whether the statements were untrue because the judge said it’s irrefutable that they’re false.
That leaves for the jury the issues of actual malice – did Fox News publish the false statements knowing they were false or in reckless disregard of the truth of the matter? – and damages.
A major win for Dominion.
Pro-Trump Ratfucker Convicted In Anti-Hillary Scheme
Douglass Mackey was convicted Friday of conspiracy in a long-running case stemming from the 2016 election. Mackey was convicted of circulating messages on Twitter encouraging Clinton supporters to vote by text and social media (which is, of course, not possible).
WTF 60 Minutes?
Lesley Stahl’s almost-fawning interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was painful to watch. Greene is “as famous as they get” thanks to her “sharp tongue and some pretty radical views.” Ain’t she cute?
Stahl describes Greene as “smart and fearless” with a “history of believing in conspiracy theories.” It’s just gets worse and gauzier from there.
It’s obvious that Stahl thinks she’s doing her duty by confronting Greene with some of her more incendiary remarks, but the whole interview is packaged and framed in a way that normalizes and excuses MTG. It’s remarkably bad, especially by the show’s historical standards.
A sample of the reaction to Greene NOT getting the usual 60 Minutes treatment made famous by Don Hewitt and Mike Wallace:
Fetterman Discharged From Walter Reed
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is back home after in-patient treatment for depression. As he prepares to return to the Senate when it reconvenes April 17, he spoke to Jane Pauley for a Sunday Morning segment:
Good To Be Back!
I’m back in the saddle after two weeks in southern Patagonia. It was an almost complete escape from politics (except conversations about the hyperinflation in Argentina and the controversial salmon farming industry in Chile were unavoidable).
I’m still recovering from a grueling 4-day, 40-mile trek with full packs in Argentina through some of the most rugged terrain I’ve ever hiked. A week of recovery and more modest excursions in Chile (a 12-mile day hike on the W felt low key by comparison) soothed the reentry.
We were fortunate to have splendid weather for almost the entire trip. Cloudless blue skies in Patagonia are apparently a rarity?
My reading material for the trip happened to be a galley of David Grann’s soon-to-be-released The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder. I came to the gripping story as a blank slate and only realized on the flight down that the shipwreck at the center of the story occurred along the Chilean coast of Patagonia. Serendipity! The epic struggles of the crew were made more tangible having experienced a little taste of the Patagonian winds, cold, and ever-shifting skies. Before this trip, I hadn’t spent sustained time in such an inhospitable environment. It’s gorgeous, breathtaking even, but also forbidding, relentless, and indifferent. Highly recommend!
Thanks to the TPM Team, especially Nicole Lafond, for keeping Morning Memo afloat in my absence.
Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!
Trump Faces Multi-Count Felony Indictment
Former President Trump — and all of us — now exists in a weird liminal space.
On one side, Trump has been indicted. His attorneys confirm it: a Manhattan grand jury voted on Thursday to issue felony charges against the former President.
On the other side, the actual charges — and the charging instrument — have not yet been made public. The vote has taken place, the decision to indict has been made, but the charges remain under wraps.
So, we’re all in a strange limbo. Some reports suggest that the indictment includes dozens of counts focusing not only on the Stormy Daniels hush money scandal. The details of that may not be revealed in full until Tuesday, when Trump is scheduled for his first appearance in court.
Two Republicans Kicked Off County Election Board in North Carolina for Failing to Certify Results
This article 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.
The courtroom was packed when the North Carolina State Board of Elections convened on Tuesday to consider removing two members of the Surry County Board of Elections from their posts. At the Surry County GOP convention not long before, one board member, Tim DeHaan, had appealed for people to attend the meeting at the county courthouse. And now, dozens of supporters, one with “We the People” tattooed on his forearm and another with cowboy boots stamped with American flags, whispered tensely among themselves.
DeHaan and Jerry Forestieri were facing the state elections board because, at a November meeting to certify the county’s 2022 general election results, they had presented a co-signed letter declaring “I don’t view election law per NCSBE as legitimate or Constitutional.” Then Forestieri refused to certify the election, while DeHaan only agreed to certify it on a technicality.
This month, both Forestieri and DeHaan refused to certify a redo of a November 2022 municipal election. The new contest had been called after a poll worker allegedly made a mistake in telling voters that one of the four candidates had died, which could have swung a race decided by eight votes. (The results of the second race were the same as the first.)
Both elections were ultimately certified by the board’s three Democrats. But DeHaan’s and Forestieri’s refusals to certify, along with similar actions by conservative county election officials in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Pennsylvania, exposed a weakness in the nation’s electoral system. If local officials failed to certify, the disruption could cascade and cast into dispute state and federal election outcomes, potentially allowing partisan actors to inappropriately influence them, according to election law experts. A ProPublica review of 10 such cases found that most officials have not faced formal consequences for their refusal to certify. DeHaan’s and Forestieri’s hearing was to be the first completed disciplinary process for such officials nationwide after the 2022 election.
At the trial-like state elections board meeting, Bob Hall, the former executive director of the watchdog group Democracy North Carolina whose complaint had launched the disciplinary process, argued that DeHaan and Forestieri could not be trusted to supervise elections because of their refusal to follow the law. Forestieri and DeHaan told the board that they could not be certain of the identities of voters or the validity of their ballots because they disagreed with a federal judge striking down a voter ID law for discriminating against minorities. Forestieri defended their actions as a “free speech issue.”
The lone Republican board member present, Stacy Eggers, made two motions to remove the men from office, and each motion passed unanimously, 4-0. “We cannot substitute our own opinions,” Eggers said, for “what the law actually is.”
As the motions passed, one woman exclaimed in the quiet courtroom: “The law is perverted! The law is perverted!”
Afterward, in the hall outside the courtroom, DeHaan and Forestieri were sought out by local supporters and election deniers who’d traveled to the hearing from outside the county. Talk swirled of appealing the decision in court, though Forestieri said a final decision about an appeal would be made at a later date.
“We took a stand for lawful, credible elections appropriate for the owners of this republic, we the people,” said Forestieri at the courthouse. “I cannot apologize for that.” Forestieri later wrote to ProPublica that he disagreed with his removal from office, and that the “NCSBE proved itself unwilling to recognize clear law in General Statutes” by striking down his and DeHaan’s arguments.
DeHaan declined to comment and did not respond to written questions.
Michella Huff, the elections director for Surry County, had watched the proceedings stoically. It was a year to the day since Huff had blocked the chairman of the county Republican Party from illegally accessing her voting machines to further a conspiracy theory, after which he launched a pressure campaign that included attempts to reduce her pay and raucous protests featuring nationally prominent election deniers, as ProPublica has previously reported. (The county chairman told ProPublica that he did not seek to cut her pay, though text messages and emails obtained via public records requests showed otherwise.)
As a result of the year’s travails, Angie Harrison, Huff’s deputy director, has said she will retire in June. “Here in Surry County and across the entire nation, people want to put more scrutiny on the election process, which is a good thing to help voters understand the law — our philosophy is to educate,” she said. But “we take it personally when people start attacking the job that we have been so proud to deliver accurately and without bias.”
In early 2022, a national survey from the Brennan Center for Justice found that a fifth of local elections officials reported they were unlikely to stay in their jobs for the 2024 election. “We’re in the middle of an exodus of election workers,” said Larry Norden, the senior director of the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program. An Arizona election official, whose county supervisors refused to certify November 2022 results until ordered to do so by a court, also recently left to “protect her health and safety” after working conditions became “intolerable,” as her lawyer wrote in a letter to the county.
Huff, however, is staying in her post. Last fall, after the state’s attorney general, Josh Stein, read ProPublica’s story about Huff, his office gave her an award for her “incredible commitment to democracy” as “she refused to buckle to those who lie about stolen elections,” Stein wrote in a statement. A year ago, she had felt overwhelmed by the new and unprecedented challenges inundating election officials, but now she felt more capable to confront them. “Not saying that it’s going to be easy” in 2024, she said, “but I’m a little more prepared now for the what-ifs.”
The election deniers departed the courthouse boisterously, talking about going out for lunch. Huff got in a van with another election worker and was driven past cornfields to her office. The November 2022 election was finally done, four and a half months late, and now it was time to get ready for the next one.
Wisconsin Lawmakers Get In Last Jabs Before Hugely Important State Supreme Court Election
A few days before an enormously important Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, both Democrats and Republicans are, perhaps unsurprisingly, projecting equal confidence that their candidate of choice will win.
Continue reading “Wisconsin Lawmakers Get In Last Jabs Before Hugely Important State Supreme Court Election”Fetterman Discharged From Hospital, Depression In Remission
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Friday morning, and is back home in Braddock. He’ll return to Washington D.C. when the Senate reconvenes in mid-April.
Continue reading “Fetterman Discharged From Hospital, Depression In Remission”Judge Deals Fox Defeat In Dominion Case
A Delaware judge allowed Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News to proceed, striking down the conservative network’s claims while finding in favor partly for the aggrieved voting machine company.
Continue reading “Judge Deals Fox Defeat In Dominion Case”