Freedom Caucus staple Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) announced on Wednesday he will back former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador Nikki Haley over Donald Trump in the next presidential race, saying the Republican Party is in need of a “new vision.”
Continue reading “Rep. Norman, Who Pushed Trump To Invoke ‘Marshall Law,’ Won’t Be Supporting Him In 2024”DeSantis Asks GOP-Controlled State Senate To Expand His Sham Election Police Force
Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration has asked the Florida state legislature to expand the governor’s sham election police force.
Continue reading “DeSantis Asks GOP-Controlled State Senate To Expand His Sham Election Police Force”The Other Time Dianne Feinstein Retired From Politics
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was first published at The Conversation.
Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the 89-year-old senior senator from California, announced on Feb. 14, 2023, that she will retire from the Senate rather than run for a sixth term when her current term expires at the end of 2024.
Continue reading “The Other Time Dianne Feinstein Retired From Politics”Suspicions In Mar-A-Lago Case Confirmed
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Unpacking The Trump Classified Docs News
I would hope by now it’s obvious to regular readers that I’m trying to use Morning Memo to bring together the scattershot incremental developments in the various Trump investigations into a coherent narrative.
The challenge for readers is that the federal probes of Trump are largely operating under the veil of grand jury secrecy. Especially after the bizarro special master review in the Mar-a-Lago classified docs case was shut down by an appeals court, the probes have been mostly underground. Reporters occasionally penetrate the veil of secrecy and get tidbits about who has been testifying, what they’ve been asked about, and other nuggets that in isolation can be confusing, misleading, or incomplete.
Case in point: We learned Friday that two Trump lawyers appeared before the DC grand jury investigating the Mar-a-Lago case (yesterday CNN learned of a third). Note it’s “appeared” not “testified.” That’s because it wasn’t clear whether they’d actually answered questions. The obvious out for them would be attorney-client privilege. The suspicion, however, was that Special Counsel Jack Smith was preparing to do an end run around attorney-client privilege using one of the exceptions, in particular the crime-fraud exception. Now that’s been confirmed in new reporting from the NYT and others.
It appears Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran answered some but not all of the grand jury’s questions, and cited attorney-client privilege in refusing to answer others. Smith is now seeking court approval to pierce the attorney-client privilege. I suspect it’s not on the grounds that Corcoran himself was a party to Trump’s crimes but rather an instrument of those crimes.
Among the many reasons this is significant news:
- Trump used multiple lawyers to interact with the National Archives, FBI, and Justice Department and if they’re compelled to testify about those interactions it opens up new avenues of potentially explosive evidence deeply damaging to the former president.
- It suggests Smith is in the later stages of obtaining the evidence he needs to make a charging decision, as this former Mueller prosecutor notes:
- A “win” by Smith in the attorney-client privilege dispute would mean a federal judge has found sufficient evidence of a crime involving Trump and his lawyers to dispense with the privilege, itself a notable conclusion.
What’s Up With Boris Epshteyn?
One final point that is worth having on your radar. The NYT keeps noting that Smith is paying a lot of attention to Trump attorney Boris Epshteyn. I don’t want to get ahead of the reporting, but let’s just say Epshteyn is being treated in their coverage in a different category than the other Trump lawyers, who seemed to be instruments of Trump’s scheming. The suggestion here is that Epshteyn was somehow more than an instrument:
Prosecutors overseeing the documents investigation have also been asking witnesses questions about Boris Epshteyn, who has played a central role in coordinating lawyers on several of the investigations involving Mr. Trump, according to multiple people briefed on the matter. It was Mr. Epshteyn who first brought Mr. Corcoran into Mr. Trump’s orbit.
At least three lawyers have sat for interviews with the Justice Department during which questions about Mr. Epshteyn were asked — among them Ms. Bobb and, more recently, Alina Habba, people with knowledge of the matter said. A third lawyer close to Mr. Trump, Jesse Binnall, has also spoken with prosecutors about Mr. Epshteyn, the people said.
…
But prosecutors are asking questions indicating they’re interested in whether Mr. Epshteyn was trying to improperly influence witness testimony, the person briefed on the interviews said.
Reax To Pence Subpoena Fight
Legal experts and others spent Tuesday grappling with the argument former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to raise to resist complying with a federal grand jury subpoena in the Jan. 6 investigation:
Harry Litman: How Mike Pence’s flawed argument against a subpoena just might get him what he wants
Aaron Blake: What it means for Pence to fight his subpoena — politically and legally
Pence is expected to address the subpoena from Special Counsel Jack Smith today at a not-yet-campaigning appearance in Iowa.
Appeals Court Upholds $110,000 Contempt Sanction Against Trump
I forgot about this one. Last April, a state court judge in New York found Donald Trump in contempt of court for failing to comply with discovery orders in the NY AG’s fraud investigation of his business.
You may remember that the judge imposed sanctions at the time of $10,000 a day. Eventually the judge ordered Trump to pay the AG a total of $110,000 for his contempt. In the meantime, NY AG Tish James filed a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, his adult children and the Trump Org.
Yesterday, an appeals court upheld the contempt sanction.
What To Do About Barr And Durham?
Neal Katyal: Under Trump, Barr and Durham Made a Mockery of the Rules I Wrote
DiFi Heads For The Exit
Dianne Feinstein’s Senate career is ending on a sad note.
At 89, her declining vigor has been a painful revelation to Senate colleagues and supporters, as documented in numerous stark accounts in recent months. She made her decision not to run for re-election in 2024 official Tuesday, but only after prominent House Democrats like Adam Schiff and Katie Porter had already launched their campaigns for her California Senate seat.
Feinstein’s remarkable career was largely shaped by her fierce determination, sharp questioning, and toughness. It’s hard to see it end this way, with a wince-inducing encounter with reporters on the Hill in which Feinstein didn’t seem to know that her office had already sent out the announcement that she’s not running again.
Merika!
Emma Riddle, 18, has now survived shootings at her high school and at her university.
Close Call?
There’s a lot going on in this new Politico report, with critical caveats and hedges and nuance, so rather than paraphrasing it, let me just give you a taste and encourage you to read the whole thing:
Hackers linked to Russia got very close to being able to take a dozen U.S. electric and gas facilities offline in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, the head of a top cybersecurity company warned Tuesday.
Robert M. Lee, the founder and CEO of Dragos, which helps companies respond to cyberattacks, said hackers with a group Dragos calls “Chernovite” were using a malicious software to try to take down “around a dozen” U.S. electric and liquid natural gas sites.
“This is the closest we’ve ever been to having U.S. or European infrastructure, I’d say U.S. infrastructure, go offline,” Lee told reporters in a briefing. “It wasn’t employed on one of its targets, they weren’t ready to pull the trigger, they were getting very close.” Lee declined to offer details on what prevented the attack from succeeding, but said it was halted by a coalition of U.S. government and cyber industry groups.
George Santos, Mitt Romney, And The Loss Of Shame
NPR: When politicians have no shame, the old rules don’t apply
Chumming The Right-Wing Waters
Oh, look, it’s James Rosen, most recently of Newsmax, doing his schtick:
LOLOL Elon
Elon Musk descends further into self-parody in this amazing account of an insecure billionaire rigging his own social media platform to boost his fragile ego.
Elon Musk Makes Ted Cruz Look More Foolish Than Usual
Oh, my. Can you imagine this phone call between Ted and Elon?
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Five Points On The Upcoming Wisconsin Election That Could Have Consequences For 2024
At the end of February — the sleepy, dead days of winter when the 2022 midterms have shrunk in the rearview and 2024 still feels far off — Wisconsin will host a blockbuster primary for an open seat on the state Supreme Court, a race with significant national ramifications.
Continue reading “Five Points On The Upcoming Wisconsin Election That Could Have Consequences For 2024”Finally a Credible Balloon Story
After a lot of heated speculation and a bunch of scrambled jet fighters over Canada and the far North of the United States we’re finally getting a credible explanation of the Chinese balloon saga. According to a new report from The Washington Post the United States is now examining the possibility that the People’s Liberation Army simply lost control of the balloon intended to surveil Guam. The U.S. was monitoring the balloon since it went aloft from Hainan Island along China’s south coast. It was tracking along a path to Guam but then seemed to veer north until reaching Alaska.
Here’s the key passage from the Post …
Continue reading “Finally a Credible Balloon Story”Feinstein Announces She Will Not Run For Reelection in 2024
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced on Tuesday she will not run for reelection in 2024, but will complete her existing term.
“I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends,” Feinstein wrote in a Twitter post. “Even with a divided Congress, we can still pass bills that will improve lives.”
Her announcement is not all that surprising. The 89-year-old trailblazing senator has faced some questions around her cognitive health recently, raising speculation about a possible upcoming retirement.
In anticipation, announcements of Senate bids for her seat have been pouring in from California Democrats in the past couple of weeks.
Early last month, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) launched a Senate campaign for Feinstein’s seat. Her announcement was surprising as it came before any official announcement from the longtime senator.
Just a day later, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) told lawmakers she is running for Senate in a closed-door Congressional Black Caucus meeting. She hasn’t made an official announcement for her bid but one is expected soon.
Similarly, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has indicated he will consider a bid “over the next few months.”
And in late January, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced he will also be running for Senate in 2024. Within a matter of days, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she would support Schiff in his bid if Feinstein decided to retire next year.
It was an important endorsement for Schiff in what is expected to be a crowded and fiercely contested Senate race.
Feinstein was first elected to the US Senate in 1992. During her 30 plus years in the chamber, she fought for gun control, civil rights, and abortion access — including passing the 1994 federal assault weapons ban and chairing the committee that produced the 2014 CIA torture report.
Feinstein’s announcement emphasized she will stay committed to passing crucial legislation during her final year in office.
“I also remain focused on passing commonsense legislation to fight the epidemic of gun violence, preserving our pristine lands and promoting economic growth – especially to position California for what I believe will be the century of the Pacific,” Feinstein wrote. “And I will use my seniority on the Appropriations Committee to ensure California gets its fair share of funding.”
Feinstein To Retire
Feinstein: “I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends.”
Current Beneficiaries Aren’t Safe Either
I’m not sure I’d advise the political strategy TPM Reader JA suggests here. But he does get at a point I alluded to this morning. Current beneficiaries aren’t safe in GOP plans either. On paper, this is what they claim. No cuts for anyone over, say, 55. But Social Security is an inter-generational compact. Once you tell younger workers they will get lower benefits for the same tax contribution, you weaken support for current beneficiaries. If you’re 30 today, how do you feel about working the next 35 years at the current tax rate to support current beneficiaries when your own benefits will be cut dramatically?
Continue reading “Current Beneficiaries Aren’t Safe Either”One of the interesting things that never gets discussed in debates about Social Security (and Medicare) and cutting benefits for people below a certain age threshold is how maintaining higher benefits is likely not sustainable for the older beneficiaries either, unless the cuts are limited to raising the age thresholds.
RonJohn Backs Scott In His Feud With McConnell Over Social Security Cuts
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) have been sparring publicly over whether Republicans support cuts to Social Security and Medicare – and now Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and other hardline conservatives are getting involved in the fight.
Continue reading “RonJohn Backs Scott In His Feud With McConnell Over Social Security Cuts”