For those of you who remember the embarrassment of the Times coverage of the “Whitewater” scandal, it must seem like déjà vu all over again. It does to me. The paper’s editors are trying, and I mean really trying, to make the Biden classified documents issue a thing. And I mean a grave thing. The stage was ably set by the subject line of the email I received blasting out their latest deep dive on the story: “Inside Biden’s 68 days of silence.” It’s this like a Gabriel García Márquez homage? I mean good lord. Are we really doing this again? Of course we are. It’s how they roll.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who has been less than coy about his intentions for months, will announce his bid for Senate on Monday, according to multiple outlets.
Is the federal judiciary running out of patience with Donald Trump? Or, at least, one federal judge? Yesterday, as David noted this morning, federal judge Donald Middlebrooks hit Trump and his lawyers with almost $1 million in sanctions for their meritless and absurd lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and others. Trump has been notorious for decades for constantly threatening and sometimes filing predatory, frivolous and abusive lawsuits. But he’s mostly gotten away with it. That seemed to come to end with Judge Middlebrooks’ hefty sanctions.
Gregory Morey, a former roommate of Rep. George Santos (R-NY), told CBS News in an interview that Santos wanted to be in Congress for a single term so he could get a pension and health care for the rest of his life.
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Judge Blasts Trump And His Lead Lawyer
A new order by a federal judge in Florida came down Thursday evening holding former President Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba jointly and severally liable for nearly $1 million in court-imposed sanctions for their frivolous and baseless RICO lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and more than two dozen co-defendants over the 2016 election.
Let’s jump right into some of the most blistering language from U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks’ ruling:
From the opening sentence, the judge is loaded for bear:
This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.
The judge doesn’t let up:
Thirty-one individuals and entities were needlessly harmed in order to dishonestly advance a political narrative. A continuing pattern of misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm.
The judge pins the blame firmly on Trump, not just his lawyer:
Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer. He knew full well the impact of his actions. … As such, I find that sanctions should be imposed upon Mr. Trump and his lead counsel, Ms. Habba.
I wouldn’t want you to take the juxtaposition of the following two facts as solving the mystery. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want you to rule it out either. To wit:
The investigation does not appear to have taken a look at the justices themselves.
Let me just add that the investigation didn’t conclusively determine there was even a leak. Seriously. It mostly ruled out a hack, but it couldn’t rule out, for example, that the draft was inadvertently left in a public space and was picked up by someone not authorized to have it.
One last curiosity about all this. It was weird reading Politico’s own write-up of the investigative report, the gist of which is: Supreme Court can’t determine who gave us the Dobbs draft! It was written by Politico senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein, who wrote the original story on the Dobbs draft. So I’m thinking “But Josh knows!” … except then I remembered one of the intriguing tidbits about the original Politico story. Gerstein wasn’t the only author. National security reporter Alexander Ward co-bylined the leak story. Ward is not on the latest story on the leak investigation. This was noted as a potential clue at the time of the leak:
I have no idea who leaked the Dobbs draft, but interesting that the Politico story bylines are from Gerstein (their courts reporter) and Alex Ward (national security reporter). Perhaps the source went to Ward, who brought in Gerstein for legal context and authentication?
TPM: There’s a curious swirl of money from the post-Soviet world around Santos and his former employer, Harbor City.
NYT: How an Investor Lost $625,000 and His Faith in George Santos
ABC: Santos, who lauded Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, denies claims he performed as drag queen
Former Santos roommate speaks out:
Surprise, George Santos is only in it to fleece the taxpayers. He told his former roommate he wants to be in Congress for a term so he can get a pension and free healthcare for the rest of his life. (Video: CBS) pic.twitter.com/TsXqbBWXaj
Rupert Murdoch enters Day 2 of his deposition in the $1.6 billion defamation case by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News.
Peter Navarro Loses Big Time
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro is almost certain to face trial for contempt of Congress later this month after a federal judge rejected his last-ditch effort to throw out the case.
Navarro was charged in May for his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.
Navarro has been rolling out many of the same defenses unsuccessfully raised by former Trump whisperer Steve Bannon, who was similarly charged and convicted for stiff-arming the Jan. 6 committee.
John Eastman Is Still Talking
Despite facing what appears to be real legal jeopardy, former Trump lawyer John Eastman remains defiant and extremely talkative, sitting down for a new interview with the New York Times.
3 Active Duty Marines Arrested On Jan. 6 Charges
All three Marines “work in jobs connected to the intelligence community,” Military.com reports.
Alec Baldwin’s Criminal Charges Are Hard To Figure
The publicly known evidence in the on-set shooting during the production of Rust is tough to square with involuntary manslaughter charges.
The prosecutors in Santa Fe haven’t yet filed charges but plan to by the end of the month. In the meantime, they’re talking publicly … a lot. But none of what they’ve said zeroes in on specific evidence that would help show how Baldwin was criminally negligent or reckless.
Stay tuned on this one. I fear it has many of the hallmarks of the celebrity criminal trial gone bad.
RIP
UNSPECIFIED – JANUARY 01: Photo of David Crosby (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
The legendary David Crosby – inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame twice, as a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – has died at 81.
Yevhen Enin spent the past several years rising through the ranks of Ukrainian diplomacy and law enforcement, repeatedly finding himself at the center of his home country’s entanglements with the United States.
Now, nearly one year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Enin is dead. A victim of a Wednesday morning helicopter crash on Kyiv’s outskirts, Enin perished along with the leadership of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.
I first met Enin in 2017, when I started covering the Ukrainian side of the Mueller investigation.
Immediately after the Supreme Court released a report on the Marshal’s investigation of the Dobbs leak, one big question — aside from who actually did it — still burns: were the justices themselves investigated?
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) got funding from the cousin of a Russian oligarch, worked for a firm whose founder said he sought capital investments in Belarus and reportedly connected said firm with said cousin.
