A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
A Dog Ate My Declassification
Trump’s legal team on Monday night wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, who has been appointed as the special master to sift through the documents Trump stashed at Mar-a-Lago, saying that it doesn’t want to disclose whether Trump declassified the seized documents–despite Trump repeatedly claiming (out of court) that he declassified them.
- The lawyers’ argument admits the possibility that the Mar-a-Lago investigation could lead to criminal charges, saying that disclosing whether Trump declassified the documents would force him to “fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment without such a requirement being evident in the District Court’s order.”
- Shorter Trump: I want a peek at the government’s evidence pre-indictment, but don’t make me disclose anything this soon!
- Trump’s special master gambit doesn’t seem to be going as planned for him: His lawyers recommended Dearie as a candidate for special master because they believed he was a skeptic of the FBI and would therefore boost Trump’s case, according to Axios.
- Dearie has further alarmed Trump’s legal team by proposing an aggressive schedule for his review of the seized documents. The team wants to drag it out through the end of November. Dearie has proposed wrapping up the review by Oct. 7.
- Dearie has summoned the parties to his courtroom in Brooklyn today for an initial hearing on the matter. TPM’s Josh Kovensky is scheduled to be there, too.
Migrants Flown To Martha’s Vineyard Were Given Fake Brochures About Receiving Benefits
The Venezuelan migrants Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) exploited in his Martha’s Vineyard stunt last week were handed brochures full of lies claiming they’d receive benefits like food and cash assistance in Massachusetts.
- Here’s a copy of the brochure obtained by Popular Information author Judd Legum, who got it from a Boston-based legal group that represents some of the migrants:
- The migrants have said that they were tricked into boarding DeSantis’ planes with bogus promises of jobs and housing, and that they weren’t told they were being taken to Martha’s Vineyard.
- Another piece of the hoax allegedly involved a woman who baited the migrants in Texas into accepting the flights and identified herself as “Perla.”
- The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas announced on Monday evening that it had opened an investigation into DeSantis’ scheme.
Jan. 6 Panel Presents Bill To Coup-Proof Future Elections
House Jan. 6 Committee vice chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) and committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) on Monday officially introduced the panel’s proposed legislation on adding safeguards to keep Trump and other would-be authoritarians from overturning an election. The bill’s title is the “Presidential Election Reform Act” (PERA).
- Some of what the bill does: ensures that the vice president’s role in the electoral vote count process is purely ministerial, limits how easily congressional lawmakers can challenge the results during the count, and blocks governors from withholding election results from Congress.
- Cheney and Lofgren had previewed the measure on Sunday in a joint Wall Street Journal op-ed.
- Here’s a fact sheet on the bill that gives a fuller rundown:
- The legislation is similar to the Senate’s bipartisan proposed reforms to the Electoral Count Act, though the Jan. 6 committee’s bill includes more specifics, as Politico reporter Kyle Cheney points out:
Wisconsin Sham Election Auditor Calls For Revolution After Finding Zero Voter Fraud
Ex-Wisconsin state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, the so-called “auditor” of his state’s 2020 election results, argued during a local GOP event on Sept. 9 that “revolution” was “the only way to keep an honest government.”
- There was an unmistakable hint of violence in Gableman’s declaration, with the ex-justice claiming that “Thomas Jefferson said that the tree of liberty must be watered by the blood of revolution in every generation.”
- “I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Gableman lamented.
Judge Overturns Adnan Syed’s Murder Conviction
Adnan Syed, who was featured in the hit podcast “Serial,” was released on Monday after a judge in Baltimore vacated his murder conviction.
- Prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether to drop the charges against Syed.
- Syed spent 23 years in prison for the murder of his high school ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, in 1999.
Must Read
“Read the Books That Schools Want to Ban” – The Atlantic
Mr. Pillow Fails To Escape Smartmatic Lawsuit
A federal judge on Monday shot down MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s request to throw out voting tech firm Smartmatic’s defamation suit against him and MyPillow.
Beyond Meat Executive Arrested For Biting Man’s Nose
Doug Ramsey, the chief operating officer of Beyond Meat, was taken into custody and charged with third-degree battery in Arkansas on Saturday after he allegedly started a fight in a parking garage and bit the other person’s nose.
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