Alleged Assailants In Trump’s Arlington Cemetery Fiasco Identified
INSIDE: Tanya Chutkan ... Dimitri Simes ... Hunter Biden
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Drip, Drip, Drip
NPR has been leading the pack in the reporting on Trump’s violation of the Arlington National Cemetery rules against political activities. It was the first to report that there had been an altercation of some sort between two Trump campaign staffers and a cemetery staffer who was trying to enforce the rules. Now NPR has identified those staffers:
The two staffers, according to a source with knowledge of the incident, are deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team.
According to the NPR report, both staffers verbally abused the cemetery worker, but it was Picard who pushed her aside:
When an ANC employee tried to enforce the rules, she was verbally abused by the two Trump campaign operatives, according to a source with knowledge of the incident. Picard then pushed her out of the way according to two Pentagon officials.
Caporale, as a deputy campaign manager, is the higher ranking of the two staffers. He used to work for Melania Trump in the White House before he reportedly ran into problems with his security clearance and was let go by then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. As NPR notes, Caporale also served in another notable capacity:
He was also listed as the on-site contact and project manager for the Women for America First rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 where Trump urged the crowd to “stop the steal” before some of them stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Neither Caporale nor Picard commented to NPR.
The Supreme Court’s Handiwork On Full Display
Yesterday’s first hearing in the Jan. 6 case since the Supreme Court rocked the constitutional foundation with its presidential immunity decision showed what a difficult of not impossible task it left for U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. She threw some light shade toward the Trump team and more indirectly toward the high court, but she seemed resigned to having to make lot of difficult decisions ahead with little guidance from the justices and ample opportunities for her to be second guessed.
The hearing produced no major news that changes the complexion or trajectory of the case. It’s not going to proceed as slowly as Trump wants, but it’s going to be awfully slow to work through the immunity issues and have those go up on appeal yet again. So much still has to happen in the pretrial phase that Chutkan didn’t bother to set a trial date.
U.S. Comes Down Hard On Russia
The traditional post-Labor Day start to the campaign season kicked off this week with a wide-ranging sweep by federal authorities of a variety of alleged Russian election interference and other clandestine operations.
In addition to the bogus media startup that was allegedly funneling Russian cash to right-wing influencers, other law enforcement moves this week included:
DC think tanker and former Trump 2016 campaign adviser Dimitri Simes was charged with money laundering and sanctions violations for allegedly working with a Russian state TV network. His wife was indicted separately.
DOJ announced a superseding indictment in Russia’s WhisperGate malware attacks targeting computer systems in Ukraine, the United States and more than two dozen NATO countries.
Meanwhile, The Blaze terminated its contract with YouTuber Lauren Chen, a co-founder with her husband of the startup Tenet Media, which was paying exorbitant sums to the likes of Benny Johnson and Tim Pool, who were not charged and claimed to have been victimized by the Russian scheme. YouTube took down the channels of Tenet Media and Chen.
China, Too
NYT: The Secrets of an Unassuming N.Y. Official Accused of Working for China
Expected Today
New York state Judge Juan Merchan originally planned to issue a decision Thursday on whether to delay the Sept. 18 sentencing of Donald Trump in the hush money case, but he missed his self-imposed deadline. He now expects to rule today.
Meanwhile, Trump has filed a new appeal in the Second Circuit to try to reverse a federal judge’s decision not allowing him to seek removal of the hush money case to federal court.
For The Record
Just Security: Chronology of a Dozen Times Trump Pushed to Prosecute His Perceived Enemies
No Deal: Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty
Hunter Biden faces up to 17 years in prison and $1.3 million in fines after he pleaded guilty to federal tax charges – apparently without the benefit of a plea deal with Special Counsel David Weiss.
The surprise change of plea came as jury selection was set to begin Thursday in Los Angeles. Biden initially tried to enter an Alford plea, where he concedes there is sufficient evidence to convict him but doesn’t accept guilt. Weiss rebuffed that legal gambit, and subsequent negotiations failed to yield a plea agreement, at which point Biden capitulated.
The only obvious upsides for Biden of pleading guilty are perhaps some leniency for it in sentencing and sparing his family, including potential witnesses, from the rigors of a trial.
Not Normal
With Hunter Biden and the nonsense of the “Biden Crime Family” now a dead end for House Republicans, they are shifting their focus to the new Democratic ticket:
The House Republicans have turned the machinery of their committees against the Democratic presidential ticket. It’s a preview of what they’ll face if Republicans keep the House and Harris manages to defeat former President Donald Trump.
It’s so striking to see how much we’ve normalized House Republicans abusing their congressional powers for purely partisan political purposes
2024 Ephemera
MT-Sen: In a lightly polled race, a new AARP survey of likely voters finds Tim Sheehy (R) leading Sen. Jon Tester (D) 49%-41% in a four-way matchup and 51%-45% in a two-way race.
White evangelicals are taking notice of Donald Trump’s double talk on abortion.
By conceding that he lost in 2020 “by a whisker,” Donald Trump has induced a meltdown by the likes of once-stalwart supporters like Nick Fuentes.
You Look Like Friday Night
The TPM team will put out Monday’s Morning Memo. I’ll be back Tuesday. Enjoy your weekend:
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Thank you. Your synopses are always helpful, especially when things get muddy, as they often are these days!
“ It’s so striking to see how much we’ve normalized House Republicans abusing their congressional powers for purely partisan political purposes”
In part, because MSM et al generate revenue regardless and have capitulated/enabled lies, from Reagan on down. “We have met the enemy, and he’s us” as Pogo observed.
TPM et al tell stories to too small an audience.