Judge Cannon Rules For Jack Smith–Though You Wouldn’t Know It
INSIDE: Kari Lake ... MTG ... Mike Johnson
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
One Obvious Avenue Of Appeal Is Off The Table
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has reversed herself and will not force the names of potential prosecution witnesses in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents trial to be made public at this early stage of the proceedings.
But Cannon used the occasion of ruling in favor of Special Counsel Jack Smith to slap him around a bit more, as is her wont.
For those looking for a chance for Smith to take her to the 11th Circuit on appeal sooner than later, this pre-trial dispute was the best chance of that happening because it threatened to expose witnesses to threats and intimidation. But she belatedly ruled properly, so this is out of the running now as an opportunity for the appeals court to rein her in. Stay tuned.
Clock Ticks Down To First Trump Criminal Trial
The pulse quickens as things remain on track for the New York hush-money case to begin Monday:
Donald Trump lost another last-ditch bid to delay the trial.
Aaron Blake: Why Trump’s ‘hush money’ case is bigger than hush money
*Coverage Alert*: TPM’s Josh Kovensky will be covering the trial in person beginning next week.
Trump Prosecution Miscellany
NY Mag: What on Earth Is Aileen Cannon Doing?
WaPo: How Donald Trump’s mug shot became a defiant and divisive 2024 symbol
University of Texas law professor Lee Kovarsky offers a handy cheat sheet for what the Supreme Court might do with Trump’s presidential immunity argument in the Jan. 6 case.
Whoa Arizona!
Barely 24 hours after Roe-destroying Donald Trump took the craven and elastic position that he would leave abortion policy to the individual states, Arizona’s Supreme Court showed us exactly what that will look like.
In reviving a draconian, mid-19th century abortion ban passed when Arizona was still a territory, the high court upended the state’s closely watched Senate race, made it an even swingier swing state in the presidential election, put a potential November abortion-rights referendum front and center, and exposed the fundamental fraud of Trump’s position.
The most exposed person of all was likely GOP Senate nominee Kari Lake, who was on record in favor of the previously dormant ban but quickly started trying to crawfish her way out of it as soon as the court ruling landed, comically captured by TPM’s Josh Marshall:
So let’s review. Lake opposes the law she had consistently said she supported. She denounces the court decision which ruled that the old law is in effect. She thinks the decision should be left to the states. She also opposes abortion. Also, Arizona is a state.
Women’s health is obviously the core issue here, but the self-own of Republicans spending half a century forcing through the courts a deeply unpopular political position and now seeing those chickens come home to roost is one of the pleasures of being old enough to have witnessed nearly the entire story arc.
Loud And Proud
Sometimes the truth hurts:
2024 Ephemera
TPM’s Josh Marshall: Yep, The Polls Are Shifting To Biden
LOL: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) angles for a bipartisan rebrand, the Texas Tribune reports.
NBC News: Election worker turnover has reached historic highs ahead of the 2024 vote, new data shows
Here We Go Again
It’s time to start paying attention again to the antics of the Crazy Caucus in the House.
Under siege from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the speakership of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is once again hanging in the balance. As Punchbowl put it this morning, “it’s clear now the Louisiana Republican has a very stark choice in front of him — pass a Ukraine aid bill or remain speaker.”
No one except Johnson gives a hoot about his fate, but the fate of poor Ukraine is bound up in the internal tribalism of the Republican Party with a big assist from Russia, whose propaganda efforts Republicans admit they have swallowed hook, line, and sinker.
Trump Owns This
WaPo: “Six years after the Trump administration’s controversial decision to withdraw from the pact, the restraints have fallen away, one by one, leaving Iran closer to nuclear weapons capability than at any time in the country’s history, according to confidential inspection reports and interviews with officials and experts who closely monitor Iran’s progress.”
‘Despicable And Consequently Very Serious’
The woman who stole Ashley Biden’s diary and sold it to James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas was sentenced to a month in jail by a federal judge in Manhattan.
Dumb And Dumber
Right-wing provocateurs Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have agreed to pay up to $1.25 million in fines in a settlement with New York Attorney General Letitia James for their 2020 robocall campaign to suppress the Black vote. The dumb-and-dumber duo has already been fined $5.1 million by the FEC and pleaded guilty to criminal charges in Ohio arising from the scheme.
Women Beat Men
For the first time, more TV viewers watched the NCAA women’s basketball national championship game than watched the men’s championship game.
Preach, Sister!
In her latest Vanity Fair piece, Molly Jong-Fast writes:
The situation we’re in, and will be in for the next seven months, is without precedent. And there is no handbook for US media outlets covering the rise of authoritarianism on its own shores.
She brought that same spirit to MSNBC’s Morning Joe yesterday:
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Cruz has strong bipartisan bona fides--he is loathed by colleagues on both sides of the aisle
“it’s clear now the Louisiana Republican has a very stark choice in front of him — pass a Ukraine aid bill or remain speaker.”
On the contrary the only way Johnson survives as speaker is to pass Ukraine aid. Bringing a passable bill for Ukraine aid to the floor will guarantee him help from democrats to survive.