The Hard Truth Is That Donald Trump Got Away With A Violent Insurrection
INSIDE: Jack Smith ... Boris Epshteyn ... RFK Jr.
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
A Structural And Institutional Failure
I know you have little appetite for reading about the inglorious end of the federal prosecutions of Donald Trump. I don’t have much appetite for writing about it at this point. But it needs to be acknowledged for the travesty it is, while trying not to sound melodramatic.
The historic conclusion of Trump’s prosecution for Jan. 6 – and for all practical purposes it is over – is a withering indictment of structural and institutional failures that will haunt us for decades to come. The ignoble end of the Mar-a-Lago prosecution, while similarly confounding, strikes somewhat less directly at the constitutional order.
At this late stage, finger-pointing at the many culprits who share responsibility for this absurd outcome seems inadequate to the long-term challenge of fixing the structural deficiencies and institutional inadequacies that have left the rule of law exposed, vulnerable, and unprotected.
What is required now is the difficult, long-term, low-odds challenge of reimagining a constitutional order that functions as the founders intended, elevating one person from among the people to administer the national government without making them a monarch, potentate, or tyrant.
The problem, of course, is that we must undertake this generational challenge while now confronted with a newly rearranged constitutional order that has brought us closer than ever before to having precisely the kind of ruler the founders most feared and warned of.
It’s not an undertaking for the faint of heart.
For The Record
The relevant documents are short and to the point:
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Motion to Dismiss the Jan. 6 Case against Donald Trump
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s Opinion granting Smith’s Motion to Dismiss
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Motion to Dismiss the Mar-a-Lago appeal as to Donald Trump
Reactions To The Dismissal Of Trump’s Federal Cases
“The end of the two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday left momentous, unsettled questions about constraints on criminal wrongdoing by presidents, from the scope of presidential immunity to whether the Justice Department may continue to appoint outside special counsels to investigate high-level wrongdoing.” –Charlie Savage
“But let’s be real: It’s over. If you have to say the words “equitable tolling” in describing a vision of presidential accountability, you’re not really talking about presidential accountability. You’re talking about a fantasy. You’re lighting votive candles with pictures of prosecutors.”–Benjamin Wittes
“It is hard to escape the grim conclusion: No president out of office has done more to grow the power of the presidency than Donald Trump. And the fact that this strengthening of the office is the result of his misdeeds, and empowers the president to undertake further misdeeds with impunity, is profoundly disturbing.”–Kim Wehle
Kicker Of The Day
NBC News concludes its story on the dismissal of the Jan. 6 case against Trump with this gut punch: “He is expected to walk through the lower west tunnel, where some of the worst violence of Jan. 6 took place, to be sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2025.”
Look Who Passed Trump’s Litmus Test
Trump has picked more than a dozen people for key roles in his new administration who showed up to support him in court during his hush money trial, the NYT reports.
What Was Boris Epshteyn Up To?
Morning Memo is likely to return to this story, but in the meantime, be careful about which bucket you put it in. A close adviser to President-elect Trump allegedly seeking pay-to-play arrangements epitomizes the kind of corruption that has always swirled around Trump and is likely to continue on steroids in his second term. Self-dealing by Boris Epshteyn seems to be what’s alleged, but I’m not sure that context alone is sufficient to capture the full mix of internal power struggles, back-stabbing, and perhaps even worse levels of corruption. It’s telling that the news of the internal Trump investigation first emerged at John Solomon’s right-wing Just the News and included a Trump interview. Don’t get me wrong, whatever bucket or buckets it belongs in is BAD. But the precise contours of this alleged episode, and its full dimensions, are still unclear.
RFK Jr. Accuser Comes Forward
A woman who worked in the late 1990s as an intern in Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s office and as a babysitter for his family has spoken to the WSJ and is willing to testify to the Senate about her sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Headline Of The Day
Public Notice: “A government by toxic men, for toxic men”
Trump Transition Miscellany
Tariffs: “The major question is whether the threats are a negotiating ploy to wring concessions on trade and other policy priorities from U.S. trading partners, or the start of a sustained campaign to reshape global trade and the American economy.”–WSJ
Deportations: “Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump’s new ‘border czar,’ has warned states that refuse to ‘cooperate’ with mass deportation plans may face having their federal funding slashed.”–HuffPost
Taxes: “Republicans are trying to fit as many priorities as possible into one bill early next year, combining tax cuts, spending cuts, energy policy, border security and President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises.”–WSJ
It’s Come To This …
You might find yourself reluctantly rooting for no-longer-leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to curb the worst excesses of Trump on Ukraine and executive power:
Mr. McConnell, whose current term ends in 2027 and who has not said whether he will seek another, has said he plans to focus intently during the next two years on advancing his interventionist strain of foreign policy, which flies in the face of the president-elect’s “America First” approach. He also wants to concentrate on preserving the Senate’s institutional independence at a time when Mr. Trump, who will have a governing trifecta in January, has made clear that he means to bend the chamber to his will.
Good Read
WSJ: Christopher Rufo Has Trump’s Ear and Wants to End DEI for Good
Boebert On Cameo
House ethics rules prohibit profiting off your office, but you do you, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
State Judge Upholds Missouri Ban On Gender-Affirming Care
“A Missouri circuit court judge on Monday declined to restore access to gender-affirming care for minors in the state, ruling in a 74-page judgment that a law banning children from accessing medical care is constitutional.”–HuffPost
A Civilized Way To Travel
After I mentioned in yesterday’s Morning Memo the imminent demise of the SS United States, I heard from a couple of readers about their youthful experiences as passengers aboard the ship, back when she made regular transatlantic crossings:
MM Reader MA:
I took the USSS from France to NYC in 1961. I have a cup with its photo. It was very fast and so very bumpy, but a kind steward got me outside in the wind and cajoled me into thinking I could do it.
TPM Reader SB:
My family sailed back from Southampton on the SS United States in September of 1966. I was 11. We went through a hurricane along the way and they put ropes up along the gangways to give folks something to hold onto as they walked around. The ship rolled a crazy amount (to my eyes) but everyone just dealt with it. There were no roll stabilizers on those liners. They would dampen the table cloths in the dining areas so the plates and cups wouldn’t slide. One special evening we ordered Baked Alaska as the desert. What a treat that was! After we were through the brunt of the storm the captain speeded up and the belief was we were doing closer to 40 knots to make up time. The indoor pool had been emptied during the storm but refilled (partially) and the water would slosh back and forth like a modern wave pool. The VW bus we had purchased in Europe came home with us and we drove it off the dock in NYC with all our luggage. Very civilized.
Thanks for sharing!
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Lady Justice needs to rip off
her blind fold and take a good
look at what has happened to
the rule of law. Jack Smith
has done an excellent job of
trying to prosecute Donald
Trump. Delay, delay, delay
Merrick Garland served no
Justice at all
Behind all the institutionalizing of the criminally-immune presidency looms SCOTUS, who indeed MUST take responsibility AND be held accountable for the Orange Felon's success in both eluding prosecution for indicted felonious acts, and leveraging that support into a winning presidential campaign.
The shame the Roberts Court has brought upon the now quaint concept of "the rule of law", and its corollary, "No man is above the law", will live in infamy for decades, until a newly-constituted SCOTUS can return the presidency to a law-abiding office, shorn of imagined and contrived "immunity" wholly absent from Art. II powers, and indeed absent entirely from the Constitution itself.