A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Last Gasps
Over the next few days we will witness the final death spasms of the efforts to hold Donald Trump accountable to the rule of law. A convicted felon, who was also under other indictment, has never risen to the presidency before. We are deep into uncharted waters, and it’s unclear whether the final skirmishes over how the cases against Trump are disposed off matter much in the overall scheme of things. Most at stake seems to be whether the rule of law will retain some shred of dignity.
What we do know is that Trump is fighting fiercely to cow the last judges and the remaining prosecutors standing between him and being sworn in as president unencumbered by any legal restraint or stain.
A new battlefront opened yesterday in the special counsel cases while Trump’s effort to avoid sentencing later this week in the hush money case took on new urgency. We’ll take them in order.
Trump Tries To Block Special Counsel Report
Under the regulations for special counsel, they are to submit a final report to the attorney general, who may make the report public. It has been the practice of Attorney General Merrick Garland to make special counsel reports public.
We learned yesterday that Trump’s lawyers – themselves poised to take top DOJ positions in the new Trump administration – have been privately lobbying Garland to bury Special Counsel Jack Smith’s reports on the Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago investigations.
We learned of this development when two of Trump’s co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago case filed an emergency motion asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block the public release of any report pertaining to them. Let me pause and note that as to the Trump co-defendants there is a legitimate concern that the public release of further information about them could be prejudicial since their cases, still on appeal, were not extinguished by the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. I am sure that is a consideration Garland will be weighing anyway.
Attached to the motion was a strident 12-page letter dated Jan. 6, 2025, from Trump’s attorneys to Garland demanding that he halt all efforts to prepare and release Smith’s report, and throwing all manner of arguments, legal and political, into the mix.
In response to the motion, Jack Smith confirmed in a new filing that he is “working to finalize a two-volume confidential report to the Attorney General explaining the Special Counsel’s prosecution decisions.” One volume pertains to the Mar-a-Lago, Smith told Cannon. The other volume, presumably, applies to the Jan. 6 case. Smith said he would not turn the Mar-a-Lago volume over to Garland before 1 p.m. today. Smith also said Garland has not decided how to handle the volume of the report related to the Mar-a-Lago but regardless will not release it to the public before Friday, Jan. 10, 2025 at 10 a.m. ET.
Notably the letter to Garland from Trump’s counsel indicates they have been allowed to review drafts of the special counsel report, though they complained about the compressed time frame and onerous conditions of their review.
Again, this is uncharted territory. The Jan. 6 case against Trump has been dismissed. Cannon dismissed the Mar-a-Lago case against him and DOJ has dropped its appeal of that dismissal as to Trump. So, for example, it’s not clear whether Cannon has any jurisdiction to weigh in here. But it would not take much in the way of judicial delays to push all of this back a few days and leave it to the new Trump DOJ – helmed in part by his now-personal attorneys – to make it all go away.
Trump Tries To Stop Hush Money Sentencing
Judge Juan Merchan denied Monday Donald Trump’s last-ditch request to delay his sentencing set for Friday in the hush money case. Trump has already taken steps to get a state appeals court to intervene to overturn his convictions. Expect more emergency appeals today and later this week, including all the way to the Supreme Court, as Trump tries to head off sentencing.
Rudy G Held In Contempt Of Court
The only small measure of schadenfreude available on the Jan. 6 anniversary was Rudy Giuliani being held in contempt for flouting courts orders in the successful defamation case against him by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, an outgrowth of the 2020 election subversion effort. TPM’s Josh Kovensky was in court for two days of Giuliani absurdism. Give it a read.
Marking The Jan. 6 Anniversary
- Don Moynihan: “There was nothing inevitable about where we are today. In key moments key Republicans said, essentially, that Jan. 6 was not a big deal, or even a positive event. It is hard not to conclude that the people who occupy key institutions in newer democracies were simply less willing to take those democracies for granted. By contrast, American democracy seems to be of such little value to many of its leaders that they did nothing to defend it.”
- CNN: How Merrick Garland’s Justice Department ran out of time prosecuting Trump for January 6
- Roger Parloff: “Because of the unusual—almost unimaginable—posture of the investigation at this juncture, I will interweave into this recap of the Justice Department’s latest [Jan. 6 prosecution] figures some discussion about potential pardons.”
Great Read
ProPublica’s Joshua Kaplan: “Outraged by the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t tell police or the FBI. He didn’t tell family or friends. The one person he told was a ProPublica reporter.”
TPM On TV
TPM’s Hunter Walker was on last night with MSNBC’s Joy Reid discussing the still unsolved Capitol Hill pipe bomb case:
Anticipatory Obedience
The Federal Reserve’s top regulatory official, Michael Barr, resigned rather than waiting around to see if President Trump would try to remove him unlawfully: “I was worried that the risk of a dispute over the position would end up being a political distraction for the Federal Reserve and for me, and that that would end up detracting from our ability to serve our mission.”
Bannon Unfurls New Threats Against DOJ Officials
A sample of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s screed on his program yesterday targeting outgoing DC U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves:
Matthew Graves has to understand something. Matthew Graves, write this down. Or if Matthew Graves’ family or anybody that knows Matthew Graves, make sure his family knows this.
You’re going to prison for a very long time. You’re a totally evil person that has broken the law and destroyed lives, and the people whose lives you destroyed may not have the power to do anything about it, but we certainly do, and we are. You are a truly evil individual and you’re deranged.
Quote Of The Day
“Ten years ago if someone had told us the owner of one of the world’s biggest social-media companies would support a new international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany, who would have imagined that?”–French President Emmanuel Macron, addressing French ambassadors on Monday
Jimmy Carter To Lie In State At The Capitol
The remains of the late president arrive today in Washington for three days of public memorials.
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