A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
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.
I have often found in life that it is the ‘little things’ that get you. Gov. DeSantis’ stunt may have potential ramifications that are far wider than he imagined. Unthinkingly, he may have involved himself in a criminal operation.
The Venezuelan migrants Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® 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.
Won’t BS like this increase attempts to come across the border?
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.
Although I understand the larger political climate we’re in, it’s still confounding to me that judges and ex-judges like Gableman appear to have zero interest in retaining even a little bit of the neutrality we conventionally associate with judges. Gableman is a former state Supreme Court Justice and he doesn’t even want to pretend that he has the character of an impartial adjudicator. Yes, I know, same with Alito and others, but it’s still confounding. I’d think they would want to benefit publicly from at least some of that ethos.
I wonder if the fact that the planes (one to MV and today’s to DE) touch down in FL on the way to their destination is so DeSantis can say the immigrants were removed from FL thus making use of FL monies “legal.”
Gableman was an elected Supreme Court judge - that is, a politician in robes. Probably the best argument against electing judges, particularly at the State Appeals Court and Supreme Court levels.
Remember back in the ‘ancient of days’ when Microsoft totally dominated the IT field? One of its favorite tactics was to release “vaporware”. To prevent the release of a competitive software product, Microsoft would claim that it was preparing to release its own version (Which everyone would buy because it was the safe, Microsoft-authorized version…) in the coming months. This would freeze competitive development efforts and the Microsoft product often never materialized.
I get the impression that Mr. Trump’s legal team is attempting a similar approach. They may be dangling the possibility of a ‘bulk classification defense’ to ward off the DOJ and slow down the document review process, while being fully aware that it is a lie. So, Mr. Trump’s legal team will make suggestive comments, but they won’t dare to argue it in court because they know they know it has no legal basis.
