A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Just Havin’ Some Laffs
In his first public remarks since authoring the majority opinion striking down Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito mocked international leaders who had slammed the high court’s decision.
- Speaking at a religious liberty summit in Italy last week hosted by Notre Dame Law School, Alito bragged that he “had the honor” of writing what he called “the only Supreme Court decision in history that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law.”
- The leaders he called out were: French President Emmanuel Macron, outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Prince Harry and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
- Sporting a poorly grown beard, Alito also whined about a “growing hostility” to religion, “or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is ascendant in some sectors.”
Top Trump DHS Officials’ Jan. 6 Texts Are Missing Too! Weird!
It turns out the Secret Services’ Jan. 6 texts aren’t the only ones that’ve gone mysteriously missing, according to the Washington Post: Texts sent and received by Trump acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli related to Jan. 6 have been erased too. And like with the Secret Service texts, DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari reportedly didn’t alert Congress about Wolf and Cuccinelli’s messages disappearing.
- The DHS reportedly told Cuffari about the two Trump officials’ texts all the way back in late February. The department claimed that a “reset” of the officials’ phones after they left led the records to being erased, the Post reports.
- Cuffari didn’t try to recover the lost texts or get to the bottom of why DHS leadership didn’t save them, according to the Post.
DOJ Gearing Up To Force Trump White House Aides To Testify
The Justice Department is preparing for a court battle over executive privilege as prosecutors seek testimony from former Trump White House staffers, according to CNN.
Trump DOJ Staffer Cooperates With DOJ’s J6 Probe
Ken Klukowski, a former Justice Department staffer who worked with Trump coup footsoldier Jeffrey Clark, is cooperating with the DOJ’s Jan. 6 investigators after they searched his electronic records, Klukowski’s lawyer told CNN on Thursday.
- Former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson has reportedly been cooperating with the Justice Department’s probe too.
- And ex-top Mike Pence staffers Marc Short and Greg Jacob have testified in front of a federal grand jury in D.C. recently.
House Jan. 6 Panel Zeroes In On Trump Cabinet’s 25th Amendment Talks
The House Jan. 6 Committee has interviewed ex-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin recently to dig into Trump Cabinet officials’ alleged discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment after the Capitol attack, according to ABC News, CNN and the Associated Press.
- Mick Mulvaney, who was Trump’s pre-Meadows acting White House chief of staff and then special envoy for Northern Ireland, reportedly spoke to the committee on Thursday.
- The committee is also reportedly negotiating with at least two other ex-Cabinet members for potential interviews: Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and former acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf.
- Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to appear in front of the committee in the coming days, ABC News and CNN report.
- The Trump Cabinet members the panel’s already spoken to: Ex-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, ex-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and ex-Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia (and ex-Attorney General Bill Barr, obviously, though he wouldn’t have been there for the 25A discussions).
CPAC Leader Decides Leftists Are The Real Fascists
Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) organizer Matt Schlapp already made it clear earlier this week that far-right Hungarian Prime Minister and CPAC special guest Viktor Orbán’s Nazi speech attacking “race mixing” was nbd, but yesterday Schlapp fully went to bat for his buddy via Twitter.
- As you probably expected, Schlapp complained that Orbán was a victim of “cancel culture.”
- “The most tragic part is that the left is guilty of the fascism they always charge,” Schlapp lamented in defense of a leader who’s actively trying to kill democracy in his country.
- And yet CPAC wasn’t afraid to cancel a guest appearance last year when it turned out he’d peddled anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Huh!
Durbin Tests Positive For COVID
Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced on Thursday that he will be quarantining after testing positive for COVID-19.
Must Read
“How local journalists proved a 10-year-old’s abortion wasn’t a hoax” – The Washington Post
Got ‘Em!
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