Greetings from Martha’s Vineyard, where Morning Memo has relocated until Labor Day. The same news and commentary except sun-dappled and sandy-toed. Sign up for the email version.
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop
It turns out that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago investigation didn’t stop with the June indictment of Donald Trump and Walt Nauta. We knew that in a general sense, but it could have been the usual tying up loose threads in a case before trial. Not so, we now know.
It appears that a Mar-a-Lago employee decided after the June indictments that he had more to share with prosecutors. This sometimes happens when shit gets real for potential defendants and witnesses. The employee is Yuscil Taveras, who oversees Mar-a-Lago’s security cameras, according to multiple reports.
“After Trump and Nauta were indicted in June, however, Taveras decided he had more he wanted to tell the authorities about his conversations with De Oliveira, according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions,” the WaPo reports.
According to CNN:
- Taveras received his target letter from federal prosecutors after the June MAL indictment;
- Taveras met with investigators after the June indictment;
- At least some of the superseding indictment is based on information from Taveras, who is identified as “Trump Employee 4”;
- “After receiving the target letter, Taveras changed lawyers because his attorney, Stan Woodward, also represented Nauta, which presented a conflict, sources said.” The WaPo reports that the new lawyer was not paid by the Trump PAC.
So in short, Taveras receives a target letter that conflicts out his attorney, he gets a new attorney, he meets with the feds, a superseding indictment soon follows. A + B + C may not equal D, but that’s a pretty familiar and well worn path for witnesses under the gun to take. It shows that Smith’s team was not nearly done when the indictment initially came down.
We’ve Heard This Before …
Carlos De Oliveira, the newest co-defendant in the Mar-a-Lago case, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning in Miami, but is reportedly having trouble finding a local lawyer in south Florida.
Catching Up On New Figures In The MAL Case
WaPo: Trump aide Carlos De Oliveira’s journey from failed witness to defendant
NYT: Minor Characters Emerge to Play Key Roles in Trump Documents Case
Salon: Why are so many people willing to risk it all for Donald Trump?
An Overlooked Jan. 6 Charge
Ryan Goodman and Andrew Weissmann: The “Stop the Count” Scheme Is A Separate Basis For A Charge Under 18 U.S.C. Section 241.
Trump’s Money Woes
- WaPo: Trump PAC has spent more than $40 million on legal costs this year for himself, others
- NYT: $60 Million Refund Request Shows Financial Pressure on Trump From Legal Fees
- NYT: Trump Team Creates Legal-Defense Fund to Cover His Allies’ Bills
Abandoned
NBC News reached out to 44 of the dozens of people who served in Trump’s Cabinet over his term in office. Most declined to comment or ignored the requests. A total of four have said publicly they support his run for re-election. Several have been coy about where they stand, stopping short of endorsing Trump with the GOP primary race underway. Then there are those who outright oppose his bid for the GOP nomination or are adamant that they don’t want him back in power.
This Is Where We Are
- NYT: Trump Threatens Republicans Who Don’t Help Him Exact Vengeance
- Untethered:
Trump Defamation Suit Against CNN Dismissed
A judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s nearly half-billion dollar defamation lawsuit against CNN, ruling among other things that the use of “Big Lie” was not defamatory.
How Does One Celebrate A First Impeachment?
WaPo: Trump calls for conditioning Ukraine aid on congressional Biden probes
BFD
President Biden has authored the biggest change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice since its inception in 1950
Seems Like A Nice Guy
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) allegedly screamed and cursed at a group of Senate pages in the Capitol rotunda Wednesday night.
Quiet Week In DC?
Congress is on August recess, and President Biden is on vacation in Delaware. But then again it may not be quiet if a DC federal grand jury indicts ex-President Trump in the Jan. 6 investigation.
In MAGA World, the House Oversight Committee is expected to hear behind closed doors today from Hunter Biden biz partner Devon Archer.
2024 Ephemera
- NYT: “Former President Donald J. Trump is dominating his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, leading his nearest challenger, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, by a landslide 37 percentage points nationally among the likely Republican primary electorate, according to the first New York Times/Siena College poll of the 2024 campaign.”
- WaPo: Trump gains advantage as states set delegate selection rules
- NYT: DeSantis Jabs at Trump’s Legal Trouble as He Resets His Campaign
- Politico: Abigail Spanberger tells Democrats she will run for governor of Virginia
DeSantis Still Taking Hits Over ‘Benefits’ Of Slavery
- WaPo: Republican presidential hopefuls blast DeSantis over slavery standards
- Politico: DeSantis rocked by Black Republican revolt over slavery comments
How Lawmakers Armed The NRA
NYT: “Over decades, a small group of legislators led by a prominent Democrat pushed the gun lobby to help transform the law, the courts and views on the Second Amendment.”
Must Read From TPM
Josh Kovensky: Alito Gets Softball WSJ Interview With Attorney On Key Tax Case Before SCOTUS
KBJ Is Bringing It
Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern: Ketanji Brown Jackson Has Perfected the Art of Originalism Jujitsu
What Happened To Tricia Cotham?
NYT: Inside the Party Switch that Blew Up North Carolina Politics
Mind Blown
AP:
Death threats forced Irish pop singer Sinead O’Connor to call off a peace concert in Jerusalem in the summer of 1997. At the time, a young man named Itamar Ben-Gvir took credit for the campaign against her.
Today, he is Israel’s national security minister.
The transformation of Ben-Gvir from a fringe Israeli extremist trying to take down O’Connor’s coexistence-themed concert to a powerful minster overseeing the Israeli police force reflects the dramatic rise of Israel’s far-right.
The Race To The Arctic
I hate reducing everything to great power politics, but the race to lay claim to the melting Arctic really is reminiscent of 19th century great power politics.
Science Meets Sci-Fi
NYT: Worms Revived After 46,000 Years Frozen in Siberian Permafrost
Like Morning Memo? Let us know!
