T.W.I.S.™ Notes
The vigil for Fulton County indictments is officially on. Candles down while we keep tabs on everything else MAGA-legal in This Week in Subpoenas.
- My way or the Conway
Loyal Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway met with the Manhattan DA's office this week, as prosecutors accelerate the criminal investigation into the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Prosecutors are looking at whether the payment or its classification on Trump Organization books as a business expense violated the law.
Cohen, who first revealed the hush money, wrote in his book that he never talked to Trump directly to confirm the payment had been made. Instead, Conway got back to Cohen after he'd called Trump. She said she'd pass the news of the soon-to-be-infamous payments to the boss.
- Spurn before raiding
Federal prosecutors and the FBI feuded over how aggressively to pursue classified documents they believed Trump was hiding before last summer's federal search of Mar-a-Lago. In short, DOJ prosecutors pushed for a search once they became convinced it was the only way to recover classified docs, while many FBI agents resisted it. One thing that jumps out is this passage, suggesting just how deeply Trump's prior attacks on law enforcement officials had permeated their sense of job security:
…prosecutors learned FBI agents were still loath to conduct a surprise search. They also heard from top FBI officials that some agents were simply afraid: They worried taking aggressive steps investigating Trump could blemish or even end their careers, according to some people with knowledge of the discussions. One official dubbed it "the hangover of Crossfire Hurricane," a reference to the FBI investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections to the Trump campaign, the people said. As president, Trump repeatedly targeted some FBI officials involved in the Russia case.
It pays to remember, when a former (and possible future) president intimidates and vilifies federal officials in an effort to undermine the rule of law: the intimidation works!
- Jumping through Rupes
Sure, powerful Fox News hosts knew stolen election allegations and conspiracies about Dominion voting machines were BS. And sure, they turned around and lied about it for ratings, and therefore money.
But did the big boss, Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, know about–even approve–of this lurid game?
Why yes. Yes, he did.
Another round of documents from Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox came out this week. That's how we learned that Murdoch himself knew leading Fox News hosts like Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, and Sean Hannity "endorsed" stolen conspiracy theories that he could have put a stop to. The deposition was another example of Fox's willingness to use toxic disinformation to keep the attention of an audience overcome with months of Trump's propaganda.
Dominion Voting Systems argues that Fox News, its star hosts, and its executives all maliciously trafficked in stories they knew to be false. While Murdoch's admissions may help build a case that the gang was reckless and malicious in its willingness to lie to their audience, clearing the legal bar to prove defamation is still a challenge.
The filings in the Dominion case recount a sorry tale of brand-paranoid hosts and executives panicking over ratings after the network accurately called Arizona for Biden on election night 2020. (My interview with the Fox journalist who made that accurate call, and got harassed and fired for it, is here in the Breaking the Vote show.)
Fox leaders attacked anyone on the staff who tried to tell the truth, then scrambled to tell a radicalized audience what it wanted to hear about election fraud.
At the core of Dominion's case is the claim that "fair and balanced" Fox's lies damaged its business. VICE News' Liz Landers and Shrai Popat went out west this week to visit one county where local Republicans just voided Dominion's contract to service their elections. They don't trust the machines any more. Stay tuned for the full story from Liz and team in the next couple weeks.
Insurrectile dysfunction
First, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went ahead with the plan to let Fox propagandize the Jan. 6 riot. Then a curious pattern began to emerge.
House Republicans offered more support for Jan. 6 defendants by granting them access to the restricted riot footage. (While there's nothing wrong with defendants accessing government evidence, much of the Capitol Hill footage has remained restricted on security grounds. A blanket release to criminal defendants means footage the Capitol Police have restricted to avoid exposing operational details can become public in court.)
Then one of McCarthy's senior staffers met with Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by U.S. Capitol Police on Jan. 6 as she tried to climb through a window just outside where lawmakers were hiding from rioters on the House floor. Wittoeft also met with at least two GOP lawmakers, including House Oversight Committee GOP Chairman James Comer. Wiffoeft has said her daughter was "murdered" by police, a claim Donald Trump has repeated as he's tried to make Babbitt a martyr for a heroic cause. The officer who shot Babbitt was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that Jan. 6 defendant Victoria White of Minnesota allegedly violated a court order to stay away from the US Capitol when she came to Washington to meet with GOP members and staffers and protest conditions at the D.C. jail.
That's all while House Republicans ramped up their newfound passion for prison reform, as long as it applies to alleged rioters who federal judges have ordered held in the DC jail pending their trials.
There's nothing wrong with meeting a grieving mother, or advocating for fixing D.C.'s jail, or giving defendants access to evidence. But it also pays to recognize the pattern: wherever House Republicans interact with Jan. 6, it's on the side of the alleged rioters.
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