With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
HEADLINE OF THE DAY —“Trump super Pac raised just $40 in August in sign of weakness,” FT. (That’s not a typo: 40 bucks.)
THE TWO BIG STORIES IN TRUMP WORLD:
1. In a Wednesday night ruling, a three-judge federal appeals panel sided with the Justice Department, blocking “aspects of … Judge AILEEN CANNON’s ruling that delayed a criminal investigation into highly sensitive documents seized from former President DONALD TRUMP’s Mar-a-Lago estate,” write Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein.
Two of the three judges were Trump appointees. Their decision was unanimous. And it was unsparing.
From the ruling: “Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President. But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified. … In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring.” Read the 29-page decision
Meanwhile, here’s Trump on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Wednesday night: “If you’re president of the United States, you can declassify … even by thinking about it.” Video
2. New York AG TISH JAMES filed suit against Trump and his three oldest children, alleging a yearslong campaign of deception and large-scale fraud. Her office is seeking to recover about $250 million that it says they netted from the scheme. The juiciest takeaways, via Josh and Kyle … The James-Trump backstory, by Erin Durkin … Forbes’ Dan Alexander: “Exclusive Recording, Documents Bolster Trump Fraud Lawsuit”
ON THE OTHER HAND — “‘He knows how to play the victim card perfectly’: Why Trump’s legal woes only make him stronger,” by David Siders and Meridith McGraw
COMING ATTRACTIONS — VIRGINIA “GINNI” THOMAS, wife of Supreme Court Justice CLARENCE THOMAS, has agreed to be interviewed by the House Jan. 6 Committee, CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Ariane de Vogue and Zachary Cohen scooped.
EXCLUSIVE: THE IMPEACHMENT ARTICLE THAT GOT AWAY — Rep. JAMIE RASKIN (D-Md.) entered Speaker NANCY PELOSI’s impeachment strategy session ready for a fight. It was Oct. 17, 2019, and White House acting chief of staff MICK MULVANEY had just announced that Trump planned to host the annual G-7 conference of foreign leaders at his own private Miami resort, Trump Doral.
It was as blatant a violation of the Constitution’s prohibition against accepting “emoluments” as Raskin had ever seen. And, in his opinion, it was time Democrats stopped sitting on their duffs and did something about it.
— This behind-the-scenes account is drawn from “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump” ($35), the new book written by Rachael and WaPo’s Karoun Demirjian, out Oct. 18. It’s just one of multiple new anecdotes showing how Democrats repeatedly recoiled from thoroughly investigating Trump.
Raskin had been something of a broken record on the emoluments issue for more than two years. He regularly seethed to colleagues about the foreign officials and domestic favor-seekers staying at Trump hotels. Furthermore, he argued, Trump was nakedly profiting off the presidency by spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars at his own properties.
Democratic lawmakers had sued Trump over the emoluments question more than two years prior. But after the party took control of the House, Raskin pressed Pelosi to do more: The lawsuit would be tossed out of court, the former constitutional law professor explained, unless the House formally voted to rebuke Trump.
But Pelosi dismissed Raskin’s plea, repeating one of her favorite evasions: “Oh, I’m not a lawyer.” Her deputies were more blunt: Vulnerable Democrats from pro-Trump districts didn’t want to be seen as being overly combative with the president. Democrats already had a bevy of contentious Trump probes; they didn’t need another one.
Raskin had tried to persuade those vulnerable Democrats just a few weeks before Trump’s Doral gambit. But the group saw an emoluments vote as just another on-ramp to the impeachment they’d long been resisting, believing it would ultimately fail. “We know the end of this story,” Rep. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-N.J.) told him. “What’s the point?”
“Sometimes, we have to do these things,” a frustrated Raskin retorted, calling the Trump administration a “for-profit enterprise.”
When news broke that Trump had tried to strong-arm Ukraine into investigating his political enemies, Raskin eased up on the emoluments push. That storyline, with its clear national security implications, had mobilized the frontliners and forced Pelosi toward impeachment.
But with Mulvaney’s brazen announcement, Raskin saw an opening. “This is a gift,” he said in the Oct. 17 meeting, arguing that Democrats should pass his resolution right away and add it to their impeachment probe.
Pelosi, at first, didn’t disagree. “Mulvaney is a liar and a creep — I don’t let him in the office,” she said, adding that Trump was “a very sick man and a freeloader” who, in her view, was obviously using the Oval Office for his financial benefit. She told Raskin to prepare his resolution for a vote.
But days later, when Trump — under pressure from his own party — canceled his Doral plans, Pelosi reversed course, too. “But it’s not over!” Raskin protested, explaining that Trump was continuing to blatantly flout the Constitution.
Raskin, true to form, didn’t give up. As the Ukraine investigation neared an end, he argued to anyone who would listen that the emoluments violations needed to be addressed in the impeachment articles the House would adopt. He spent his Thanksgiving break, in fact, writing a 30-page memo laying out his case.
But as the impeachment vote neared, he received a warning from on high: If he didn’t stop pressing the issue, Pelosi wouldn’t pick him as an impeachment manager for the Senate trial — a position he desperately wanted.
House Democrats never would vote to condemn Trump over emoluments.
Two days after Trump was acquitted in the Senate, a federal appeals court threw out the Democrats’ lawsuit. “Only an institution can assert an institutional injury,” a three-judge panel held. In other words, they said, the members couldn’t sue because the House had never voted on the question — ending the suit exactly as Raskin had warned.
Good Thursday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
BIG PICTURE
CASH DASH — Trump’s Save America PAC hasn’t used any of its $90 million on ads to bolster GOP candidates in the midterms, and a spokesperson “gave no indication that the PAC planned to increase its spending like its Republican brethren,” Reuters’ Jason Lange and Jarrett Renshaw report. It’s a striking contrast with the rest of Trump’s party, which is pumping huge sums into races to flip both chambers of Congress. The GOP’s principal congressional PACs and allied super PACs have spent $105 million on ads over the past month alone.
BATTLE FOR THE SENATE
THE THIRD RAIL — If Republicans are talking about privatizing Social Security and Medicare — and Democrats are pouncing — it must be … any time in the past two decades. New Hampshire GOP Senate nominee DON BOLDUC said last month that he backs privatizing Medicare, Natalie Allison reveals this morning. Now, Bolduc’s campaign is eating his words and saying he doesn’t support privatization. Elsewhere, Natalie has news on an Arizona focus group that finds Democrats’ “messaging is breaking through to voters” on the issue.
ON WISCONSIN — Democrats are raising alarm bells about the GOP money flowing into the Wisconsin Senate race — a $1.6 million gap in favor of Sen. RON JOHNSON over the past two weeks, HuffPost’s Kevin Robillard reports. “A major issue: [MANDELA] BARNES’ small-dollar fundraising dramatically trails other Democrats, in part because he did not officially become the party’s nominee until Aug. 2 and had relatively little national profile.” Dems are warning top donors not to get distracted by other, less-winnable races.
BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE
BRUTAL FOR MAJEWSKI — Ohio GOP congressional nominee J.R. MAJEWSKI has portrayed himself as an Afghanistan combat veteran in the Air Force, but AP’s Brian Slodysko and James LaPorta reveal that he didn’t deploy to Afghanistan — he was on active duty in Japan and loaded planes in Qatar for half a year.
“His post-military career has been defined by exaggerations, conspiracy theories, talk of violent action against the U.S. government and occasional financial duress,” they write of the MAGA Republican who has a good shot at unseating Democratic Rep. MARCY KAPTUR. Majewski’s campaign didn’t directly address the revelation in a response.
BRUTAL FOR GIBBS — Trumpist Michigan GOP nominee JOHN GIBBS, who took down Rep. PETER MEIJER in an August primary, argued against women’s suffrage as a Stanford student in the early 2000s, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski reports.
What Gibbs said: “[I]ncreasing the size and scope of government is unequivocally bad,” Gibbs wrote on his Society for the Critique of Feminism website. “And since women’s suffrage has caused this to occur on a larger scale than any other cause in history, we conclude that the United States has suffered as a result of women’s suffrage.”
His campaign now says Gibbs believes in women working and voting: “John made the site to provoke the left on campus. … It was nothing more than a college kid being over the top.”
HOT POLLS
— North Carolina: Democrat CHERI BEASLEY is ahead of Rep. TED BUDD 49% to 48%, per Civiqs. (Stay tuned to this one.)
— Georgia: Democratic Sen. RAPHAEL WARNOCK holds a slight lead over HERSCHEL WALKER, 45% to 41%, according to Monmouth. Meanwhile, CBS/YouGov finds Warnock ahead 51% to 49%. But GOP Gov. BRIAN KEMP leads STACEY ABRAMS 52% to 46%.
— Ohio: Republican J.D. VANCE leads Rep. TIM RYAN by 1 point in the Senate race, 46% to 45%, per Marist. But GOP Gov. MIKE DeWINE is crushing NAN WHALEY, 55% to 37%.
— New Hampshire: Democratic Sen. MAGGIE HASSAN is ahead of Bolduc 53% to 40%, per American Research Group, which also finds Republican Gov. CHRIS SUNUNU besting Democrat TOM SHERMAN 53% to 38%. Similarly, the University of New Hampshire has Sununu ahead 55% to 37%.
HOT ADS
— Pennsylvania: Even though Democratic Senate nominee JOHN FETTERMAN has agreed to one TV network’s invitation, MEHMET OZ is accusing Fetterman of “dodging debates” in a new ad, tying the issue to Fetterman’s history of tax liens (which was also litigated when he first ran for Senate six years ago).
— Wisconsin: Senate Leadership Fund’s latest ad continues to pummel Barnes on crime, featuring a woman whose granddaughter was injured in last year’s Waukesha Christmas parade attack saying Barnes “cares more about criminals than victims.”
PHOTO OF THE DAY
CONGRESS
ECA PASSES HOUSE — The House passed a major electoral reform bill Wednesday that aims to prevent a subversion of election results in the certification process. The legislation from Reps. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) and ZOE LOFGREN (D-Calif.) earned the support of all House Democrats and nine Republicans — none of whom, notably, will be on the ballot in November. Its future remains uncertain, as the Senate has its competing bipartisan version of Electoral Count Act reform. More from NPR
INSIDE CHUCK SCHUMER — Schumer has moderated his approach as Senate majority leader, playing to the cameras less and increasingly prioritizing results over partisan pugnacity, Burgess Everett reports this morning. His surprising move to postpone a vote on codifying same-sex and interracial marriage rights — even though he could’ve forced Republicans into a tough spot — was the latest example. “[TAMMY] BALDWIN and [KYRSTEN] SINEMA, along with Republican partners like [SUSAN] COLLINS, told him in no uncertain terms that they are confident they can break a filibuster on same-sex marriage after the election, but possibly not before then.”
WHETHER PERMITTING — Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) released the text of his energy infrastructure permitting reform legislation Wednesday evening, a 91-page bill that “hews closely to leaked summaries that have circulated in recent weeks,” Josh Siegel reports. But with Senate Republicans backing a competing bill and some progressives in opposition, it remains to be seen what will happen. Some climate hawks, like Sen. BRIAN SCHATZ (D-Hawaii), held firm in support, saying it would bolster renewable energy. The White House quickly issued a statement of formal backing as well.
But various roadblocks could still spring up: Sen. TIM KAINE (D-Va.) immediately declared that “I will do everything I can to oppose it” because of a provision facilitating the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia, per E&E News’ Jeremy Dillon.
In the weeds: Schumer is considering filing cloture today on a motion to proceed to the House’s vehicle for a stopgap government funding bill, Roll Call’s Lindsey McPherson and Aidan Quigley report. “[T]he tentative plan to start the process this Thursday could lead to a final Senate vote by next Friday.”
DEMS IN ARRAY — Breaking through a monthslong impasse, House Democrats’ competing factions reached a deal on a package of policing bills Wednesday, Sarah Ferris and Nick Wu report. The four bills are now expected to come up for a vote today: If signed into law, they would bolster recruitment, training, crime solving and violence prevention.
CLIMATE FILES — “Senate approves first climate treaty in decades,” by Alex Guillén
2023 DREAMING — The House Freedom Caucus is tentatively withholding its support for KEVIN McCARTHY to be speaker in hopes of extracting concessions from leadership, Axios’ Alayna Tree and Andrew Solender report.
DISASTER IN JACKSON — “House appropriators eye as much as $200M for Jackson water crisis,” by Annie Snider
FORE — “LIV Golf may need a mulligan on Capitol Hill,” by Andrew Desiderio
WAR IN UKRAINE
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS — Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine released Americans ALEXANDER DRUEKE and ANDY TAI HUYNH, along with several others, via a prisoner exchange that Saudi Crown Prince MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN helped facilitate, WaPo’s Dan Lamothe, Karen DeYoung and Alex Horton report.
JUDICIARY SQUARE
MYPILLOW TALK — Federal investigators are probing MyPillow’s MIKE LINDELL “for identity theft and for conspiring to damage a protected computer connected to a suspected voting equipment security breach in Colorado,” Reuters’ Sarah Lynch reports.
BARRACKS ROW — “‘Nothing short of ridiculous’: Trump ally Tom Barrack rejects foreign agent claims as trial opens,” by Caitlin Oprysko
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
BANK SHOT — “Calls to Replace Trump-Appointed World Bank Chief Grow After Climate Denial,” by Bloomberg’s Jennifer Dlouhy and Eric Martin
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
THE MIGRANT FLIGHTS — “Operatives linked to DeSantis promised to fly migrants to Delaware — but left them stranded,” by the Miami Herald’s Sarah Blaskey and Nicholas Nehamas
— The head of the company that flew the migrants to Martha’s Vineyard last week, Vertol Systems, has donated thousands of dollars to Florida Republicans, The Daily Beast’s Josh Fiallo reports. It got $615,000 for DeSantis’ Vineyard stunt.
Jerry Brown and Anthony Kennedy paid tribute to Joan Didion. (The former justice’s sister was close friends with her!)
“Fat Leonard” was caught in Venezuela.
IN MEMORIAM — “Allan M. Siegal, Influential Watchdog Inside The Times, Dies at 82,” by NYT’s Todd Purdum: “Siegal, a former assistant managing editor of The New York Times … left a deep imprint on the newspaper’s policies and practices as its exacting and unquestioned arbiter of language, taste, tone and ethics for 30 years.”
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The nonprofit Friends of the National Asian Pacific American Museum is launching today to advocate for the creation of a permanent museum honoring Asian Pacific Americans on the National Mall. Debbie Shon chairs the group, which is also teaming up with former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and former Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. A new law this summer called for the creation of a commission to plan for the museum, and this 501(c)(3) will focus on raising $5 million for the commission. The museum would still need congressional authorization before joining the Smithsonian.
AND THE AWARD GOES TO — The Fulbright Association announced Wednesday it will award Anthony Fauci and Kizzmekia Corbett the 2022 Fulbright Prize for their success in combating the Covid-19 pandemic.
SPORTS BLINK — At the 13th annual Congressional Football Game on Wednesday night, the Guards (Capitol Police officers) bested the Mean Machine (members of Congress and former NFL players), 19-8. The event raised $400,000 for multiple charities, including the Capitol Police Memorial Fund. One highlight: Quarterback former Rep. Bob Dold (R-Ill.) threw across the field to John Booty, resulting in a touchdown. Pic … Another pic
— Anheuser-Busch hosted its fifth annual Brew Across America Congressional Brewing Competition on Wednesday night at Nationals Park Champions Club, where eight bipartisan pairs of lawmakers worked with breweries to compete for the best beer. Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) made a wheat ale named “Seventeen Finger Select,” which won both the people’s choice award and the overall competition judged by members of the press. There was a special appearance by the famous Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale horses. SPOTTED: Olivia Beavers, Emily Brooks, Juliegrace Brufke, Josh Dawsey, Carl Hulse, Paul Kane, Lachlan Markay, Ali Vitali, Niels Lesniewski, Daniella Genovese, Brendan Whitworth, Cesar Vargas and Eli Yokley. Pic … Another pic
OUT AND ABOUT — British Ambassador Karen Pierce hosted a memorial service for Queen Elizabeth II at the Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday. SPOTTED: VP Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Steve and Amy Ricchetti, John McCarthy, Sally Quinn, Tim Wu, Tammy Haddad,Angélique Gakoko Pitteloud, DeDe Lea, Senay Bulbul, Steve Clemons, David Frum and Danielle Crittenden, Elaine Chao, Simon Godwin, Peter Reid, James Roscoe and Diana Negroponte.
— SPOTTED at a dinner for Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) retirement to celebrate his work with NIH hosted by George Vradenberg,Jed Manocherian, ACT For NIH and USAgainstAlzheimers in the music room at Phillips Collection on Tuesday evening: former NIH Director Francis Collins (who played guitar and sang a custom rendition of “Those Were The Days”), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Abby Blunt, Bret Baier, Kent Knutson, Mike Henry, Jack and Susanna Quinn, Bart Gordon, Andy Blunt and Josh Bolten.
WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Saige Wenik is now staff secretary coordinator in the office of the VP. She most recently was a legislative assistant at WilmerHale.
MEDIA MOVE — Kimberly Chow Sullivan is now senior counsel at CBS News and Stations. She most recently was assistant general counsel at NPR.
STAFFING UP — Ariel (Gordon) Dorsey is now director for innovation and intellectual property for the USTR. She most recently was senior policy adviser for Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
TRANSITIONS — Landon Derentz is now senior director at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. He previously was director of Middle Eastern and African affairs at the Department of Energy, and is an NSC and NEC alum. … Chad Chitwood is now director of comms at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. He previously was senior manager of media relations/spokesperson at the American Public Transportation Association.
WEDDINGS — Meredith Lee, a food and agriculture reporter at POLITICO, and Zackery Hill, an energy trader at Competitive Power Ventures, got married Sept. 3 in Hokah, Minn. The couple met at the Raleigh Beer Garden in Raleigh, N.C., while watching the bride’s alma mater University of Wisconsin Badgers lose in the Elite Eight.
— Fenit Nirappil, a national health reporter for WaPo, and Chris Settineri, a first grade teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools, got married Saturday in Leesburg, Va. They met on Hinge in 2017. Pic, via Xiaoqi Li … Another pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Jeffrey Goldberg … CNN’s Gloria Borger (7-0) and Jamie Crawford … Kelly Coldiron … Ex-Im Bank Chair Reta Jo Lewis … POLITICO’s Kelsey Powers … White House’s Kirsten Allen … Rich Meade of Prime Policy Group … Katie McBreen of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association … Edelman’s Kelsey Cohen … former Sen. Tim Wirth (D-Colo.) … former Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) (7-0), Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) and Bill Enyart (D-Ill.) … Tommy Burr … Sandra Smith of Fox News … Joe Van Wye … Josh Nerpel of Graphicacy … Will Hadden … Monument Advocacy’s Matt McAlvanah and Winda Wanikpun … Amy Chozick … Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution … Carl Cameron … Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. … Kate Karnes … Locust Street Group’s Hayley Zachary … Stacy Kerr … Bill Middendorf … State Department’s Jonathan Orr (5-0) … TJ Ducklo … Garrett Stephens of the Pivot Group … David Pressman … Brett Broesder … Heather Dawn Thompson … Lyndsay Keith … Washington Examiner’s Katherine Doyle … John Moylan … Daniela Fernández of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute … Stephanie Murray … Ben Mueller of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s Center for Data Innovation … Melissa Byrne … Rachel Chasalow of Rep. Linda Sánchez’s (D-Calif.) office … James Slepian … Kenneth Geller of Mayer Brown … Jeremy Siegel
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Correction: An earlier version of this newsletter misspelled Susanna Quinn’s name.
