Trump’s troubles mount in Michigan

From: POLITICO Playbook PM - Friday Jan 05,2024 06:18 pm

Jan 05, 2024

Presented by ACLI, Finseca, IRI, NAFA and NAIFA

The latest internal emails from the Trump campaign are part of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's ongoing investigation into the slate of phony electors in Michigan. | Getty Images

ANOTHER TRUMP INDICTMENT? — In the latest bombshell reporting from The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger, newly released emails show that former President DONALD TRUMP’s campaign “directly orchestrated” the signatures of 16 Michigan Republicans on a false certificate declaring he had won the state's election in 2020.

The emails, which are part of Michigan Attorney General DANA NESSEL’s ongoing investigation into the slate of phony electors in Michigan, show how some of Trump’s top legal advisers — including JOHN EASTMAN and KENNETH CHESEBRO, both already indicted in Georgia — quietly arranged “for the official shipment of the counterfeit certificate” to then-VP MIKE PENCE ahead of Congress’ electoral college certification on Jan. 6, 2021.

“[W]hen it was unclear whether the Michigan and Wisconsin certificates would make it to Washington, D.C., in time” for the vote count, Mauger writes, “Trump supporters, along with campaign employees, developed and executed a plan to fly the certificates there themselves.”

The emails directly contradict Michigan GOP leaders' prior public claims that the fabricated electors certificate was merely an alternate document to be recognized only if the election was subsequently invalidated by the courts.

Nessel charged each of the 16 Republican “electors” with crimes including forgery, uttering and publishing, but the new reporting raises an obvious question: Why are only Michigan's false Trump electors being prosecuted, given the evidence of direct Trump campaign involvement in the scheme?

Asked for comment, Nessel spokesman DANNY WIMMER told Mauger the investigation remains “active and ongoing.”

ANOTHER JOBS BEAT — The final jobs data release from 2023 indicates that the U.S. labor market remained resilient in December, with companies creating 216,000 positions last month, capping a year of steady job gains. The latest numbers exceeded the 173,000 jobs that were added in November, surpassing economists expectations and “fuel[ing] optimism that the economy can achieve a so-called soft landing,” WSJ’s Amara Omeokwe reports.

More on the numbers:

Unemployment remained unchanged at 3.7% in December, extending the streak of 23 consecutive months with a rate below 4%.
The U.S. economy will add 2.9 million jobs by 2023. This is less than the rapid climb of 2021 and 2022, but it is a greater gain than in the years leading up to the pandemic.
Last month, wages increased by 4.1% compared to December 2022.

So what’s ahead for the Fed? The report, Omeokwe writes, “suggests the labor market is no longer at risk of overheating, particularly as private-sector hiring has eased over the past few months. But it also doesn’t point to material weakness that might move up the Fed’s timetable for cutting rates.”

ANOTHER ONE GONE — Rep. DOUG LAMBORN (R-Colo.) announced this morning he is not running for reelection in November, leaving all three Republican-held seats in the Colorado delegation open this year. “I’m not getting any younger,” Lamborn said on KVOR-AM this morning. “I want to look for opportunities to do good.” More from The Denver Post’s Seth Klamann

His exit comes a day after veteran Rep. BLAINE LUETKEMEYER (R-Mo.) also called it quits. As DOUG HEYE trenchantly notes: “What's significant is these aren't members leaving before a wave election, like animals fleeing before the earthquake. … These are exhausted people leaving an unhappy workplace.”

Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at birvine@politico.com.

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7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

House Speaker Mike Johnson at the U.S. Capitol.

Speaker Mike Johnson's border bill woes continue on the Hill. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

1. ON THE BORDER: With just two weeks before government funding partially expires, GOP hardliners who want to start a shutdown battle over the southern border are rebelling against Speaker MIKE JOHNSON's efforts to reach a border agreement, Jordain and Olivia Beavers report: “The Louisiana Republican had demanded any Ukraine aid be tied to border changes, but never truly embraced the Senate's ongoing bipartisan talks. So it's not a good sign that House GOP support for linking the border to domestic funding is only growing. … If Johnson agrees to tie border security to a government funding bill, House Republicans would need to agree among themselves on what that proposal would look like.”

And from the White House … OMB Director SHALANDA YOUNG guested at the Christian Science Monitor Breakfast this morning, where she pointedly declined to rule out a government shutdown later this month, Jen Haberkorn and Jennifer Scholtes report. The House GOP’s border rhetoric this week left her concerned, she said: “Don’t mark me down as optimistic this morning, especially after some of the remarks I’ve seen over the last couple of days.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Press Secretary ANDREW BATES is responding this afternoon to Johnson’s White House clapback on border funding, featured in this morning’s Playbook: “Today’s memo proves we struck a nerve. … Speaker Johnson and House Republicans left Washington for an early vacation in mid-December while President Biden and Senators from both parties continued working to find common ground. The President is focused on securing the resources he requested in the National Security supplemental to secure our border, including more Border Patrol agents, asylum officers, immigration judges, and technology to catch fentanyl.”

2. PODIUM PAS DE DEUX: Axios’ Alex Thompson takes a peek behind the curtain at tensions in the West Wing between White House Press Secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE and the National Security Council spokesman JOHN KIRBY as they struggle to navigate a situation where “there's one press secretary in name but two in practice — one for domestic policy, the other for foreign policy.”

More: “Jean-Pierre still runs the press briefings and selects which reporters ask Kirby questions, rather than letting him choose. That's standard procedure for most briefing room guests. But Kirby is there often, and has expressed frustration that it applies to him. Some White House aides see the practice as a sign of Jean-Pierre being insecure.”

To be sure: “Many current and former Biden officials argue that [White House Chief of Staff RON] KLAIN and [senior adviser ANITA] DUNN are responsible for the current tension, saying the unusual setup is unfair to both Jean-Pierre and Kirby.”

3. HUNTER, HUNTED: House Republicans are moving forward next week with their efforts to hold HUNTER BIDEN in contempt of Congress for skipping his closed-door interview with lawmakers last month, Jordain Carney reports. Both the House Oversight and Judiciary committees are expected to hold a procedural vote next Wednesday that would open the door for a full floor vote to charge the president’s son. Still, “Republicans will need near unity from their increasingly narrow majority” and “will ultimately need the Justice Department to agree to enforce any referral — making it unlikely that Hunter Biden will face new charges.”

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4. WHO’S TO JUDGE: “Biden falls behind Trump's pace on confirming judges as he enters a fourth year in office,” by NBC News’ Sahil Kapur: “To date, Biden has secured 166 confirmed judges — 126 on district courts, 39 on appeals courts and one on the Supreme Court. … At this juncture, Trump had secured 187 confirmed judges — 133 on district courts, 50 on appeals courts, two on the Supreme Court and two on the U.S. Court of International Trade.”

5. HE’S RUNNING: Former Capitol Police officer HARRY DUNN is running to replace retiring Maryland Rep. JOHN SARBANES, highlighting the need to safeguard democracy post-Jan. 6, Nick Wu reports this morning: "Dunn, a 15-year veteran of the Hill’s police force, departed the force last month. He became well-known after testifying before the Jan. 6 select panel with other officers about the horrors law enforcement had faced that day and the lingering trauma.”

6. OH, CANADA: In spite of the pharmaceutical industry's long-standing opposition, the FDA has given Florida the green light to import pharmaceuticals from Canada, where they are far less expensive than in the United States, NYT’s Christina Jewett and Sheryl Gay Stolberg report: The approval “is a major policy shift for the United States, and supporters hope it will be a significant step forward in the long and largely unsuccessful effort to reign in drug prices. … Florida has estimated that it could save up to $150 million in its first year of the program, importing medicines that treat H.I.V., AIDS, diabetes, hepatitis C and psychiatric conditions.”

7. BAD BUSINESS: “Democrats urge DOJ to get tougher on white-collar criminals,” by WaPo’s Joe Davidson: “As corporate-crime costs soar, Justice lacks resources ‘to battle deep-pocketed corporations,’ [Senate Judiciary Committee Chair DICK] DURBIN [D-Ill.] lamented. The department regularly forgoes corporate, criminal prosecutions, he said, opting instead for better-behavior agreements with company bosses.”

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PLAYBOOKERS

Adam Schiff reports entering the new year with $35 million cash on hand.

MEDIA MOVE — Sarah Personette is now CEO of Puck, WSJ’s Alexandra Bruell reports. She previously served as Twitter’s chief customer office officer.

TRANSITIONS — John Millerick is now a senior congressional liaison officer at the Australian Embassy. He previously was a foreign policy staffer for Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and is a Henry Cuellar and Chris Pappas alum. … Brent Skorup is now a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. He previously was a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

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