The Guy Who Knows Where All of Trump’s Bodies Are Buried Is Cooperating With the January 6 Committee

As he’s made abundantly clear through lawsuits, legal posturing, and unhinged statements on the matter, Donald Trump very much does not want the House select committee investigating January 6 to know what he was doing before, during, and after the Capitol was attacked by his bloodthirsty supporters. Why is this? We won’t claim to understand what’s going on inside the moldy pile of meatloaf that is the ex-president’s head, but we will note that if he thought the behind-the-scenes details made him look better—like if he could say that he was giving orphans a tour of the East Wing when he was first alerted to the violence, or that he was preparing for a photo shoot for People’s Sexiest Man Alive cover—he would want that information out there faster than you can say “fascist insurrection.” (While Trump has claimed that he’s fighting the release of documents to the House committee in order to protect future presidents, we can say with a high degree of confidence that that’s bullshit, as the man has never done a selfless thing in his entire life.) Which makes the news that his fourth and final chief of staff—the guy who was by his side both through all the false election-fraud claims and the violent attempt to overturn democracy—is cooperating with congressional investigators probably extremely unwelcome!

The Washington Post reports that Mark Meadows has been complying with the House’s probe, though it initially looked like he would follow in the footsteps of Steve Bannon and stonewall the whole thing, which led to the latter being criminally indicted earlier this month and facing up to two years in prison if convicted. In a statement, Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, said, “Mr. Meadows has been engaging with the select committee through his attorney. He has produced records to the committee and will soon appear for an initial deposition.”

According to a report from Rolling Stone, planners of the pro-Trump rallies that preceded the attack on the Capitol said Meadows played a major role in conversations surrounding the events leading up to the insurrection. “Meadows was 100% made aware of what was going on,” a source told the outlet. He also urged Georgia’s secretary of state, in the “spirit of cooperation and compromise,” to find a way to overturn Georgia’s election results during the infamous phone call in which Trump demanded Brad Raffensperger just “find” 11,000-plus votes. And he repeatedly pressed then acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen to have the Justice Department investigate baseless conspiracy theories of election fraud, including one claiming that people in Italy used satellites to turn Trump votes into Biden ones. Oh, and he was reportedly one of the few people Trump would listen to on the day and night of the attack.

In a statement to CNN, Meadows’s lawyer said there is now an understanding between the former chief of staff and investigators on how information can be shared going forward, adding that both sides are open to engaging, a turn of events we assume has led to a very bad day at Mar-a-Lago, particularly for the busboy who just wanted to clear his tables and clock out when he found himself on the receiving end of a incomprehensible tirade about traitors and Democrats and the scourge of low-flow toilets.

Of course, it’s not all good news for people hoping to see Trump held accountable for the first time in his 75 years on earth. For one thing, Meadows is still a Trump loyalist who…well, you read the thing about Italian satellites, right? For another, his lawyer has already suggested that certain things Meadows knows fall under executive privilege, and thus he should not be “compelled” to share them.

In happier news that may make Meadows’s (and his ex-boss’s) executive privilege claims moot, there’s this, per Politico:

Three federal appellate judges appear likely to reject Donald Trump’s effort to block January 6 investigators from obtaining his White House records—a big potential boost for lawmakers hoping to reveal the former president’s actions as a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol.

As they questioned Trump’s lawyers, the judges repeatedly expressed skepticism that a former president could override a decision by the sitting president—in this case Joe Biden—to release documents to Congress, particularly when the incumbent has decided it’s in the national interest to release records to investigators…. The files at issue are drawn from former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former adviser Stephen Miller, former deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin, and former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, among other top Trump aides. The National Archives has identified the documents in periodic batches since early September and expects to produce additional tranches in the coming months.

“We have one president at a time under our constitution,” Judge Patricia Millett said on Tuesday. “That incumbent president…has made the judgment and is best positioned, as the Supreme Court has told us, to make that call as to the interests of the executive branch.”

Like your politics with a side of quack medical advice and a dash of carpet-baggery?

You my friend, are in luck:

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and television personality, is running for the US Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican, according to an op-ed published Tuesday in the conservative Washington Examiner. “During the pandemic, I learned that when you mix politics and medicine, you get politics instead of solutions. That’s why I am running for the U.S. Senate: to help fix the problems and to help us heal,” Oz wrote.

Oz is an Ohio native who attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He rose to fame as a frequent guest of Oprah Winfrey, eventually launching his own syndicated daytime TV talk show in 2009…He also has connections to Trump. In 2018, Trump appointed Oz to the Presidential Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, reappointing him to the position in 2020. In his campaign video, Oz criticized the federal response to Covid-19, saying that “Washington got it wrong. They took away our freedom without making us safer,” he said.

In April 2020, Oz said the country should open back up ASAP, bizarrely telling Sean Hannity: “I tell ya, schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3%, in terms of total mortality. Any, you know, any life is a life lost, but…that might be a trade-off some folks would consider.”

Oz has not said why or how he’s qualified to run in Pennsylvania, despite having lived in New Jersey for the past two decades and reportedly only registering to vote in Pennsylvania last year, using his in-laws’ address to do so.

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Who wants to read Chris Christie’s new book?

Very few people, according to PressRun:

A senior publishing source with access to the industry’s BookScan tabulations tells me that “Republican Rescue” sold just 2,289 copies during its first week in stores, which constitutes a colossal publishing flop. That figure does not include digital copies of the book, but based on industry sales patterns, given Christie’s weak showing in stores he likely sold only a few hundred digital ones. (On Sunday, “Republican Rescue” was ranked 15,545th at Amazon’s Kindle Store.) In comparison to Christie’s 2,000 copies debacle, Jonathan Karl’s new book “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” sold 24,000 hardcover copies the same week as the Christie failure. How Christie was able to sell so few books after lining up so much national media attention during his marketing roll-out — “This Week” and “The View,” “Fox & Friends,” along with Fox News, Fox Business, the Daily Show, HBO twice, and CNBC — represents an extraordinary disconnect.

As Eric Boehlert notes, the deeply embarrassing showing confirms that despite the media’s seemingly unending appetite for the guy, the former governor of New Jersey remains about as popular as he was when he left office in 2018. Which is to say, not popular at all, having clocked out with an approval rating lower than, we assume, a politician found guilty of murdering a dozen people would score. (For posterity’s sake: it was hilariously terrible 15%, thee lowest in state history.)

Elsewhere!

As Biden pushes to end pandemic, omicron’s rise points to a longer struggle (Washington Post)

Moderna chief predicts existing vaccines will struggle with new variant (FT)

FDA advisers narrowly recommend authorization of first antiviral pill to treat covid-19 (Washington Post)

Jan. 6 panel hasn’t subpoenaed lawmakers’ communications yet — but still plans to (Politico)

Jeffrey Epstein’s former pilot testifies Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew flew aboard Epstein’s private plane (CNN)

Another video shows Lauren Boebert suggesting Ilhan Omar was terrorist (CNN)

Prosecutors demanded records of Sidney Powell’s fundraising groups as part of criminal probe (Washington Post)

Louisiana store pleads for return of missing giant gummy bear statue (UPI)

Merging black holes may create bubbles that could swallow the universe (New Scientist)

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