memeorandum: Jack Smith uses Brett Kavanaugh law review article and Trump's own impeachment arguments to slap down Jan. 6 ‘presidential immunity’ claims (Brandi Buchman/Law & Crime)

5:30 PM ET, October 20, 2023

Top Items:

Live updates Jim Jordan fails to become House speaker on third ballot — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) failed Friday on a third ballot to be elected House speaker after backing off a plan to empower a temporary speaker. Jordan, a conservative firebrand and ally of former president Donald Trump …

Discussion: Fox News, NBC News, New Republic, Outside the Beltway, Washington Times, WISH-TV, Daily Kos, Roll Call, CatholicVote org, Washington Examiner, Axios and Political Wire

The Hill:

House GOP abandons Jordan for Speaker after secret ballot loss — The Republican conference on Friday voted to no longer back House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as Speaker. — The secret ballot vote came hours after Jordan's third failed ballot on the House floor.

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, New York Post, The Daily Caller, Agri-Pulse Communications …, Raw Story, NPR, The Daily Signal, UPI, New York Times and Political Wire

Jonathan Nicholson / HuffPost:

Jim Jordan Says He's Not Giving Up On Speaker Bid Ahead Of Another Vote — As the prospect of a series of weekend votes in the House looms, the Judiciary Committee chairman is sticking with his 2020 election denialism. — LOADING — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is not done yet.

Discussion: New Republic and Reuters

CNN:
Listen: Terrifying voicemail left for GOP lawmaker's wife over Jim Jordan vote

Discussion: Punchbowl News, Washington Post, HotAir, Daily Mail, The Daily Caller, New Republic, Raw Story, Washington Examiner, Boing Boing, CBS News, NBC News and Political Wire

Luke Broadwater / New York Times:
House Speaker Election: Jordan Loses Secret Ballot to Remain G.O.P. Nominee for Speaker

Discussion: NPR, The Moderate Voice, Lawyers, Guns & Money, PoliticusUSA, Data For Progress, Reason, New York Daily News, Washington Times, Mediaite, CBS News, The Hill, Political Wire, Bloomberg, The Messenger, Daily Kos and Breitbart

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Jordan and the GOP find a new low point in speaker mess

Discussion: New Republic, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Semafor, Politico, BizPac Review, Washington Times, Balloon Juice, NBC News, The Hill and Axios

CNN:

Kenneth Chesebro: Pro-Trump lawyer pleads guilty in Georgia election subversion case, implicates Trump in fake elector conspiracy — Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who helped orchestrate the Trump campaign's 2020 fake electors plot, pleaded guilty Friday in the Georgia election subversion case …

Washington Post:

Trump co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro pleads guilty in Georgia election case — Chesebro became the second former Trump lawyer to plead guilty in as many days, following Sidney Powell on Thursday. — ATLANTA — Kenneth Chesebro, a former lawyer for Donald Trump's campaign …

Discussion: Insider, HuffPost, CNBC, Associated Press, Raw Story, The Messenger, NBC News, Deadline, New York Daily News, New York Post, The Daily Caller, The Moderate Voice, ABC7, Outside the Beltway, Mock Paper Scissors and CBS News

Rolling Stone:

Team Trump Never Dreamed Sidney Powell Would Flip on Them — She was the ultimate MAGA conspiracy theorist. Then she got charged with being part of a criminal conspiracy, and her tune started to change — Sidney Powell was the wildest of MAGA diehards — someone who swore long past …

Discussion: NBC News, The Federalist, Raw Story, CNN, The Daily Beast, Salon, Civil Discourse …, Mediaite, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Reactionary, The Messenger and Washington Times

Tamar Hallerman / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Jury selection begins in Fulton Trump case amid talk of plea deal — Hundreds of would-be jurors gathered at the Fulton County courthouse Friday and began filling out questionnaires, the first step in the criminal trial of a Donald Trump ally accused to conspiring with the former president to overthrow the 2020 election.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Washington Post, UPI, WFLA-TV, PoliticusUSA and The Messenger

Michael R. Sisak / Associated Press:

Judge fines Donald Trump $5,000 after post maligning court staffer is found on campaign website — Former President Donald Trump was fined $5,000 on Friday after a disparaging social media post about a key court staffer in his New York civil fraud case was allowed to linger on his campaign website after the judge ordered it deleted.

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill, NBC News, Raw Story, Politico, Fox News, USA Today, Insider, The Messenger, Deadline, Al Jazeera, The Daily Caller, PoliticusUSA, CBS News, Mock Paper Scissors, Associated Press, ABC7, Tampa Free Press and CNN

Jose Pagliery / The Daily Beast:

Judge Threatens ‘Imprisoning’ Trump for ‘Blatantly’ Violating Gag Order — Trump's New York AG case isn't supposed to be a criminal case, but it may result in Trump getting thrown in jail anyway. — The judge overseeing Donald Trump's bank fraud trial threatened to throw the former president in jail …

Discussion: The Messenger, New Republic, Public Notice, New York Magazine, UPI, Associated Press, New York Post, CNBC, Insider, Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, KNSD-TV and The National Pulse+

Bonchie / RedState:

NEW: James Comer Finds Direct Payment to Joe Biden From His Family's Influence-Peddling Operation — The House Oversight Committee, which is currently investigating the Biden family's influence-peddling scheme, has uncovered a direct payment made to President Joe Biden.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Fox News, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, Twitchy, The Daily Caller, The Federalist and Sean Hannity

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
It Turns Out Joe Biden Is Actually In Charge of the Biden Administration

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Daily Signal and RedState

Camille Mumford / Emerson Polling:
October 2023 National Poll: Trump Making Inroads with Young Voters Against Biden, Maintains Majority Support in Republican Primary

Discussion: Sun-Sentinel, Washington Examiner, The Hill, The Daily Caller, Tampa Free Press and Florida Politics

Victoria Taft / PJ Media:

President Biden Gaslights Americans in Oval Office Address on Ukraine, Israel — Why did President Joe Biden travel to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu? So he could deliver an Oval Office address on Thursday night to beg Americans and a leaderless House of Representatives for more money for Ukraine.

Axios:
Behind the Curtain: Rattled U.S. government fears wars could spread

Discussion: RedState

The White House:
Remarks by President Biden on the United States' Response to Hamas's Terrorist Attacks Against Israel and Russia's Ongoing Brutal War Against Ukraine

Discussion: The Messenger, Washington Post, Daily Kos, NewsNation, New York Times, Slate, Breitbart, National Review, Power Line, NBC News, Insider, The Guardian, Washington Times and Reuters

Drew Harwell / Washington Post:

Elon Musk's X removes the New York Times' verification badge — The unexplained decision removes the only symbol distinguishing the news organization from impostors and comes amid a flood of false information related to the Israel-Gaza war, some of which Musk has personally endorsed.

Discussion: American Greatness, Gizmodo, New York Post, UPI, The Daily Caller and The Messenger, more at Mediagazer »

Trishla Ostwal / Adweek:
Verified Accounts on X Spread 74% of Wartime Misinformation

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Examiner, Breitbart, ThePrint, The Register, One America News Network, TechCrunch and Rolling Stone, more at Techmeme »

A.L. Lee / UPI:
U.S. watchdog: Verified X accounts are main source of misinformation about Israel-Hamas war

Discussion: NBC News, The Verge and Variety

Zach Schonfeld / The Hill:

Supreme Court won't reinstate Missouri gun law as Thomas dissents — The Supreme Court declined to reinstate a Missouri law that prevents local police from working with the federal government to enforce certain gun laws. — The justices on Friday sided with the Biden administration …

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, NBC News, USA Today, Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, SCOTUSblog, FOX 2 and Vox

Ellen Mitchell / The Hill:

14 Russian helicopters likely destroyed by US-provided ATACMS missiles in Ukraine: UK intel — Ukrainian strikes on two Russian airfields in Ukraine using new U.S.-provided long-range missiles likely destroyed 14 Kremlin helicopters this week, according to intelligence from the United Kingdom.

Discussion: HotAir and nationalinterest.org

Reuters:

US intelligence report alleging Russia election interference shared with 100 countries — The United States on Friday released a U.S. intelligence assessment sent to more than 100 countries that found Moscow is using spies, social media and Russian state-run media to erode public faith …

Discussion: Associated Press and CBS News

Courtney McBride / Bloomberg:
Russia Works to Undermine Voter Confidence Worldwide, US Says

Discussion: Washington Examiner and Washington Post

Brandi Buchman / Law & Crime:

Jack Smith uses Brett Kavanaugh law review article and Trump's own impeachment arguments to slap down Jan. 6 ‘presidential immunity’ claims — In a double serving of what could arguably be described as doses of one's own medicine, special counsel Jack Smith plucked apart Donald Trump's latest efforts …

Discussion: BizPac Review, Mediaite, Raw Story, CNN, UPI, RTÉ, Politico, NPR, Washington Examiner and The Hill

Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:

Supreme Court blocks restrictions on Biden administration efforts to remove contentious social media posts — The Biden administration had called a lower court injunction “unprecedented” for restricting officials' ability to raise concerns about problematic social media content on issues like Covid-19.

Discussion: The Hill, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times and The Daily Caller

Dietrich Knauth / Reuters:

Alex Jones must pay $1.1 billion of Sandy Hook damages despite bankruptcy - court — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones cannot use his personal bankruptcy to escape paying at least $1.1 billion in defamation damages stemming from his repeated lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, a U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday.

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Washington Examiner, Law & Crime, One America News Network, Crooks and Liars, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Boing Boing

Ron Dicker / HuffPost:

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Bans ‘Woke’ Words In Culture War Cluelessness — The Arkansas governor, who once served as Trump's press secretary, was criticized by the ACLU and LGBTQ+ advocates for the move. — LOADING — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) on Thursday signed an executive order banning …

Discussion: CatholicVote org, KARK-TV, ArkansasTimes and IJR

New York Times:

Jon Stewart's Show on Apple Is Ending — Mr. Stewart and Apple are parting ways because of creative differences over “The Problem,” people with knowledge of the decision said. — Jon Stewart's show on Apple's streaming service is abruptly coming to an end, according to several people …

The White House:

FACT SHEET: White House Calls on Congress to Advance Critical National Security Priorities — Today, the President is requesting supplemental funding from Congress that advances our national security and supports our allies and partners. Since the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas …

Discussion: NPR, The Daily Caller, Roll Call, UPI, Washington Examiner and NBC 7 San Diego