| | | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | | |  Donald Trump has a new addition to his legal team. | Brandon Bell/Getty Images | The political world is mostly waiting with bated breath for tomorrow, when the historic spectacle of a former president’s criminal arraignment will launch the U.S. into a new phase. But DONALD TRUMP has never been one to hold his tongue, to the consternation of those paid to provide him legal counsel. In their preview of this week’s indictment proceedings, NYT’s Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan write that “[t]he next few days could be critical for Mr. Trump, and advisers have warned him that he could easily damage his own case … He wrote an especially incendiary post on his social media site, Truth Social, that featured a news article with a photo of [Manhattan DA ALVIN] BRAGG on one side and Mr. Trump holding a baseball bat on the other. It was eventually taken down, after pleading by advisers.” And now Trump has a new addition to his legal team: Erica Orden scooped that TODD BLANCHE is joining as lead counsel for the Manhattan indictment on charges related to hush money payments for porn star STORMY DANIELS. Blanche has recently been a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; he’s “a top white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor” whose past clients include PAUL MANAFORT and IGOR FRUMAN. Another of Trump’s lawyers, ALINA HABBA, said on CNN this morning that his mugshot shouldn’t be released publicly, because Trump is in the midst of a political campaign and is already very recognizable. More from Matt Berg Now the former president is traveling to NYC with a coterie of political aides that Haberman reports includes SUSIE WILES, CHRIS LaCIVITA, JASON MILLER, STEVEN CHEUNG and JUSTIN CAPORALE. Cable networks covered the departure of his motorcade from Palm Beach live on air. He boarded the plane a short while ago. Planning for tomorrow: The Manhattan-based rally in Trump’s defense with Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) has been moved to 10:30 a.m. How it’s playing: The contradictions of public opinion on the Trump indictment continue to show up in polling: CNN/SSRS has 60% of Americans approving of the indictment, even as 52% say politics played a major role in the decision to indict him, Jennifer Agiesta reports. The indictment has majority support across gender, racial, generational and educational lines. “Only 8% of political independents say Trump did nothing wrong.” (Reminder: We haven’t even seen the indictment yet!) One person who doesn’t approve: Hungarian PM VIKTOR ORBÁN. “Keep on fighting, Mr. President!” he tweeted this morning. While Trump is focused on his legal peril, his top would-be presidential primary rival continues to rack up some significant victories. The Never Back Down super PAC that’s serving as the campaign-in-waiting for Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS has pulled in $30 million in less than a month, NYT’s Maggie Haberman reports. That sum — whose donors are undisclosed — doesn’t include any transfers from other committees, and the majority of it came from outside Florida. The news highlights “the financial might that would back a DeSantis campaign, should he enter the presidential race.” And today, DeSantis signed into law a bill to allow Floridians to carry guns without a state permit, though he opted against a public ceremony. More from the Tampa Bay Times AD ASTRA — This morning, NASA revealed the four astronauts who will travel on a 10-day mission to the moon within the next couple of years: Americans VICTOR GLOVER, CHRISTINA KOCH and REID WISEMAN and Canadian JEREMY HANSEN. Wiseman, who previously led the astronaut office, will be commander of Artemis II. Glover is the pilot; Hansen and Koch are mission specialists. The group includes the first woman, first person of color and first non-American on a NASA moon mission. More from Forbes Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com.
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Explore 30+ tools. | | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD SPY GAMES — China used its recent spy balloon above the U.S. successfully to collect intelligence from multiple “sensitive American military sites,” NBC’s Courtney Kube and Carol Lee scoop. With figure-eight loops and other maneuvers over the sites, the balloon picked up electronic signals and sent back information simultaneously to Beijing, though U.S. efforts prevented the balloon from gathering much more than it did. CHECKING OUT OF HOTEL RWANDA — NYT’s Declan Walsh, Michael Shear and Abdi Latif Dahir have a big behind-the-scenes read of how the U.S. helped get PAUL RUSESABAGINA freed from prison in Rwanda, including a pivotal meeting last December between national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN and an adviser to Rwandan President PAUL KAGAME. The ultimate outcome was “a triumph for quiet, patient diplomacy” and an important relationship resetter for the U.S. and Rwanda. TRUMP CARDS THE OTHER INVESTIGATIONS — In the latest development in special counsel JACK SMITH’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe, Fox News’ Bret Baier reports that subpoenas have gone out to multiple Secret Service agents, who could testify before a grand jury Friday. 2024 WATCH FLIP-FLOP ALERT — In a sign of NIKKI HALEY’s rise to third or fourth place in the field, her record is coming under fresh scrutiny from the press — this morning in an examination by WSJ’s John McCormick and Andrew Tangel of her changing positions on government aid for Boeing. When she was serving in South Carolina, she supported more than $1 billion in economic development aid for the aerospace giant, they report from North Charleston, and she served on its board more recently. But now she’s cut ties with the company and spoken out against such government assistance, inviting criticism. “Haley is now embracing her Tea Party roots more than her past willingness to award public money for economic development.” MAKING MOVES — As Sen. TIM SCOTT (R-S.C.) weighs a possible presidential run, a super PAC backing him has added South Carolina GOP veterans MATT MOORE as state chair and MARK KNOOP as state director, The Post and Courier’s Caitlin Byrd reports. That’s giving Opportunity Matters Fund Action “a South Carolina focus and creating a campaign-in-waiting.”
| | | | GO INSIDE THE 2023 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is proud to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage, insider nuggets and unparalleled insights from the 2023 Global Conference, which will convene leaders in health, finance, politics, philanthropy and entertainment from April 30-May 3. This year’s theme, Advancing a Thriving World, will challenge and inspire attendees to lean into building an optimistic coalition capable of tackling the issues and inequities we collectively face. Don’t miss a thing — subscribe today for a front row seat. | | | | | MORE POLITICS CRUCIAL DEMOGRAPHIC IN CHI-TOWN — “In Chicago mayoral runoff, Latinos urged to flex their ‘political muscle,’” by WaPo’s Sabrina Rodríguez: “The candidates, community leaders and Latino groups are grappling with a long-standing challenge that transcends any one politician or city: How to get Latinos to turnout in large numbers.” BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE — NBC’s Sahil Kapur scoops the DCCC’s list of its 31 Republican-held seats to try to flip, as Democrats set an ambitious goal to go on offense next year. Almost half of them are in California and New York alone, which look set to become top House battlegrounds once again. Additionally, the DCCC aims to hold two competitive seats being vacated by Reps. KATIE PORTER (D-Calif.) and ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-Mich.), who are both running for the U.S. Senate. The party’s GOP targets range from perennial swing-district holdouts like Rep. DON BACON (R-Neb.) to new MAGA stars like Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-Colo.). CASH DASH — As she tries to make the leap to the Senate, Porter raised $4.5 million in the first quarter. BATTLE FOR THE SENATE — SCOTT PARKINSON, VP of government affairs at the Club for Growth and a DeSantis alum, today entered the Virginia Senate GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. TIM KAINE. His announcement video LOOK WHO’S BACK — ANTHONY SABATINI jumped into the race today to primary Rep. DANIEL WEBSTER (R-Fla.) from the MAGA lane. His announcement video STATE OF THE UNIONS — The Democratic consulting firm Precision Strategies is in the early stages of unionizing, after management signaled that it would give workers the go-ahead to move toward a union, Axios’ Hans Nichols reports. The move places Precision “at the beginning of a collective bargaining conversation that other Democratic public affairs firms — reliant on a progressive workforce — also are likely to face.”
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY PUMPING THE BRAKES ON DeSANTIS — Controversial Florida legislation that would destroy several legal protections for the press is inciting an uncommon backlash from DeSantis’ allies in conservative media, NYT’s Ken Bensinger reports. It would damage them too, the outlets are telling Florida Republicans, not only the mainstream media. The likes of The Gateway Pundit and Florida’s Voice are warning that they could become vulnerable to lawsuits from the left if it passes. JUDICIARY SQUARE SCOTUS WATCH — In another excerpt from her new book, “Nine Black Robes,” CNN’s Joan Biskupic explores Trump’s tumultuous relationship with the Supreme Court, particularly around the contentious confirmation fight for BRETT KAVANAUGH. Trump’s overtly political comments at a televised ceremony to celebrate Kavanaugh’s swearing-in made some justices regret attending. As for the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD’s accusation of sexual assault, Biskupic reveals: “Some of the justices later privately revealed that they found the hearings too painful to watch. The sessions stirred their own anxieties from their time in the witness chair, and even those who found Ford credible shuddered at the public thrashing of Kavanaugh. They knew he was destined to join their ranks and already felt some institutional allegiance.” AN EXERCISE IN LAW — The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to take up a case that offers the potential for them to consider whether extended solitary confinement violates the Eighth Amendment, NYT’s Adam Liptak reports. They might instead focus on the more targeted legal question of whether people in solitary are constitutionally guaranteed access to consistent exercise outdoors. TURNED DOWN — The high court today rejected an appeal from a Louisiana inmate on death row, with the three liberal justices dissenting. More from the AP THE WHITE HOUSE THE BIDEN DOCTRINE — “On foreign policy, Biden’s gut is his guide,” by WaPo’s Yasmeen Abutaleb: President JOE “BIDEN is guided by instinct and experience — not sweeping theories or cut-and-dried principles. … Biden took office after more than 30 years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and eight more spearheading diplomatic assignments for President BARACK OBAMA. That seasoning has led to a willingness to overrule military commanders, diplomatic experts and others, a habit that has produced notable successes and occasional missteps.”
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 4/5 FOR THE 2023 RECAST POWER LIST: America’s demographics and power dynamics are changing — and POLITICO is recasting how it covers the intersection of race, identity, politics and policy. Join us for a conversation on the themes of the 2023 Recast Power List that will examine America’s decision-making tables, who gets to sit at them, and the challenges that still need to be addressed. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS TRANSITIONS — Nicole Siegel is now senior program officer for postsecondary comms at the Gates Foundation. She previously was director of advocacy for social policy, education & politics at Third Way. … Samuel Hammond is now a senior economist focused on innovation and science policy at Lincoln Network. He was previously director of social policy at the Niskanen Center. … Jackie Gulley is now a managing director focusing on technology, financial services and corporate comms at Mercury Public Affairs. She previously was SVP of comms at Moody’s... … Weldon Cousins is now natural resources legislative assistant for Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.). He previously was legislative aide/legislative correspondent for Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.). … Diego Zambrano will be manager of federal government affairs to the U.S. at Philip Morris International. He most recently was Republican senior professional staff member for the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and is an Ileana Ros-Lehtinen alum. ENGAGED — Robert McMillen, a director at Publicis Collective, proposed to Emma O’Brian, SVP for strategic initiatives at Dow Jones and chief of staff to the CEO, on Friday at Bennett Spring State Park near his hometown in Missouri. They met around four years ago in New York. — Fadi Rammo, VP of operations at MedStar Medical Group, proposed to JP Tyson, director for global government relations at Milliken & Company, on Saturday on a walk in Mitchell Park in D.C. They celebrated that evening with friends at Dacha. The couple met in 2021. Pic WEEKEND WEDDING — Bradley Akubuiro, a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, and Allison England, head of U.S. and Canada comms for GE HealthCare, got married Saturday at The Society Room of Hartford, a renovated bank building in Connecticut, where England is from. The officiant was Charles Whitaker, dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern, where Akubuiro attended and teaches. The couple met in 2014 while working at Pratt & Whitney. Pic … Another pic … SPOTTED: Tim and Anita McBride, Marcus Jadotte, Chris McDavid, Xochitl Hinojosa and Eloy Martinez, Victor Scott, Tizz Weber, Holly Gilthorpe, Yolanda Murphy, Paulette Aniskoff, Scott Mulhauser, Andrew Bleeker, Mike Schneider and Danny Franklin. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Adam Parkhomenko and Ally Sammarco, both Democratic consultants who met through Terry McAuliffe, welcomed Paxton John Parkhomenko on March 24. Pic … Another pic Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Setota Hailemariam and Bethany Irvine.
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