Preview of the week ahead: I understand there are nine candidates for House Speaker. The GOP plans to choose a nominee tomorrow. I can’t see how this group of House Republicans will ever give any one candidate the votes to win the speakership.

I don’t know that anything new is expected in the various Trump civil and criminal cases. But we can always be surprised. We may hear something about scheduling the remainder of the Fulton County defendants, since the trial that was supposed to start by is no longer needed. Joyce Vance says that if Judge McAfee doesn’t try to squeeze it in before the J6 trial starts in March, then it probably won’t happen until summer 2024, if then.

For your reading enjoyment … see A President, a Billionaire and Questions About Access and National Security in the New York Times. No paywall. The billionaire is Australian and spent tons of money at Mar-a-Lago to get acccess to Trump. And now he says Trump shared foreign policy and nuclear secrets with him. Which Trump denies, of course.