DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Seems To Have A Poorly Hidden Secret Facebook Page talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dhs-sec...
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DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Seems To Have A Poorly Hidden Secret Facebook Page talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dhs-sec...
BREAKING: Trump, Hegseth violated the Posse Comitatus Act with their troop deployment to Los Angeles, Judge Charles Breyer rules after trial. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Morning Memo, your weekday chronicle of the depredations of the Trump II presidency: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
In an additional twist, Politico reports that some of the facilities housing the children may be resisting turning them over to ICE. It obtained a memo–dated Sunday and signed after Sooknanan’s order–from the acting director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement that chastised its contractors:
At least one plane carrying children may have taken off before returning to the United States, a Trump DOJ lawyer told the court, an ironic callback to the AEA case in March when a federal judge ordered the planes to turn around but the administration ignored it.
“I have the government attempting to remove minor children from the country in the wee hours of the morning on a holiday weekend, which is surprising, but here we are,” Sooknanan said when she convened the hearing.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of Washington, D.C., put in a yeoman’s effort over the weekend to block the removals and to do so in a way that gave the administration no benefit of the doubt and little to no wiggle room.
In a replay of the March weekend when the Trump admin secretly launched the Alien Enemies Act deportations, it was busted over the Labor Day weekend trying to whisk unaccompanied Guatemalan children out of the country. This time it complied with court orders. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
"The move forces members of Congress to confront a question that has lingered over the legislative branch all year: What is the point of the two parties negotiating a federal budget if the executive branch insists it has the power to unilaterally determine what funds get spent?"
Morning Memo, your reliable, no-nonsense rundown of the day's essential political news: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
The shift away from mass immunization for COVID by making healthy people under 65 ineligible for it without a scientific basis for doing so and outside the normal process has adverse health implications for millions of Americans. What’s it mean for you and your family?
I’m a little surprised that the refusal of CDC Director Susan Monarez to go quietly and the resignations of other top CDC officials eclipsed rather than amplified the FDA anti-science decision to deny healthy Americans access to the annual COVID booster. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
But first, I unpack the requisite Trump White House clown show: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/cdc-massac...
Under Kennedy, science has taken a backseat to conspiracists, opportunists, and snake-oil salesman. The result is now a nationwide limitation on access to a vital vaccine that has saved countless lives over the past 4 years.
Longtime experts with sterling reputations and an adherence to science and public policy particulars have been sidelined in favor of Kennedy’s shoot-from-the-hip bombast, his anti-vax biases, and the crowd of grifters, quacks, and charlatans, whom he attracts and elevates.
While it’s true that on its face Kennedy’s announcement suggests there may be many easy workarounds to obtain the COVID vaccine despite the new restrictions, the limitations represent precisely the scenario his critics and the public health sector have been warning about for months.
The CDC debacle appears to be a direct result of RFK Jr's announcement that access to the COVID vax will be limited, bypassing the normal process for vax approvals, disregarding established science, and overriding the opposition of the public health community. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Morning Memo, bringing you each weekday the latest on the abuses of power, threats to the rule of law, and sheer absurdity of the Trump II presidency: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
Prosecutors were seeking to indict Dunn on a similar assault charge that the failed to secure against Reid. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office eventually dropped the charge against Reid to a misdemeanor, which doesn’t require an indictment.
This is the 2d case arising out of the Trumpian occupation of DC where grand juries have declined to indict felonies. Three different grand juries declined to return indictments against Sidney Lori Reid accused by prosecutors of injuring an FBI agent jail during the transfer of alleged gang members.
Failing to secure a indictment is a relatively rare occurrence because prosecutors control the entire process in front of a grand jury. With few exceptions, prosecutors are not in the business of bringing loser cases to grand juries.
The incident outside a Subway location (it was reportedly a salami sandwich) came to represent both the intense local opposition to being targeted by Trump on the bogus pretext of out-of-control crime and the overall absurdity of the situation.
No-Bill for Assault With a Deli Weapon->A D.C. grand jury declined to indict the fired DOJ paralegal Sean Dunn who hurled a sandwich at a federal officer during protests against President Trump’s hyper-federalization of the nation’s capital, the NYT reports. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Morning Memo, chronicling the Trump II depredations (plus the defiance and resistance thereto) each weekday: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
Calling the case “absolutely maddening,” Faruqui said that there was no basis for the search of Black man other than the color of his skin, HuffPost reported. “The Sixth Amendment doesn’t get thrown out the window because the government has decided to make a show of arresting people,” Faruqui said.
(2) In another case arising out of the Trumpian occupation of D.C., U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office moved to dismiss a firearms charge that was the product of an unlawful search – but not before U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui of Washington, D.C., savaged the government for its misconduct.
It is relatively unusual for a grand jury to return a no-true bill. It is highly unusual for three grand juries to return no-true bills in the same case. It is questionable, to say the least, for prosecutors to persist in pursuing a felony indictment with a third grand jury.
They’re relatively small and by themselves, they’re not enough. But two examples in particular stand out: (1) Three different federal grand juries in D.C. refused to indict a woman on felony charges that she assaulted an FBI agent during an immigration protest in July.
Examples of capitulation/surrender to Trump’s authoritarianism continue to outpace those of defiance/resistance. But in recents days in DC–which Trump is pretending to occupy–we’ve seen instances of holding the line against the worst of his transgressions. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
The targeting of the University of Michigan health system appears to be part of a broader salvo from the Trump administration, as it takes further steps to threaten hospitals into backing away from providing gender-affirming care.
Per an internal university memo obtained by TPM, University of Michigan Health first received a subpoena on July 14 that indicated the DOJ was pursuing a civil and criminal investigation.
“In light of that investigation, and given escalating external threats and risks, we will no longer provide gender affirming hormonal therapies and puberty blocker medications for minors.”
“The University of Michigan, including Michigan Medicine, is one of multiple institutions across the country that has received a federal subpoena as part of a criminal and civil investigation into gender-affirming care for minors,” the statement reads.
TPM EXCLUSIVE: The University of Michigan hospital system confirms it's discontinuing gender-affirming care for minors after receiving a subpoena from the Trump administration: talkingpointsmemo.com/news/univers...
As you watch the extraordinary spectacle of Trump's government attempting to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda, let's not lose sight of just how lawless and indefensible Trump's misconduct has been all throughout. Here's a thread recapping all of it. 1/
Morning Memo, calling out Trump's retribution for what it is each weekday morning: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
The politicization of the Bolton probe was further confirmed by curiously timed social media posts from Kash Patel and Pam Bondi that didn’t mention Boltonor but seemed to revel in the FBI raid. In his own book in 2023, Patel included Bolton in a list of “members of the Executive Branch Deep State.”
As soon as he took office, Trump revoked the Secret Service protection for Bolton that Biden had restored, despite an ongoing threat to Bolton from Iran. At the same time, one of Trump’s very first executive orders on Jan. 20 revoked Bolton's security clearance Bolton, citing the book dispute.
It’s unclear whether the trumped-up investigation of Bolton now is a result of the original book investigation being reopened or is related to other matters. Regardless of the pretext, Bolton has already been targeted by Trump abusing the powers of his office during his second term.
The following summer, under President Biden, the investigation of Bolton was closed and the government dropped its lawsuit seeking to recoup profits from the book, the NYT reported contemporaneously.
After failing to stop the book’s publication ahead of the 2020 election, the Trump I DOJ opened a grand jury investigation into whether Bolton unlawfully disclosed classified information in the book. It subpoenaed Bolton’s publisher and agency, the NYT reported then.
That led to an extended legal battle and a criminal investigation by the Trump I DOJ. Bolton claimed at the time, with compelling evidence, that he was being singled out and retaliated against by the Trump White House for his Trump criticism.
Bolton, whose D.C. office was also reportedly searched this morning, became a strident critic of Trump after leaving the White House in 2019. The first big clash with Trump occurred over allegedly classified information Bolton used in his 2020 memoir.
The FBI searched the home and office of former Trump I national security adviser John Bolton on Friday morning in what is yet another example of President Trump abusing the powers of his office to target his critics … and Bolton in particular. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
DOJ official Ed Martin sends wild letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell urging him to remove Lisa Cook from the Fed Board: “Do it today before it is too late! After all, no American thinks it is appropriate that she serve during this time with a cloud hanging over her.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Morning Memo, chronicling the Trump II retribution, destruction, and corruption each weekday for smart, no-nonsense readers: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
The bad faith origins of the mortgage fraud allegations give Trump a cudgel against Dems and an additional chance to target a Black woman in public office and needle Fed Chair Powell, whose independence Trump has perceived as a threat all along. It’s trifecta of bad acts and abuse of office.
In a normal world, the FHFA finding evidence of mortgage fraud might sound plausible: Elected officials playing fast and loose with the mortgage rules and getting zapped by some relatively known bureaucrat operating by the book. But this isn’t a normal world and hasn’t been for some time.
In one Cook-targeted tweet, Pulte referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as “Pocohantas.” Last night, he was talking up the criminal referral on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show. This morning, he was chatting with Maria Bartoromo on Fox Business.
Over the course of the day, Pulte retweeted the Cook-related postings of such right-wing luminaries as Jack Posobiec, Mike Cernovich, and Ed Martin, the Trump DOJ official who reposted Pulte’s criminal referral and said “Received.”
Pulte, the originator of the criminal referral, went so far as to publicly call for Cook’s resignation and declare that Trump has grounds to fire her for cause. Pulte predicted that the Trump DOJ would open an investigation of her, at one point tweeting: “Lisa Cooked is cooked.”
Early yesterday a.m., Pulte teased the Cook allegations on X. Within an hour, he had announced the criminal referral against Cook on his X account and later posted the criminal referral letter. For much of the day, Pulte was on X trolling Cook and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, a Trump nemesis.
The official in question is Bill Pulte 37, a MAGA influencer with 3M followers on X. And the way he trumpeted the Cook allegations yesterday tells you all you need to know about the bad faith origins of the allegations in all three cases.
The origins of the bogus mortgage fraud allegations against Letitia James, Adam Schiff and now Fed member Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee and the 1st Black woman on the Fed, have a patina of legitimacy, coming from the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, but don’t be fooled by that origin.
President Trump’s attack on yet another Black woman in public office gives away the game – if you were still harboring any doubt – about his corrupt use of mortgage fraud allegations to target Democrats. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Morning Memo, chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency each weekday to help keep you well-informed but not overwhelmed. morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
My main point here is to urge you to listen to the music of this week’s news and not be too literal about the lyrics. So much of what we’re seeing is striking similar chords, has the same rhythms, and hits in the same emotional place.
I try to remain mindful that white nationalism both performative and an actual threat. It's intended to provoke. Outrage is the currency. It’s good to be aware when one’s buttons are being pushed and to determine for yourself whether and how to react.
Against this backdrop, much of this week’s news is taking place: Trump’s minimizing of slavery; the federalization of DC police and the deployment of red state national guards to a plurality Black city; phasing out of support for students not fluent in English; new hurdles for legal immigrants.
The mass deportation agenda is just one part of a larger agenda in which white Americans are fronted as the real America and everyone else is second-class, unless they individually demonstrate in lavish ways a high enough degree of fealty to Donald Trump. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Morning Memo, only the day's essential political news, in an accessible format: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
Alford is not a disgruntled career DOJer. He's a law professor who held a high-level DOJ position in Trump I and was brought back for Trump II as the No. 2 official in the antitrust division. Alford called on the federal court overseeing the case to “examine the surprising truth of what happened.”
DOJ originally sued to block the merger earlier this year, which set off a scramble by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “HPE hired Trump political allies such as Mike Davis and Arthur Schwartz to fight back and help it reach a settlement that would allow the $14 billion deal to close,” the WSJ reported.
“Chad Mizelle accepts party meetings and makes key decisions depending on whether the request or info comes from a MAGA friend,” Alford said. “Aware of this injustice, companies are hiring lawyers and influence peddlers to bolster their MAGA credentials and pervert traditional law enforcement.”
The two officials – chief of staff Chad Mizelle and Stanley Woodward, the nominee for the No. 3 slot at DOJ – were heavily involved in the proposed settlement of a lawsuit over the merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks, Alford alleged.
An top antitrust lawyer fired by the Trump DOJ is not going quietly. In a speech yesterday in Colorado, Roger Alford accused two senior aides to Attorney General Pam Bondi of corrupting DOJ’s usual process for dealing with antitrust lawsuits, the WSJ reports. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Morning Memo, your chronicle of the Trump II depredations, straight to your inbox each weekday: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
Even if charges never come, this is a classic example of political corruption – and of authoritarian capture of the independence of federal prosecutors. Martin has embarked on a fishing expedition and he’ll keep it going for as long as it’s useful to the White House.
Most legal experts think the mortgage fraud claims don’t amount to anything on the facts or on the law. But don’t underestimate the potency of ongoing criminal investigations hanging over elected officials, esp when used as justification for a wide-ranging probe of unspecified other wrongdoing.
In a Fox News appearance, Ed Martin admitted he’s using the pretext of clearly bogus mortgage fraud investigations to conduct an open-ended witch hunt into Democratic elected officials Adam Schiff and Letitia James. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
That and more in today's Morning Memo ... for the free email version, sign up here: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
Meanwhile, the saga of the sandwich guy is starting to take on real importance. Improbably, Sean Charles Dunn was a DOJ employee at the time he threw the Subway sandwich at an officer on a street corner. Bondi has since fired him. But things gets more interesting from there.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb quickly issued an opinion that Bondi had exceeded the statutory authority that allows for the use of D.C. police for federal purposes. By this morning, Schwalb had filed suit in federal court in D.C. to block Bondi’s power grab.
Bondi purporting to install Terry Cole, the head of the DEA, as D.C.’s “emergency police commissioner,” a commissar of sorts over the entire force. She also purported to issue new guidance rescinding previous directions on enforcement priorities from the local police chief.
The clumsy Trumpian takeover of DC has been as comical as it has been foreboding, but things escalated overnight. AG Pam Bondi asserted a new level of authority over local police. DC officials immediately rejected her claims to power and sued to block her. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
For the day's essential political news, Morning Memo has you covered: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
The USAID debacle remains one of the most haunting aspects of the first months of the Trump II presidency. And the collective inability, unwillingness, and indifference of the courts to rein it in is a sobering sign of the limits of judicial power. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
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The real goal, highlighted in bold toward the end of the White House letter, is to force the Smithsonian to embrace a MAGA-brand of “Americanism” that defines which people, which values, and which events are truly American and discards the rest.
Then, it supplants that framework with an intellectually bankrupt, ideologically driven, sanitized version of American history, art, and culture in service of a white nationalist worldview.
The egregiousness of the politicization move is two-fold. First, it subverts the normal professional curation process, which is grounded in intellectual honesty, academic study, and the rigorous standards of archival and preservation work.
The involvement of any White House in the content of the Smithsonian crosses a critical line, let alone this one w/ its expressed intent of white-washing US history by minimizing people of color and any past unpleasantness that makes white people uncomfortable. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
BLS Commissioner Nominee’s Suggestion to Suspend Monthly Jobs Report Is ‘Like Gouging Our Eyes Out’ talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-b...
Morning Memo, chronicling the depredations of Trump II each weekday: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
In perfecting the formula, Trump has seized on Black women mayors–first Karen Bass in Los Angeles and now Muriel Bowser in D.C. – as the perfect foil for the MAGA base. And so it goes with the Monday launch of what will be at least a weeklong episode: the purported federal takeover of D.C.
Every week of the new season has Trump taking on a clearly defined villain who taps into racist, misogynistic, and/or xenophobic stereotypes while he outperforms and dominates an inept quisling Democrat.
When his presidential reality show was cancelled after one season in 2020, Donald Trump was determined that the show’s 2025 reboot wouldn’t suffer from the same lack of consistent plot lines and poor story development. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Morning Memo has you covered every weekday: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
That’s a long way of saying that this was the ultimate contempt of court. If it goes unpunished – and the appeals court ruling means it’s likely to go not just unpunished but uninvestigated – then it will be open season on the judicial branch by the White House.
A whole series of subsequent legal battles fought on the heels because the AEA removals were already a fait accompli would have been waged from a different posture. The administration would have been denied the opportunity to defy courts in new and inventive ways in those subsequent cases.
But in some ways it’s even worse than all that. Had the Trump administration complied with Boasberg’s order, the 200+ Alien Enemies Act detainees would have never ended up imprisoned at CECOT and the course of history would have been changed.
The 2 Trump judges’ craven effort to make Boasberg’s contempt inquiry go away doesn’t just eliminate accountability for the misconduct in this case but risks undermining any check to Trump in the other major cases where the White House is seeking to run roughshod over the judicial branch.
The ruling by Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao (Obama appointee Cornelia Pillard dissented) was the manifestation of a worst-case fear: Namely, that higher courts will not backstop trial judges when they are faced with utter defiance from the Trump administration.
It’s hard to overstate the significance of Friday’s appeals court ruling by two Trump appointees short-circuiting the criminal contempt of court proceeding in the Alien Enemies Act case. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
An onslaught of bad news for the rule of law over the past few hours as President Trump’s retribution scheme comes into ever-sharper focus: talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bruta...
Both of the Trump appointees on the three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of appeals concurred that no contempt of court had occurred. The third judge, an Obama appointee, dissented from the ruling.
After sitting on the case for months, a federal appeals court Friday shut down the contempt of court proceeding against the Trump administration in the original Alien Enemies Act case. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/breakin...
Morning Memo, chronicling the Trump II depredations each weekday for those who can stomach it: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
I'd hoped a week of marveling at geological time scales would make me more prone to see Donald Trump as a passing fad in the larger sweep of our political history. But I came back instead a bit more sensitive to how far we’ve fallen in such a short time.
I returned last night from a weeklong trip paddling down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. No phone signal. No news. No real contact with the outside world. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...