In the original Abrego Garcia case, Judge Xinis today resumed her contempt of court inquiry into the govt's violation of her orders to facilitate his return. She wants briefing on 28 USC 1927, which could put Trump DOJ attorneys personally on the hook for excess costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees:
Morning Memo, chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency each weekday:
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In related news:
~In Texas, newly released video of the fatal ICE shooting of a U.S. citizen raises questions about the govt's claim that he “intentionally ran over” a federal agent.
~In Minnesota, federal agents lied about why they shot a Venezuelan man before their story fell apart.
Ten of those accused have pleaded guilty to lesser charges, the newspaper’s analysis found. Two of those accused — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were shot dead by federal agents.
The bottom line: “Of the 279 people accused by officials on X of attacking federal officers in the past year, 181 were U.S. citizens, the Journal found. Close to half of those Americans were never charged with assault. None have been convicted at trial.”
It was a substantial undertaking, as the WSJ describes it: After reviewing more than 100,000 posts on X from 66 government and senior official accounts, it “identified 1,456 posts in which the government alleged an assault, impediment, attack or conspiracy or attempt to harm a federal officer.”
“Protesters, observers and passersby taken into custody by federal agents were declared terrorists and attackers in hundreds of social-media posts by U.S. officials and departments since the start of the immigration sweeps in cities,” according to the WSJ.
The WSJ over the weekend published an extensive new analysis of what it candidly called the “aggressive public-relations tactic” that the Trump administration is using against opponents of its mass deportation operation.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
In addition to everything else Trump sullies, his egregious misconduct enables reprobates from previous political scandals, like Douglas Feith and Alberto Gonzales, to burnish their reputations by preening as looking favorable by comparison. chkbal.substack.com/p/the-cathed...
Morning Memo, chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency for free each weekday:
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Noem is out. Mullin is in. But Trump has an endless supply of figureheads to nominally run DHS, while he and Stephen Miller via Tom Homan pull the strings from the West Wing. The mass deportation operation for which no one is more responsible than Donald Trump grinds on mercilessly and lawlessly.
But with the GOP in lock step with a Trump White House that micromanages every department and agency, the identity of which particular reality TV cast member (literally in the case of Sean Duffy at the Transportation Department) occupies which position in the cabinet is without much real meaning.
In the old days of a less homogenous GOP, a change of cabinet secretary might mark a shift of alliances; or internal party tensions along regional, cultural, or ideological lines; or one coalition gaining power at another's expense; or a policy change.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
@talkingpointsmemo.com is such a great resource. Join. it's worth it!
UPDATE: Pirro suggests she's still at it ... or at least wants President Trump to think she is.
(I wonder how many "ongoing investigations" will stick around for the duration of Trump II, at which point the charade can end.)
bsky.app/profile/ryan...
TPM's Morning Memo, chronicling the depredations of the Trump II presidency:
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~Taking the strident tone of a bully who thinks he’s a victim, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said of the U.S. attack on Iran: “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”
~The Trump admin proposed a new reg that purports to subordinate state bar investigations of DOJ attorneys to the AG's own investigation.
~The prosecutor, AG, SoS, and a U.S. senator vehemently reacted to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ signal he will commute the sentence of election denier Tina Peters.
In today's edition of Morning Memo:
~Jeanine Pirro tried to mount a prosecution over a MAGA fever dream, but ... “Investigators were never quite clear what crime, if any, had been committed by the Biden administration’s use of the autopen,” the NYT reports.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Pleased to speak with @joshkovensky.bsky.social for @talkingpointsmemo.com about Iran and war powers.
"The ultimate war power is the power of the purse."
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/iran-wa...
What Mr. Chimpanzy says
The administration's appeal is no surprise. At the hearing where Boasberg heard arguments before issuing the order the Trump DOJ is now appealing, he said sardonically: “I’m not going to rule today. They may appeal anyway today because that seems to be the MO in this case.”
The ACLU notified Boasberg on Friday that 19 former detainees "wish to travel independently to a U.S. port of entry or...wish to be flown from a 3rd country to the U.S. for their court proceedings, understanding that...they will be detained upon arrival.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
The Trump administration is now appealing Boasberg's Feb. 12 order for it to "facilitate" the return from third countries of former detainees who wish to do so knowing they will be detained (and permitting other detainees to contest their cases from abroad). www.courtlistener.com/docket/69741...
As we approach the anniversary of the Alien Enemies Act removals, the Trump DOJ tromps back to the DC Circuit yet again in the original AEA case. The appeals court has already bottled up Judge Boasberg's contempt of court inquiry for most of the past year. 1/ www.courtlistener.com/docket/69741...
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This reversal here is so unusual that it’s difficult to find comparable incidents in DOJ history. But it’s of the caliber of unprofessionalism, political interference, and personal embarrassment that you’d expect multiple resignations rather than be involved with such nonsense. So far, crickets.
It is truly a shitshow. Those involved, all the way up to and including the Oval Office, care not whether they befool themselves in public and further damage their standing with an increasingly incredulous judicial branch.
The sheer disorder and chaos that runs through the Trump administration — subject as it is to the whims of one man — makes it nearly impossible to reconstruct what happened in this instance based on past practice, formal hierarchies, and the players involved.
... the attorney general, the solicitor general, and multiple other senior leaders, in close consultation with the White House Counsel’s Office.
Once made, after a thorough and well-trod process, and then presented to a court, decisions were not willy nilly reversed.
