I don't want to fool myself, as Snyder warns, but is Trump thinking the military is bribable for coup purposes really the "only plausible explanation"? We might grapple w/ how Trump's transactional nature and the way defense contracting works makes this an epic opportunity for grift and corruption.

"The [sheriff's] bar tab included five glasses of Walking Fool wine, four happy hour vodka martinis, seven Titos vodkas, one glass of Tanqueray, and one Ketel vodka, according to the arrest warrant. It's not clear who else [the sheriff] was with at the steakhouse."

A police sergeant was caught after a photojournalist on assignment for the AP used an Airtag to trace her missing gear to his home and a subsequent review of his body-cam footage showed him “interacting” with the bag at Delaney Hall, the state’s attorney general said.

The State Dept's “Symposium on the Rise of Far-Left Political Terrorism” this week in DC, featuring among others Sebastian Gorka, was part of Trump's push to conflate left-wing opposition with terrorism and leverage the vast U.S. counterterrorism apparatus against it: puck.news/what-makes-a...

11th Cir won't hear oral arguments until until late Sept-early Oct on whether Aileen Cannon can keep Jack Smith's report on the Mar-a-Lago investigation locked up forever, raising the real possibility that the report won't be out before this election either. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72096...

In an early morning vote, the GOP-controlled Senate passed the reconciliation bill funding immigration enforcement — but without any language in it barring President Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” slush fund. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

ICE/CBP BILL UPDATE: The Senate vote was held open for ~3 hours on this Schumer amendment to ban Trump's weaponization fund. Three Rs voted YES with Ds Susan Collins (ME) Jon Husted (OH) Dan Sullivan (AK) All face tough 2026 election races. 49-50, vote fails.

Sens. Booker (D-NJ) and Cassidy (R-LA) are seeking leave to file this friend of the court brief opposing the "anti-weaponization" fund, in the EDVA case where the judge last week temporarily enjoined the Trump admin from moving forward on the fund in any way. www.courtlistener.com/docket/73383...

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s elaborate audition to out-degenerate Pam Bondi has apparently won him President Trump’s nomination for the permanent position. Let's use that as a jumping off place for the latest hair-raising Trump DOJ news: talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Ominous news for a leading exemplar of the "channeling" cases: Maurene Comey's wrongful termination suit against DOJ. Judge Furman (SDNY) ruled that firings solely reliant on Trump's "Article II powers" fall outside of the MSPB and can be challenged in court. www.courtlistener.com/docket/71348...

New superseding indictment against the SPLC handed down yesterday. It rewrites the original indictment, including changing some of the relevant dates and tightening up the language, but the 11 counts and forfeiture allegations remain substantially the same: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I went long on a new form of Trump DOJ turmoil: Top Las Vegas prosecutor Sigal Chattah repeatedly bypassed Main Justice recusal orders, pushed cases for ex-clients & friends, targeted political foe, & much more. "It's charitable to call it chaos." news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

In a (probably inadvertent) departure from the admin position on NOT sending Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica, Mullin at the 1:20 mark says: "Great, if he’s willing to do that, we’ll be happy to send him." AG's lawyers quickly notified the court of his testimony: www.courtlistener.com/docket/71191...

Living through the Trump II presidency is an exercise in repeated loss and extended mourning for what is gone — while being daily confronted with the farcical and the absurd. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

"given prior grand jury disturbances and potential tension"

"Several prosecutors who played a role in the Broadview Six case have hired attorneys ..."

Trump pushes all of his chips to the middle of the table — a collusive lawsuit, a bogus settlement, a corrupt slush fund, and a get-a-out-of-jail-free card for himself — and then merely signals that he’s pulling back one chip, and official D.C. gets the vapors. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Blaze Media added Bill Barr's firm Torridon Law to its defense team in the defamation suit by fmr Capitol police officer it falsely accused of being Jan. 6 pipebomber, a new filing shows. No one from Torridon (which includes Pat Cipollone and Pat Philbin, among others) has entered an appearance yet.

Friday was a blitz of important news on the accountability front: The biggest development came in the previously closed case of Trump v. Internal Revenue Service, where Judge Kathleen Williams demanded that Trump respond to allegations of collusion. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

JUST IN: The judge who dismissed the Trump v. IRS lawsuit seems very open to the request by a group of former federal judges to reopen the case and scrutinize the settlement that led to the $1.776B slush fund. She gives Trump et al until June 12 to respond to: www.courtlistener.com/docket/72207...

ICE agent Christian Castro, facing state charges in Minnesota for shooting Venezuelan immigrant Julio Sosa-Celis during Operation Metro Surge, was arrested in Texas by Texas Rangers and, notably, DHS inspector general agents, with Minnesota LEOs present www.startribune.com/ice-agent-ch...

“Ultimately, this is not really about me,” Paula Mangubat says in our interview. “It’s about the people who are really being attacked by the Trump administration.” After Katie Miller doxed her, she's faced a lot of abuse. DNC approved "ugly f--k" tweet: newrepublic.com/article/2111...

In a ruling just out this morning, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the creation of the $1,776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that emerged as part of the purported settlement of President Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

This story is unfolding too slowly to be captured by Morning Memo’s daily news filter, but by historic standards it’s an incredibly fast-paced realignment of international geopolitics ... talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

The top line outrage here is so astounding that it bears repeating: Trump is using the powers of his office to settle not just political but private scores against someone adjudged by juries to be a victim of his sexual abuse and defamatory attacks. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

There is no bottom. www.cnn.com/2026/05/27/p...

BREAKING 35 former federal judges move to reopen Trump v. IRS in an effort to kill the $1.776B slush fund. Doc buff.ly/1065CA7

JUST IN: In the wake of the "Broadview Six" controversy, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros has ordered "sweeping" internal reforms to the office's grand jury practices, including "deep-dive" training from outside national experts. The measures took effect Tuesday:

NEW: The aftershocks of “Broadview Six” collapse have spread to another high-profile case, where lawyers for a man accused in a COVID-19 testing scam with an ex-Loretto Hospital exec say the same prosecutor committed “flagrant” misconduct in the grand jury www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/27/b...

Voting machine company Smartmatic is pushing its vindictive prosecution claim by seeking discovery into the Trump DOJ’s decision to add it as a defendant in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prosecution of its former employees who were indicted in August 2024. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Two high-profile Trump targets —voting machine company Smartmatic and the Southern Poverty Law Center — have each seized on Abrego Garcia's recent win to buttress their own vindictive prosecution claims against the Trump DOJ. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is just a part of the broader rewriting of the history of Jan. 6, the pace of which seems to be accelerating ahead of the midterms. Since senators left town for the holiday without resolving the “Anti-Weaponization Fund": talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

BREAKING: Judge dismisses criminal case against Abrego Garcia as vindictive prosecution storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEW: Sen. Dick Durbin's office says AUSA Sheri Mecklenburg has been terminated from her position with the Senate Judiciary Committee after revelations in the "Broadview Six" case. We reported exclusively in February that she'd joined Durbin's staff: www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/23/p...

The use of that word is key. Because the extremist right has always been jealous of our narratives.THEY want to be victims so badly. They need a story. So, reverse racism. Creation of rightwing “Legal Defense Funds” to litigate Demanding entry to programs for Black ppl And now, REPARATIONS

In normal times, craven self-preservation is sometimes all the democratic system offers as a means of course correction, but so long as one of the two major parties is on an authoritarian bender, these will not be normal times. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

For the still-living survivors of those who were maimed or murdered during the Civil Rights Movement, Louisiana v. Callais marks a return to the 1960s that isn’t abstract. They remember the threats, the fear, and the bloodshed that led to the Voting Rights Act. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/their-l...

JUST IN: Trump's new $1.8B "anti-weaponization" fund roils GOP Senate caucus, prompts postponement of votes on immigration-enforcement reconciliation package. via @jordainc.bsky.social @calenrazor www.politico.com/live-updates...

Judge April Perry to U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros: "You are significantly undercutting your mea culpa here by standing behind the charges and continuing to vilify these particular defendants."

///BREAKING/// The feds are DISMISSING all remaining counts in the politically charged "Broadview Six" case days before trial, marking the final collapse of what had been one of the marquee criminal cases to come out of Operation Midway Blitz. Background: www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/07/b...

In yet another strange twist, the trial date in the "Broadview Six" case has been vacated after a closed-door hearing on grand jury redactions. They're coming back at 1 p.m. What is about to come out is going to be pretty insane. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/21/p...

Whatever one thinks of Mr. Littlejohn — whistleblowing hero or privacy-invading leaker — he disclosed the records during Trump's first term. He was prosecuted during Biden's presidency. There's no logic to the weaponization theory, only deception and misdirection.

In her defamation lawsuit, fmr Capitol Police officer Shauni Kerkhoff has obtained default judgments against Stephen M. Baker and Joseph M. Hanneman, the authors of the story published by The Blaze that falsely accused her of being the Jan. 6 pipe-bomber. www.courtlistener.com/docket/73220...

So much to say! 1. The "they" was a contractor working for first Trump admin. Biden's DOJ prosecuted him. 2. Another victim, Ken Griffin, sued and got only an apology, no audit amnesty, no $1.776B slush fund! 3. Read @annabower.bsky.social and me for much more. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

The Tribune, Sun-Times, WBEZ and BGA have asked for this hearing to be in open court, arguing in a motion overnight that DOJ has shown a pattern of abusing the grand jury process (ie. Ex-FBI Director James Comey indictments) and the public deserves access. Judge Perry will take that up at 10:45am

Even normally temperate legal experts and political observers are aghast at the ways in which the deal for the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” crosses into new territory of venality, graft, and abuse of power (even for Trump). talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

The federal lawsuit filed by police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 challenging President Trump's deeply corrupt "Anti-Weaponization Fund" has been assigned to senior U.S. District Richard J. Leon(!) of D.C. www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

A week before trial, a federal judge has taken the highly unusual step to order prosecutors and their supervisors into court to explain why they redacted portions of grand jury transcripts in the “Broadview Six” case against Midway Blitz protesters. Story here: www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/20/b...

President Trump’s corrupt $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is the gift that keeps on giving … to Trump. New details continue to dribble out about the so-called settlement agreement resolving Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS: talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

JUST IN: A man wrongfully jailed for 37 days for posting a meme to Facebook in the aftermath of the 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk has settled his case against Perry County, Tennessee and Sheriff Nick Weems for $835K. drive.google.com/file/d/15VHo... talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...