The overnight news brings fresh evidence that America is exceptional among developed nations in its inability and unwillingness to hold the powerful to account even in the most egregious cases. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson who trafficked in scurrilous lies about Trump’s mass deportation operation and in over-the-top attacks on the press, is leaving the administration on her own terms. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

More weirdness. Just days before USAtty Pirro tried & failed to indict 6 congress members for the don't-follow-illegal-orders video, one's atty, @preetbharara.bsky.social asked prosecutors what the charge was. They wouldn't say. Per @gregsargent.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2066...

Two ICE officers were put on leave and are under criminal investigation for potential perjury in an incident in which one of the officers shot a Venezuelan national in Minneapolis last month, according to acting ICE director Todd Lyons. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

In a careful, incremental, and modulated ruling designed to withstand an all but certain appeal, Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump admin to facilitate the return of a subset of the men spirited out of the country 11 months ago under the Alien Enemies Act. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees.” talkingpointsmemo.com/news/judge-r...

With a tone and flourish that suggested he was auditioning for “The Apprentice,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche immediately fired yesterday an interim U.S. attorney who had just been appointed by the federal judges in the Northern District of New York. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Thx Offerman: “Ron Swanson was my hero, not because he just loved steak, and bacon, and everything else, but because I was a govt contractor. Now, I am temporarily with the govt. Right? Working for the govt, but hating them every bit. Right? That guy’s my hero.” talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-th...

Over the course yesterday afternoon and into the evening, the full extent of the Trump Justice Department’s deterioration into thuggery came into clearer view in two cases that are attacks on the constitutional framework. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

In the latest installment of TPM's Creating the Enemy Within project, @joshkovensky.bsky.social writes about the criminalization of anti-Trump ideology: talkingpointsmemo.com/creating-the...

The government needed 12 grand jurors to vote to indict, out of a grand jury that numbered somewhere between 16 and 23. They got ZERO. As an expert in math, I'm here to tell you that zero is a very small number, in fact the smallest non-negative integer.

In the original Alien Enemies Act case, a Trump DOJ lawyer issued a new threat to the Venezuelan nationals who were originally deported to CECOT: If you try to vindicate your due process rights, we might send you back to CECOT again or to another 3d country. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

JUST IN: DOJ is trying to help Steve Bannon erase his conviction for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. Motion has no career prosecutor on it, just signed by US Attorney Pirro. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The big weekend news came late Friday when a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a key element of the Trump administration’s policy of mass detention of migrants. It promises to fuel more of the growing chaos of the past several weeks. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

The Star Tribune’s Jeff Day broke the news last night that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and FBI are set to announce a joint investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti, citing two anonymous sources. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

@rothschildmd.bsky.social describes how pissed off Trump's conspiracists were about the anti-gun comments in the wake of Alex Pretti's murder. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/donald-...

NEW: The top Trump-appointed proseutor in MN says his office is dropping "pressing priorities" to manage crushing immigration workload. His short-staffed office is doing constant overtime and bouncing between contempt hearings. The bleak assessment: www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

🚨HOLY CRAP. The Trump admin just took a SLEDGEHAMMER to due process, largely eliminating the Board of Immigration Appeals process and MANDATING DISMISSAL of ALL appeals (which cost $1,000 thanks to OBBBA) filed after tomorrow unless a majority of the BIA votes to hear the case.

Glitch in WMM (née AARP), the recently argued en banc 5th Circuit hearing of the Alien Enemies Act case headed for SCOTUS. All 3 plaintiffs have now been removed from country. Both sides ask court to decide the case anyway, offering theories for why it's not moot.

In the roughshod world of the Trump DOJ, politicized prosecutions are fine, but Ed Martin apparently crossed the line when he allegedly improperly leaked grand jury materials in the bogus mortgage fraud investigation of Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), CNN reports. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

One of the intended consequences of President Trump’s politicization of the Justice Department is to leave behind a weakened, overwhelmed, decimated organization that simply can’t do its job. This is all coming home to roost in a very visible way in Minnesota: talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Three rules in FBI firearm training: 1. Always point your weapon downrange 2. Do not point your weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot 3. Don’t put your finger on the trigger unless you intend to shoot Guns are not for threatening compliance for unarmed people doing things you don’t like

In a dramatic departure from how DOJ historically used the federal material support for terrorism statute, it is upgrading what would have been routine prosecutions into terrorism cases when they involve people President Trump has cast as his political enemies. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-d...

Hard to overstate the degree to which DOJ's simple manpower bandwidth has totally collapsed, at a time when the government is being overwhelmed with litigation against its crime spree, because attorneys are quitting en masse and willing new hires are both few in number and wildly unqualified.

The top line: A judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending protections for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants legally in the U.S., averting, at least for now, a feared draconian roundup of Haitian refugees. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Journalist Don Lemon was covering a Grammy’s event in Los Angeles last evening (pictured above) when he was arrested on federal charges relating to the anti-ICE church protest he covered in St. Paul on Jan. 18, his attorney says. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

"I'm coming to Boston and I'm bringing hell with me." --Homan in February "Do I expect violence to escalate? Absolutely." -- Tom Homan in March "I actually thought about getting up and throwing that man a beating right there in the middle of the room" -- Homan in July, referring to a D congressman

Across two different categories of cases in two different states yesterday, the Trump DOJ engaged in the kind of performative politicization that it experimented with in Trump I but has brought into full bloom in Trump II under Attorney General Pam Bondi. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

quiet part aloud ... ("in theater")

What… the fuck?

Tomorrow night! Come join us in D.C.

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Since the Trump admin abandoned its initial false claims about Alex Pretti—reportedly authored by Stephen Miller—it has repeatedly fallen back on the position that it cannot comment on the fatal shooting by 2 CBP agents because there is an ongoing investigation. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Laws are being bent, twisted + broken so frequently + egregiously that it’s hard to keep up. So on 1/29, join TPM editor-at-large David Kurtz for a Morning Memo Live event delving into Trump’s assault on the rule of law. Get tix (+ a special promo code) here talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump...

LIVE: Trump Admin Scrambles to Find Scapegoats as Senate Takes a Stab at ICE Accountability talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/ic...

A win is a win, and at a time when wins are desperately needed I don’t want to gloss over the very real shifts in the 72 hours since a prone Alex Pretti was shot dead by federal agents on a city street in broad daylight in front of numerous cameras. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

After Saturday’s convulsion of state violence in Minneapolis, the Trump administration immediately began churning out a stream of propaganda that was full of lies, exaggerations, disinformation, and scurrilous attacks. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

This is *astonishing* — from judge appointed by GW Bush, 2x Scalia clerk. He wrote two letters to the 8th Cir opposing mandamus. Read both at these links! storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... Full docket here: www.courtlistener.com/docket/72185...

JUST IN: On Megyn Kelly show, @AAGDhillon suggests magistrate judge didn't reject warrant against Don Lemon because he's a journalist. POLITICO saw 8 defendants listed yesterday, only 3 of whom have been reported arrested. So, possible judge rejected some other defendants, too

With ICE rampaging through the Twin Cities and the Trump DOJ flailing in the courts, FBI Director Kash Patel is just cruising along as the least qualified, most inept FBI director in history—which suits the criminal POTUS just fine, I suppose. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

This is 100% FALSE. Immigration judges do NOT play any role in issuing administrative warrants. They are generated and signed by ICE officers themselves. ICE’s own training materials say they can’t be used for a search of a home! Here’s a blank warrant form. Note who signs it.

Death toll in Afghanistan when NATO answered the US’s call: - 453 Britons - 158 Canadians - 89 French - 59 Germans - 53 Italians - 44 Danes - 17 Spaniards “Stayed a little back, off the front lines “! No one in the media will call him out over this lie or any of the others he spouts.

What 4th Amendment? A secret internal ICE memo dated May 12, 2025 gave unconstitutional guidance allowing federal agents to forcibly enter homes w/out judicial warrants to detain undocumented immigrants. Legal experts were aghast at the memo and its implications talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

If you're only reading headlines and see "Trump Says He Won't Use Force" it will give you a misimpression of both how bellicose this speech is and how dug in he is on Greenland.

On the surface it looks like the federal judges in the Eastern District of Virginia tackled the Lindsey Halligan problem head on. But if you look a little closer, the judges went out of their way to avoid a direct confrontation with the White House. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Previewing next week's Morning Memo live event in DC: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/live-with-... Details and tickets here: www.eventbrite.com/e/morning-me...

U.S. District David J. Novak, a Trump appointee, absolutely roasts Lindsey Halligan for cosplaying as EDVA U.S. attorney and warns that if she continues to do so he will initiate disciplinary proceedings against her AND anyone else who signs her pleadings. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Strange. The EDVA judges seems to be sidestepping a direct confrontation w/ the White House here, but by relying on the terms of a Bondi order which another federal judge already ruled was an invalid appointment of Halligan, they're essentially validating it. A quick refresher on how we got here ...

President Trump is marauding through the Arctic and NATO in such a disinhibited way that it’s giving rise to new calls for the invocation of the 25th Amendment. That’s not happening, but his jangly grip on reality is already doing grave damage to NATO. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

The only people the Justice Department is investigating for the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good are her widow, the governor of Minnesota, and the mayor of Minneapolis. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...