Trials. From top to bottom, the whole chain, from the White House to those pressing the button.

JUST IN: A federal judge has tossed a defamation lawsuit Kash Patel brought against former FBI official / pundit Frank Figliuzzi. Figliuzzi’s claim that Patel spent more time in nightclubs than at FBI HQ was “rhetorical hyperbole,” the judge rules. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The Justice Dept’s theory of the case— that the group that single-handedly disassembled the Ku Klux Klan defrauded its donors by concealing that it was using paid informant to do that work and more— has about as much merit as the now-dismissed charges against Jim Comey.

I bet Tim Cook has dealt with a lot in his time, but this has to be the most embarrassing girlbye shoutout I have ever seen.

"Court documents show Trump knew he was going to tear down the East Wing at least two months before doing so, but he never told the public."

Any AUSAs who agree to take on this case, any AUSAs who oversee them, and any USA/DAG who chooses to lead them should never find employment as lawyers again. (Except obv the oligarchs will find sinecures for some--but not all--of them. Accountability and billionaires are too often incompatible.)

"Trump Is Making Republicans Wet Their Beds" The president's war in Iran & mass deportation campaign are having major - & negative - political consequences. Plus, his outgoing labor secretary discovers you can in fact have too many scandals. Today's First Draft morning newsletter:

Surprise! washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/04/21/cia-mexico-accident-counter-narcotics/?itid=hp_alert

This will never not be right to me.

I remain part of the group that think Trump wants to lose the midterms. Why? He is bored. Johnson is a servile little lap dog who can’t manage the House. Thune is a stick in the mud. The legislative agenda is dead. But a Dem House and/or Senate? They will want a fight? And Trump LOVES a fight.

There should be Dem Fight caucuses, and members with genuine hunger for aggressive oversight should demand enforceable concessions that prevent leadership + frontline members from shutting down promising inquiries. www.offmessage.net/p/how-to-det...

I'm all for far more transparency on the investigation into the assassination attempt, but I remain (at least for now) firmly in the "it was not faked" camp.

“The Woman Who Knows Too Much” Amanda Ungaro says Paolo Zampolli abused her, seduced her underage, recruited girls for Epstein, had a hold on Melania (who worked undocumented for years) He had her deported as they battle for custody. He still works for Trump. She is willing to testify.

SEN. @ossoff.senate.gov : “The faithless president depicts himself as Christ while he plunges the nation into wars of choice… Remember — While you pay more for everything, the First Family’s wealth is growing by billions. Because they’re crooks, and everybody knows it.”

Thanks for quasi-inspiring my latest: danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-takeaw...

“They’ll never close the Strait again” lasted a solid 10 hours. Masterful negotiation (read: market manipulation) from Trump

I hope they stress about it every day. And then I hope they’re right so we can hold them all accountable.

That’s my theory. He’s been focus grouping Vance vs Rubio for 28, and Rubio is winning. I think he’s also going after the Pope specifically to spite Vance.

Absolutely dying at right-wing radio host Sid Rosenberg getting so angry that Mr. and Mrs. Met hugged @mayor.nyc.gov that he started calling them antisemites and became a Yankees fan.

“Adderall is being used to make the Leader of the Free World feel in control of what I believe is a lifelong undiagnosed learning disability - of which of course, there is no shame, but I believe his family chose to hide it instead of dealing with it when he was a child.” open.substack.com/pub/noel

This isn’t public health and it’s not about clean water. This is state-sponsored humiliation. And seriously? Go try to find any justification for this anywhere, in any chapter of any Bible. johnfugelsang.substack.com/p/small-gove...

This is so amazing! And this is why we should fund science.

The absurdity of this framing cracked me up.

Palantir raises more red flags when you learn the CEO, Alex Karp is obsessed with speaking in German and describes himself as a socialist but doesn't believe in any leftist economic policies.

💯. My friend @judgeluttig.bsky.social, as always, says it straight and straight-out.

Breaking WaPo: The Trump Justice Department is now demanding all ballots from the 2024 election in the Detroit area — a highly unusual move that comes shortly after prosecutors seized 2020 ballots in Georgia and obtained 2020 election records in Arizona.

Damn. She doesn’t mince words 💥 “JD Vance telling our Pope to be very careful about speaking about theology. It’s a veiled threat. These guys are thugs and murderers.”

“but we can’t just run on being anti-Trump” actually you can and you should

WOW: A stunning new report in the WSJ reveals that military advisers intentionally excluded Donald Trump from the command room during the recent high-stakes operation to extract a downed U.S. airman in Iran, because they feared his erratic behavior could jeopardize the mission. 1/

Yeah. I just walked by this, which is the highest I’ve seen in person

Compare this to the 5 years the guy who stole from the IRS got, and Trump's efforts to turn that into a $10B payday.

Before Trump started the war in Iran: Iran was not building a nuclear weapon The Strait of Hormuz was open Thousands killed during the war were alive

Gotta give credit where credit is due. Donald Trump is doing an absolutely terrific job appearing unstable. No one can do it better.

Ah. A fresh set of war crimes in the morning.

From last night: Minnesota Still Cleaning Up after Pam Bondi's Trophy Stunt emptywheel.net/2026/04/18/m...

6/The polar opposite treatment of these two cases clarifies what Justice looks like under Trump. If you think it matters to stay on top of issues like this, I cover them in my Newsletter civil discourse, and you can sign up for free. joycevance.substack.com/p/justice-ac...

STEFANIK: President Trump didn't call for genocide, Jake. You are putting those words in his mouth TAPPER: 'Your entire civilization will die'? STEFANIK: It's the terrorist regime, Jake. He's targeting the terrorist regime TAPPER: You're changing his words!

One reason that we cannot have professional diplomats representing the interests of the United States is that it would disrupt a pattern of personal enrichment for the Presidents allies and families.

Trump's DOJ just asked for probation for someone who committed three identity thefts.

Trump is reported close to a "deal" with himself under which US taxpayers would pay him $10 billion. I served in multiple communist and authoritarian dictatorships, but I never witnessed corruption on this scale or this blatant.

According to video recordings, when a ship tries to pass through the strait of Hormuz, Iranian navy says: “The Strait of Hormuz is still closed. We will open it by the order of our leader Imam Khamenei, not by the tweets of some idiot.”

Someone knew. $760 million bet that oil would crash placed 20 minutes before it did. This wasn’t a fluke. It happened three times in six weeks. The feds are investigating. The question isn’t whether someone had inside knowledge of U.S. war decisions. It’s who.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The Iranians are playing this brainsick dullard like a yo-yo.

Here we go again

Oh come on Joe. Jesse Binnall’s “honors” page shows he’s been a Rising Star AND a Super Lawyer!

The FBI guy is on a paranoid bender and won’t leave his room. The War guy quotes bible passages from Pulp Fiction. The Health guy collects raccoon dicks. It’s an Idiocracy on steroids.

One thing that I'm thinking about as a ponder how Todd Blanche put someone whose wife was investigated for foreign influence peddling on this case is that before Blanche was Trump's lawyer be was Boris Epshteyn's lawyer and before he was Epshteyn's lawyer he was Paul Manafort's lawyer. 😳