Michael Casey of the AP: “The Trump administration apologized in court for a 'mistake' in the deportation of a Massachusetts college student who was detained trying to fly home to surprise her family for Thanksgiving, but still argued the error should not affect her case. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old Babson College freshman, was detained at Boston’s airport on Nov. 20 and flown to Honduras two days later. Her removal came despite an emergency court order on Nov. 21 directing the government to keep her in Massachusetts or elsewhere in the United States for at least 72 hours. Lopez Belloza, whose family emigrated from Honduras to the U.S. in 2014, is currently staying with grandparents and studying remotely. She is not detained and was recently visiting an aunt in El Salvador. Her case is the latest involving a deportation carried out despite a court order.”
Matthew Lee of the AP: “The State Department said Wednesday it will suspend the processing of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and Somalia, whose nationals the Trump administration has deemed likely to require public assistance while living in the United States. The State Department, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said it had instructed consular officers to halt immigrant visa applications from the countries affected in accordance with a broader order issued in November that tightened rules around potential immigrants who might become 'public charges/ in the U.S. The suspension, which will begin Jan. 21, will not apply to applicants seeking non-immigrant visas, or temporary tourist or business visas, who make up the vast majority of visa seekers.”
Adam Taylor & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: “Denmark’s foreign minister said there had been a 'frank but also constructive' conversation with the Trump administration in a high-stakes meeting about Greenland at the White House on Wednesday, but that the two sides had come to no agreement about ... Donald Trump’s demands to 'own' the Arctic territory.” This is an update of a story linked earlier. ~~~
~~~ Felicia Schwartz & Eli Stokols of Politico: “Denmark and Greenland 'still have a fundamental disagreement' with the U.S. over ... Donald Trump’s desire to control the Arctic territory, Denmark’s foreign minister said Wednesday. Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, finally had their chance to try to turn down the temperature at the White House after more than a year of aggressive internet trolling, statements and demands from the U.S. Their conversation did little to dissuade Trump and his team from their hold on Greenland.... Rasmussen and Motzfeldt took pains to describe the session as respectful, but their frustration that their longtime ally would not cooperate was clear.”
Trump Ups His Threat. Julia Manchester of the Hill: Donald “Trump said early Wednesday that anything less than U.S. control of Greenland would be 'unacceptable.' 'The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. It is vital for the Golden Dome that we are building. NATO should be leading the way for us to get it. IF WE DON’T, RUSSIA OR CHINA WILL, AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post ahead of Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio meeting with officials from the island and Denmark at the White House.”
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “The U.S. military is evacuating an unspecified number of nonessential personnel from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar as a precautionary measure while [Donald] Trump weighs ordering military action over the protests in Iran. The Pentagon began moving some personnel out of the sprawling air base because of the rising tension between the United States and Iran over the Tehran government’s crackdown against protesters there, according to two U.S. military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The Qatari government said in a statement that the evacuations 'are being undertaken in response to the current regional tensions.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~
~~~ Abdi Dahir & Sanam Mahoozi of the New York Times: “Iran was expected to execute a protester on Wednesday for the first time during the current wave of antigovernment unrest, according to human rights groups and family members of the protester.... [Donald] Trump has threatened 'strong action' if Iran carries out any such death sentences. Rights groups and relatives identified the protester as Erfan Soltani, 26, from an area west of the capital, Tehran. He was arrested on Jan. 8 and has been denied access to a lawyer or other means to mount a defense, according to the Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. A statement by the rights group said his family was also kept unaware of the judicial proceedings and was allowed only a brief, final visit before the scheduled execution, on Wednesday. On Tuesday, his family said he had never used violence and only sought basic freedoms for Iranians.”
Kash Patel is just out there doing whatever the hell he wants. Investigate the victim and the family of the victim of an ICE shooting? Check. Forget about investigating the murderer himself? Check. Have the FBI tax his girlfriend's drunk friend to wherever she wants to go. Check. Use a government plane to get to date night? Check. And now this: ~~~
Bemjamin Mullin, et al., of the New York Times: “F.B.I. agents searched the home of a Washington Post reporter on Wednesday as part of a leak investigation, a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s tactics in seeking information from the news media. It is exceedingly rare, even in investigations of classified disclosures, for federal agents to search a reporter’s home. A 1980 law called the Privacy Protection Act generally bars search warrants for reporters’ work materials unless the reporters themselves are suspected of committing a crime related to them. The reporter, Hannah Natanson, has spent the past year covering the Trump administration’s effort to fire federal workers and redirect much of the work force to enforcing his agenda. Many of those employees shared with her their anger, frustration and fear with the administration’s changes. A spokesperson for The Washington Post said on Wednesday that the publication was reviewing and monitoring the situation.
“An article in The Post said investigators told Ms. Natanson that she is not the focus of the investigation. Law enforcement seized laptops, a phone and a smartwatch during their search. The paper reported that the search warrant and related F.B.I. affidavit indicated that law enforcement was investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator in Maryland who has a top-secret security clearance and has been accused of gaining access to and taking home classified intelligence reports that were found in his lunchbox and his basement.” Here's the Post story, by Perry Stein & Jeremy Roebuck. Politico's story is here.
Isabela Dias of Mother Jones: "The second Trump presidency has taken ICE off the leash. The agency is now the highest-funded law enforcement body in the United States, with a budget that eclipses that of some countries’ militaries. With its near-unlimited resources and aggressive directions from the White House, ICE is sending federal immigration agents not trained in community policing to make at-large arrests in cities across the country.... Two ex-ICE workers I spoke with described an agency that, in pursuit of ... Donald Trump’s mass deportation mandate, is engaging in reckless and risky behavior. 'They’re essentially operating now in a resource constraint-free environment and doing very dangerous things,' said Scott Shuchart, who ... [was' ICE’s assistant director for regulatory affairs and policy under the Biden administration. Violent interactions with the public aren’t surprising, he added. 'That’s sort of by design.' Dan Gividen, [once] an ICE [lawyer]..., compared what the agency is doing as akin to running into a crowded movie theater and yelling 'fire.'”
Ha Ha. TJ Sabula, the Ford auto worker who yelled "pedo protector" at Trump, says he has been suspended from his job while Ford investigates or something. A friend started a GoFundMe page for him & his family, and the haul is nearly $300K at 11:45 am ET. Thanks to RAS for the link.
~~~~~~~~~~
Great Moments in Presidential* History. On January 13, 2026, Donald Trump became the first sitting president known to have flipped the bird and mouthed "Fuck you" at a constituent. ~~~
~~~ TMZ: "47 toured the Ford F-150 plant at the Detroit Economic Club before giving a speech ... while walking the factory floor on his tour, someone began shouting at Trump. It's hard to make out the full sentence shouted at Trump, but it seems to have included the words 'pedophile protector.' The angry worker is obviously referencing Trump's association with late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein ... and the Dept. of Justice's slow release of the infamous Epstein Files. In true presidential fashion, Trump responds by yelling down at the guy ... pretty clearly saying 'F*** you' before flipping him the bald eagle.... White House Communications Director Steven Cheung tells TMZ ... 'A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.'" (Also linked yesterday.) We have a low-class, TMZ kind of president*, a man who dishes it out but can't take it. Eventually his obscene stunts make it to the front page of the New York Times. ~~~
~~~ Natalie Allison & Dan Merica of the Washington Post interview the guy who irritated Trump. He is “TJ Sabula, a 40-year-old United Auto Workers Local 600 line worker.” The link is one of those 500-character links that is probably a gift link.
~~~ Marie: For anyone who was unsure, this should definitively answer the question, "At long last, sir, have you no decency?"
Marie: When Trump wasn't giving a Detroit auto worker the finger, he was delivering a speech full of lies, which of course is what he does. And it's just as disrespectful as a one-finger salute, IMO: ~~~
~~~ Daniel Dale of CNN, republished by Yahoo! News: “Donald Trump made numerous false claims about inflation in a Tuesday speech to the Detroit Economic Club.... Inflation hasn’t 'stopped.' Consumer prices are up during this presidential term, not 'down.' Grocery prices are rising, not starting to fall 'rapidly.' US businesses and consumers, not China, pay US tariffs on Chinese imports. It’s impossible to reduce prescription drug prices by 'thousands' of percentage points, since this would mean Americans would be getting paid to acquire their medicines.... He also delivered a bunch of falsehoods about broader economic subjects and about a variety of other issues he abandoned his teleprompter to discuss, including elections and immigration. Here is a fact check of some of his remarks.”
Cheyanne Daniels of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Tuesday said he will suspend federal funding to sanctuary cities and states beginning Feb. 1 as his administration’s immigration crackdown continues. 'Starting February 1, we are not making any payments to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities because they do everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens,/ Trump said during his address at the Detroit Economic Club. He continued, 'It breeds fraud and crime and all of the other problems that come, so we’re not making any payment to anybody that supports sanctuary cities.' Sanctuary cities often have policies limiting local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with federal immigration officers. The Department of Justice has identified 11 states as sanctuary jurisdictions, including California, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. The District of Columbia is also considered a sanctuary jurisdiction.”
Alan Rappeport, et al., of the New York Times: “The investigation of Jerome H. Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, has prompted fierce blowback from Republicans, international policymakers, Wall Street and some Trump allies, and now threatens to undermine ... [Donald] Trump’s effort to assert dominance over economic decision-making.... The backlash is occurring at a time when Mr. Trump has become increasingly emboldened, declaring to The New York Times last week that the only limits on his power are his own 'morality.' The Powell inquiry also laid bare some rare dissension within the top ranks of the Trump administration.... When [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent found out the investigation was moving forward, he called Mr. Trump directly..., telling the president the investigation could impede their plans to confirm a new chair of the Federal Reserve.... Mr. Trump ... [told U.S. Attorney Jeanine] Pirro[, who brought the case against Powell,] and dozens of U.S. attorneys who visited the White House for a meet-and-greet last week: They were too weak, and needed to step up the pace of investigations of his enemies....”
It is possible to become addicted to power — particularly for certain character structures. Individuals with pronounced narcissistic, paranoid or psychopathic tendencies are especially vulnerable. For them, power does not merely enable action; it regulates inner states that would otherwise feel unmanageable. Donald Trump is an extreme illustration of this dynamic. From a psychoanalytic perspective, his narcissism is malignant in the sense that it is organized around a profound inner emptiness. Malignant narcissism is a combination of narcissism and psychopathology. Because there is little internal capacity for self-soothing or self-valuation, he requires continuous external affirmation to feel real and intact. Power supplies that affirmation. Visibility, dominance and constant stimulation temporarily fill the void. -- Prof. Manfred Kets de Vries
Power is a very strong stimulant of the dopamine reward system of the brain — which is the seat of addiction.... A a central component of addiction is increased tolerance — i.e., you need to increase the dose to keep the same effect. It can become an unquenchable appetite. -- Prof. Ian Robertson
[Donald Trump] represents what researchers call the dark triad of three interconnected, malevolent personality traits: narcissism (grandiosity, self-centeredness), Machiavellianism (manipulation, cynicism) and psychopathy (impulsivity, lack of empathy/remorse). -- Prof. Adam Galinsky ~~~
~~~ Analyzing Donald. Thomas Edsell of the New York Times: Donald “Trump is showing symptoms of an addiction to power, evident in his compulsion to escalate claims of dominion over domestic and international adversaries. The size and scope of his targets for subjugation are spiraling ever upward.... The compulsion to simultaneously project power and demean adversaries pervades the administration. Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff for policy and a homeland security adviser, thrives on assertions of domination.... Even before Trump took office, [budget director Russell] Vought fantasized in speeches about putting career civil servants 'in trauma,' making their lives ... miserable....”
Paul Krugman explains Trumponomics in a manner that is to the theories Edsell puts forward: "Trump doesn’t adhere to any consistent ideology. Instead, it’s all transactional, to serve his interests and indulge his contempt for ordinary Americans. As a result, he’s perfectly willing to issue edicts like a monarch, ordering the private sector around whenever he thinks it might be to his political advantage, as well as acting on personal grudges whenever he meets the slightest resistance.... Democrats should make sure that they don’t abet another Trumpian charade [like his 'plan' to lower credit card interest rates]."
THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING! -- Donald Trump, in a social media post, Tuesday ~~~
~~~ Thomas Fuller & Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: “In and around Minneapolis in recent days — in quiet residential neighborhoods and busy shopping districts, at gas station and big box store parking lots — ... chaotic scenes are unfolding, an escalation of tensions between residents and federal agents as the Trump administration intensifies its immigration crackdown in Minnesota after the killing of Renee Good by an immigration officer last week. 'It feels like our community is under siege by our own federal government,' said State Representative Michael Howard, a Democrat.... [He] said federal agents for the most part did not have warrants and were staging in the parking lots of stores and apartment complexes and targeting people of color, asking for proof of citizenship.... 'This is a military occupation, and it feels like a military occupation,” [Elliott] Payne[, president of the Minneapolis city council,] said. Mr. Payne said federal agents scream obscenities at residents and repeatedly holster and unholster their weapons.” Includes photos & videos. The link is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: If you didn't see the two videos I posted yesterday, one by Rachel Maddow's show, I encourage you to watch them to see what Trump's thugs are doing in your name, on your dime.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: Donald “Trump had a ringing message of solidarity on Tuesday for demonstrators in the streets. 'KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!' he wrote on social media. He decried 'the senseless killing of protesters,' and added that those pulling the triggers 'will pay a big price.' He meant the protesters in Tehran, not Minneapolis. By contrast, the people in the streets of Minnesota, he wrote just 63 minutes earlier, were 'anarchists and professional agitators' trying to cover up a fraud scandal. He vowed that 'THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!'”... The president’s rule of thumb seems simple enough: Those who take to the streets supporting a cause he favors are laudable heroes. Those who take to the streets to oppose him are illegitimate radicals.
“Mr. Trump discussed possible military strikes in response to the brutal and deadly crackdown on protesters in Iran, even as he has dismissed concerns about the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minnesota. While he vowed that 'help is on its way' to Iranian protesters, his administration moved to block outside inquiries into the Minneapolis killing, which he appeared to rationalize because Ms. Good had been 'disrespectful' to federal officers.”
These guys' ancestors got to the U.S. maybe 9,000 years before the ICE agents' ancestors did. But they do have darkish skin, don't they? Very suspicious! ~~~
~~~ Russell Contreras of Axios: "The Oglala Sioux Tribe, one of the largest Indigenous tribal nations in the U.S., is accusing ICE of illegally holding four tribal members picked up during Minneapolis raids.... Sioux Tribe president Frank Star Comes Out wrote in a memo Tuesday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ... and demanded their release. Star Comes Out said the men were homeless and living under a bridge ... in Minneapolis.... ICE agents can arrest U.S. citizens in some cases, but agents can't place U.S. citizens in immigration detention, including Indigenous tribal members, after their citizenship is verified.... According to Star Comes Out, when the tribe demanded information about the detained tribal members, federal officials told the tribe it would release information only if the tribe entered into an agreement with ICE. The tribe declined, saying such an agreement would violate its treaties with the U.S. government." ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's hard to know how to factor in the stupidity of Trump administration officials and their appointed goons.
Adam Nichols of the Raw Story: "Leaked documents have revealed terror among ICE agents working in Minneapolis after the fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Renee Good last week — and some are laying blame with their boss [Kristi Noem].... A high-level career official at Homeland Security headquarters in Washington..., [who expressed a need for de-escalation, said,] 'There is genuine fear that indeed ICE's heavy-handedness and the rhetoric from Washington is more creating a condition where the officers' lives are in danger rather than the other way around.'" Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Read the DHS career official's remark again. What's wrong with it? RAS writes,
Do you think the official realized what he said at the end there? They are supposed to fear us, not us fearing them. It is so ingrained and natural to them that I don't think they could wrap their heads around the idea that the civilian public should not in fact be fearing that DHS officers will harm or murder people. Their original purpose was to keep people safe, not instill fear in them.... Good luck on that 'deescalation'.
~~~ I'll go even further than RAS did. When you parse what the "high-level" DHS official said, you find that s/he juxtaposed (1) "the officers' lives" -- which s/he said were"in danger" -- against (2) "the other way around." The "other way around" then would be "ordinary people's lives ... in danger." That is, "a high-level career official at Homeland Security" said it is a bad thing to endanger DHS officers (I'll agree with that), but it is either good or acceptable to endanger the lives of ordinary people. This official, despite being critical of "ICE's heavy-handedness" and despite wanting to "de-escalate" tensions with the public, still seems to think that endangering -- i.e., harming or even killing -- civilians is acceptable. I guess this is as reasonable as they get at DHS. It's been a crap department since it was formed during Bush II's administration, given a Nazi-esque name -- "homeland" (trans. "das Vaterland") -- and a mission to round up terrorists. Now, the posture of the expanded DHS is that we're all terrorists, and they're not.
⭐Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: “Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned on Tuesday over the Justice Department’s push to investigate the widow of a woman killed by an ICE agent and the department’s reluctance to investigate the shooter.... Joseph H. Thompson, who was second in command at the U.S. attorney’s office and oversaw a sprawling fraud investigation that has roiled Minnesota’s political landscape, was among those who quit on Tuesday.... Mr. Thompson’s resignation came after senior Justice Department officials pressed for a criminal investigation into the actions of the widow of Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis woman killed by an ICE agent.... Mr. Thompson, 47, a career prosecutor, objected to that approach, as well as to the Justice Department’s refusal to include state officials in investigating whether the shooting itself was lawful....” The link appears to be a gift link version of a link Akhilleus provided in today's Comments. (The link in the Comments doesn't work because of an extraneous bit of code that got latched onto it. The one should work whether or not you need the "gift extension.") (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Say, you know how Trump & ICE Barbie and all are so upset with Minnesota because of all the fraud that they are withholding allocated federal funds (until the courts say they can't) and sending in squads-full of fraud investigators and deploying thousands of ICE agents & generally turning Minnesota upside down? Well, there's this from Londoño's report:
“The Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, said in an interview that Mr. Thompson’s resignation dealt a major blow to efforts to root out rampant theft from state agencies. The fraud cases, which involve schemes to cheat safety net programs, were the chief reason the Trump administration cited for its immigration crackdown in the state. The vast majority of defendants charged in the cases are American citizens of Somali origin. 'When you lose the leader responsible for making the fraud cases, it tells you this isn’t really about prosecuting fraud,' Mr. O’Hara said.
Accessories After the Fact. Alanna Richer & Eric Tucker of the AP: “The Justice Department does not believe there is currently any basis to open a criminal civil rights investigation into the killing of a woman by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis..., Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement [Tuesday.]... The decision to keep the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division out of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good marks a sharp departure from past administrations, which have moved quickly to probe shootings of civilians by law enforcement officials for potential civil rights offenses.... Federal officials have said that the officer acted in self-defense and that the driver of the Honda was engaging in 'an act of domestic terrorism' when she pulled forward toward him. The quick pronouncement by administration officials before any meaningful investigation could be completed has raised concerns.... Roughly half a dozen federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned and several supervisors in the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division in Washington gave notice of their departures amid turmoil over the federal probe.”
But What Does Joe Rogan Say? Angela Yang of NBC News: “Joe Rogan compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement to 'the Gestapo' in the latest episode of his popular podcast Tuesday, openly breaking with ... Donald Trump on his administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. Rogan, one of the biggest podcasters in the world, had endorsed ... Donald Trump in the 2024 election just days after holding a three-hour interview with him on 'The Joe Rogan Experience.' The show, which has consistently retained its No. 1 spot on the Spotify podcast charts, has more than 20.6 million subscribers on YouTube. But on Tuesday, Rogan, who has been increasingly critical of Trump’s mass deportation agenda in recent months, expressed concern over ICE’s activities in an episode featuring Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. He said that 'most people' believe law enforcement should arrest criminals, but that many of the same people also believe ICE is 'operating illegally.'... In in recent months, many podcasters in [Rogan's] circle have expressed open discontent with the administration they helped propel into office.”
Heather Cox Richardson: “The scenes ICE is performing seem to be the logical outcome of the idea of cowboy individualism Republicans have pushed since the 1980s: white men reclaiming the government they insist has been corrupted by Black Americans, women, and people of color and using the power of that government to defend the 'real' America. In that scheme, anyone resisting the government is not showing proper subservience and is anti-American by definition.... Reality is crumbling the MAGA fantasy that their leaders could fix the United States if only they purged it of their opponents and stripped away the laws and governmental systems those opponents have created over decades.” ~~~
~~~ Marcie Jones of Wonkette also point out all the things Renee Good did wrong or was wrong about, and they line right up with Richardson's hypotheses. MB: One useful aspect of the MAGA movement is that it pretty explicitly includes white women in the group of deplorables along with various minorities and non-Christians and other rabble. If we white ladies couldn't quite grasp what it was like to be Black, ladies, we can now! Personally, I've always known most of it, but I perhaps I didn't fully understand that it was fine to shoot me dead for not bowing low enough to crude bullies with guns. I definitely get that now.
Adam Taylor & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: “The heated debat e over Greenland’s future heads Wednesday to the White House, where Vice President JD Vance will host a closed-door meeting with the Arctic island’s key stakeholders that some Europeans fear could further worsen a transatlantic divide that threatens to tear apart the NATO alliance. Ahead of the meeting..., Donald Trump reiterated Greenland’s importance.... Trump wrote on social media Wednesday that 'the United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security,' saying that its strategic Arctic location made it necessary for the proposed Golden Dome missile defense system he wants to build. 'NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES. Anything less than that is unacceptable.'” Here you may find useful the background & opinions by the Danish professor who hosted that YouTube video I embedded yesterday. His theory is consistent with the ideas expressed in Thomas Edsell's column, linked above. ~~~
~~~ Maya Tekeli & Amelia Nierenberg of the New York Times: “Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland said on Tuesday that his country would rather remain a part of the Danish Kingdom than join the United States, a day before officials from the three governments are set to meet at the White House.... [Donald] Trump has been insistent that he would try to take over Greenland 'whether they like it or not.' Denmark colonized the island more than 300 years ago and still controls some of its affairs. 'If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark,' Mr. Nielsen said in a joint news conference with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark [at her office in Copenhagen]. 'We choose NATO, the Kingdom of Denmark and the European Union.... The time has come to stand together.... Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States.”
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “A Justice Department memo made public Tuesday concluded that ... [Donald] Trump had constitutional authority to send military forces into Venezuela to help arrest its president, Nicolás Maduro, without congressional authorization.... The 22-page memo [-- signed by the head of the department's Office of Legal Counsel, T. Elliot Gaiser --] was dated Dec. 23 — about 11 days before the operation — and offers a detailed look into the administration’s legal justification for the military incursion into Venezuelan territory and what Mr. Gaiser called 'Maduro’s abduction.'... Legal scholars say [the operation, in which at least 80 people were killed,] appears to have violated international law. Under the United Nations Charter, a treaty ratified by the U.S. Senate, a nation cannot use force inside another country without its consent....” ~~~
~~~ You can read the heavily-redacted memo on this Lawfare page.
Rubio: Due Process Doesn't Fit My Agenda. Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration said it cannot comply with a federal judge’s order to provide dozens of deported Venezuelan migrants the opportunity to challenge their removals in an American court, saying in a legal filing late Monday night that such efforts would be impossible after U.S. forces deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro this month. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a sworn declaration that efforts to bring 137 of the more than 250 deportees from Venezuela to the United States for court hearings, or to arrange remote hearings from their native country, 'would risk material damage to U.S. foreign policy interests in Venezuela.'... The case has been winding through the courts for nearly a year. [Judge James] Boasberg issued a ruling last month saying the migrants were 'denied their due-process rights and had to be located and given the chance to challenge their deportations in federal court.”
Anthony Jeong & Lauren Weber of the Washington Post: “The U.S. State Department said Tuesday that multiple Americans detained in Venezuela had been released by local authorities, the first known instance of U.S. citizens being freed since the U.S. military’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro this month.”
Tony Romm of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has come to embrace a risky economic strategy: using the brute force of government as a way to push down prices that remain stubbornly high. From regulatory threats against private businesses to more punitive actions against policymakers, there appears to be no lever in Washington that Mr. Trump now seems unwilling to pull, even if doing so might exacerbate some of the very economic strains that he is trying to combat. The extent of Mr. Trump’s interventions have become especially evident over the past month.... Policymakers and economists — even those who support Mr. Trump — increasingly regard his actions as unpredictable and fraught with risk. They see his reliance on punishment and intimidation as a challenge to the very foundation that has made the United States such an enviable economy in the eyes of much of the world.
If you told him Martians came and stole votes, he’d be inclined to believe it. -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), sworn testimony, 2022
Some people say you may outdrive him, but you’re not going to outdrive his caddy. It is what it is. -- Lindsey Graham, sworn testimony, 2022, in response to a question about whether Donald Trump cheated at golf ~~~
~~~ Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: “Transcripts of secret grand jury testimony from the Georgia election interference case against Mr. Trump and his allies, obtained this week by The New York Times, show just how alarmed and exasperated a number of senior Republicans felt about the president’s efforts to overturn an American presidential election. The testimony, given in 2022, is emerging at a time when Mr. Trump is again raising complaints about his 2020 defeat and voicing regret that he did not order the National Guard to seize voting machines after the election. He has also said he wanted to 'lead a movement' to ban voting machines and mail-in ballots in time for the midterm elections this year.” Update: The link has been changed to what appears to be a gift link.
Steve Thompson of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department responded defiantly Tuesday to an order from a federal judge directing Lindsey Halligan to explain why she continues to use the title U.S. attorney in Virginia despite another judge’s ruling that her appointment was unconstitutional. In a response signed by Halligan, the Justice Department opposed U.S. District Judge David Novak, who demanded last week that Halligan account for why she continues to use the U.S. attorney title in court filings. Novak, a Richmond judge who Trump nominated to the bench in 2019, suggested Halligan’s use of the title could amount to false or misleading statements.... The response, which accuses Novak of making 'rudimentary' legal errors and missing 'elementary' legal principles, is written in a derisive tone unusual for a government lawyer addressing a federal judge.” (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Marie: That's because, as we learned Tuesday from Donald Trump's reaction to a Ford worker, this is the Fuck-You Administration. Check the watermark on the response; it may be what TMZ so delicately calls “a bald eagle.” You just can't match the spunk of a third-runner-up in a state beauty pageant.
Perry Stein of the Washington Post: Prosecutor “V. Grady O’Malley built one of the most complicated cases of his 47-year Justice Department career to prove that a New York businessman who owned a chain of nursing homes had failed to pay more than $38 million in employment taxes, then laundered the money by bouncing it from account to account. The defendant, Joseph Schwartz, pleaded guilty.... [Trump pardoned] Jenkins ... the day before he was set to begin his prison sentence, his entire punishment erased and the restitution he owed taxpayers wiped out.... More than half a dozen experienced prosecutors interviewed for this story ... said Trump’s clemency acts have eroded faith among current and former Justice Department employees that the cases they devote years to prosecuting will lead to accountability.”
Send Us “Lists of Jews.” Really? Alice Speri of the Guardian: “Several faculty groups have denounced the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain information about Jewish professors, staff and students at the University of Pennsylvania – including personal emails, phone numbers and home addresses – as government abuse with 'ominous historical overtones'. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is demanding the ... information ... as part of the administration’s stated goal to combat antisemitism on campuses. But some Jewish faculty and staff have condemned the government’s demand, '... because compiling and turning over to the government “lists of Jews” conjures a terrifying history', according to a press release put out by the groups’ lawyers. The EEOC sued Penn in November over the university’s refusal to fully comply with its demands. On Tuesday, the American Association of University Professors’ national and Penn chapters, the university’s Jewish Law Students Association and its Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty, and the American Academy of Jewish Research filed a motion in federal court to intervene in the case.”
Greg Jaffe of the New York Times: “Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan says she has learned that federal prosecutors are investigating her after she took part in a video urging military service members to resist illegal orders. Ms. Slotkin, a Democrat, said in an interview on Monday that she found out about the inquiry from the office of Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a longtime ally of ... [Donald] Trump’s. In an email sent to the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms, Ms. Pirro’s office requested an interview with the senator or her private counsel.... Ms. Slotkin organized the video, which Mr. Trump and other administration officials have described as 'seditious,' along with five other Democratic lawmakers who are also military veterans. Its message that military officers are obligated to ignore illegal orders is a fundamental principle of military law.” An NBC News story is here.
Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Bill and Hillary Clinton refused on Tuesday to testify in the House’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation, escalating a monthslong battle with its Republican leader, Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, who quickly said he would take steps to hold them in contempt of Congress.... The Clintons wrote ... a lengthy[, scorching] letter to Mr. Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee..., promising to fight [him] on the issue for as long as it took.... [They also sent] an eight-page legal letter laying out why they considered the subpoenas 'invalid and legally unenforceable.'... Mr. Comer’s relentless efforts to force them to testify reflect his overall ... [attempt] to deflect focus from ... [Donald] Trump’s ties to the convicted sex offender.... Instead, he has worked to shift the spotlight onto prominent Democrats....” The link to the article is a gift link. The links to the letters are not. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Politico's story is here. President & Secretary Clinton have published their four-page letter on X. Politico's link to the Clintons' legal letter, which is not firewalled, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
RFKJ Stacks Another Board with Looneytunes. Lena Sun of the Washington Post: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday expanded a key federal vaccine advisory panel to include more critics of vaccines who have contradicted mainstream medical guidance, including one who has described herself as an 'anti-vaxxer.' His new appointments, Kimberly Biss and Adam Urato, are OB/GYNs who were outspoken critics of coronavirus vaccines during pregnancy.... 'My grandchildren will not get any shots if I can help it,' [Biss] said. 'The vaccine industry is disgusting.'... A public health group blasted the latest appointments, highlighting past comments by Biss including her claims that coronavirus vaccination may lead to a 'huge spike in cancer' in children.”
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| Maybe not the Oscar, but nice. |
~~~ Free Press? Ha Ha Ha. Liam Scott of the Washington Post: “Applicants for positions at the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes are being asked how they would support the president’s policy priorities, raising concerns among some staffers and media watchers about the prospects for the historic outlet’s editorial independence.... While it is partly funded by the Pentagon and its staffers are Defense Department employees, Congress has mandated the publication’s independence and taken measures to guarantee it.... Stars and Stripes leadership was not aware that applicants were being asked that question until The Washington Post inquired about it this month.... Jacqueline Smith, the newspaper’s ombudsman..., [said,] 'Asking prospective employees how they would support the administration’s policies is antithetical to Stripes’ journalistic and federally mandated mission.... It’s against ethics, because reporters or any staff member — editors, photographers — should be impartial.... The Office of Personnel Management, not the newspaper’s leadership, was responsible for adding the question, she added.”
Anna Merlan of Mother Jones: "In much of the world, Grok and its parent company both appear to be in serious trouble. After Grok, X’s AI chatbot, has been used to generate sexualized and violent images of women and children, the social media company has faced a wave of backlash and censure, with new nationwide bans on accessing Grok in place and other consequences on the way. On Monday, the EU threatened to fine X under its broad Digital Services Act if it didn’t act 'quickly' to fix Grok, in the words of one regulator.... The outrage over Grok’s lack of guardrails has been raging for weeks, after X delivered an update on Christmas Eve which allowed users to edit images and videos on the app.,,, The tool was inevitably and quickly used for violently sexualized campaigns against the platform’s female users.... X eventually limited the tool to paid subscribers, which seems to mean that you can still make nonconsensual images if you pay for the privilege.... Overall, Musk has suggested that criticism of Grok is from people who 'just want to suppress free speech,' and his broader strategy seems to be trying to focus on what he seems to see as the tool’s artistic value.”
Kim Bhasin, et al., of the New York Times: “Saks Global, the company that owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, filed for bankruptcy protection late Tuesday, crumbling under billions of dollars in debt, a fraying relationship with vendors and lagging sales. The filing is the latest sign that America’s luxury department stores, once landmarks that served as immersive fantasy worlds for the wealthy and aspirational, are becoming an endangered species.... Saks said it had secured roughly $1.75 billion to help finance the company through bankruptcy, much of it coming from its bondholders. Saks said it intended to emerge from bankruptcy later this year, and it expected to honor all customer programs, make payments to vendors and continue to pay employees.”
Clay Risen of the New York Times: “Claudette Colvin, whose refusal in 1955 to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala., came months before it was overshadowed by a similar act of resistance in the same city by Rosa Parks, a historic moment that helped galvanize the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday in Texas. She was 86.... As a teenager in Alabama, Ms. Colvin went on to become a star witness in a landmark anti-segregation lawsuit whose successful outcome was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.” (Also linked yesterday.)
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New York. Tim Craig of the Washington Post: “Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday endorsed legislation that would allow New York residents to sue Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in state court for civil rights violations, an escalation of efforts by Democratic-led states to rein in the agency following a woman’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis last week. During her annual State of the State address in Albany, Hochul (D) said 'protecting New Yorkers' was her top priority and that now includes 'standing up to ICE agents who abuse their power.'”
New York. Nicholas Fandos & David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: “Eric Adams was crowing as he stood in Times Square on Monday to launch his first post-mayoral venture, a New York City-themed crypto coin that he said would fund the fight against antisemitism. 'This thing is about to take off like crazy,' he boasted in an accompanying hype video.... In the minutes after trading opened, the coin, NYC Token, rocketed to a market capitalization of nearly $600 million, then crashed almost as quickly after an account linked to the coin’s launch withdrew about $2.5 million in early proceeds without notice, unnerving investors. By Tuesday morning, the account had returned some of the funds, but Mr. Adams was battling accusations from crypto enthusiasts that his NYC Token might be a so-called rug pull — a common crypto scheme in which someone markets a coin to the public, and then quickly siphons off significant profits.” RAS linked this story yesterday by Joe.My.God.
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Iran. Tucker Reals, et al., of CBS News: "Information trickling out of Iran on Tuesday suggests that a crackdown by authorities to end more than two weeks of widespread anti-government protests has likely been far more deadly than activists outside the country have reported. With phone lines opening back up for calls from inside the Islamic Republic, two sources, including one inside Iran, told CBS News on Tuesday that at least 12,000, and possibly as many as 20,000 people have been killed.... The truth has been incredibly difficult to piece together due to Iran's hardline rulers cutting off internet access and phone service in the country for the last five days." Read on.