January 30, 2026

Marie: I can't find a print story on this, but Carol Leonnig reported on-air on MS NOW that the warrants against Don Lemon & Georgia Fort were signed by only political appointees, including Pam Bondi. Career prosecutors in Minneapolis and Los Angeles refused to sign the charging papers. The "real" prosecutors objected because they determined that the evidence didn't line up with the charges: they found no implication of a threat or obstruction or actual violence, as required by the statutes. Leonnig was on-air a least twice Friday afternoon. You can hear part of her comments in this video; her remarks related to this matter begin at about 5:30 minutes in.

Ken Dilanian & Ebony Davis of MS NOW: "The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta field office was forced out this month after questioning the Justice Department’s renewed push to probe Fulton County’s role in the 2020 election.... Paul Brown was ousted after expressing concerns about the FBI’s investigation into ... Donald Trump’s longstanding and unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in the county anchored by Atlanta, and for refusing to carry out the searches and seizures of records tied to the 2020 election, according to the sources, who spoke to MS NOW on condition of anonymity."

Aaron Pellish of Politico: “The Department of Justice is conducting a civil rights investigation into the killing of Alex Pretti, who was shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday.... Blanche sought to portray the probe as 'standard,' even as the Trump administration faces significant backlash for its hostile response in the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s shooting. Lawmakers in both parties have called for top immigration officials to face accountability.... The decision to open the probe in the Pretti shooting marks a distinction with the administration’s response to the killing of Renee Good, who was shot by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis earlier in January. Blanche said shortly after Good’s death that the DOJ would not open a civil rights probe into her case.”

It's not even late Friday afternoon yet, AND ~~~

~~~ The New York Times has a new liveblog up. From the pinned item: “The Justice Department on Friday released 3 million more pages from its Jeffrey Epstein files, and thousands of videos and images. The release is the largest trove of Epstein files released to date by the Justice Department, and came weeks after a Dec. 19 deadline imposed by Congress. The law that required the Justice Department to make virtually all its Epstein investigative files public also required it to explain to Congress why it redacted any information. Todd Blanche, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, said Friday that federal officials would submit its report 'in due course.' Times reporters are sifting through the material and providing updates and analysis of the records.”

Alan Feuer: Todd “Blanche said the department was releasing 3 million pages, 2,000 videos and some 180,000 images.” 

Michael Gold: “Blanche said that the Justice Department had redacted images of every woman in the files it just released except for Ghislaine Maxwell. 'We did not redact images of any men,' he said, 'unless it was impossible to redact a woman without also redacting a man.'”  

Alan Feuer: “Blanche said there was still an open investigation related to Epstein, but he declined to specify what it was about.” 

Michael Gold: “... the Justice Department did withhold and redact materials under attorney-client privilege and deliberative process privilege, which typically allows government agencies to withhold communications made before a final decision is made in a given matter.The lawmakers who wrote the Epstein files law have said that they did not intend to shield that material from public view.” 

Glenn Thrush: “It was noteworthy that Blanche — and not Attorney General Pam Bondi — was answering questions about the Epstein files. The White House has long been frustrated by her missteps, and has increasingly put Blanche forward as the Justice Department’s main conduit for public information about the files.”

Mike Baker & Michael Rothfeld: “Howard Lutnick, the billionaire businessman who serves as ... [Donald] Trump’s commerce secretary, once planned a trip to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, according to documents that the Justice Department released on Friday. The planned visit in 2012 came years after Mr. Lutnick has said he severed ties with Mr. Epstein.... Mr. Lutnick sent an email to Mr. Epstein saying that he had a group of people — including his wife and children and another family — who were visiting the Caribbean. He asked where Mr. Epstein was located and whether they could visit for a meal.... The documents suggest the visit did occur....In a podcast interview last year, Mr. Lutnick claimed that around 2005, he and his wife had been so revolted by Mr. Epstein that they decided not to associate with him again.” [MB: It's so-o-o-o disappointing to find out Howard Nutlick is a self-serving liar.]

Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Coral Davenport: “Jeffrey Epstein drafted notes to and about Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, suggesting that he engaged in extramarital sex....Mr. Epstein wrote the messages about Mr. Gates not long after his attempt to broker a venture between Mr. Gates’s foundation and JPMorgan Chase fizzled out — depriving Mr. Epstein of what he had hoped would be a gusher of income. In one of Mr. Epstein’s emails, written in the style of a personal journal entry, the convicted sex offender wrote that he had helped Mr. Gates acquire drugs 'in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls' and that he had facilitated trysts for Mr. Gates with married women.” 

Michael Gold: “The Justice Department redacted or withheld about 200,000 pages of Epstein-related material 'based on various privileges,' Attorney General Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, said in a letter sent to Congress. In the letter, Bondi and Blanche said that Friday’s release of files was the end of its document-review process.” 

Coral Davenport: “A 2013 email exchange between the British billionaire Richard Branson and Jeffrey Epstein suggests that the two had a warm, familiar relationship, built at least in part around their interest in women. In an email on Sept. 11, 2013, Mr. Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, wrote to Mr. Epstein, 'It was really nice seeing you yesterday.' He added: 'Any time you’re in the area would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!'” 

Michael Gold: “Representatives Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, formally requested a meeting to review the unredacted Epstein files. In a letter to Todd Blanche..., the lawmakers cited concerns 'regarding the scope and consistency of redactions' in the documents that had been released so far, including in so-called 302 reports documenting victims’ statements. 'Congress cannot properly assess the Department’s handling of the Epstein and Maxwell cases without access to the complete record,; the representatives, who wrote the law requiring the release of the files, said.” ~~~

~~~ TMZ: "Bombshell allegation in the latest Epstein Files document release ... an underage girl claims she was forced to perform oral sex on Donald Trump approximately 35 years ago in New Jersey. The allegation is from a document in the files that describes a tip that was sent to the feds. The complaint summary says the feds were told the underage girl was approximately 13-14 years old when the alleged incident occurred, and it says the alleged victim 'allegedly bit President Trump while performing oral sex' and was 'allegedly hit in the face after she laughed about biting President Trump.' The document says the feds forwarded the lead to the Washington Office to conduct an interview.... 

"Another allegation is from a woman who claims she was 13 years old and pregnant in 1984 when she was forced to perform oral sex acts. She told the feds she was sex trafficked by high-profile individuals and that Trump regularly paid her money to force her to perform sex acts. She also alleged Trump was present when her uncle murdered her newborn child. The fed say they were unable to contact the woman. A different caller -- who the feds were unable to make contact with -- alleged a friend thought she had been raped by Trump in 1987 at Trump Plaza." Oh, read on.

Gregory Walton of AFP, published by Yahoo! News: "... Donald Trump walked back his conciliatory tone following public outrage over the killings of Alex Pretti, a veterans' hospital nurse, and another American citizen in Minneapolis.... Trump took to Truth Social ... to describe Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse gunned down on Saturday, as an 'agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.' 'Alex Pretti's stock has gone way down with the just released video of him screaming and spitting in the face of a very calm and under control ICE Officer,' Trump wrote. Footage shared online this week reportedly shows Pretti in a scuffle with federal agents 11 days before he was shot dead. AFP could not immediately verify the footage, in which a man said to be Pretti is seen kicking and breaking the taillight of the agents' car before they emerge and tackle him to the ground." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We still don't know what happened before Pretti spit at the vehicle the feds were using, but I'd have to guess -- not nuthin'. We know what happened afterwards: Trump's "very calm and under control ICE Officer" and several other feds grabbed him, wrestled him to the ground, held him down & reportedly broke his rib before they released him & walked away. As far as I can tell, then, the agents' only purpose was to brutalize someone who had vandalized their vehicle. Very calm. Why didn't they arrest him. In the video below, we hear Greg Bovino instructing his people in L.A., "'Arrest as many people that touch you as you want to. Those are the general orders, all the way to the top." If that instruction really came from the top, then it would have been conveyed to all DHS immigration thugs everywhere. Why didn't the "very calm ICE Officer" arrest Pretti after he damaged the vehicle? Why did the officers rough him up instead? And I still think it's possible this incident was the predicate for CBP officers killing Pretti days later. Whether or not that's true, what Pretti did is scarcely a capital offense and Trump's using it as an excuse for murder is abominable.  

Marie: I forgot Trump held a Cabinet meeting yesterday. I heard on the teevee he didn't let ICE Barbie or Blondie speak. Well, they're just girls anyways. But here's Aaron Rupar, once again doing heroic duty, listening to Trump & the TrumpenSchleimers and telling us what-all they said. Via digby.

Lynsey Chutel of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Thursday warned Britain and Canada against boosting trade with China, which several Western leaders have visited in recent months to hedge against their increasingly volatile relationships with the United States. 'It’s very dangerous for them to do that,' Mr. Trump, referring to Britain, told reporters in Washington outside a screening of a documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump. 'It’s even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get into business with China,' Mr. Trump later said. 'Canada’s not doing well, they’re doing very poorly. And you can’t look at China as the answer.'... Mr. Trump, who described Mr. Xi as 'a friend,' suggested that Canada would likely have to give up playing ice hockey if it wanted to deal with China, although he did not explain why that would be.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Right. Canada & the U.K. are increasing trade with China precisely because "it's very dangerous" for them to try to do business with an insane, volatile, narcissistic megalomanic. And of course China will make Canadians stop playing hockey. It's probably already in the fine print of their trade agreements. And the Brits had better watch out; surely the Chinese will make them give up cricket. This is the kind of "reasoning' that should get a president* 25th-Amended out. (Although points for imaginative rationale.)

Hamed Aleaziz, et al., of the New York Times: “The former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested late Thursday night on charges that he violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., his lawyer said, in a case rejected last week by a magistrate judge. Mr. Lemon has said he was simply reporting as a journalist when he entered the Cities Church on Jan. 18 to observe a demonstration against the immigration crackdown in the area.... The Trump administration sought to charge eight people over the episode, including Mr. Lemon, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship. But the magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges against only three of the people, rejecting the evidence against Mr. Lemon and the others as insufficient. The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the judge to issue the additional warrants, only to be denied.... 'Don Lemon was taken into custody by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy awards,' [Abbe] Lowell[, a lawyer for Mr. Lemon,] said in a statement.” The article does not say who authorized his arrest on the third try. Update: the link has been changed to what appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Ryan Reilly, et al., of NBC News: Don “Lemon, 59, and three other journalists —Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy — were arrested 'in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X on Friday.... Lemon was arrested by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations in Beverly Hills at approximately midnight, according to a federal warrant issued in another district. Details of the charges against the four were not immediately available.... "The arrest of journalist Don Lemon in connection with his reporting on a protest in Minnesota should alarm all Americans," Katherine Jacobsen [of the Committee to Protect Journalists] ... said in a statement.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unless they get lucky with a really dimwitted jury, Blondie & team are going to have a helluva time turning these arrests into convictions. 

Christopher Schuetze of the New York Times: NATO is conducting military exercises “at a Spanish port 50 miles northwest of Gibraltar.... About 10,000 troops from 11 nations will participate. But not a single U.S. weapon or soldier will be among them. Conceived long before President Trump was accused of undermining faith in the military alliance and its defense pact, the exercise, called Steadfast Dart, is being watched closely to see how well the allies manage without their largest and most important partner.... The operation is the largest NATO exercise planned for this year, and with it, European NATO partners aim to show what they can do on their own.”

Benjamin Weiser & Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: “A Manhattan federal judge on Friday ruled that prosecutors would not be able to seek the death penalty at the trial of Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old man accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive in 2024. The judge, Margaret Garnett of Federal District Court, said the case would still proceed to trial on other counts, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, in the killing of the executive, Brian Thompson. Judge Garnett said in her opinion that two stalking charges against Mr. Mangione, one of which carried a maximum sentence of death, did not meet the legal definition of a crime of violence, and had to be dismissed.... The decision from Judge Garnett is a significant blow to the Trump administration, which has sought to revive the use of the death penalty in federal cases.... Mr. Mangione’s lawyers have argued the decision was 'explicitly and unapologetically political.'  And statements made by administration officials, including Mr. Trump, have 'indelibly prejudiced him,' his lawyers said arguing that the judge should remove the government’s ability to seek the death penalty.”

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Marie: Donald Trump loves to trash Somalia, which is pretty much a country without a government. The irony of course is that Trump is doing all he can to create a gigantic version of leaderless Somalia right here. We don't have a real president. Important administrative departments -- like Justice (Injustice) and the EPA (Environmental Pollution Agency) -- don't function, either. The Congress sometimes doesn't even show up for work, nor does it perform all of its customary and required functions when the critters do crawl into town. The Supreme Court, when it isn't lying down so the fake president* can wipe his feet on their robes, is hiding its non-decision decisions in its shadow docket. We, the people are on our own. Those who live in Minneapolis & St. Paul are doing a pretty good job of it. Looks like we can't let them stand alone.

⭐Catie Edmondson & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “Senate Democrats on Thursday struck a deal with ... [Donald] Trump and Republicans that could avert a government shutdown and buy more time to negotiate restrictions on the administration’s immigration crackdown. The agreement, if it holds, would allow the Senate to act before a Friday midnight deadline to fund a large portion of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. It would also provide two weeks of funding for the Department of Homeland Security while lawmakers and White House officials negotiate over Democrats’ demands to rein in federal immigration agents. Senators said they hoped to vote on the deal on Friday, after their hopes of pushing it through on Thursday night faded amid objections from rank-and-file Republicans. But the deal reflected an abrupt political shift that has taken hold at the White House and on Capitol Hill after the fatal shooting last weekend of Alex Pretti ... by a federal agent in Minneapolis....

“Speaker Mike Johnson said that the earliest the House could act would be Monday. 'We may inevitably be in a short shutdown situation,' Mr. Johnson told reporters Thursday night at a screening of 'Melania' ... at the Kennedy Center.” (A liveblog item by Edmondson on this development was linked yesterday.) MB: Ha ha. I'm so happy Bible Mike had to sit through “Melanie, the Movie.” I've heard on the teevee that seat charts of theaters in London were showing that every seat was still available, and that someplace was offering free tickets and $50 a head to watch the movie -- if the person stayed in his seat for the whole flick. I don't vouch for the veracity of these stories, but I hope they're true. Meanwhile ~~~

~~~ Sadly, Reality Chex contributor westcoastman has been violated. Somebody broke into his car, and although it appears nothing was stolen, the vandals left four tickets to the Melanie movie. Our sympathies, of course. Or, you might say, “If they showed this film on a plane, people would still walk out.” ~~~

~~~ Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump, Melania Trump and the top ranks of the Trump administration descended on the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts on Thursday night for the premiere of 'Melania,' a documentary the first lady executive produced. 'It’s glamorous, very glamorous,' the president explained as his wife posed for pictures against huge, glowing sans serif letters spelling out her name.... But what some saw as glamour, others saw as a blatant act of corporate corruption. Amazon paid $40 million to the first lady’s production company for the film rights and then ponied up another $35 million to promote it. The film’s marketing budget is 10 times what another big documentary would generally get....

“The whole spectacle [Thursday night] was a vivid manifestation of the grip Mr. Trump has on his party and this town. The upper echelons of Washington’s power structure — cabinet members, senators and the House speaker — all came out in the 14 degree weather to a building that Mr. Trump took control over and then named after himself to help him celebrate this movie that his wife produced about herself.”

Jordain Carney, et al., of Politico: “... Donald Trump and Senate Democrats reached an agreement to fund the federal government as a Friday midnight deadline for a partial shutdown approaches. But the Senate’s hopes of quickly passing the deal, text of which is yet to be unveiled, ran into a snag Thursday night, with leadership sending senators home around 11 p.m. Senators hope to pass the deal Friday, but votes aren’t yet scheduled.... [Majority Leader John] Thune said there were unresolved issues on both sides of the aisle. But the main sticking point appears to be Sen. Lindsey Graham’s decision to block a quick vote on the deal because it includes a House-passed provision undoing a law that allows senators to receive cash payouts if they had their phone records seized by former special counsel Jack Smith.... Graham (R-S.C.), who was among the senators who had records subpoenaed, said Thursday night his interest was not personal.... Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ... [said]: 'Republicans need to get their act together.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As I recall, the way the original Senate bill was written, Lindsey and maybe seven other senators each were due to collect a $1 million windfall. Nah, it's not personal. 

Katherine Tully-McManus, et al., of Politico: “Eight Republicans joined every Senate Democrat to block sweeping government funding legislation from advancing Thursday amid ongoing negotiations around a potential offramp to avert a lengthy shutdown of several agencies. The Senate voted 55-45 against moving forward with a six-bill package that would fund, among other things, the departments of Homeland Security, State and Health and Human Services, as well as the Pentagon.... The House already passed these bills, then left town for recess. The Senate was on track to clear them without much drama. But then came last weekend’s killing in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti ... at the hands of Border Patrol agents.... Democrats now say they will oppose advancing the funding measure as long as funding for DHS is included — or until Republicans agree to legislation that would put new guardrails around ICE.... Many of Democrats’ requests for changing the DHS bill were pursued earlier in the process at the committee level, but didn’t have the support to make it into the bipartisan and bicameral compromise package.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

So far, the following is the Trump Scandal of the Day. But it's early hours. ~~ 

~~~ Andrew Duehren & Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump sued the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday for the unauthorized leak of his tax returns during his first term, demanding that the government agency pay him at least $10 billion. Mr. Trump, as well as his two eldest sons and his family business, charged in the lawsuit that the I.R.S. and the Treasury Department had failed to prevent a former I.R.S. contractor, Charles Littlejohn, from gaining access to Mr. Trump’s tax documents, which were shared with The New York Times. Mr. Littlejohn is serving a five-year prison sentence for taking tax documents about Mr. Trump and other wealthy Americans and giving them to news outlets.... Mr. Trump appointed the leaders of the I.R.S. and Treasury Department, setting up the possibility of Mr. Trump’s aides deciding how to respond to a lawsuit brought by the president. 

“Mr. Trump has previously demanded that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him, a request that had no parallel in American history.... Mr. Littlejohn worked for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, and earlier this week, the Treasury Department canceled all of its federal contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, worth $21 million, over the breach. Mr. Trump had refused to disclose his tax returns to the public, the first president to do so since the 1970s.” Politico's story is here. MB: In an F-U coda, the reporters briefly reprise what the Times learned and published about Trump's tax history -- that he was a tax deadbeat. If you are a taxpayer of a certain age, for 11 years you paid more in federal taxes than Trump did. And now that POS wants $10BB because we all found out he didn't pay any taxes. 

Alan Feuer & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “For nearly a year, Justice Department leaders have adopted ... [Donald] Trump’s strong-arm approach to the law, punishing his enemies, protecting his friends and attacking the credibility of judges, prosecutors and even the victims of law-enforcement violence..... [Attorney General Pam] Bondi and [her chief deputy Todd] Blanche have tried to refocus public attention on the aggressive tactics of demonstrators. They have also pushed prosecutors and the F.B.I. to turn up the heat on critics of the immigration crackdown: politicians, protesters, even relatives of the victims.... On Tuesday, Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, announced one of the most aggressive actions to date, saying that the bureau would investigate an encrypted Signal chat used by local activists to monitor immigration raids....

“Few, if any, of these actions have been taken without the knowledge of the White House. Trump aides participated in the drafting of a threatening letter that Ms. Bondi sent to local officials last week.... This strategy has left the U.S. attorney’s office in Minneapolis, one of the most respected in the nation, in crisis. On Tuesday, prosecutors in the office’s criminal division confronted the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, Daniel Rosen, and an aide to Mr. Blanche, over concerns that they were being asked to execute orders that went against the department’s mission and best practices.... Some of the prosecutors suggested they were considering resigning in protest, those people said, days after six others had quit over similar concerns.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Take This Job & Shove It, We Ain't Working for Trump No More. Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis have told U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen ... that they could resign en masse, leaving the office unable to handle its current caseload.... At least one prosecutor in the office’s criminal division has resigned since a meeting this week with Rosen during which the prosecutors aired their concerns.... The Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office is down to about half of its full staffing level of approximately 70 lawyers. At least some of the resignations occurred in the final months of the Biden administration before ... Donald Trump took office.”

~~~ Michaela Towfighi of the New York Times: “Bruce Springsteen released a new song, 'Streets of Minneapolis,' on Wednesday in response to two fatal shootings by federal immigration enforcement agents in the city this month. Mr. Springsteen dedicated the song to 'the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.' He said he wrote it on Saturday, the same day immigration agents killed Mr. Pretti, a 37-year-old I.C.U. nurse, during a confrontation. Ms. Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was killed by an ICE agent on Jan. 7.” (Also linked yesterday.)

“This Is Our Fuckin' City.” Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: “The Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was blunt as he addressed the group of federal agents dressed in tactical gear: 'Arrest as many people that touch you as you want to. Those are the general orders, all the way to the top.' The directive from Mr. Bovino last June was captured on video, just as the agents he led were beginning a large-scale crackdown on immigrants in the Los Angeles area. 'It’s all about us now,' Mr. Bovino said. 'It ain’t about them.' The video was made public last year as part of a federal lawsuit over immigration enforcement in the Chicago area. It resurfaced online this week after Mr. Bovino was recalled from Minnesota....” 

Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post: “Outside the U.S., the perceived havoc wrought by federal agents has ... left its mark. This week, Giuseppe Sala, mayor of Milan, spoke out against the expected arrival of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as part of a routine deployment of U.S. personnel to the Winter Olympics in Italy.... On Tuesday, the Ecuadorian foreign ministry filed a formal protest with the U.S. in the wake of an ICE agent trying to enter Ecuador’s consulate in Minneapolis without permission — a violation of principles of sovereignty accorded to foreign missions and embassies by the Vienna Convention.... Meanwhile in Germany, the country’s foreign office put out a travel advisory against going to parts of the United States.... And in France, authorities are putting pressure on French tech company Capgemini to publicize information about its U.S. subsidiary’s dealings with ICE amid public outrage.... In its cover story this week on the excesses of ICE, the [British] Economist pointed to three 'warning signs' of states giving way to 'paramilitarism.'...”   

Mitch Smith, et al., of the New York Times: “The man accused of using a syringe to squirt vinegar onto Representative Ilhan Omar at a community meeting in Minneapolis this week was charged with assault by federal prosecutors on Thursday. Hours later, the local prosecutor in Minneapolis [-- Mary Moriarty, the Hennepin County attorney --] said she was also charging the man, Anthony J. Kazmierczak, with assault and making a threat of violence, saying that she was doing so because of diminished trust in the federal government and because of concerns that the president might pardon the man of any federal charges if he were to be convicted. On Tuesday evening, Mr. Kazmierczak sprayed Ms. Omar with apple cider vinegar and water, an F.B.I. agent wrote in an affidavit filed in federal court.”

Ed Lavandera, et al., of CNN: “The 5-year-old boy who with his father was taken last week by immigration agents from their suburban Minneapolis driveway has appeared depressed and lethargic at the South Texas detention facility where the pair is being held, said [Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat who is] concerned for Liam Conejo Ramos’ mental state.... Since Liam arrived at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley...[,] the boy has slept a lot and not eaten well, Castro said, citing [his father, who is incarcerated with him].... While at the facility, Castro met with more than 100 people detained in poor conditions, he said.... Liam and his father also met with Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, also of Texas, who said she and Castro talked to several other young children at the facility. The mothers 'were concerned about their children,' Crockett said in a news conference. 'We heard the same story over and over and over about how they were depressed.'... Said attorney Eric Lee, who tried to visit clients at Dilley on Saturday[,] 'The water is putrid. They have to mix baby formula with water that nobody wants to even smell. The food has bugs in it. The food has dirt in it.'”

Jonathan O'Connell & Douglas MacMillan of the Washington Post: Residents and local officials have “logistical and humanitarian concerns ... in some of the 23 towns where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to convert industrial buildings into detention centers that would combined hold up to 80,000 people. ICE has offered few details about its plan since The Washington Post first reported on it last month. As specific sites have surfaced in news reports, people in those communities have taken steps to block the projects.... Located in areas zoned for industrial uses near interstates and airports, most of the buildings under consideration are currently vacant shells — little more than walls, a thick concrete floor and a ceiling supported by dozens of internal beams.... In at least 15 communities, residents have staged protests or packed town council meetings, overwhelming local elected officials with questions about the proposed facilities.” The story names quite a few towns where ICE has purchased or shown an interest in purchasing industrial buildings for warehousing human beings. 

Kate Brumback of the AP: “In an extraordinary scene this week, FBI agents pulled box trucks up to a warehouse south of Atlanta and drove away with hundreds of boxes containing ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election in Georgia’s most populous county.... The search injects the FBI and Justice Department, institutions that historically have made investigative and prosecutorial decisions outside the whims of the White House, into the center of a long-running personal grievance of the president.... FBI Co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey and U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were seen onsite.... Gabbard’s participation was unusual, given that she is not part of the FBI or federal law enforcement. She has been central to Trump administration efforts to cast doubt on intelligence community conclusions of Russian interference on Trump’s behalf during his successful 2016 campaign, and her presence may be laying the groundwork for the federal government to try to assert that the 2020 race he lost was somehow tainted by foreign meddling.... 

“U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that if Gabbard believes a foreign intelligence service tried to swing the election she is obligated to inform the intelligence committee. 'Or she is simply attempting to inject the non-partisan intelligence community into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy,' Warner said at a committee hearing Thursday.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Gabbard, lurking in a truck in Fulton County.

My constituents in Georgia and I think much of the American public are quite reasonably alarmed in asking questions after the director of national intelligence was spotted bizarrely and personally lurking in an FBI evidence truck in Fulton County, Georgia, yesterday. -- Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), at a Senate hearing Thursday ~~~ 

~~~ Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: “At a televised Cabinet meeting last August..., Donald Trump turned to his top intelligence official, noting that she had evidence of 'how corrupt the 2020 election was,' and asked when she’d produce it. 'I will be the first to brief you once we have that information collected,' Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard replied. Gabbard, who coordinates the nation’s 18 spy agencies, has put 'election integrity' ... among her priorities.... Though her office traditionally focuses on foreign intelligence and adversaries, Gabbard’s unexplained appearance at a warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia, on Wednesday ... revealed the extent to which her office has been involved in a domestic criminal investigation. Photographs confirming her presence stunned lawmakers, who on Thursday called for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to urgently brief them on the matter.... Former senior U.S. intelligence officials called Gabbard’s participation in the FBI action unprecedented, and out of line with her office’s legal authorities. ODNI was established by a 2004 law that gives the agency neither an operational role nor law enforcement functions, said one of the former officials....” The link is a gift link. ~~~

~~~ Who's Crazier? Gabbard or Trump? Heather Cox Richardson: “Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, who has been strangely invisible now for months, resurfaced yesterday.... The Wall Street Journal reported [Thursday] that Gabbard has been moved off of national security intelligence to chase down Trump’s allegations that the 2020 election was stolen from him, focusing on the idea that a foreign government was involved in such a theft.... Yesterday, Trump’s account amplified a post claiming that Italian officials used military satellites to hack U.S. voting machines in an operation coordinated by China 'all to install Biden as a puppet.'

“Gabbard is also trying to prove that former president Barack Obama and his staff were behind the accusation that Trump’s campaign worked with Russian operatives in 2016, although this conspiracy theory has no evidence at all and the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously agreed that Russian operatives had meddled in the election to help Trump. Trump’s social media account posted, under emojis of flashing red lights: 'BREAKING: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has just released HUNDREDS OF BOMBSHELL RUSSIAGATE DOCUMENTS proving that Barack Obama personally ordered CIA agents to manufacture false intelligence on President Trump and was actively “working with the enemy” to undermine and erode Americans’ confidence in our democracy and President Trump’s LANDSLIDE 2016 VICTORY. This was a coup attempt by Barack Hussein Obama and his cronies…. ARREST OBAMA NOW!” ~~~  

~~~ Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: “...  if the search [of 2020 Fulton County voter records] was rooted in the past, it might also be a harbinger of things to come, signaling Mr. Trump’s growing willingness to use the vast powers of federal law enforcement to intervene in election matters in the lead-up to the critical 2026 midterms, which will determine the extent of his authority for the remainder of his second term. The evidence used to obtain the search warrant, issued by a federal magistrate judge, is not yet known.... Top Justice Department and F.B.I. leaders have refused to say he lost the 2020 election, and have used debunked or exaggerated claims of election irregularities to justify demands for access to sensitive state voter data.... It was not clear why an interim U.S. attorney from Missouri, rather than the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, appears to be spearheading the investigation. One potential explanation: Prosecutors in Missouri have been consulting with Ed Martin, an ardent Trump supporter from Missouri who runs a vaguely defined weaponization task force inside the [Justice D]epartment....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I haven't seen any reporting on this, but I seem to recall that Sen. Jon Ossoff (Georgia) says in his ads that he is the only Democratic U.S. senator whose re-election in 2026 is in danger. Whether or not that's true, if Trump did overturn Ossoff's election -- and we know he would have no qualms whatsoever about doing it -- that potentially could change the Senate majority. The Big Lie never dies.

~~~ Luke Barr, et al., of ABC News: "FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday that a federal judge determined there was probable cause to carry out Wednesday's search of the Fulton County Elections and Operations Hub in Georgia.... A top Fulton County official blasted the seizure Thursday, saying the move is about "intimidation and distraction.... 'These ongoing efforts are about intimidation and distraction, not facts,' said [Robb Pitts, the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners,], who [also] said the FBI seized 700 boxes of materials." 

The Real Trump Doctrine. Jean Guerrero of the New York Times: “This week, Honduras inaugurated a new president, Nasry Asfura, a construction magnate backed by ... members of the notorious MS-13 gang and ... [Donald] Trump.... Days before MS-13 gang members posing as election observers threatened to kill anyone who didn’t vote for that candidate..., Mr. Trump warned Hondurans of 'hell to pay' if they chose a different outcome. Mr. Asfura’s victory marks the success of Mr. Trump’s campaign to resuscitate a political party tainted by its widely known ties to cartels. The story of how Mr. Trump came to intervene in Honduran politics and align himself with a foreign terrorist organization is essential for understanding the world he is trying to build.... There is a coherent logic to [Trump's actions in Latin America]: They expand territorial power for a class of transnational elites who believe they’re above the law....

“[Honduras's] right-wing party, an ally of Próspera [-- a city/exploitative-enterprise-zone backed by Trump-aligned tech moguls such as Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen --], governed its citizens the way Mr. Trump and his allies envision governing Americans: through violent dispossession and exploitation. In the United States, a mirror world has already begun to form with the unleashing of multiple federal police forces that have already killed at least three citizens and a number of immigrants.” Guerrero's column is less a condemnation of Trump -- though it is that -- than of a long history of the U.S. exploiting Latin America. MB: She coheres all of the discrete things I know about our misadventures south of the border. The link is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Niraj Chokshi, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump deepened his rift with Canada on Thursday, threatening to restrict the use of Canadian-built aircraft in the United States because of a dispute related to American-made business jets. The president said on social media that he would decertify 'all aircraft made in Canada,' a move that would ground thousands of planes and upend air travel in the United States [as well as medical air transportation.]. But industry officials said federal regulators clarified that his statement was meant to apply only to new aircraft certifications. Mr. Trump claimed that Canadian authorities had 'steadfastly refused to certify' some jets built by Gulfstream, which is based in Georgia. He also threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on Canadian aircraft until the issue was resolved.... In his post on Thursday, Mr. Trump said Canada had refused to certify the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700 and 800 jets. According to Transport Canada’s website, Gulfstream 500 and 600 series models are certified in Canada. The 700 was intended to go on sale in 2022, but its F.A.A. certification was delayed until 2024 because of new standards that followed the 737 Max crashes. The 800 model only recently received its F.A.A. certification.” An AP story is here. ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: I suppose President* Dumbo saw something on Fox Business or CNBC about Gulfstream and Canada, didn't understand it because (a) he's stupid and (b) he's hard-of-hearing, so the little impulsive id he is, he casually threatened to upend a multi-billion-dollar industry. That's how he rolls.

Catharine Tunney of CBC (Canada) News:  "B.C. Premier David Eby says Alberta separatists meeting with the U.S. administration and seeking financial backing is an act of 'treason,' as the issue of national sovereignty loomed over a meeting between the premiers and Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday.... [Eby] was reacting to reports that members of ... Donald Trump's administration have held meetings with members of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a separatist group that is pushing for the western province to become independent. The group is openly seeking a $500-billion US line of credit from the U.S. Treasury to help bankroll the new country if they come out victorious in a referendum. An official with the U.S. State Department confirmed the meetings, saying the department 'regularly meets with civil society types,' but added that 'no commitments were made.'... Asked about the cross-border meetings, Carney would only say he expects the U.S. administration — which has previously made jabs about making Canada the 51st state — to 'respect Canadian sovereignty.'... Last week..., [U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent] spoke encouragingly about the prospect of Alberta separating from Canada." Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) More on Canada linked below.

Marie: I didn't listen to much of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday during which Marco Rubio testified about Trump's corrupt "deal" with Venezuela, but I don't think they covered this unsurprising but scandalous development: ~~~

~~~ Anthony Faiola & Evan Halper of the Washington Post: “Two global trading houses that brokered an opaque deal with the Trump administration this month to sell Venezuelan oil were previously prosecuted for bribery schemes involving oil sales elsewhere..., underscoring concerns by anti-corruption experts and lawmakers that the arrangement is vulnerable to abuse. The administration granted confidential licenses to Vitol and Trafigura in early January to sell Venezuelan oil with little independent oversight. The licenses come a year after the Trump administration gutted the foreign corrupt practices unit of the Justice Department, which brought charges against the two companies and their traders in 2020 and 2024. The licenses ... allow Vitol and Trafigura to buy tens of millions of barrels of oil in Venezuelan reserves that had been blocked by sanctions from being sold.... According to public records, a senior trader at Vitol donated $6 million to political committees supporting Trump’s 2024 election.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Colby Smith & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: Donald “Trump is set to announce his choice to replace Jerome H. Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday and is expected to select Kevin M. Warsh, a former Fed official, for the job, according to multiple people familiar with his plans who were not authorized to discuss the decision publicly. No decision is final until an announcement has been made, but Mr. Trump met with Mr. Warsh at the White House on Thursday. The president told reporters later that day that he would soon announce someone who was 'known to everybody in the financial world.'... Mr. Warsh was first appointed to the Fed by President George W. Bush and served as a Fed governor from 2006 and 2011. He has supported the need for lower rates, while also calling for 'regime change' at the Fed. Mr. Warsh, who has deep ties to Wall Street, currently works with billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller. Mr. Druckenmiller is close with Scott Bessent, Mr. Trump’s Treasury secretary, who led the search process for the next Fed chair.... On Thursday, [Mr. Trump] attacked the Fed for its decision a day earlier to hold rates steady, saying Mr. Powell had 'absolutely no reason' to keep borrowing costs at their current level.” ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Jeff Cox of CNBC: "... Donald Trump on Friday named Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair, ending a prolonged odyssey that has seen unprecedented turmoil around the central bank." 

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: “The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services rebounded to $56.8 billion in November, rising 95 percent from the previous month as ... [Donald] Trump’s tariffs continued to cause huge fluctuations in trade, according to data from the Commerce Department released on Thursday.” CNBC's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Make American Stupider Again. Catherine Rampell in the Bulwark: “'I LOVE THE POORLY EDUCATED,' Donald Trump .. declared ... in 2016.... Now, a decade later, he and the rest of the MAGA movement have manifested that love into policy, with a series of changes that have hobbled America’s entire knowledge sector.... For over a century, America’s knowledge economy has been our golden goose.... [That was] the result of deliberate policy choices going all the way back at least to the Morrill Act of 1862. That’s the law that created land-grant colleges during the middle of the Civil War.... Over subsequent decades our policymakers made other choices to invest in and harness knowledge creation. They did so through our regulatory regime and federal investment in R&D. Perhaps most importantly, they opened up our immigration system in the mid-twentieth century to attract the best and brightest scientific talent from around the world.... [Now we are experiencing] the Great American Brain Drain, courtesy of MAGA.... [Trump's policy] amounts to almost masochistic levels of economic self-sabotage.”

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Marie: It's ironic, but not surprising, that the department created to fight terrorism is now the principal militarized force carrying out terrorism against the citizens it was supposed to protect from terrorism. 

Maine Senate Race/DHS Terrorism. Jenna Russell of the New York Times: “Democrats in Maine reacted with a mixture of surprise, relief and some confusion to the announcement by Senator Susan Collins early Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had ended its stepped-up enforcement in the state, after a weeklong operation focused in and around the cities of Portland and Lewiston. Residents who closely tracked the movements of federal agents last week had reported a steep drop-off in their presence in recent days, prompting speculation that federal officials were rethinking their aggressive approach after a second protester was killed in Minneapolis last weekend. 'While the Department of Homeland Security does not confirm law enforcement operations, I can report that Secretary Noem has informed me that ICE has ended its enhanced activities in the State of Maine,' Senator Collins said in a statement.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated: “Political maneuvering by candidates for U.S. Senate in Maine — already in high gear since the Trump administration started an immigration crackdown in the state last week — intensified on Thursday with the news that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had abruptly ended its operation there. As Senator Susan Collins, a Republican seeking re-election in November, took credit for negotiating ICE’s retreat, one of the Democrats seeking to replace her, Graham Platner, staged protests outside her offices in Portland and Bangor, saying Ms. Collins had gotten only a 'pinky promise' from the White House. Another Democratic candidate, Gov. Janet Mills, accused Ms. Collins of failing to hold ICE accountable. Ms. Collins ... suggested in a statement on Thursday morning that she had played a key role in ending the surge by urging Kristi Noem ... and other administration officials “to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state.... I appreciate the secretary’s willingness to listen to and consider my recommendations.'”

Minnesota Governor's Race/DHS Terrorism. Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: “Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota formally announced her campaign for governor on Thursday with a call for unity and decency in her troubled state, which has been roiled by political violence..., [Donald] Trump’s immigration crackdown and widespread protests after two killings of Minnesotans by federal agents. Ms. Klobuchar, a popular Democrat with a history of winning by double-digit margins, has spent nearly two decades in the Senate as a common-sense centrist with a folksy demeanor and a carefully cultivated history of bipartisanship. Now, with her run for governor, the self-proclaimed “senator next door” is gambling that her message of moving past partisan divides can still work even amid one of the most volatile domestic conflicts of the second Trump administration.” (Also linked yesterday.)

New York. Weird News. Man Brings Pizza Cutter & BBQ Fork to Attempted Jail Break. Hurubie Meko, et al., of the New York Times: “A man was arrested on Wednesday evening after he impersonated an F.B.I. agent at a federal jail in Brooklyn..., saying he had a court order for the release of Luigi Mangione.... The man, Mark Anderson, originally from Mankato, Minn., appeared in federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday and was charged with impersonating an F.B.I. agent. A judge ordered him detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the same jail that houses Mr. Mangione, who is charged with murder in the 2024 fatal shooting of a health care executive. According to the complaint, filed by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, Mr. Anderson arrived at the jail around 6:50 p.m. on Wednesday and told jail officers that he was an F.B.I. agent with paperwork 'signed by a judge,' authorizing the release of an inmate.... Mr. Anderson then said he had weapons and began throwing documents at the jail officers. The documents were related to suing the U.S. Justice Department, according to the complaint. He was found to be carrying the pizza cutter along with a barbecue fork.” An ABC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You may think this irrational. But "mangione" means "glutton," so it's quite sensible to bring food prep tools to break him out of jail. Isn't it? 

~~~~~~~~~~  

We in the U.S. are the left-behinds: ~~~

~~~ Canada/South Korea. Ian Austen of the New York Times: “Canada, facing U.S. tariffs that threaten its auto industry, announced on Thursday an agreement with South Korea to explore bringing Korean automotive manufacturing to the country. Though scant on details, the accord was another move by Prime Minister Mark Carney to diversify Canada’s trade away from the United States in response to Mr. Trump’s volley of tariffs. The agreement also fits with Mr. Carney’s widely hailed call at the World Economic Forum last week for middle power nations to band together after what he characterized as an irreversible 'rupture' to the world order by Mr. Trump’s aggressive economic and diplomatic policies. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that the United States does not need autos from Canada and imposed a 25 percent tariff on Canadian vehicles, ending a period of duty-free entry dating back to 1965. The vast majority of Canadian auto production is sent to the United States, though Canada also imports a sizable number of U.S. vehicles.” ~~~

~~~ E.U./India. Paul Krugman: "On Monday India and the European Union concluded negotiations on a breakthrough free trade agreement.... The agreement ... shows that the world is becoming ever more estranged from an erratic, abusive United States. In other words, other countries are moving, step by step, toward an economic divorce from America. Unlike Donald Trump, who thinks of international trade as a zero-sum game, the Europeans and the Indians understand that a free trade agreement between them is a very good deal for both parties.... Furthermore, this is a real trade deal, not ... [one of] Trump’s fantasy deals. Both the Europeans and India have very good reasons to pivot away from Trump. Private companies are shifting away, too. "The world trading system as we knew it lasted for three generations after World War II. It was a rules-based system, in which everyone considered the U.S. a reliable, trustworthy partner. But now US economic relations with other nations have turned abusive, and the world is moving toward divorce. And this will make Americans measurably poorer." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ukraine/Russia, et al., Anton Troianovski, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Thursday that the Kremlin had agreed to a temporary pause in its missile attacks on Kyiv amid the fierce cold in the Ukrainian capital, a shift that, if true, would represent the latest sign that Ukraine-Russia peace talks are gaining momentum. There was no official confirmation of a partial cease-fire from either Russia or Ukraine, but there were signals out of both countries that some sort of pause might be going into effect. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, speaking a few hours after Mr. Trump, thanked the United States for its efforts to halt Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure but stopped short of declaring that there would be a reprieve.” ~~~

     ~~~ Susie Blann of the AP: “The terms of a Russian commitment to ... Donald Trump to temporarily halt its bombardment of Ukraine during one of the country’s bleakest winters in years remained unclear Friday, as Ukrainians braced for even worse conditions to come next week.” 

Venezuela. Simom Rumero of the New York Times: “Venezuela’s National Assembly on Thursday approved a sweeping overhaul of legislation governing the oil industry, granting foreign oil companies greater control over operations and potentially slashing the royalties they pay to the government. The move showcases how, experts say, the Trump administration has returned to an era of gunboat diplomacy, in which the United States has wielded its military superiority to coerce Latin American nations into yielding to Washington’s priorities.... The new legislation ... effectively relegat[es] the national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, to secondary status. It also opens the way for the authorities to sharply reduce the royalties and taxes paid to Venezuela’s government and allows companies to resolve disputes in international venues instead of doing so in Venezuela’s legal system. Still, the changes did not go as far as some investors had wanted, leaving Petróleos de Venezuela under state control.... The overhaul effectively reverses much of Venezuela’s nationalization of oil projects in 2007, which led U.S. oil giants like Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips to exit [Venezuela].”