Justice Department Has Stopped Seeking Justice. Ken Morales & David Armstrong of ProPublica: “In total, the DOJ quietly closed more than 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of ... Donald Trump’s administration, abandoning hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime, drugs and other offenses as it shifted resources to pursue immigration cases, according to an analysis by ProPublica. The bulk of these cases, which were closed without prosecution and known as declinations, had been referred to the DOJ by law enforcement agencies under prior administrations that believed a federal crime may have been committed.... The shift comes as the DOJ has undergone an extraordinary overhaul under the Trump administration, with entire units shuttered, directives to abandon pursuit of certain crimes and thousands of lawyers quitting or, in some cases, being forced out of the agency.”
New York Times Editors: Donald Trump “has created a veritable pardon industry, in which people with White House connections accept payments from wealthy convicts. Among those on whom he has bestowed freedom are dozens of people convicted of fraud. He has also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras, who helped traffic hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States, and Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for running Silk Road, a sprawling criminal enterprise that sold drugs.... Worst of all, Mr. Trump granted clemency on the first day of his second term to everyone who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.... About 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters received a clean slate, regardless of their actions. The results have been disastrous. At least 12 of the pardoned rioters have since been charged with other serious crimes, including child molestation, assault, harassment, murder plots and charges related to a vicious dog attack.” Read on. The link is a gift link.
France has been VERY UNHELPFUL with respect to the ‘Butcher of Iran,’ who has been successfully eliminated.... The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!! -- Donald Trump, in a social media post Tuesday ~~~
Mark Landler & Catherine Porter of the New York Times: Donald “Trump lashed out again at European allies on Tuesday for their refusal to get more involved in the Iran war. He accused France of denying permission to American warplanes to fly over its territory and challenged Britain to 'go get your own oil' by forcibly reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The French government said it was 'surprised' by Mr. Trump’s claim, made on his Truth Social account, but did not issue an explicit denial. A French military official ... said that France had not closed its airspace to American planes. The president’s two posts came after Spain ... said it had denied permission to U.S. military planes to fly over its territory before striking Iran. There were reports in the Italian media that Italy, too, had restricted the use of a base in Sicily by American planes. But the Italian government played down those reports....”
Steven Nelson of the New York Post: Donald “Trump told The Post on Tuesday that he believes the Iran war is likely to end soon and that other nations can reopen the Strait of Hormuz without US military assistance. 'We’re not going to be there too much longer. We’re obliterating the s–t out of them right now,' Trump said in a phone interview.... 'Well, I think it’ll automatically open, but my attitude is, I’ve obliterated the country. They have no strength left, and let the countries that are using the strait, let them go and open it,' he said.”
Trump's No Churchill. Ted Widmer, once a speechwriter for Bill Clinton, in the Guardian: “Trump was at his Florida retreat when he announced the war, while wearing a baseball hat, with a video released in the middle of the night of 28 February. Since then, each interjection has added to the muddle, with shifting statements that routinely contradict each other or simply deny reality.... In the war’s fifth week, the muddle has deepened, with inconsistent messaging that clearly betrays the lack of a strategy.”
|
| White House Demo Site. New York Times photo. |
~~~ ⭐Judge Halts Rube Goldberg Ballroom. Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge ordered on Tuesday that construction be halted on ... [Donald] Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, to be built in place of the demolished East Wing, saying work must come to a stop until the project receives a go-ahead from Congress. The decision delivered the first meaningful setback to the president’s increasingly audacious efforts to redesign the White House and Washington, D.C. It came after months of litigation in front of Judge Richard J. Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush, who had previously declined to step in. In a 35-page opinion, Judge Leon wrote that Mr. Trump likely did not have the authority to act on his own, without consulting Congress, to replace entire sections of the White House — changes that could endure for generations. He also reiterated concerns he had raised for months in court: that from the start, the administration has provided shifting and questionable accounts of who was in charge of the project and under what authority private donations could be accepted to fund it.” This story was linked earlier as part of a NYT liveblog. The AP's report is here.
Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Boston ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration had unlawfully terminated the legal status of tens of thousands of migrants who had been allowed to temporarily live and work in the United States if they announced their presence using an app introduced by the Biden administration. In a 25-page opinion, Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts ordered the Trump administration to reverse course, after it last April instructed as many as 900,000 migrants who had used the app to leave 'immediately.' Judge Burroughs said her order applied to those individuals who used the app between May 2023 and January 2025 and who remain in the United States. Tens of thousands of people who received the notice have already left the United States voluntarily or been deported. Judge Burroughs concluded that the Trump administration had issued the blanket order to scores of people, notably from Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti, without any rationale for the abrupt about-face.”
Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: “A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that ... [Donald] Trump’s executive order barring the federal funding of NPR and PBS violated the First Amendment. Randolph Moss, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said in his ruling that Mr. Trump’s order, signed last May, was unlawful because it instructed federal agencies to refrain from funding NPR and PBS because the president believed their news coverage had a liberal viewpoint. 'The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the president disapproves of their “left-wing” coverage of the news,' Judge Moss wrote. But the First Amendment, he said, does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.' The ruling will likely have minimal effect on the federal funding of public media. Two months after the executive order, Congress voted to claw back roughly $500 million in annual funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that distributes federal money to NPR and PBS. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has since shut down, and public radio and TV stations across the country have sought alternate forms of revenue.” The AP's report is here.
Michael Bender & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “The Trump administration was within its rights to demand that the University of Pennsylvania turn over information about Jews on campus as part of a federal investigation into discrimination at the school, a federal judge decided Tuesday. The government’s investigation had unified Penn leaders with Jewish students and faculty in opposition to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s subpoena. Many on campus drew parallels between the government’s approach and methods deployed in Nazi Germany. But the Trump administration has said that its request was typical for discrimination investigations, and Judge Gerald J. Pappert of Philadelphia’s Federal District Court [-- an Obama appointee --] agreed on Tuesday. He gave Penn until May 1 to comply with the administration’s subpoena, though the ruling appeared unlikely to quell the debates around how the administration has pressured top American universities.” Update: the link has been changed to one that seems to be a gift link.
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Over the past year, several F.B.I. agents fired by the bureau have sued its director, Kash Patel, seeking to get their jobs back and claiming they were victims of political retribution.... While they each have accused Mr. Patel of dismissing them for improper reasons, the suits have so far all been filed by individuals or small groups of employees. On Tuesday, however, three fired agents ... sued Mr. Patel not just on their own accord, but also on behalf of a proposed class of all F.B.I. employees who have already been dismissed — or could be in the future — for political reasons. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, represented one of the broadest efforts to date to seek accountability against Mr. Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi for getting rid of F.B.I. employees who have run afoul of ... [Donald] Trump or his allies. Each of the agents who brought the suit — Jamie Garman, Blaire Toleman and Michelle Ball — served on a public corruption squad at the F.B.I.’s Washington field office that investigated Mr. Trump’s expansive efforts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.”
How to kill off endangered species:
(a) Start a war someplace, creating a "national emergency."
(b) Declare a national security emergency exemption from protections. ~~~
~~~ Jack Spring of the Washington Post: “A committee led by the interior secretary known as the 'God Squad' voted Tuesday to exempt oil and gas companies from complying with the Endangered Species Act when drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, a move expected to threaten Rice’s whale and other species with extinction. Meeting for the first time in more than 30 years, the group nicknamed for its ability to decide the fate of species, approved the exemption on 'national security' grounds in a discussion that took about 15 minutes. Trump officials said the decision would protect critical domestic energy production at a time when global supplies are disrupted by the war with Iran. It’s the first time that an administration has sought a national security exemption since the passage of the 1973 Endangered Species Act.
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the committee the exemption was, 'a matter of urgent national security,' saying active lawsuits based on the Endangered Species Act threatened to halt oil and gas production.... The Endangered Species Act has never been used to stop oil drilling in the Gulf, so doing away with protections will not meaningfully impact the amount of oil produced there, said Brett Hartl ... of the Center for Biological Diversity. 'I don’t think anyone honestly thinks that there’s a legitimate national security issue here,” Hartl said.”
Marie: I apologize for linking the following, but I guess it might be vaguely newsworthy: ~~~
~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “Bryon Noem, the husband of former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, was accused on Tuesday of living a double life as a crossdresser obsessed with donning huge fake boobs and talking to fetish models online. In a jaw-dropping report published on Tuesday, Daily Mail chief investigate reporter Josh Boswell and senior reporter Ben Ashford published several photos of a man, identified by the newspaper as Noem, posing for the camera in large fake breasts and hotpants while pouting. The two reporters also spoke to several fetish models who claimed to have had an online relationship with Noem involving 'bimbofication' – a kink centered around women becoming real life Barbie dolls with gigantic proportions.” Includes repellent photo. The Daily Mail story is firewalled. MB: Whaddaya bet Trump knew this was coming? ~~~
~~~ Chris Nesi of the New York Post: “The Daily Mail obtained 'hundreds' of messages purportedly sent between the former Secretary of Homeland Security’s husband and three women who are involved in the so-called 'bimbofication' fetish scene. The kinky community involves people injecting their busts with freakishly large amounts of saline in pursuit of a 'Barbie-doll'-like appearance. The [Daily Mail] spoke with national security experts who said the existence of the scandalous photographs could have made his wife subject to potential blackmail threats.... Noem addressed shocking photos in a statement to The Post, saying she is 'devastated. The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time.'” Also includes photos. ~~~
~~~ Update. Marie: I guess my guess that Trump knew this was coming was a good guess. RAS did the detective work here: ~~~
~~~ Annabella Rosciglione of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: “A White House reporter has claimed an unexpected source may have been behind exposing the alleged alter ego of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s husband. Axios reporter Marc Caputo revealed that he had been given a tip last month about Byron Noem’s 'busty bimbo' alter ego before the Daily Mail reported on his crossdressing habits Tuesday. “‘Yeah, I got a weird lead,” a source texted me Feb 13,' the veteran reporter posted. 'They said an immigrant sex worker, possibly in the country illegally, wanted to go public about Noem’s husband using her services online — it was vengeance for DHS’s immigration enforcement.'” Thank you to RAS for the link to the Daily Beast. ~~~
~~~ Marie: If the source was spreading this story around the journosphere a month ago, then likely some people in the administration were clued in. And some of those somebodies would have carried the tale to Trump. This odd story would have been the last straw for Trump: Kristi had to go.
Ann Marimow of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with a Christian therapist, rejecting a Colorado law that prohibited mental health professionals from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of L.G.B.T.Q. minors. The court’s decision has implications for more than 20 other states that have similar laws barring so-called conversion therapy, which critics say is ineffective and potentially dangerous for young people. In its decision, the court said the law, as applied to talk therapy, impermissibly interferes with free speech.... Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, reading a lengthy summary of her opposition from the bench.” Update: the link has been changed to one that looks like a gift link. The AP report is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: I said I would do more yesterday, and I did not. The next several weeks, I will be working at about half-time and largely in the middle of the night.
⭐“America Is Now a Rogue Superpower.” Robert Kagan in the Atlantic: “[Especially] worrying for European allies has been the evident indifference of the United States to the consequences of its actions. For Europeans, the existential threat today comes not from a weakened and impoverished Iran but from a nuclear-armed Russia that invaded Ukraine in the most brazen act of cross-border territorial aggression in Europe since World War II. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told the Europeans last year to be ready by 2027 to defend themselves without American help, and so they have been desperately reorienting their economies and military strategies to take on the Russian threat without the United States. They have also taken on the bulk of military and economic support for Ukraine because they fear, as many American analysts do, that Putin’s territorial ambitions are extensive.... Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian oil, over the opposition of Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and the European Union, showed just how little regard the United States has for Europe’s security.... U.S. actions have been no less damaging to America’s friends and allies in East Asia and the Western Pacific.” Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link.
The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Iran war. From the pinned item at 3:30 am ET: “A Kuwaiti oil tanker erupted in flames near Dubai early Tuesday in what its owner called an Iranian attack, part of a broader wave of drone and missile attacks reported across the Persian Gulf after ... [Donald] Trump escalated his threats against Tehran over the Strait of Hormuz.... The resulting fire was extinguished and no injuries were reported, the authorities in Dubai said. The massive ship was carrying two million barrels of crude at the time of the attack, according to the maritime intelligence company Tanker Trackers. There was no oil leakage, the Dubai government’s media office said. It earlier said the episode involved a drone.”
Chantal Da Silva of NBC News: “The destruction by Iran of a warning and control system aircraft on an American base in Saudi Arabia on Friday could affect the U.S. military’s ability to monitor threats — and raises questions around its preparedness for a 'longer war,' experts say.... The E-3 Sentry, an airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, was one of six stationed at Prince Sultan Air Base prior to Friday's attack, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine, one of the world's foremost publications on the aerospace industry. Prior to the strike, the U.S. had 16 in total, the magazine reported.” Rachel Maddow said last nights that the E-3 Sentries cost about $300 million each.
Emmett Lindner of the “Gasoline in the United States crossed an average of $4 a gallon on Tuesday, a threshold it hadn’t reached since August 2022, continuing a series of nearly uninterrupted increases since the Middle East war began that are chipping away at the spending power of American consumers.... For ... [Donald] Trump, who not long ago was boasting about how prices had fallen since he was re-elected in 2024, the highly visible reminder of the war’s consequences is a political burden.”
Angelo Amante of Reuters, in Yahoo! News: "Italy last week denied permission for U.S. military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily before heading to the Middle East, sources said on Tuesday, because Washington had not sought prior authorisation from the government in Rome. According to the Corriere della Sera daily, which first reported the news, 'some U.S. bombers' had been due to land at the base in eastern Sicily before flying on to the Middle East, where the United States is at war with Israel against Iran. The report did not specify when the aircraft were due to land but said permission was denied because the U.S. had not requested clearance and Italy's military leadership had not been consulted, as required under treaties governing the use of U.S. military installations in the country."
Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: “Gulf allies of the United States, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging ... Donald Trump to continue prosecuting the war against Iran, arguing that Tehran hasn’t been weakened enough by the monthlong U.S.-led bombing campaign, according to U.S., Gulf and Israeli officials. After private grumbling at the start of the war that they were not given adequate advance notice of the U.S.-Israeli attack and complaining the U.S. had ignored their warnings that the war would have devastating consequences for the entire region, some of the regional allies are making the case to the White House that the moment offers a historic opportunity to cripple Tehran’s clerical rule once and for all.”
Art-of-the-Deal Donald Contemplates Surrender to Ayatollah. Robert Davis of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump told one of his aides that he is considering ending the war in Iran without requiring the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened.... The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is mulling quitting the military campaign in Iran and leaving the Strait of Hormuz closed, citing 'administration officials.' 'In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks,' the report reads in part. 'He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: What with domestic gas prices averaging $4/gallon, is this Trump's way of forcing uncooperative NATO allies to contribute to his reckless war-without-a-plan? Just walk away and leave it to Europe to get oil thru the Strait? And hope we can get what we need from Canada, Mexico & South America? Or what?
W.J. Hennigan of the New York Times: Early Monday morning, Donald “Trump announced his intentions to destroy Iran’s electricity-generating stations and water-purifying plants should the regime fail to lift its blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.... The president’s ultimatum is a contemptible departure from the restraint that most wartime presidents have strived for.... His proposal, if acted upon, would almost certainly amount to a war crime.... Mr. Trump’s threats to indiscriminately launch airstrikes on Iran’s infrastructure amount to holding a civilian population hostage as a means of coercing the government in Tehran. Praising gratuitous death and destruction has been a running theme in Mr. Trump’s second term.”
They Really Don't Know What They're Doing. Juan Cole: “Trump ... appears to say things so as to move the stock market and enable insider trading for himself and his cronies, so it is hard to know what emphasis to place on these bipolar pronouncements. On Sunday Trump was blustering about invading Iran with ground troops or destroying all its power and desalinization plants. Now on Monday evening he want to cease bombing in a few weeks and walk away.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave an interview to Al Jazeera in which he said, 'We have very clear objectives that we’re trying to achieve here. Those objectives are the destruction of their air force, which has been achieved; the destruction of their navy, which has largely been achieved; [and] a significant reduction in the number of missile launchers that they have, which we’re well on our way to achieving.'... Rubio’s three goals are silly. Iran has never had much of an air force or navy. And while its ballistic missile launchers have been reduced in number, the country still seems to have large numbers of Shahed drones....” ~~~
~~~ Paul Krugman (podcast transcript): "Hegseth is all, we are going to kill lots of people. Trump is vacillating. In his Truth Social post this morning, he started out by saying we are on the verge of successful negotiations, and we’ll get the Strait open soon because we’re having extremely good talks with the Iranians. Other presidents have been accused of negotiating with themselves. Trump is negotiating with his imaginary friends. There’s no reason at all to believe that these talks are actually happening. But he then pivots midway through the post, to saying, and if we don’t get this, then we’re going to start bombing civilian power plants and water supplies. So give us what we want or we’ll commit a massive, massive war crime, which I hope is not going to happen. But even if it did, why would you think this would open up the Strait of Hormuz? So it’s this lust for violence with no actual coherent story about how that violence is going to produce results. It’s horrifying." ~~~
~~~ Marie: So you either can go with (a) Juan Cole's theory -- that Trump -- in his fairly ham-fisted way -- creating insider-trading opportunities, or (b) Krugman's theory that Trump is talking to his imaginary friends (I suppose there are other possibilities, but I doubt any of them is sensible). Cole's theory requires Trump to be at least a little bit clever; Krugman's theory is backed up by Trump's extended discourse, just last week, about his negotiations with the CEO of the company that makes Sharpies, a story that turned out to be a complete fabrication.
Drunk Pete's Big Insider Trading Scheme Blew Up (Allegedly!). Joe Sommerlad of the Independent: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s personal broker allegedly approached a major asset manager about making a multimillion dollar investment in defense companies in the weeks leading up to the airstrikes on Iran, according to a report. The Financial Times, citing three people familiar with the matter, has alleged that Hegseth’s broker at Morgan Stanley reached out to BlackRock in February to inquire about making a significant investment in its Defense Industrials Active ETF. The inquiry from such a high-profile client was flagged internally at the asset manager, the FT writes, and the investment was ultimately never made as the $3.2 billion equity fund in question was not at that time available for Morgan Stanley clients to buy.” Hegseth's spokesman Sean Parnell indignantly denied the allegations.
Trump Plans Golden Effigies of Himself. Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump shared the first images of his planned presidential library in downtown Miami, posting a short video [on his social media platform] Monday night that depicts a skyscraper that appears to be about 50 stories tall and filled with reconstructions of parts of the White House, military vehicles and at least two gold statues of Trump.” A Politico story, which describes the tower as "looming over Biscayne Bay," is here. ~~~
~~~ You can watch the video on YouTube, via Forbes. Uh, looks as if it's gonna have a ballroom just like the monstrosity Trump has planned/keeps planning as part of his White House Defacement Project.
In a time of unprecedented division, escalating conflict and economic turmoil, President Trump focused on what really mattered: Remodeling the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House. This, his crowning achievement is a bold reminder that the president isn’t just a bussinessman [MB: (sic.)], he’s taking care of business. It stands as a tribute to an unwavering visionary who looked down, saw a problem, and painted it gold. -- Plaque on the Throne fit for a King ~~~
 |
Like many a MAGA dude, this one is |
~~~ AND it's interactive! (But not operable.)
More on the Disappearance of the Stairway to Nowhere. Emily Badger of the New York Times: Donald “Trump displayed revised plans for his proposed White House ballroom Sunday night on Air Force One, after a New York Times article detailed criticisms that architects and preservationists have made of the design as the project has sped toward construction. One criticized feature — a grand staircase to the ballroom’s south portico that served no functional purpose — was missing from the new renderings shown by the president. 'We just got these in from the architects,' the president said, walking through a series of printed illustrations while speaking with reporters. But his impromptu presentation may complicate what is supposed to be a final vote on the project by the National Capital Planning Commission on Thursday. The commission is scheduled to deliberate and vote on plans for the project that were presented at its March monthly meeting.... A last-minute change-up before the commission would be unusual — but also in keeping with how the ballroom has vaulted over the steps by which major public projects in the capital are normally reviewed.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Absolutely everything Trump does is sloppy. He is a careless man in every sense of the word. And, of course, he really doesn't know what he's doing.
Jacob Weisberg in a New York Times op-ed explains Jeffrey Epstein's roll and skills: People like Epstein, whom Weisberg labels “dark connectors,” “make it easier for people of standing to move between their public obligations and their private desires without too much friction.... A college dropout with a gift for bullshitting on many topics, [Epstein] made himself into a gateway between important people and the many kinds of better-kept-quiet help they wanted — with their tax bills, their sleazy romantic adventures, jobs for their kids and their social ambitions.” Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link.
Emily Cochrane & Eric Schmitt of the “The Army has begun an inquiry into videos that show a pair of Apache helicopters hovering close to the musician Kid Rock’s residence in Nashville over the weekend, Pentagon officials said on Monday. The helicopter gunships appeared to be the same ones that flew over a 'No Kings' protest held on Saturday in Nashville, a gesture that some attendees said felt like intimidation. But it was the videos posted by Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, on social media on Saturday that prompted official scrutiny. One video shows Mr. Ritchie waving and saluting as a helicopter hovers near the pool at the 27,000-square-foot mansion.... In a second video, another helicopter can be seen flying above the first as Mr. Ritchie continues to wave. The musician, who has been vocal about his support for ... [Donald] Trump shared the videos with some derogatory commentary about Gov. Gavin Newsom of California....” An AP story is here.
EEOC Looking Out for White Guys. Joanna Slater of the Washington Post: “According to a new lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission..., [a gathering of female employees of a Coca Cola distributor was] illegal.... Last month, the EEOC sued Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, the Japanese-owned bottler that distributes soda in the region, saying the women’s event was a form of unlawful discrimination against male employees under federal civil rights law. The agency is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. It’s the first EEOC lawsuit filed over a corporate diversity, equity and inclusion program, part of a sweeping effort by the Trump administration to stamp out what it describes as illegal discrimination. But more such cases could be imminent.... The agency is already investigating footwear giant Nike and financial services firm Northwestern Mutual over their corporate diversity initiatives.”
Chris Cameron of the “Lawyers for Representative Eric Swalwell sent a cease-and-desist letter to the F.B.I. on Monday seeking to block the release of files from a decade-old investigation into his ties to a suspected Chinese spy. Trump administration officials had ordered F.B.I. agents to gather documents from the case, alarming law enforcement officials who said they worried that the material could be released publicly to smear Mr. Swalwell, Democrat of California. He is a prominent critic of President Trump who is running for governor of California. The Washington Post earlier reported on the letter to F.B.I. Director Kash Patel.” The Independent has a story here.
Heather Knight & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “California’s senators are seeking more information about how the Transportation Security Administration shares data with the immigration authorities after a woman and her daughter were publicly apprehended in San Francisco’s airport while heading to a flight last week. The Transportation Security Administration began sharing passenger information with immigration officials a year ago, highlighting fliers who were on a list of people to be deported. But the program had received little attention. Now, after video clips went viral, showing an undocumented Guatemalan mother and her child being detained at San Francisco International Airport last week, Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both Democrats, are asking the Trump administration to disclose more details. On Monday, the senators sent a host of questions to the heads of T.S.A., Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, which houses both agencies. They wanted to know how the information sharing works, how many people have been detained or deported under the program and which airports have been targeted.”
Tim Arango, et al., of the New York Times: “The government of Mexico on Monday condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and voiced concerns about the deaths of its citizens in immigration detention facilities in the United States. Top Mexican officials on Monday, including President Claudia Sheinbaum and diplomats in Los Angeles, vowed to take legal steps to pressure the Trump administration over conditions in detention facilities, including what lawyers and detainees have described as poor drinking water and inadequate medical care. The rebukes from Mexico came after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced on Monday that another Mexican man had died on Wednesday at a detention facility in California. The man, Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, 51, had been in custody since late February and, according to a news release from ICE, had suffered from diabetes and hypertension. He died in Adelanto, Calif., about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, after being found unconscious in his bunk and taken to a hospital.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I suspect Mexico is calling out Trump now because authorities there sense his weakness. And they sense it not just because they've been reading U.S. polls but because of events like the 8-million-strong No Kings Day turnout. Thank you to everyone who attended. ~~~
~~~ Laura Strickler & Colleen Long of NBC News: "So far this year, 14 people have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, including a Mexican man who was found unresponsive last week at a facility outside Los Angeles, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security.... In 2025, ICE reported 33 total in-custody deaths and in 2024 there were 11."
Marie: Just because you're willing to die for this country doesn't mean Donald Trump's agents won't go out of their way to grab your parents or your uncles or your old grandma and send them back to a shithole country . ~~~
~~~ Courtney Kube & Julia Ainsley of NBC News: “ICE agents will be stationed outside graduation events for the nation’s newest Marines to identify whether any of their family members are undocumented, according to the Marine Corps.... Because of 'increased force protection measures' at the recruit depot, "federal law enforcement personnel will be present at installation access points to conduct enhanced screening and lawful immigration status inquiries during recruit family and graduation days,” a message on the Parris Island website read.”
Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “The Department of Homeland Security permitted a Mexican woman to return Monday to the United States after a judge found her deportation was unlawful, a rare reprieve at a time when growing numbers of immigrants who arrived as children are being targeted for removal. A federal judge had ordered DHS to facilitate Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez’s return to the United States, after immigration officers deported her to Mexico even though she is actively enrolled in an Obama administration program that prohibits her removal because she arrived in the U.S. as a child.... Estrada, 42, is one of dozens, if not hundreds, of immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program who have been arrested and, in some cases, deported, since President Donald Trump started his second term.”
Senate Republicans Hold Fake Session; Do Nothing. Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “Senate Republicans bypassed an opportunity on Monday to try to force a quick end to the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, leaving the closure in place while lawmakers remained on a two-week recess with no resolution in sight. Despite urging from House G.O.P. leaders, Senate Republicans did not try to use a brief ceremonial session on Monday morning to push through an eight-week extension of funding for the agency, which Democrats had said they would object to. Instead, Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota, who presided over the roughly 30-second session, said lawmakers were continuing to discuss how to proceed.” A Politico story, headlined, "The DHS Shutdown Might Never End," is here. ~~~
~~~ Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "... Donald Trump’s disconnect from the legislative dynamics on Capitol Hill has fueled a new round of Republican infighting as the Department of Homeland Security is in the midst of the longest shutdown of a federal department in U.S. history.... The lack of a viable direction from the White House has left Republicans on Capitol Hill twisting in the wind, with nobody other than Trump possessing the necessary clout to call the play, and activists and influencers sniping at others within the party as there is still no solution in sight.... Trump didn’t weigh in publicly on either the Senate bill[, which passed last week,] or the House’s doomed stopgap measure that would fund all of DHS. Both [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune and [House Speaker Mike] Johnson thought they were advancing their conflicting bills with Trump’s blessing."
Kyle Cheney of Politico: “Members of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 are suing the federal government for tens of millions of dollars in damages, claiming that the 'indiscriminate' use of force by police officers repelling the attack caused them physical and emotional injuries. The lawsuit, filed in Florida, takes aim at the conduct of Capitol Police and Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, whose outnumbered officers fended off the mob for hours while members of Congress fled.”
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A man pardoned by ... Donald Trump for his actions on Jan. 6 has been sentenced for possessing more than 100,000 child sexual abuse images and videos discovered in connection with his Capitol riot case. Daniel Tocci was sentenced to four years in prison by U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni of the District of Massachusetts after he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, according to a Justice Department news release Monday that made no mention of the Jan. 6 link. Tocci had been set to go to trial in the Jan. 6 case early last year, but it was dismissed after Trump granted mass clemency to roughly 1,500 defendants tied to the attack on the Capitol."
Nathan Pemberton of the “At a sparsely attended Conservative Political Action Conference, young Republicans were eager to start the post-Trump era.... The yawning alienation shared by CPAC’s young conservatives extended to those with more moderate taste as well.... Like their more extreme peers, these traditional conservatives expressed an exhaustion with MAGA’s culture-war provocations, Mr. Trump’s penchant for chaos and the new class of content creators ... whom they saw as offering a shallower mode of conservatism.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: “Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed legislation on Monday to rename the largest airport in Palm Beach County as President Donald J. Trump International Airport, the latest effort to affix the Trump name to a civic institution.... The name change, effective July 1, is subject to approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the legislation.... Last month..., the Trump Organization filed trademark applications..., stak[ing] a claim to the names President Donald J. Trump International Airport and Donald J. Trump International Airport, as well as 'DJT,' the possible airport code. They also sought to use the names in connection with airport-themed merchandise. The Trump Organization said at the time that Mr. Trump or his family 'will not receive any royalty, licensing fee or financial consideration whatsoever' from the airport renaming.... It was unclear whether the Trump Organization would eventually sell any Trump-branded luggage or other merchandise on its own website.” An ABC News story is here.
Marie: Oh, for Pete's sake! The real Fargo police chief is no Marge Gunderson, the quirky chief whom Frances McDormand so brilliantly brought to life: ~~~
~~~ North Dakota. Michael Levenson of the “... Angela Lipps ... spent more than five months behind bars after [Fargo, North Dakota,] police used a facial-recognition app to connect her to a bank fraud case in North Dakota, a state she had never visited until she was arrested in her home state, Tennessee, and taken there to face charges, she said.... The authorities in North Dakota relied on facial-recognition technology to identify Ms. Lipps 'but made zero other efforts to corroborate that identification,' [her lawyer Jay] Greenwood said in an email on Monday. 'Nor did they do any interviews with her or people in her orbit to determine whether they had the right person.' As a result, Mr. Greenwood said, law enforcement officials held her in jail for more than five months in Tennessee and North Dakota 'before realizing they had identified the wrong person.'... Last week, the Fargo police chief, David Zibolski, acknowledged 'missteps' in the handling of Ms. Lipps’s case and said the department had overhauled its artificial-intelligence policy. But he stopped short of apologizing to Ms. Lipps, 50, who is planning to sue the police....” MB: I don't think Marge would have fallen for AI.
