How Some Very Bad Luck Has Made It Even Harder To Rein In Trump

INSIDE: Abrego Garcia ... Terry Moran ... Elon Musk

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

Coming Up Snake Eyes

In a deeply unfortunate roll of the dice, the only three Trump appointees on the 16-judge D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ended up being randomly selected for June’s three-judge motion panel. That means they get the first bite at the apple on various emergency motions that come to the court and a chance to shape dramatically the procedural posture of some of the most important cases against the lawlessness of the Trump administration.

Yesterday, the three judges – Gregory Katsas, Neomi Rao, and Justin Walker – issued an administrative stay blocking a major order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in the original Alien Enemies Case. The stay came as the Trump administration faced a deadline of today to propose to Boasberg how it would provide the due process that the Alien Enemies Act detainees at CECOT had been denied when they were removed in March.

If you want to get a little deeper into the history and procedure of the appeals court move, Chris Geidner has you covered. But one point he makes that I want to highlight is the administration’s foot-dragging for almost a week since Boasberg’s ruling, and then rushing to the appeals court at the last-minute while concurrently asking Boasberg to stay his own order. It looks like a tactic designed to add as much delay as possible into the calendar.

The temporary administrative stay won’t be the last word from the three-judge panel. They still must decide whether to freeze the order while the entire appeal proceeds, but the odds aren’t good. For what it’s worth, there’s no reason to believe the selection of the three Trump appointees for this month’s motion panel was anything more than random chance.

Still Waiting …

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is still blocking Judge Boasberg’s contempt of court proceedings in the original Alien Enemies Act case. Because the appeals court entered what was supposed to be a temporary administrative stay, Boasberg has been unable to move forward since April 18, a “temporary” delay of almost two months now.

Pure Gaslighting

The Trump administration is trying to bring a swift end to the contempt of court proceeding in the Maryland case of the wrongfully deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, arguing that the case is moot now that he has been returned to the United States.

In a new filing yesterday, the Trump DOJ didn’t just ignore the history of administration’s repeated brazen defiance of court orders in the case. It pretended none of that never happened: “In the face of Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, [plaintiffs] baselessly accuse Defendants of ‘foot-dragging and ‘intentionally disregard[ing] this Court’s and the Supreme Court’s orders,’ when just the opposite is true.”

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are fiercely resisting the case being dismissed, urging Judge Paula Xinis to continue her inquiry into whether the administration was in contempt of court. Given her prior dismayed reactions in-court to the government’s misconduct, I would expect her to continue her inquiry if she finds a legal basis for doing so.

Trump Admin Still Drags Its Feet In Cristian Case

Still no word on the court-ordered return of Cristian from El Salvador in the other Maryland “facilitate” case. The Trump administration filed an update Friday that for the first time confirmed that Cristian remains at CECOT. But the administration has erected a fictional wall between DHS and State, with DHS (a party to the case) responding to the court that it’s up to the State Department (which is not a party) to negotiate Cristian’s return. I would anticipate the court or plaintiff counsel making moves at some point to get answers directly from State.

Trump’s Military Move: Live Coverage

TPM continues to run a liveblog with the major developments on President Trump’s military escalation in Los Angeles.

Gitmo Back In Play For Holding Migrants

The Trump administration could resume sending undocumented immigrants to Guantanamo Bay as soon as today. The planned operation, reported by Politico and the WaPo, would be dramatically larger than the short-lived effort a few months ago to use Gitmo as a detention facility for migrants.

The migrants targeted for transfer to the base in Cuba come from a range of countries that includes U.S. allies in Europe. The home countries of the foreign nationals are reportedly not being notified of the transfers to Gitmo.

First Amendment Under Siege

I keep going back to the Trump memo calling up the National Guard equating protests – even absent violence – with rebellion. It wasn’t an accident or one-off, as this threat towards any protestors of his military parade this coming weekend in DC shows:

Terry Moran Gets The Boot From ABC News

ABC News, which kicked off the spate of dubious post-election settlement agreements with Donald Trump, has sent 28-year network veteran Terry Moran packing over his social media post critical of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Moran’s contract was reportedly set to expire Friday and will not be renewed.

Back To The Future

Here’s the key thing to note about President Trump’s decision to revert to the Confederate names of U.S. military installations: He’s re-naming the bases ostensibly in honor of people with the same names and initials as the original Confederate honorees in order to get around the law mandating the removal of Confederate symbols from the military. So it’s a squirrelly way to have all the racism without having to repeal the law.

Smithsonian Bends The Knee

In an Orwellian irony, the board of the Smithsonian Institute has bowed to political influence from President Trump and ordered a full review of its public-facing content to make sure it contains no … political influence.

Meanwhile, In The Climate Space …

The Trump EPA is poised to announce the easing of a Biden-era regulation limiting mercury emissions from power plants and the elimination entirely of the limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants

Elon Musk Watch

In 2022-23, DOJ and DHS were sufficiently concerned that Elon Musk was a vector for malign foreign influence that they were actively tracking the foreign nationals coming and going to his properties, the WSJ reports.

Trump Tariffs Will Remain In Place For Now

“A federal appeals court on Tuesday granted the Trump administration’s request to keep the president’s far-reaching tariffs in effect for now but agreed to fast track its consideration of the case this summer,” the WSJ reports.

Quote Of The Day

“It is clear that the bureau’s current leadership has no intention to enforce the law in any meaningful way. While I wish you all the best, I worry for American consumers.”–Cara Petersen, the acting head of enforcement for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in a fiery farewell email after she resigned her position

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