[INSERT BANNER HEADLINE ON TRUMP RETRIBUTION HERE]

INSIDE: John Brennan ... James Comey ... Kristi Noem

(JIM WATSON/AFP via 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.

As Bad As It Gets

Back when banner headlines mattered, this would have been plastered across the top of the every front page in America: President Trump is exacting decade-old retribution against former top government officials who now face criminal investigations by a Justice Department run out of the White House.

I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that.

As Fox News first reported, former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey are now the targets of federal criminal investigations related to their work probing Russia’s connections to the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. The Justice Department confirmed the investigations Wednesday in a highly unusual move in which it announced the probes before retreating behind the longstanding policy that it had just violated of not commenting on active investigations.

The purported wrongdoing by Brennan is allegedly lying to Congress about a 2017 intel community assessment of Russia’s pro-Trump role in the 2016 election and reportedly comes after a criminal referral by current CIA Director John Ratcliffe. It’s not clear what the spurious predicate is for the Comey investigation, assuming there is an ostensible “reason” for it.

Asked about the investigations, Trump denied any knowledge of them, before piling on:

But I will tell you, I think they’re very dishonest people. I think they’re crooked as hell. And, maybe they have to pay a price for that. I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people … So whatever happens, happens.

The White House press secretary lauded the investigations in a Fox News appearance. “I am glad to see that the Department of Justice is opening up this investigation,” Karoline Leavitt said.

If you’re waiting to draw your own conclusions until you see the outcome of these bogus investigations, you’ve been lulled into a sense of complacency. The trumped-up investigations are the wrongdoing. Bringing criminal charges would be an additional layer of wrongdoing, but at this stage the harassment, intimidation, and threat are the point. Brennan and Comey are the immediate targets, but it’s a warning to government officials past and present not to cross Trump.

We’re way past the threshold now and deep into the lawlessness.

Comey Targeted In Another Way

“The Secret Service had the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey followed by law enforcement authorities in unmarked cars and street clothes and tracked the location of his cellphone the day after he posted an image on social media in May that President Trump’s allies said amounted to a threat to assassinate the president,” the NYT reports.

OK, It’s ON!

The Trump White House’s push for a mid-decade redistricting in Texas to try to squeeze out a few more GOP seats and save the House in the 2026 election has succeeded. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) included redistricting in the legislative agenda he released yesterday for a special session set for later this month.

Sign Of The Times

A new survey by the Brennan Center reports that 46% of local election officials are concerned about political motivated investigations into election administration.

Trump Zeros In On Harvard’s Accreditation

The Trump administration told Harvard’s accreditor that it had concluded the university violated civil-rights laws by allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment, in a move that poses an existential threat to the school. The latest attack on higher ed came the same day that DHS announced it will subpoena Harvard for records about the enforcement of immigration laws with respect to the its international students.

Canary Mission Used To Target Pro-Palestinian Students

The anonymous pro-Israel website Canary Mission was used by the Trump administration to identify pro-Palestinian students to target for deportation, according to documents and testimony that have emerged in the ongoing trial over the deportation policy.

Wrongfully Deported Man Confirmed At CECOT

In one of the lower-profile wrongful deportation cases, the Trump administration for the first time confirmed that Jordin Alexander Melgar-Salmeron is being detained at CECOT in El Salvador.

What stands out about the wrongful deportation of Melgar-Salmeron, a Salvadoran national, is that he was removed in violation of an appeals court order. His removal on May 7 within minutes of the Second Circuit’s order was the result of a confluence of administrative errors, the Trump administration has told the court.

But until yesterday, the administration had not been able to provide information on Melgar-Salmeron’s exact whereabouts

Jan. 6 Rally Organizer Found In Contempt Of Court

Stop the Steal rally organizer Caroline Wren, a longtime GOP fundraiser, was found in contempt of court and fined $2,000 a day until she complies with a subpoena for records about the Jan. 6 event that preceded the attack on the Capitol. The subpoena arises in a lawsuit by Capitol police against Donald Trump, and Wren is a witness. “I don’t want to resort to incarceration if at all possible,” U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks of South Florida said Wednesday in court, where Wren was a no-show.

Thread Of The Day

Noem’s Micromanaging Slows FEMA In Texas Floods

A new DHS policy that Secretary Kristi Noem must personally sign off on every contract and grant over $100,000 has hamstrung FEMA’s response to the devastating floods in Texas. “Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, more than 72 hours after the flooding began,” CNN reports.

Extremist Group Targets Weather Radars

After an Oklahoma TV station’s weather radar was vandalized Sunday night, the founder of an anti-government militia group confirmed that it was targeting Doppler radars.

“Absolutely,” Michael Meyer, the founder of Veterans On Patrol, told News9, the CBS affiliate in Oklahoma City.

Meyer told the station he had posted a warning sign that weather radars were being “targeted for elimination by victims of U.S. weather experimentation.”

A suspect was arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges but has not been charged for the radar sabotage.

Asked if his group was responsible for vandalizing News9’s radar, Meyer responded: “Veterans On Patrol is responsible for a lot more than that.”

Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!