Pam Bondi Lets Acting Officials Do All Her Dirty Work
INSIDE: Emil Bove ... Ed Martin ... Elon Musk
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
DOJ Run Amok
The Justice Department under new Attorney General Pam Bondi continues its steep decline, setting new precedents almost daily for supplication to the White House, corrupt and unethical conduct, and dubious representations to judges.
Yesterday was its own special, to use the legal term of art, shitshow.
The acting deputy attorney general appeared all alone in federal court in Manhattan to try to seal the deal on his corrupt scheme to dismiss criminal charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. The deputy attorney general runs the Justice Department on a day to day basis; yet here was Emil Bove by himself at the counsel table, with apparently no other DOJ lawyer willing to sit with him. Behind him providing visible support was Todd Blanche, the nominee for deputy attorney general who has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. Both men until last month were personal attorneys to Donald Trump.
After the hearing (no ruling yet on the motion to dismiss from U.S. District Judge Dale Ho), Bove sent a tone-deaf, Trumpian message to DOJ employees trying to turn his solo appearance in court from a personal humiliation into a model of diehard MAGA-tude. In a snarky conclusion that is astonishing coming from a DAG, Bove said that anyone who wasn’t onboard the Trump train could resign and pointed them to the letters penned by their colleagues who resigned over Bove’s order to dismiss the Adams case:
As that unprecedented scene was playing out in NYC, President Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. attorney in DC was further showering himself in disgrace. Ed Martin, who is the acting USA for the moment, sent another one of his wildly inappropriate emails to colleagues that was apparently promptly leaked again.
Martin for the third time that we know of made grand and obsequious gestures toward Elon Musk’s DOGE: “We will protect DOGE,” he declared:
Most alarming was Martin’s willingness to launch pseudo-investigations of prominent Democrats and to castigate them in politicized terms while touting his own bonafides in going after them. Among the Democrats targeted by Martin: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA).
“Operation Whirlwind” is what Martin is calling his effort to prosecute anyone who targets public officials, but it appears to be more of an effort to stifle First Amendment expression and intimidate opposition leaders than to protect officials from the wave of actual threats that Trump himself has stirred up in recent years.
Tracking The Purges
Pentagon: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is considering firing or removing generals and senior officers as early as this week, according to multiple reports.
IRS: Roughly 6,000 employees will be laid off, the NYT reports.
FEMA: Another round of firings are coming, this time targeting employees who have worked on DEI or climate change.
Thread Of The Day
Purges Are HARD
Forked Up: Some federal workers accepted the deferred resignation offer in the notorious “Fork in the Road” email and were fired anyway, the WaPo reports.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga of Virginia temporarily blocked the CIA and DNI from firing intelligence officers assigned to do DEI work.
An official at the U.S. Digital Service, which was renamed U.S. DOGE Service, has resigned rather than abide the destruction.
Quote Of The Day
“Good luck with that, they just fired the whole privacy team.”–an email from OPM to CNN responding to a FOIA request
Trump Screws Up His Own Shell Game
As the White House continues to refuse to say who is heading up DOGE, except to insist to judges and the press that is most definitely not Elon Musk, President Trump outright said it is Elon Musk.
DOGE Watch
President Trump issued a new executive order putting DOGE in charge of a sweeping effort to weaken federal regulations.
DOGE is now reportedly ensconced at the Pentagon, CISA, and FAA.
The data DOGE released about federal contract savings doesn’t add up, NPR reports.
USAID Crisis May Be Coming To A Head In Court
The latest on the two USAID lawsuits in DC:
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols has given the Trump administration until noon today to clean up the “mess” created by contradictory statements to the court by Trump official Peter Marocco about how overseas aid workers would be treated.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali has given the Trump administration until 1 p.m. ET to respond to a motion seeking to hold it in contempt for failing to abide by his temporary restraining order that lifted the USAID spending freeze.
IMPORTANT
The Trump administration is systematically exploiting loopholes to effectively keep much of the president’s blanket spending freezes in place, accounts by officials and court filings show, despite restraining orders from judges who have told agencies to disregard the directives.
The administration’s strategy is to have political appointees embedded in various agencies invoke other legal authorities to pause spending, while posturing as if those officials had undertaken the efforts independent of President Trump’s original directives
It Could Be Worse?
President Trump said he has offered his disgraced former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn “about ten jobs” in his new administration.
Trump Loses Again On Ending Birthright Citizenship
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to lift a lower court injunction that has been blocking President Trump executive order purporting to end the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.
EXCLUSIVE
Texas Observer: ICE Prosecutor in Dallas Runs White Supremacist X Account
‘It Looks Like A Zoo, There Are Fenced Cages’
NYT: Migrants, Deported to Panama Under Trump Plan, Detained in Remote Jungle Camp
Trump’s Ukraine Travesty
As President Trump lays the groundwork to surrender Ukraine to Russia, he continues to lob undermining verbal potshots at President Volodymyr Zelensky: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
Over the past few days, Trump has adopted Russia propaganda as his own rhetoric, threatened Ukraine’s sovereign integrity, abandoned a longtime ally, and sided with its authoritarian invaders while gaslighting the world into thinking Ukraine itself started the war.
Some perspectives on Trump’s march of folly:
TPM’s Josh Marshall: Russia and the US Begin to Divvy up Ukraine at Riyadh Confab
David Ignatius: A Trump outrage that stands apart
Elizabeth N. Saunders: Why high-level U.S.-Russia talks are bad diplomacy
Want better media? Support a better media company!
TPM is reader-funded, unionized, and mission-driven. Read our mission.
I so appreciate your distillation of the news and your perspective. Thank you.
Thanks, David. I'm unable to read anything from NYT or WaPo, but I appreciate the other links. Keep at it!👊👊👊🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸