Potential Disaster Averted as Bid to Undermine Judicial Branch Fails

INSIDE: Hannah Dugan ... Stephen Miller ... Jeffrey Epstein

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Editor’s Note: Don’t miss the news at the end of today’s Morning Memo about the first-ever Morning Memo Live event.

A Trojan Horse Case

A Trojan horse Freedom of Information Act case in which Stephen Miller’s old group was trying to get a court to declare that the administrative functions of the judicial branch are part of the executive branch has been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden of D.C., a Trump appointee.

This case, which has been covered by my colleague Josh Kovensky, had the potential to provide a legal basis for the Trump White House to exercise considerable control — or at least pressure — over the judicial branch. There was never any indication that the White House had any hand in the case, but it didn’t seem like a stretch to assume it would have seized on a favorable ruling to assert more control over the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

It was always weird that a FOIA lawsuit was the vehicle for this effort. In that sense, McFadden’s ruling doesn’t tell us much about the larger constitutional interplay between the executive and judicial branches. He simply ruled that Congress had exempted itself and the courts from FOIA. The America First Legal Foundation argued that the Judicial Conference and Administrative Office weren’t part of the courts but part of the executive branch, and therefore not exempt from FOIA. McFadden ultimately ruled:

Because the Judicial Conference] and the Administrative Office indeed fall outside FOIA’s reach, the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the records request. So it will grant the motion to dismiss.

When the lawsuit was originally filed earlier this year, it came at a time of unprecedented conflict between the Trump administration and the judiciary. For the first time, the White House had tried to communicate with judicial branch employees directly via mass email. The General Services Administration was unilaterally talking about closing federal buildings around the country that house federal courts and court services. Federal judges were even expressing concern that their security protection by U.S. marshals — an executive branch agency — might be revoked or made contingent.

For now, an obscure FOIA lawsuit won’t be a backdoor way for the Trump White House to bring some critical elements of the judicial branch under its control.

Wisconsin Judge Convicted of Interfering With ICE

Wisconsin state judge Hannah Dugan was convicted on one felony count and acquitted on one misdemeanor account for interfering with the ICE arrest of an undocumented immigrant in her courthouse. My sense is all three of these things are true:

• The jury was careful and attentive and and took its job seriously.

• There are good grounds for Dugan to appeal.

• This case would never have been prosecuted under any other administration.

Always a Disproportionate Reaction

No doubt some of Trump’s appeal to some people is his willingness to act — to do something — even if it’s disproportionate, results in collective punishment, and is ultimately ineffective or even counterproductive.

On that note, last night the Trump administration immediately suspended the green card lottery system that allowed the Brown University/MIT shooter to enter the country during Trump I.

The Undocumented Underground

TPM’s Hunter Walker: How a ‘Habeas Machine’ Reunited One Family That Was Pulled Apart by ICE

Lawless U.S. Boat Strikes Have Killed 104 People

Another unlawful U.S. attack on two alleged drug-smuggling boats killed five people, brings the campaign’s known death toll to 104.

Meanwhile, CNN reports that the top lawyer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff advised Chairman Gen. Dan Caine in November that military commanders should request to retire if they receive an unlawful order.

Saber-Rattling Watch

• NYT: Trump Relies on Distortions to Support His Pressure Campaign on Venezuela

• WSJ: Trump Ups Pressure on Venezuela but Repeatedly Shifts the Rationale

• WaPo: Stephen Miller’s hard-line Mexico strategy morphed into deadly boat strikes

Colorado Senators Try to Save NCAR

Colorado’s two Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, are holding up the Senate appropriations package until Congress agrees to fully fund the National Center for Atmospheric Research and prevent its dismantling by the Trump administration. Miffed that Colorado officials rebuffed President Trump’s symbolic pardon of Tina Peters, the OMB announced it was breaking up the world-class research center in Boulder.

When the Chips Are Down, Attack Trans People

In a predictable pivot to a familiar page in their political playbook, Republicans are trying to distract from their bankrupt health care policies by attacking gender-affirming care for trans Americans.

Coast Guard Can’t Make Up Its Mind

In yet another in a series of flip-flops, the Coast Guard abruptly deleted language from its new workplace harassment policy that had downgraded swastikas and nooses from overt hate symbols to “potentially divisive,” the WaPo reports.

Good Read

The Guardian: Inside DoJ’s controversial prosecution of a Texas ‘antifa cell’ charged with terrorism

Hard Read

Rolling Stone: Melissa Hortman Died in a Shocking Act of Political Violence. This Is the Story of Her Life

The Corruption: Pardons Editions

WaPo: “At least 20 people who have received clemency from Trump so far this year — cutting their sentence short, restoring their civil rights after imprisonment or allowing them to avoid prison altogether — were also forgiven of financial penalties totaling tens of millions of dollars.”

‘Don’s Best Friend’

From a NYT deep-dive on Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein:

One woman, then a model and college student in her early 20s living in Manhattan, said she attended four parties at the mansion. She cannot recall the names of most of the men she met at the gatherings, not even those Mr. Epstein directed her to “take care of” at two of them. Recruited by Ms. Maxwell and then abused by Mr. Epstein, she buried her shame and kept their secrets for years. But Mr. Trump’s presence stood out, she told The Times. He was a household name, someone Mr. Epstein often bragged about to the women around him, yet also seemed to compete with.

A Personalist Regime

After allegedly muting one dissenting member on the call, the Trump-stacked board of directors of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted to rename it the “Trump-Kennedy Center” — even though the original name was designated by Congress in its authorizing legislation.

Save the Date!

Before we get swept up into the heart of the holiday season, I wanted to flag for you that we’re holding the first-ever Morning Memo Live event on Jan. 29, 2026, in Washington, D.C.

I’ll be hosting a panel discussion on an issue that encompasses so much of what Morning Memo has been covering over the past couple of years: the politicization of the Justice Department.

Morning Memo readers know how many different Trump-era stories are connected to the abuse of DOJ and the FBI. It’s the most significant of the many Trump II transgressions because it enables and reinforces a myriad of other abuses of power.

I’ll be joined at the event by:

• Stacey Young, a former 18-year DOJ veteran who is the founder and executive director of Justice Connection, a network of DOJ alumni providing support to current and recent DOJ employees;

• Aaron Zelinsky, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland who served on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, where he prosecuted Roger Stone, and who is now a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder in Baltimore; and

• Anna Bower, a senior editor at Lawfare who covers rule of law issues and fields wacky Signal messages from Lindsey Halligan.

We’ll discuss as much as we can squeeze into one evening, including the weaponization of the Justice Department as both sword and shield; the campaign of retribution against prosecutors and investigators; and the obliteration of DOJ’s traditional independence from the White House. We’ll save time for your questions.

Tickets to the event are going on sale starting … now. We’re keeping it relatively small: only 100 tickets will be sold. We want it to be a relatively intimate event so that we can have a productive discussion.

I look forward to seeing you there.

She’s Still Got It at 84

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