Senior Ranks Of DOJ Hit With New Wave Of Trump Purges
INSIDE: Eric Adams ... Stephen Miller ... Elon Musk
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Friday News Dump
The Trump administration took new steps to hollow out the Justice Department and bring it more firmly under White House control with a new round of purges of senior officials Friday.
The purges appeared to be directed by former Trump attorney Todd Blanche, who took over as deputy attorney general last week and signed at least some of the termination notices. The DAG generally runs the Justice Department day to day.
Among those purged:
Jeffrey Ragsdale, the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, DOJ’s in-house ethics watchdog;
Liz Oyer, the U.S. pardon attorney;
Tara Twomey, the head of the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees
Melissa MacTough, who headed the office of intelligence in the National Security Division;
Brad Wiegmann, who headed the law and policy section in the National Security Division; and
Scott Damelin, the executive officer of the National Security Division.
The personnel removed were career officials entitled to civil service protections, and they were reportedly not given reasons for their terminations.
In related news, the Trump DOJ put on administrative leave two Manhattan prosecutors involved in the prosecution of NYC Mayor Eric Adams. They were identified as Andrew Rohrbach and Celia Cohen, both of whom were experienced federal prosecutors. They were escorted out of the building by federal law enforcement, NBC News reports, after receiving letters from Blanche.
Paul Clement Takes Measured Approach In Adams Case
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho’s ingenious decision to ask conservative legal rock star Paul Clement to help him sort out the Trump DOJ’s corrupt scheme to drop the criminal prosecution against NYC Mayor Eric Adams did not produce any bombshells or a path forward that is likely to result in significant new judicial scrutiny of the move that has already led to the mass resignations at DOJ.
Clement’s memo filed Friday strongly argued against dismissing the case without prejudice, which would have the effect of keeping Adams under Trump’s sway for fear of renewed prosecution, but Clement said the judge is limited in what he can do under the narrow court rules and separation of power considerations.
In its own filing by former Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, the Trump DOJ threw under the bus some the prosecutors involved in the case – including some who resigned rather the participate in the dismissal scheme – releasing internal communications by them that Blanche and Bove tendentiously argued undermined the prosecution.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
The White House confirms that Justice Department officials have used Trump political aide Stephen Miller as a “sounding board,” whatever that means.
Big Law Shrinks In Face Of Trump Attacks
Despite President Trump having already issued two executive orders targeting major law firms, elite law firms are mostly keeping their heads down as the rule of law comes under attack, the WSJ reports. Trump isn’t done yet:
IMPORTANT
The Trump administration’s detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian green card holder who helped lead the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, marks a dangerous new turn in the president’s anti-immigrant crusade, suggesting that in addition to mass deportations there will be targeted removals based on political views:
Zeteo: DHS Detains Palestinian Student from Columbia Encampment, Advocates Say
WSJ: ICE Arrests Columbia Student Who Helped Lead Pro-Palestinian Protests
NYT: Immigration Authorities Arrest Pro-Palestinian Activist at Columbia
AP: ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests, his lawyer says
Quote Of The Day
“We are witnessing an extraordinarily broad chilling effect in American society. It is not just what you want to say, but what you are allowed to ask. It is about both formal government actions and informal threats, with threats of professional ruin or even violence from the President’s supporters. It is about both censorship and self-censorship. It is about a sense of collective fear.”–University of Michigan political scientist Don Moynihan
Turning Jan. 6 On Its Head
“A team of lawyers is preparing to sue the federal government on behalf of hundreds of people pardoned by President Trump for their role in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, claiming that the rioters were mistreated by agencies like the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons,” the NYT reports.
Trump Org sues Capital One for closing its accounts after Jan. 6
Trump DOJ continues to argue that Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons cover post-Jan. 6 crimes.
The Legacy Of Trump v. United States
Adam Liptak: Aftershocks of Supreme Court’s Immunity Ruling Echo in New Trump Cases
TPM Exclusive
TPM’s Josh Kovensky: Trump Makes Aggressive New Claim of Executive Power To Circumvent The Senate
TPM On TV
TPM’s Josh Marshall joined Chris Hayes to talk about the Trump’s aggressive new claim of executive power that unilaterally deletes the Appointments Clause from the Constitution:
DOGE Watch
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Washington, D.C., declined to limit DOGE’s access to a Treasury Department payment system.
Social Security official who resigned under DOGE onslaught describes the hostile takeover by Elon Musk’s team in a new lawsuit seeking to block DOGE access to sensitive Social Security data.
How DOGE’s cuts to the IRS threaten to cost more than DOGE will ever save.
The Trump administration is overriding internal HHS objections in giving DOGE access to sensitive child support database.
NYT: Inside the Explosive Meeting Where Trump Officials Clashed With Elon Musk
The Purges
NOAA: Another wave of purges at NOAA, including the National Weather Service, could shrink its workforce by 20%.
VA: Inside the DOGE cuts disrupting Veterans Affairs.
IRS: Inside Trump’s war on the Internal Revenue Service
DHS: The Department of Homeland Security purported to cancel its collective bargaining agreement with the union representing TSA workers.
The Destruction
NYT: How Foreign Aid Cuts Are Setting the Stage for Disease Outbreaks
WaPo: Army Corps knew Trump order would waste California water, memo shows
NYT: White House Cancels $400 Million in Grants and Contracts to Columbia
Reuters: The CDC is planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism despite extensive scientific research that has disproven or failed to find evidence of such links.
The Corruption
The Trump White House has created a system for awarding clemency that plays into the president’s self-serving grievances about what he sees as the political weaponization of the justice system, the NYT reports.
Note: The U.S. pardon attorney was one of the Justice Department officials ousted on Friday.
The Entrenchment Agenda
Amanda Carpenter evaluates how far Trump has advanced his six most extreme anti-democratic measures that ultimately make it difficult for voters to dislodge authoritarians from office: (1) pardons to license lawbreaking, (2) investigations against critics and rivals, (3) regulatory retaliation, (4) federal law enforcement overreach, (5) domestic deployment of the military, and (6) the potential refusal of autocrats to leave office.
How’s It Going Abroad? SPOILER: Not Good
Politico: Germany’s top intelligence experts are calling for a European spy network since they can’t rely on intelligence from the United States any longer.
NBC News: Poland is considering doubling the size of its army and adding nuclear weapons to its arsenal.
Politico: Poland urges Tesla boycott after Musk’s call to “move past” Nazi guilt.
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So, Paul Clements is concerned about "separation of powers" issues in advising Fed Judge Ho on the Adams case. Has he not gotten the memo yet that the tRump regime has virtually eliminated any and all "separation of powers" walls, and remains adamant in promoting the all-powerful "unitary executive" who recognizes NO impediment to act, constitutional doctrines be damned?
Periodic reminder that we chose this.
Anyone, albeit more so our elite and leadership class, who didn’t see this coming… No excuse after his last term, J6, and after. None.
To be clear, I keep harping on this because I’m amazed like 24/7 that a society could be so stupid, deranged, sociopathic and/or infantile to freely elect (or allow to be elected as the case maybe) a completely unfit POS. (I give a limited pass because there were numerous pressures to do so, none of which included forcing anyone to vote for choice. For all intents and purposes, every vote or decision not to vote was freely made.)
Now that I wrote that last ‘graf, I’m getting amazed all over again.