The Cover-up of the Fatal ICE Shooting Is Already Underway
INSIDE: JD Vance ... Letitia James .... John Sarcone
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
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‘No Matter What’
As far back as early last year, the Trump administration was game-planning for how to respond to state prosecutions of federal agents engaged in its mass deportation operation.
The upshot of the planning, which reportedly included White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, was: “Don’t give an inch, and protect the accused agents ‘no matter what’”, Zeteo reports, quoting a senior Trump administration official.
It fits to a tee the public response of the Trump administration so far in the aftermath of the fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis. But it’s not merely a rhetorical game plan for winning the messaging war.
The Trump administration has already squeezed out state investigators and prevented them from independently probing the shooting. That move was reportedly driven by Trump-appointed Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, who had no prior experience as a prosecutor. Defending the firewall the administration quickly erected, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that Minnesota “had not been cut out,” declaring that it “doesn’t have any jurisdiction in this investigation.”
While it may seem from the outside that state investigators could proceed on their own, legal experts say being shut out of the federal investigation creates nearly insurmountable obstacles to winning a conviction on state charges:
Without cooperation from federal agencies, it will be close to impossible for state officials to put together a case, said Emmanuel Mauleón, a law professor at the University of Minnesota. State prosecutors are now unlikely to have access to any further evidence—body-worn camera footage, if it exists, interviews with the officer and witnesses, medical reports—and any other investigative material that could be part of a case, Mauleón said.
Minnesota elected officials balked at being shut out of the probe, especially while the Trump White House was making conclusory statements about the incident and vilifying the woman who was killed. “By not allowing Minnesota to participate, and the prejudgment that’s already been made by leadership, creates a very, very dangerous situation,” Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) said.
Without a state investigation, that leaves the Trump DOJ, which is fully under the control of the White House.
“If the FBI is the only investigative agency and you have Kash Patel, who is basically an extension of Donald Trump’s right arm, doing this investigation, we all know it’s going nowhere,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) said on The Daily Blast podcast. “It’s not a legitimate investigation.”
CBP Shoots Couple in Portland
Oregon officials are launching their own investigation of a Thursday incident in Portland where Customs and Border Patrol officers shot a couple during a vehicle stop. No video has yet emerged of the incident.
Mass Deportation Watch
In a Dec. 12 email, the head of Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE warned agents to be “prepared to take appropriate and decisive action should you be faced with an imminent threat” from protestors, the NYT reports.
At least 100 more federal agents are being deployed to Minnesota.
Two Democratic members of Congress are introducing a bill to end qualified immunity for ICE agents, they tell Greg Sargent.
During Trump’s mass deportation operations, federal agents have fired at vehicles at least 10 times.
A retired ICE agent who oversaw use of force investigations for DHS takes a dim view of the fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis:
U.S. Citizen Released After 25 Days in ICE Detention
It took 25 days for a 22-year-old Maryland woman to be released from ICE detention while her lawyers kept providing evidence that she is U.S.-born citizen.
No Doubt Who Runs DOJ Now
The White House is no longer even trying to hide that it’s running the Justice Department directly.
Vice President JD Vance announced in a press conference that a new assistant attorney general — ostensibly tasked with investigating fraud — will be “run out of the White House” and report directly to him and President Trump.
As the NYT’s Alan Feuer put it: “The assertion by Mr. Vance that he and Mr. Trump intended to exercise direct supervision over a senior Justice Department official was one of the administration’s most brazen efforts to date to toss out the traditional boundaries that have long existed between the White House and investigations conducted by federal law enforcement.”
The Retribution: Letitia James Edition
The Trump DOJ — foiled by multiple grand juries in its attempt to indict Letitia James on bogus mortgage fraud charges — is now zeroing in on her hairdresser in a new investigation seeking to carry out President Trump’s campaign of retribution against the New York attorney general, the NYT reports.
James’ longtime hairdresser Iyesata Marsh was indicted last month in federal court in the Western District of Louisiana on bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in connection with the purchase of a vehicle that doesn’t appear to have any direct connection to James, according the newspaper:
The investigation is still in its early stages, but prosecutors are interested in talking to Ms. Marsh about past financial transactions involving Ms. James or her campaign, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the inquiry.
There is no indication that Marsh is cooperating with the investigators targeting James.
USA Sarcone DQ’d In James Case
A federal judge in the Northern District of New York quashed subpoenas issued to New York Attorney General Letitia James by acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone III, ruling that he was invalidly appointed by the Trump administration:
The judge also barred him from any further involvement in the James cases “regardless of his title.” The ruling adds to the list of disqualified U.S. attorneys in New Jersey, California, and Nevada (plus the Eastern District of Virginia on slightly different grounds), as judges thwart Trump’s effort to bypass Senate confirmation and the law that gives judges the power to appoint interim U.S. attorneys after their initial terms expire.
You Can Tell It’s an Election Year
The signs are real — though they may be fleeting — that Republicans on the Hill are not in lockstep with President Trump to the same degree that they have been for the past year:
The Senate — with five GOP defections — voted to block further military action in Venezuela. Trump blasted the defectors by name, saying they “should never be elected to office again.”
The House — over objections from Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — passed a clean three-year extension of Obamacare subsidies, with 17 Republicans defecting.
Senate Votes to Display Jan. 6 Plaque
With Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) still refusing to abide by a 2022 law honoring the officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 — burying the commemorative plaque, still in its crate, in the basement of a House office building like the closing scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark — the Senate voted unanimously yesterday to hang the plaque on its side of the Capitol until it “can be placed in its permanent location.”
The Attack on Higher Ed
Austin Peay State University in Tennessee has reinstated a professor fired for a social media post in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and agreed to pay him $500,000 to settle the case.
Texas A&M’s new policy restricting classroom discussions of race and gender will adversely affect some 200 courses in the College of Arts and Sciences and has already claimed Plato as an early victim.
Trump Ditches Climate Agreement
In an executive order, President Trump this week unilaterally continued his retrograde approach to climate change by purporting to withdraw the United States from:
the Senate-ratified 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change;
the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for its work studying climate change.
Grandiosity Alert
Nobel Peace Prize: President Trump may get the Nobel Peace Prize after all:
Ballroom: Updated plans for President Trump’s vanity ballroom indicate that it will be as tall as the White House itself, a disproportionate architectural monstrosity. A one-story addition to the West Wing colonnade is also under consideration, the project architect told a planning commission.
What a Legend
A whimsical end to a brutal news week, featuring a mailman with absolutely the best sense of humor:
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The weight of depressive news on a daily basis renders useless even pro forma reader comments.
I keep hoping that there is some way to put a legal barrier, not a norm, between the president and the Dept of Justice. If we get a big enough tsunami, perhaps Congress can just eliminate the Dept of Justice and create a totally new department and thus everyone current will be fired. If trump tries to veto this, then Congress can simply start impeaching everyone in the department--and DHS too-- and dragging out all the dirty linen. (remember, no pardons for impeachments and the statute of limitations won't run on the "also be subject to indictment" bit till after trump is gone.
For this to work, the statute has to be very carefully worded to prevent the Extremes from applying the stupid Unitary Executive theory. A LOT of wording about the necessity of the firewall.