Trump-Appointed Judge Praises Suspended DOJ Prosecutors

INSIDE: Jim Comey ... Ed Martin ... Abrego Garcia

(Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

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

Down The Memory Hole

During the sentencing of a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant in an unrelated case, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols of D.C. praised the two prosecutors who were suspended by the Justice Department this week after they referred to those who attacked the Capitol as a “mob of rioters.”

“In my view, both Mr. Valdivia and Mr. White did a truly excellent job in this case,” said Nichols, a Trump appointee, while the two suspended prosecutors watched the proceedings from the audience.

After suspending the two prosecutors, the Justice Department submitted a new sentencing memo in the case that edited out the “mob of rioters” section. Online access to the original sentencing memo was apparently blocked by the court clerk, Politico reported. Nichols said he hadn’t ordered the original sealed memo and that the Justice Department would have to justify deep-sixing it in a motion for his consideration.

Comey Attacks Indictment on Multiple Fronts

Former FBI Director James Comey filed the last of his planned pre-trial challenges to the politicized indictment against him, fleshing out a multi-prong attack on the legitimacy of the case. For those keeping close track, Comey has filed three distinct motions to dismiss, based respectively on

• the unlawful appointment of Lindsey Halligan as U.S. Attorney

• vindictive and selective prosecution

• the fundamental ambiguity of Sen. Ted Cruz’s questions to Comey and the literal truth of Comey’s answers

In addition, Comey is seeking (i) a bill of particulars from the government that lays out the charges against him with more factual specificity; and (ii) the transcript and audio
recordings of the grand jury proceedings, arguing that potential misconduct and other irregularities may form the basis for additional motions to dismiss.

Of particular note, Comey alleges that a FBI agent may have infected the grand jury proceedings because he was tainted by exposure to “privileged communications” between Comey and one of his lawyers obtained in an earlier investigation. The details of that episode are largely redacted in Comey’s motion so the details remain a bit murky.

Quote of the Day

U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, calling into question the validity of President Biden’s pardons, in an email to House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) obtained by CNN:

As the Pardon Attorney, I can tell you unequivocally that my Office cannot support the validity and ongoing legal effect of pardons and commutations issued during the Biden Administration without further examination.

Their validity must be fully examined in light of what we now know – and I suspect ultimately by a Court with a presentation of the evidence you and others have gathered.

The Retribution: Abrego Garcia Edition

The big evidentiary hearing scheduled for next week on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s claims of vindictive prosecution is looking increasingly in jeopardy, with both sides raising the prospect of delays.

Abrego Garcia’s defense team is urging the judge to hold the Trump administration’s feet to the fire by dismissing the case outright if its doesn’t cough up requested discovery on the vindictive prosecution claim and comply with a subpoena of top DOJ officials.

For its part, the Justice Department wants the judge to quash the subpoena and if he fails to do so to give prosecutors time to appeal that decision.

The Justice Department filing in the matter was signed by Stan Woodward, the former Trump world criminal defense attorney who is now the No. 3 at DOJ. It was his first appearance in the case and creates the unusual tableau, noted by Adam Klasfeld, of the No. 3 at DOJ trying to keep the No. 2, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, from having to testify in the case of a man who six months ago was rotting away indefinitely in an El Salvadoran prison after his unlawful deportation.

The White Nationalism Ain’t Subtle

NYT: “The Trump administration is drastically cutting the number of refugees it will admit to the United States, rejecting thousands of people fleeing war and persecution while reserving the record-low number of slots for mostly white Afrikaner South Africans.”

Deep Dive

TPM’s Kate Riga takes a closer look at the argument by Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman in the Illinois National Guard case that made the Supreme Court ask for more briefing and may be an elegant offramp that could limit President Trump’s militarization of America cities.

Trump’s Cloistered Cabinet

The NYT has a follow-on to The Atlantic’s report on the prevalence of Trump II officials living in military housing usually reserved for flag officers. Among the sheltered few: Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, Daniel Driscoll, and John Phelan.

Gunboat Diplomacy Watch

• Trump administration officials have let it be known that they have “identified” military targets within Venezuela for potential air strikes, framing it misleadingly around combating drug trafficking rather than regime change.

• The Trump administration froze out Senate Democrats by briefing only Republican senators on a secret target list and purported legal rationale for its military strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

• In a separate bipartisan briefing on the House side, Pentagon officials told members that they do not know precisely whom they have killed in the military strikes that have left at least 57 people dead, according to Democratic lawmakers in attendance.

‘Aggressively Partisan’

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has been modeling for years the kind of politicized weaponization of the legal system that the Trump DOJ is now adopting — but things are much worse in Texas now that Paxton is also a candidate for U.S. Senate.

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