Dear listeners,
When we’ve previously talked about the ways the Trump Administration might retaliate against six Democrats in Congress who made a video reminding servicemembers to refuse illegal orders, we didn’t even discuss the possibility of a civilian prosecution, because it was so preposterous — but US Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office tried, preposterously, and they got no billed very hard, with zero grand jurors voting to indict the officials, according to NBC News. Perhaps Steven Vandervelden, a former underling of Pirro’s from the Westchester DA’s office who retired from his legal career to pursue dance photography, but rejoined government to help Pirro prosecute cases like this one, should get back to his other job.
Meanwhile, Don Lemon has a new, high-profile lawyer: Joseph H. Thompson, who until just a few weeks ago was a senior attorney in the US Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, leading those welfare fraud cases that caused President Trump to take so much interest in the state in the first place. Now, having quit the office in disgust, he’s a defense lawyer.
Trump is suing the IRS for ten billion dollars — can he do that? — and his Justice Department is trying to dismiss the Contempt of Congress case for which Steve Bannon served a few months in custody — Bannon is still appealing, so DOJ still may be able to make it go away.
That’s all for free subscribers this week. Paying subscribers get more conversation:
A look at a highly consequential ruling from the Fifth Circuit, upholding the Trump Administration’s novel and very aggressive views on what aliens it may detain pending deportation. Most other courts have rejected these theories — including a majority of Trump’s own trial court appointees who have heard relevant cases — and there’s some skepticism that the Supreme Court will go along.
The DOJ seized 2020 election ballots from Fulton County, with a fairly batshit search warrant that Ken is surprised got approval from a magistrate judge. Fulton wants its ballots back; we discuss whether they’ll get them and what might happen if Trump tries to get a warrant for ballots in an election where a count is ongoing rather than complete.
We look at an alleged jewel thief who had the option of going to prison or Ecuador and unsurprisingly chose Ecuador — reflecting a serious failure of coordination between prosecutors and immigration authorities.
And finally, is murder a crime of violence? The answer might surprise you.
To get all of that, hit the button below.
We hope you enjoy the episode,
Josh
