Dear listeners,
The Trump administration continues to ice out the Associated Press, and now the AP is suing. They say their exclusion from certain White House events, and from the traveling press pool, violates their rights under the First and Fifth Amendments. And while Judge Trevor McFadden declined to give them a temporary restraining order, he did warn the administration that the law was “uniformly unhelpful” to their position, and they might want to reconsider what they’re doing. So the administration did, sort of. After McFadden noted that overriding the decisions of the White House Correspondents’ Association about who should be in the press pool with specific regard to the AP looked like impermissible retaliation, the White House acted to take away the WHCA’s discretion altogether, declaring that it would now choose all the members of the pool. That’s not great, from a policy perspective, but it may actually put the White House on stronger legal ground.
Ed Martin — the conservative activist serving as acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia, whom Trump has named to be the permanent US Attorney for that district — continues to send out weird, threatening letters about non-criminal behavior by Democrats. Ken has instructions about what you should do if you get such a letter: nothing.
Eric Adams now wants the charges against him dismissed with prejudice — and his attorney, Alex Spiro, has come up with a theory of why he’s entitled to that that doesn’t hinge on the idea that Trump’s DOJ is trying to retain improper influence over him. (Quite a good lawyer, this Spiro guy, despite everything.) The spectacle over this requested dismissal continues to be unusual, with acting AG Emil Bove appearing personally to argue for it, and Judge Dale Ho appointing Paul Clement, a very prominent conservative lawyer, to advise him on what options he has. Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried has a theory of why he, too, deserves special dispensation from the Trump administration: he — one of the top Democratic donors of the 2020 election cycle — was, like Trump, a victim of political persecution by the Biden DOJ. This is idiotic, but is it too idiotic to win Trump’s sympathy? Never say never.
Plus, FIRE mounts a robust defense of pollster Ann Selzer, the Trump administration continues to face difficulty in the courts with its executive orders, and soon-to-be-long-suffering federal Judge Ana Reyes (last seen scolding the attorneys for inspectors general suing the administration) has drawn the ire of the administration itself for being too mean to them in court.
We hope you enjoy the episode,
Josh
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