Mass Resignations Rock DOJ In Wake of Fatal ICE Shooting

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

Programming note

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A dozen resignations since Friday

Mass resignations at the Justice Department over its handling of ICE’s fatal shooting of Renee Good stretched into a second day and spread from Washington, D.C., to Minnesota.

In Washington, D.C., the number of resignations reported in the criminal section of the DOJ’s civil rights division increased from four to six — a reaction to Deputy Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon’s decision not to investigate the Minneapolis shootings. Most of the resignations came from higher-level prosecutors, according to CBS News, which previously reported that the section’s career prosecutors had offered to give up all their work to help investigate the shooting. The Civil Rights Division had already been decimated under Dhillon.

At the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, six other career prosecutors — a majority of the leadership team — resigned over the decision to exclude state investigators from the federal investigation into the incident and a related request from the Justice Department to investigate Good’s widow for her protest activities, according to the Star Tribune.

Among those resigning in Minnesota was Joe Thompson, who as first assistant U.S. attorney was No. 2 in the office and had previously served as acting U.S. attorney. Ironically, Thompson was the lead prosecutor in the state’s major fraud case that involved a number of Somali Americans and was loudly trumpeted by President Trump and the right. The head of the criminal chamber also resigned.

Of particular concern is the decision by Trump’s DOJ to open an investigation into Rebecca Good’s political protest activities for possible federal charges. According to the New York Times:

Mr. Thompson vigorously opposed the decision not to investigate the shooting as a civil rights issue and was outraged by the call for a criminal investigation into Becca Good, according to people familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The resignation of Thompson and others is almost certain to cripple fraud prosecutions, in the same way that key resignations in the Eastern District of Virginia hampered attempts to prosecute James Comey and Letitia James.

Monitoring mass deportations: Somali edition

Somali refugees from Minnesota who are in the country legally are being rounded up and shipped to detention centers in Texas, according to reports and refugee advocates.

Happy reading

Journalist Laura Jedeed applied to work for ICE and, after minimal vetting, was offered a job.

Fed subpoenas came after Trump blasted US lawyers

DCUS attorney Jeanine Pirro’s subpoenas to the Federal Reserve on Friday came the day after President Trump lambasted a roomful of U.S. attorneys at the White House for their weakness and slowness in pursuing his vindictive lawsuits, the WSJ reports.

Along the same lines, the New York Times reports that Main Justice was “stunned” by Pirro’s Fed subpoenas:

Senior ministry officials were stunned and annoyed that Ms. Pirro had not consulted them on an investigation of such international importance, the officials with knowledge of her actions said. …

Ms. Pirro’s decades-long relationship with Mr. Trump gives her the self-confidence to make consequential decisions without first seeking approval from her superiors.

Pirro continues to act as if the subpoena was entirely the federal government’s fault for not responding to his earlier request for documents, telling the New York Times: “The whole drama is Powell.” »

DOJ defends Halligan in statement against judge

In a lopsided filing in response to a direct court order, Trump’s DOJ went after U.S. District Judge David J. Novak, a Trump appointee in Richmond, Virginia.

Novak had ordered Trump’s former personal attorney, Lindsey Halligan, to explain why she persists in identifying herself as the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, even after another federal judge struck down her nomination.

In its response – regarding the names of Attorney General Pam Bondi, Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche and Halligan, among others – the Justice Department attacked Novak, accusing him of:

• violate the rules of criminal procedure;
• launch a “quest”;
• fundamentally “misunderstand” the decision invalidating Halligan’s appointment;
• disregarding Supreme Court precedent and “elementary” legal principles;
• engaging in “a blatant abuse of power and an affront to the separation of powers”;
• to be “completely wrong”;
• operating under a “false impression”;
• commit a “rudimentary legal error”;
• blinded by a “fixation” that is “independent of the actual functioning of the federal courts”;
• making “a fundamental category error”.

I look forward to Novak’s response to this scorched earth approach of willfully refusing to comply with court orders.

Quote of the day

“If you told him the Martians came to steal votes, he would be inclined to believe it.”Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, in transcripts of secret grand jury testimony in the Georgia election interference case obtained by The New York Times.

Oops…

The Trump administration’s efforts to prove widespread illegal voting by undocumented immigrants are failing.

The Punishment: Elissa Slotkin Edition

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said prosecutors were now involved in the investigation into the video she and other members of Congress made, urging members of the military and intelligence community to uphold their legal obligation not to follow illegal orders.

Slotkin previously announced in November that she learned she and the others were the target of an FBI counterterrorism investigation because of the video she organized. On Tuesday, Slotkin said the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms was approached by DCUS Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office about scheduling an interview with her or her private attorney.

“I have studied this type of political authoritarianism in other countries throughout my professional life,” Slotkin told the New York Times. “I just can’t believe I’m talking about this in my own country.”

Topic of the day

A quick assessment of the Office of Legal Counsel’s authorization for U.S. military action in Venezuela – without congressional approval – a redacted version of which was released yesterday:

SCOTUS hears case of trans athletes

If you are reconstructing yesterday’s oral arguments in the two trans athlete cases before the High Court, let me recommend:

• TPM’s Kate Riga: Right-wing judges keen on trans minority too small to challenge sports ban
• LawDork Chris Geidner: SCOTUS likely to allow state ban on trans sports, but change in tone could signal narrow decision

RIP

The Post-Gazette’s announcement that it was ceasing operations in May threatens to make Pittsburgh the largest city in the country without a real daily newspaper, writes Joshua Benton:

While there are debates about what it means to be a “no-newspaper town,” the most prominent to date is probably Youngstown, Ohio – another Rust Belt town just across the Ohio border. But the Pittsburgh metro area is almost six times larger than the Youngstown metro area – that would be a new magnitude of loss.

To be clear, the Post-Gazette will close its doors completely, not just cease printing and move to digital publishing.

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