A Historically Bad Day for the Rule of Law in America

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

A near-worst-case scenario

The fall of the Justice Department into a crude weapon wielded by an erratic authoritarian is accelerating and accelerating the threat to America’s fading democracy in a way we all feared but hoped we could keep at bay for a little longer.

Yesterday’s series of developments would have been a near-worst-case scenario just two years ago:

• Rather than do its duty to defend the hard-won convictions of a dozen Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders for seditious conspiracy on January 6, Trump’s DOJ dropped those convictions in a new filing with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Trump’s DOJ prevailed in the DC Circuit by even avoiding an investigation by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg into the blatant contempt of court that the DOJ permitted and has since defended in the original Alien Enemies Act case.
• Federal prosecutors led by DCUS attorney Jeanine Pirro made an unannounced visit to Federal Reserve headquarters in what was both a brazen act of intimidation, divorced from proper investigative techniques, and a way for Pirro to toss a bouquet of favors to President Trump, who has made the independence of the Fed a top priority.
• Trump’s DOJ has released the first of its false reports on “weaponization,” a propagandistic attack on the Justice Department under Joe Biden that is itself a political weapon.

Trump DOJ drops seditious conspiracy convictions

The abandonment of convictions for seditious conspiracy is at the forefront of yesterday’s horrors. These are the most serious convictions stemming from the January 6 self-coup for which the Roberts court spared Trump himself from criminal prosecution. We know – but it bears repeating for ourselves and for history – that the seditionists sought to overthrow the Constitution by installing Trump as president through violence, despite his defeat in the 2020 election. This was the first non-peaceful transfer of power in our history and the most serious threat to the Republic other than the Civil War itself.

There is an enlightening frankness in Trump’s admission that this represents. Immediately after January 6, Trump distanced himself from the seditionists and, in the years that followed, modulated his proximity to them, depending on what suited him politically at the time. The Proud Boys always knew the truth and were never fooled. Not everyone was so sophisticated. But now all pretense is gone, and Trump is fully embracing the tip of the insurrectional spear. Take a step back and stay there, indeed.

A Contempt of Court Cover-Up for the Ages

The second most egregious indignity yesterday was the majority decision by two Trump appointees on the Washington Circuit to terminate Judge Boasberg, who patiently and diligently conducted a contempt of court investigation into the Trump administration’s defiance of his orders blocking deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.

The sneering tone toward Boasberg from Justice Neomi Rao in the majority opinion reinforced the coverage Trump appointees have given the president as the administration seeks to conceal details of its complicity in defying Boasberg’s orders.

The D.C. Circuit bogged down Boasberg for seven months last year while it slowed down the case before finally letting him proceed. Now it’s cut him in the knees again. It is difficult to overstate the level of abdication this represents of the judiciary’s own powers under the law and its authority to enforce its orders against a renegade executive like Trump.

Yet when reviewing the contempt investigation last year, a clear sign emerged that a majority of the appeals court largely supported Boasberg’s investigation. So while the writing was on the wall as soon as this three-judge panel picked up the case for a second bite at the apple, the real test will be whether the full circuit will take up the case and vindicate not only the embattled Boasberg, but also the very idea that the judiciary is a co-equal branch.

After the ruling, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche took an unseemly victory lap by disparaging Boasberg: “Today’s decision by the Washington Circuit should finally end Judge Boasberg’s year-long campaign against the department’s lawyers who work hard in the fight against illegal immigration.” »

Pirro’s pirouettes for Trump

Let’s step back from the existential and constitutional threats facing the Republic, to get a taste of the absurdism of Trump II: Pirro’s two men made an unannounced visit to Fed headquarters, ostensibly to investigate its renovation project, which is the alleged basis for what is in reality a retributive criminal investigation aimed at further eroding the Fed’s independence and bringing it to heel under Trump.

Like Ed Martin’s Columbo-style visit last year to a Brooklyn property owned by New York Attorney General Letitia James, the Pirro duo’s on-site visit reeked of intimidation and taunting — and performative courage to curry favor with Trump.

Departing from past DOJ policies, Pirro gave up the game, issuing a statement after his subordinates were turned down by the Fed: “Any construction project whose costs exceed the original construction budget by nearly 80 percent deserves serious consideration. And these people are in charge of monetary policy in the United States?”

The purges: armament edition

It’s hardly worth your time or brain cells to try to understand the DOJ report on the “weaponization” of the FACE Act released yesterday. If you’re a glutton for punishment, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance takes a close look and contextualizes the report. Just know that this is what the work of the DOJ’s “Arms Working Group” is going to look like.

The more significant development than the report itself is that four career prosecutors involved in FACE Act prosecutions during the Biden era were illegally fired this week before the report’s release, including two Detroit assistant U.S. attorneys who prosecuted abortion clinic protesters, one of whom is speaking out now.

Only the best people watch

• Harmeet Dhillon: The Atlantic has a good profile of the head of Trump’s Justice Department’s civil rights division, who is vying for a promotion in the wake of Pam Bondi’s ouster as attorney general.
• Leonard Leo: The big conservative legal domo changes its name.
• Sébastien Gorka: Trump’s right-wing aide, currently senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, is aiming to fill the post of director of the National Counterterrorism Center that Joe Kent resigned in protest over the Iran conflict.

More troops in the Middle East

The Trump administration is sending thousands of additional troops to the Middle East in a deployment that appears timely to put additional pressure on the Iranians in three-way peace negotiations, WaPo reports.

The pace of lawless boat strikes accelerates

The Trump administration’s illegal campaign of ship strikes appears to have resumed since the ceasefire in Iran. The second attack in two days (and the third since Saturday) killed four people in the Eastern Pacific, bringing the campaign’s death toll to at least 174 dead.

Swalwell officially out

Rep. Eric Swalwell’s resignation from Congress took effect at 2 p.m. Tuesday, less than two hours after another accuser came forward in a poignant news conference.

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