A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
The Retribution: Colorado Edition
This is all so bonkers that I want to give it a little extra attention in today’s Morning Memo.
The nonprofit consortium that runs the National Center for Atmospheric Research has sued the Trump administration to block its effort to tear apart the premier U.S. weather and climate lab — and it fronted the wacky Tina Peters connection in its lawsuit.
The Trump administration’s attack on NCAR is part of broader campaign of retribution against Colorado, the lawsuit alleges, for: (i) failing to end mail-in voting; and (ii) imprisoning former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters, a Big Lie obsessive, for her conviction for tampering with voting machines to try to prove that Trump’s loss in the 2020 election was a fraud.
The idea that Trump’s devotion to the Big Lie would — through a campaign of retribution — end up threatening a national laboratory that has done cutting-edge weather and climate research for years is mind-boggling on its own — a telling anecdote of the Trump II years.
But the attack on NCAR is just one of the retributive acts the administration has taken against Colorado. The list of others that appear in the lawsuit is remarkable, too. The lawsuit calls it “a widespread and coordinated campaign of punishment and coercion” against Colorado for refusing “to accede to attempts to infringe upon its sovereignty.” Among the examples in the lawsuit, all from December:
- The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the termination of $109 million in transportation funding for Colorado … and only Colorado;
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered only Colorado to “participate in a SNAP ‘pilot project’ requiring the State to recertify eligibility and conduct in-person interviews for more than 100,000 Colorado households in five counties within a mere 30 days during the winter.” The threatened sanctions for failure to complete the task included removing Colorado from SNAP. Minnesota was the only other state whose participation in SNAP was targeted.
- FEMA denied two disaster relief assistance requests from Colorado related to devastating wildfires and flooding.
- Trump vetoed a bipartisan bill to fund a Colorado water project.
The case was assigned to senior U.S. District Judge Robert E. Blackburn, a George W. Bush appointee.
Accused Hill Pipe Bomber Claims Pardon
The man accused of placing pipe bombs at the Capitol Hill headquarters of both major political parties on the eve of the Jan. 6 attack is now claiming that he is covered by President’s Trump’s mass pardon of Jan. 6 defendants. In a new filing, Brian Cole Jr. is seeking to have the criminal charges against him dismissed on the grounds that the presidential pardon stripped the court of jurisdiction to try him on Jan. 6-related charges.
Trump DOJ Watch
- So many federal grand juries in D.C. have declined to indict Trump DOJ targets that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge in D.C., has issued a new standing order requiring prosecutors to report to the court in writing when a grand jury fails to indict, Politico reports.
- Facing a staffing shortage of its own, the Trump DOJ is going to start hiring prosecutors directly out of law school, waiving a long-standing rule that applicants must have at least one year of legal practice under their belts before they will be hired as federal prosecutors, Bloomberg reports.
Trump’s Begging Yields Nothing on Iran
- WSJ: U.S. Allies Rebuff Trump’s Demand for Help Opening Strait of Hormuz
- Politico: Europe rejects Trump’s demand to help clean up Hormuz mess
Latest From the Middle East …
- The regime in Iran is consolidating its power and will emerge from the conflict with the United States intact and possibly even emboldened, according to U.S. intelligence assessments.
- Russia is the clear winner after two weeks of open conflict in the Middle East.
- Israel issued its most sweeping evacuation order for southern Lebanon since 2006 as it launched a new ground invasion there.
DHS AWOL After Iran Attack
Despite three possible terrorist attacks — in Texas, Virginia, and Michigan – with potential ties to the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran, the Department of Homeland Security has not issued an updated National Terrorism Advisory since the most recent one expired in September or published its annual Homeland Threat Assessment since President Trump took office, the WaPo reports.
Trump’s New Colonialism
- Cuba: “I think Cuba sees the end. All my life I’ve been hearing about the United States and Cuba,” President Trump riffed on Monday. “When will the United States do it? I do believe I’ll be the honor of — having the honor of taking Cuba.”
- Venezuela: In a social media post, Trump took credit for Venezuela having made the finals of the World Baseball Classic and raised the prospect of making it the 51st state.
- Zambia: The Trump State Department is considering withholding lifesaving assistance to people with HIV to force Zambia to sign a deal giving the United States more access to its critical minerals, the NYT reports.
Mass Deportation Watch
- Pro-Palestinian demonstrator Leqaa Kordia was finally released after a year in ICE custody.
- A rookie ICE agent who had been on the job less than a month made a paperwork mistake that kept a California man detained for days.
- Customs and Border Protection commander Gregory Bovino will soon retire.
For Your Radar …
- The Supreme Court will bypass the appeals courts and directly take up the Trump administration’s revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians, with an expedited briefing schedule that includes oral arguments late next month.
- The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals let the Trump administration’s third-country removals continue while appeals proceed in the key challenge to the draconian policy.
Judge Blocks RFK Jr’s Vax Recs
U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy of Boston blocked HHS’s new stripped-down childhood vaccine recommendations, finding that the Trump administration had violated procedural safeguards that fundamentally represented “an abandonment of the technical knowledge and expertise.”
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