Morning Memo comes to you today from Pittsburgh, where my son – whose harrowing path through his college years I’ve previously shared with you – graduated yesterday.
Not Normal
Three career prosecutors resigned from the Justice Department over a highly unusual post-verdict plea agreement struck by the Trump-appointed acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. The plea agreement comes in a case where a sheriff’s deputy was convicted back in February of using excessive force against a Black woman.
“A plea agreement filed late Thursday says if Trevor Kirk pleads guilty to misdemeanor deprivation of rights under color of law, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will ‘move to strike the jury’s finding’ that he injured his victim, which made his crime a felony,” Meghann Cuniff first reported.
On Friday, the four federal prosecutors who handled the case and did not sign the plea agreement withdrew from the case. It was signed on behalf of acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli by an assistant U.S. attorney not previously involved in the case.
On Saturday, the LA Times reported that three of the prosecutors – assistant U.S. Attorneys Eli A. Alcaraz, Brian R. Faerstein, and section chief Cassie Palmer – had resigned from the Justice Department entirely.
The plea deal sets up a dramatic downward departure in sentencing from what Kirk faced with the felony conviction, Cunduff reports:
Kirk faced about nine years in prison under U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines for his felony conviction, but his misdemeanor conviction carries a maximum of one year. However, Essayli and Keenan agreed to recommend only one year of probation. They also aren’t barring him from working in law enforcement.
A judge must still approve the plea agreement.
Judges Skeptical Of Trump DOJ
The rapid deterioration of the quality of the Justice Department’s work under President Trump has not been lost on federal judges, the WaPo reports.
Judge Strikes Down Trump EO Against Perkins Coie
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell declared “null and void” the Trump executive order targeting Perkins Coie, the first time a judge has permanently enjoined enforcement of one of President Trump’s executive orders targeting law firms.
In a 102-page opinion clearly written to be judged by history, Howell invoked Shakespeare, John Adams, and Alexis de Tocqueville in finding the executive order sent a constitutionally impermissible message: “lawyers must stick to the party line, or else.”
In an important footnote, Howell was critical of the law firms who struck deals with President Trump rather than risk being targeted by an executive order:
[S]ome clients may harbor reservations about the implications of such deals for the vigorous and zealous representation to which they are entitled from ethically responsible counsel, since at least the publicized deal terms appear only to forestall, rather than eliminate, the threat of being targeted in an Executive Order.
Only when lawyers make the choice to challenge rather than back down when confronted with government action raising non-trivial constitutional issues can a case be brought to court for judicial review of the legal merits, as was done in this case … If the founding history of this country is any guide, those who stood up in court to vindicate constitutional rights and, by so doing, served to promote the rule of law, will be the models lauded when this period of American history is written.
TPM Exclusive: A New Attack On Judicial Branch
TPM’s Josh Kovensky reports on the implications of a lawsuit by the Stephen Miller-founded America First Legal Foundation against Chief Justice John Roberts and the head of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. While ostensibly a FOIA lawsuit, it is asking a federal judge to declare that the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and the Judicial Conference of the United States are independent agencies of the executive branch. It’s a troll-ish argument but seems designed to lay the legal groundwork for President Trump to assert control over the administration of the federal judiciary.
Second Amendment Trumps Everything
The Trump administration has removed a memorial at ATF headquarters honoring victims of gun violence.
Jan. 6 Revisionism Alert
- In a remarkable encounter over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio – convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in Jan. 6. – personally thanked President Trump for pardoning him.
- In a reversal of the Justice Department’s legal position, the Trump administration has reached a settlement in principle in the $30 million wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbit, the Jan. 6 rioter who Trump has turned into a martyr. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
- Senate Judiciary Democrats are blasting the Trump DOJ for taking the position that the government must refund the restitution paid by Trump-pardoned Jan. 6 defendants.
Good Read
Greg Sargent: How Trump Inadvertently Sabotaged His Own Case Against Abrego Garcia
Quote Of The Day
“In this country, the federal government doesn’t get to arrest American citizens who have not committed a crime. In this country, we don’t threaten to persecute people just because they belong to a different political party.”–Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D), after border czar Tom Homan alluded to criminal charges over a memo issued to state employees confronted by federal immigration authorities
IMPORTANT
While President Trump backed away in recent days from targeting the tax-exempt status of nonprofits beyond Harvard, Trump administration officials at the IRS continue to explore whether to alter the rules governing how nonprofit groups can be denied tax-exempt status, the WSJ reports.
The Destruction: LGBTQ Health Edition
NYT: “Of the 669 grants that the National Institutes of Health had canceled in whole or in part as of early May, at least 323 — nearly half of them — related to L.G.B.T.Q. health, according to a review by The Times of every terminated grant.”
The Destruction: Arts And Humanities Edition
- NEA: On Friday night, the National Endowment for the Arts sent out notifications cancelling grants nationwide.
- NEH: A lawsuit reveals new details of DOGE’s role in mass termination of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For The Record …
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2025
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