COMING UP SOON!
We’re hosting our first Morning Memo Live event on Jan. 29 in Washington, D.C. Find details and tickets here — and TPM members should look out for a special discount code in your inboxes. Reach out to talk@talkingpointsmemo.com if you didn’t receive or can’t find it.
Wrapping Up a Dynamic Week
I hope you’ll forgive a less narrated Morning Memo today. Instead I wanted to pull together a slew of developments on the mass deportation front and sweep up a few other important stories that I hadn’t gotten to this week. I think it still provides a striking snapshot of where things are right now, domestically and internationally.
The Killing of Renee Good
- Renee Good had two gunshots wounds to the right side of her chest, one to her left forearm, and a possible fourth on the left side of her head, according to a fire department report released Thursday along with police reports and 911 transcripts.
- The NYT has put together an in-depth video analysis of the Good shooting.
- A group of 33 former federal prosecutors in Minnesota are asking the Trump administration to reconsider its decision to exclude the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the investigation into the Good shooting.
- Lawfare: Minnesota Can Prosecute Jonathan Ross—But It May Not Be Easy
Latest from Minnesota …
- The ACLU has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration in federal court in Minnesota alleging that it is engaging in racial profiling by targeting Latinos and Somalis for detention. The case was brought on behalf of three U.S. citizens with Latino and Somali backgrounds who were detained by federal agents.
- “Listen. Have y’all not learned from the last couple of days?” a federal agent was recorded last week telling an observer after a minor collision with concerned citizens trailing a federal convoy two days after the Renee Good shooting.
- A Minneapolis couple accused ICE agents of deploying tear gas and stun grenades around them and their six children, causing their 6 month old to lose consciousness and require CPR.
Thread of the Day
No One Is Safe
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem suggests virtually anyone could face a Kavanaugh stop.
Quote of the Day
“Those people that are arrested for interference or impeding, assault, we’re going to make them famous. We’re going to put their face on TV. We’re going to let their employers and their neighborhoods and their schools know who these people are.”—White House “border czar” Tom Homan
Potential Homicide in ICE Custody
A medical examiner in Texas is reportedly poised to rule that the Jan. 3 death of detainee in ICE custody was a homicide, the WaPo reports: “A 55-year-old Cuban immigrant, Lunas Campos died following a struggle with detention staff, according to an eyewitness account and an internal ICE document reviewed by The Post.”
‘Stunningly Vindictive’
The fight over discovery into Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s vindictive prosecution claim continues in the criminal case in Tennessee, with his lawyers now accusing federal prosecutors of having “reneged” on earlier promises to hand over evidence ahead of an important hearing later this month.
Judge Blasts Trump Admin’s Targeted Deportations
U.S. District Judge William Young of Boston, a Reagan appointee, condemned in open court the Trump administration policy of targeting pro-Palestinian activists for deportation:
I find it breathtaking that I have been compelled on the evidence to find the conduct of such high-level officers of our government — cabinet secretaries — conspired to infringe the First Amendment rights of people with such rights here in the United States. These cabinet secretaries have failed in their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution.
Young has yet to rule on a remedy for the constitutional violations he found.
Mahmoud Khalil Loses Appeal
In a significant setback for legal immigrants targeted by the Trump administration for their political views, an appeals court said federal district courts are without jurisdiction to hear the constitutional claims of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil until he exhausts his claims in the executive branch’s immigration court system.
2026 Ephemera
OH-09: Madison Sheahan is resigning as the deputy director of ICE to seek the GOP nomination against Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D), the longest serving woman in Congress.
Judge Blocks DOJ From Getting Voter Rolls
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of Santa Ana has blocked the Trump DOJ from obtaining California’s voter rolls.
Just a Coincidence?
Perhaps it’s unrelated, but the following overt investigative moves in controversial cases came within days of President Trump’s excoriation of federal prosecutors last week at the White House for being too slow and weak in pursuing his favored cases:
- D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro issued subpoenas to the Federal Reserve on Jan. 9;
- Since late last week, Pirro sought interviews with five Democratic members of Congress involved in the video urging service members to perform their duty not to abide by unlawful orders;
- The FBI searched the Virginia home of WaPo reporter Hannah Natanson on Wednesday in a purported leak case that included a subpoena to the WaPo itself, all of which followed a Jan. 9 complaint against a government contractor in Maryland federal court for unlawful detention of national defense information.
I would caution that the overt moves in the case of the WaPo are more complicated with a longer lead time and therefore harder to move on a dime in response to a rant from the President.
Must Read
The Purged: “Donald Trump’s destruction of the civil service is a tragedy not just for the roughly 300,000 workers who have been discarded, but for an entire nation.”
‘The Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Heard’
Watch NATO fall apart in real time as President Trump continues to threaten to seize Greenland from Denmark, even as some Republicans on the Hill try to reassure the beleagured U.S. ally.
A World Without Rules
At Foreign Affairs, Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro warn that President Trump isn’t just jeopardizing the international legal system but the existence of any rules constraining state power:
In the short term, the world faces deep instability; leaders may sometimes invoke the postwar rules but may also increasingly ignore them, depending on what is convenient. This is a recipe for unrelenting conflict, as states would be in doubt about what the rules are and therefore unsure of how to avoid provoking violence. Until a clear set of rules takes hold, the world will be a profoundly dangerous place.
A longer-term possibility is a world in which states are no longer prohibited from resorting to force and at least one superpower acts as if there are no rules at all. In this world, not only would the rules be unpredictable, they would depend entirely on the impulses of whoever happens to command the most coercive power at a given moment.
What A Big Boy
President Trump accepted the Nobel Prize from its most recent recipient like the cheap club championships he awards himself at his own golf courses — and with just as much self-awareness:
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