A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Another Crossing The Rubicon Moment
Let’s quickly run through the many telling and odd aspects of the still-unseen criminal case against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) for an alleged incident that took place while conducting her constitutional oversight duties:
- Still no charging documents publicly available this morning as we go to press.
- That didn’t stop top Trump DOJ officials from touting the charges. Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba of New Jersey posted a statement on X, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche weighed in, too.
- For those of us who anticipated politically motivated criminal charges against Democratic members of Congress in a white-nationalism-infused Trump II presidency, the fact that the first member charged is a Black woman resonates on several levels.
- While it’s hard to assess the charges without any charging documents, the muddied and conflicting accounts of what happened at the ICE detention center in Newark would typically be enough by itself to eschew criminal charges. Not always, but often, and especially when the case bumps up hard against constitutional separation of powers concerns.
- Habba’s simultaneous decision to drop a criminal trespass charge against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka arising out of the same incident “for the sake of moving forward” is not a reason I’ve ever heard a federal prosecutor give for withdrawing charges.
Criminally charging opposition political leaders at the same time you are dismantling the infrastructure for pursuing public corruption cases is an authoritarian one-two punch. So is this bit of gaslighting from Blanche: “[A]ssaults on federal law enforcement will not be tolerated. This Administration will always protect those who work tirelessly to keep America safe.” Contrast that with this next item.
Price Tag On Babbitt Settlement: $5M
The Trump DOJ’s tentative settlement of the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6 rioter shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she was storming the Capitol, reportedly calls for a $5 million payment to Babbitt’s family.
Reacting to the news, outgoing Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said: “This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide, especially to those with a protective mission like ours.”
The Corruption: DOJ Weaponization Edition
A sampling of some of the worst and most bizarre transgressions of the past 24 hours:
- With President Trump running the Justice Department out of the White House, he called for a “major investigation” into spurious allegations he invented that Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and Bono violated campaign finance laws in how they supported Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
- Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell bizarrely called the art center’s deferred maintenance and its financial deficit “criminal” and said he was referring the mundanities of arts administration to the D.C. U.S. attorney.
- The Trump DOJ is launching a new unit to make unprecedented use of the False Claims Act to target university DEI programs. While it would mostly pursue civil claims, DAG Todd Blanche went as far as threatening criminal prosecution in some instances.
- The Trump DOJ’s Civil Rights Division opened an investigation into the city of Chicago for hiring Black people. I’m not sure how else to put it.
Trump’s Message: Do My Bidding And You’ll Be Rewarded
The controversial Emil Bove III, who was a criminal defense attorney for President Trump before being named a top Justice Department official, is on the short list for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
The End Of CBS News As We Knew It
Paramount’s determination to bend the knee to President Trump by settling his bogus lawsuit against 60 Minutes has cost CBS News President Wendy McMahon her job.
Quote Of The Day
Of course a president openly filling his pockets with direct (albeit thinly veiled) payoffs from people with business before the government is an attack on the republic. Of course the president pardoning political allies for crimes is an attack on the republic. Of course disappearing people off the streets and sending them to foreign prison camps is an attack on the republic. Of course violating basic constitutional rules about spending government money; defying court orders; denying habeas rights; intimidating media outlets and universities and law firms; and on and on are all attacks on the republic.
4th Circuit Upholds ‘Facilitate’ Order In AEA Case
In an important Alien Enemies Act case, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stay a lower court order that the Trump administration “facilitate” the return of a Venezuelan man deported to El Salvador in violation of an existing court-approved settlement agreement, TPM first reported.
Another ‘Facilitate’ Case Pops Up In Texas
In a new order, U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison of Houston gave the Trump administration 24 hours to (i) confirm the location and condition of a Venezuelan man believed to have been removed to El Salvador on March 15; and (ii) to explain the “legal basis for his continued detention.”
Anticipating resistance from the Trump administration, Ellison also imposed several other important conditions on the government if it claims “an inability to facilitate communication due to lack of control over El Salvadoran facilities.”
In Other Alien Enemies Act News …
- U.S. District Judge John Holcomb has blocked removals under the AEA in the Central District of California.
- Jason Willick reminds us of the Trump DOJ’s complete about-face on whether AEA detainees are entitled to due process.
- Roger Parloff has another eminently accessible thread, this one on the Supreme Court’s AEA ruling Friday:
A few late notes on SCOTUS’s AARP II ruling. Beyond extending for now the bar against removing aliens from NDTexas under the Alien Enemies Act, it does 3 key things. The biggest, below, is declaring ICE’s current ~24-hr notice policy unconstitutional. …
1/12— Roger Parloff (@rparloff.bsky.social) May 19, 2025 at 10:37 AM
House GOP Lurches Toward Vote On Big Bill
With Speaker Mike Johnson gunning to vote this week on President Trump’s centerpiece legislation, the WSJ unpacks in an accessible way what’s in it.
The Purges: Trauma Edition
WaPo: White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working.
IMPORTANT
In one of the few clear examples we’ve had so far of a court stopping President Trump’s effort to dismantle a government agency, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of D.C. has largely reversed the White House’s attack on the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Trump Folds Bigly On Ukraine After Talking To Putin
President Trump made another remarkable and devastating capitulation to Vladimir Putin that leaves Ukraine twisting in the wind after it spent months trying to accommodate a hostile American president.
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