A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
DOJ Weaponization in Overdrive
The FBI showed up early Friday morning at the Bethesda, Maryland home of former Trump I national security adviser John Bolton, apparently executing a court-authorized search warrant in what is reportedly a classified materials case — in yet another example of President Trump abusing the powers of his office to target his critics … and Bolton in particular.
Bolton, whose D.C. office was also reportedly searched this morning, became a strident critic of Trump after leaving the White House in 2019. The first big clash with Trump occurred over allegedly classified information Bolton used in his 2020 memoir. That led to an extended legal battle and a criminal investigation by the Trump I Justice Department. Bolton claimed at the time, with compelling evidence, that he was being singled out and retaliated against by the Trump White House for his Trump criticism.
After failing to stop the book’s publication ahead of the 2020 election, the Trump I DOJ opened a grand jury investigation into whether Bolton unlawfully disclosed classified information in the book. It subpoenaed Bolton’s publisher and agency, the NYT reported then. The following summer, under President Biden, the investigation of Bolton was closed and the government dropped its lawsuit seeking to recoup profits from the book, the NYT reported contemporaneously.
It’s unclear whether the trumped-up investigation of Bolton now is a result of the original book investigation being reopened — probably the easiest path to targeting Bolton — or is related to other matters. Regardless of the pretext, Bolton has already been targeted by Trump abusing the powers of his office during his second term.
As soon as he took office in January, Trump revoked the Secret Service protection for Bolton that Biden had restored, despite an ongoing threat to Bolton from Iran. At the same time, one of Trump’s very first executive orders on Jan. 20 revoked the security clearance for Bolton, specifically citing the book dispute:
National security is also damaged by the publication of classified information. Former National Security Advisor John R. Bolton published a memoir for monetary gain after he was terminated from his White House position in 2019. The book was rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government. The memoir’s reckless treatment of sensitive information undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff. Publication also created a grave risk that classified material was publicly exposed.
This is almost too fine of a distinction to make, but it’s worth noting that unlike some of the bogus investigations the Trump White House and DOJ have pursued, where the threat of criminal prosecution is the cudgel, a search warrant requires a judge’s signoff. Judicial oversight is the one of the remaining safeguards against a fully weaponized federal law enforcement apparatus, but that alone doesn’t render the entire investigation legitimate.
The politicization of this investigation was further confirmed by curiously timed social media posts from FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi this morning that didn’t mention Bolton by name but seemed to revel in the FBI raid. In his own book in 2023, Patel included Bolton in a list of “members of the Executive Branch Deep State.”
The Latest Injustice of Ed Martin
Trump DOJ weaponization chieftain took the bogus investigation of Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook to a new level yesterday when he sent a letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell urging him to fire her: “At this time, I encourage you to remove Ms. Cook from your Board. Do it today before it is too late! After all, no American thinks it is appropriate that she serve during this time with a cloud hanging over her.”
Judge: Alina Habba Not Lawfully Appointed
An outside judge brought in after President Trump rejected the U.S. attorney picked by federal judges in New Jersey and purported to reinstall Alina Habba has ruled that she has been acting unlawfully in the role since July 1.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann, the chief judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, took a long, meandering stroll through the byzantine appointment laws and concluded that indictments handed down during Habba’s unlawful tenure were still valid but agreed with the criminal defendants who challenged Habba’s appointment and disqualified her from participating in their prosecutions.
Brann won’t have the last word on this issue, and one of the leading experts on appointment laws has doubts that his decision will hold up on appeal.
For Your Radar …
The Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in the Western District of Virginia abruptly resigned this week after just barely a month on the job. Todd Gilbert, who was Trump’s nominee for the position and was serving as interim U.S. attorney while the Senate considered his nomination, had stepped down in June from his seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in order to join the Trump administration.
Neither Gilbert nor the Justice Department is commenting on why he resigned. Gilbert posted a wry tweet on his last day in the office:
https://t.co/qXP6GseKnw pic.twitter.com/hsFmRwIKQC
— Todd Gilbert (@cToddGilbert) August 20, 2025
NY Appeals Court: No Penalty at all for Trump’s Fraud
In a convoluted 300-plus-page clusterfuck of opinions, a split New York state appeals court panel upheld the civil fraud verdict that Attorney General Letitia James won against Donald Trump but voided the $500 million in penalties as “excessive.” If I read the opinions right, the court left no penalties intact for the fraud most of the judges agreed occurred. The case is all but certain to go now to the highest court in New York.
SCOTUS Lets Rogue Trump Run Rampant … With Caveats
In a deeply troubling emergency decision that cements a pernicious Trump II pattern, a 5-4 Supreme Court cleared the way for President Trump to cancel some $800 million in National Institutes of Health grants for research on DEI, transgender issues, and COVID while the case proceeds. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent. Justice Amy Coney Barrett signaled her concerns with the underlying merits of Trump’s funding cuts, but by the time the court gets the case back on full appeal the damage to research and research institutions will have been done.
In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson summoned all the indignation and despair that the historical moment demands in calling out the Supreme Court for failing to defend the judiciary’s role and rolling over for Trump: “This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this administration always wins.”
Cult of Personality Alert
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