The Unrelenting Boundlessness of Trump II
In the past few weeks, Democrats’ performance in the off-year election and the dismissals of the indictments of James Comey and Letitia James bred a general sense that perhaps a corner has been turned in the Trump II presidency. But the long-held pattern is holding true that when Trump is boxed in or thwarted on one front, he lurches wildly in different directions, continuing to violate laws, boundaries, and norms, often with even greater fervor.
Trump long ago turned upside down the notion we still cling to that defeat, rejection, and official rebuke chasten the violator or at least offer a measure of future deterrence. Not so with Trump. Despite the recent comeuppances, the sheer volume of transgressions does not seem to have ebbed at all, as the next few items show …
New Letitia James Indictment Coming
A new indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James on bogus mortgage fraud charges is expected as soon as today in the Eastern District of Virginia, where the original indictment was dismissed last week because interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was not validly appointed. Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Keller, based in Missouri, is expected to present the case to a grand jury, according to MS NOW.
Because He Can’t Have the Nobel Peace Prize?
President Trump has renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace … for himself.
The Corruption: Pardon Edition
- President Trump’s pardon of convicted former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández — a notorious drug trafficker — even as the Trump administration purports to target drug cartels in lawless high seas attacks came about in part through the intervention of a cast of characters that includes Roger Stone and Matt Gaetz.
- Trump pardoned stadium developer Timothy Leiweke of charges brought by his own Justice Department in July.
- Trump pardoned Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX) and his wife while charges against them of accepting nearly $600,000 in foreign bribes were still pending.
Trump’s Seditious Conspiracy Payback
FBI headquarters is pressuring agents in the field to investigate Democratic lawmakers for seditious conspiracy after they released a video urging military and intel personnel to follow the law and not abide by unlawful orders, Bloomberg reports. But the push to investigate is running into resistance because of the lack of a case:
Career leaders at the bureau’s Washington Field Office have thus far pushed back on the request for a formal investigation, which would follow President Donald Trump’s call for a trial into the Democrats’ “seditious behavior,” the people familiar said. The Washington office supervisors cited a lack of legal and factual basis to initiate a criminal case …
Seditious conspiracy was the most serious charge that some Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were convicted of in the Jan. 6 attack. Trump later commuted their sentences.
Trump Thwarts Jan. 6 Lawsuit
President Trump is asserting executive privilege to protect himself in a years-old civil lawsuit against him by police officers injured in the Jan. 6 attack. The new invocation of executive privilege is an attempt to block a 2024 subpoena to the National Archives and Records Administration for White House records from Trump’s first term.
BREAKING: Pipe Bomb Suspect Arrested
Very few details at this hour, but the FBI has reportedly taken into custody this morning a man in Virginia who is a suspect in placing the two pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC headquarters within a short walk of the Capitol on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Congress. The suspect’s identity and the charges against him have not yet been made public.
Jack Smith Subpoenaed by House GOP
After refusing to testify voluntarily to the House House Judiciary Committee unless he could so publicly, former Special Counsel Jack Smith was slapped with a subpoena to appear before the committee behind closed doors.
Meanwhile, the Trump DOJ is encouraging U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon never to release the sealed Volume II of Smith’s final report, which involves the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
High Seas Murder Watch
- Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley will give a classified briefing to members of Congress today, where the defense to killing survivors of a lawless attack on an alleged drug-smuggling boat will reportedly be that that they were radioing for help, which itself was deemed a hostile act. I’ll just let you sit with that.
- Adm. Alvin Holsey, who as top commander of Southern Command has overseen the U.S. force buildup in the Caribbean, didn’t voluntarily retire early but was asked to resign by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after being “concerned about murky legal authority for the boat strike campaign,” according to the WSJ.
- CNN and the WaPo each have ticktocks on shifting explanations the Trump administration has offered on the double-tap strike and the lethal boat strike campaign more generally.
Libraries FTW
All of the library grants cancelled by President Trump have been restored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services following last month’s court ruling that his executive order gutting the small agency was unlawful.
The Harshest of Bottom Lines
President Trump’s unlawful dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development has contributed to the first rise in global child mortality since at least 1990, according to a new report from the Gates Foundation. Nearly a quarter of a million more children under 5 are projected to die worldwide in 2025 than in 2024.
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