Ian Bassin

Reposting Adeel Manji’s open letter to Pres. Biden warning about the unwarranted, bigoted, smear campaign that derailed his confirmation to a seat on the 3rd Cir Court of Appeals.

Emil Bove was confirmed tonight to the seat left open by Manji’s aborted confirmation. static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics...

You dont need a scholar of authoritarianism and the military like me to tell you this does not produce good outcomes

Senate, Rejecting Whistle-Blower Alarms, Confirms Bove to Appeals Court

Thinking of career DOJ attorneys I know who had the integrity to resign rather than participate in the dirty Eric Adams deal.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/u...

Multiple credible claims that Bove urged DOJ employees to break the law and ignore the judiciary. And the GOP Senate decided this is not disqualifying because nothing is disqualifying.

The Two-Pronged Attack on a Muslim Judicial Nominee How the smearing of Adeel Mangi became a bipartisan exercise.

This is why the Bove seat was vacant, and there’s a real throughline from the forces that defeated the previous Democratic nominee to where we are today.

www.newyorker.com/news/the-pol...

Who Owns the Media Who owns the 35 most powerful media companies in America? Learn how these giants came to dominate the U.S. media landscape through mergers, acquisition and manipulation. Free Press rates their ability...

I am honored to announce the release of groundbreaking @freepress.bsky.social research & analysis with our inaugural "Media Capitulation Index" which examines how major corporate media companies are bending the knee to Trump & those in power. Check out the rankings & @timkarr.bsky.social analysis:

Really interesting project from @freepress.bsky.social to maintain an index of media capitulations and independence. Bloomberg and Netflix earn their highest ratings for independence.

Harvard Is Said to Be Open to Spending Up To $500 Million to Resolve Trump Dispute

"resolve dispute" is a bizarre way to describe extortion.

Inside 2025: Lawyering in the White House w. Kate Shaw & Ian Bassin Podcast Episode · Pod Save America · 07/23/2025 · Bonus · Subscribers Only · 43m

I sat down with my friend and former White House Counsel colleague @kateshaw.bsky.social to talk about what White House lawyering was like in the before times. Come for nerdy WH history. Stay for the suitcases of jewels! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

Guess we know what Todd Blanche asked her to do

Project 2025 architect to challenge Lindsey Graham for Senate in South Carolina Paul Dans oversaw Project 2025, the right-wing transition plan and policy blueprint that became the focal point of Democratic attacks against President Donald Trump.

Paul Dans, the architect of Project 2025, is launching a Senate bid challenging Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.

He really believes his followers are gullible dupes.

There’s an excellent piece in today’s @nytimes.com about 1984, about regimes in which fictions are peddled as facts, and access to actual facts is banned.

Was reading that piece and then saw this and, I dunno, they struck me as connected.

Opinion | ‘1984’ Hasn’t Changed, but America Has

‘1984’ Hasn’t Changed, but America Has www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...

Opinion | You May Not Be Trump’s Target This Time. But You Could Be Next.

You May Not Be Trump’s Target This Time. But You Could Be Next. Must read from Vanita Gupta www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...

We're in the Orbanization of our media system now. It's happening.

CNN's Brian Stelter drew this assessment from Gábor Scheiring, "who experienced Viktor Orbán's autocratic power plays in Hungary firsthand as a member of the Hungarian parliament." view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/175...

BY THE NUMBERS Why Mass Deportation also means Mass Detention Trump is building a parallel prison system ripe for autocratic abuse

A DANGEROUS BUILD UP Trump plans to dramatically expand immigrant detention into a parallel prison system accountable primarily to him. ICE detention facilities will have almost double the annual budget as the Bureau of Prisons. ICE Detention Facilities $14B Bureau of Prisons $8.6B Sources: Bureau of Prisons, Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025; ICE Detention Facilities, Annual funding average from FY2025 to FY2029, Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 and One Big Beautiful Bill Act, EOIRA as of 6/30/25, DHS, Office of the Chief Immigration Judge

LIMITED OVERSIGHT ICE is flooding investment into mass deportation and detention without corresponding support for oversight. Detention +308% Transportation & Removal +500% Oversight +0% DHS has further dismantled existing oversight offices. Office of the Immigration Ombudsman  Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

BACKLOG TO GROW Prolonged detention is likely as an expansion in enforcement far outpaces judicial capacity. +10,000 Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agents +130% +100 Immigration Judges +14% 3.8 million backlog of immigration cases Subscribe at IfYouCanKeepIt.org

Trump is openly musing about building a mass detention system under his direct and sole authority — and the rapid expansion of ICE is the start. Ansley Skipper analyzes the risks of prolonged detention and the creation of a parallel carceral system altogether.
www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/ice-may-be...

Donald, the Call Is Coming From Inside the House “Senior administration officials” are leaking to the press. The polls on the Epstein saga are terrible. The coverup is unraveling.

A new *Fox News* poll finds that 80 percent of American voters are following the Epstein story, and that Republicans, independents, and Democrats all majority agree the government has not been transparent. This is how cover-ups fall apart.

Wait for the perfect ending

The South Korean president tried to declare martial law with ~20% approval. That didn’t work because institutions will stand up more forcefully to unpopular leaders.

Trump’s not at that level of unpopularity yet, but he is at the level where the worse he behaves, the lower he will sink.

Brazenness is part of the logic of authoritarianism.

Autocrats often don't *want* to hide their corruption — they want it to be obvious, comical even. To make sure everyone watching knows they could be similarly targeted. To flaunt their impunity and mock the the idea of law.

Here's the joint stipulation of dismissal after Paramount "settled" with Trump. Two days ago. So brazen its like they're taunting the world and showing everyone how it works. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Something is rotten in the FCC Paramount gave in to Trump. What they get in exchange might not be what they expect

Jesus. Paramount's FCC petition to transfer broadcast licenses to Skydance has been pending for months. Tuesday, Paramount and Trump filed papers to dismiss his suit after Paramount paid up. Today, FCC approved the transfer. 48 hours. If that's not a bribe.. www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/something-...

Joining @nicollewallace.bsky.social shortly to talk about the president’s retaliation agenda as a distraction from his Jeffrey Epstein mess.

Court to OMB: Stop the cover-up The White House needs to come clean with Congress and the public about how it’s spending taxpayer dollars

OMB was ordered to resume publicly disclosing how it spends your tax dollars. Cerin Lindgrensavage discusses how we got here, why this is a foundational fight for the future of our democracy and how our recent victory in court is an important step forward. www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/court-to-o...

You don't really see exclamation points in judicial opinions like this, but the Judge in our case trying to force the Admin to follow the law made his opinion of their behavior clear:

"Defendants are therefore required to stop violating the law!"

ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

Judge Rules OMB Must Comply
with the Law Agency required to resume publicly disclosing how it spends taxpayer dollars

In a huge victory, we secured a permanent injunction in our case against OMB for violating the law requiring public disclosure of how taxpayer dollars are spent. The public has a right to know what the government has been doing with your taxpayer dollars. protectdemocracy.org/work/omb-req...

"The cat is out of the bag." Rep. Jamie Raskin says the DOJ is going to need to do more than turn over grad jury testimony as it relates to Jeffrey Epstein. "They're going to have to turn everything over to us."

Why indeed, Rep. Raskin. Why indeed.

Judge Rules Trump Broke Law in Firing FTC Commissioner The removal violates long-standing statute protecting appointees

"This case is about ensuring that working families’ 401(k)s are protected, that investors can rely on the stability of the markets, and that the rich and powerful can’t buy their way out of the rules that apply to average business owners. At the heart of it, that’s what’s at stake here." Rebecca Kelly Slaughter Federal Trade Commissioner

Today, a federal court agreed with our client: Presidents can’t fire independent regulators without legal cause.

This is a win for the rule of law and every American who expects independent agencies to serve the public, not partisan political interests. Read the opinion: protdem.org/3TI9nG1