@davidkurtz.bsky.social
TPM editor at large + all things Morning Memo: https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/ Signal: davidkurtz.88 Proton: davidmkurtz@proton.me
Background:
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/contemp...
In the original Alien Enemies Act case, the ACLU has filed its initial list of proposed witnesses for the contempt of court inquiry being conducted by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. JUDGE Emil Bove is on the list: www.courtlistener.com/docket/69741...
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
An excellent discussion with @davidkurtz.bsky.social of the lawless Trump regime’s absolute bungling of his vindictive prosecutions, and Hegseth’s half baked attempt to court martial Senator Mark Kelly. As they said, we clearly need a post-Watergate style course correction in our legal system.
25.11.2025 12:48 — 👍 70 🔁 13 💬 1 📌 1
@davidkurtz.bsky.social joined @gregsargent.bsky.social on TNR's The Daily Blast to talk about the James Comey and Letitia James prosecutions getting thrown out, and how President Trump’s own corruption is blowing up in his face
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
Morning Memo, chronicling the Trump II depredations to the rule of law each weekday:
morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
~Bondi’s appointment of Halligan as interim U.S. attorney;
~her subsequent after-the-fact appointment of Halligan as a special attorney;
~her first attempted ratification; and
~her second attempted ratification.
Judged by the perverse standards of the Trump White House, Bondi utterly failed.
Bondi overextended herself throughout the fight over Halligan’s appointment, taking unusual and embarrassing steps to try to paper over the flaws in her scheme. Bondi’s maneuvering only reinforced how ham-handed and inept her scheming on Trump’s behalf was. In the end, the judge rejected all of it:
25.11.2025 15:38 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Pam Bondi long ago gave up her dignity, so the implosion of her corrupt Comey and James prosecutions is not a humiliation in the usual sense. But as a lickspittle AG whose career rides on currying favor with Trump, it was a personal and professional disaster.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Trump's prosecutions of Comey and Letitia James fell apart precisely because he ousted career prosecutors who insisted on following facts and law. His installation of a pliant stooge is what blew up in his face.
On the pod, @davidkurtz.bsky.social is great on this:
newrepublic.com/article/2036...
For almost a decade, Trump has exploited one loophole after another and managed to turn every legal ambiguity in his favor. So it’s worth noting that one relatively small structural guardrail held firm and provided a check today on one of Trump’s worst abuses. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/linds...
24.11.2025 21:47 — 👍 45 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0
The dual rulings by U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie of South Carolina are the most significant judicial rebukes yet to the politically motivated prosecutions driven by the White House of political nemeses of President Donald Trump.
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/comey-a...
Morning Memo, chronicling the Trump II depredations each weekday:
morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
...auspices to run an open-ended investigation pegged to the Mar-a-Lago search that sweeps up Trump grievances, paybacks, and scores to settle dating all he way back to 2016 has the potential to be the most dangerous and damaging of Trump’s many investigate the investigator retributions.
24.11.2025 15:43 — 👍 14 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0If Mike Davis–the shit-stirring conservative legal activist–is to be believed, the Ft. Pierce grand jury is being used to advance a theory that the Deep State conspired to deprive Donald Trump of his civil rights. Davis was more coy with the NYT. But the chance to use a grand jury under Cannon’s...
24.11.2025 15:43 — 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has been supervising Reding Quiñones’ investigation of the investigators through a low-level official in the DAG’s office named Christopher-James DeLorenz, who was a Cannon law clerk until August 2024, according to Savage.
24.11.2025 15:43 — 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Miami U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones has empaneled an “extra” grand jury in Ft. Pierce, Florida, where only Judge Cannon of Mar-a-Lago case fame can oversee it. “He has not said why he is putting an extra grand jury 130 miles away in Judge Cannon’s courthouse,” Savage reports.
24.11.2025 15:43 — 👍 8 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Incisive new reporting from Charlie Savage on the sprawling investigate the investigators charade going on in South Florida puts U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon back in the thick of things.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
Overnight Abrego Garcia's lawyers immediately notified the court of Costa Rico's publicly stated position. This comes after the Trump admin defied a court order this week to put on a witness w/ direct knowledge of the matter
www.courtlistener.com/docket/71191...
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump...
Undermining the already-dubious claims the Trump administration has been making in court, Costa Rica says it remains willing to accept Abrego Garcia on the same terms it has offered since August:
www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
As part of our 25th anniversary celebrations, @johnalight.bsky.social & I co-moderated a discussion of TPM's history as a publication, featuring @davidkurtz.bsky.social as well as TPM alum NY Mag's Katie Thompson, ProPublica's @paulkiel.bsky.social & NOTUS' @evanmcs.bsky.social
Audio version here!
Adding to @gregsargent.bsky.social's spot-on post:
SefDef Pete Hegseth laid the groundwork for this back in February by firing the top JAGs for the Army and USAF (the Navy JAG post was already vacant). He wanted pliant JAGs who wouldn't get in the way of illegal orders. apnews.com/article/pent...
In fairness, Norman fooled 'em by calling it "Marshall Law!!" ...
talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/mark...
An asylum-seeker wrongfully deported to CECOT then repatriated to Venezuela may have succumbed to the violence he was fleeing, a federal judge says in a newly unsealed opinion that declines to hold the Trump admin in contempt of court for violating her orders
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
My report from court in the Abrego Garcia case, where the Trump admin continued giving US District Judge Paula Xinis the runaround, defying her explicit orders by once again putting a cipher on the witness stand who couldnt survive even friendly DOJ questioning talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump...
20.11.2025 22:39 — 👍 25 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 0
Morning Memo, your one stop for only the day’s essential political news morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com
20.11.2025 16:03 — 👍 13 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0Boasberg made no mention of Bove yesterday in court. I’d imagine that Boasberg would wait until the testimony of other witnesses makes Bove’s testimony essential before he goes kicking the giant ant hill of summoning an appeals court judge into his court for a possible contempt of court referral.
20.11.2025 16:03 — 👍 20 🔁 1 💬 3 📌 0Bove — who has denied proposing to defy the courts and said he doesn’t recall the fuck you remark — is now a Trump-appointed federal appeals court judge, setting up the potential for a titanic clash over his testimony in the contempt inquiry.
20.11.2025 16:03 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0A key witness is former acting DAG Emil Bove, who, according to Reuveni and internal comms, allegedly told DOJ lawyers in advance of the AEA deportations that they might have to tell the courts “fuck you” and that it was legally permissible to deplane the AEA detainees despite Boasberg’s order.
20.11.2025 16:03 — 👍 11 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Judge Boasberg wants to hear testimony from DOJ lawyers involved in the Alien Enemies Act case at the outset: Erez Reuveni, who became a whistleblower, and Drew Ensign, who’s rarely been seen in this case since his dubious representations to the court in March.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...
There was one moment in particular when the judge sounded convinced that Comey had cleared the high bar for a successful vindictive prosecution claim. Plus other highlights from the hearing BEFORE it was revealed the Comey indictment might be fatally flawed:
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/how-j...
