A federal prosecutor in charge of the criminal division in the Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office resigned on Tuesday following her refusal to follow a Donald Trump administration directive to freeze assets of a Biden-era administration grant initiative, the Washington Post and Reuters reported.
Continue reading “Another Prominent Fed Prosecutor Resigns In Protest Of Trump Admin Political Interference”Is This Why Musk Keeps Using the Same Dozen Tech Micro-Bros for Each Takeover?
A few days ago I did this post on the taxonomy of DOGE, who’s actually involved in it, the people who are formally part of it and the ones who are part of Musk’s operation but have not gotten official appointments in the executive branch. In that post I asked why it is that Musk seems to continue to rely on this subset of DOGE personnel — the dozen or so under-25 techies — as the landing parties who go in and actually force their way into these departments. It happens again and again. In that post I noted that Gavin Kliger is the guy at IRS. And in a conversation with a fellow journalist I was just told that another of the original crew is the lead now in the break-in at SSA.
Continue reading “Is This Why Musk Keeps Using the Same Dozen Tech Micro-Bros for Each Takeover?”The Supreme Court’s Final Test Approaches
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
Sooner than we may think, the Supreme Court will have to decide whether it will continue to expand presidential powers beyond anything imagined in the Constitution, or if it will uphold the separation of powers it purportedly reveres. One aspect of Donald Trump’s push to stock the federal workforce with loyalists is already before the Court; more broadly, his massive, attempted funding freeze deliberately set the stage for a Supreme Court showdown that could make him — and by proxy Elon Musk — a de facto dictator over the entirety of the federal government without the checks and balances clearly embedded in our Constitution.
Continue reading “The Supreme Court’s Final Test Approaches”Trump Preened As A Strongman For Presidents Day
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
So Much Has Happened
Since last we convened on Friday, President Trump’s rampage against the rule of law at home and the international order abroad has intensified in alarming and unprecedented ways.
It is impossible to step away from the news for a holiday weekend and still keep track of Trump’s myriad angles of attack on the law and the real-world effects on the ground. So rather than attempt to shove every last development into a bloated Morning Memo, I’m going to focus on three main categories: the rule of law violations, the purges, abandoning Europe.
‘He Who Saves His Country Does Not Violate Any Law’
In an unapologetic social media post over the Presidents Day weekend that reinforced the grave peril we’re in, President Trump adopted a quote generally attributed to Napoleon in declaring himself above and beyond the reach of the law.
In giving himself a free pass on his constitutional obligation to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” Trump blessed in retrospect his renegade first month in office and warned of what is yet to come.
But it was in Trump’s preening as a strongman, the callback to the little dictator, that we were reminded that the assault on the rule of law is personal to him, his petty grievances, his simplistic understanding of the way the world works, and his addled perceptions of strength and weakness.
The Valentine’s Eve Massacre
With the mass resignations of top prosecutors in DC and Manhattan over the Trump DOJ’s politicized handling of the prosecution of NYC Mayor Eric Adams, the crisis atmosphere at the Justice Department has never been as acute.
After acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove implicitly threatened to can DOJ’s entire Public Integrity Section if no one would file his corrupt motion to dismiss the case against Adams, a veteran prosecutor stepped forward to do the dirty deed and spare his colleagues further repercussions. The wisdom of that decision was dubious, but here we are.
The focus shifts now to U.S. District Judge Dale Ho in Manhattan, who this morning set a hearing for Wednesday afternoon to begin considering DOJ’s motion to dismiss. It does not appear that this will be the dispositive hearing on the motion because Ho wants to use it to discuss the procedure for resolving the motion. Ho also ordered the Justice Department to provide proof of its claim that Adams has consented in writing to the dismissal of his case without prejudice, meaning the charges can be refiled at a later date. If there was any doubt that leaving the case hanging over Adams’ head would be a lever for Trump, this unsettling scene played out on national TV.
As I wrote Friday, the combination of the Adams case, the purges of prosecutors and FBI agents, and the dropping of all of the Jan. 6 and Trump cases has brought the Justice Department to the lowest point in its history. As former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, herself a victim of the 2006-07 U.S. attorneys scandal, writes: “this Justice Department isn’t even pretending to be apolitical anymore.”
And yet … for all that has happened in the first month to tear the Justice Department loose from its moorings, it’s what it will now do as a weaponized arm of the White House that inspires the most dread. Here’s a taste: a Trump White House official asking the Justice Department to investigate a Democratic member of Congress.
Trump’s announcement that he will nominate acting DC U.S. Attorney Ed Martin for the permanent position is a sign of the quality of people we can expect to do the Trump White House’s bidding using the full might and power of the federal government unrestrained by the law.
The Purges
The most sweeping phase of the mass purges of federal workers ramped up Friday and into the weekend against some 200,000 probationary employees, who enjoy lesser levels of civil service protection. The WaPo obtained internal documents that map out an expanding purge over the next six months. Among the reported purge targets:
- NIH and other HHS agencies and components;
- a key office handling bird flu response;
- FAA staff;
- the Bonneville Power Administration
In an sign of the chaos and haphazard nature of the purges, the Trump administration raced to try to recall fired nuclear safety workers but was struggling to figure out how to reach them.
The Resignations
Alongside the purges are forced resignations or resignations under duress, among them:
- Social Security Administration: Michelle King, the acting commissioner who was handpicked by the Trump administration last month, resigned after Elon Musk’s DOGE sought access to American’s sensitive personal data.
- National Archives: The acting archivist of the United States and several senior staff members have resigned.
- FDA: A top official resigned over the widespread cuts across the agency.
ICYMI
One of the Eric Adams prosecutors in NYC penned a resignation letter for the ages to acting DAG Emil Bove.
White House Claims Elon Musk Does Not Run DOGE
In an overnight filing, the Trump administration has made the incredulous claim to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in DC that Elon Musk is not running DOGE. It doesn’t take much to find contrary evidence:
On the left: President Trump: "I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk … will lead the Department of Government Efficiency ('DOGE")" On the right: Government declaration (by Joshua Fisher) submitted to Judge Chutkan stating Elon Musk is not the leader of DOGE
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 10:52 PM
[image or embed]
Chutkan, who held an emergency hearing on Monday, a federal holiday when the courts are usually closed, did not seem inclined to grant a temporary restraining order to rein in DOGE, but did ask for details on the firings of government workers thus far. The Trump DOJ declined to provide that information even after Chutkan asked for it.
DOGE Runs Amok At IRS
- TPM’s Hunter Walker: Inside The ‘Bizarre’ Meeting Where DOGE Requested ‘Extensive System Access’ At IRS
- WaPo: Musk’s DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS
- NYT: Musk Team Seeks Access to I.R.S. System With Taxpayers’ Records
Who Is Pete Marocco?
- TPM’s Josh Kovensky: Two Jan. 6 Boosters Are Now Trump Appointees Strangling USAID From The Inside
- ProPublica: Trump Official Destroying USAID Secretly Met With Christian Nationalists Abroad In Defiance Of US Policy
- NYT: In Trump’s War on Foreign Aid, a Loyal Soldier Returns to Battle
Trump Abandons Europe And Embraces Its Far Right
Of all the grim things to happen over the Presidents Day weekend, none will probably have the historical reverberation of America’s abandonment of the international order anchored in Europe:
- Vice President JD Vance scolded European leaders and met with the leader of Germany’s far-right party, while declining to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
- In a neo-colonial move, President Trump tried to strong-arm Ukraine into signing over its mineral wealth as payback for U.S. support against the Russian invasion.
- The Trump administration began talks with Russia over Ukraine without the involvement of Ukraine itself or the rest of Europe.
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First IRS, Now DOGE Busts Its Way Into the Social Security Administration
Hard to keep track of precisely what’s happening at these different agencies. But we just got through the headlines about DOGE demanding access to literally everybody’s and every companies’ tax returns at the IRS. It seems like they now have that access, though we don’t know that for certain. (We’re basically entirely dependent on leaks since DOGE works entirely in secret.) Now news just broke that the DOGErs appear to have busted their way into the Social Security Administration, forcing the resignation of the acting commissioner, Michelle King, when she resisted their demands to give DOGE access to the agency’s most sensitive government records.
Continue reading “First IRS, Now DOGE Busts Its Way Into the Social Security Administration”Who Needs Grids?
The Bonneville Power Administration, the largest transmission grid operator in the Pacific Northwest, will be shedding at least 600 workers as part of President Trump’s budget slashing across the federal federal workforce.
Where Are the Lawsuits Over the Chainsawing of NIH and NCI?
There’s one point that has come up, sometimes explicitly but more often by what isn’t said, in my many conversations with civil servants at HHS and especially at the core medical research agencies within it. At the simplest level, they’re not lawyers. But the issue requires a little more explanation because obviously most people aren’t lawyers in the other departments and agencies either. Outside the Department of Justice, none of these agencies are legal agencies or departments per se. But in most of the rest of the government, lawyers are ubiquitous and much of the work culture is structured around the work and ideas of lawyers. This is probably intuitively clear for most of you who’ve either reported on the federal government or worked within it. But it’s worth stating explicitly and thinking about the impact this has had in recent weeks.
Again and again in conversations with people at NIH, NCI and other public health or research agencies within the government the same basic point comes up: the people immediately affected by the events of the last four weeks have very little idea what the relevant law is, the legal standing of the actions being taken or who to talk to about any of it. I’ve had a few sources ask if I could organize some lawyers to create what amounted to a FAQ about the relevant law. I haven’t had a chance. But someone should.
Continue reading “Where Are the Lawsuits Over the Chainsawing of NIH and NCI?”GOP Sens Worried About Trump’s NIH Cuts Turn To Limp Public Negotiations With RFK, Trump
Earlier this month, the Trump administration took a sledgehammer to a key way in which the National Institutes of Health funds major research institutions across the country. As the country has scrambled to understand the implications of the directive, many Republicans are hearing from their constituents — and walking a tight rope: They’re publicly expressing concerns about the damage the cuts will do to crucial medical research in their home states while also praising Donald Trump and RFK Jr., the newly confirmed Health and Human Services secretary, for halting funding in the first place.
Continue reading “GOP Sens Worried About Trump’s NIH Cuts Turn To Limp Public Negotiations With RFK, Trump”Trump Official Destroying USAID Secretly Met With Christian Nationalists Abroad In Defiance Of US Policy
This article first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
Before Peter Marocco was selected to dismantle America’s entire foreign aid sector on behalf of President Donald Trump, he was an official with the State Department on a diplomatic mission.
Continue reading “Trump Official Destroying USAID Secretly Met With Christian Nationalists Abroad In Defiance Of US Policy”Understanding the Taxonomy of DOGE
Here’s an important resource being maintained by ProPublica. It’s a list of everyone associated with the DOGE operation. (Nice to see two TPM alums on the list of those compiling and maintaining it.) The page says it hasn’t been updated since February 11th, which by today’s standards is semi-ancient history. But presumably they’ll be doing more updates soon.
I want to add a few additional points that provide context.
Continue reading “Understanding the Taxonomy of DOGE”