And as Hunter Walker explained during a Wednesday Substack Live, “the call is coming from inside the house.” The raid came about thanks to a referral from special government employee Kurt Olsen, and thanks to the analysis of another special government employee, Clay Parikh.
In a conversation with editor Allegra Kirkland, Hunter breaks down exactly who these people are and why the Fulton County raid is so dangerous.
The White House wanted investigations into those it describes as left-wing activists and the groups that fund them. And now, FBI Director Kash Patel says, the FBI is delivering.
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For months, President Donald Trump has railed against Latin American narcoterrorists flooding the United States with “lethal poison.” He has used the scourge of drug trafficking as a rationale for dozens of military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have left more than 140 people dead.
Last month, Trump cheered a military assault by U.S. forces that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and brought them to the U.S. to face charges related to cocaine trafficking. Maduro, Trump said, led a “vicious cartel” that “flooded our nation with lethal poison responsible for the deaths of countless Americans.”
But when it comes to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was tried and convicted in the U.S. in 2024 and sentenced to 45 years in prison for taking bribes and allowing traffickers to export more than 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S., Trump has taken a decidedly softer tone.
McLaughlin was a key contributor to a particular Trump II aesthetic: young, photogenic, often blonde women going feral in front of cameras on behalf of President Trump and his most odious nativist policies, in a performative spectacle that rejected the very premise of transparency and public accountability.
The peak example of McLaughlin’s angry-white-woman theatrics came in May, when the Trump administration rushed out a planeload of immigrants to South Sudan, in violation of an order from U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy of Boston. McLaughlin raced in front of the cameras to attack Murphy as he was convening an emergency hearing in the matter:
The deportees sat on a tarmac in Djibouti for days while the case made its way to the Supreme Court, where the six-justice conservative majority stayed Murphy’s order over a vigorous dissent from the three liberal justices, allowing the deportations to South Sudan to be completed.
No accountability then, and no accountability now.
In the Trump administration, where time is a flat circle, McLaughlin’s departure is virtually meaningless. It doesn’t represent a rejection of the mass deportation policy after the debacle in Minnesota, of the white nationalist gloss of DHS social media posts, or of her rampant false statements and made-up facts. It’s not a retrenchment or a retreat.
In its own odd way, it’s just the typical cycling through of staff at the one-year mark of a new administration — but with the twist of Trump bringing the prerogatives of reality TV casting to bear. Someone else — probably young, blonde, female, and snarling — will emerge as Trump’s favorite bombastic spokesperson, dodging tough questions from the press with pro-wrestling bluster and playground taunts. Rinse and repeat.
Mass Deportation Watch
Minnesota: State and federal authorities are investigating last month’s alleged beating of a Mexican national by federal agents in a St. Paul parking lot that left him in the ICU with eight skull fractures.
New York: An immigration judge dropped the Trump administration’s case against Columbia University graduate student Mohsen Mahdawi, a pro-Palestinian protestor, because the government failed to properly authenticate a key document, his lawyers say.
Nationwide: In an attempt to prevent a repeat of Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, Democratic mayors in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, Oakland and Seattle have signed executive orders attempting to restrict how and where ICE can operate in their cities, while a coalition of local Democratic prosecutors is warning that they will prosecute ICE agents who break the law.
Judge: ICE Can’t Re-detain Abrego Garcia
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland issued a new order barring ICE from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongfully deported El Salvadoran national that has been relentlessly targeted by the Trump administration.
In extending her prior injunction prohibiting ICE from taking Abrego Garcia back into custody, Xinis rejected a bad faith Trump administration argument that because last month it had issued an order of removal for Abrego Garcia retroactive to 2019, the clock restarted on when he could be detained and for how long.
Three Lawless Boat Strikes in One Day
Eleven people were killed Monday in a trio of unlawful U.S. strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, raising the known death toll in the months-long campaign to 144 or 145 (reports vary).
About Those Supposed ‘Rescues’ …
I’ve treated with considerable skepticism the reports that the Pentagon has summoned the Coast Guard to rescue survivors of its lawless boat strike campaign. Given the distances and time lag involved, the rescue efforts seem half-hearted at best. Now The Intercept puts some meat on the bone of at least one supposed rescue attempt and shows how inadequate and belated it was:
Eight men leapt into those rough seas on December 30 when the U.S. rained down a barrage of munitions, sinking three vessels. They required immediate rescue; chances were slim that they could survive even an hour. In announcing its strike, U.S. Southern Command or SOUTHCOM, said it “immediately notified” the Coast Guard to launch search and rescue protocols to save the men. …
Using open-source flight tracking data, Airwars and The Intercept learned that a Coast Guard plane did not head toward the site of the attack for almost two days. A timeline provided by the Coast Guard confirmed that it was roughly 45 hours before a flight arrived at the search area.
The slow response and lack of rescue craft in the area suggests there was scant interest on the part of the U.S. in saving anyone. It’s part of a pattern of what appear to be imitation rescue missions that since mid-October have not saved a single survivor.
The Corruption: Drone Edition
WSJ: Eric Trump Invests in ‘Low Cost Per Kill’ Drone Company
The Corruption: Ballroom Edition
President Trump has named his longtime executive assistant Chamberlain Harris — a 26-year-old with no relevant experience — to the 116-year-old Commission of Fine Arts, which will review Trump’s plan for his vanity ballroom project. The WaPo wryly notes that the commission’s initial membership included Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Daniel Burnham. Trump has similarly placed loyalists on the National Capital Planning Commission, which must also review the ballroom plan.
Thread of the Day
Mistrial in Texas ‘Antifa’ Case
The judge in the federal terrorism trial of protestors allegedly involved in the July 4 incident at an ICE detention center in Prairieland, Texas, where a police officer was shot declared a mistrial during jury selection because a defense attorney was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with images of civil rights leaders.
Back to the Well on Islamophobia
With Texas Republicans trying to juice their midterm election chances by whipping up a fresh round of Islamophobia, the Trump Department of Housing and Urban Development has opened a new discrimination investigation into a large housing development centered on a mosque outside of Dallas.
The Trump DOJ had already quietly closed an investigation into the development last summer, but HUD Secretary Scott Turner jumped loudly into the fray with early voting already underway ahead of the March 3 primary election, which features a hard-fought GOP race for U.S. Senate.
Meanwhile, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), a Jewish first-term congressman, engaged in straight-up anti-Muslim bigotry, posting on social media: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
Quote of the Day
“Censoring science and erasing America’s history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for. As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.”—Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, which filed a new lawsuit in federal court in Boston challenging President Trump’s March 2025 executive order on “restoring truth and sanity to American history”
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I’ll be chatting with Hunter Walker about the Fulton County election office raid and the fringe characters driving the Trump administration’s latest push to interfere in U.S. elections this morning. Join us on Substack Live at 11 a.m. ET. See you there!
Comedian and “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert called out his network for its compliance with the Trump administration’s ongoing attempt to crack down on dissent.
I got a number of fascinating replies to yesterday’s post about the federal calendar and presidential holidays, specifically whether we should ditch Columbus Day in favor of a national holiday celebrating Abraham Lincoln. I also learned a bit more about how Lincoln never got a national holiday originally because the states of the old Confederacy, whose representatives and senators had outsized seniority throughout the 20th century, simply wouldn’t hear of it. Indeed, the 1968 federal law which clustered federal holidays into long weekends and which in effect though not formally consolidated Washington’s birthday into “President’s Day” was still under the shadow of southern resistance to anything commemorating Abraham Lincoln.
Two ICE officers were put on leave and are under criminal investigation for potential perjury in an incident in which one of the officers shot a Venezuelan national in Minneapolis last month, according to acting ICE director Todd Lyons.
As has happened in the other shootings by federal agents in Minnesota, video evidence appears to have done in the officers.
“A joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Lyons said in a statement.
The dramatic reversal in the case came after the Trump DOJ last week dropped criminal charges against the wounded man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, and his Venezuelan friend, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna. Both men had both been accused of assaulting the ICE agent who opened fire, allegedly hitting him with a broom and snow shovel.
The feds had not yet brought an indictment when, in a highly unusual move, they sought to dismiss the charges with prejudice, meaning they cannot be re-filed. A judge granted the request and dismissed the case on Friday.
In moving to dismiss the case, the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office made an extraordinary admission: “Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the Complaint Affidavit … as well as the preliminary-hearing testimony … that was based on information presented to the Affiant.”
The complaint affidavit by FBI Special Agent Timothy G. Schanz was based on, among other things, “information I have learned from other law enforcement officers.” It appears to rely heavily on the accounts offered by the two ICE agents who are now suspected of possible perjury.
Lawyers for the two Venezuelan men had insisted that the ICE agent who discharged his weapon fired through a closed door after the two Venezuelan men had fled inside. They had offered in court photographic evidence of what they claimed was a bullet hole through an exterior door and a corresponding bullet hole in an interior wall.
“Lying under oath is a serious federal offense,” Lyons said, in a significant change of tone from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s initial claim that it was an “attempted murder” and DHS’ assertion that the attack had been fueled by rhetoric from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats.
The investigation of the two ICE agents is being conducted jointly by ICE and the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office. The feds continue to refuse to cooperate with a separate state investigation into the shooting.
Another ‘Facilitate’ Case …
In a new ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns of Boston ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Babson College freshman Any Lucia López Belloza, who was detained en route home to Texas at Thanksgiving and removed to her native Honduras, where she had not lived since she was a young child. López’s deportation came despite a court order barring her removal.
Jan. 6 Never Ends
Saber-rattling ahead of the midterms, President Trump vowed to impose a nationwide voter ID requirement via executive order if Congress fails to act. Your occasional reminder that an executive order is the executive branch’s version of an office-wide internal memo.
Current and former DOJ and FBI officials are alarmed that a conspiracy-fueled search warrant for the Fulton County voting center made it past a magistrate judge, MSNow reports.
Ahead of the FBI seizure of ballots and voting records in Atlanta, St. Louis U.S. Attorney Thomas Albus, who signed the search warrant, took part in meetings with some of the fringe lawyers tasked by President Trump with reinvestigating his 2020 loss, including Ed Martin and Kurt Olsen, ProPublica reports.
Trump Attack on Higher Ed
UCLA: In a major win for University of California faculty groups and unions, the Trump administration dropped its appeal of a court order blocking its $1.2 billion settlement with UCLA.
Harvard: The Trump DOJ sued Harvard University to obtain sensitive admissions data to determine with it is using race in admission decisions. According to the WSJ, the administration is seeking “all admissions data for the past five academic years, including applicant test scores, a racial breakdown of applicants, grade-point averages, extracurricular activities, essays and admission outcomes.”
Nationwide: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is creating a list of top universities that will no longer be eligible for tuition assistance for service members because they are “biased,” CNN reports:
Boat Strike Campaign Death Toll at 124
Three people were killed in a Feb. 13 U.S. attack on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean, bringing the death toll in the lawless campaign of attacks to at least 124.
Trump Uses Military as Political Props
FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA – FEBRUARY 13: U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick (C along fence) listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the Fort Bragg U.S. Army base on February 13, 2026 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Trump visited the base to honor special forces involved in the military operation in Venezuela in early 2026. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
In a campaign-style rally at the newly renamed Ft. “Bragg” — no longer named for the notorious Confederate general but, in a sly wink and nod of white nationalists, for an obscure WWII paratrooper — President Trump gave an overtly political speech to uniformed personnel, urging them to vote Republican in this year’s midterm elections.
Judge Rejects White Nationalist Revisionism
On the official day of celebration of George Washington’s birthday, when the federal courts are usually closed, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ordered the Trump administration to restore exhibits about slavery to the national park site commemorating the first president’s former home in Philadelphia.
In her strongly worded opinion, citing Orwell’s 1984, the Bush II appointee wrote:
The government here likewise asserts truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of the elected chief magistrate and his appointees and delegees, at his whim to be scraped clean, hidden, or overwritten. And why? Solely because, as Defendants state, it has the power.
Rejecting the government’s argument, Rufe entered a preliminary injunction against the administration ordering it to restore the slavery exhibits and not to make any further changes to the President’s House site.
America’s racial caste system, which places white people on top, has existed since before the country was founded. And yet there have always been white people who have worked against and betrayed notions of racial hierarchy, rejecting the fictions that undergird them and the illegitimate power that racial caste justifies. These people are perhaps the most powerful weapon against these systems.
That’s why, like so many of the archetypal race traitors before them, the willingness of Good and Pretti to put themselves in danger for the cause of racial justice proved an unparalleled galvanizing force, one that simultaneously affirms the best about America, and the worst.
Jesse Jackson, 1941-2026
(Photo By John Prieto/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
In my youth, I wrestled with strong feelings about Jesse Jackson, both pro and con. As an adult, I was better able to resolve the conflicting elements of who he was when I came to understand: It was hard for Jesse Jackson to be Jesse Jackson.
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This excerpt is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
Democracy’s most radical, yet purist premise is people’s power as exercise of power, not simply consent to power. As I detail in my new book Politics Without Politicians, in classical Athens, governing was not the domain of a political class but a shared civic practice and a duty distributed in part on the basis of random selection (with frequent rotation). Additionally, whatever its profound exclusions in the definition of who counted as a citizen, the Athenian system was built on the idea that no citizen was too poor, too uneducated, or too timid to be deprived of a voice about common affairs. Democracy meant, in those days, ruling and being ruled in turn, as opposed to what it means today: regularly consenting, via elections, to never ruling and always being ruled by career politicians. At a moment when many Americans feel alienated from politics as something done by and for others, it seemed important to revisit a model that treated self-government as a lived, everyday responsibility.
When I was a little boy in the Southern California school system in the 70s and 80s, there were separate holidays for Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays. Or at least this was my recollection. Both were celebrated. Then Martin Luther King Day became a federal holiday in 1986. I thought at time and for many years after that Presidents Day was created out of a consolidation of Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays in order to make room for Martin Luther King Day, on the reasoning that there’s a limit on the number of federal holidays. A number of years ago I looked into this and it turned out that this wasn’t true. I can’t remember the exact details. Lincoln’s birthday was never a federal holiday but it was celebrated in California. There was also a shift beginning around the same time to rebrand Washington’s birthday as Presidents Day. (Officially, it’s still Washington’s Birthday.)
In any case, my interest in this is that Abraham Lincoln should really have a national holiday. Some of this is a matter of him just really being a great president quite apart from the revolution brought about by the Civil War and the Reconstruction amendments. Sometimes great iconic figures aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. But the twin presidencies of Washington and Lincoln are if anything more powerful and important on close examination than they seem, though Washington’s role isn’t limited to his presidency. You have to see it in the context of his military and de facto political leadership during the Revolutionary War and his role in the period between the Revolution and his presidency, including his role at the constitutional convention. In any case, point being Washington and Lincoln are both critical figures in our national history. The holiday problem is that we have a logjam of birthdays, with King’s in January and both Washington’s and Lincoln’s falling in February. I guess there’s some reason why we can’t have that many national holidays right after each other. Fine. I don’t make the rules.
