What Accountability Looks Like

The overnight news brings fresh evidence that America is exceptional among developed nations in its inability and unwillingness to hold the powerful to account even in the most egregious cases.

South Korea became the second country in the past six months to sentence a former head of state to a stiff prison sentence for couping. After being convicted earlier in the day, former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in prison with labor for leading an insurrection and conspiring with military officials to impose martial law in December 2024.

It took 14 months for South Korea to mete out justice for subverting the country’s constitution. In Brazil, it took 33 months from Jair Bolsonaro’s January 2023 attempt to overturn his election loss through force until his conviction. Bolsonaro is now serving a 27-year prison sentence.

The stunning overnight arrest of King Charles’ brother Andrew — and the police search of royal properties — in apparent connection with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal stands in sharp contrast to the U.S. handling of the scandal. It appears that the U.K. investigation of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office is focused not on Epstein’s child sex trafficking but on Andrew’s alleged sharing of government documents with Epstein while the then-prince served as a trade envoy.

While the fallout from the Epstein scandal, particularly the Trump DOJ’s release of its voluminous Epstein files (ironically, in an effort to placate the ravings of right-wing conspiracists) has been comparatively limited in the United States, ending some corporate careers, it is sweeping up officials abroad in corruption investigations:

• United Kingdom: Peter Mandelson, the fired U.K. ambassador to the United States, is under investigation for allegedly passing on market-sensitive government information to Epstein. Two of his properties were searched by police earlier this month. Within days of the news of the criminal investigation, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney resigned, taking responsibility for Starmer’s 2024 appointment of Mandelson as ambassador.
• Norway: Former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland was charged last week with “gross corruption” over his Epstein ties. His arrest and the search of three of his properties came only after the Council of Europe revoked his diplomatic immunity. The married diplomats Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen are also under investigation for “aggravated corruption” for their dealings with Epstein. In both cases, the alleged corruption did not involve child sex trafficking but allegations of financial benefits from Epstein. Juul was suspended then resigned earlier this month as Norway’s ambassador to Jordan and Iraq.
• France: Former Culture Minister Jack Lang and his daughter are under criminal investigation for the Epstein ties through an offshore company in the U.S. Virgin Islands, while the French foreign minister launched a separate administrative investigation of senior French diplomat Fabrice Aidan amid allegations that while he worked at the United Nations he shared diplomatic documents with Epstein.

Taking in the news of the former prince’s arrest, the writer Julian Sanchez wryly observed: “So SCOTUS, with its fabricated-out-of-thin-air immunity doctrine, has actually made American presidents less accountable than LITERAL royalty.”

The Police Statement on Andrew’s Arrest

In keeping with U.K. policy, the police did not name Andrew in its official statement on his arrest:

Thames Valley Police has opened an investigation into the offence of misconduct in public office. 

As part of the investigation, we have today (19/2), at approximately 8am, arrested a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office and are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk. 

The man remains in police custody at this time.  

We will not be naming the arrested man, as per national guidance. Please also remember that this case is now active so care should be taken with any publication to avoid being in contempt of court. 

Assistant Chief Constable Oliver Wright said: “Following a thorough assessment, we have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office.  

“It is important that we protect the integrity and objectivity of our investigation as we work with our partners to investigate this alleged offence. 

“We understand the significant public interest in this case, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time.” 

King Charles: ‘The Law Must Take Its Course’

Trump Detentions Overwhelm Trump DOJ

The spectacle of President Trump’s mass deportation operation didn’t make provisions for humanely detaining thousands of additional migrants or for processing their hundreds of habeas claims in court. The Trump DOJ has been overwhelmed by the case load, partly the result of poor planning, partly from a manpower shortage of the administration’s own making. But whoever is to blame, the burden still falls on migrants least able to absorb it:

MINNESOTA

In what may be the first contempt citation of a Trump II official, U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino of St. Paul held a DOJ lawyer in civil contempt of court and imposed a $500 a day sanction on him until he abides by her order to return the identification documents of a migrant shipped to Texas and then released without his papers or a way to get back to Minnesota (which was also a violation of the judge’s order).

Matthew Isihara, reportedly a military JAG who was imported to help the U.S. Attorney’s Office with the caseload from Operation Metro Surge, told the judge he’d been assigned nearly 130 cases in the past month. “I don’t think it is acceptable,” Isihara said in court. “I believe the volume of work over the last few weeks has exceeded the capacity of any one AUSA.”

While U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen denounced the judge’s sanction as “a lawless abuse of judicial power,” it seemed to get the job done. Attorneys for the migrant told Fox9’s Paul Blume that DOJ gave them a tracking number for the overnight delivery of his identification paperwork and that they expect to receive it today, before the $500/day sanction kicks in.

NEW JERSEY

In a remarkably contrite filing, Associate Deputy Attorney General Jordan Fox told a federal judge that the Trump DOJ had violated court orders some 54 times between Dec. 5 and Feb. 12 in New Jersey alone. The filing, first reported by Politico, suggested that the Trump DOJ is overwhelmed by habeas cases even in states that haven’t been specially targeted by President Trump’s mass detention operation.

The cataloging of the violations was ordered by U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz.

“I understand Your Honor’s concerns about these extremely important issues with constitutional implications,” wrote Fox, who is the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Slavery Exhibit Still Not Restored

The Trump administration defied a federal judge’s order to immediately restore exhibits about slavery at the site of President George Washington’s one-time home in Philadelphia, prompting the exasperated judge to set a Friday deadline for the restoration of the exhibits. The Trump administration has appealed the judge’s decision, but didn’t ask for her to stay her order pending appeal until last night, after she set the Friday deadline.

‘Paleo-Confederate’ Prays with Hegseth

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth invited Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson to lead a worship service at the Pentagon, which promptly posted about it:

We have gathered at the Pentagon for our monthly worship service.

We are One Nation Under God. pic.twitter.com/o5L8GgjFS8

— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) February 17, 2026

Hegseth’s full embrace of the Idaho pastor who calls himself a “paleo-Confederate” comes after the two met last year when Wilson delivered a sermon at Hegseth’s Tennessee church, as TPM first reported.

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Good Riddance

Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson who trafficked in scurrilous lies about Trump’s mass deportation operation and in over-the-top attacks on the press, is leaving the administration on her own terms.

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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