Essayli Ruled Ineligible

In what is now the third such ruling, a federal judge disqualified Bill Essayli as acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, ruling that his appointment was a Trump administration workaround that violated federal law.

Essayli has been ineligible for the post since the end of July, concluded U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright of Hawaii, who was brought in to the hear the challenge because local district judges have the power under one statutory scheme to appointment acting U.S. attorneys.

The decision follows similar rulings against Alina Habba in New Jersey and Sigal Chattah in Nevada that have thwarted a Trump White House effort to install loyalists and avoid or at least delay the toils of Senate confirmation.

The latest ruling has major implications for the corrupt political prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who are both challenging on similar grounds the appointment of Lindsey Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

But there are a couple of twists to the judge’s ruling against Essayli, whose appointment was challenged by three different criminal defendants and consolidated into one case:

• While Essayli may not perform the functions of U.S. attorney, he remains the first assistant U.S. attorney and “may perform the functions and duties of that office.”
• The judge did not dismiss the indictments of the defendants because “they were lawfully signed by other attorneys for the government and there has been no showing of due process violations or other irregularities in Defendants’ prosecutions resulting from Essayli’s unlawful service as Acting United States Attorney.”

The fact that no other attorney signed the Comey and James indictments other than Halligan looms large. Unlike the indictments Essayli obtained, both Comey and James argue that there was highly irregular conduct in their cases as part of a larger scheme of vindictive prosecutions.

Earlier yesterday, before the Essayli decision became public, the outside judge hearing the Comey and James challenges to Halligan gave the Trump DOJ a Monday deadline to provide to him for his sole review “all documents relating to the indictment signer’s participation in the grand jury proceedings, along with complete grand jury transcripts” because he “finds it necessary to determine the extent of the indictment signer’s involvement in the grand jury proceedings.”

The judge has set a joint oral argument on Halligan’s appointment for Nov. 13. Stay tuned …

Big Ruling in Oregon National Guard Case

The full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated a panel ruling that upheld President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Portland and will re-hear the case. The move comes after the dissenting judge on the panel essentially begged the full court to take up the case.

Bovino Required to Meet Judge Daily

In a closely-watched hearing in Chicago, Customs and Border Protection commander Greg Bovino was ordered to meet every weekday at 6 p.m. CT with U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to report on the use of force in “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Ellis summoned Bovino to court after lawyers complained that he had personally violated her court order on the use of tear gas by deploying it himself without warning. Ellis didn’t dig too deeply into the specifics of the incident involving Bovino, according to reports from court, but she did order Bovino to begin wearing a body cam and deliver to her all reports on the use of force and existing body cam footage from Sept. 2 to the present.

DHS Busted for Propaganda

The Trump administration has used false or misleading footage on at least six occasions in government-produced videos promoting its mass deportation agenda, according to an analysis by WaPo that found some of the footage was from different times and locations than the videos claimed.

Another Abrego Garcia?

The Trump administration deported a man to Laos despite an Oct. 23 federal court order barring his removal, the AP reports.

Chanthila “Shawn” Souvannarath, 44, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and lived in the United States since before the age of 1, claims to have U.S. citizenship. He was taken into ICE custody in June in Alabama and had been detained at the immigrant detention center at Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana.

U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick of Baton Rouge entered an ex parte TRO on Thursday after finding that Souvannarath had made a “substantial claim” of having U.S. citizenship. But by Sunday, Souvannarath messaged his wife on WhatsApp that he was in Laos.

The ACLU, which is representing Souvannarath, called it a  “stunning violation of a federal court order.” 

We Are So Cooked

Here’s the genius argument a Trump DOJ attorney put forward in court yesterday to defend mass layoffs of federal workers during the government shutdown:

A Justice Department attorney defending the administration at the hearing Tuesday, Michael Velchik, said the firings were lawful and represented the will of the electorate expressed through President Donald Trump’s victory at the polls last year.

“The American people selected someone known above all else for his eloquence in communicating to employees that, ‘You’re fired!’” Velchik said, referring to Trump’s trademark line on his television show, “The Apprentice.”

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco rejected the Trump administration’s position and indefinitely extended her order banning reductions in force at most major government agencies during the government shutdown.

White House Fires Art Commissioners

The Trump White House sacked all six Biden-appointed members of the Commission of Fine Arts in preparation for stacking the independent agency with loyalists. The commission was expected to review plans for Trump’s new White House ballroom and a triumphal arch in D.C.

New U.S. High Seas Attack Kills 14

The U.S. continued its lawless conduct on the high seas with a series of three strikes on four alleged drug-smuggling boats Monday that killed 14 people in the Pacific off the coasts of Central and South America, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. A man survived one of the strikes in waters near Mexico and Guatemala and was apparently rescued by Mexican authorities. No word on his status.

Too Crazy Even for Kash Patel

Joe Kent, the Senate-confirmed director of the counterterrorism center and close adviser to DNI Tulsi Gabbard, obtained FBI files on the assassination of Charlie Kirk without the knowledge of senior FBI officials, the NYT reports.

Kent was reportedly investigating whether the man facing state charges for killing Kirk had help from other people or entities, according to the NYT. DOJ officials were alarmed that Kent was jeopardizing the criminal investigation.

The incident led to a White House meeting that included Kent, Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel, Vice President JD Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and unnamed top DOJ officials, according to the report.

Man Jailed for Posting a Charlie Kirk Meme

A Tennessee man has been in jail for more than a month after posting a meme to Facebook that trolled the memorial service for the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The meme draws on a quote from Donald Trump following a January 2024 school shooting in Perry, Iowa: “We have to get over it.” The post on the What’s Happening in Perry County, Tennessee Facebook page prompted the sheriff to obtain an arrest warrant for Larry Bushart Jr. Here’s how The Intercept describes the, ummm, confusion:

It’s possible, perhaps, to imagine how the Trump meme might have set some members of the Facebook group on edge — at least upon first glance. The post invoked a school shooting at a “Perry High School.” The local high school in Linden is called Perry County High School. Moreover, just one month earlier, Weems had reported an alleged threat against the school, prompting administrators to cancel all classes “for the safety of our students and staff.” Still, it was easy to discern that, apart from the name “Perry,” there was nothing connecting the meme to Linden.

The indefatigable Phil Williams of Nashville New Channel 5, interviewed the Perry County (Tennessee, just so we’re clear) Sheriff Nick Weems, who managed in one sitting to pretty much blow up his own case. He admitted law enforcement knew it was an existing meme circulating on the internet, but claimed upset members of the public did not know that.

Weems said the arrest could have been avoided if Bushart had just taken down the post: “Whenever we sent Lexington Police Department out to speak to him and he refused to do that, I mean, what kind of person does that?” Weems asked. “What kind of person just says he don’t care?”

Bushart’s bond has been set at … $2 million.

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The Savagery Is the Point

It’s difficult to convey the full scope of the Trump administration’s misdeeds in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but let’s give it a shot.

You know the broad contours of the story already. The administration illegally removed Abrego Garcia from his home in Maryland to El Salvador, where he was thrown in prison for months. Despite the Supreme Court ordering that the administration facilitate his return, the executive branch dragged its feet for weeks. When the administration did finally return him to the United States (without notice to his lawyers or the judge in the case), it did so only to lock him up again on criminal charges that had been secretly filed in Tennessee.

It’s what’s happened since then that has become more difficult to convey because it’s not been clear what exactly the administration’s end game is here. You might have thought the endgame was the criminal case in Tennessee: Win a conviction then deport him either before or after he served his sentence here. Nope, as it turned out.

It’s become apparent now that the administration is not driven by a desire for any particular outcome, but for whatever outcome among the available choices inflicts maximum pain and suffering on Abrego Garcia.

If that sounds overstated, let me quickly walk you through the administration’s threat to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country because it’s the best example of the bobbing and weaving that’s marked the administration’s ungrounded approach to the case.

At first glance, you might think that the third country removal is the story now. Hasn’t the man suffered enough without being sent to a country on the African continent with which he has no ties, where it’s unclear if he’ll again be incarcerated without being charged, and where the assurances are shaky at best that he won’t simply be forward on to El Salvador? You might be inclined to follow the ins and outs of that story, with the ultimate question being whether the administration succeeds in shipping him off to Africa. But as it turned out you’d have been wrong.

Once the Trump administration had Abrego Garcia in custody again in Maryland in his immigration case (after he’d been ordered released from custody in Tennessee while his trial was pending), it made little effort to find a third country willing to accept him. His lawyers suspected that the administration was content to just hold him indefinitely and so forced the issue by moving to secure a court order to release him. In a hearing earlier this month before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland, she sussed out that almost nothing had been done by the administration to find a third country and what had been done had been undertaken immediately before the hearing in anticipation of having to answer for its conduct.

So now your inclination might be to track whether Abrego Garcia wins by securing his release rather than being subject to indefinite detention by a foot-dragging Trump administration. Wrong again!

Facing the prospect of a potentially adverse ruling from Xinis, the administration declared on Friday that it had found a third country for Abrego Garcia. Liberia, take a bow. Xinis summoned the parties for another hearing yesterday, where the administration said it’s preparing to remove him to Liberia by as soon as Oct. 31. I should mention here that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have told Xinis he is willing to accept removal to Costa Rica. To Xinis’ puzzlement, the administration has not accepted that option.

The administration’s shifting priorities reflect not some grand plan or strategy, but at each juncture choosing the option before it that most torments Abrego Garcia. It’s really the only explanation that accounts for the meandering series of positions by the administration. But there’s one other wild card in the mix.

Abrego Garcia still faces criminal trial in Tennessee on the human smuggling charges the administration whipped up. So far, he’s convinced a judge — not that hard on the facts I’ve already laid out here — that he’s established a prima facie case of vindictive prosecution by the Trump DOJ. That shifts the burden to the administration to establish that it undertook the prosecution on a legitimate basis. Importantly, it also opened the door for Abrego Garcia to conduct discovery on how the administration handled his case.

The administration is fighting like hell to head off that discovery, which includes a subpoena of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and other high-ranking DOJ officials. The judge in the criminal case has set two days of hearings on Nov. 4-5 for all the pretrial motions, including the vindictive prosecution claim. Witness testimony is expected. The Trump DOJ moved yesterday to quash the subpoena in the hopes of preventing testimony from Blanche and others. Meanwhile, the judge in the criminal case smacked the administration yesterday for its “exaggerated if not simply inaccurate” out-of-court statements about Abrego Garcia

So you can see now the added advantage to the administration of resuming the third country removal plan, whether it’s Liberia or somewhere else (it’s likely the Abrego Garcia will formally express in a hearing today a fear of being sent to Liberia which will trigger additional delays). They’ll be happy to avoid further scrutiny of their conduct in the criminal case even it means effectively dropping the case by deporting him.

The criminal case, third country removal, and prolonged detention are all just tools the Trump administration is using to savage Abrego Garcia. The savagery is the point.

Coverup?

A Homeland Security Investigations officer accompanying local police fired his gun into a car during a traffic stop in DC earlier this month, but the police report of the incident contained no mention of shots being fired. All charges against the unarmed Black man who was stopped were dismissed after a judge concluded there was insufficient evidence that he tried to flee, his lawyers told the WaPo. The man was uninjured in the incident but spent three nights in jail before the charges were dismissed.

Former DOJers Side With Comey

In an amicus brief, more than 100 former DOJ officials urged a federal judge to dismiss the criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey, arguing that it is vindictive.

Ball Now in Trump DOJ’s Court

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith sent a letter to the Trump Justice Department asking for access to his old files and seeking guidance as to what he can say in testimony that Hill Republicans are demanding that he provide.

Mass Preemptive Pardons Alert

Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith, a former DOJ official under Bush II, anticipates that President Trump will issue mass preemptive pardons toward the end of his term, especially if a Democrat were to succeed him:

[O]ne can be absolutely certain that Trump will issue preemptive pardons at or near the end of his second term, probably on an enormous scale—especially since … he will anticipate that a Democratic administration may have little reason to respect Trump OLC opinions in deciding whether to prosecute Trump officials. Pardons blunt this possibility. I expect Trump to issue hundreds and possibly thousands of preemptive pardons to everyone in his administration who may conceivably be subject to future investigation or prosecution, especially if a Democrat wins the presidential election in November 2028.

Trump Appeals Hush Money Conviction

President Trump filed an appeal of his conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush money case, in which he was sentenced to no punishment, in hopes of having the convicted felon tag removed from his biography.

Paul Manafort Is Still at it

Kenneth Vogel traces Paul Manafort’s “unlikely full-circle journey from high-flying global fixer to federal inmate and back.”

A Race to Beat Midterms Clock

Red states are salivating over the prospect of the Roberts Court eviscerating what’s left of the Voting Rights Act, and some of them are beginning to plan for redrawing their congressional districts maps if the Supreme Court rules in time for the 2026 midterms, Politico reports.

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