Former U.S. Border Patrol Commander-At-Large Greg Bovino is best known for his lead role in White House’s lethal immigration sweeps across America and for his famous Nazi SS-style trench coat. So it’s not exactly a surprise that he is spending his retirement doing interviews with avowed anti-semites and attending extremist conferences.

Still, it’s worth taking a close look at who, exactly, one of the people Trump selected as a top American immigration official is rubbing shoulders with, and what these people represent. Freelance journalist and author of “To Catch a Fascist” Chris Mathias broke down Bovino’s recent attendance at the “Remigration Summit” in Portugal with TPM publisher Joe Ragazzo on Substack Live.

For more from Chris, check out his full TPM piece on Bovino’s pals and an excerpt from his book that we ran earlier this year: “What an Antifa Activist Learned While Undercover With Patriot Front.”

A few more nuggets to report out of the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s office. Yesterday the DOJ released what it referred to, rather grandiosely, as a “rare special report” about grand jury appearances. It was basically a statement and and defense by U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros himself to charges that he was himself involved with the tainted grand jury which brought charges against the so-called Broadview Six. It’s a bit convoluted, even for someone like me who’s followed the case pretty closely. The “report” starts by arguing that one transcript reference that appears to refer to the “USA”, i.e., the US Attorney, was actually a transcription error. So, as the “report” puts it, a classic case of mistaken identity. It seems like that may be right, though it’s not clear to me that anyone was actually referring to that bit of transcript. In any case, the “report” leads with that, making it seem like any claims that Boutros has dirty hands is just wrong and there’s no there there.

I read an account of this “report” and then shortly after the pretty aggressive/smackdowny statement from Broadview Six defense attorney Chris Parente, Boutros’ current main antagonist.

Republicans will never turn on Trump. He’s gobbled up too much power in the architecture of the Republican Party. Even as his national approval numbers have continued to tumble, Trump has upped his ritual slayings of Republican incumbents, some for lack of total loyalty and then some, like John Cornyn, just for — well, let’s just say it — for the fuck of it. So it’s not just that he has too much power. The party’s elected officials are now overwhelming his people. When you see a breakdown between the White House and Republican majorities on Capitol Hill, it doesn’t come with any fingerprints. It’s almost like a black hole. Things that were going to happen just suddenly don’t happen. Or things disappear without a really obvious explanation.

The White House’s maybe-backaway from the Trump Thug Fund is an example of that. Todd Blanche says the Trump family’s immunity stays. They might try bring the fund back at any moment. But for now they’ve shelved it or are claiming they have. And the court ruling against it isn’t a sufficient explanation. They get those all the time. They’re abandoning it because it’s simply too unpopular on Capitol Hill.