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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 3m

President Trump has issued a presidential finding authorizing the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela, including lethal operations, and in the Caribbean: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 46m

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “Charlie’s death is like a domestic 9/11. Just as after 9/11, and Osama bin Laden, the ultimate culprit, was captured, we are operationalizing the Treasury, and we are going to track down who is responsible for this.”

talkingpointsmemo.com/news/big-tal...

Big Talk: Treasury Secretary Declares New War on Terror Against the Left

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that his department is in...

talkingpointsmemo.com

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 1h

Not just Venezuela. Colombia, too. And not just extra-judicial, but indiscriminate: "the Pentagon was unable to determine the individual identities of each person on the boats before they struck them."

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 3h

Morning Memo, chronicling the Trump II depredations with a focus on the rule of law:

morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com

Morning Memo | TPM | Substack

The essential political news roundup from David Kurtz and the team at TPM. Click to read Morning Memo, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 3h

The new revelations about Gilbert surprisingly stiff spine – he’s a longtime GOP politician who has walked the party line for years – is especially striking because he'd been nominated for the permanent post, but resisted going along to get along and was out after just a month on the job.

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 3h

Gilbert was ordered by DOJ higher-ups to open an investigation into the matter shortly after taking office, but he objected that there was insufficient evidence for a grand jury probe. From there, things “quickly escalated,” as Gilbert put it in a memorable social media post of an Anchorman meme.

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 3h

The case landed in Gilbert’s office ostensibly because his district includes a FBI classified document storage facility, but that appears to be at least in part a pretext for finding a more favorable jury pool outside of DC or Northern Virginia.

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 3h

Todd Gilbert was forced to resign or be fired for refusing to can the top career prosecutor in his office, who had found insufficient evidence to pursue a cockamamie theory for investigating the investigators of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Mystery Solved: Trump US Attorney Was Forced Out For Not Investigating the Investigators

The Retribution: Russia Probe Edition The NYT had previously hinted at the...

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 1d

New evidence that DHS reopened criminal investigation of Abrego Garcia on April 17 (the same day the 4th Cir said the admin's position "should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear") at direction of DHS HQ.

David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 1d

Spicy footnote in new motion to compel discovery by Abrego Garcia in his quest to show he's victim of vindictive prosecution, as retaliation for challenging his unlawful removal to El Salvador. On one level, duh, of course. It was a whole of govt smear campaign targeting AG to justify its error:

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 1d

With that in mind, Morning Memo catches you up on some of the holiday weekend developments in the three highest profile political prosecutions: Jim Comey, Letitia James, and John Bolton

morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/the-justic...

The Justice Department Is the Tip of Trump’s Retribution Spear

INSIDE: James Comey ... Letitia James ... John Bolton

morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 1d

The big challenges in covering Trump's politicized prosecutions:
~not treating them like normal prosecutions;
~not normalizing them as an authoritarian tool even as they become routinized and repetitive;
~not letting legit cases obscure/justify politicized ones.
talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

The Justice Department Is the Tip of Trump’s Retribution Spear

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This...

talkingpointsmemo.com

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 1d

Abrego Garcia's motion to compel discovery: www.courtlistener.com/docket/70476...

Compel – #159 in United States v. Abrego Garcia (M.D. Tenn., 3:25-cr-00115) – CourtListener.com

Compel

www.courtlistener.com

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 1d

...the judge already opened the door to broader discovery, pointing up the chain of command to DAG Todd Blanche and key cabinet secretaries, when he ruled on Oct. 3 that there was a “realistic likelihood” of vindictive prosecution and authorized AG to conduct the discovery the govt is now stalling.

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 1d

Still, this is exactly the kind of evidence Abrego Garcia needs to take it from a reasonable (even obvious) supposition to a concrete showing of vindictive prosecution. The govt is slowrolling discovery, contending that only the motives of acting USA Robert McGuire are relevant, but ...

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 1d

Spicy footnote in new motion to compel discovery by Abrego Garcia in his quest to show he's victim of vindictive prosecution, as retaliation for challenging his unlawful removal to El Salvador. On one level, duh, of course. It was a whole of govt smear campaign targeting AG to justify its error:

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 4d

In later cross examination of the admin official, AG's lawyer asked for the sum and substance of his conversation w/ WH Homeland Security Council (which is run by Stephen Miller) about the decision to send AG to Uganda. DOJ invokes presidential communication privilege: bsky.app/profile/rpar...

Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · 5d

R: may i be heard?
J: yes
sidebar

[so DOJ invoking presidential communication privilege suggests this decision about where to send Abrego is getting pretty high up]

/120

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Reposted by David Kurtz

Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray” @ryanjreilly.com · 5d

“Based on the government’s allegations, James has paid about $594 less in interest per year, or roughly $50 less a month, over the last five years than she would have paid had she characterized the purchase as an investment property.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

Grand jury indicts N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James, a Trump opponent, on bank fraud charges

James, a Democrat, has clashed with President Donald Trump after she brought civil charges against him in New York.

www.nbcnews.com

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 5d

The Trump DOJ has insisted for months that the third country removal of Abrego Garcia would be handled like any other case. Now an admin official testifies that the White House was directly involved in picking Uganda. I believe this is the first confirmation of White House involvement in AG's case.

Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · 5d

Schultz: "We were notified that Uganda was the country."

Q: Who notified you?

A: So I was told from the [White House] Homeland Security Council?

Asked whom, Schultz says: "I spoke to Matt Ochoa."

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 5d

But to Harry's larger point, I had a financial institution client years ago that had been clearly defrauded and my job was to try to get the FBI to give enough of a shit about the case to investigate it and present it to prosecutors. It was a struggle, and the loss was ... in the mid-six figures.

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 5d

A clarification that reinforces Harry's point: No one took an $18K loss. The loss was zero. James didn't default on the loan, afaik. The indictment pretzels itself to get to an $18K ill-gotten "gain" from James allegedly paying lower financing costs. That's not the same as a lender taking a loss.

Harry Litman @harrylitman.bsky.social · 5d

United States attorneys offices all have prosecutorial guidelines – amounts of financial loss or property damage, etc. below which they won’t bring a case. I’ve never heard of a financial fraud guideline loss threshold anywhere near as low as 18 K, which is the amount of loss in the James case.

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 5d

Morning Memo, chronicling the Trump II depredations each weekday: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com

Morning Memo | TPM | Substack

The essential political news roundup from David Kurtz and the team at TPM. Click to read Morning Memo, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 5d

One White House official “stressed that the organizations were not necessarily potential targets,” Reuters reported.

President Trump has previously targeted Soros and Reid Hoffman by name.

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 5d

The White House provided Reuters with a list of “liberal groups, donors or fundraising organizations that it said helped finance or plan protests where the violent incidents occurred”:

Open Society Foundations
ActBlue
Indivisible
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights
IfNotNow
Jewish Voice for Peace

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 5d

As TPM’s Josh Kovensky reported earlier this week, the threat of baseless federal investigations under the spurious umbrella of “domestic terrorism” is already having an effect on advocacy groups exercising their First Amendment rights.

talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-tru...

The Trump Admin’s Mostly Unnoticed Move to Crack Down on the Opposition

Last month, the White House issued two executive orders that direct federal...

talkingpointsmemo.com

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David Kurtz @davidkurtz.bsky.social · 5d

Who has Trump's ear on the investigations? It's Miller:

"The official said Miller is Trump’s chief adviser on the issue and is receiving regular updates from the joint terrorism task force – a coalition of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies tasked with investigating terrorism."

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