Rogue DOJ Investigation Of Columbia Protestors Alarmed Federal Judge

Yahoo

02-05-2025

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM's Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
In an important new story, the NYT reveals for the first time that senior Trump DOJ official Emil Bove directed the Civil Rights Division to investigate pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia University. The bulk of the article focuses on the 'anger and alarm' of career prosecutors over the politically motivated and meritless investigation.
But the episode from the story that most stands out is the refusal of a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan to approve a search warrant against the protestors. After the search warrant application had already been denied once for an insufficient showing of probable cause, chief magistrate judge Sarah Netburn gave it a second look. What she did next shows a real breakdown at DOJ:
Judge Netburn not only rejected the request for a search warrant, but she also ordered the government to abide by a special condition: Should prosecutors ever try to refile such an application before another federal judge, they had to include a transcript of the sealed discussions in her court, these people said.
Netburn's unusual condition suggests she had found the Trump DOJ's submission of probable cause not just lacking but egregious in either its form or substance. Not only that, but the proceedings in her court must have gone so far off the rails that she wanted any other judge who later got involved to have the benefit of reading the transcript of what transpired. The implication, as I take it, is that there's nothing the Trump DOJ can do to wash away the stink of its initial search warrant application.
The one-the-record response to the NYT story from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is also highly unusual and deeply disturbing. He managed to confirm the investigation, discuss evidence, and impugn career prosecutors in a single statement.
'This is a false story fabricated by a group of people who allowed antisemitism and support of Hamas terrorists to fester for several years, standing by but doing nothing,' Blanche said, while denouncing DOJ attorneys as 'deep state terrorist sympathizers who stood by as members of the Jewish faith were targeted across the country.'
Nothing about this story is normal.
The first inkling that something was up came when Chris Krebs lost his Global Entry status. Now the Trump administration is confirming that Kreb's membership in the program was revoked because he is under federal investigation of some kind. The public confirmation of the investigation is itself unusual and fits into the pattern of retribution.
Earlier this month, Krebs had the dubious distinction of being targeted by a Trump executive order devoted exclusively to him. It revoked his security clearance and directed a 'review' of Krebs by the attorney general and secretary of homeland security. It is not clear whether the current investigation is an outgrowth of the executive order.
Krebs served as the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency until President Trump fired him in the aftermath of the 2020 election for declaring it to have been the most secure in history.
Some signs have emerged that Senate Republicans are feeling less than enthusiastic about the nomination of acting D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin to the permanent position. Martin, a GOP political operator with no experience as a prosecutor, has run amok as acting U.S. attorney in one of the country's most important jurisdictions, violating traditional DOJ guidelines, engaging in ethically questionable behavior for a prosecutor, and using the office for political ends. Still, no GOP senator has come out against the nomination.
In a historically significant decision, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. of Brownsville became the first judge to rule on the substance of President Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act against Venezuelan nationals who are members of the transnational Tren de Aragua gang.
But while Rodriguez, a Trump appointee, found that Trump had exceeded the scope of the wartime statute, he did so in a relatively narrow way that showed considerable deference to the President and potentially left the door open to this or future presidents being able to craft AEA invocations in a way that would avoid judicial scrutiny.
Rodriguez ultimately found that the the activities of Tren de Aragua in the United States as described in Trump's proclamation failed to constitute an 'invasion' or 'predatory incursion,' as required by the statute. But he declined to look behind the proclamation's claim that Tren de Aragua is controlled by Venezuela, accepting the assertion at face value, and thus finding that it satisfied the requirement that the invasion be 'by any foreign nation or government.'
This was one trial judge in one district in Texas. The Fifth Circuit and then likely the Supreme Court will get their own bites at the apple in either this case or some combination of other AEA case.
I am very hesitant to center coverage of due process violations on the victim because the merits or demerits of any particular victim is beside the point. While some victims are more sympathetic than others, the rule of law protects everyone. It's not earned or deserved. Especially while the Trump administration is engaging in a vicious propaganda campaign against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, focusing on the particulars of his life story can inadvertently accept the premise that his worthiness, as we judge it, matters. With this preamble out of the way, the NYT does have a well-reported deep dive on Abrego Garcia and his legal case.
Without naming President Trump, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson defended the judiciary against political attack last night at a conference in Puerto Rico, telling the audience: 'The attacks … impact more than just individual judges who are being targeted. Rather, the threats and harassment are attacks on our democracy, on our system of government and they ultimately risk undermining our Constitution and the rule of law.'
Public Broadcasting: After attempting to remove three of the five board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting earlier, President Trump issued a new executive order Thursday purporting to cut off federal funding for PBS and NPR.
USAID: Assessing the real-world toll of the dismantling of U.S. foreign aid
IMLS: Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
A new Ben Terris profile offers a disturbing look at the deterioration of Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA).
The Pentagon inspector general has expanded its investigation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth misuse of Signal (and mishandling of national defense information) to the second group chat that included his wife and brother, the WSJ reports.
Shuffling Signal-addict Mike Waltz out of his role as national security adviser and into the gauntlet of a Senate confirmation hearing to be UN ambassador is one twist in this reality TV presidency I can get on board with: