TODAY'S TOP MADDOWBLOG POSTS
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If you believed Trump’s boasts on Friday about resolving the crisis in Iran, I have some very bad news for you.
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A veteran prosecutor was removed from a closely watched case under controversial circumstances. Her successor’s name might sound familiar.
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A veteran prosecutor was removed from a closely watched case under controversial circumstances. Her successor’s name might sound familiar.
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The Atlantic reported that FBI personnel have expressed concerns about the director’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking. He sued a few days later.
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The Atlantic reported that FBI personnel have expressed concerns about the director’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking. He sued a few days later.
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The story of how powerful Syrians convinced U.S. officials to end sanctions is a case study in how much Team Trump has changed policymaking.
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The story of how powerful Syrians convinced U.S. officials to end sanctions is a case study in how much Team Trump has changed policymaking.
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WHAT'S ON RACHEL'S BLUESKY RADAR?
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- Trump prison camp federal court ruling excoriates Trump Admin for "clear failure" to follow the law "in purchasing a large warehouse in Williamsport MD built to hold cargo and seeking to quickly convert it into a detention facility to house human beings..."
"This case provides a crystal-clear example of a federal agency failing to comply with the basic requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq. In purchasing a large warehouse in Williamsport, Maryland built to hold cargo, and seeking to quickly convert it into a detention facility designed to house human beings, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and its subsidiary, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), ignored NEPA’s mandate to take “a ‘hard look’ at [the] environmental consequences” of its proposed action. Hodges v. Abraham, 300 F.3d 432, 438 (4th Cir. 2002) (citing Robertson v. Methow Valley Citizens Council, 490 U.S. 332, 350 (1989)). Had DHS done so, it likely would have found that the rapid transformation of a cargo-processing facility with four toilets and two water fountains into a temporary residence and workplace for hundreds, if not thousands, would jeopardize the health and safety of the surrounding ecosystem in myriad ways, most notably through the likely over-taxing of the sewer system. "
(Rachel shares a pdf of the ruling)
- "BP’s first completely new oilfield in the Gulf since the company’s Deepwater Horizon disaster 16 years ago.
It will be deeper than Deepwater Horizon, and in riskier waters... drilling 6 miles below the sea floor, deeper than the height of Mt. Everest"
(National Parks Traveler)
- "Secretary Kennedy’s unlawful declaration harmed children,” the Judge wrote.
“This case highlights a leader’s unserious regard for the rule of law...
“Unserious leaders are unsafe."
Federal judge unloads on ‘unserious’ RFK Jr., says anti-trans policy showed his ‘cruelty’
(Advocate)
- "Top staffers were figures with connections to GOP politics who hadn’t worked in the arts, including one spouse of a Republican party leader whose longest professional experience was working as a marketing and events manager at a Toyota dealership in Ireland..."
...
"In a final indignity, those of us who lost our jobs would be eligible for another month of severance benefits (including health-care coverage) only if we signed a separation agreement with confidentiality and nondisparagement provisions. I rejected this offer because I believe Americans deserve to know about the desecration of our nation’s cultural center. This is also why I have begun participating in the ongoing investigation led by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and been in touch with Representative Joyce Beatty’s legal team to share information that may help her lawsuit. (She is suing the center in an attempt to stop its renaming.) There must be a firewall put in place by Congress to prevent this kind of hostile political takeover of the Kennedy Center from ever happening again. I hope that more of my former colleagues come forward too, even if anonymously."
(The Atlantic)
- "Ms. Ross-Mahé, age 86, was greeted at the airport by her three adult children. She was still dressed in her prison wear — orange shoes, sweatpants and a gray sweater — covered in stains and holes...
"She was in a state of physical shock..."
...
"A few months later, on the morning of April 1, Ms. Ross-Mahé was arrested by U.S. immigration officials and removed from her home in Anniston, dressed only in her nightgown, robe and underwear. She was taken to an immigration detention center hundreds of miles away, in Louisiana.
A county probate judge overseeing Mr. Ross’s estate said that one of his sons — a retired Alabama state trooper whom she said now works at a federal courthouse in Anniston — was responsible for Ms. Ross-Mahé’s arrest."
(New York Times)
- "Trump Administration officials declined to explain the reason for the reversal..."
Help for Medicare Advantage Patients Who Lose Doctors Is Shelved, for Now — Nationwide, hospitals and other providers are leaving private Medicare Advantage plans, putting thousands of seniors at risk of higher costs and of losing trusted doctors.
(New York Times)
- "Dear America" letters from people who work at the besieged US Department of Housing and Urban Development:
"Can we all agree that there's something wrong if a person using a wheelchair is stuck in a 4th floor apartment with no elevator and has to be carried up or crawl up the stairs? Or your landlord is sexually harassing you, and then evicts you? Or you're a veteran with PTSD who lives in their car because you have service dog and everywhere has a "no pet" policy? Or you can't use a homeless shelter because they only serve Christians? Or you can't buy a house in Florida because you're a specific ethnicity?"
(Rachel shares Dear America Letters)
- "The company founded and formerly run by Trump Energy Secretary Chris Wright recorded $193 million of income last year but paid no 2025 federal corporate income taxes, according to its regulatory filings, and actually got more than $10 million back from the IRS..."
(E&E News)
- "On Wednesday shareholders in Thomson Reuters demanded the company’s board launch an investigation into whether its products have contributed to human rights violations, specifically with regards to Thomson Reuters’ ongoing sale of peoples’ personal data to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Thomson Reuters sells access to the CLEAR investigative database, which can include peoples’ names, addresses, car registration information, Social Security numbers, and details on someone’s ethnicity. 404 Media has repeatedly shown how CLEAR is integrated with ICE tools, including one ICE uses to find neighborhoods to target.
The move is the latest piece of growing pressure against the company concerning its contracts with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It follows an internal protest in which more than 200 Thomson Reuters employees sent leadership a letter expressing their concern with those contracts. As 404 Media reported on Tuesday, Thomson Reuters fired the worker who led that effort, according to a newly filed lawsuit."
(404 Media)
- Last month, Trump's DOJ inexplicably dropped the prosecution in the largest ($20 billion!) Iran sanctions violations case ever:
Turkish Bank Accused of Laundering Billions for Iran Gets a Reprieve
Now one month later, they're bragging about how they're going to so so so sooooo prosecute Iran sanctions:
"That adds to hundreds of Iranian-linked vessels that have already been sanctioned by the Trump administration and now could be targets for boarding. Additionally, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has pledged to prosecute anyone who buys or sells sanctioned Iranian oil.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, led by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, told the Journal this week that it was working to go after sanctioned and hostile networks supporting the Iranian regime. Her office’s Threat Finance Unit played a key role in submitting seizure warrants for vessels during Trump’s crackdown on ships serving Venezuela."
(Rachel shares the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal)
- Very normal stuff.
"Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful...
"At one point Trump mused he should award himself the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor...
Oh. He marveled.
"Some of the president’s advisers were caught off guard that tanker traffic would grind to a halt so quickly after the bombing began...
"Trump has since marveled at the ease with which the strait was closed..."
(Rachel shares the Wall Street Journal)
- Interesting bit from a speech Cory Booker gave yesterday at the Michigan Democratic Women's Caucus in Detroit: (Full speech here.)
(Parker Molloy shares video of a firey speech from Sen. Cory Booker)
- And they remain mystified as to why it's so hard for them to find real lawyers who will work for him...
Eastman: disbarred
Giuliani: disbarred
Chesebro: disbarred
Clark: facing possible disbarment
Ellis: law license suspended
(Rachel shares Steve)
- "Over the past several months, our community has built a blueprint that other communities can use when federal agencies attempt to move detention infrastructure into their neighborhoods..."
(Hagerstown Rapid Response)
- "She’s been a court interpreter for over 20 years, the only one licensed in Texas for Hindi, Punjabi, or Urdu. Her language skills are requested nationwide..."
"One of her children recently enlisted in the military..."
Longtime Immigration Court Interpreter Arrested by ICE at South Texas Airport — The state’s only licensed Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu legal interpreter is now languishing in a Raymondville detention center. She’s lived in America for 35 years.
(Texas Observer)
- Pushback leads Homeland Security to compromise on some warehouse detention centers for immigrants
(Stateline)
- "In addition to filling the courtroom gallery and two additional overflow rooms, hundreds of protestors rallied outside the U.S. District Courthouse in Baltimore before the case was set to be heard..."
Hundreds rally against ICE as judge agrees to block detention center construction
(Maryland Matters)
- Alligator Alcatraz phones were cut off. Then the beatings began, court docs say — One attorney wrote in a sworn declaration that officers broke a detainee’s wrist and “pepper sprayed everyone.”
(Tampa Bay Times)
- "As illiberal strongmen have discovered in other contexts... after a while, voters, especially moderates, become exhausted by constant messages of fear, hatred, and vituperation..."
...
"For Trump and his allies, Hungary’s outcome underscores the limits of culture-war combat as a sustained political strategy for a governing party. Voters ultimately look beyond performative messaging for real improvements in their daily lives. At the same time, corruption—especially when tied to a leader, his family, and close associates—is political poison, slow-acting but deadly."
Why Viktor Orban’s Fidesz Party Lost — The opposition’s stunning victory offers lessons for U.S. Democrats—and a warning for Trump’s allies.
(Foreign Policy)
- that beep beep beep sound you hear is the president and his family backing a truck up to the US treasury...
Agencies in talks with Trump, family to resolve $10B lawsuit over tax leaks — President Donald Trump, in his personal capacity, and his two sons sued the IRS and the Treasury Department over leaks of their tax information to news organizations.
(Rachel shares the Washington Post)
- Nebraska law enforcement veterans form coalition to counter 'federal overreach'
(Nebraska Public Media)
Follow Rachel on Bluesky here.
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