Random Friday Morning Thoughts

Good grief, I don't remember this story being this big.  It made its 

way to the front page of the Star-Telegram. 

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• We have had a "Thursday Night Massacre" (a throwback to Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre") and maybe the biggest story yet of the Trump presidency 2.0 and the future of the country.    It is an historical and frightening event. Stay with me here.
  

  
• It's a mass resignation of top prosecutors for refusing to do something unethical, and for refusing to be Trump's personal lawyers. 
• You have to start with how important it is for the Justice Department to be independent and free to prosecute crimes "without fear or favor." That's it. Nothing else should matter to the Justice Department. That's why I have been sounding the alarm over Pam Bondi, an election denier and Trump sycophant, who was appointed as Attorney General. If the Justice Department serves as Trump's personal hatchet men, we are doomed. And it is happening. 
• A few days ago, Bondi's "acting No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Emil Bove III, had ordered Manhattan prosecutors to drop the federal case against New York City mayor Eric Adams." You remember Bove as being one of Trump's defense lawyers.  He recently joined the AG's office. 

  

  By the way, the lawyer on the other side of the table will become the
  permanent "No. 2" once he is confirmed.

  
  
• Adams, as you will remember, was indicted  a few months ago by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York on corruption charges. 
• But Bove put in writing in a memo that he was ordering the U.S. Attorney to drop the case, but with Bondi retaining the the right to decide to refile it. Why dismiss it? Because Adams, as the mayor of NYC, could allegedly help with Trump's immigration policy. Woah! 
  
  
  
• The memo was shocking in its own right. Either Adams committed a crime or not. But Trump's AG's office was ordering the prosecutor to drop the case because he could ostensibly help Trump with policy and politics.  And by having the right to refile the case, Adams would be in Trump's back pocket and puppet. Message to Adams: You don't cooperate in the future with anything and everything, we'll re-indict you.  A more dangerous message to every person in power: You don't bend the knee to Trump, he might order us to prosecute you, too - and well do it, 
• That's the danger of not having an AG who is not independent of the president. The president can then use the Justice Department to force elected officials (and quite frankly anyone) to become their servant or they will be prosecuted. It's Autocracy 101. 
• And Adams had already begun to be Trump's puppet. From yesterday:
  
  
  
• And this morning he and the Border Czar were making a Fox and Friends appearance. This, by the way, is a master propaganda campaign to normalize the Justice Department's actions. 
  
  
  
• And let me be clear why I think this is a huge deal. I don't believe this is about helping with immigration at all. That's just a ruse to send the larger message that the Justice department is working for Trump and willing to do what he says. 
• But back to this case.  A problem developed late yesterday for Trump and Bondi when the the U.S. Attorney would not dismiss the case.  She instead sent the greatest letter in the history of all things moral, ethical, and decent to AG Pam Bondi saying it was wrong to be ordered to drop the case and either Bondi could (1) rescind that order, or (2)  she would resign.  She had to resign. 
  
  
  
• Here's a gift link to that letter with some fabulous New York Times annotations. And the best part is that the prosecutor used Bondi's own recent public statements: "In your words, 'the Department of Justice will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct.' Dismissal of the indictment for no other reason than to influence Adams's mayoral decision-making would be all three." Wow. 
• Here's another great banger of a paragraph: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• And she had this shocking footnote:
  
  
  
• Sorry for going on so long about this. But I think it is a watershed moment in the history of America. And a very dark one.
• But, for this case, here's something to watch in the future: Once Pam Bondi finds someone to dismiss the case, assuming she doesn't sign it herself, the judge must approve the dismissal. That might not happen at all. Then it gets even wilder. 
• In other news, Trump continues to get what he wants. Congress won't stop him. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• In other, yet related, news, we've got a measle outbreak in highly unvaccinated  area of Gaines County, Texas. 
  
  
  
• Unelected Elon met with the prime minister of India at the Blair House adjacent to the White House yesterday. This time he brought three of his twelve kids. 
  
  
  
• Incredible. Trump doesn't know if Musk met with him as a government official or as a private businessman. Video. 
  

  

  
  
  
  
• Louisiana has indicted a New York doctor for sending the morning after pill to Louisiana. The New York governor said yesterday that she will reject the governor's warrant sent from Louisiana. What wild times. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Let me take a breath with some entertainment news. One week after making her appear naked at the Grammys, they have separated.
  
  
  
• Another breather. This is fantastic. From the archives of WFAA, two and half minutes of silent B-Roll news footage of the 1972 White Rock Marathon (now the Dallas Marathon which draws thousands).
  
  
  
• Lauren Whitener Clock: 5 years and 226 days.