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The Retribution: Jack Smith Edition
Two seemingly disparate developments came together yesterday to show that, despite court setbacks, President Trump and his MAGA supporters in Congress remain hellbent on exacting retribution against the prosecutors involved in investigating him.
Jay Bratt, a member of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team who led the prosecution of Trump in the Mar-a-Lago case, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination rather than be deposed by House Judiciary Committee Republicans as part of their investigate the investigators vendetta.
To be clear, there are no credible allegations of wrongdoing against Bratt. Rather, his invocation of the Fifth Amendment shows that even a longtime DOJ prosecutor has no confidence that the Trump DOJ will conduct itself in a lawful manner, putting him at risk of baseless and vindictive prosecution.
“This administration and its proxies have made no effort to hide their willingness to weaponize the machinery of government against those they perceive as political enemies” said Bratt spokesperson Peter Carr, a former DOJ spokesperson fired by the new administration. “That should alarm every American who believes in the rule of law. In light of these undeniable and deeply troubling circumstances, Mr. Bratt had no choice but to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights.”
Faced with the specter of Trump retribution, Bratt left DOJ in January before the inauguration, anticipating things like getting called up to the Hill for show trials and other forms of harassment and intimidation. I sometimes wonder if I need to spell it out more clearly to drive the point home: career derailed, forced to retain counsel, made a public pariah … it starts to add up, financially, emotionally, and otherwise.
It also serves as a threat to civil servants everywhere.
The Retribution: Robert Mueller Edition
A lawyer at the firm Jenner and Block has had his security clearance suspended in another prong of President Trump’s attack on major law firms – but, more importantly for our purposes, retribution against his prosecutors. The unnamed lawyer apparently learned he had lost his security clearance when the Justice Department alerted the judge in a criminal case the lawyer was defending.
A few observations:
- This is second time this week that lawyers at Trump-targeted law firm lawyers have lost security clearances even as law firms have been mostly successful at winning their cases against the Trump executive orders.
- The Jenner and Block lawyer appears crippled from representing his client in what is apparently a case that involves classified information.
- The defendant’s own defense is crippled by the loss or at least the impairment of his lawyer’s ability to represent him.
This all adds up to insidious retaliatory behavior that strikes at the heart of the legal system and the right to counsel.
But perhaps most significantly, this is part of the larger retaliation against former Trump prosecutors like Jay Bratt above. The Jenner and Block executive order explicitly targeted the firm for having hired Andrew Weissmann when he left Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
One Trump Retribution Thwarted
The Trump DOJ unconstitutionally retaliated against the American Bar Association when it terminated a grants program for victims of domestic violence, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled. Cooper concluded that the Justice Department failed to show that it had a basis for terminating the grants other than retaliation against the ABA for being involved in suing the Trump administration.
Tulsi Gabbard Fires Intel Officials Over TdA Report
NBC News: “Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired two top intelligence officials who oversaw a recent intelligence assessment which contradicted President Donald Trump’s assertions that the gang Tren de Aragua is operating under the direction of the Venezuelan regime, two officials said Wednesday.
Latest On Trump’s Lawless Immigration Policies
- In a new filing in the case seeking to retrieve the Venezuelan nationals incarcerated in El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, the Trump administration is fighting hard to prevent any discovery into whether they are effectively in constructive custody of the United States.
- Georgetown law professor Steve Vladeck takes a close look at the state of play of the Alien Enemies Act cases across the country:
- While Kilmar Abrego Garcia marks three months in prison in El Salvador as of today, the Trumpian absurdism plays out in DC:
This is absolutely incredible — Kristi Noem repeatedly refuses to acknowledge that Trump brandished an doctored image of Abrego Garcia’s tattoos, prompting Eric Swalwell to have a staffer of his brandish an image of them right in her face.
Totally dystopian.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 14, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Georgetown Scholar Ordered Released
U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles of the Eastern District of Virginia ordered the release of Indian-born Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher whose legal status was unilaterally revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio part of a crackdown on pro-Palestinian academics. His deportation proceedings will still proceed in immigration court.
Thread Of The Day
We have a govt that’s engaged in human trafficking, that’s openly allowing a gulf petrostate to bribe its leadership, that’s reshaping the refugee program in overtly racist terms, that’s almost ended American foreign aid entirely, that’s doing its level best to crash the economy from the rose garden
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social) May 14, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Ed Martin Under Disciplinary Investigation In D.C.
Trump DOJ official Ed Martin revealed that he is under investigation by D.C.’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel. While he didn’t make the details of the investigation public, Martin is presumably the subject of a bar complaint from his just concluded tenure as acting U.S. attorney in D.C.
The Library Of Congress Was A Bridge Too Far?
I don’t want to overplay the significance of this sign of resistance from Republicans on the Hill, but after nearly four months of being run over roughshod by the President, they seem to have stiffened every so slightly in the face of this intrusion on legislative branch entities.
Via Politico:
A White House push to seize control of the Library of Congress over the past week has run temporarily aground due to quiet but firm resistance from Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the sensitive situation.
While they have not challenged Trump’s abrupt firing last week of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, they have questioned his power to name an acting successor and other library officials, including the nation’s top copyright official. That opposition has left Trump’s intended leader for the library, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in at least temporary limbo.
The interplay of executive and legislative powers plus the overlapping and confusing vacancy laws make this is a thorny legal issue.
DOGE Watch
- DOGE must resume responding to a FOIA request from the government watchdog CREW, the DC Circuit Court of Appealed ruled.
- The Trump White House plan to have Congress retroactively bless the DOGE cuts is running into stiff headwinds on the Hill.
- DOGE has stopped claiming credit for killing dozens of federal contracts after the NYT reported that they had already been reinstated.
Join Us
TPM will liveblog the Supreme Court oral arguments today in the birthright citizenship/nationwide injunctions case beginning at 10 a.m. ET.
Quote Of The Day
“I will not yield to disrespectful men.”–Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in a late night exchange with Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
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