The Wannabe Influencer Who Runs the FBI: ‘I Don’t Read’

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Morning Memo Live!

A lineup change for next week’s Morning Memo Live event: Kyle R. Freeny, a former DOJer who was a member of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team and is now senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group, will be joining us. An unforeseen issue came up that prevents former Mueller team member Aaron Zelinsky from attending, but I hope to have him back for future events.

Details and tickets here for the Jan. 29 event in D.C. (TPM members should look out for a special discount code in your inboxes. Reach out to [email protected] if you didn’t receive or can’t find it.)

Tweeting All the Way Through the Fascism

Just two of the many good (by which I mean bad) nuggets from an exhaustive series of NYT Magazine interviews with current and former FBI officials about the catastrophic leadership of Director Kash Patel and former Deputy Director Dan Bongino …

On Patel: “There was a photo taken of all the Five Eyes people, some of whom are nondisclosed, meaning their affiliation with the British intelligence service isn’t public. The Brits forwarded that picture as a keepsake for the individuals. They prefaced it with, This isn’t to be shared. But Kash has decided he wants to post it on social media. They have people trying to negotiate with the Brits about whether that’s possible. They’re fighting with the director’s office, like: You cannot post this. Do not do that. And they’re arguing, He wants a picture out.”

On Bongino: “Bongino called the field office in Detroit. In the normal course of business, if the deputy director calls at a moment like that, they’re asking: How can we help? What do you need? They can turn on all the resources of the organization. But Bongino called and asked, What can I tweet about this? The field office has to be careful — this is their boss. But the body was still there. They said, We’ll get back to you. But Bongino kept calling back, asking, What can I tweet?”

The constant urge to tweet — instead of actually running a massive organization with counterintelligence and counterterrorism responsibilities on top of its core crime-fighting duties — is especially stark when paired with a quote attributed to Patel as he waved off briefing materials: “I don’t read.”

If you need more, search for “jet skiing” in the NYT Mag piece. You’re welcome.

Jan. 6 Still Alive and Unwell 5 Years Later

Donald Trump’s never-ending revenge saga for getting busted for couping produced a few new permutations this week:

• FBI Director Kash Patel sacked more than half a dozen agents around the country, including several senior agents leading field offices, for their roles in either the Arctic Frost or Mar-a-Lago investigations, Ryan Reilly reports.
• In state court in Florida, Trump personally sued JPMorgan Chase and its CEP Jamie Dimon for a whopping $5 billion, alleging they improperly closed his bank accounts for political reasons after the Jan. 6 attack.
• In his public testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, former Special Counsel Jack Smith said he fully expects Trump DOJ officials will “do everything in their power” to prosecute him “because they have been ordered to by the president.”
• Seated behind Smith were some of the most outspoken former law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, including Michael Fanone, who did little to muffle his disdain for House Republicans:

The Renee Good Shooting

With the local medical examiner declaring Renee Good’s death a homicide (which is not the same legally as murder), former DOJ prosecutor Julia Gegenheimer explains why there is a legitimate basis for opening an investigation into the ICE shooting.

Mass Deportation Watch: Minnesota Edition

• A general strike in the Twin Cities is underway today, with a march scheduled for this afternoon.
• Three protestors were arrested on pending federal charges for disrupting a service Sunday at a church where the pastor is also the acting director of the ICE field office in St. Paul.
• In the same case, a federal magistrate judge rejected the Trump DOJ’s attempt to charge former CNN journalist Don Lemon, who reported on the protest.
• The Trump White House posted a digitally altered image of one of the church protesters during her arrest to make it look like she was crying. The Black woman arrested was actually cool and collected in the original unaltered photo:

Mass Deportation Watch: Chicago Edition

After deliberating for a little more than three hours, a federal jury in Chicago acquitted 37-year-old union carpenter Juan Espinoza Martinez on the charge of murder for hire for allegedly putting a $10,000 bounty on the head of CBP commander Gregory Bovino.

Judge Bars Retaliation Against Pro-Palestinian Activists

U.S. District Judge Judge William Young of Boston has been doing yeoman’s work protecting pro-Palestinian academics and activists from retaliatory deportations by the Trump administration. In two new moves yesterday, Young:

• ordered that members of the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association were not to have their immigration statuses adversely changed except in narrow circumstances and that any attempt to deport them would be presumed to be “in retribution” for suing the government.
• unsealed dossiers prepared by the Trump administration that focused on the free speech activities, including campus protests and public writings, of five student activists who Secretary of State Marco Rubio would move to deport.

Full 5th Circuit Hears AEA Case

The uber-conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the substance of whether President Trump validly invoked the Alien Enemies Act last year. The arguments zeroed in on whether there was truly an “invasion or predatory incursion” by Tren de Aragua as contemplated by the wartime statute. This case out of Texas is the most likely one for the Supreme Court to take up and finally rule on whether the president properly invoked the AEA in this instance.

Quote of the Day

“We are in a much better place today than we were at the beginning of this week. But of course, the very fact that we are relieved that a NATO country is not going to attack another NATO country tells us that we are somewhere where we never thought we would be. And that, in itself, will linger.”—Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide

Park Service Removes Slavery Exhibit

Reacting to President Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order, the U.S. Park Service has removed an exhibit on slavery at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. It was among a series of moves at parks nationwide to suppress historically accurate information and replace it with racist revisionism.

Trump Ballroom Runs Into Legal Trouble

In a hearing yesterday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of D.C. expressed considerable skepticism that Trump had the legal authority to demolish the East Wing of the White House and construct a vanity ballroom in its place.

Leon reportedly mocked the Trump DOJ when it compared the project to President Gerald Ford’s use of private funds to build a White House swimming pool. “You compare that to ripping down the East Wing and building a new East Wing?” Leon said. “C’mon. Be serious.”

Meanwhile, the Trump-stacked Commission of Fine Arts appears prepared to greenlight the project to … I’m not making this up … spare Trump having to worry his sweet little head about it, according to Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the new chairman of the commission: “So we need to let the president do his job, and, as best we can, keep his mind off of things like this, that we can keep him rolling, and do it as elegantly and beautifully as the American people deserve for generations and further centuries into the future.”

Bovino’s Provocative Greatcoat

NYT’s fashion critic deconstructs the Pavlovian response to CBP commander Gregory Bovino’s costuming himself as an early 20th century fascist.

“Using the coat to confront crowds with armed supporters, together with Bovino’s cropped hair and the (apparently) black or dark clothing underneath, gives the unmistakable whiff of dictators and of the 1930s,” Princeton University history professor Harold James told the NYT.

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