-Declassified a doc GOP lawmakers sought about the Steele Dossier
-Provided internal FBI messages to Flynn legal team
-Released an interview with one of the Flynn case agents
-Released questionable evidence of ballot irregularities in Pa.
The case agent, William Barnett, is a case-study in contradiction. He says he worried that there was groupthink among Mueller team — yet they often included him (and his converse opinions) in Flynn-related matters and processes.
Barnett also said he raised internal questions about the Flynn case but viewed the other three prongs of Crossfire Hurricane as legit and did believe that Flynn lied in his FBI interview — to protect his job rather than cover up something Russia-related. courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Barnett also undercut an earlier filing from the Flynn team that suggests FBI officials bought liability insurance because they feared fallout from the Flynn matter.
Barnett says discussions of insurance were likely unrelated to Flynn bc they predate the case becoming public.
And that earlier Flynn team filing also included an obvious error:
Overall though, there's a concerted effort to get more material into the public record — some of which would have reasonably been expected to be part of the Durham investigation yet now appears to packaged for public release by DOJ without any accompanying indictments.
BARNETT also pushed for an interview with Flynn in late 2016, calling it an "easy lay-up" that Flynn wouldn't view as suspicious because he was part of an incoming administration. Barnett said he viewed this as a formality toward closing the case.
NEW: An FBI agent who formerly worked with Mueller’s team told DOJ last week he believed Flynn lied to the FBI to save his job, not cover up a Russia operation. But the interview is a series of contradictions.
It’s part of a slew of new docs dumped by DOJ to Flynn’s team as they prepare to argue next week for the dismissal of the case against him. And it comes as DOJ has dumped info in a series of other sensitive matters into the public domain. politico.com/news/2020/09/2…
BARNETT's testimony also cut against what has been billed as a bombshell revelation in docs released by Flynn's team just hours earlier: That FBI agents bought liability insurance because they were worried about fallout from Crossfire Hurricane.
DOJ asked Barnett about internal FBI messages referencing a rush to buy insurance. Barnett said he didn't believe that was related to Flynn because it didn't work with the timeline of events.
Some people do Friday Zillow. We do Friday habeas. Here are some cases of people who have been detained by ICE and ordered released by judges who said the detention was illegal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Mexican man with no criminal history and six US citizen kids.
BREAKING: The Trump administraiton has committed a mass violation of ICE detainees' constitutional rights in MN, effectively blocking their acess to attorneys in the Whipple building, a judge ruled tonight.
NEW: A federal judge excoriated the Trump administration for claiming it lacked the resources to give ICE detainees constitutionally required access to lawyers — despite surging law enforcement to detain them in the first place.
The rebuke came as the administration also dropped criminal charges against two men it claimed had attacked an ICE officer, who fired a gun in the fracas. “Newly discovered evidence” conflicted with the original headline-grabbing account, DOJ said. politico.com/news/2026/02/1…
NEW: Federal judges are increasingly furious at what they see as a pattern / playbook of defiance by the Trump administration to court orders in immigration cases — in Minnesota and around the country.
1) WHISKING DETAINEES TO OTHER STATES: ICE has made a practice of pinballing people from where they're arrested to facilities in Texas, New Mexico or elsewhere, and sometimes more than once. It can complicate or defeate challenges to their detention.
2) BLOWING OFF DEADLINES: When detainees sue for release, the administration is increasingly blowing off court-ordered deadlines to response. It's become almost routine and has led judges to order release in some cases. politico.com/news/2026/02/1…
Two men were recently charged with assaulting an immigration officer in MN with a snow shovel and broom, which led to a shooting ICE claims was defensive. The case made national headlines.
The men moved in court earlier in this week to prevent ICE from deporting witnesses who they say can rebut the charges. Their trial judge, Paul Magnuson, agreed.
However...
One of the witnesses, a 19-year-old woman who appears to be the partner of one of the defendants, was apparently picked up by ICE the same day as the incident and transported first to Texas and then to New Mexico.
Today, a judge in New Mexico noted demanded details about the woman's detention, noting that MN offered her a U visa for witnesses to a criminal investigation and that she's being held under mandatory detention policies that most judges – including Judge Strickland – have ruled unlawful.
UPDATE: Judge Strickland in New Mexico has now further enjoined DHS from relocating or deporting the witness.
MEANWHILE: Judges in Minnesota continue rejecting the administration's efforts to lock up ICE's targets en masse. This man has been in the US since 1988 and says he's been approved for a green card.
What may be most notable, however, is the increasingly lengthy list of requirements in the judge's order — each responsive to recent violations or transgressions by the administation, such as releasing MN residents in Texas with no way to get home to withholding their possessions
In another release order, Judge BARTLE — a George W. Bush appointee in Pennsylvania — vented today that ICE "continues to act contrary to law, to spend taxpayer money needlessly, and to waste the scarce resources of the judiciary." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
NEW: A rupture between DOJ and ICE has emerged in Minnesota, where overwhelmed prosecutors keep dropping the ball — and saying ICE won't return their messages.
The crisis has had real-world consequences for migrants illegally detained.
MORE: Julie Le — the DOJ attorney who vented about the chaos in court — has been reassigned. politico.com/news/2026/02/0…
Le's cases are the tip of the iceberg. In recent weeks, an overwhelmed DOJ has dropped the ball in dozens of cases, missing deadlines, botching filings, violating orders.