Some highlights once I give the story an update. In the meanwhile, give the order inside the story a read.
Earlier this morning, Trump's lawyers argued that the civil probe was essentially a way to extract information without having to offer immunity that a grand jury would afford in a criminal investigation.
Engoron: "This argument completely misses the mark."
Engoron:
Trump and his children have the "absolute right" to assert Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Eric Trump did it more than 500 times, he notes.
Justice Engoron:
Trump was "hardly a stranger" to the NYAG's office when Tish James took over.
Her predecessors reached significant settlements with Trump's "University" and "Foundation," the judge says—his scare quotes.
Engoron:
The thousands of documents responsive to the subpoenas that I've viewed privately show "significant basis" for continuing the investigation, undercutting notion that it's based on animus rather than facts and law.
Engoron:
"As has often been said, that a prosecutor dislikes someone does not prevent a prosecution."
Engoron:
It would have been "blatant dereliction of duty" not to investigate and issue subpoenas.
Engoron:
Trump's spin on Mazars ditching him is Orwellian, "audacious" and "preposterous."
Engoron:
NYAG found "copious evidence of possible financial fraud."
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Trump DOJ opposes the release of SPLC grand jury transcripts, but what the memo *doesn't* say speaks volumes. Feds don't dispute the SPLC's account of the Trump admin's "gross misrepresentations" about the informant program.
Instead, the US Attorney says that's "not relevant."
Why that matters.🧵
The SPLC's motion seeking the grand jury records rattled off a series of "false statements" by Trump and his surrogates about Charlottesville and the informants program.
By the DOJ's own account, the SPLC's informant program was cheap and effective.
For a fraction of a *percentage* of their annual budget, SPLC penetrated the nation's worst hate groups and published their secrets with info from their turncoats.
The DOJ's case assumes donors felt defrauded by this. buff.ly/cwTnYg6
The Trump DOJ alleges that the SPLC spent about $3 million on informants over the course of a *decade.*
Check out of the SPLC's revenue and expenditures from 2024, the last fiscal year records were public. That's a typical year, and it's a drop in the bucket. projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/org…
In return, SPLC infiltrated the KKK, the neo-Nazis, and other extremist groups, and they shared their secrets with federal law enforcement until Kash Patel put an end to that last October.
Two Trump appointees on the D.C. Circuit panel blocked Boasberg from even INVESTIGATING contempt of court related to the March 2025 flights to El Salvador.
The dissent: "Without the contempt power, the rule of law is an illusion, a theory that stands upon shifting sands."
This is the second time Judges Rao and Walker granted a writ of mandamus, an "extraordinary" rebuke of a lower court judge.
But Walker went out of the way to praise Boasberg, saying he was in a tough spot even as Walker overruled him.
The nuance here will be important to note in light of the Trump DOJ's campaign to vilify Boasberg, whose D.C. Circuit peers largely stood up for him even when his rulings didn't hold.