JUST IN: Jack Smith provides new details about the origins of the classified documents case against Trump, including how Biden WH counsel came to be involved — with knowledge and participation of Trump's representatives. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Smith repeatedly describes the "cautious" and "incremental approach" that government officials took toward Trump's retention of sensitive documents. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Prosecutors accuse Trump attorneys of making ominous sounding claims about an "undifferentiated" Biden administration when, drilling down, it's distinct career officials at different agencies exercise "specific portfolios and responsibilities." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
NEW: Jack Smith used tonight’s filing — ostensibly to Judge Cannon — to mount an unbridled defense of his documents case against Trump, one that seemed more akin to an opening argument a jury might hear.
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.
!! Judge Biery has ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Ramos — who became a symbol of ICE's aggression in MN
"The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas..even if it requires traumatizing children storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Never seen a ruling like this: "Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
NEW: As he released 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, Judge Biery warned of vast lawlessness and inhumanity in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. He said courts amounted to “a judicial finger in the dike.”
Judges around the country are eyeing what's happening in Minnesota. In a ruling freeing a detained immigrant here, Judge Goodwin of West Virginia said he couldn't ignore the crises in MN.
Judge Traynor becomes latest in a vanishingly small -- but steadily growing -- minority of judges to side with the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy. He says it's a "sorrowful conclusion" to remove a law-abiding man from his family.
Notably, Tryanor -- a North Dakota-based Trump appointee -- is apparently handling cases in Minnesota due to the immense backlog of habeas petitions.
UPDATE: Another judge in Minnesota, Reagan appointee David Doty, rules a detention by ICE illegal — and threatens contempt for a failure to return the man to Minnesota. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
HAPPENING NOW: Minnesota v. Noem hearing is underway before Judge Menendez, who will weigh whether to order an end to Operation Metro Surge. AG Keith Ellison is at counsel table for the state.
Lawyer for the state, Lindsey Middlecamp, begins by demanding immediate end to "unlawful and unchecked invasion" by federal agents. She cites the Alex Pretti killing and says things are escalating, not improving.
Middlecamp says AG Bondi's letter to the state amounted to a "ransom note" and that messages from her and President Trump amounted to an unconstitutional attempt to coerce the state to change its policies.