Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Apr 22, 2024 11 tweets 6 min read Read on X
There's some wild stuff in this newly unsealed (but heavily redacted) FBI interview from a high-level Trump-world person related to the classified docs investigation.

For example: the witness was afraid to have the interview recorded for fear of reprisal storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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And while the interview is primarily about the docs investigation, this person apparently witnessed Jeff Clark hand Trump the letter about Georgia electors: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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This person has a very low opinion of "person 24," who apparently tried to overplay a relationship with Trump and pushed the post-hoc claims that Trump had "declassified everything." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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This appears to be describing an attempt to leverage Trump family members to push him to return classified docs: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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It won't take long for people to crowdsource the identities of many of the people redacted from these documents. It's pretty easy to decipher a good number of them to a high degree of certainty, which speaks to why Jack Smith wanted more significant redactions/sealing
In a passage about how Trump's legal team came together, there's a detail that someone "dressed like" someone/something else in Trump's line of sight until they got hired. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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The newly unsealed docs include a helpful breakdown of the classified records found in the initial tranche of boxes provided by Trump to NARA in Jan. 2022. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

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FBI had some concerns about DOJ/Jay Bratt's antagonistic relationship with Trump lawyers, so asked to lead on the Mar-a-Lago search in order to keep it "professional" and "low key." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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Here's the FBI's minute-by-minute account of the Mar-a-Lago search and coordination with the Secret Service. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

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FBI discussed doing "loose surveillance" of Trump plane to see if he took any boxes with him from Mar-a-Lago on the day DOJ attorneys went down to meet him. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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Fun detail: The FBI codename for the Trump documents probe was "Plasmic Echo." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

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More from @kyledcheney

Feb 10
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.

Here’s a look at what they’re seeing: politico.com/news/2026/02/1…Image
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.

politico.com/news/2026/02/1…Image
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…Image
Read 10 tweets
Feb 5
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...Image
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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.Image
UPDATE: Judge Strickland in New Mexico has now further enjoined DHS from relocating or deporting the witness. Image
Read 7 tweets
Feb 4
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.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
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 Image
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…Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 4
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.

w/ @joshgerstein

politico.com/news/2026/02/0…Image
MORE: Julie Le — the DOJ attorney who vented about the chaos in court — has been reassigned. politico.com/news/2026/02/0…Image
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 say the local DOJ attorneys aren't at fault — but blame their DC leaders. politico.com/news/2026/02/0…
Read 6 tweets
Jan 31
!! 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…Image
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…Image
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.”

politico.com/news/2026/01/3…Image
Read 7 tweets
Jan 29
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.

"Constitutional rights do not only protect persons when a lawsuit has been filed. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
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.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
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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…Image
Read 9 tweets

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