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.
Debunking Trump's revisionist history of Charlottesville, SPLC said it handed the FBI a 45-page “Event Alert” with informant-gathered information.
The dossier tipped off agents about the names, photos, criminal histories and "weapons of choice of the people there."
Given the chance to respond to any of this, the U.S. Attorney for the district prosecuting the SPLC — and no other line prosecutor — punted entirely.
Instead, the prosecutor premises arguments on hypothetically "crediting" the SPLC's account.
But the SPLC argues that Trump and his surrogates "misleading" the public about basic facts of the case is relevant because the government may have misled the grand jury.
It's an argument from the first failed prosecution of James Comey.
(Comey's lawyer Abbe Lowell reps SPLC.)
Here's the SPLC's original motion seeking access to the grand jury records:
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.
The judges presiding over the Epstein and Maxwell dockets have "inherent authority" to appoint a special master to release the files, and Trump DOJ's actions show why.
As more survivors join the fight for courts to appoint a "special master" overseeing the release of the Epstein files, the courts confront procedural hurdles.
One of the judges asked:
Who has standing for the request?
Do judges have the authority?
The new brief answers:
The Congressmen "do not require standing," the brief says.
Khanna and Massie are *amici* advising the judges of their inherent powers, which Trump's DOJ conceded by shifting blame for delays to the court in this press release dated two days after the deadline.