The latest shadow docket decision moves the Supreme Court further down a submissive pattern of wins given up to Trump: the pattern is 10:1. 🧵 Courts allow bias to be assessed using evidence of pattern, so what’s good for the goose should be good for gander, and pattern evidence should be fair game.

It’s always good to pounce on government liars when they lie, so it’s been good posting about Patel lying.

But note where his lies led:

🧵

https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1968024798585356643

Saying the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in D.C. had issued an order, challenging me “Do you want me to violate a court order?”

Another low moment in yesterday’s hearing was Patel saying he and MAGA Bondi tried to get Epstein files out but judges wouldn’t let them.

Here’s what really happened:

🧵 Federal judges (who are not idiots) know that ONLY grand jury documents are protected by secrecy rule.  

So why, two separate judges wondered, would FBI/DOJ release nothing FBI/DOJ had, and only try to release protected documents? Weird, huh?

Republicans still grouse about Harry Reid “going nuclear” ONCE, way back in 2013, to undo their blockade of D.C. Circuit judicial nominees. Supreme Court nominees were negotiated out of that.

🧵 Then, when Republicans had the majority and wanted to jam partisan justices onto the Supreme Court, they went nuclear. Happily. So much for their complaining; so much for the deal exempting the Supreme Court.

After Trump’s fossil-fuel goons shut down Revolution Wind, I’ve been waiting for the phone to ring with the ransom demand.

But maybe this is attempted murder, not extortion, and there will be no demand.

🧵 That moves us to litigation, where my experience tells me the discovery phase will be fascinating as the lawyers dig into the true motivations and scheming behind this ugly fossil-fuel thuggery.

Team Trump is purposefully raising your electricity prices, hoping you’ll be mad at your electric utility and not blame them. The benefit to them is extra dollars for their greedy fossil fuel donors.

Here’s how it works. 🧵 1. The Trumpsters make good on their crooked deal with fossil fuel donors to harass and harm fossil fuel’s clean energy competitors, competitors who actually made up 95% of all new power added to the grid last year.

Well, well, well. 

With Emil Bove safely through his sham Senate confirmation proceedings, the two Trump judges just lifted the three-months-long administrative stay that had kept any evidence of Bove’s contempt of court bottled up.

🧵

nytimes.com/2025/08/08/us/… It gets worse: the two Trump judges then used “mandamus” to undo the district court’s unappealable order and halt the contempt proceedings entirely. First, abuse of administrative stay, then abuse of mandamus, to shield Trump mischief from review.

Why did I send this letter to the Chief Justice?

So he’d understand the full scenario that just touched the Judicial Conference (the administrative body of judges that oversees the operations of the Judicial Branch), which he convenes and chairs.

🧵
The saga begins with the much-reported battle over illegal deportations that played out in federal court, in the courtroom of Chief Judge Boasberg of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, a respected veteran of decades on the bench.

Republicans are saying that our opposition to Trump nominees is “unprecedented.” Seriously? Let’s take a look at some of the stuff that is really “unprecedented”: A partisan rescissions bill pulling back funding that was agreed to by both sides in bipartisan appropriations agreements.

Over-ruling the Parliamentarian to destroy emissions standards to let their Big Oil donors sell more gasoline.

A disappearing IG complaint about Emil Bove? What, “the dog ate it”? This Emil Bove mess could not smell much worse, until you sniff out the rest of the story.

🧵

nytimes.com/2025/07/31/us/… This was a guy who set the all-time Department of Justice record for prosecutorial misconduct, with three significant episodes in six months (plus whatever cover-up he did of Jeffrey Epstein’s files — he wouldn’t answer). Nothing even comes close.

Here’s one easy question for Trump criminal lawyer Todd Blanche to have asked Ghislaine Maxwell: “How did Donald Trump’s letter for Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book come to be in the book?”

🧵

washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/… The Wall Street Journal reported that it was Maxwell who put the birthday book together for Epstein. We have seen her note to Epstein confirming that it was her. She would be the one who obtained the raunchy letter from Trump for his pal.
wsj.com/us-news/jeffre…

Ghislaine Maxwell has asked through her attorney for immunity regarding her possible testimony to Congress.

Her attorney is also talking about clemency for her.

Remember, immunity and clemency are two different things.

🧵 An immunity deal protects her from further criminal prosecution arising out of anything she discloses in her immunized testimony.

Most obviously, that would be immunity from perjury charges for lying under oath on a material matter in her testimony.

Senator Durbin and I had some questions about the very unusual Blanche/Maxwell meeting. Here are some of the multiple weirdnesses: 🧵 The Deputy Attorney General (DAG) runs the Department of Justice; all its elements report through him to MAGA Bondi. He has plenty to do other than conducting witness interviews for two days down in Florida (where they have US Attorneys).

Things to consider. Republicans will be headed home for August recess “public opinion bath,” (thank you Lincoln) which could well be a cold bath. 🧵 Families will be back-to-school shopping and noticing prices of things; noting big Trump campaign promises versus big billionaire giveaways.

Assume Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is visiting Jeffrey Epstein consort Ghislaine Maxwell in prison on behalf of his former criminal client Donald Trump, not on behalf of the United States or the law.

What would he want? 🧵 At a minimum he’d want her silence. He would not want her testifying about Trump adversely, and particularly not about Trump’s lewd page in the Jeffrey Epstein birthday book, which WSJ says she assembled, and which Trump just now said is a fake.

Trump/Epstein is a full-on DC dumpster fire right now.

🧵 The U.S. House of Representatives has shut down and fled over Trump/Epstein.

The race is on.

Republicans are moving today to Emil Bove’s nomination, rushing to get Trump’s thug cleared through the Senate while two Trump judges hold up the court contempt hearing that would bring out the facts hidden from us in Judiciary.

🧵 There are two rings in this circus. Most of the focus has been on Ring One: the badly abused Senate confirmation process, and our walkout as the majority broke committee rules to get Trump’s thug cleared through committee without answering questions.

Let’s be clear about this: an investigative file can have cabinets full of documents, video and audio tapes, FBI 302s (interview reports), physical evidence, and reams of other records and materials. The grand jury may only see a small portion.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur… Of that small portion seen by grand jury, Bondi may only seek to have a smaller portion disclosed, and the court allow only a smaller portion still. Understand: This is not bad, but it is NOT a pathway to full disclosure.

Follow this: a temporary administrative stay of a court proceeding is supposed to last “hours or days, not weeks or months.” Justice Barrett recently suggested that a two-week temporary administrative stay would be too long.

I’ve reviewed the texts and emails the whistleblower supplied to back up his comprehensive report and warning about Trump administration efforts to defy and ignore court orders.

🧵

nytimes.com/2025/07/10/us/… The texts and emails absolutely corroborate the whistleblower report, quite exactly. The only lie they reveal is AG Bondi lying that his testimony is “false.” Clearly, it is precisely detailed and beautifully corroborated. Here are some high points.

What's up with Justice Jackson? She started making her mark and speaking out early, and some of her dissents are so pointed Kagan and Sotomayor don’t even join them. The far right is out for her, and even Republican justices are getting snarky.

So what's up? Here’s my take 🧵 One of the internal traditions of the Court is “collegiality.” First, you’re there for life, so you may as well get along.