@MSNOWnews senior legal reporter & recovering litigator; former: off-air legal analyst @maddow, @wagnertonight. Don’t let the pearls fool ya.
Jun 5 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: In opposing efforts to block the Anti-Weaponization Fund in not just one, but two courts, DOJ claims the case is now moot because acting AG Todd Blanche says they've dropped the fund. 1/
I'm not aware of any cases finding a dispute moot because of verbal promises by government officials. But more importantly, based on the cases they cite in their abbreviated legal argument about mootness, nor is DOJ. 2/
May 28 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
The new DOJ investigation of E. Jean Carroll, according to CNN, stems from her testifying at her 2022 deposition that her lawyers were handling her case on contingency and that no one else was funding her case. But correspondence filed in the first-tried Carroll case reflects that it was always more complicated. 1/
In April 2023, as they were preparing for trial, Carroll’s counsel informed Trump’s team that E. Jean recalled that she had learned that a non-profit was helping defray the costs associated with her suit, costs that her lawyers assumed when they took the case on contingency. 2/
Feb 15 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
NEW: DOJ sent Congress a six-page “report,” as required by Section 3 of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. But DOJ’s list of “government officials” and “politically exposed persons” included in the produced materials is, like the redactions themselves, too much and not enough. 1/
On one hand, the letter is missing multiple boldfaced names — like former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland and Steve Tisch — who are under fire because of their dealings with Epstein. 2/
Jan 28 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: As the FBI executes a search warrant at a Fulton County board of elections office, it's worth remembering that there is existing litigation between DOJ and Fulton County over DOJ's attempt to obtain records pertaining to the 2020 election. 1/
In October, and at the request of the Georgia Election Board, DOJ issued a subpoena to Fulton County for "all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County." 2/
Jan 25 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: Folks have been asking why Attorney General Pam Bondi, in her letter to Tim Walz, fixated on DOJ’s obtaining MN’s voting data. The answer may lie in Trump’s public statements—and MN’s last three elections. 1/
On Jan. 9, Trump met with oil and gas executives at the White House in a meeting his administration then posted to YouTube. Roughly 54 minutes in, Trump was asked about the feds’ failure to share evidence of Renee Good’s killing with state officials. 2/
NEW: Comey moves to dismiss on grounds of multiple alleged instances of grand jury misconduct, stating that because the two-count indictment was never presented to the full grand jury, there was no actual indictment within the five-year statute of limitations for the two charged crimes.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
This is hardly Comey's only effort to dismiss the indictment. He has two fully briefed and already argued motions to dismiss: one on grounds of selective/vindictive prosecution and the other due to Lindsay Halligan's allegedly unlawful appointment.
Nov 7, 2025 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: In order to prove vindictive prosecution, a defendant has to show they have been charged due to a genuine animus toward them on account of their exercise of constitutional or statutory rights. That's usually a very tough road to hoe. 1/
Enter Tish James (and her legal team, led by Abbe Lowell). Their brief tonight cites to an Exhibit A, a 112-page compilation of 360 of Trump's public statements dating back to the day after she opened her investigation of the Trump Org and him. 2/
As I was looking for information about the appointment of Kelly Hayes, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, I found an interesting DOJ press release. It describes how U.S. Attorney vacancies should be filled. 1/
Specifically, it explains: “Pursuant to the Vacancy Reform Act, 28 U.S.C. § 546, the Attorney General has the authority to name a U.S. Attorney to serve on an interim basis for up to 120 days.” 2/
Sep 17, 2025 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
On February 27, Attorney General Bondi told Kash Patel she'd learned the NY field office was sittting on thousands of pages of Epstein records in a sharp letter. 1/
justice.gov/ag/media/13913…
And then she gave a directive: "By 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office, including all records, documents, audio and video recordings, and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients, regardless of how such information was obtained." 2/
Sep 17, 2025 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
NOW: House Judiciary Committee is voting on Rep. Raskin's motion to subpoena four major banks for their suspicious activity reports concerning Epstein's transactions; Rep. Massie votes with Democrats against tabling the motion. 1/
These are documents that Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, has been seeking from Treasury without success for months. 2/
Sep 16, 2025 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
The idea that district courts' refusal to unseal grand jury testimony is a barrier on the release on any further Epstein-related information, whether to Congress itself or the public, is a fallacy. 1/
There is a host of information in the DOJ's possession that with or without redactions could be shared. For example, the FBI's own FOIA reading room has a 22-part file concerning Epstein that can be accessed online. 2/
Aug 16, 2025 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Rep. LaMonica McIver moved to dismiss her indictment late last night. The general thrust of her motions is hardly shocking—but her legal team’s retelling of her visit to Delaney Hall, as informed by discovery received from DOJ, contains some big surprises. 1/
The biggest is that V-1, the HSI agent Rep. McIver allegedly assaulted, was heard on the phone announcing he would be arresting Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, despite the fact that Baraka had “stepped out,” because the Deputy Attorney General directed as much. 2/
Aug 6, 2025 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Virginia Roberts Giuffre's family issued a statement to MSNBC about the reported meeting this evening at VP Vance's home tonight about the administration's approach to the Epstein files: 1/
"We understand that Vice President JD Vance will hold a strategy session this evening at his residence with administration officials. Missing from this group is, of course, any survivor of the vicious crimes of convicted perjurer and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein." 2/
Aug 5, 2025 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
NEW: House Oversight's subpoena to DOJ is incredibly broad. It calls for "all documents and communications relating or referring to ... Epstein or ... Maxwell and further relating or referring to human trafficking, exploitation of minors, sexual abuse, or related activity." 1/
In other words, it doesn't just encompass the investigative files but extends to communications between any DOJ officials and third parties, including Maxwell’s legal team or media outlets, with respect to the charged crimes and "related activity." 2/
Jul 26, 2025 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: As the Senate prepares to vote on Emil Bove’s nomination to the Third Circuit, two more whistleblowers have emerged, according to Whistleblower Aid and the Justice Connection. /1
As confirmed by a spokesperson for Senator Durbin, one of these whistleblowers — the one affiliated with Justice Connection, an organization by and for ex-DOJ staff, has provided evidence to Democratic staff of the Judiciary Committee. 2/
Jun 6, 2025 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: The Paul Weiss departures keep coming, this time with former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Damian Williams exiting . . . for Jenner & Block.
jenner.com/en/news-insigh…
Williams -- a former Garland & Stevens clerk who has never worked at a law firm other than Paul Weiss -- served as the U.S. Attorney throughout Biden's presidency and oversaw the prosecutions of Ghislaine Maxwell, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sean Combs, and, of course, Eric Adams.
May 20, 2025 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: While the Department of Justice issued a statement last night about the criminal charges against Rep. McIver, a spokesperson for her legal team confirms that it did not receive the charging document for until this morning, 12-plus hours later. 1/
DOJ policy, as embodied in the Justice Manual, is clear: "DOJ personnel shall not respond to questions about the existence of an ongoing investigation or comment on its nature or progress before charges are publicly filed." 2/
May 14, 2025 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova has been charged criminally with smuggling goods -- e.g., frog embryos and samples thereof -- into the United States on the same day the judge overseeing her habeas case questioned the government's authority to revoke her visa. 1/
The administration told that judge, Christina Reiss, they intend to send Petrova back to Russia, despite her fear of arrest due to her support for Ukraine. Reiss scheduled a bail hearing on May 28, "potentially setting the stage for Ms. Petrova’s release." 2/ ...nytimes.com/2025/05/14/h
Apr 2, 2025 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
There's been significant focus today on what the opinion dismissing the criminal case against Eric Adams says about Trump's DOJ. But what it says about the career prosecutors involved is as, if not more, significant. 1/
The Adams debacle resulted in the resignation of two prosecutors, then-acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon and AUSA Hagan Scotten, both former SCOTUS clerks and all-around superstars. And DOJ placed three other members of the core case team on administrative leave. 2/
Jan 21, 2025 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I want to live in a world where we do not talk about judges as if they owe their allegiance, or their very existence, to a particular president. Based on my experience as both a litigator and a journalist, that describes the vast majority of the federal judiciary. 1/
And yet, Judge Aileen Cannon, for all of her credentials and pre-judicial experience, has consistently staged the hearing of motions in a way that favors Trump and his co-defendants, handpicked a theory of dismissal at the invitation-by-concurrence of Justice Thomas, and even exercised jurisdiction she did not have. 2/
Jan 16, 2025 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
NEW: Per @adamreisstv, Rudy Giuliani is now almost 90 minutes late for a one-day trial on whether his Palm Beach, FL condo can be taken to satisfy his $146 million debt to former GA election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. 1/
Rudy owes the women that money because his failure to participate in their defamation lawsuit was so complete that they won a default judgment on liability. And when they tried the issue of damages to a jury last December, that $146 million was the jury’s award. 2/
