Today in Politics, Bulletin 71. 2/14/25

… Prosecutor Hagan Scotten wrote an epic resignation letter to Dep AG Emil Bove after refusing to dismiss the corruption case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams: “Any Asst US Attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way. If no lawyer within earshot of the president is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me. Please consider this my resignation.”

… Before Trump and MAGA start trashing Scotten as a radical left Marxist, I would point out that Scotten is a Republican, won two bronze stars in Iraq, and clerked for Supreme Court Justices Kavanaugh and Roberts.

… His resignation followed that of his co-counsel on the case Danielle Sassoon, who previously clerked for Justice Scalia.

… MSNBC Barb McQuaid reported on what happened next this morning: “DOJ leadership has put all Public Integrity Section lawyers into a room with 1 hour to decide who will dismiss Adams indictment or else all will be fired. Sending them strength to stand by their oath, which is to support the Constitution, not the president’s political agenda.”

… Rep. Jamie Raskin: “To AG Bondi—Halt now the threatened firing of the excellent lawyers in the Public Integrity Section. You have no right to fire public servants defending public integrity in order to override the decisions of US Attorney Sassoon and a Grand Jury to prosecute a politician for corruption.”

… NBC Justice Correspondent Ken Dilanian: “The number of resignations today in protest of DOJ’s order to dismiss the Adams case is now triple the number that occurred during the 1973 Saturday Night Massacre. There is shock and dismay across the legal community, regardless of partisan allegiance.”

… NYT reports that Adams’s lawyer Alex Spiro, who is also Elon Musk’s personal attorney, negotiated this slimy, unethical deal with Trump’s former criminal defense attorney Emil Bove, who is now Deputy AG. The story says that since they could not come up with a legal justification to drop charges, Bove suggested an unprecedented political basis to dismiss the fraud indictment.

… The memo that was finally issued said the criminal case “unduly restricted Mayor Adams’s ability” to help Tom Homan round up migrants for deportation. It also specifically admitted that the decision had nothing to do with the evidence or the law. The letter also said that a trial could have Adams stuck in court for a month, so he wouldn’t have time to do his job. It also said that said that Adams lost his security clearance which hurt his ability to work with DOJ on national security investigations.

… Meanwhile, Deportation Czar Homan had his new pet Adams on Fox & Friends, where the two of them laughed it up on their new partnership. Homan made it clear that if Adams fails to cooperate with all his demands, criminal charges will be refiled and Adams will be going to prison: “If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to.’”

… Tom Homan is now essentially the unelected Republican Mayor of NYC.

… But NY Governor Kathy Hochul has the authority and ample justification to remove Adams from his position. Not only would it be the right thing, it would also help her politically as her popularity among NY Democrats has been waning. A lot of the criticism of Hochul from Dems has been that she can be weak and indecisive. Now is her chance to reverse that perception, but every day that goes by with inaction only reinforces it.

… Thug Homan then said he may be putting AOC in jail soon. He told Fox that AOC’s video to migrants informing them of their rights under US immigration law could be criminal obstruction of justice: “I sent a letter to the Deputy AG today asking if that is impeding our law enforcement efforts. If so, what are we going to do about it? Maybe AOC is going to be in trouble now.”

… Axios reports that Homan is feeling the heat from Trump because 21,000 migrants were arrested for deportation just this past November alone under Biden, and Homan is behind that pace for his first month despite all the hoopla, photo ops, and press conferences. Homan says only 14,000 migrants have been arrested since Trump took office.

… The numbers have been so disappointing that Homan’s team has stopped giving daily ICE updates on their deportations.

… Elon Musk launched his new DOGE website and promptly posted classified information about intelligence officials. HuffPost: “DOGE posted classified information about the size and staff of a U.S. intelligence agency on its new website, raising bigger concerns about where Musk’s programmers got this information and what they are doing with it.”

… “An easy search shows that DOGE’s database provides details on the National Reconnaissance Office, the federal agency that designs, builds and maintains U.S. intelligence satellites. Not only are NRO’s budgets and head counts classified, but the prospect of Musk’s tech team meddling in sensitive personnel information is setting off alarms for some in the intelligence community.”

… Steve Bannon warned Republicans in Congress that their current budget deal, which completely guts Medicaid, is not going to be popular with their base: "A lot of MAGAs are on Medicaid. If you don't think so, you're dead wrong. You can't just take a meat axe to it."

… I thought MAGA didn’t believe in socialism and were all self-reliant?

… Newly elected Rep. Rob Bresnahan echoed what Bannon said, sounding the alarm for his fellow swing-district Republicans about the draconian cuts in the GOP budget: “My district “is home to more than 200,000 Medicaid recipients, amounting to 25% of the district. Additionally, it is home to 66,000 Medicare recipients, and 190,000 Social Security recipients."

… Bresnahan: “I ran for Congress under a promise of always doing what is best for the people of NE Pennsylvania. If a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it. PA’s 8th District chose me to advocate for them in Congress. These benefits are promises that were made to the people of NEPA and where I come from, people keep their word.”

… Mike Johnson’s bill that just passed the Budget Committee has zero chance of passing the House as written. This is going to be another fiasco for MAGA Mike. This time even worse than the others because he’s going to have Stephen Miller and Trump screaming at him every day.

… Republican Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker isn’t thrilled with Pete Hegseth’s job performance so far: “He wasn’t my choice for the job. He made a rookie mistake in Brussels and he’s walked back some of what he said but not that line. I don’t know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool."

… Wicker said he also disagreed with Trump’s comments that NATO provoked Russia to invade by considering Ukraine for NATO membership: “There are good guys and bad guys in this war, and the Russians are the bad guys. They invaded, contrary to almost every international law, and they should be defeated. And Ukraine is entitled to the promises that the world made to it.”

… Trump was asked again today who he blamed for the war, Ukraine or Russia: “There are a lot of people to blame.”

… Trump was asked about Wicker’s comments about Hegseth: “I haven’t heard that. I mean, Roger is a very good friend of mine, and Pete is doing a great job. So, I’ll speak to Roger. I’ll speak to Pete. I’ll find out.”

… JD Vance gave his first big speech to an international audience today, addressing the EU’s Security Conference in Munich. He spent his entire speech criticizing and lecturing EU leaders on how they should run their countries, complaining about their liberal immigration and hostility to Musk’s attempts to interfere in their elections to back far-right candidates. His remarks received a very frosty reception from those in attendance.

… Trump said he watched the speech: “I thought it was well received.”

… Vance also said Russian election interference is no big deal: “You can believe it’s wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections, but if your democracy can be destroyed by a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.”

… Vance said the greatest threat to European countries is immigrants: "The threat that I worry most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within."

… Vance then defended Musk’s endorsement and support of far-right candidates in European elections: "Speaking up and expressing opinions isn't election interference, even when people express views outside your own country and even when those people are very influential. If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk."

… Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ): “I was in the room in Munich for VP Vance’s speech. No talk about Russia, Ukraine, China. Just criticisms of our allies and focus on ‘the threat from within.’ His speech is going to embolden our adversaries who will see this as a green light to act while America is distracted/divided.”

… Rep. Seth Mouton (D-MA) said it was a joke for Vance to lecture Europe on free speech and their elections: “What I heard was a very hypocritical speech from the VP. He’s been unwilling to say publicly he accepts the election results from 2020. Trump said just yesterday that members of the J6 committee should be jailed. And they just kicked the AP out of the Pentagon. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more hypocritical speech in my life.”

… German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius after Vance's speech: "Democracy does not mean that a vociferous minority can decide what truth is. Democracy must be able to defend itself against extremists."

… WaPo’s International correspondent Josh Rogin: “Multiple lawmakers here in Munich told me the U.S. Congressional delegation presented Zelensky with a piece of paper they wanted him to sign which would grant the U.S. rights to 50% of Ukraine’s future mineral reserves. Zelensky politely declined to sign it.”

… This extortion is one of Trump’s demands in his “peace” negotiations.

… Trump’s Special Envoy Ric Grenell was also in Munich - probably the only American less popular in Germany than Musk and Vance. He said he may run for governor of CA: “If Kamala Harris runs for governor, I believe that she has such baggage and hundreds of millions in educating voters how terrible she is. It’s a new day in CA and a Republican actually has a shot, and I wouldn’t say no.”

… Grenell has talked about running for governor or senate before, and I have wanted him to do it for years just so this smug, arrogant jerk can find out how deeply unpopular he is with the American public. Voters will get to know him even more if he runs, which will not help Grenell. As Roger Stone said about Desantis: “To know Ron Desantis is to hate Ron Desantis.” Same applies to Grenell.

… NPR reports that Dept of Energy employees who have worked for the agency less than two years are all being fired with no notice or severance. 300 of the 1,800 employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees nuclear weapons, were also fired. The agency maintains and upgrades nuclear weapons, combats nuclear terrorism, and prevent proliferation around the world.

… Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL): “Please, everyone. Check your politics at the door. Firing people who are responsible for guarding our nuclear arsenal is a massive and irreversible catastrophe waiting to happen. Call your GOP rep, tell them to grow a f-ing spine. Scream from the rooftops while you still can.”

… The Dept of Veterans Affairs has fired 1,000 employees. A statement issued said this will save $98 million a year.

… WaPo economic columnist Heather Long: “Roughly 275,000 federal workers lost their jobs this week. That's over 10% of the federal workforce. ~75,000 took the "buyout" ~200,000 probationary workers were let go.”

Slightly abbreviated Bulletin tonight because we are heading out to a Valentine’s Day dinner so this is out earlier than normal. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can read it here.

… Don Jr. is launching a new business venture called ‘The Enhanced Games’, which some are calling the “steroid Olympics.” Athletes will be allowed to use unlimited performance enhancing drugs to allow them to try to break world records in their sport. Junior: “For over 100 years, elites in charge of global sports have stifled innovation, crushed individual greatness, and refused to let athletes push the limits of