It seems like every week we have a story about a lawsuit over Trump’s desecration of Washington D.C., and this week is no exception. We’ve also got the Justice Department doing new sleazy things. And then we’ve got the secretary of agriculture using her official email to praise Jesus to every department employee. Sadly, that’s probably going to start happening every week as well.
About Trump’s library …
Who would have thought that Miami residents wouldn’t love Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sliding a multimillion-dollar parcel of the city’s land over to President Donald Trump for free so he could build his Bribe Library/Hotel/Airplane Hanger?
Attribution: APFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis loves talking about “the free state of Florida”—but apparently, that means Florida’s land is free for President Donald Trump’s taking.
The residents are suing under the emoluments clause, which you will no doubt recall came up a lot in Trump’s first term, back when we thought it actually mattered that the president took gifts from foreign leaders. The president is also forbidden from receiving any emoluments from a state as well, and a parcel of prime real estate worth at least $67 million is quite the gift.
In a normal world, this case would be a slam dunk, but of course, in a normal world, we wouldn’t have a president who treats taxpayer dollars like his personal piggy bank and enthusiastically accepts any bribes that come his way.
The lawsuit was sparked in part by Trump declaring that it isn’t going to be a library but rather “most likely going to be a hotel with a beautiful building underneath and a 747 Air Force One in the lobby.” In essence, Trump seems to have gotten some of the best real estate in Miami for free, ostensibly for a library that will really be a hotel—and DeSantis engineered the giant giveaway.
We all know DeSantis will do anything to impress Trump, but this is corruption on a huge scale.
About that golf course …
On May 4, the Department of Justice told a court that the plaintiffs suing to stop Trump from taking over the public East Potomac golf course didn’t have a case because the administration had not yet made a final decision about what to do with it? Then, four days later, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum bragged in a post on X about how the National Park Service is going to “renovate” the East Potomac and, yep, turn it into a “top-tier 18-hole championship golf course capable of hosting pre-eminent tournament golf.”
Three days after that, the plaintiffs filed a notice with the court, informing it of Burgum’s statement and pointing out that this sounds quite a bit like a final decision has been made. The plaintiffs then had to file another notice on Thursday, after Burgum posted that he was “excited to unveil the design for the East Potomac Golf Links renovation from Fazio Design,” accompanied by a blurry image of the course design.
Now that Trump is forging full steam ahead with this, you can expect the administration to argue that plaintiffs cannot possibly stop the so-called renovation, because they’ve already started digging and defiling, and you don’t want just a pile of ripped-up dirt now, do you?
Maybe the DOJ will try to tell the court that the golf course is necessary for national security, just like the ballroom.
About that legal authority …
In one of the many cases the administration is embroiled over in its ceaseless efforts to seize voter rolls—cases they keep losing—the DOJ has hit upon a novel approach: Have the Department’s Office of Legal Counsel whip up a little opinion that says it is totes legal for the executive to demand states turn over voter rolls and also just then slide those voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security.
Attribution: APThe Department of Justice building in Washington, shown in December 2024.
Then the DOJ filed a memo with the court, informing it and the plaintiffs that it was supplemental authority. Now, it’s not unusual to provide supplemental authority as such. It happens often when a relevant case is decided while your case is pending. It’s a way to alert both the court and plaintiffs that you will be relying on something they have not seen yet.
But the whole point is that you are offering supplemental authority, as in a legally binding authority. The OLC memo is very much not that. Internal DOJ memos do not constitute any sort of authority as far as the court is concerned. Giving the court a very favorable memo that your very amenable OLC filed on Tuesday, the same day the DOJ filed into the lawsuit, shows how very fake this is.
It’s also a slap in the face to the judges. Every lawyer at the DOJ knows this memo means nothing, is not an authority that the judge is required to consider. The DOJ’s disdain for the courts is truly remarkable.
About that press release …
Buckle up because this is a bit hard to follow.
U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, a Black woman appointed by former President Joe Biden, ordered the release of Bryan Rafeal Gomez, an undocumented immigrant, in late April.
After she did, the Department of Homeland Security pounced, putting out a press release saying, “Activist Biden Judge Releases Violent Criminal Illegal Alien Wanted for Murder.”
That sounds bad! What kind of judge would release someone she knew was wanted for murder?
Well, it turns out the judge didn’t know Gomez was wanted for murder, because the
DHS and DOJ seemingly conspired to withhold that information from her. The administration knew that there was an international warrant for Gomez’s arrest for a homicide in the Dominican Republic. Not telling the judge that was clearly a setup to get her to unknowingly release someone wanted for murder so the administration could make social media content about how she released a murderer.
DuBose has referred the DOJ lawyer at the heart of this for discipline, which is a no-brainer.
Of course, the administration is claiming that it is “intimidation” to refer the attorney for discipline and that actually DuBose was the one committing misconduct for … reasons?
About that email …
A group of federal employees just slapped Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins with a lawsuit for her habit of invoking Jesus Christ in government emails.
Attribution: APAgriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, shown in April.
These emails are not subtle or inclusive of other religions. Her Christmas message, sent from her official work account, had a video attached where Rollins allegedly burbled on about how
“The spirit of generosity flows from the very first Christmas when God gave us the greatest gift possible, the gift of his Son and our Savior Jesus Christ, who came to free us from our sins and open the door to eternal life. This is the reason for the season…”
On Easter, she sent a lengthy email allegedly saying things like this: “From the foot of the Cross on Good Friday to the stone rolled away from the now empty tomb, sin has been destroyed. Jesus has been raised from the dead. And God has granted each of us victory and new life. And where there is life—risen life there is hope.”
As the plaintiffs point out, getting such emails from the top agency official “conveys the expectation that USDA employees share in the Secretary’s religious beliefs, even when doing so would betray an employee’s own beliefs.”
Silly employees.Don’t they know there’s no more separation of church and state?