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For DOGE, And All Criminal Actors, There Must Be Consequences and Accountability

For a couple weeks, the green world has been rife with rumors that the Trump White House was preparing a series of executive orders to strip climate groups of their non-profit status. In some versions of the story there were attacks far beyond revoking nonprofit status. But it was all rumors, nothing nailed down or tied to a specific source with direct knowledge, at least in any way that a news organization was able to confirm. Then, last night, Bloomberg finally reported the outlines of the story. Climate groups are in the crosshairs, as is CREW, the corruption in government group. As in the earlier scuttlebutt, Earth Day is purported to be the day when the axe may fall. The full scope of the assault remains unclear. (There is chatter that they’ll soon move on to immigration, voting rights and pro-democracy groups.)

Let’s start with the standard disclaimer: this is all completely illegal. There are a series of criteria for nonprofit status tied to the avoidance of explicitly electoral political activity, financial management, internal governance and other matters. You can lose your status for those reasons. The President cannot remove the status because he doesn’t like you or he doesn’t like your ideas.

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Sic DOGE Transit

I learned this afternoon that the entire NIH payment system is currently frozen. So this applies to all grantees. This is because of DOGE’s new “Defend the Spend” caper, which was reported this morning in the Post and which has already led to cutoffs in payments to doctors and health workers serving the poor. The idea behind the plan is to require itemized lists and justifications for all items purchased or money spent with each draw down of funds from a grant account. I’m not clear yet whether this is merely a policy DOGE has imposed or policy backed by an additional software layer they’ve built on to the current system. It sounds like it may be the latter. But I don’t have clarity on that. Intentional sabotage aside, the whole idea seems wholly unworkable without creating crazy bottlenecks. But that sounds like the point.

SCOTUS Can Let the President Break the Law, But It Can’t Change the Law

 Member Newsletter
SCOTUS Can Let the President Break the Law, But It Can’t Change the Law

We are now cranking up another edition of the “will he or won’t he?” Trump song and dance, this time about firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Trump manages to add an additional pungency to these dramas by trying to fire the guy who is actually his own Fed Chair. Biden renominated Powell. But Trump actually gave him the job. Axios just pushed a newsletter update that ran through this drama, first reporting the events of the day and then adding this: “What we’re watching: Federal law and Supreme Court precedent say presidents cannot fire the Fed chair over a policy disagreement.” It then goes on from there. But that’s actually the end of the story. The other possibilities are illegal.

It is critical to remember these things. I’ve often used the metaphor of a pilot’s flight instruments. Under flight rules, you’re taught only to follow the instruments. Your body and senses may be telling you you’re right-side up but actually you’re upside down. They may be telling you you’re going up but you’re actually going down. Your instruments are reality; your body and sensations are lying to you.


For Big Law: Is That Your Final Answer?

 Member Newsletter
For Big Law: Is That Your Final Answer?

Crain’s Chicago has a piece on the law firm deals. It focuses on Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis. The conclusion is the same. There’s no written document. It’s only the bullet-pointed text they shared internally and which Trump posted on Truth Social. When I wrote about this yesterday I realized that there was something that seems so clear that I don’t seem to have said it explicitly enough. So let’s do that: the real goal here is to gain leverage over the firms – regardless of what these notional agreements say – and stop them from taking cases that are in any way unhelpful to Trump, including but not limited to lawsuits fighting his various illegal actions. But the most interesting new information I learned yesterday I found in this article in The Wall Street Journal, which explains that the entire negotiation process is being lead by Trump lawyer and fixer Boris Epshteyn.

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INSIDE …

  • When it comes to peace talks in Ukraine, what does Rubio think we are moving on from? writes Josh Kovensky.
  • Khaya Himmelman weighs in on the Justice Department’s new policy, which unironically bans social media posts that might “be perceived by a reasonable person as injecting their political views into the work they perform.” This, of course, comes despite the fact that the firewall meant to prevent White House political interference in DOJ work has been intentionally dismantled by Attorney General Pam Bondi and the other Trump loyalists running the department.
  • Emine Yücel questions how exactly RFK Jr. intends to discover “what has caused the autism epidemic” by September.
  • Kate Riga examines the split screen between Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) efforts to check in on Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador this week and the White House’s inhumane amusement at its own cruelty toward the man.

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