Katurday Reads: Associated Chaos

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

You’re seeing me today because of three days of fasting and a dreaded hospital procedure. Nothing serious. Just no fun at all. It’s kind of like living in this country under Orange Caligula’s craziness. Thankfully, BB came to my rescue yesterday! Now my doctor has to determine the intent of five polyps. She’s not expecting anything bad. Too bad we can’t say the same about the Trump Administration.

We still have a mostly functioning Judicial System. This New York Times headline is a keeper. “5 Takeaways From a Kennedy Center Ruling That Angered Trump. A federal judge ordered the Kennedy Center to take President Trump’s name off the building. What happens next?” Too bad we can’t get some court to stop the damage to the White House and the surrounding grounds. This analysis is by Zach Montague and Julia Jacobs.

In his ruling that President Trump’s name must be removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a federal judge turned his attention to the statute passed by Congress in honor of the slain president.

Signed into law in 1964, only two months after Kennedy was assassinated, the legislation renamed what was first known as the National Cultural Center after a leader who had championed the performing arts.

“The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, designated by this Act,” the law read in part, “shall be the sole national memorial to the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy within the city of Washington and its environs.”

In his ruling on Friday, Judge Christopher R. Cooper of Federal District Court in Washington found that the president’s effort to rebrand the building after himself flew in the face of lawmakers’ original intent. He ordered that the 18 new letters added to the center’s white marble facade — which currently reads the “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” — be removed.

The order also temporarily blocked the center from beginning a two-year closure for renovations, drawing a scathing rebuke from Mr. Trump, who has made the institution a centerpiece of his effort to transform Washington’s cultural landscape.

Here’s what the ruling, the result of a lawsuit by a U.S. representative, may mean for the future of the Kennedy Center:

Congress must be consulted on any name change.

The judge’s decision — released on Kennedy’s birthday — boiled down to a straightforward application of the 1964 law.

“Congress made clear that the Kennedy Center would serve as both the nation’s premier performing arts center and a living memorial, the sole one dedicated to the late president in the Washington, D.C. area,” Judge Cooper wrote. “The center has played those roles for over five decades.”

But as with other projects championed by Mr. Trump, such as a ballroom for which he ordered the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, the plans to overhaul the Kennedy Center did not receive the approval of lawmakers.

While the ruling left open the possibility that the president could pursue and support some aesthetic changes at the center, it professed little doubt about the law surrounding its name, which Judge Cooper said was “crystal clear.”

It’s a long read but well worth it. The link has been gifted, so you may read the entire thing.  Another bit of Trump overreach is going back to court. This is from Politico. “Judge launches inquiry into Trump-IRS settlement that led to ‘anti-weaponization’ fund. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams asked Trump’s lawyers to respond to a call for her to explore the deal that led to the $1.8 billion fund.”  The job market must be booming for lawyers.  The leded here is shared by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein.

A federal judge is demanding answers to allegations that President Donald Trump defrauded her court by filing a lawsuit against the IRS as a pretext to reach a settlement that resulted in a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to make payouts to his political allies.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams launched the inquiry Friday, after closing the lawsuit on her docket last week. The Miami-based Obama appointee cited a request by 35 former federal judges who urged her to reopen the case to determine whether Trump’s effort amounted to “serious misconduct” and an abuse of the court system.

It’s the latest wrinkle in a developing scandal that has drawn bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill, multiple lawsuits aimed at blocking the “anti-weaponization” fund and demands for further investigation by government watchdogs and courts.

Earlier this year, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns by a private contractor in 2019 and 2020. The lawsuit immediately triggered questions about conflicts of interest: How could the Justice Department and IRS now controlled by Trump appointees defend against a lawsuit brought by their boss?

But before the lawsuit advanced, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed that a settlement had been reached. Instead of a payout to Trump, the settlement would result in the establishment of the nearly $1.8 billion fund to make payouts to people described in the settlement as victims of government weaponization.

The announcement generated particular excitement among hundreds of people Trump pardoned for their roles in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with many announcing their intention to pursue payouts. Police officers who defended the Capitol and former Justice Department prosecutors who pursued Jan. 6 defendants sued to block the fund altogether, with another judge earlier Friday ordering a two-week pause on its establishment.

A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In her four-page order Friday, Williams indicated that she’s considering reopening the case. She also noted the former judges’ suggestion that Trump’s attorneys knew from the start that their lawsuit had no merit and filed it solely to justify a purported settlement that the administration wanted to announce.

This doesn’t mean that the J6 rioters are paying any attention to this ruling. This headline is from the AP. “Capitol rioters clamor for payouts from Trump’s new ‘anti-weaponization’ fund despite backlash.”  Michael Kunzelman has the story.

David Johnston was a licensed attorney when he illegally entered the Capitol with a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. More than five years later, the South Carolina man is offering to help fellow “J6ers” apply for payouts from the Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion new fund for people claiming to be victims of a weaponized government.

He’ll do it for a 10% cut of any award, capped at $5,000 apiece.

“I think the narrative is changing” about how the history of that day is being told, Johnston said in a video he posted to social media. “I think good things are happening for us.”

Hundreds of Trump loyalists pleaded guilty to storming the Capitol, admitting under oath that they broke the law. Now pardoned by Trump, many hope to capitalize on their crimes by tapping into the $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate the Republican president’s allies who believe they were politically prosecuted.

A bipartisan backlash to the fund and a legal roadblock have not dimmed the celebratory response from Jan. 6 rioters clamoring for a share of the taxpayer money. Some are staking claims even though the government has not established an application process and a judge has frozen the fund’s formation, at least temporarily.

As usual, you may read more at the link. The Orange Caligula slush fund continues to horrify most Americans. This analysis is provided by Aaron Rupar and Thor Benson writing for Public Notice. “A new low” — watchdog sounds off on Trump’s J6 slush fund. “It’s an effort to signal to the violent element of his base.”

As a weekend bonus for subscribers, we connected with Donald Sherman, president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), for his take on President Trump’s most corrupt move yet — the theft of nearly $2 billion from taxpayers for an insurrectionist slush fund he can operate with impunity.

Sherman characterized Trump’s self-dealing “settlement” with his own government as “corruption on a scale without precedent in America,” and argued its purpose is to incentive political violence.

“It’s an effort to absolve himself and his supporters from the insurrection he incited and to signal to the violent element of his base that if you engage in violence in support of him, you will not just be safe from prosecution, but made whole and then some,” he said. “So it’s not just backward-looking, it’s forward-looking. And it follows his pardoning of the January 6ers, which was another signal.”

This is the article upon which the interview was based. It’s from Citizens for Ethics. The investigation was led by Miru Osuga and Caitlin Moniz.  There’s absolutely nothing that the Trump Grifting Syndicate can’t try to monetize.

In the first fourteen months of President Donald Trump’s second term, the Trump Store launched at least 622 products, costing nearly $43,000 all together, to profit off the presidency. This is an unprecedented level of monetization of the presidency, even by the standards of Trump’s own first term.

The Trump Store’s launch during his first year in office in 2017 immediately attracted ethics scrutiny as the Trump Organization—the for-profit Trump empire that directly benefits Trump and his family—found another avenue to profit off the presidency. And if sales are any indication, it’s now a well-oiled grifting machine, with Trump’s last released financial records showing that in 2024, the store brought in approximately $8.8 million, more than double the amount the store made in 2023—and more than 17 times the amount it made in its first full year of operation.

While the red “Make America Great Again” hats may now seem like the store’s obvious cash cow, during the first Trump term, these hats and others that referenced the presidency were only sold through the campaign store–a largely symbolic separation between Trump the president and Trump the businessman. But after Trump lost the 2020 election, any appearance of separation, slight as it may have been, was shattered as the store began to stock MAGA hats and never stopped.

A supporter now could buy one of each currently in-stock product and spend $91,145.12 on 1,492 items. They would receive at least 99 items that include reference to the presidency costing $7,511.28, with additional items commemorating actions that Trump took as president like a $55 “Space Force” hat or a $50 “Gulf of America – Yet Another Trump Development” ballcap.

More concerningly, they would also receive a number of items that sell the idea of an unconstitutional third presidential Trump term, including a “Four More Years!” hat, “Trump 2028” hats and can coolers, and “Trump 2028 (Rewrite The Rules)” shirts. The body of a Trump Store marketing email with the subject line “Four More Years | Trump 2028” reads: “Manifesting the future…Four More Years…A Hat for the Next Term.” There’s really only one way to take the explicit calls for a “next term” and “four more years” one year into a second presidential term: as a call for an unconstitutional third term.

You should read this article and then proceed to the interview. It’s really exceptional journalism and nothing you’d see in the legacy media these days.

We’ve all wondered about Trump’s obviously failing health. This CNN  News article should not be a surprise.  “White House breaks from precedent by not releasing Trump’s medical report.” Adam Cancryn has the lede.

The White House has yet to release any results from President Donald Trump’s most recent physical exam, a break from its own past practice that’s likely to fuel further questions about his health and fitness.

Trump, who is the oldest president to be inaugurated, declared on social media that he was in perfect health following an hourslong visit on Tuesday to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

But despite promising to provide a summary of the checkup in “the next day or so,” the White House has since offered no additional information — nor has it confirmed that Trump’s physician plans at any point to offer a public readout.

The three-day silence marks a departure from the White House’s handling of Trump’s prior physical exams. After a visit to Walter Reed last April, personal physician Dr. Sean Barbabella summarized the results in a memo released two days later. When Trump returned for another exam in October, Barbabella’s declaration that he remained in “exceptional health” was published later the same day.

This time, Trump has so far served as the only source of information about his own health just weeks out from his 80th birthday.

“It’s unimaginable to me that the White House would not release a statement about the president’s health — even the most basic statement,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor at The George Washington School of Medicine & Health Sciences who was the longtime cardiologist for former Vice President Dick Cheney. “It’s going to really spark concerns about the president’s fitness for office if the White House refuses to disclose his medical report.”

Trump has long been cagey about any personal health problems, placing a great deal of value on portraying himself as a pinnacle of strength and vitality. On the campaign trail and in the Oval Office, Trump has made his vigor core to his political identity, boasting frequently about his mental and physical well-being. Past medical readouts often reflected this attitude: In Trump’s first term, then-presidential physician Dr. Ronny Jackson effusively praised his “incredible genes” during an hour-long press conference solely about Trump’s health, held at the president’s insistence.

But as he approaches his eighth decade, Trump’s visible signs of aging — and at-times erratic behavior — have nevertheless intensified scrutiny of his health and demands for more disclosure. And after intense doubts swirled about the mental acuity of former President Joe Biden, the American public is perhaps particularly sensitive nowadays to questions about the commander-in-chief’s physical and cognitive health.

So, it’s business as usual on steroids at the White House. This story in Lawfare isn’t shocking in Trump time, but wow, would it be unusual under any other President? “The Justice Department Erases History; Lawfare Restores It. Last week, the Justice Department deleted thousands of press releases related to the Jan. 6 insurrection and other matters. Here they are.” Tyler McBrien, Michael Feinberg, and Benjamin Wittes show us their homework.

Last week, the Justice Department began systematically removing material from its web sites regarding the many indictments and convictions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The operation started without fanfare or formal announcement and proceeded largely unnoticed. Until, that is, journalists such as the Washington Post’s Meryl Kornfield took notice of certain press releases and other materials that had conspicuously disappeared from http://www.justice.gov.

“The Trump admin is quietly deleting info about the Capitol attack from the DOJ website as it prepares to give funds to J6ers,” Kornfield posted. “This week, DOJ deleted a press release about one man with an ongoing child solicitation case who came to the Capitol with bear spray.”

Then, with typical bombast, the Justice Department responded by taking issue with one particular aspect of Kornfield’s characterization. “Nothing ‘quiet’ about it,” the DOJ Rapid Response account replied. “We are proud to reverse the DOJ’s weaponization under the Biden administration. We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ’s website of partisan propaganda.”

We are not erasing history quietly, the Justice Department seemed to suggest. We are erasing history loudly and proudly.

At Lawfare, we have restored the vast bulk of what was deleted. We have also started to preemptively archive a raft of material that has not yet been deleted but probably will be, given its thematic relationship to the material that was 86ed.

The Jan. 6 investigation was one of the largest investigations and collections of prosecutions in Justice Department history. In the FBI’s Washington Field Office alone, agents and analysts worked shifts to maintain a 24/7 posture identifying perpetrators. For more than a month after Jan. 6, there was never a time during day or night when roughly a third of the office was not investigating the insurrection or analyzing evidence.

All other FBI field offices, while not dealing with the same volume as the Washington Field Office, also surged agents to help identify, investigate, and apprehend any participants who had traveled to Washington, taken part in the insurrection, and then left town. Record numbers of leads and tips were provided to the FBI, and every single one of them was examined—and if merited—used to predicate a case.

For its part, the Justice Department stood up an entire new branch of prosecutors tasked specifically with these events. Assistant United States attorneys were also brought in from around the country to augment efforts.

This is the record the Justice Department is now trying to delete.

Any effort to erase history and replace it with lies warrants concerted pushback. In this case, the department has deleted a large repository of accessible public information about the storming of the Capitol and the individuals who did it. That data, unlike the court documents that lay beneath them, are in lay language. They are easily digestible by anyone interested. And they contain fair-minded summaries of evidence that—in the overwhelming majority of cases—was either proven in court beyond a reasonable doubt or pleaded to by defendants who ultimately conceded their truth.

Again, please read the details at the link. I’m pretty sure all this J6 build-up has something to do with the midterms and the next presidential election. Are they planting the seeds for more insurrection? Your guess is as good as mine!

Well, that’s it for me today. Time to get back to work on the kathouse! Hope you have a great weekend!

What’s on your Reading, Blogging, and Action list today?