TRUMPED-UP CHARGES

The arrest of reporter Don Lemon shows Trump taking his assault on journalists, and Minneapolis, to a new level of depravity.

• President Donald Trump’s team keeps finding creative new ways to make the crisis in Minnesota even worse. His latest outrage: Locking up journalists, apparently for just doing journalism. Federal authorities arrested former CNN anchor Don Lemon on Thursday evening after he reported on a protest earlier this month at a Minnesota church, where the pastor is an ICE agent. It’s the latest example of Trump using the Department of Justice as a political weapon to attack his foes, shield his allies, and target anyone who steps into the path of his immigration rampage.

• Lemon and local journalist Georgia Fort were arrested “in connection with the coordinated attack” on the church, Attorney General Pam Bondi tweeted. Lemon was charged under the FACE Act, which historically has been used against those who block access to abortion clinics but can also apply to houses of worship. It’s the second time this month that Trump’s DOJ has targeted a journalist.

• The DOJ’s original complaint against Lemon was rejected by a judge. The department’s appeal was also rejected, by a famously conservative judge who wrote that Lemon and his producer “were not protestors at all; instead, they were a journalist and his producer. There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so.” But Bondi kept pressing until she got her indictment.

• “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”

• Tensions in Minnesota are rising. “We’re not surrendering our mission at all,” border czar Tom Homan said yesterday. Trump described Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse killed by agents, as an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist” in a social media post at 1:26 a.m. (Can someone please set screentime limits on this guy’s phone???) Bondi was in the city this week, personally overseeing the arrest of “rioters” who have been “resisting and impeding” agents. The DOJ announced today that it has opened a civil rights investigation into Pretti’s death. But agents still haven’t been held accountable for his or Renee Good’s shootings, and local investigators have been shut out of the process.

• Some DOJ employees are balking at Trump’s flagrant politicization of their work. The department is bracing for even more resignations in the state’ federal prosecutors’ office, which could “decimate the US Attorney’s office as they are pursuing cases against immigrants and protesters,” CNN writes.

Meanwhile, grassroots resistance to the ICE crackdown keeps growing.

• Donations are flowing in. Oath, a progressive fundraising platform that aims to help donors spend their money in the most impactful way, raised more than $1.2 million toward its “Fight Back Against ICE” fund in a 24-hour period this week, the company exclusively told What A Day. It’s the most money the group has ever raised in one day.

• “We have a mandate right now to build the largest possible coalition to fight against what Trump is trying to accomplish with ICE,” Oath founder Brian Derrick told What A Day. “We have to provide actionable ways for them to meaningfully right the ship.”

• The money will go toward grassroots organizing groups in Minnesota, a group of local prosecutors working to hold federal agents accountable, and several Democrats in competitive House races. The highest priority races include two in Ohio, one in Nevada, and one in California, Derrick said.

• Anti-ICE pushback is spreading across the country. Americans nationwide are engaged in a “blackout” protest, in which participants don’t work, don’t shop, and don’t go to school. It’s not just some social media trend; in the nation’s capital, I’ve seen several businesses post about being closed for the day, including my favorite bookstore and tea shop.

• The big irony for Trump: The harder he cracks down, the worse his poll numbers get. Democrats have seized on that political weakness, successfully pressuring the White House to strike a tentative deal to avoid a government shutdown and negotiate new guardrails on federal agents. Some groups and pundits on the left blasted Democrats for agreeing to fund ICE at all. But the result is widely viewed as a significant win for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Here’s a silver lining to this week of dark news: Bruce Springsteen’s new anti-Trump anthem is already at the top of the iTunes charts — in 19 countries.

Friday Read: The Rot Goes Deeper Than ICE by Crooked’s Ben Rhodes in the New York Times.

FILE-FIGHTING

The DOJ dropped three million pages of Epstein files today, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images. Donald Trump’s name appears in at least 3,200 documents, according to the New York Times.

Many of those mentions appear to be from tipsters who called investigators, mentions in the news, or deceased child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein musing about Trump’s 2016 presidential run.

Reporters and the public are still hunting for fresh details about Trump’s involvement with Epstein in the new files, which were released a month after a congressionally-mandated deadline. The White House had “no oversight and they did not tell this department how to do our review and what to look for and what to redact or not redact,” Deputy AG Blanche told reporters today.

But the documents did include some strange new stuff, including Epstein’s conversations with tech freak Elon Musk, who asked to visit the financier’s infamous island. “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Musk wrote in an email.

MAGA Godfather Steve Bannon also features prominently, chatting casually with Epstein. In one text conversation, Epstein repeatedly asks Bannon if he received the Apple Watch he sent him for Christmas.

The tranche also revealed that Commerce Secretary Howard Luntick planned to travel to Epstein’s island in 2012… despite having previously said that he cut off ties with Epstein in 2005. Weird!

House Democrats accused the DOJ of not releasing all the files. Trump and his team “have made it clear that they intend to withhold roughly 50% of the Epstein files, while claiming to have fully complied with the law,” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said in a statement. “This is outrageous and incredibly concerning.”

WHAT ELSE? 👀

Donald Trump tapped conservative economist Kevin Warsh to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in May. What should we expect from him? In November, he penned an op-ed bashing the central bank’s “broken leadership” and praising Trump’s economic policies. Trump has made it very clear he wants to use the Fed to jack up the stock market and economy in the short run, with a policy that experts warn could send inflation spiraling out of control.

Warsh still has to be confirmed by the Senate however, which could be tricky because of Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who pledged to oppose any nominee until the probe in Powell is “fully and transparently resolved.” When asked if Warsh could be confirmed without Tills’s blessing, Senate Majority Leader John Thune responded: “Uh, probably not.”

Trump fumed at a reporter today who asked why he’s suing the IRS for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns in his first term. “You’re a loud person! Very loud! Let somebody else have a chance,” he said. “ABC fake news!”

Israel said that it plans to open the Gaza border crossing into Egypt on Sunday, in a sign that the ceasefire is progressing.

Luigi Mangione, the suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter, won’t face the death penalty after a judge threw out two charges against him — including murder through use of a firearm. Mangione is still facing a life sentence without possibility of parole.

Famous musicians are staying away from the United States because of ICE’s actions. “America is a dangerous place at the moment, so you have to take that into account,” Queen guitarist Brian May told the Daily Mail. “Everyone is thinking twice about going there at the moment.”

The Biden administration blocked an early warning of an “Apocalyptic Wasteland” in the Gaza Strip from being widely disseminated in early 2024, according to Reuters. The details are jarring: USAID staff “reported seeing a human femur and other bones on the roads, dead bodies abandoned in cars and ‘catastrophic human needs, particularly for food and safe drinking water,’” the outlet writes. “But the U.S. ambassador to Jerusalem, Jack Lew, and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, blocked the cable from wider distribution within the United States government because they believed it lacked balance.”

LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️

Trump’s response this week to Alex Pretti’s killing brought together an unlikely coalition: Gun rights and gun safety groups. In a rare rebuke, gun rights groups criticized the president for saying that protestors shouldn’t carry guns. This is the first time in my memory that Giffords has any point of agreement with the NRA or the Gun Owners of America,” Giffords Executive Director Emma Brown told What A Day.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani surprised a children’s classroom by popping into their virtual call during a snow day this week. He then read a story from a children’s book, earning a round of applause. The kids’ reactions were so adorable.

A Vogue Japan cover features pop star Ariana Grande… with six fingers. The bizarre error quickly went viral, with social media users wondering if the magazine used AI to edit the photo. “Oh my goodness how exciting! I’ve been saying I need some extra appendages so that I can start an album! Thankful for this,” Grande joked on Instagram.

A local Chicago news station caught a crossing guard on film carrying a kid, who didn’t want to get his new Air Jordans wet, across a wet and icy road. Since then, a GoFundMe for the crossing guard has raised more than $8,500.

A Kentucky woman brought a newborn calf into her family’s home to save it from the freezing winter temperatures. After being cleaned, the calf climbed onto the couch and slept alongside the woman’s two children. “They crawled up next to her like it was just the most normal thing,” the woman said. Her 3-year-old son named the calf Sally, after his favorite “Cars” character.

Meet Lighting! What a great name for a donkey.

“In North Carolina, we mostly had sleet over the weekend. But I still had to go to work to take care of our animals. Here’s Lightning in his coat to keep him nice and warm.”

— Nicole