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Congressional Democrats could learn from the everyday Americans who refused to indict congressional Democrats
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A federal grand jury on Tuesday demonstrated for congressional Democrats how not to go along with bullshit.
Reportedly, the anonymous members of a Washington, DC, grand jury refused the request of federal prosecutors to indict congressional Democrats who produced a video urging members of the U.S. military and intelligence services not to break the law.
That’s right, the Department of Justice tried to prosecute members of Congress for telling people in departments over which Congress has oversight to obey the laws Congress enacted. This was the video that so enraged normally cool and reflective Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the one giving illegal orders that too many members of the military are illegally carrying out.
So the grand jury chose to make a point about standing up to power, without standing up to do a PowerPoint™, at the same time that congressional Democrats are trying to figure out whether to stand up and save America from empowering the Department of Homeland (sic) Security.
In other words, will congressional Democrats save everyday Americans like the ones who just saved congressional Democrats?
Federal grand juries consist of everyday citizens — ranging from schlubs to schmoes — whose only commonality appears to be having more sense than members of Congress. For months now, it’s been grand juries standing up to federal prosecutors…
…while Congress just voted without a peep last month to fund federal prosecutors.
It’s not clear (yet) which Democrats the Justice Department sought to indict, or what charges they made up, but the six who made that utterly benign video and may or may not be off the hook now are:
Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO)
Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA)
Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH)
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA)
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI)
Attorney General Pam Bondi could try again with another grand jury. With most attorney generals, the embarrassment of failure might preclude that, but few Trump leaders are known to possess shame glands.
Maybe we’ll hear more about Bondi’s plans when she appears today … for congressional testimony.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee reportedly are looking forward to having Bondi under oath, but there’s no reason to think they’ll ask great questions or that she’ll give substantive answers.
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In fairness, there are some sharp Democrats on the committee with a track record of needle-moving, so ya never know! On the other hand — can’t stress this enough — every Democratic critique of the Justice Department is a boomerang because whatever they’re complaining about … they voted to fund.
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At least now Senate Democrats have the example of Tuesday’s grand jury resistance.
Department of Homeland (sic) Security (DHS) funding runs out (aka, mercifully ends) on Friday at midnight. House Democrats likely don’t have the votes to block new funding — and some House Democrats could vote for it.
But Senate Democrats could filibuster it, if they heed Tuesday’s grand jury lesson even though it didn’t come with helpful dioramas: You can say no.
Here endeth the lesson.
So how floppy are Democrats looking? Republicans are now pushing to make DHS worse. Senate Republicans want unconstitutional language to force local police to do Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) work instead of, y’know, the police work elected representatives of the people decided to prioritize.
This is the GOP response to so-called sanctuary cities, where elected officials have enacted laws and policies protecting the independent power of local police to terrorize the populace their own way. The GOP’s language would force local police to do what ICE and DHS tell them to do.
Press gangs were literally what the British did. We had a war about it and everything.
And won.
Fortunately, Democratic senators call it a non-starter. Unfortunately, Republicans appear to have moved the window of debate, and now there are warning signs of a possible deal.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Tuesday, “There are some things they [flaccid Democrats] will negotiate on — and that's where I think the potential deal space is.”
In reality, the potential deal space should be in deep space. As TFN argued on Monday, no concession is worth making a deal because no deal will be honored in practice.
Remember, we did just fine without DHS for more than 200 years. In which federal agents did not storm U.S. cities, ackshally.
So, what will Democrats be funding if they go into deal space?
In just the past five years, more than two dozen ICE agents and contractors have been charged with crimes they were not ordered to commit. An Associated Press analysis found that this includes both off-the-clock crimes like one agent’s years of violently abusing his girlfriend, and on-the-clock crimes like repeated sexual abuse of a woman in custody.
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And this was before Pres. Donald Trump recruited 10,000 new ones from the ranks of the violent, military fetishists, and sad losers; raising them above both the law and lower standards. And before he let them imprison 70,000 people with minimal legal rights and access to legal advocates.
And we’re gonna fund that?
Newly released text messages shed new light on Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which will also run out of funds — oh noes — on Friday at midnight unless Senate Democrats do something stupid.
After CBP agent Charles Exum shot Marimar Martinez five times, he got text messages from his bosses explaining how good it was that he shot her five times. Never mind that they dropped the case against Martinez.
CBP’s Greg Bovino, later scapegoated out of Minneapolis, praised Exum, and Exum told his unindicted group chat that Bovino said the higher-ups were all supportive: “Everyone has been including Chief Bovino, Chief [Mike] Banks, [DHS] Sec [Kristi] Noem and El Jefe himself.” As Trump himself would no doubt explain, “El Jefe” is Spanish for “The Jefe.”
And we’re gonna fund that?
In testimony Tuesday, ICE acting Director Todd Lyons literally told Democrats to their congressional faces that nothing will change. Testifying before the House Homeland (sic) Security Committee, Lyons said “We are only getting started.”
And the Republicans who control Congress — and will be in charge of enforcing whatever “reforms” Democrats win! — said, in effect, go get ‘em kids. Except without the comma, so literally go get kids.
And we’re gonna fund that?
An Irish man with valid work permit and no criminal record just told Irish radio that he is decidedly not enjoying his all-expenses-paid stay for five months at ICE’s El Paso, TX, concentration camp. (h/t)
In his review, Seamus Culleton suggested he has personal knowledge of just how law-abiding most immigrants are. “I’m not in fear of the other inmates,” Culleton said. “I’m afraid of the staff. They’re capable of anything.”
Contact members of Congress here.
AND LISTEN I got an email from a paid subscriber Tuesday unsubscribing because of anxiety about the news. Which means I’m not succeeding in my mission of helping everyone keep calm and carry on.
Under your favorite president ever, whoever it was, the American government did terrible, dastardly things. Is it more now? And worse? In tons of ways, absolutely, although Trump hasn’t caged nearly as many people for being suspected Latinos as Pres. Franklin Roosevelt caged for suspicion of being Japanese.
Our history is a pendulum swing. While federal behavior may be getting worse, it’s a lagging indicator. The leading indicator is where the people and the momentum are.
And there are congressional Democrats fighting for what we want here. “Shut it down,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), “and maybe, maybe, they’ll take us serious and understand that we are unwilling to negotiate some minimal crap.”
Newsfuckers, we’re in such better shape now than we were a year ago. Even Republicans on Tuesday at that House hearing with Lyons were voicing doubts about ICE. Even if congressional Democrats cave on DHS, now is precisely not the time to despair. In fact, it’s at least quarter-past despair. Now is the time for joyous pendulum-pushing. For better members of Congress in the future, and better policy right now.
Look…
America Saved from the SAVE America Act
Republicans don’t have the votes to push the SAVE America Act past a Senate filibuster, and now it looks like they also don’t have the votes to save the SAVE America Act by killing the filibuster.
House Republicans are expected to pass it today — and if anyone grabs a link for which Democrats vote for it, please drop it in the comments! — and longtime Newsfuckers know that its requirements for documentation to vote would disenfranchise potentially millions of people from their right to vote.
That’s because identifying documents such as passports and birth certificates may not match names changed via marriage or gender transitions. Not to mention that voter ID rules almost always disenfranchise the poor and people of color disproportionately.
But it appears to be doomed in the Senate — assuming Senate Democrats hold firm! — because reportedly there aren’t enough votes to change the filibuster rules. Right now, you can filibuster just by saying, “I hereby declare ye olde filibuſtereth.”
The rule change would force actual filibustering — standing and yacking. Which, honestly, I’d like to see. It’d give oppositional Democrats a spotlight. And it’d stop everything else in the Senate deader than The Boat-iac Killer™’s 130 fatalities.
Luckily, according to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), “There aren’t anywhere close to the votes, not even close, to nuking the filibuster.” (Now ask him about Iran!)
MINNESOTA More pendulum swinging in federal court Tuesday! Remember all the anxiety over Attorney General Pam Bondi trying to extort Minnesota into handing over its voter rolls? Nothing is final. Everything changes.
And a Trump-appointed judge on Tuesday dismissed Bondi’s lawsuit seeking those voter rolls. Trump and Bondi are now 0-3 after losing attempts to get the voter rolls of Oregon and California.
Of course, they could try to indict those federal judges, but their record for seeking political indictments this week is already 0-6.
“Abolish ICE” Is a Winning Message
We have a winner in last week’s New Jersey congressional special election, and it’s not ICE.
The district is Democratic, but not “Abolish ICE”-Democratic. Until now.
Progressive activist and former staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Analilia Mejia got a call Tuesday from former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who had been expected to win, conceding that he did not.
As Michelle Goldberg wrote for the New York Times about Mejia:
Her rivals in last week’s crowded contest also criticized ICE. But Mejia, the daughter of Colombian and Dominican immigrants and a veteran of the progressive Working Families Party, was unique in the clarity of her opposition. She called for ICE to be abolished, not just reformed.
As Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said, “Mejia’s victory is a table setter for the entire 2026 election year, making clear that voters want the Democratic Party to fight with backbone against powerful interests – from Donald Trump to ICE to billionaire oligarchs who rig our economy against working people.”
Green added that “it's okay to be inspired again, that being inspired and winning are the same, and that electing real organizers like Analilia is key to getting people to the polls and building a durable coalition.”
Kennedy Tries to Kill Flu Vaccine
I need to emphasize more that so many bad-news headlines aren’t determinative. They’re steps in a process. That’s true of this insane story, too. And just because we lament its terribleness, that’s to inspire the fight for victory, not to mourn a loss. Now, today’s newest stupidity…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected an application for a new flu vaccine, Moderna said Tuesday. Now, “flu” might not sound so bad, but when we call it “influenza” we’re more likely to remember that it kills half a million people annually around the world.
Moderna’s vaccine is said to be 26.6% more effective than the regular flu shot, thanks in part to its messenger-RNA technology. But mRNA was the big breakthrough for the COVID vaccine, so Health (sic) and Human (sic) Services (sic) Secretary Robert F-in-biology Kennedy, Jr., doesn’t like it. Which is ironic, because he personally dealt drugs that were also not FDA approved.
The vaccine is already in the pipeline for Europe, and it will be here, too, once the politics — already turning against the anti-vax movement — make it so. Which is why we don’t despair, we joyously push the pendulum.
Tariffic Job, Three Republicans!
It took just three Republican defections in the House of Representatives to kill a bill shielding Pres. Donald Trump from tariff blowback.
The Republican bill would have blocked any votes challenging Trump’s tariffs until mid-summer. [I haven’t seen the movie, so add movie-appropriate jokes in the comments, please.]
The vote clears the way for a Democratic measure to quash Trump’s illegal use of “emergency” powers to impose tariffs on Canada due to a sudden non-emergency he made up.
BORDERING ON NARCISSISM The vote came as Trump confessed to Fox that the tariffs are for securing not America’s economy, but the coked-up squirrel that is his ego. Referring to tariff discussions last year with the then-president of Switzerland, Trump said:
“[I]t was at 30% and I didn’t really like the way she talked to us, and so instead of giving her a reduction I raised it to 39%.”
In other words, his ego is even weaker than his federal prosecutions, so he not only shields it with tariff powers meant to shield U.S. industrial sectors, he actually uses the royal “we.” Because he’s not for you, he’s for royal we/us.
Two Quickies
Republicans are scrambling to get rid of any lingering Hispanic votes they might still have. Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), who typically says vile and stupid things, branched out Monday into hilariously self-defeating. Fine called on the Federal Communications Commission to fine the NFL, NBC, and Bad Bunny for the “pornographic filth” in the Super Bowl half-time show. That’s right, Randy Fine wants Bad Bunny fined for being too randy. In a joyous celebration of Puerto Rican culture.
I understand why people are fixated on the Nancy Guthrie case — it’s pretty insane — but I’ve been doing my best to avoid it, if only because we need more people fixated on the America case. But it did occur to me on Tuesday how existentially terrifying it must be, with your sick, elderly mom missing, to have someone reassure you with the phrase, “Kash Patel is doing everything he can.”
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