Wednesday, February 11, 2026

A post earlier featured the new Minnesota boutique criminal defense law firm, Thompson Jacobs, who represent, as of today, a high profile defendant.

 Business is popping. The pair know all the shabby tricks prosecutors pull, and emphasize their investigation chops. As in quitting over orders down the hierarchy from Trump, via a Bondi couduit. Orders to not invetigate the obvious bur rather the devious, and they were too moral to do that. 

In any even NYT:

Facing charges over his role at a church protest, Mr. Lemon, a journalist, retained a veteran litigator who recently resigned from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota.

Things move in mysterious ways, when you have a defendant who knows the score, and a decimated prosecution, facing better experienced peers. That trial - if it ever happens - will be a joke of a slop-over onto the Bondi-Trump thing, which cares more about the Epstein Papers anyway. The crabgrass guess is a pretrial dismissal, unless Bondi-Trump judge shop for somebody like that lady creep in Miami, who let things stall into the second term demise over wrongly expropriated classified shit.

Don Lemon, good job, sir. From the article:

Joseph H. Thompson, a former senior federal prosecutor who resigned from the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota in mid-January over the Justice Department’s handling of the immigration operation, has joined Mr. Lemon’s defense team, according to a court filing.

Mr. Thompson’s appointment is the latest plot twist in a high-profile case that has been anomalous from the start. By representing the most prominent of nine defendants charged in the church protest case, Mr. Thompson will face off against a department that employed him for nearly 17 years. Mr. Thompson will work alongside Mr. Lemon’s lead defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell.

The government’s investigation began after Mr. Lemon, a former CNN anchor who now works as an independent journalist producing content for a YouTube show, accompanied protesters who disrupted the Sunday morning service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan. 18. Demonstrators targeted the church because one of its pastors, David Easterwood, is a senior official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the state. Mr. Easterwood was not at the service.

Mr. Lemon, 59, met with protest organizers at the parking lot of a grocery store, followed them into the church and live streamed as they chanted “ICE out!” and “Hands up, don’t shoot!”

And the evil empire squealed and bleated - A CHURCH, THEY DESECRATED A CHURCH. OF GOD!

As if Trump cares. Hegsetn, he's enough bats in the belfrey to care, and likely will get another Cross tattoo over the ourrtage he must be inclined to show to keep the public persona humming. What they've yet to show is what the man has inked onto his ass.

More NYT generic detail - 

In a video of the protest Mr. Lemon posted on social media, he is seen interviewing worshipers as well as protesters inside the church, at one point saying, “We are not part of the activists, but we’re here reporting on them.”

That night, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, issued a statement calling Mr. Lemon’s role in the protest “pseudojournalism” that was not protected under the First Amendment.

Days later, a federal magistrate judge signed arrest warrants for three of the protesters but declined to sign off on warrants for the arrest of Mr. Lemon and four other people. The chief federal judge in Minnesota, Patrick J. Schiltz, agreed with the magistrate judge, saying the government had not produced evidence that Mr. Lemon had broken the law.

Well he was there, and he publicized it. So there. NYT recites how an Indictment was obtained, making a new phrase of out times appropriate. Free the Easterwood Nine

Although crabgrass hasn't heard it chanted, crabgrass does not get around and if it's pumped enought, it will get chanted. That's the expectation, here. NYT adds:

The aggressiveness with which the Justice Department has pursued the church protest case has unsettled career prosecutors, according to several people familiar with events at the U.S. attorney’s office in recent days. Several of them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, have noted that the indictment does not include the names of any career prosecutors at the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota as would be common in a civil rights criminal case.

Mr. Thompson, who had been the second in command at the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, resigned on Jan. 13 along with several colleagues after clashing with leaders at the Justice Department over its handling of the investigation into the killing of a Minneapolis woman, Renee Good, by an ICE agent.

Yes. It is a real chkcken shit thing being done. But it's Trump, and after all, when it's not big time bullshit out of the man, it's little super-petty chicken shit instead.

Trump the variant, you could say.

In any event, now, this band of misfit individuals, will see "pseudojournalism" get its day in court, and unless they've facts discovered that Lemon somehow masterminded the thing, his being there, with a bona fide press background, is what journalism is about. 

Crabgrass, it's editorial here, but Lemon had boots on the ground. As Bovino had boots on the ground (and tear gas canisters hanging over his heart).They were there. Lemon was dressed more like a normal human, but MY GOD, IN A CHURCH!!

Over all -- Big deal. They were there. The service ended up not being the same old shit where the young were dragged there and bored. Instead, it popped. 

And in considering Lemon "there" and Bovino "there" the perplexing ongoing problem, is how sinister "there" was because Trump had a hardon against every of his percieved "enemies," including the entire State of Minnesota, which, somehow wronged the man by liking Biden better. And some voted for that pile.

____________UPDATE__________

Abbe Lowell is the lawyer Hunter Biden used, where vindictive prosecution was obvious and well argued, before a brick instead of a subtle perceptive judge, and the Easterwood Nine have the briefing already done. Change the names, but the cases are all the same. How the judge shopping shows up will be interesting, but while Justice is blind, expect that she'll set down the scales, and face-palm on the quality question for this prosecution happening. What else can Justice do, this one being what it is. IN CLOSING

FREE THE EASTERWOOD NINE!!!!! Chanting it as a mantra, try it. It can, when chanted long enough with a skilled mastered breathing pace, really buzz the mind.

And please, cheer for and support the new Minnesota criminal defense boutique. 

They're news. Don Lemon now is news. Little else really is. And Epstein is alive in Tel Aviv. It was a double that got snuffed in the detention cell. Really. Epstein and Putin have teamed to run Trump as a meandering puppet. Xi applauds. Prove me wrong.

Well, perhaps a detail or two may not square, but as the dead Charlie said, Prove - Me - Wrong. 

____________FURTHER UPDATE______________

https://emptywheel.net/don-lemon-hires-minnesotas-top-public-integrity-prosecutor/


 And when one person mentioned may not represent a household name, there is X at https://x.com/AAGDhillon - showing Dhillon is a Bondi. Equal in capability. Perhaps better in court. 

At any rate, Wheeler does her usual thorough job, so go there, read it, follow her links, and realize she's more on top of  things than crabgrass. Here you get feeling and a picture, there you get a story.

The bottom line is things are lawyered up, and will grind tediously to some resolution, likely by the time nobody really cares anymore. 

 

What's the term for a sychophant to a sociopath?

A Bondi.

 

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

EmptyWheel is now doing YouTube content.

Wheeler has posted video on her site, and also on YouTube, e.g. here.

As I understand things, Wheeler earned a Comp Lit doctorate from Michigan, and has chosen legal issues to analyze from that background and is now branching into video work to  bolster and supplement her primarily text-based website:

https://emptywheel.net/ 

 

This is NOT an ad. It's news --- "Thompson Jacobs is a boutique law firm based in Minneapolis, specializing in complex white collar defense, internal investigations, civil litigation, and trial advocacy. With decades of experience and unique insight into White Collar Defense, Internal Investigations, and Civil Litigation, Thompson Jacobs provides strategic expertise for high-stakes legal challenges."

 

image source: https://www.thompsonjacobs.com/

Why news? If you reach the point where the boss is a domestic terrorist, bail, and then work the other side of the street.

The boss? Trump - Bondi - Todd Blanche - Stephen Miller

Domestic Terror? The story of The Siege of Minnesota, Bovino to Homan, Refusal of BPA co-investigation of the two federal agents' killing acts, point blank shootings as excessive force by fed goons - Boss saying investigate Good's Widow. FBI tasked to investigate Pretti shooting, again, with BPA sidelined, and WHO DO YOU TRUST?

Ultimately the federal goons leave, while we stay here and live. It's the story of the Vietnam War again. They leave, harm aplenty, but they leave. The French and the US in Vietnam. The federal terror thugs of ICE and CBP in the case of the Siege of Minnesota.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joseph-h-thompson-946a84ab_i-recently-left-the-department-of-justice-activity-7426674676141211648-ZQYS

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joseph-h-thompson-946a84ab_i-recently-left-the-department-of-justice-activity-7426674676141211648-ZQYS 

https://www.thompsonjacobs.com/ (from which the headline was lifted).

GOOD LUCK TO THE ONES WITH THE MORAL STRENGTH TO BOOGIE OUT THE DOOR WHEN IT GOT SO DEEP THEY'D HAVE NEEDED HIP WADERS...

 =============================

MPR posts a brief notice: 

Former Minnesota federal prosecutors launch private defense firm

 For background -

With latest Minnesota fraud case looming, the lead prosecutors have quit

 Do your own search = thompson jacobs law firm minnesota

That search will return several news reports.

WISH THEM WELL, PLEASE 

 _______________UPDATE_____________

Leaving it there is in part an injustice to the records of the two, so briefly, from Strib's own reporting:

Ex-Minnesota prosecutors start law firm

[...] Thompson served as the interim U.S. Attorney in Minnesota and was the lead federal prosecutor on several high-profile fraud cases, include Feeding our Future.

Jacobs also worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, most recently as the chief of the criminal division. Jacobs was the lead attorney prosecuting Vance Boelter in the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and attempted killing of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

Thompson and Jacobs were among a majority of the leadership team at the U.S. Attorney’s Office who resigned last month over the direction of the Justice Department under the Trump administration.

 

Sunday, February 08, 2026

They don't give daily average stats for number of tear gas releases, license plate swaps, number of pepper spray facials, phone grabbings, deadly shootings, and citizen or migrantr beatings. Strange. Stuff like that matters to Minnesotans.

 https://www.ice.gov/doclib/news/library/factsheets/pdf/day-in-life-ero.pdf

Nor do they report their stats, per deployed agent in Minnesota, vs elsewhere.

It's as if they've only one story they want to tell, and there's an entirely separate story citizens need to process. So what's their site stats worth, especially if you've been one of the many tear gassed or pepper sprayed, dragged from your car, pushed violently to the ground and handcuffed by several, or been thereafter stored for hours on end in the Whipple Building for no reason whatsoever besides the goons grabbed you and had their way with you? It's not a complex question. What's it worth?

Perhaps another letter from Pam Bondi may shed light. As to motives and effectiveness of the federalized infestation of Minnesota, (for intimidation and poll boost effects, which appear to be the only real aims besides it being a ransom letter for State data she's no right to access).  

Whatever Bondi had in mind with that first hummer of a letter; blowback, blowback, may all the Trumpitistas face ever more blowback, drowning in blowback from their smug excesses in treating Minnesota as a federal  toilet. Polls plummeting being a good start. But, please, only a start.


TB in the Gulag.

https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/immigration/2026/02/06/2-active-cases-of-tuberculosis-at-confirmed-at-ice-detention-facility/88480304007/ 

Spice up the stay with disease trepidation to get the old blood flowing, eh? 

And when the anti-immigrant surge quells, will Gulag locations be closed, or repurposed? Besides illegal immigrants there are citizens, legally admitted foreign nationals, Indian tribes, and black people (the latter two being subgroups of citizens). Also, crazed leftists which any Republican will tell you are non-Republicans.

In terms of repurposing we are a nation that can be as creative with our Gulag, as Israel is with Gaza. Possibilities are endless. Work makes free, or some such. Or turn each one into a casino to compete with the tribes. Trump likes casino adventure. Or did.

UPDATE: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2026-01-21/the-black-hole-of-camp-east-montana-three-deaths-in-44-days-at-the-largest-migrant-detention-center-in-the-us.html 

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-renews-calls-for-closure-of-camp-east-montana-following-reports-that-detained-immigrant-was-choked-to-death-by-ice-officer 

https://sahanjournal.com/news-partners/third-death-suicide-ice-custody-camp-east-montana-el-paso-texas-fort-bliss/ 

 FURTHER: compare: https://www.ice.gov/detain/ice-health-service-corps - withhttps://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/ice-stopped-paying-for-detainee-medical-care-as-population-surged/ 

https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2025/10/07/immigrants-now-fear-ice-where-they-should-feel-safe-hospitals/ 

https://bpdhealthcare.com/icu_blog/ice-raids-in-hospitals-whats-changed-what-hospitals-are-experiencing-and-how-to-respond/ 

And remember, ICE and CBP are different. ICE had a single agent (three shots)  kill a Minnesota citizen. CBP used two agents (10 shots) in its Minnesota citizen killing. 

That might help you keep the two Noem-and-Miller headed operations apart in your mind in understanding the outlook of Minnesota citizens toward the ongoing infestation. Glocks were used in the CBP murder, the weapon used in the ICE murder has not been reported. Both murders were on the ended Bovino watch. We await the murder count from the ongoing Homan watch, so far, zero. The Minnesotan resident whose death was third among about three thousand detainees at the East Montana site in the Gulag is a separate thing.

 

 

A ram's horn is crooked. Leading to a saying. Wholly apart from that, the Trump family is at it again.

 

Days before Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, an investment firm controlled by a senior member of the United Arab Emirates royal family secretly signed a deal to pay $500m to buy almost half of a cryptocurrency startup founded by the Trump family. Under any other president, such an arrangement, which was revealed this past weekend by the Wall Street Journal, would cause a political earthquake in Washington. There would be demands for an investigation by Congress, televised hearings and months of damage control.

But this latest example of corruption involving Trump and his family business hardly made a blip over the past few days, relegated to a passing headline in a relentless news cycle often dominated by Trump’s actions and statements.

This scandal deserves our attention: a half-billion-dollar transaction with a foreign government official, executed in the shadow of Trump’s inauguration, which directly enriched the president and his family. The deal to acquire a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the crypto company founded by the Trump family and several allies in the fall of 2024 during Trump’s presidential campaign, was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, one of the most powerful officials in the UAE. Known as the “spy sheikh”, Tahnoon is the brother of the UAE’s president and serves as national security adviser. He also oversees one of the largest investment empires in the world, serving as chair of two Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds, which have $1.5tn in assets, and G42, a firm focused on artificial intelligence.

It’s dizzying to keep up with the ways that Trump has monetized the presidency and used it for personal profit in his second term. [...]

Mental exercise: Look at Trump. Look at a ram's horn. Process the two. 

And if you draw - my word, the wrong inference - federal street goons might take a  time out from paid duty to move to get your mind right

But, the news cycle moves and there's bigger news all the time. That is the lesson of the Internet. Always bigger things from the perspective of some, than half a billion bucks.