Quid pro quo? Hell no! (aka Sassoon-er or Later Trump Will Go)

Publisher's Roundup, 5

Donald Trump’s full-on assault on law and decency just completed its fourth week— but so did the vigorous pro-democracy response that we highlighted here at The Contrarian. Among all the wrongdoing, one episode stood out. It was the Trump administration’s baseless dismissal of criminal charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams—part of an open quid pro quo in exchange for Adams cooperating on Trump’s cruel immigration crackdown. The whole mess was led by—who else—Trump’s former criminal defense attorney Emil Bove, now the Acting Deputy Attorney General.

But as has been the case every week so far (shoot, every day!) there was massive pushback. It came from an unlikely source: Trump’s hand-picked interim U.S. attorney for the SDNY, Danielle Sassoon, a conservative former clerk for Antonin Scalia. She refused to go along with the corruption. In a letter released Thursday—heavily covered here at The Contrarian and everywhere—she wrote that Adams’s dismissal reeked of quid pro quo, that the evidence was actually quite strong, and that she would resign rather than go along with it. And she did, followed by many others.

Sassoon’s letter wasn’t the only inflection point this week. At State Democracy Defenders Fund, we have already brought or worked on dozens of cases against Trump and his illegalities. This week I reported on The Contrarian on perhaps the most important of those yet—my case to shut down DOGE. That and all of our other work can be found on our website.

Of course, that wasn’t all we shared this week…

Keeping in mind that Monday would be a day of mourning among Chiefs fans and football fanatics nationwide, we offered a few choice recaps of the Big Game—and were delighted to showcase The Contrarian’s own Allison Rice, who argued the case for sports, claiming they are a manifestation of democratic fervor that can’t be constrained. “Sports, like democracy, gives us hope. But, with democracy, we can make a difference.”

For those among you less interested in what happened on the field than what was featured in the overpriced ads, Eric Schnure wrote Shhh, You Can Talk After the Commercials. (Pass the Totino’s™!)

From there we executed a hand-off to Joyce Vance’s Democracy Index—a tool that will assist us all in draining the flood of fallacies we’re treading through at the moment—and the exciting announcement that will be living at The Contrarian. I encourage you to learn more about it here, then check back in for the first installment we posted yesterday, siphoning the deluge of news and elucidating the most important issues of the week.

Also on Monday, The Contrarian’s 150th piece of content—posted four weeks after going live— opened with a reminder from Professor of Constitutional Law Anthony Michael Kreis: “We rejected kingly power once. We must do so again.”

Defying a system of monarchy last time required engagement and organization. It meant, among many other things, endorsing and enforcing three co-equal branches of government. The Contrarian likes to cover them all, in addition to checking in on our global allies.

Executive Branch

*Jennifer Rubin broke through the noise and sane-washing of billionaire media outlets to share how Musk and PINO (President In Name Only) Trump are actually affecting the lives of everyday Americans, and the three things we all need to keep front of mind about their behavior.

*Our chameleon of a Vice President foolishly ignited all those who care about the Constitution or the power of the judiciary when he posted on X that “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.“ (That actually appeared to be a response to another one of our cases, which had done just that the day before.) Political scientist Austin Sarat had plenty to say about that choice, and how JD Vance’s impatience with constitutional niceties won’t buy him friends on the court.

*Former CIA and National Counterterrorism Center Senior Executive Brian O’Neill commented on Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation as the Director of National Intelligence, which he says is evidence that the Senate’s intelligence overseers have replaced scrutiny with spectacle.

*Jen Rubin and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti moved on to discuss Kash Patel and Eric Adams–two prime candidates to underscore how much Trump is willing to offer those willing to bend the knee.

*Jen Rubin continued the conversation with Andrew Weissmann. As we await Patel’s confirmation vote as FBI director, Jen and Andrew—who formerly served as General Counsel for the FBI—had plenty to say about what his potentially disastrous “leadership” could mean for the agency.

*In Thursday’s morning column, Jen dug into the hypocrisy of the current regime and president, concluding that perhaps Biden was blameless of many of the accusations that are still being slung at him. Trump? Not so much.

Legislative Branch

*Political analyst Norm Ornstein wrote a vintage, bracing piece on how Trump and Musk are not tiptoeing toward autocracy…a potent reminder for us all, and one that necessitates that Democrats in Congress step up accordingly.

*Elaine C. Kamarck and William A. Galston reiterated that the Democratic Party has to change if it wants to win. Step one: stop waiting for Trump to fail and start building a platform that will win working people back.

*Former Congressman Tom Malinowski agreed that the party needs to be more proactive, writing that Democratic leaders need to draw the line. “If we allow them to consolidate unlawful power now, what the hell are we going to do for the next four years?”

*2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist Pia Guerra gave us a cartoonist’s indictment of the foot-dragging of Democratic leadership in this editorial cartoon: Say when.

*Olivia Julianna also took the long view, writing on the ways Democratic leadership is trying, and mostly failing, to connect directly with the average voter—and how the party must course-correct to prevent four years of a GOP legislative monopoly.

*Cartoonist R.J. Matson brought us the worst family portrait imaginable. Do we really want Musk and son to continue their assault? Let’s move on to those keeping them in check.

Judiciary Branch

*A brave, fair decision was made by a Rhode Island judge who declared that Trump violated our system by defying his ruling to unfreeze federal spending. My co-founder and Editor-in-Chief (who also interrogates with the best of them) interviewed me about this decisive ruling–just one of many this week that served as a reminder of the courts’ resilience.

*The Contrarian issued a legal update reiterating as much, alerting you to the shock-and-awe campaign State Democracy Defenders and I are waging against Trump and his shadow-President, by suing DOGE and OPM.

*Trump’s War Against His Own Attorneys Former DOJ Supervisor Ellen Blain wrote on Trump’s determination to turn his Department of Justice into another council of lackeys.

*Last week, Mimi Rocah and Jennifer Rodgers wrote about DOJ leadership’s pressure campaign to induce the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams. This week, we saw it realized. Read their insightful response here, which elucidates what can be expected in response to rewarding corruption.

Global Allies

*Jen addressed the need to remain clear-eyed about our current state of affairs, and how it is affecting our global allies, not to mention eroding the influence the United States once held.

*Congressman Eric Swalwell sat down with Jen to discuss the devastating reality of what’s happening with USAID, and Trump and Musk’s impact on our standing on the global stage.

*Walking away from the Human Rights Council leaves a void that will be filled. The choice of those in power to leave the only multilateral venue dedicated to addressing human rights abuses will allow bad actors to set the terms, writes its former US Ambassador Michèle Taylor.

*Following the thread of myopic acts with devastating geopolitical consequences, Brian O’Neill writes on how renaming the Gulf of Mexico could give China cover to claim the South China Sea and more.

*For the last interview of the week, Jen spoke with editor of the Kyiv-based publication “The Counteroffensive” Tim Mak about the ramifications of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s remarks on a potential peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

The Contrarian Branch

*We had great banter on our favorite podcast “Talking Feds,” hosted weekly on The Contrarian. Be sure you don’t miss this very special, all-Contrarian roundtable conversation featuring our friend and founding Contrarian Contributor Harry Litman, in conversation with Jen Rubin, Paul Krugman, and yours truly. Our discussion chronicles the pushback against Trump’s constitutional assaults and analyzes his vacuous consumer tax initiatives.

*Jen and Norm’s Morning Live: Jen and I debuted a new way of letting our subscribers know what to expect today in democracy. Tell us what you think! We’ll be doing these Live updates of a few mornings per week.

*Andy Borowitz gave us a vision it’s all-too-hard to unsee, in Trump Names Himself Principal Ballerina of Kennedy Center Ballet.

*Naturally, we wouldn’t let Valentine’s Day pass without offering sweets and snuggles, so we closed out with a delicious cookie recipe (with a welcome kick) by Jamie Schler, and an introduction to Julia Payne’s beloved pup Willie (AKA Ch. Cerise Highwayman), our Contrarian Pet of the Week.

Enjoy your long weekend and be sure to check in with us on Monday for Presidents’ Contrarians’ Day, featuring an all-star line-up (including Heather Cox Richardson, Jonathan Alter, and Susan Rice) and Jen and me on Substack *LIVE,* winging it from 2-3 PM Eastern. See you then!

With gratitude,

Norm