Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of October 20

My Signal exchange with the interim U.S. attorney about the Letitia James grand jury.

Lindsey Halligan—the top prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia—was texting me. As it turned out, she was texting me about a criminal case she is pursuing against one of the president’s perceived political enemies: New York Attorney General Letitia James.

So began my two-day text correspondence with the woman President Donald Trump had installed, in no small part, to bring the very prosecution she was now discussing with me by text message.

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Through the whole of our correspondence, however, there is something Halligan never said: She never said a word suggesting that she was not “on the record.”

It is not uncommon for federal prosecutors to communicate with the press, both through formal channels and sometimes informally. My exchange with Halligan, however, was highly unusual in a number of respects. She initiated a conversation with me, a reporter she barely knew, to discuss an ongoing prosecution that she is personally handling. She mostly criticized my reporting—or, more precisely, my summary of someone else’s reporting. But several of her messages contained language that touch on grand jury matters, even as she insisted that she could not reveal such information, which is protected from disclosure by prosecutors under federal law.

As a legal journalist covering the Justice Department, I had never encountered anything quite like my exchange with Halligan. Neither had my editor. Over the last several days, he and I spoke with multiple former federal officials and journalists who cover the justice system. None could recall a similar instance in which a sitting U.S. attorney reached out to chastise a reporter about matters concerning grand jury testimony in an active case.

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The user on the other end had selected a setting to make all messages in the chat disappear after eight hours, so I took screenshots of the exchange as it happened to make sure a record of the back-and-forth was preserved. Those screenshots are all available here.

Even as I took this precaution, I assumed the exchange was a hoax because, while it is not unusual for lawyers to reach out to me about my reporting or commentary, it is highly unusual for a U.S. attorney to do so regarding an ongoing prosecution [...]

More tales from leaked Republican messages: Trump nominee says MLK Jr. holiday 'belongs in hell' and that he has 'Nazi streak,' according to texts

Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, told a group of fellow Republicans in a text chain the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and said he has “a Nazi streak,” according to a text chat viewed by POLITICO.

Ingrassia, who has a Senate confirmation hearing scheduled Thursday, made the remarks in a chain with a half-dozen Republican operatives and influencers, according to the chat.

“MLK Jr. was the 1960s George Floyd and his ‘holiday’ should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs,” Ingrassia wrote in January 2024, according to the chat.

“Jesus Christ,” one participant responded.

Using an Italian slur for Black people, Ingrassia wrote a month earlier in the group chat seen by POLITICO: “No moulignon holidays … From kwanza [sic] to mlk jr day to black history month to Juneteenth,” then added: “Every single one needs to be eviscerated.”

Graham Platner says he was drunk when he got Nazi-linked tattoo

You had nearly two decades to get that tattoo covered up or removed, man…

Patrol vehicle hit by shrapnel as Marines fired live artillery over California interstate, highway patrol says

The Marines Corps has launched an investigation after the California Highway Patrol said shrapnel from an artillery shell, fired during a live-fire demonstration touted by the White House, struck a law enforcement vehicle.

No injuries were reported when an artillery round “detonated overhead prematurely” during Saturday’s 250th anniversary celebration for the Marines Corps at Camp Pendleton, the highway patrol said.

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“This was an unusual and concerning situation,” CHP Border Division Chief Tony Coronado, who also identified himself as a Marine, said in the statement. “It is highly uncommon for any live-fire or explosive training activity to occur over an active freeway.”

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Pictures from a CHP incident report show a black-and-white unit with a hood apparently pierced by shrapnel, as well as multiple munition fragments. The report indicated that the fragment on the hood measured around 2 inches by 2 inches. According to a CHP map, the vehicle was at Interstate 5 and Las Pulgas Road, nearly a mile north of the Red Beach demonstration along the northernmost coast of San Diego County, when it was hit.

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The CHP said the strike happened as officers were temporarily halting traffic on the freeway so motorists would be out of harm's way during the demonstration.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom had been critical of the plan to fire live munitions over the interstate in the days leading up to Saturday's celebrations, which were attended by Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who both spoke at the event.

Newsom, a Democrat who has repeatedly sparred with the Trump administration, had criticized the potential impact of a temporary closure of the 80,000-vehicles-per-day Interstate 5, and he said state authorities were denied sufficient notice of a dangerous and “absurd show of force."

'I don't think a chip bag should be mistaken for a gun': Student shocked by school's AI Detection mishap

In a very normal turn of events, AI decided a bag of Doritos, two hands, and a finger were a gun.

"Police showed up, like eight cop cars, and then they all came out with guns pointed at me talking about getting on the ground. I was putting my hands up like, 'what's going on?' He told me to get on my knees and arrested me and put me in cuffs," Allen said.

Meanwhile the superintendent says that the trauma to this teenager was the system working as intended. Fuck that fwiw.

But they didn't have someone reviewing the camera while they responded? Like rewind that back ten seconds and watch a kid ball up a bag into his pocket? Hell rewind it back however long it takes.

I cannot imagine growing up like this