Yet More Revenge From the Trump Administration

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This is also from yesterday, so I missed it, but honest to God, the balls on these guys:

The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, who has investigated President Trump’s closest associates, was refusing to leave his position on Saturday after Attorney General William P. Barr tried to fire him, setting up an extraordinary standoff over the independence of law enforcement and the president’s purge of officials he views as disloyal.

Mr. Barr abruptly announced the resignation late Friday night of the prosecutor, Geoffrey S. Berman, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York….But Mr. Berman then quickly issued a statement denying that he was leaving. “I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position,” Mr. Berman said, adding that he had learned that he was “stepping down” from a Justice Department news release.

There’s a bunch of crap that goes along with this, mostly excuses about how this isn’t really retaliation for doing too good a job of investigating Rudy Giuliani, but none of it matters. This is, obviously, retaliation for doing too good a job of investigating Rudy Giuliani.

Needless to say, even Trump and Barr wouldn’t have the nerve to do something so obvious if they thought there was the slightest chance of their fellow Republicans refusing to go along. But Republicans have gone along with every other instance of Trump’s retaliation against anyone who doesn’t toe the line, so there’s no reason to think they’ll suddenly revolt over this one.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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