Guilty ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.’ Former special counsel Jack Smith told the House yesterday that President Trump engaged in criminal activity—and he had the evidence to prove it.
■ Over the course of almost five hours, Smith confirmed that his investigation—killed by Trump’s administration—confirmed that “Trump is the person who caused Jan. 6, it was foreseeable to him, and … he sought to exploit the violence.”
■ You can watch it all here.
■ Trump was watching—and commenting on social media.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “Smith was great but did y’all see … former D.C. cop and Jan. 6 survivor Michael Fanone almost beat the shit out of a far-right conspiracy theorist creep, while wearing a Dropkick Murphys ‘Fighting Nazis Since 1996’ T-shirt?”
Not guilty. A federal jury rejected charges that a Chicago man engaged in a murder-for-hire scheme against Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino.
■ The Sun-Times: “Thirty-one known defendants have been charged in Chicago with non-immigration crimes tied to ‘Operation Midway Blitz.’ … 15 of them have been cleared and nobody has been convicted.”
■ Video caught Bovino tossing gas at Minneapolis protesters Wednesday.
■ Bovino’s Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week.
■ Columnist Mitch Jackson: “ICE agents are using phones to track you while most do not wear cameras to record themselves.”
So bending the knee doesn’t count for much? Never mind that JPMorgan CEO—and one-time Chicagoan—Jamie Dimon seemed to warm up to Trump last year (July link): Trump’s suing Chase and Dimon for $5 billion, complaining that the company cut off his banking services for political reasons in 2021.
■ Forensic and social psychiatrist Bandy Lee on Trump’s brain: “The entire world now sees what mental health experts have warned against since 2016.”
Digital deception. The AP says that, on the White House Twitter X page, the administration shared a manipulated image that falsely portrayed the arrest of a Minnesota civil rights lawyer …
■ … charged along with at least two other people accused of disrupting a church service.
■ ICE’s new trick: At least one school warns that flyers offering Twin Cities residents “food assistance” are a trap.
■ A massive “economic blackout” was underway in Minnesota today to protest the immigration crackdown.
■ In Minneapolis, Vice President Vance falsely attributed the chaos unleashed by the administration to “far-left people” and state and local law enforcement.
■ Addressing Vance’s defense that “you’re always going to have mistakes made in law enforcement,” Trump niece Mary L. Trump writes: “If mistakes are inevitable, then accountability is optional. Vance has no interest in lowering the temperature.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Even MAGA voters don’t buy it. Podcaster Joe Rogan has compared ICE to ‘the gestapo.’”
■ Catherine Rampell at The Bulwark flags Trump’s “chilling weaponization of confidential government records: Remind me—who else in history made lists of Jewish intellectuals and people with disabilities?”
‘People are dying in Trump’s squalid concentration camps.’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link) says the death rates at ICE detention facilities are running nearly 10 times the rate of the Biden years.
■ A federal judge in Chicago says the administration has to release video footage and data on conditions at the Broadview ICE detention center.
■ The Onion: “Democrats Condemn ICE For Murdering Without Proper Warrants” …
One at a time. Dave Barry (a Pulitzer winner, remember) sees the U.S. “facing two major foreign-policy crises: 1. Greenland. 2. Where King Charles III will go to the bathroom.”
■ McSweeney’s: “I, Don Quixote, Vow to Conquer Greenland.”
■ The U.S. House has rejected a Democratic resolution to clamp down on Trump’s power to wage war in Venezuela.
■ It also—with the support of seven Democrats—approved of continued funding for Homeland Security …
■ … even as federal budget cuts prompt Illinois to suspend almost half a billion dollars in state spending.
■ Public Notice columnist Lisa Needham asks, “What if we just stopped paying taxes?”
■ Dan Rather’s Steady newsletter calls Congress “the doormat branch of government … ineffective, unpopular, and our last best hope.”
‘An egregious, unnecessary and unlawful shooting.’ A lawyer for the family of a man shot in the head and killed by a Chicago cop says the victim posed no threat.
■ The CTA’s pledging a more organized police presence for its buses, trains and stations.
Frozen stiff. Much of the region’s on shutdown today amid a milestone cold spell.
■ Metra trains are running on reduced schedules.
■ Today’s Polar Plunge into Lake Michigan was canceled.
■ Block Club: A Chicago crossing guard carried students to safety after a water main broke and flooded an intersection.
■ School’s out for many students.
■ A Tribune editorial (gift link) decries “remote learning” for schoolkids on days like this: “If not school, then a snow day.”
■ Chicago’s dodging the worst of it.
■ Wirecutter: Everything you need to ride out a winter storm.
■ The AP recommends alternatives to rock salt.
■ If you find yourself stuck at home through the weekend, maybe dig through your junk drawer? Kim Komando’s Current newsletter says your old iPods, first-gen iPhones and vintage video games could be worth thousands: “Apple killed the iPod in 2022, and now everyone wants one.”
And now, The New York Times. Trump’s threatening the paper—again.
■ Congrats to Chicago journalists Steve Bertrand and Asal Rezaei, named to the roster of Radio Television Digital News Association Foundation First Amendment Award winners.
This week, a perfect _____! For a change, your Chicago Public Square columnist got all the answers right in past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel’s latest news quiz—this time out, featuring fill-in-the-blank challenges. Your turn.
■ Your sadly non-foodie columnist scored a lousy 4/10 on Axios’ “top chefs” quiz …
■ … and only 2/5 on City Cast’s Chicago news quiz.
■ Coming Monday: A reader survey that’ll help gauge the involvement of Chicago’s news readership—and that’ll give you a chance to win a $100 gift card.
■ Mike Braden made this edition better.