"The battle to salvage what remains of the rule of law in America"

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Hi there, everyone. Happy Monday. It's 4 o'clock in New York. In the battle to salvage whatever it is that remains of the rule of law in America, it just may go down as one of those shots heard around the world. And the news wasn't extraordinary because of what he was doing and retiring. It is how he did it. After 40 years on the bench, a federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan, with decades of experience overseeing criminal cases of mobsters and lawmakers alike, is retiring from the bench. so that he can sound the alarm and take a stand against Donald Trump's assault on the rule of law in America. Former federal judge Mark L. Wolf writes this in the Atlantic over the weekend, quote, I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to... everything that I have stood for my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House's assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable. Judge Wolfe's point of no return moment comes when Donald Trump's efforts in campaign to destroy the rule of law is coming at us fast and furiously with disturbing new developments every single day. Today there's brand new reporting on the Trump administration testing, a favorite conspiracy theory of Donald Trump's in a court of law. New York Times reporting this, quote, far right influencers have been hinting in recent weeks that they have finally found a venue in Miami and a federal prosecutor in Jason A. Redding Cignones to pursue long-promised charges of a quote-unquote grand conspiracy against Donald Trump's adversaries. Their theory of the case, still unsupported by the evidence. that a cabal of Democrats and deep state operatives, possibly led by President Barack Obama, has worked to destroy Trump in a year's long plot spanning the inquiry into his 2016 campaign to the charges he faced after leaving office. MSNBC is reporting that more than 30 subpoenas have been issued, including for former director of the CIA, John Brennan. Not only has John Brennan denied any wrongdoing, but two previous investigations have failed to find any evidence of any crimes in the way the Russia investigation was handled or pursued. Neither John Durham, the special counsel, handpicked and appointed by Donald Trump's Attorney General in his first term, Bill Barr, nor the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigation,

by none other than Donald Trump's now secretary of state, Marco Rubio, found anything that hinted at or merited criminal investigation or prosecution. But if prosecuting his political critics and opponents is one side of this ugly coin, quote, sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment, as Judge Wolffrides, is the other. Announced over the weekend, pardons by Donald Trump for scores of his allies, the ones involved in the plot to overturn his 2020 election defeat. 77 pardons in total. from those who serve as fake electors in swing states all the way up to Trump's former Attorney General Rudy Giuliani and his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. None of those people pardoned actually faced federal charges, but the signal is loud and clear, isn't it? Stick with Donald Trump and get your own, get out of jail-free card. It is a part of an alarming and dangerous pattern on the part of Donald Trump and his administration, as Judge Wolfe writes, quote, what Nixon did episodically and covertly, knowing it was illegal or improper, Donald Trump now does routinely and overtly. resisting Donald Trump's assault on the rule of laws where we start today with former United States District Judge Mark Wolfe. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Nicole. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and to some of the American people. What have the last 36 hours been like since your peace in the Atlantic dropped? It's been a whirlwind. For the last 45 years, as a federal prosecutor, as the last 40 of those, as a federal judge, I've been limited to what I can say, to what I properly say in the courtroom. I've been overwhelmed by the reaction to my peace in the Atlantic, including the invitation to speak with you. And it's been very encouraging in a way because, as you saw in my piece, I expressed some skepticism about what I'm striving to do in this new chapter will be successful, although I think it's important to try and to work with many others to try to protect our rule of law and democracy in the United States. The response I've received gives me greater hope than I had 36 hours ago. One of the things that I worked in the government, and one of the things that I understand from covering the Trump story for nine years, well, one is that my brain will probably be studied for having to cover the Trump story for nine years. But the other is that for every person like you, for whom entering the...

public debates around policy and politics was once unthought of. There are hundreds, and probably in your case, thousands of others. Can you just tell me what the judiciary, as a body, as an institution, experiences when there are threats and menacing tweets and posts coming at them, to say nothing of the actual intimation of violence, pizza is sent in the name of Judge Esther Salas's murdered. son, Daniel. I mean, the climate is almost impossible to adequately cover, but what has it been like these last nine months for judges? Um, The experience of being threatened is deeply disturbing. Those of us who become federal judges to varying degrees, and maybe me because I came from being a federal prosecutor to a higher degree, understand that it comes with the territory. And while it's very disturbing, to us, it's particularly disturbing. to members of our family who didn't sign up for this. I've been threatened in the past by people who are crazy and also by others who were I believe were positions of official responsibility. And it's I don't think that the threats affect how any judge performs his or her work. But it does make it more difficult, more anxious, and particularly imposes harms or anxieties on people close to us. What is your message to the American... people about the importance of the judiciary when you see the Congress. And let's leave aside their policy preferences, but their abdication of the functions of Congress, whether it's making declarations of war or making decisions about tariffs. What burden does that place on the judiciary? I think it imposes an even higher responsibility on the judiciary to properly perform its functions. As you know, Nicole, our Constitution is based on Lord Amy Acton's axiom, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And therefore, we have a system that divides power and creates checks and balances. Under the Constitution, under the Declaration of Independence of Constitution, all power is in the people of the United States. Some of that power is delegated to elected officials, and it's the role of the courts to hold those officials to the limits of their power. It's also a shared responsibility with the Congress, and while I'm not a political...

I think that there's fair criticism that Congress has not served as intended as an effective check or balance for the executive, but has been abdicating some of its responsibilities, and that makes the proper functioning of the courts even more important now than it always is. Before you were a judge, you worked at DOJ. And I wonder if you can help us understand how far from anything normal. The current regime at DOJ is for the people who are still there. And I'm thinking specifically about a Republican administration comes in and the first batch that's purged or that resigns in protests or Federalist Society lawyers like Danielle Sassoon from SD&Y over the politicization of Eric Adams. I'm thinking about the whistleblower who resigned or was purged because email Beauvais talked about having to, I think the quote was tell, you know, F rulings from federal judges. I mean, how different is that from anything resembling normal inside the Department of Justice? Well, I never thought my experience as an assistant to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States at the end of the Nixon administration or as an assistant for two years to the Attorney General Edward Levy after Watergate would be relevant again. When Attorney General Levy was selected by President Ford to be Attorney General and restore confidence in the discredited Department of Justice because of everything that Nixon did, President Nixon did periodically and secretly because he knew it was illegal or improper. using the Department of Justice for partisan purposes, President Trump has done regularly and overtly. This, when Edward Levy was signed in, he said in a way that made a very deep impression on me that it's essential that the law not be used for partisan purposes. And he was always faithful to that principle, sometimes in difficult circumstances. But now the Department of Justice is overtly, openly, at the direction of the president, an instrument of...

partisan politics. The president explicitly says he wants to see the prosecution of people he perceives to be his political enemies. And the other side of the coin is that people who donate money to him, people who are his friends, people in his orbit seem to be immune from investigation from possible corruption. The Department of Justice and the FBI have been substantially diminished in their ability to address corruption. The public corruption unit in the FBI has been abolished. The public integrity unit of the Department of Justice has been reduced from 30 lawyers to five and no longer has any authority over election cases. And this is all synergistic. So it's very different than it was. And always crucial for Department of Justice lawyers and other lawyers is being credible with the court, recognizing and satisfying the obligation to be candid with the court. The prosecutor, you just reference, happens to be one of my former law clerks, Eris Ravini. And although I haven't talked to him since... He was forced out of the Justice Department. I'm very proud that he was alert and aware and faithful to his obligation of candor to the courts. And it's just crucial that the administration, like any other litigant, obey court orders. And it's crucial that the public insists on that. I believe he joins about 5,449 people who have left the Department of Justice since Trump took over. What does that do to its ability just to function? Well, yeah. I think the Department of Justice is probably still functioning, but not functioning properly. Again, when Attorney General Levy took office in his brief remarks, he says if we're to have a government of laws and not men and women, then it takes particularly dedicated men and women to be both, in effect, zealous and fair. And the people who are being forced out were resigning because they can't bear to follow the directions they're receiving from higher-ups. are invaluable resources. There are times when the Department of Justice needs political leadership to essentially improve the ethics and the performance of attorneys. But there are other times when the professionals within the department are the guardians of its noblest values and traditions. And when they leave, it removes another check.

on abuse, partisan abuse by the Department of Justice. Your friend, I believe he claims you as a friend, I'm sure it's reciprocal, Judge Ludig, was on my set at this table when the Supreme Court rendered his decision on immunity. And I'd interviewed him multiple times, but I'd never seen him sort of turn white. He was sitting right there. And... You write a little bit about the Supreme Court. I wonder if you can help us understand how the assault in the judiciary, the threats to their lives and their families' lives can be so brutal. And the Supreme Court, I think with one exception, has said very little, as they sort of seem for an outsider to sit atop the colloquial sort of chain of command for the judiciary, as well as siding with them so much more frequently than other federal judges. What is your view in this moment at this hour of this majority on the Supreme Court?

I'm concerned. I know that United States District judges, as I was until a couple days ago, and lower court judges, appellate judges, are striving, as we always have, to make decisions based on the law and the facts. And many of those decisions... have temporarily halted something that the president sought to do to executive order or otherwise that are preliminarily determined to be unconstitutional or illegal. Then they quickly get to the Supreme Court in record time and in record numbers. In the Supreme Court, in a very high percentage of those cases on the emergency or shadow docket, is removing those temporary restraints. And when that happens, it means that fundamental decisions on issues of constitutional law, and particularly the power of the president, are being made with no argument, with little briefing, and with little explanation for the reasoning. And if it should turn out at the end of the case that the plaintiff, the party bringing the case, is entitled to prevail, I think in almost all of them, it'll be impossible to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. If it turns out the president didn't have the authority to abolish USAID, which... did work that I know from my work around the world has saved innumerable lives. It's not going to be possible to restore those lives, to restore people to health, or indeed to restore the agency whose employees will have been dispersed and gone far and wide. I so look forward to having many more conversations like this one. I so appreciate the choice that you made to be part of the conversations about this country you have served for decades and this conversation about the rule of law and our democracy. Judge Mark Wolfe, thank you so much. Thank you. When we come back, one of the reporters who's been following this quote unquote grand conspiracy against Donald Trump will be our guest on how a case lacking any evidence and that was not. Anything discovered by John Durham or Marco Rubio has made its way from the deep underbelly of the far-right internet to the halls of the Department of Justice. Plus, the rewriting of history, again, using Donald Trump's pardon powers to do it this time to fulfill his desire to keep spinning the lie that the 2020 election was rigged against him and he didn't just lose. And later in the show, new whistleblower allegations of how Ghislaine Maxwell is being treated like a princess.

in prison and how talk about possible clemency is picking up raising new questions today about her connections to the trump administration all those stories and more when deadline white house continues after a quick break don't go anywhere Campus life is full of compromises, tiny dorms, zero closet space. But with HomeSense, you can overpack stylish bedding, storage, and decor without overspending. HomeSense, the home of no compromise, part of the Home Goods family. Watch Disclosure Day at Home Now with exclusive bonus features. If you found out we weren't alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you? Would that frighten you? Well, now the truth belongs to 7 billion people in an original event film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by David Kep starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Coleman Domingo. Find Disclosure Day on major digital platforms now with no subscription required, also in theaters. Summer means firing up the grill, getting together with friends, and making the most of the weekends. Total Wine and More is my first stop, whether it's seltzers and ready to serve cocktails with a cooler or a good bottle of bourbon. Everything I need is at Total Wine. With the lowest prices, it's easy to stock up for whatever the weekend brings, and I can get everything I need in one stop. Shop total wine and more, and get ready for your next summer party. Spears are not sold in Virginia or North Carolina. Drink responsibly must be 21. The Department of Justice in Trump 2.0 is now run exactly how Trump wanted it run in 1.0 by loyalists, people who are willing to embrace and act on, unsubstantiated, in many instances, fringe conspiracy theories. to pursue for investigation and prosecution, Donald Trump's political enemies. As we have covered and discussed, a federal prosecutor in Florida is now pursuing long, talked about charges of some, quote, grand conspiracy, that's their word for it, against Trump's adversaries. That prosecutor has issued more than two dozen subpoenas up to last week. The targets include former FBI and CIA agents. Under the Obama administration, many of them worked for other administrations as well.

New York Times reports this, quote, the Florida subpoenas seek documents or communications related to the intelligence community assessment from July 1, 2016 through February 28, 2017. Some of the people who have reviewed the subpoenas said they did not mention specific crimes being investigated. Most federal crimes have a five-year statute of limitations and offenses must be charged in a venue where the conduct occurred. Whether the subpoenas will lead to charges, much less convictions is impossible to know for anybody. But merely creating a pretense of criminality or an aura, I'm sorry, of criminality around Trump foes by celebrating incremental prosecutorial moves is a trophy in itself to diehard Trump supporters who have said that naming and shaming targets is a legitimate aim of law enforcement. The advancement of this investigation now causing turmoil inside that office, the Southern District of Florida. MSNBC is reporting that the U.S. attorney there called a division-wide meeting this afternoon following the resignations of two prosecutors who were asked to take part in this vast conspiracy investigation into former intelligence and law enforcement officials. That's according to a source familiar with internal concerns there among career prosecutors. The source telling MSNBC this, quote, Everyone is on pins and needles referring to prosecutors who fear being asked to work on a case that President Trump has said should lead to the arrests of an expansive list of individuals, including former President Barack Obama and former CIA Director John Brennan. I want to bring into our coverage, New York Times Justice Department reporter Glenn Frush, whose byline is on a lot of that reporting. Also joining us, Puck News, senior political columnist, MSNBC National Affairs analyst John Heilman and former acting assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice. Mary McCord is here. Glenn Thrush. I hate borrowing the words of grand conspiracy. That is what they're calling them, and your reporting makes that clear. But my sense is the way they talk about it on talk radio, and Mike Davis, a MAGA ally, talks about it on, I think it was Benny Johnson's podcast. This is where I first saw it publicly facing. It's clear that the target is former President Obama himself. Karoline Leavitt from the podium of the White House briefing room in late July also described a conspiracy directed from the highest levels of the Obama administration. How does that conspiracy allow for Trump to win twice? That is a real. That's a curveball there, but right at the end, it kind of broke. I don't know. I mean, I think one of the goals here. Like it's a really crappy, crappy conspiracy, right? So they all get in a, they all get in a skiff and they make a conspiracy. And at the end, Trump becomes president twice and destroys every institution they love. Like, what's the, how are they? What?

It's kind, well, it's kind of like, it's kind of like watching every Mets season. Sorry about that. The pain is still fresh. No, look, I think like there is a goal here. It is really, really, if you just think of this in terms of outcome and don't necessarily get caught up in the tangle of the procedural stuff, the outcome is really, really simple from Trump's point of view. I want everyone to go through precisely what I went through. I want every person. who works for me who was subjected to an investigative process to be exculpated and not only that to be given to be valorized right so what does trump really want in the reporting run up to the story in the reporting that we did one of the things that folks really want is for Obama to get into the frame here. They want him to be an unindicted co-conspirator. I don't think necessarily it would result in criminal charges against Obama, but there is like a total tit for tat that he's going for, that Obama be labeled with the same label of criminality that Trump himself was. But the resignations in Florida. are just totally consistent with what we've seen around the country in instances where Trump and the White House have tried to push through these prosecutions. The highest profile one, obviously, was the fiasco that occurred in the Eastern District of Virginia prior to James Comey's, James Comey's indictment. And what we report in this story is a subtler version of that. case, the central part of this case that we have thus far seen subpoenas issued on in Florida involves John Brennan, the former CIA director, you know, who Trump has been targeting for quite some time. David Metcalf, the Trump appointed U.S. attorney in Philadelphia has been looking at this material on Brennan, really narrowly related to his actions in 2017. and had not yet decided what he was going to do. The general presumption was he didn't see anything there. Before he had an opportunity to finish his work product, it was, according to our reporting, plucked away from him by the office of the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and put into the jurisdiction conveniently in South Florida of Jason Kenyones, who is the U.S. attorney down there, who is very enthusiastic about these cases. The whole thing with Florida is just very consistent what we're seeing in other jurisdictions. They want to have this result, and they're going to find the prosecutors that give it to them. Did Mr. Metcalf, or now Mr. Cignonese, have access to any information that Marco Rubio and John Durham didn't?

Not that we know of. The other thing that we have reported in this story is that Metcalf was, again, given a very narrow parameter of looking at the 2016 and 2017 period that this quote-unquote annex, this infamous conclusion he drew about Trump. But the investigation, in addition to being moved from the jurisdiction to Philly down to Miami, The investigation has expanded. I was told greatly expanded, but we don't have any sense whatsoever of where it might be expanded. And that's very consistent with what we heard the magistrate judge in the James Comey case last week say about his investigation, which is, he questioned the prosecutors and asked them, are you taking an indict first, investigate, second? approach to this. It appears at least initially that that's what's going on in the Brennan case. Tom Homan, President Barack Obama entered the arena and Democrats went. 4-0 on Tuesday night. I mean, I take all the legal reporting and analysis at face value, but the political calculation seems absurd on Trump's part. The way to make sure everybody understands how purely political and devoid of faxes is to restart his now decades-long personal obsession with Barack Obama, President Obama.

Yeah, I think one thing we can say, Nicole, if we were to look back over the arc of the Trump-Obama fixation, the obsession, the jealousy, the envy, the, all of it, right, is that it's not driven by political calculation. There's just stuff Trump does sometimes that is very nakedly political, and there's other things that are just, it's just the id. You know, it's his, he just can't help himself being... jealous of Obama, trying to inflict, try to get something that Obama has had. It makes him crazy that Obama is beloved in the way that he is, that he's as popular as he is, that Trump has never been and never will be as popular as Obama. And so I think that this is one of these things where I think the political implications of it, certainly when we talk about this through the perspective of the rule of law, there's obviously a huge bunch of stuff to say. In terms of the more narrow, like, electoral political lens, I don't think there's nearly as much to say. And in terms of Trump applying a political filter for this, like that he thinks he's going to get something political out of it, or that he's looking, he's thinking about how it polls. Or I don't think that's what's driving him. I think this is really much more visceral and a sign of a certain kind of, I won't say mental illness, but a certain kind of, It's a thing he can't kick. He hasn't been able to kick it. He's tried, but he just can't let go of Obama. All right. No one's going anywhere after the break, much more on this story. We're also going to talk about the complete whitewashing that has now been completed of the January 6th Capitol riot on Trump's part. His effort to overturn whatever that chapter is in his own mind, an ugly and embarrassing defeat. He's erasing all that conduct with a round of mass pardons for everyone who was involved. We'll tell you about that next.

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A truck pulled up to the Detroit center where they were counting ballots. The people thought it was food, so they all ran to the truck. It wasn't food. It was thousands and thousands of ballots. And the ballots were in garbage cans. They were in paper bags. They were in cardboard boxes. and they would take it into the center. What we are really dealing with here and uncovering more by the day is the massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba, and likely China in the interference with our elections here in the United States. The Dominion voting systems, the smartmatic technology software, and the software that goes in other computerized voting systems here as well, not just Dominion, were created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chavez. If the United States caves to corruption or this type of election integrity disaster. then no election will be secure from here on out. Mary McCord, those three individuals were pardoned yesterday. It's interesting listening to the lies that they told. Fox News paid, I think, close to $800 million for publishing some of those lies to one of the voting machine companies that they named. But let me just share the New York Times reporting about this. sort of monstrosity of dozens of pardons. The Times reports that Trump's pardon recipients include Rudolph Giuliani, John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who advised Trump's 2020 campaign, Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff, Boris Epstein, a top presidential advisor, Sidney Jerome Powell, who you saw there, another lawyer who led one of the most far-fetch efforts to use the courts to reverse Trump's electoral defeat. Your thoughts on the obsession with these pardons when I don't think any of these folks currently face federal charges. No, they don't. And this is just part, I think you use the term whitewash. This is a part of what he's trying to do with the entire history of January 6th. That's why the pardons of all of those who attacked the Capitol attacked law enforcement. That's why he did those pardons on day one. That's why he's been constantly changing the reference to January 6th into a day of love. That's why, you know, those hand-chosen people, I think, including the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District. to Florida, who you were just talking about before the break, are now, you know, going after some vast conspiracy that I don't know if they intend for it to extend all the way from the Russia investigation up through, you know, those who investigated January 6th, but it certainly seems like what they're promising. I mean, so many things that this man is doing, having, as you said, already one,

John Hammond, I teed you up as my connective tissue here, but really all these stories are the same story. I mean, erasing the history of the Russia investigation is about erasing what he thinks people view as a crutch, maybe for his 20. I don't even know if that's the issue, but erasing the idea that anyone helped him win in 16. And then erasing January 6th is about erasing the ugly stench of defeat, I surmise. The problem is that Trump 1.0 pursued a lot of retribution, but people had a better feeling about their personal economic situation. Now he's attacking votes in the Caribbean and in the Pacific. People, you know, fairly feel that everything is more expensive than it was before. And people right now at this moment are having to subsist without SNAP benefits, without food aid that is normally sent to food pantries. And they're on a cliff for health care. How do you see all these things sort of? pressing together. Well, I think there's a couple different things here, Nicole. One of them is that is that Trump is I think always has been, but he's particularly right now seems to be obsessed with certain kinds of honorifics and legacy. You know, this notion of him wanting to be on Mount Rushmore, this notion of him wanting to win the Nobel Prize. These are like kind of... You know, we know Trump historically wanted the blessing of the New York establishment when he was an outer borough guy and was frustrated that he didn't get the kind of establishment respect that he wanted. It feels like as he brings to an end, it comes as he starts to round the far turn of his two terms in office, we hope there'll only be two and he won't try to stay for longer, that he's starting to think about those kind of big legacy things. And so... try to get rid of those stains from his record, the things that call into question his legitimacy, whether it's with the Russian investigation or call into question, things that got him indicted or got him impeached. These are the black marks. He knows that history will not judge well. his behavior on January 6th, and he's trying in some way to kind of get rid of those things and make them kind of pretend like they didn't happen if he kind of somehow feels as if he can kind of erase the, kind of do this magic marker on the etch-a-sketch on his past by giving all these pardons out and making people and prosecuting his political enemies, somehow that will change the narrative. The other thing, though, that I think is really important is the point you're making about the politics of this, which is that...

People talk about how Trump... was hell-bent on retribution when he ran for re-election in 2024. That is clearly true. But his political power, what allowed him to win in 2024, was not saying to the voters of America that I am going to come back and pursue retribution for my own personal sake, for I'm going to go after those people who did me wrong. What he said over and over again was, I will be your retribution. You have been victimized. You have been, you have been, have been harmed. And I will be your voice. I will seek retribution on your behalf. And I think right now where you are is, the politics of this is that people see him not focused at all on not only not seeking retribution for them, but not doing anything for them. And being entirely focused, entirely, be entirely focused on himself and his own. whims, his own desires, his own enrichment, and his own retribution. And that is just never a winning political stance for anybody in America. It's always when politicians make it about themselves and their past, as opposed to making it about voters and their futures. That is when they start to lose traction, and that is what's happening to Donald Trump right now. Yeah, I mean, and I'd say he's lost traction, right? Tuesday proves that. And what's amazing to me is that the stories that you and Glenn broke and brought us in one point out were the stories of the friction, right? Either Ryan's Previs in the earliest days or Kellyanne Conway in her own bizarre ways or John Kelly. I mean, people trying to resist what you're covering what we're talking about. And the fact that all these people. are greasing the skids for this catastrophic political debacle. You know, God bless them. But that no one cares about the people that are being hurt in the process is just a stunning, stunning, stunning twist from 1.0. Glenn Thrush, thank you for your reporting on this. John Halman, thank you for tying it together. Mary McCord, thank you for explaining it all to me. Up next for us, the Supreme Court draws the line on same-sex marriage for now. We'll tell you about that next.

A little bit of good news today for every American who feared that the Supreme Court was considering dragging our country back to a time when marriage equality was not. the law of the land here. Today, the Supreme Court denied an effort to overturn its landmark decision that legalized marriage equality nationwide. Without comment, the justices turned away an appeal from Kim Davis. She's the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after their 2015 ruling, even telling one couple she was acting, quote, under God's authority. In reaction to the denial, the head of LGBT plus advocacy group Lambda Legal said in part, quote, today the Supreme Court affirm what we all know. Marriage equality is the law of the land. The court's decision reaffirms a simple fact. Equal protection of the law applies to all, not just some. This frivolous case now belongs in the trash bin of history. But let us not be naive. Our opponents are well-resourced and determined. They will keep trying to undo the progress we've made. Now is not the time to let down our guard. We'll stay on top of that story after the break for us. Fresh questions for Congress to ask of the Trump administration when it comes to the treatment in prison of Ghislaine Maxwell. We'll bring you that reporting when Deadline White House continues after a quick break.

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