Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest in a series: “U.S. military forces boarded and took control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela on Tuesday as the Trump administration continues its efforts to take control of the oil in the South American country. U.S. Southern Command said in a social media post that U.S. forces apprehended the Motor Vessel Sagitta ‘without incident’ and that the tanker was ‘operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.’”
* In Minnesota: “The Justice Department has subpoenaed top Minnesota officials as part of a criminal investigation into their response to the Trump administration’s hostile immigration crackdown in the North Star State. The offices of Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison — all Democrats — received subpoenas, MS NOW has learned.”
* Speaking of the crisis conditions in the North Star State: “Federal immigration agents bashed open a door and detained a U.S. citizen in his Minnesota home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him out onto the streets in his underwear in subfreezing conditions, according to his family and videos reviewed by The Associated Press.”
* The latest in a series of embarrassments for Halligan: “A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia barred Lindsey Halligan from continuing to identify herself as a U.S. attorney in all legal matters in a fiery 18-page order on Tuesday.”
* The White House too often struggles with consistency: “A startled British government on Tuesday defended its decision to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after U.S. President Donald Trump attacked the plan, which his administration had previously supported.” * In no uncertain terms: “The three highest-ranking Roman Catholic clerics who lead archdioceses in the United States said in a strongly worded statement on Monday that America’s ‘moral role in confronting evil around the world’ is in question for the first time in decades. Their critique of the Trump administration’s principles — while not mentioning President Trump by name — escalates the American Catholic Church’s denunciations of the country’s top leaders.” * On the Hill: “Negotiations between Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the Oversight Committee, and Bill and Hillary Clinton over their refusal to testify in his panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation broke down on Tuesday, hours before a scheduled vote to hold the couple in contempt of Congress.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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