“Do not stand idly by while your neighbor’s blood is shed.”

From Leviticus 19:16

A few times over the past year, I’ve quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous line: “Against stupidity we are defenseless.” But this sentiment in and of itself is incomplete when talking about the Trump Regime. Instead, Martin Niemöllerl’s separate poem must be bolted on to express the danger that we face when it comes to these ferociously dark times.

Many of you know the poem, even if you don’t know the name of its author:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Put simply, stupidity coupled with inaction results in the end of us all.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office: An Institution of Excellence Being Flushed Down the Toilet

So why do I quote Bonhoeffer and Niemöllerl today?

The United States Attorney’s Office is not a training ground or an internship. To be an Assistant US Attorney in one of the ninety-four offices, your journey starts in college. Oftentimes, you must attend elite universities – both undergraduate and law school – and then work several years as a federal law clerk, state prosecutor, or associate at a prestigious law firm before being considered for a job that is long on hours, but short on pay. For good reason: you are being entrusted to wield incredible federal power, prosecute major crimes, and uphold justice. In the end, you don’t just let anyone mic drop “[insert name], on behalf of the UNITED STATES.” Heck, ask a lawyer to pick out of a lineup a lawyer from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and I’d wager more often than not they’d point to . . . former Special Counsel Jack Smith. Right or wrong, there is a type both on paper and in appearance.

Overseeing all of these legal overachievers are the U.S. Attorneys appointed by the President. The U.S. Attorney is the chief federal law enforcement officer for their district. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a federal prosecutor to be appointed as a U.S. Attorney, but it sure as shit helps considering the day-to-day responsibilities. But what you must have is sound – both legal and commonsense – judgment, be a strong supervisor willing to stand-up for your line prosecutors that do “the job”, and ultimately act in the best interests of the United States.

At bottom, it is about competence AND independence to ensure that the rule of law of defended and that justice is done without fear or favor.

I am not being dramatic when I say our faith in this institution is corroded when it is run by shmucks. And unsurprisingly, Convicted Felon Donald Trump’s U.S. Attorney nominees are for the most part, shmucks. It starts at the top with Pamela Jo, but the stink of these folks doesn’t stop there. Many of the U.S. Attorneys nominated by Trump have little to no background as federal prosecutors AND ALSO lack meaningful legal acumen and supervisory experience. Many were selected solely because of their public statements professing loyalty to Trump or their willingness to echo his grievances about the so-called “weaponization” of the DOJ under the Biden Administration.

I could point to Lindsay Halligan or Alina Habba to make the point. But that’s shooting dingbat fish in a barrel. Rather, and in light of the travesty of what is happening in Minnesota, let’s focus on Dan Rosen, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota.

Dan Rosen: A man NOT for the times

Minnesota’s US Attorney Dan Rosen, the Ingratiating Idiot in a Long Line of Trumpy Ingratiating Idiots, was chosen from a slate of three nominees prepared by Minnesota’s Republican Delegation and presented to Felon Trump. Rosen’s weak-sauce resumé is certainly light when it comes to leading an office of this importance. Rosen has never been a prosecutor or supervisor of prosecutors or held a role in state or federal government overseeing law enforcement on the streets or in court. His legal specialty is apparently eminent domain - which certainly can be complicated - but not exactly the kind of background you’d want for your U.S. Attorney. What Rosen DOES seem to do a good job of is operating in political circles.

But, being nice to politicians gives way when performing the actual job. And on that note, the evidence sure seems to be that Rosen is a Trump bootlicker that is committed to trashing the credibility of his office to appease his masters.

Why am I so brutal in my takedown? Let’s go back in time.

When appointed, Rosen gave an interview to Jewish Insider about his new gig and what values would drive him in performing the job. More or less a puff piece, Rosen claimed to read the Talmud^[i] “every day” and that he would be motivated by Talmudic teaching of “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof — ‘Justice, justice, you shall pursue.’”

Although not in the Talmud, I’m going to assume that Rosen is quite aware of Niemöllerl’s poem: it is prominently displayed at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, is taught in – (gasp!) public schools – and is often cited in popular culture when someone is calling out inaction.

But even if Rosen is ignorant, his purported daily Talmudic reading should give him all he needs to understand what it takes to be a principled U.S. Attorney in pursuing justice. That would include (1) the duty to protest a wrong, and if you fail to do so, your complicity in that wrong and (2) your duty to intervene and prevent harm to others. ^[ii] Frankly, the Talmud said it first and Niemöllerl just repackaged these principles in poetic form.

Rosen’s copy of the good book apparently has the pages discussing these principles all ripped out. Or perhaps he is just full of shit. I’m thinking the latter.

What’s going on in Minnesota is horrifying. Out of the gate, there is no immigration crisis in Minneapolis that would justify the bum rush of aggressive police action taken by the federal government. Rather, Trump sent in his federal militia because the man-baby wanted to make a point and his obergruppenführer Stephen Miller was all too willing to make it happen. We now see the result: Two people murdered in cold blood by federal agents in less than 3 weeks. THIS is what happens when you send in unqualified and undertrained people armed with enough lethal force to make a Third World dictator envious, in order to undertake a mission that is tactically and strategically unjustified and incompetently managed.

And what’s the response from Rosen, the chief federal law enforcement officer in Minnesota, when the shit hits the fan? Certainly nothing in line with the Talmudic principles he purports to live by. Instead, Minnesotans get feckless leadership guided solely by what Trump Regime dictates.

Start with Renee Nicole Good. After videos of her murder went viral, state authorities were shut out from participating in the investigation. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) made it clear that the decision to exclude the BCA was made by the US Attorney’s Office and that only the politically-compromised FBI would be investigating Good’s murder. Rosen refused to make any public comment, but in a memo to staff, he did his best Chip Diller “Remain calm, all is well” impersonation. However, underneath the waterline, things were more disturbing. Prosecutors in the office were directed to investigate Good’s widow rather than focus on the agent who murdered her and whether use of deadly force was justifiable (and we know it wasn’t).

This diktat did not sit well with several senior career prosecutors, all more qualified than Rosen for the job. In a display of what real leadership looks like, they resigned. To give you an idea of the magnitude of this act of protest, one of the resigning attorneys – Joe Thompson – was Rosen’s lead lieutenant and lead prosecutor on the so-called Feeding Our Future fraud case, the case that Trump used in part to justify his surge of federal agents into the Twin Cities.

In a dark moment of foreshadowing, Rochelle Olson wrote an opinion column in the Minnesota Star Tribune, eviscerating Rosen, his failure of leadership, and its implications for the good folks of Minnesota:

“The reckless words of Trump and his allies, including Rosen, have turned Minnesota streets into a powder keg. Good’s shooting may prove to be a decisive moment for the U.S., a time where we must choose whether we remain a nation bound by laws or an authoritarian force. History is full of pivotal, perilous times that demanded moral clarity and courage.”

But Rosen apparently had dumb things to focus on rather than the murder of his fellow Minnesotan. As reported last week, Rosen personally pushed criminal action against journalists, namely, seeking to indict my friend and colleague, Don Lemon, for reporting on a protest at a local church in which the pastor is also an ICE agent (I can’t make this shit up, people). The federal magistrate judge, however, refused to issue a warrant for Lemon’s arrest, finding that prosecutors, led by Rosen, failed to meet the probable cause standard.

Sent to bed without dinner, Rosen threw a tantrum, just like his hero Felon Trump. As reported yesterday in the New York Times, Rosen then tried to bully the chief district court judge, Patrick Schlitz, to review the magistrate’s actions and issue the warrants. Chief Judge Schlitz – a two-time Antonin Scalia law clerk so definitely no shrinking conversation wallflower there – declined and told Rosen there was no emergency, but that he would take his office’s request under advisement. In the meantime, Rosen also could have just improved his office’s probable cause affidavits and gone back to the magistrate or empaneled a grand jury to pursue an indictment. Showing his lack of experience and tact, but all too eager to placate his masters, Rosen did none of the above and instead went to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals – on a sealed basis – and sought an order from the appellate court directing the district court judge to issue the warrants.

To say this requested relief is unheard of is an understatement. Frankly, it took me three times to write it out because of the sheer procedural madness of it all. The chief judge – given only about two hours to respond to a sealed legal brief he couldn’t even access – called Rosen’s actions “frivolous.” I recommend you read the chief judge’s written response and follow-up request; I have linked it here for your reading. It is…truly extraordinary. Suffice it to say, I think the chief judge may not be exchanging pleasantries with the chief law enforcement officer for the District of Minnesota the next time they share an elevator. Regardless, the court of appeals rejected Rosen’s pedantic and foolish actions.

But now Rosen’s frivolous conduct must give way again to serious events. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Hospital, was murdered Saturday by CBP agents. I will not waste my, or your, time explaining this was an unjustifiable killing: the videos are clear that this was murder. But there will never be a real investigation by the feds. It’s already being reported that state investigators have once again been excluded from the investigation, key evidence has gone missing, witnesses are hiding out of fear of retaliation by federal agents, etc. And Trump’s other obergruppenführer, Kristi Noem, is making up wild lies that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” intending to murder ICE agents.

Out of the gate, when someone goes to work for the Trump Regime and cites religious teachings as their polestar, my bullshit-meter goes into overdrive. Because in words and in actions, the Trump Regime is immoral and cruel so how can Trumpers reconcile the hypocrisy? They don’t. They don’t even try because the invocation of being “religious” gives them convenient cover to justify doing horrific things or horrifically doing nothing at all.

So as Trump’s goons violently attack the Minnesota community, we are left with Rosen, the feeble and obsequious chief federal law enforcement officer in the state. None of us can be surprised that Rosen will (once again) lack the moral backbone to insist a real investigation take place, protest the lack thereof, or speak truth to power. The spineless rarely ever grow the necessary spine the Talmud requires or that Niemöllerl reminds us of. No, the interests of the people in his community will give way to Rosen’s loyalty to Trump, Talmudic principles be damned.

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^[i] From Google AI: The Torah is Judaism’s foundational text, the first five books of the Bible (Genesis to Deuteronomy), containing God’s direct commandments, while the Talmud is a vast rabbinic work that interprets, explains, and applies Torah law, serving as a record of debates and discussions on how to live by its teachings, essentially the “Oral Torah” written down.

^[ii] From the Talmud per my online research: “All who can protest against something wrong that one of their family is doing and does not, is accountable together with their family. All who can protest against something wrong that a citizen of their city is doing and does not protest is accountable together with all citizens of the city. All who can protest against something wrong that is being done in the whole world is accountable together with all citizens of the world.”