MSN

Newly released documents from February reveal that a U.S. magistrate judge denied five search warrant requests from the Trump administration related to the Cities Church FACE Act prosecution, which most famously led to charges against former CNN reporter Don Lemon.

The issue involved a group of protesters who disrupted a gathering at a St. Paul church with a pastor who was working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at a time when federal agents had effectively taken over the city of Minneapolis. The administration used the FACE Act, which is typically used to protect access to abortion clinics, but has a little-used provision also protecting church services.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents privately admitted to each other how horrific the conditions were in their section of 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, Courthouse News reported on Wednesday — including the proliferation of dangerous diseases in the facility.

"At the height of ICE’s immigrant detention campaign in New York City last summer, the agency regularly crammed well over 100 people at a time into a holding facility in Lower Manhattan, according to a class of detainees suing over their treatment," said the report. "Health issues permeated throughout the facility, even according to employees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

President Donald Trump seems to be denying a key reality in the war in Iran, and it's costing him at the negotiating table, according to one columnist.

Bob Kagan, a columnist and neoconservative scholar, discussed the war in Iran on a new episode of "The Bulwark Podcast" with host Tim Miller on Wednesday. Kagan argued that Trump doesn't seem to accept the reality that the U.S. lost the war back in March, and that Iran is basically "shaking Trump down for money" at the negotiating table.

FBI Director Kash Patel fired Deputy Assistant Director Emily Morales last Friday, escorting her out by security in what FBI sources describe as part of an ongoing politically motivated purge of nonpartisan agents who drew disfavor from President Donald Trump and Republicans.

Morales' apparent offense was her involvement in investigating James Hodgkinson, who opened fire on a Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia in June 14, 2017, according to reporting by MS NOW.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio boasted in this week's Cabinet meeting of the United States' deportation agreements with other countries — but a prominent immigration expert slammed his remarks as a bald falsehood.

"One of the things we’ve achieved is we have 20 countries around the world who have signed agreements to allow us to deport people to those countries," said Rubio in the meeting, adding that these are "safe" countries.

A legal expert floated a disturbing theory on Wednesday about why former Attorney General Pam Bondi is returning to President Donald Trump's administration.

Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor and host of the "Justice Matters" podcast, said in a new reaction video that Bondi's return is another way for the Trump administration to continue hiding the Jeffrey Epstein files from the public. Bondi faced considerable criticism from Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress over her handling of the files, leading to multiple fiery exchanges during hearings in the House and Senate.

CNN analyst Paul Begala dismissed conservative commentator Scott Jennings's criticisms of Rep. James Talarico (D-TX), who is challenging Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for a Senate seat in November.

Jennings attacked Talarico's positions on transgender identity, theology and diet.