The heroes of yesterday were these 20 anonymous grand jury members.

I don't know who they are.

They were picked at random.

And they taught us more about just basic democracy and rule of law than the President of the United States and the Attorney General.

And that is where we are, ladies and gentlemen.

Hi again, everyone. It's now 5 o'clock in New York.

There are signs everywhere that there are, in fact, some checks remaining on the Trump

administration's worst impulses and excesses.

We saw it this week with the Department of Justice when they were handed a resounding defeat

by a grand jury, when

Janine Piro's office tried and failed to indict six Democratic lawmakers who simply released a video,

90 seconds, urging the men and women of the military to refuse any illegal orders.

The rejection of the indictment by the grand jury, which is called a no-true bill, was nothing short of an embarrassment for the Trump administration.

And it is something so rare for a U.S. attorney, any U.S. attorney, that many go their whole careers without that happening to them, without ever facing rejection from a grand jury like this one.

But it is now a common occurrence for Donald Trump's

political appointees inside DOJ. Adding to the Trump administration's failures to target these six

lawmakers, a federal judge issued a scathing rebuke of defense secretary and former Fox News

weekend anchor Pete Hegseth today, finding that Pete Hegseth is unlawfully

retaliating against Senator Mark Kelly. That judge wrote this, quote, Secretary Hegseth relies on the

well-established doctrine that military service members enjoy less vigorous First Amendment protections,

given the fundamental obligation for obedience and discipline in the

armed forces. Unfortunately, for Secretary Hegeseth, no court has ever extended those principles

...