Losing My Perspicacity, October 17, 2025

Man who skewered Hillary Clinton over handling of her emails indicted for his handling of emails

Author

Julie DiCaro
October 17, 2025

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Good morning and Happy Free Friday! Thanks for reading with me today.

There was a lot happening in the legal world yesterday, so we’ll start there for the second day in a row.

John Bolton is the latest person to learn the hard lesson that Donald Trump’s “loyalty” can turn on a dime, and he has now been indicted by Trump’s DOJ. Back in the first Trump administration, Bolton (loudly) served as the 26th National Security Advisor. Today, Trump called him “a bad person.” For once, Trump and I agree. Bolton’s role in selling the Iraq War to the American people during the Bush administration should probably have landed him in jail long ago.

Bolton has been charged with 18 counts related to the mishandling of classified documents. According to the indictment and media reports, Bolton used his personal Gmail account to send over 1,000 pages of top-secret documents to his wife and daughter via his home computer. In 2019, Bolton’s personal email was hacked by Iran, which seems…bad.

But the kicker in all of this is that Bolton was one of the loudest when it came to excoriating Hillary Clinton over the email issue that cost her the Presidency. Here’s what Bolton wrote in the Weekly Standard back in February of 2016.

Clinton tries to minimize the seriousness of her error by arguing, as she did during the January 31 interview, that having hundreds of her emails wholly or partly redacted before release is nothing but “classification in retrospect.” This dodge is either deceitful or utterly uneducated. To argue, as Clinton does, that information properly unclassified at the time she received it can grow more sensitive as time passes is so breathtaking it almost defies physical reality.

Really, Dude? This you?

The hypocrisy is staggering.

Unlike the charges against James Comey and Letitia James, it seems like there may be something to the charges against Bolton. Last night on MSNBC, Carol Leonnig reported that the investigation against Bolton actually began while Joe Biden was in office, although I have zero doubt that Trump’s desire for petty revenge supercharged the DOJ in this particular case. Comey claims that he was merely sending his daily diaries to his immediate family members ahead of writing his book. I do not think that’s an exception to the laws surrounding classified materials, but what do I know?

I bet Bolton is wishing he hadn’t refused to testify before Congress during Trump’s impeachment proceeding, huh? I’ll be honest, John Bolton has been on my list of Men I Most Revile since the early 2000s, and even though the Justice Department has become Trump’s personal grievance machine, I am having a hard time scrounging up much sympathy for Bolton.

We also had two big developments in Chicago regarding “Operation Midway Blitz” (which is 100 percent a war operation name being used for an attack on an American city), Trump’s attempt to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, and the temporary restraining order (TRO) that Chicago journalists were awarded against ICE.

First, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied the feds’ motion to stay the TRO that prevents Donald Trump from deploying the National Guard in Illinois. And they were pretty blunt about Trump’s chances:

I did a moderately long thread on the opinion on Bluesky, if you want to read more. And you can bet the lawyers representing Oregon and Portland sent the 7th Circuit’s opinion over to the 9th Circuit (which hasn’t ruled yet) immediately. 

Finally, federal district court Judge Sara Ellis hauled everyone back into court to demand answers about the reports she’s seeing of ICE violating her restraining order all over Chicago.

And ICE is absolutely violating that TRO, which ordered ICE to wear visible identification and not use tear gas, except as a last resort. Instead of abiding by Ellis’ order, we’re seeing ICE do things like this in residential neighborhoods.

Video evidence proves ICE is lying: ICE agents intentionally crashed their car into another driver in a maneuver banned by Chicago police. ICE’s reckless and violent tactics endanger everyone, showcased further when they released tear gas into a crowd of people after the crash.

— Congresswoman Robin Kelly (@robinkelly.house.gov)2025-10-16T23:02:25.273Z

The hearing before Judge Ellis will be on Monday.

Before we get to the news, this is my weekly plea to invest in independent journalism by becoming a paid subscriber of Losing My Perspicacity. As one legacy news outlet after another bends the knee to Trump, the future of reporting will hinge on those of us who are free to report without management censoring our work. Subscription plans start at just $1.01 per month. Every little bit helps. Either way, I’d really appreciate you clicking on the link below to help keep the lights on.

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Today: A guy who seems really important has quit his job, which also seems really important; Women don’t like the vehicle; Mike Johnson doesn’t find violence against women to be “serious;” and The High Note.

Let’s go.

Uh, seems not great

Admiral Alvin Holsey, the head of US Southern Command, has stepped down. Why is this important? Well, SouthCom, as it’s called, is one of 11 unified Combatant Commands, and, per its website, it “ works collaboratively to ensure the Western Hemisphere is secure,” which seems crucial.

We don’t know if Holsey was pushed out or stepped down of his own accord, but it’s worth noting that SouthCom is responsible for the Caribbean and Venezuela, which happens to be the area where the US has been dropping bombs on “drug traffickers.”

It was unclear why Admiral Holsey is suddenly departing, less than a year into what is typically a three-year job, and in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career. But one current and one former U.S. official, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said that Admiral Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats.

Ah yes, the fatal flaw of (checks notes) valuing human lives. Well, we can’t have that in the Department of War, now can we? Holsey had good reason to question the intelligence behind the attacks, because this is the second time (by my very cursory account) that the families of the deceased have claimed they were fishermen, not narcoterrorists.

Chad Joseph, a 26-year-old from Trinidad and Tobago who had been living in Venezuela in recent months, told his family he would soon be taking a short boat ride back home.

He has yet to return, and now his family fears the worst.

On Thursday, his name spread across social media, with users saying that he was one of six people aboard a suspected drug vessel that had been blown up by the U.S. military this week.

“I don’t want to believe that this is my child,” his mother, Lenore Burnley, said in an interview. “Is this really true?”

It’s so frustrating that Trump is extrajudicially executing people regularly, and Americans don’t even have the energy to be outraged, because we’re all too busy fighting off ICE, RFK Jr., and the 20-something Nazis in the GOP.

Women don’t like the vehicle

Yesterday, WIRED published a string of interviews with Cybertruck owners, and some moments in there need to be seen.

For example, this bit from Russ, 44, who owns a business that does “off-road postapocalyptic rallies.”

Hang it in the Louvre.

And this moment with Roger from San Diego, who is an “entrepreneur.”

Aw, Roger.

Mike Johnson doesn’t find domestic violence to be “serious”

This is Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) responding to a reporter asking him about the restraining order a judge issued against Congressman Cory Mills (R-FL):

Q: This has been reported for a while. Cory Mills was accused of beating a girlfriend in his DC apt. Are you concerned about these allegations? JOHNSON: You have to ask Rep. Mills about that. He's been a faithful colleague. I don't know the details. Let's talk about things that are really serious

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)2025-10-15T14:50:03.416Z

As someone who used to help victims of intimate partner violence get orders of protection against their abusers, I can assure you that they are not easy to get, they require victims to jump through far too many hoops to obtain, and they are deadly serious.

In the order, the judge wrote that (victim Lindsey) Langston has “reasonable cause to believe she is in imminent danger of becoming the victim of another act of dating violence” and said the evidence supported Langston’s assertion that Mills had caused her “substantial emotional distress” and that Mills offered “no credible rebuttal” to her testimony.

The order, which remains in place until January 2026, prohibits Mills from contacting Langston in any way and from coming within 500 feet of her residence or place of employment.

Am I surprised that a Republican man is not concerned with violence against women? I am not. Am I enraged, yet again? I am.

Stories you missed this week:

If you don’t subscribe to LMP five days a week, here are some of the stories you may have missed:

The High Note

Each week, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face and the inspiration to fight another day.

Great news out of the ocean: Green turtles have been rescued from the brink of extinction. Can I differentiate a green turtle from any other sea turtle? No, I cannot. But sea turtles are all lovely, and the world is a better place with them in it.

They literally eat underwater lettuce. Tell me that doesn’t make your day better. You can’t.

Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Stay safe if you’re headed to #NoKings on Saturday. And above all, don’t let the bastards get you down.

I’ll be back on Tuesday of next week.

Have a great weekend.

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