"I was just wrong. It was wildly different than the first Trump administration. There was just a sense that this was not going to be the same. And then in the Voting Section, what happened is they just started dismissing cases."
The Justice Department called the group a fake activist persona that the Iranian ministry used to carry out 'psychological operations' against the regime's enemies, to claim responsibility for cyberattacks, and to publish stolen information obtained during those hacks.
The Trump administration has refused to issue a nonimmigrant student visa to a Babson College student whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrongfully deported to Honduras in November. The administration was responding to district court judge Richard Stearns's January order to find a "remedy" to ICE's violation of a court order prohibiting Any Lopez Belloza's deportation. In a court filing Friday, the DOJ said Stearns's suggestion
DOJ Lawyer Invites Judge To Hold Her In Contempt Just To Get Some Rest: Government attorney called out the challenges preventing her from complying with court orders and begs for rest. The DOJ immediately fired her.
"Eagle" Ed Martin, the Trump loyalist that even this Republican Senate found too incompetent to confirm when he sought to head the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C., has managed to find a new way to confirm that skepticism. Earlier this week, we heard that the DOJ relieved Ed of his tasks as the driving force behing the DOJ's anti-weaponization initiative - the ironically named group working to actively weaponize the DOJ against Trump's political enemies. Every accusation really is a confession, as they say.
She asked to be held in contempt just so she could get 24 hours of sleep. In a follow-up tweet, Blume added that Blackwell had called the hearing because he was frustrated that in 5 Habeas cases he was presiding over, he felt his orders were being ignored, leaving immigrant detainees unconstitutionally locked up for days. Then, Blume said, Le admitted that the government's lawyer just cannot keep up.
Last week, Glenn Greenwald did a podcast defending Bill Barr's efforts to overturn the prosecution of Mike Flynn ( here's a transcript; the italicized language below is my correction of that transcript). A whole slew of people wrote me in alarm over some of the claims he made in it. After some reflection, I decided to do a post showing how the public record that Glenn claims to have consulted in his podcast at least undermines some of his claims, and in places utterly refutes it.
In a brief statement on X on January 16, Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets and Deputy Director at the Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital, said the Department of Justice (DOJ) has confirmed that the forfeited digital assets "have not been liquidated and will not be liquidated" pursuant to Executive Order 14233. According to Witt, the bitcoin will remain on the U.S. government's balance sheet as part of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR).
The congressional representatives have written a letter expressing their concerns to Attorney General Pam Bondi, and a coalition of activists has filed a federal lawsuit seeking the restoration of the Community Relations Service, an agency within the DOJ that has provided conflict resolution services around the nation since it was established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Community Relations Service staff has been reduced to one.
Meta has removed a Facebook page dedicated to tracking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action in Chicago after the Justice Department got involved. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X Tuesday that Facebook had taken down an unnamed "large group page that was being used to dox and target" ICE agents after outreach from the DOJ. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the group, which he did not identify, "was removed for violating our policies against coordinated harm." Its removal follows Apple and Google blocking ICE-tracking apps, also following government demands.
It's not the kind of money the DOJ typically seeks to recoup, but James isn't just any alleged fraudster. A prominent anti-Trump gadfly, James brought a civil case against Donald Trump and his company in 2022 and won, resulting in a $500 million fine being levied against the president (he later successfully appealed the fine and has so far paid nothing, although the ruling maintained his liability).
"For decades, the guiding tenet for those working at the department was to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. Many believe that's no longer possible," Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection, which organized the letter, said in a news release on Monday. "They're being asked to put loyalty to the President over the Constitution, the rule of law, and their professional ethical obligations," she said. "We're seeing the erosion of the Justice Department's fabric and integrity at an alarming pace. Our democratic system cannot survive without the primary institution that enforces the law."
It's a long standing joke that the standard of proof for a grand jury (where only the government has an opportunity to present evidence) is so low that prosecutors could secure an indictment against a ham sandwich. It's not a particularly funny joke, mind you, but it is widely known in the legal profession. What *is* funny as hell is that the Department of Justice has failed to secure an indictment against a man accused of throwing a sandwich.
