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Yahoo
16 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
How summer camp became an American obsession
Summer camp. It's where kids go every year to make friends, find their long-lost twin, or even evade a slasher wreaking havoc on the campers and counselors. At least, that's what pop culture would lead you to believe: For the outsized space they take up in our consciousness, going to camp for the summer isn't actually all that common. 'It has never been the case that the majority of American children went to summer camps,' says Leslie Paris, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia and author of the book Children's Nature: The Rise of the American Summer Camp. 'The first camps were founded by urban middle-class men,' she told Vox. 'They were concerned about white boys who they saw as not getting enough outdoor adventure and the kind of manly experiences they would need to be — in the minds of these adults — the nation's leaders for the next generation. They were worried about the effects of urbanization, and they were nostalgic for an earlier day when more boys had grown up in rural places.' How did camp begin to be available for more kids? And if so few people actually attend, then why does summer camp have such lasting cultural influence? Those are just a few of the questions we posed to Paris on the latest episode of Explain It to Me, Vox's weekly call-in podcast. Below is an excerpt of the conversation with Paris, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to Explain It to Me on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you'd like to submit a question, send an email to askvox@ or call 1-800-618-8545. How did camp expand beyond the audience it was originally created for? The YMCA movement became involved, and by the turn of the century the movement started really ramping up. Not only because more YMCA camps were founded, but because different organizations got involved and more groups of American adults thought this camp idea would be great. By the turn of the century, you've got small numbers of women leading groups of girls out into the wilderness. Many of the women who started camps were college-educated and saw leading girls and giving them adventures as a kind of passion. Then there were urban organizations that began to say, 'This would be great for impoverished working-class kids who never get out of the city at all,' and began sending groups of kids out into the country, often for shorter stays than at private camps. In the early 20th century, you've got a bunch of new movements: the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Campfire Girls. And then there are different ethnic and religious groups: Jewish Americans, Catholic Americans, who think, Let's start camps for our own kids, and they do that as well. By the early 20th century there's a bevy of different kinds of camps organized for a wider variety of kids to give them an experience of the outdoors. You write in your book that 'this triple nostalgia — for the American past, for camp community, and for individual childhood experience — is critical to understanding why camps have figured so influentially in American culture and in former campers' lives.' I'd love for you to talk about that a little bit more. One of the things I talk about in my book is that camps were a place where children learned nostalgia, that camps taught them a version of the American past. I think many of us are familiar with a use of Indigenous cultural practices that was often quite superficial, but that was meant to introduce non-Indigenous children to one aspect of the American past. Camps were often a place where children were exposed to ideas about what the American past had been, and then as more generations of children attended camps, they themselves brought those kinds of nostalgic memories with them, throughout their lives. When they had a chance, many of those former children sent their own kids to camp. So this became a kind of a nostalgic cultural practice that for many adults reminded them of the first time that they had an adventure away from their parents, away from their families. It's so interesting you talk about Indigenous culture and how that's been used at camp. It makes me think of that scene in where Wednesday's at camp. Why does camp feature so prominently in pop culture if so few of us went? You could ask, Why are so many children's novels premised around an orphan? I think the fact that the kid is an orphan in these novels allows them to go off and have adventures and do things that many kids raised in families would not necessarily be at liberty to do. And I think camps have often represented that space, a space that's at least ostensibly protected, where kids have more free play and can have exciting adventures and develop peer relationships that are outside of the norm. And that piece lends itself really well to popular culture. Camp is so specific. How did you choose this as an academic subject? I knew that I wanted to work on American childhood, which was still a pretty small field in the 1990s, when I started this project. There wasn't a major scholarly book about the history of summer camps at the time and it seemed like a wonderful way to write about something that would be fun to work on. One of the things that I look at in my book is how camps illuminate the ways in which childhood was being transformed in the late 19th and early 20th century. That's so interesting. I imagine that changes at summer camp also reflect changes in American childhood overall. I'd love to hear in broad strokes about some of those changes. How have we seen camp and therefore childhood change over time? One of the main changes that I look at is the rise of the idea of protected childhood. That childhood should be a time apart and children should be protected from the adult world. The late 19th, early 20th century is the same time when you see laws restricting children's labor. There's an emphasis on child protection that's emerging during this period, and camps are one of the early sites of this new idea that children are deserving of spaces apart, time apart, and also that they're deserving of vacations. Although many of the elite kids who attended more expensive private camps were certainly going to have vacations whether or not they went to summer camp, some of the working-class kids at the turn of the 20th century who attended summer camps had never been on a vacation outside of the city. Summer camp has become this huge business these days in the United States, $3.5 billion annually. How did that happen? The camp industry has had to be nimble and change over time, especially since the 1970s, which was a time when many camps struggled and a number failed. The camping industry underwent some structural changes. One of these was the rise of specialty camps: Basketball camp, computer camp, gymnastics camp, dance camp, theater camp — camps that were focused on a really specific interest emerged in the late 20th century. Another issue was that many families who could afford private camps were starting to juggle more different opportunities. The cost of travel by plane was going down, so more families were thinking, Maybe at some point this summer we'd like to take the kids on a trip. There was also a rise in [divorce] and families had to negotiate custody. So even camps that used to have a nine-week schedule increasingly considered moving to a two-session schedule. Modern summer camps have retained many of the same elements as some of the earliest camps, but they've also adjusted to the increasing complexity of some of their clients' lives, and in that way the camp industry has continued to be able to thrive. And there's another issue, which is that camps have also always provided child care, and this has been important for parents since the very beginning. It's been a boon for parents who could relax knowing that their kids were away, especially families trying to juggle complicated child care arrangements in the summer when there was no school.
New York Times
21-04-2025
- General
- New York Times
U.S. Catholics, and some Protestants, mourn a pope who ‘tried to understand.'
Catholic Americans mourned Pope Francis on Monday, with many making their way to early services on the day after Easter. They paid respects to a pontiff who they said had made the Roman Catholic Church feel more modern and more inclusive. Many had spent weeks closely following and praying for the pope's health during and after his lengthy hospitalization, and had rejoiced in seeing him on television greeting the faithful at St. Peter's Square on Easter Sunday. Losing him on Monday was heartbreaking, said Chris Nealon, who stopped to pray at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York at the end of his shift at a security job. 'We are all made in God's image, and he reinforced that,' said Mr. Nealon, a Navy veteran and former police officer. He praised Francis' calls to end anti-gay sentiments and push to promote world peace. During Mass on Sunday, many Catholics had kept the ailing pope in their prayers, Isabella Colon, 25, said as she stopped at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on her way to work Monday morning. 'He spoke up for the kids in Gaza,' she said. 'He did a lot for people around the world, and a lot of people look up to him, and it's really sad.' The 7 a.m. Mass at Holy Name was celebrated by the Rev. Ramil Fajardo, the resident priest, who said it was 'hard to find the appropriate words' to commemorate Francis following 'the glow' of Easter, the most important day of the Christian calendar. 'Although we are sad and it's still raw, we still are shocked and words might escape us,' Father Fajardo said. 'On the other hand, our liturgy tells us that Jesus Christ has risen, and there is no fear.' Francis promoted interfaith relations, and his popularity in the United States extended beyond Catholics, including to liberal Protestants who saw him as a moral guide. 'I like the man very much,' Olga Helmprecht said as she walked slowly out of St. Patrick's, sniffling and wiping her eyes and nose with a tissue. Ms. Helmprecht, a practicing Protestant, said she took two buses and a train from Long Island so that she could pay her respects to the pontiff. 'He was so honest and not so old-fashioned,' she said. 'He tried to understand.' The end of Francis' life and papacy resonated deeply with immigrants who were grateful for his defense of migrants, including in his final address. In written remarks read on Sunday by a Vatican aide, the pope urged Catholics to 'revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands.' Ana Padilla, who immigrated to the United States from Peru more than 30 years ago, stopped in front of a statue of Mary holding Jesus at St. Patrick's on Monday morning. She shut her eyes to pray. The mere fact that Francis, an Argentine who was the first Latin American pope, spoke Spanish meant a lot to her, she said. But what she most appreciated were his messages about putting family first, and his advocacy to be kind to migrants. 'Everything he did was different,' she said, noting that Francis preferred to reside in a Vatican guesthouse. 'He didn't stay in the same house all of the other popes lived in. He wanted to live in humility.' Several Catholic Americans said they hoped the next pontiff would follow Francis's lead. 'I would like for him to be progressive,' said Amy Ramirez, 75, who attended early Mass at Holy Name in Chicago. 'Someone who stands up for not just Catholics but all religions, for fairness and justice for all people.'
CBS News
05-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Attorney General Pam Bondi orders review of Trump prosecutions, focuses on "sanctuary" cities
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department. Bondi was confirmed by the Senate late Tuesday night and was sworn in in front of President Trump by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon. The attorney general established a "weaponization working group" to review Biden administration law enforcement policies. The initial focus of the working group will be the Trump cases in New York — the indictment pursued by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and civil enforcement action brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James — neither of which involved federal prosecutors. The group will also review the two federal cases against Mr. Trump pursued by former special counsel Jack Smith and will examine the prosecutions of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. As the Justice Department has begun collecting information about the FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6 investigations and fired career prosecutors who worked on the cases, Bondi said in her directive that the working group would investigate "improper investigative tactics and unethical prosecutions" versus "good faith actions by federal employees simply following orders." Bondi is also accusing the Biden administration of targeting Catholic Americans and parents at school board meetings, and abusing the FACE Act — passed in 1994 — which makes it illegal to harm, threaten or interfere with an individual "obtaining or providing reproductive health services" or damage a facility "because such facility provides reproductive health." These efforts will also be reviewed by the working group. The new group will "review the activities of all departments and agencies exercising civil or criminal enforcement authority in the United States… to identify instances where a department's or agency's conduct appears to have been designed to achieve political objectives or other improper aims rather than pursuing justice or legitimate governmental objectives," Bondi wrote. She added that her department would provide quarterly reports to the White House on the group's findings. Bondi also targeted sanctuary jurisdictions with an order to end funding to any that "unlawfully interfere with federal law enforcement operations." She encouraged the department to pursue enforcement actions against sanctuary cities or states that do not comply with the federal government's immigration efforts. "State and local jurisdictions must comply with applicable immigration-related federal laws," one memo says, adding that "state and local actors may not impede, obstruct, or otherwise fail to comply with lawful immigration-related directives." In a separate memo targeting cartels and transnational criminal organizations, Bondi ordered "additional resources and thoughtful charging decisions" to fight illegal drug trafficking and pursue "total elimination" of these groups. Bondi also ended a moratorium on federal executions put in place by former President Joe Biden, who had ended federal executions during his presidency. In 2020, the first Trump administration carried out 10 executions after that had been paused for 17 years. "Going forward, the Department of Justice will once again act as the law demands," a memo reads, "including by seeking death sentences in appropriate cases and swiftly implementing those sentences in accordance with the law." The memo emphasizes that prosecutors should seek the death penalty in cases involving the murder of a law-enforcement officer or a capital crime by an illegal immigrant. Another memo establishes a task force to "prioritize seeking justice" for the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel perpetrated by Hamas, emphasizing that the department is investigating Hamas leadership, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and "U.S.-based individuals and entities that provide funding to Hamas." Bondi also ended all diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within the Justice Department and ordered full-time return to work for department employees by Monday, Feb. 24. The Justice Department did not disclose the percentage of staff who have been working remotely.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bondi's DOJ Day 1 directives: Fight weaponization of justice, eliminate cartels, lift death penalty ban
EXCLUSIVE: Attorney General Pam Bondi will issue several major directives on her first day leading the Justice Department, including orders to combat the weaponization of the legal system; make prosecutors seek the death penalty when appropriate; and work with the Department of Homeland Security to "completely eliminate" cartels and transnational criminal organizations, Fox News Digital has learned. Bondi was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday night as attorney general and sworn in on Wednesday. Senate Confirms Pam Bondi As Us Attorney General Fox News Digital exclusively obtained memos outlining Bondi's first-day directives, which will lay the groundwork for the Justice Department under her leadership. Bondi issued a directive regarding "zealous advocacy." Bondi said DOJ attorneys' responsibilities include "aggressively enforcing criminal laws passed by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges." "The discretion afforded Justice Department attorneys with respect to those responsibilities does not include latitude to substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election," the memo states. Read On The Fox News App Doj Directs Fbi To Fire 8 Top Officials, Identify Employees Involved In Jan. 6, Hamas Cases For Review "When Justice Department attorneys refuse to faithfully carry out their role by, for example, refusing to advance good-faith arguments or declining to sign briefs, it undermines the constitutional order and deprives the President of the benefit of his lawyers," the memo continues. Bondi, in the memo, states that "any Justice Department attorney who declines to sign a brief, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Justice Department's mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination." Bondi is set to establish the "Weaponization Working Group," which will review the activities of all law enforcement agencies over the past four years to identify instances of "politicized justice." Justice Department Fires More Than A Dozen Key Officials On Former Special Counsel Jack Smith's Team The working group's first reviews will include prosecutions against Trump led by former Special Counsel Jack Smith; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the civil fraud case against Trump and his family. The working group will also review any potential prosecutorial abuse regarding Jan. 6, 2021; the FBI's targeting of Catholic Americans; the Justice Department's targeting of parents at school board meetings; and abuses of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act. Flashback: Fbi Interviewed Priest, Church Choir Director Ahead Of Anti-catholic Memo, House Gop Finds Meanwhile, Bondi also will end the moratorium on federal executions and order that federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice, including U.S. attorneys' offices, seek the death penalty when appropriate — specifically with a focus on violent drug trafficking crimes. Bondi also ordered that the Justice Department "re-evaluate instances of the prior administration electing not to seek the death penalty." Bondi also is expected to rescind any DOJ policies that are "not sufficiently in line with President Trump's death penalty executive order." The move represents a major reversal from the Justice Department's view of the death penalty under the Biden administration. In 2021, Biden allowed the DOJ to issue a moratorium on federal executions. In December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 criminals on federal death row, which President Donald Trump, in his executive order on the death penalty, described as the "most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row." Bondi said she is now also directing the Justice Department to achieve justice for the families of the victims of the 37 murderers who had their death sentences commuted. Trump Takes More Than 200 Executive Actions On Day One As for cartels, Bondi is directing the Justice Department to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal partners to "completely eliminate" the threats of cartels and transnational criminal organizations. Bondi plans to re-imagine charging priorities relating to those cases in order to ensure that law enforcement resources are focused on dismantling the foundational operational capacity of cartels, as opposed to just picking off low-level offenders. Here, the Justice Department is expected to temporarily suspend some "bureaucratic approvals and reviews" in order to prioritize speedy prosecutions and captures of those accused of severe offenses like capital crimes, terrorism or aiding the operations of cartels. Bondi said Joint Task Force Vulcan, which was created to destroy MS-13, and Joint Task Force Alpha, which was created to fight human trafficking, would be "further empowered and elevated" to the Office of the Attorney General. Those missions are expected to expand — specifically Vulcan's — with a new focus on destroying Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang now designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Also on the cartel front, Bondi is directing the DOJ Office of Legal Policy to find legislative reforms to target equipment designed to make fentanyl pills and add Xylazine, a new deadly drug, to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. And as for illegal migrants, Bondi has directed the DOJ to pause all federal funding for sanctuary cities. Bondi also has directed the DOJ to identify and evaluate all funding agreements with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide support to illegal aliens. She is also directing litigating components of the Justice Department to investigate instances of jurisdictions that are impeding law enforcement, and directing they be prosecuted, when necessary. 'This Is About Fentanyl': Tariffs Are Crucial To Combating 'Drug War,' Trump And Cabinet Officials Say Meanwhile, Bondi will create a new Joint Task Force focused on holding Hamas accountable for its crimes against Jews during its terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The task force will also "achieve justice for victims and fight terrorist-led antisemitism." The task force will pursue criminal charges where applicable against Hamas; seek the arrest and extradition of Hamas leadership; and investigate antisemitism in the U.S. Bondi is also directing the FBI to staff the joint task force with personnel "significantly experienced in investigating terrorism." Beyond those directives, Bondi is directing the DOJ to confirm the termination of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at the department by March 15. She also is demanding the removal of all references to DEI in training programs — specifically ending the emphasis on race and sex-based criteria and refocusing hiring and promotion guidelines "solely on merit." Bondi will also work with the Department of Education to ensure that educational institutions receiving federal grants are adhering to "fair admission practices." Bondi, a longtime prosecutor and former Florida attorney general, has vowed not to use her position to advance any political agenda, testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee that "politics has to be taken out of this system." Bondi told lawmakers in January that the "partisanship, the weaponization" at the Justice Department "will be gone." "America will have one tier of justice for all," she said. Before Bondi was confirmed, Fox News Digital exclusively reported that the Trump Justice Department fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on former Special Counsel Smith's team prosecuting Trump, after acting Attorney General James McHenry said they could not be trusted in "faithfully implementing the president's agenda." And Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued a memo to the acting FBI director directing him to terminate eight FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review. After the directive, on Tuesday, a group of nine FBI agents filed a lawsuit seeking to block the public identification of any FBI employees who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved in the article source: Bondi's DOJ Day 1 directives: Fight weaponization of justice, eliminate cartels, lift death penalty ban
Fox News
05-02-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Bondi's DOJ Day 1 directives: Fight weaponization of justice, eliminate cartels, lift death penalty ban
EXCLUSIVE: Attorney General Pam Bondi will issue several major directives on her first day leading the Justice Department, including orders to combat the weaponization of the legal system; make prosecutors seek the death penalty when appropriate; and work with the Department of Homeland Security to "completely eliminate" cartels and transnational criminal organizations, Fox News Digital has learned. Bondi was confirmed by the Senate Monday night as attorney general of the United States and was sworn in on Tuesday. Fox News Digital exclusively obtained memos outlining Bondi's first-day directives, which will lay the groundwork for the Justice Department under her leadership. Bondi issued a directive regarding "zealous advocacy." Bondi said DOJ attorneys' responsibilities include "aggressively enforcing criminal laws passed by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges." "The discretion afforded Justice Department attorneys with respect to those responsibilities does not include latitude to substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election," the memo states. "When Justice Department attorneys refuse to faithfully carry out their role by, for example, refusing to advance good-faith arguments or declining to sign briefs, it undermines the constitutional order and deprives the President of the benefit of his lawyers," the memo continues. Bondi, in the memo, states that "any Justice Department attorney who declines to sign a brief, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Justice Department's mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination." Bondi is set to establish the "Weaponization Working Group," which will review the activities of all law enforcement agencies over the past four years to identify instances of "politicized justice." The working group's first reviews will include prosecutions against Trump led by former Special Counsel Jack Smith; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; and the civil fraud case brought against Trump and his family by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The working group will also review any potential prosecutorial abuse regarding Jan. 6, 2021; the FBI's targeting of Catholic Americans; the Justice Department's targeting of parents at school board meetings; and FACE Act abuses. Meanwhile, Bondi also will end the moratorium on federal executions and order that federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice, including U.S. attorney's offices, seek the death penalty when appropriate —specifically with a focus on violent drug trafficking crimes. Bondi also ordered that the Justice Department "re-evaluate instances of the prior administration electing not to seek the death penalty." Bondi also is expected to rescind any DOJ policies that are "not sufficiently in line with President Trump's death penalty executive order." The move represents a major reversal from the Justice Department's view of the death penalty under the Biden administration. In 2021, Biden allowed the DOJ to issue a moratorium on federal executions. In December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 criminals on federal death row, which President Donald Trump, in his executive order on the death penalty, described as the "most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death." Bondi said she is now also directing the Justice Department to achieve justice for the families of the victims of the 37 murderers that had their death sentences commuted. As for cartels, Bondi is directing the Justice Department to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal partners to "completely eliminate" the threats of cartels and transnational criminal organizations. Bondi plans to re-imagine charging priorities relating to those cases in order to ensure that law enforcement resources are focused on dismantling the foundational operational capacity of cartels, as opposed to just picking off low-level offenders. Here, the Justice Department is expected to temporarily suspend some "bureaucratic approvals and reviews" in order to prioritize speedy prosecutions and captures of those accused of severe offenses like capital crimes, terrorism, or aiding the operations of cartels. Bondi said Joint Task Force Vulcan, which was created to destroy MS-13, and Joint Task Force Alpha, which was created to fight human trafficking, would be "further empowered and elevated" to the Office of the Attorney General. Their missions are expected to expand—specifically Vulcan's—with a new focus on destroying Tren de Aragua. Also on the cartel front, Bondi is directing the DOJ Office of Legal Policy to find legislative reforms to target equipment designed to make fentanyl pills and add Xylazine, a new deadly drug, to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. And as for illegal migrants, Bondi has directed the DOJ to pause all federal funding for sanctuary cities. Bondi has also directed the DOJ to identify and evaluate all funding agreements with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide support to illegal aliens. She is also directing litigating components of the Justice Department to investigate instances of jurisdictions that are impeding law enforcement, and directing they be prosecuted, when necessary. Meanwhile, Bondi will also create a new Joint Task Force on October 7 focused on holding Hamas accountable for its crimes against Jews during its terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The task force will also "achieve justice for victims and fight terrorist-led anti-Semitism." The task force on Oct. 7 will pursue criminal charges where applicable against Hamas; seek the arrest and extradition of Hamas leadership; and investigate anti-Semitism in the United States. Bondi is also directing the FBI to staff the joint task force with personnel "significantly experienced in investigating terrorism." Beyond those directives, Bondi is directing the DOJ to confirm the termination of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs at the department by March 15. She also is demanding the removal of all references to DEI in training programs—specifically ending the emphasis on race and sex-based criteria and refocusing hiring and promotion guidelines "solely on merit." Bondi will also work with the Department of Education to ensure that educational institutions receiving federal grants are adhering to "fair admission practices." Bondi, a longtime prosecutor and former Florida attorney general, has vowed not to use her position to advance any political agenda, testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee that "politics has to be taken out of this system." Bondi told lawmakers in January that the "partisanship, the weaponization" at the Justice Department "will be gone." "America will have one tier of justice for all," she said. Before Bondi was confirmed, Fox News Digital exclusively reported that the Trump Justice Department fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on former Special Counsel Jack Smith's team prosecuting Trump, after Acting Attorney General James McHenry said they could not be trusted in "faithfully implementing the president's agenda." And Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued a memo to the acting FBI director directing him to terminate eight FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review. After the directive, on Tuesday, a group of nine FBI agents filed a lawsuit seeking to block the public identification of any FBI employees who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved in the probe.
