Latest news with #DemocracyDefendersFund
Cedar News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Cedar News
Watchdog Group Demands Federal Probe into Pentagon's Acceptance of Qatari Luxury Jet for Trump
The watchdog group Democracy Defenders Fund, led by a former Obama administration ethics official, has formally requested a federal investigation into the Pentagon's acceptance of a Qatari luxury jet on behalf of President Trump. – CBS
CBS News
9 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Watchdog group asks for probe of Defense Dept.'s acquisition of Qatari plane on Trump's behalf
The watchdog group Democracy Defenders Fund, led by a former Obama administration ethics official, has formally requested a federal investigation into the Pentagon's acceptance of a Qatari luxury jet on behalf of President Trump. According to a memo obtained by CBS News, the group asked the Department of Defense's inspector general and the Government Accountability Office to probe whether the Pentagon broke laws and engaged in impropriety by accepting the gift on Mr. Trump's behalf from the Qatari royal family. The memo was sent to the inspector general and GAO on Friday. The Democracy Defenders Fund is a nonpartisan advocacy group founded by Obama ethics czar Norm Eisen. Its memo said the agencies should investigate whether the Defense Department had improperly invoked its authorities to accept the jet aircraft and to reportedly transfer $934 million in funding from a nuclear missile program to help retrofit the aircraft. "If true, this would mean that the DoD is diverting critical nuclear defense funds to outfit an unprecedented gift from a foreign government to a U.S. president," the group said in a 10-page memo. Earlier this year, President Trump confirmed that the Qatari royal family was donating a Boeing 747-8 for his use. Valued at $400 million, the jumbo jet is set to be donated to Mr. Trump's presidential library after his term is over. "There are so many things wrong with this picture, it's a challenge to know where to begin," said Virginia Canter, chief counsel for ethics and anti-corruption at Democracy Defenders Fund. "The fact that taxpayers are now funding a fifth Air Force One, originating from a foreign monarchy, is a staggering abuse of public trust, fiscal priorities, and national security interests," Canter said. The memo from Democracy Defenders Fund said the jet was redundant and unnecessary, pointing out the U.S. Air Force operates two 747 jets as Air Force One, and two replacement aircraft were authorized in 2018 for $3.9 billion. Despite the existence of both an active and future fleet, Mr. Trump pursued the $400 million Qatari plane, which he referred to in May as a "gift." "If we can get a 747 as a contribution to our Defense Department to use during a couple of years while they're building the other ones, I think that was a very nice gesture," the president said. The memo from the Democracy Defenders Fund also argued that Justice Department guidance prohibits agencies from accepting gifts that would incur costs in future fiscal years, as appears to be the case with the Qatari jet. "The Air Force has already made clear that the Qatari jet is not able to operate as Air Force One in its current state," the memo said. The group also argued that even if it were legal, "the use of the (Defense Department's) statutory authority to accept a foreign gift that is not fit for purpose and then expend a billion dollars from appropriations for nuclear deterrence to upgrade that plane would be wasteful, a gross mismanagement of funds and an abuse of the (Defense Department's) statutory authorities in support of the President's attempt to evade Constitutional restrictions on acceptance of foreign emoluments." A memorandum of understanding between Qatar and the Defense Department that was viewed by CBS News outlined the "unconditional donation" of one Boeing 747-8 jumbo aircraft. It was signed earlier this month by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Qatar's deputy prime minister and minister of state for defense affairs. It does not specifically mention Air Force One but says the jet can be used by the Pentagon "in any manner it deems appropriate." The Defense Department inspector general declined to comment.
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Migrant deported to notorious El Salvador prison demands $1.3M from Trump administration after savage beatings, vile conditions and 24-hour confinement
Federal agents arrested Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel outside his apartment in Texas on his 27th birthday. Two days later, he was deported to a brutal prison in El Salvador, where he was packed in a jail cell with more than a dozen other Venezuelan men for up to 24 hours a day, for four months. Inside El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, Rengel 'endured physical, verbal and psychological abuse,' including routine beatings from guards using their fists and batons, according to his complaint to the Department of Homeland Security Thursday. The details of Rengel's removal from the United States, and his time spent in CECOT, constitute the first legal action against Donald Trump's administration in the wake of a prisoner swap that released more than 250 Venezuelans from the notorious Salvadoran jail. Rengel's administrative claim seeks $1.3 million in damages, alleging wrongful detention and personal injury. The claim is the first step towards a lawsuit against the administration, which has faced an avalanche of legal challenges related to the summary removal of dozens of immigrants to a foreign prison where they faced the prospect of indefinite detention. 'You don't have to be a constitutional scholar for the Rengel case to set off alarms,' according to Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which filed the claim on Rengel's behalf. 'Detaining and disappearing someone without cause or access to legal recourse is illegal and abhorrent,' he added. 'This kind of conduct may be straight out of the Trump playbook on immigration, but it has nothing to do with the American Constitution or our values.' Rengel came to the U.S. in 2023 by appointment through the CBP One app, a Joe Biden-era program that allowed immigrants to schedule appointment with immigration officers before arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. He also applied for temporary protected status, with a pending immigration court date in 2028, according to his attorneys. After his arrest, agents falsely claimed his tattoos were affiliated with Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua, which he has adamantly denied, according to the complaint. He has not been charged with any crime. He was not allowed to challenge that 'flimsy pretext for removal' under Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act, which labels Venezuelan 'members' of Tren de Aragua 'alien enemies' who can be summarily deported. Federal authorities have wide discretion to determine membership, largely by pointing to their tattoos. 'Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel entered our country illegally in 2023 from Venezuela and is an associate of Tren De Aragua,' according to a statement from Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. 'Tren de Aragua is vicious gang that rapes, maims, and murders for sport. This illegal alien was deemed a public safety threat as a confirmed associate of the Tren de Aragua gang and processed for removal from the U.S.' Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem 'will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans,' McLaughlin said. 'They will always put the safety of the American people first.' Inside CECOT, Rengel was routinely beaten, and on one occasion, taken to an area of the prison without cameras where guards 'viciously' attacked him, according to his complaint. Rengel was also 'forced to witness guards severely beating' other detainees, the complaint says. CECOT guards 'would turn out the light, take a detainee out of the cell, and attack them outside their cell in front of Rengel and his cellmates,' according to the complaint. Rengel was imprisoned with 18 or 19 other Venezuelans inside a cell no larger than 10-by-10 feet, and the men were rarely allowed to leave, staying inside the cell up to 24 hours a day, the complaint says. They shared two toilets in the cell without any privacy, and the cell was only cleaned once a week, according to Rengel. The Red Cross visited the facility on June 12, and Rengel spoke with the group for 30 minutes — his only contact with the outside world during his imprisonment, according to the complaint. On July 18, following trilateral negotiations with the U.S. and Salvadoran and Venezuelan governments, Rengel and more than 250 other Venezuelans jailed inside the facility were returned to their home country. Rengel has since returned to his mother's home in Municipio Baruta, Venezuela, and is 'terrified to return to the United States given the horrendous treatment he endured,' according to his complaint. Court orders in several cases urged administration officials to 'facilitate' the return of immigrants wrongfully deported to CECOT, and the top judge in Washington, D.C., has threatened officials with contempt after defying his orders to turn the planes around in the first place. Officials claimed for months that the United States no longer has jurisdiction over deportees that were locked up in El Salvador. But authorities in that country recently told the United Nations that the 'legal responsibility for these people lie exclusively' with the U.S. government. Attorneys for Rengel argue that his release — along with the release of dozens of other Venezuelan detainees — demonstrate that the U.S. government has always had the ability to secure their release. 'Mr. Rengel's loved ones were cut off from contact, left with no answers, and forced to endure months of fear, confusion, and heartbreak," according to Juan Proaño, president of Latino civil rights organization LULAC, which is representing Rengel. 'While no amount of money will ever be able to make up for the deeply traumatic wounds Mr. Rengel now bears, our government has the responsibility to ensure he and his family have the resources they need as they cope,' Proaño said.
The Guardian
29-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Cemetery of the living dead': Venezuelans recall 125 days in notorious El Salvador prison
Arturo Suárez struggles to pinpoint the worst moment of his incarceration inside a prison the warden boasted was 'a cemetery of the living dead'. Was it the day inmates became so exasperated at being beaten by guards that they threatened to hang themselves with their sheets? 'The only weapon we had was our own lives,' recalled the Venezuelan former detainee. Was it when prisoners staged a 'blood strike', cutting their arms with broken pipes and smearing their bedclothes with crimson messages of despair? 'SOS!' they wrote. Or was rock bottom for Suárez when he turned 34 while stranded in a Central American penitentiary prison officers had claimed he would only leave in a body bag? Suárez, a reggaeton musician known by the stage name SuarezVzla, was one of 252 Venezuelans who found themselves trapped inside El Salvador's notorious 'Cecot' terrorism confinement centre after becoming embroiled in Donald Trump's anti-immigrant crusade. After 125 days behind bars, Suárez and the other detainees were freed on 18 July after a prisoner swap deal between Washington and Caracas. Since flying home to Venezuela, they have started to open up about their torment, offering a rare and disturbing glimpse of the human toll of President Nayib Bukele's authoritarian crackdown in El Salvador and Trump's campaign against immigration. Suárez said conditions inside the maximum security prison were so dire he and other inmates considered killing themselves. 'My daughter's really little and she needs me. But we'd made up our minds. We decided to put an end to this nightmare,' he said, although the prisoners stepped back from the brink. Another detainee, Neiyerver Rengel, 27, described his panic after guards claimed he would probably spend 90 years there. 'I felt shattered, destroyed,' said the Venezuelan barber, who was deported to Cecot after being captured in Irving, Texas. Trump officials called the Venezuelans – many of whom had no criminal background – 'heinous monsters' and 'terrorists' but largely failed to produce proof, with many seemingly targeted simply for being Venezuelan and having tattoos. Norman Eisen, the executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which is helping Rengel sue the US government for $1.3m, called the 'abduction' of scores of Venezuelans a stain on his country's reputation. 'It is shocking and shameful and every patriotic American should be disgusted by it,' said Eisen, who expected other freed prisoners to take legal action. Suárez's journey to one of the world's harshest prisons began in Chile's capital, Santiago, where the singer had moved after fleeing Venezuela's economic collapse in 2016. One day early last year, before deciding to migrate to the US, Suárez watched a viral YouTube video about the 'mega-prison' by the Mexican influencer Luisito Comunica. Bukele officials had invited Comunica to film inside Cecot as part of propaganda efforts to promote an anti-gang offensive that has seen 2% of the country's adult population jailed since 2022. Suárez, then a fan of El Salvador's social media-savvy president, was gripped. 'Wouldn't it be great if we could afford a package tour to go and visit Cecot?' he recalled joking to his wife. Little did the couple know that Suárez would soon be languishing in Cecot's cage-like cells, sleeping on a metal bunk bed. After entering the US in September 2024, Suárez worked odd jobs in North Carolina. In February, three weeks after Trump's inauguration, he was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents and, in mid-March, put on a deportation flight, the destination of which was not revealed. When the plane landed, its passengers – who were instructed to keep its blinds closed – had no idea where they were. The penny dropped when one detainee disobeyed the order and spotted El Salvador's flag outside. 'That's when we understood … where we were heading – to Cecot,' he said. Suárez described the hours that followed as a blur of verbal abuse and beatings, as disoriented prisoners were frogmarched on to buses that took them to Cecot's cell block eight. Suárez said the men were forced to shave their heads and told by the warden: 'Welcome to hell! Welcome to the cemetery of the living dead! You'll leave here dead!' As he was dragged off the bus, Suárez, who is shortsighted, said he asked a guard for help because his spectacles were falling off: 'He told me to shut up, punched me [in the face] and broke my glasses.' 'What am I doing in Cecot?' Suárez recalled thinking. 'I'm not a terrorist. I've never killed anyone. I make music.' Rengel had almost identical memories of his arrival: 'The police officers started saying we were going to die in El Salvador – that it was likely we'd spend 90 years there.' Noah Bullock, the head of the El Salvador-focused human rights group Cristosal, said activists had heard very similar accounts from prisoners in other Salvadoran jails, suggesting such terror tactics were not merely the behaviour of 'bad apple prison guards'. 'There's clearly a culture coming from the leadership of the prison system to inculcate the guards into operating this way, [into] using dehumanising and physical abuse in a systematic way.' Suárez said the Venezuelans spent the next 16 weeks being woken at 4am, moved between cells holding between 10 and 19 people, and enduring a relentless campaign of physical and psychological abuse. 'There's no life in there,' he said. 'The only good thing they did for us was give us a Bible. We sought solace in God and that's why nobody took their own life.' The musician tried to lift spirits by composing upbeat songs, such as Cell 31, which describes a message from God. 'Be patient, my son. Your blessing will soon arrive,' its lyrics say. The song became a prison anthem and Suárez said inmates sang it, one day in March, when the US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, visited Cecot to pose by its packed cells. 'We aren't terrorists! We aren't criminals! Help!' the Venezuelans bellowed. But their pleas were ignored and the mood grew increasingly desperate, as the inmates were deprived of contact with relatives, lawyers and even the sun. 'There came a point where we had no motivation, no strength left,' Rengel said. Only in mid-June was there a glimmer of hope when prisoners were given shampoo, razors and soap and measured for clothes. 'They obviously wanted to hide what had happened from the world,' said Suárez, who sensed release might be close. One month later the men were free. Suárez said he was determined to speak out now he was safely back in his home town of Caracas. 'The truth must be … heard all over the world. Otherwise what they did to us will be ignored,' said the musician, who admitted he had once been an admirer of Bukele's populist campaigns against political corruption and gangs. 'Now I realise it's just a complete farce because how can you negotiate with human lives? How can you use human beings as bargaining chips?' Suárez said. A spokesperson for El Salvador's government did not respond to questions about the prisoners' allegations. Last week, the homeland security department's assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, dismissed prisoners' claims of abuses as 'false sob stories'. Suárez hoped never to set foot in El Salvador or the US again but said he forgave his captors. 'And I hope they can forgive themselves,' he added. 'And realise that while they might escape the justice of man they will never be able to escape divine justice.' In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
Al Jazeera
25-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Deported Venezuelan man files abuse complaint against the US government
A Venezuelan man deported from the United States has issued a complaint against the administration of President Donald Trump, saying he was wrongfully sent to a Salvadoran prison where he suffered beatings and other forms of abuse. Thursday's complaint is the first of its kind from one of the more than 250 Venezuelan men sent in March to the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), a maximum-security prison in El Salvador known for human rights abuses. In filing a complaint against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 27-year-old barber Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel has taken a first step towards suing the Trump administration. He and his lawyers from the Democracy Defenders Fund are seeking $1.3m in damages for alleged abuse. Rengel claims the Trump administration falsely accused him of being a gang member in order to circumvent his right to due process and swiftly deport him. 'For more than four months, Rengel languished in El Salvador – which is not his country of origin and a place where he has no ties – where he suffered physical, verbal and psychological abuse,' the complaint said. President Trump campaigned for a second term on the promise that he would implement a policy of mass deportation, and in March, the Republican leader invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify the rapid expulsions of alleged gang members. That law, however, had been invoked only three times prior in US history – and only during times of war. Critics accused Trump of overstepping his constitutional authority by leveraging the law to advance his domestic platform, while trampling on the rights of immigrants. Trump, however, argued that the law was necessary to stem what he described as an 'invasion' of criminals into the US. Rengel was arrested on March 13 as part of that deportation sweep under the Alien Enemies Act. According to his complaint, immigration agents nabbed him in the car park outside his apartment in Irving, Texas, and accused him of being a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua based on his tattoos. Rengel was in the process of seeking legal status. He had entered the US in June 2023 after successfully receiving an appointment through the CBP One app, which was, at the time, the official portal for asylum claims and other immigration processing at the US-Mexico border. He had an appointment before an immigration judge scheduled for 2028. But according to his complaint, his life was upended when he was arrested and sent to an immigration detention facility. There, he said, members of the DHS falsely indicated he would be returned to his native Venezuela. Instead, he was placed on a deportation flight to El Salvador. Cameras filmed the 250-plus Venezuelan men being disembarked and bussed to the CECOT prison, where their heads were shaved and they were forced to march, handcuffed and heads bowed, into cells. The facility is designed to hold up to 40,000 people. The Trump administration reportedly paid nearly $6m to El Salvador to imprison the deported men. Once inside the CECOT prison, Rengel alleges that he was struck with beaten – sometimes with batons, sometimes with bare fists – including at least one occasion where he was moved to an area where the prison had no cameras. Earlier this month, Rengel was part of a prisoner exchange that saw all of the deported Venezuelan men released from CECOT and sent back to their home country, in exchange for the freedom of alleged political detainees and 10 Americans imprisoned in Venezuela. Rengel has since remained with his mother, 'terrified' of the prospect of returning to the US, according to his lawyers. His complaint was made in compliance with the Federal Tort Claims Act, which sets a pathway for lawsuits against the federal government. It gives the government a maximum of six months to respond to the allegations before a suit can be filed. Already, the Trump administration released a statement signalling it plans to fight Rengel's claims. It doubled down on its accusation that Rengel was a gang member. 'President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans,' the Department of Homeland Security told The Associated Press news agency. 'We hear far too much about gang members and criminals' false sob stories and not enough about their victims.' The Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations has been the subject of numerous legal challenges. US District Court Judge James Boasberg had ordered the deportation flights in March to return to the US and has since indicated that the Trump administration may be in contempt of court for failing to do so. In June, Boasberg further ruled that the deported Venezuelan men must be given the opportunity to challenge their removals in US courts. His decision indicated that there was 'significant evidence' that many of the men were languishing 'in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations'.
