Latest news with #TrumpDOJ
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Trump DOJ targets California after Trans runner's title wins spark outcry
The post Trump DOJ targets California after Trans runner's title wins spark outcry appeared first on ClutchPoints. The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on California following a transgender teenager's victory in two state track titles. Sixteen-year-old AB Hernandez placed first at the California high school championships, drawing national attention and sparking a sharp rebuke from federal officials, per CBSNews. Days later, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, led by Harmeet Dhillon, issued a letter accusing the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) of violating the Constitution. The CIF's bylaw allows students to compete in alignment with their gender identity, regardless of the gender listed on official records. Dhillon's letter, sent to all California public school districts, demanded they abandon the policy and certify compliance by June 9. According to Dhillon, the CIF's approach amounts to 'unconstitutional sex discrimination,' citing the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Her letter specifically warned that knowingly limiting athletic opportunities for female athletes based on sex could result in legal consequences. Though Hernandez wasn't named in the letter, she became a flashpoint the next morning when President Trump posted on Truth Social that California would face 'large scale fines.' The California Interscholastic Federation had recently adopted a pilot program for the championship meet that expanded eligibility for female athletes. That program enabled Hernandez to compete and share the podium with two other runners in one of her title events. The pilot rule applied only to events in which she participated. Amid the growing uproar, Hernandez appears unfazed. In an interview with Capital & Main, she addressed the backlash directly. 'I'm still a child,' she said. 'You're an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person.' Meanwhile, acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced that the Central District of California has launched an investigation into CIF's policy. This adds another layer of federal scrutiny to an already tense situation, as political lines deepen over trans inclusion in high school athletics. With Trump reigniting the culture war over transgender athletes, California's school system now faces pressure—not just from vocal critics, but from the federal government itself.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nothing Normal About Trump DOJ's Case Against Dem Rep
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM's Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. Let's quickly run through the many telling and odd aspects of the still-unseen criminal case against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) for an alleged incident that took place while conducting her constitutional oversight duties: Still no charging documents publicly available this morning as we go to press. That didn't stop top Trump DOJ officials from touting the charges. Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba of New Jersey posted a statement on X, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche weighed in, too. For those of us who anticipated politically motivated criminal charges against Democratic members of Congress in a white-nationalism-infused Trump II presidency, the fact that the first member charged is a Black woman resonates on several levels. While it's hard to assess the charges without any charging documents, the muddied and conflicting accounts of what happened at the ICE detention center in Newark would typically be enough by itself to eschew criminal charges. Not always, but often, and especially when the case bumps up hard against constitutional separation of powers concerns. Habba's simultaneous decision to drop a criminal trespass charge against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka arising out of the same incident 'for the sake of moving forward' is not a reason I've ever heard a federal prosecutor give for withdrawing charges. Criminally charging opposition political leaders at the same time you are dismantling the infrastructure for pursuing public corruption cases is an authoritarian one-two punch. So is this bit of gaslighting from Blanche: '[A]ssaults on federal law enforcement will not be tolerated. This Administration will always protect those who work tirelessly to keep America safe.' Contrast that with this next item. The Trump DOJ's tentative settlement of the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6 rioter shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she was storming the Capitol, reportedly calls for a $5 million payment to Babbitt's family. Reacting to the news, outgoing Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said: 'This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide, especially to those with a protective mission like ours.' A sampling of some of the worst and most bizarre transgressions of the past 24 hours: With President Trump running the Justice Department out of the White House, he called for a 'major investigation' into spurious allegations he invented that Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and Bono violated campaign finance laws in how they supported Kamala Harris' presidential campaign. Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell bizarrely called the art center's deferred maintenance and its financial deficit 'criminal' and said he was referring the mundanities of arts administration to the D.C. U.S. attorney. The Trump DOJ is launching a new unit to make unprecedented use of the False Claims Act to target university DEI programs. While it would mostly pursue civil claims, DAG Todd Blanche went as far as threatening criminal prosecution in some instances. The Trump DOJ's Civil Rights Division opened an investigation into the city of Chicago for hiring Black people. I'm not sure how else to put it. The controversial Emil Bove III, who was a criminal defense attorney for President Trump before being named a top Justice Department official, is on the short list for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Paramount's determination to bend the knee to President Trump by settling his bogus lawsuit against 60 Minutes has cost CBS News President Wendy McMahon her job. Of course a president openly filling his pockets with direct (albeit thinly veiled) payoffs from people with business before the government is an attack on the republic. Of course the president pardoning political allies for crimes is an attack on the republic. Of course disappearing people off the streets and sending them to foreign prison camps is an attack on the republic. Of course violating basic constitutional rules about spending government money; defying court orders; denying habeas rights; intimidating media outlets and universities and law firms; and on and on are all attacks on the republic. –Jonathan Bernstein In an important Alien Enemies Act case, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stay a lower court order that the Trump administration 'facilitate' the return of a Venezuelan man deported to El Salvador in violation of an existing court-approved settlement agreement, TPM first reported. In a new order, U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison of Houston gave the Trump administration 24 hours to (i) confirm the location and condition of a Venezuelan man believed to have been removed to El Salvador on March 15; and (ii) to explain the 'legal basis for his continued detention.' Anticipating resistance from the Trump administration, Ellison also imposed several other important conditions on the government if it claims 'an inability to facilitate communication due to lack of control over El Salvadoran facilities.' U.S. District Judge John Holcomb has blocked removals under the AEA in the Central District of California. Jason Willick reminds us of the Trump DOJ's complete about-face on whether AEA detainees are entitled to due process. Roger Parloff has another eminently accessible thread, this one on the Supreme Court's AEA ruling Friday: With Speaker Mike Johnson gunning to vote this week on President Trump's centerpiece legislation, the WSJ unpacks in an accessible way what's in it. WaPo: White House officials wanted to put federal workers 'in trauma.' It's working. In one of the few clear examples we've had so far of a court stopping President Trump's effort to dismantle a government agency, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of D.C. has largely reversed the White House's attack on the U.S. Institute of Peace. President Trump made another remarkable and devastating capitulation to Vladimir Putin that leaves Ukraine twisting in the wind after it spent months trying to accommodate a hostile American president.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump DOJ Admits It Used Bogus Info In Key Deportation Case
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM's Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. In an important federal case in Massachusetts over whether deportees can be sent to third countries rather than their countries of origin, the Trump administration admitted Friday to a grievous error and managed to compound it in the process. It's a bit complicated so let me boil it down to its essentials: Background: A gay Guatemalan national who had a U.S. immigration judge order barring his removal to his home country because he feared continued persecution was instead deported to Mexico in February by the Trump administration, partly on the grounds that he had told ICE that he didn't fear being sent to Mexico. That was odd because the man, identified only by the initials O.C.G., had previously testified that he had been targeted and raped in Mexico, his lawyers say. Thursday: The Trump DOJ abruptly cancelled the scheduled deposition of an ICE official 'whom Defendants previously identified as giving Plaintiff O.C.G. notice of deportation to Mexico and recording his response of lack of fear,' O.C.G.'s lawyers later told the court. Friday: The Trump DOJ filed a 'Notice of Errata' admitting that during the judge's ordered discovery in the case it had been unable to 'identify any officer who asked O.C.G. whether he had a fear of return to Mexico.' A key factual element of the Trump administration's case had evaporated. But it got worse … Sunday: Lawyers for the deportee – who is now in hiding in Guatemala because he fears persecution as a gay man – filed an emergency motion pointing out, among other things, that the government's filing about its own error revealed the deportees name and other information, further jeopardizing his safety despite a court order anonymizing his identifying information. Still with me? In the course of admitting its error, the Trump administration outed the gay man who it had wrongfully deported in the first place. This case may ultimately yield the third court order for the Trump administration to 'facilitate' the return of a wrongfully deported foreign national. A few weeks ago as the clash between the executive and judicial branches was first coming into focus, the two biggest risks to the constitutional order appeared to be: President Trump simply ignoring court orders and daring judges to do something about it; and The Supreme Court doing whatever Trump wanted in the first place so that he didn't have to go so far as defying the courts. At least with the Alien Enemies Act and in related cases, that second major risk seems mostly off the table now even if the Trump administration continues to defy court orders (see Abrego Garcia case below). And while the Supreme Court's spine has stiffened primarily in the AEA cases, that has implications beyond the immigration realm. The Roberts Court's 7-2 ruling Friday in an AEA case out of the Northern District of Texas was a strong rebuke of the administration and defense of due process: Steve Vladeck: The Supreme Court's (Alien Enemies Act) Patience is Wearing Thin Joyce Vance: SCOTUS to Trump: Due Process! Joe Kent, the acting chief of staff for DNI Tulsi Gabbard, ordered a senior analyst to 'redo' an intelligence assessment of the relationship between Venezuela's government and Tren de Aragua that undercut the White House's justification for invoking the Alien Enemies Act, the NYT reports. A contentious hearing Friday pushed the case of the wrongfully deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia ever so closer to a contempt of court finding by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland. Xinis was unsparing in her criticism of the Trump administration's stonewalling of her in the case, saying it has failed to comply with her orders in 'bad faith.' Still, Xinis hasn't found the administration in contempt yet, preferring to build a more robust case that will stand up on appeal. Xinis gave the government of new round of deadlines by which to meet its discovery obligations, but – barring a surprise shift – it looks more likely that this case is headed toward a showdown over contempt of court rather than the immediate release and return of Abrego Garcia. The firestorm of fake indignation over former FBI Director James Comey's '86' social media post culminated (one hopes this is the culmination) with him being hauled in voluntarily for questioning Friday by the Secret Service. After largely dismantling the Public Integrity Section, the Trump DOJ is now planning to allow federal prosecutors to bypass it entirely and charge politicians without Main Justice approval, the WaPo reports. Former acting D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin's bogus investigation into a Biden-era EPA grant program that led to the forced resignation of a veteran prosecutor has turned up no evidence of criminality by either government officials or vendors, the NYT reports. The Trump DOJ is preparing to offer Boeing a non-prosecution agreement rather than taking it to trial in 737 MAX case. This all comes after the Biden DOJ had secured a guilty plea from Boeing in the case. After flailing on Friday, the House GOP advanced its massive reconciliation bill through committee late last night. Prospects for the centerpiece of President Trump's legislative agenda – which despite all of its brutal spending cuts and funny math is projected to increase budget deficits by nearly $3 trillion through 2034 – remain unclear in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson is barely holding his conference together as he tries to rush through 'one big, beautiful bill.' TPM's Kate Riga covered the oral arguments Friday before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in the combined case of President Trump's firing of Democratic members of the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board. With a three-judge panel that includes two Trump appointees, independent agencies did not fare well. WaPo: How DOGE's grand plan to remake Social Security is backfiring Nextgov/FCW: DOGE went looking for phone fraud at the Social Security Administration — and found almost none NOTUS: DOGE Is Now Targeting GAO, and the Congressional Agency Is Fighting Back The 25-year-old man who allegedly bombed a fertility clinic in Palm Springs died in the blast, apparently while trying to live-stream the detonation, authorities said. In an odd juxtaposition, former President Biden was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer the audio recordings of former President Biden's 2023 interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur were leaked to news outlets before they could be released by the Trump DOJ. NYT: The Group Behind Project 2025 Has a Plan to Crush the Pro-Palestinian Movement 'I cannot stand by while a country is invaded, a democracy bombarded, and children killed with impunity. I believe that the only way to secure U.S. interests is to stand up for democracies and to stand against autocrats. Peace at any price is not peace at all ― it is appeasement. And history has taught us time and again that appeasement does not lead to safety, security or prosperity. It leads to more war and suffering.'–former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, who resigned rather than carry out the Trump administration's policy 'to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trump Preps for Putin Call With Another Meltdown Over Bruce Springsteen
President Donald Trump has demanded an investigation into Bruce Springsteen and other artists who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, after the singer has repeatedly told crowds at his concerts that the president is an 'unfit' man running 'a rogue government.' The president — who is scheduled to hold a high-stakes phone call with Russia's Vladimir Putin on Monday morning — wrote on Truth Social early the same morning that he was 'going to call for a major investigation' into what compensation Springsteen received from the 2024 Harris campaign. 'HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT? WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS? ISN'T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION?' Trump wrote. The president, who had previously used Springsteen's music at his rallies despite objections from the artist, went on to accuse the Harris campaign of paying for endorsements from artists like Springsteen, Beyoncé, and Bono, under the guise of providing entertainment at her rallies. 'IT'S NOT LEGAL! For these unpatriotic 'entertainers,' this was just a CORRUPT & UNLAWFUL way to capitalize on a broken system. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!' Artists like Beyoncé, Eminem, Oprah, and others have denied right-wing claims that they were offered millions to endorse Harris. Trump has been locked in a public back and forth with Springsteen over the artist's criticism of his regime. After the 'Born in the USA' rocker told concert goers in Europe that the United States is currently in the hands of a 'corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,' Trump responded last week with a bizarre warning for Springsteen: 'This dried out 'prune' of a rocker (his skin is atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that's just 'standard fare.' Then we'll all see how it goes for him!' Springsteen, unfettered, responded to the thinly veiled threats by telling fans in Manchester, England, over the weekend: 'In America, my home, they're persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That's happening now.' It's apparently happening to Springsteen, who now might be placed under investigation for the transgression of supporting the political candidate of his choice and exercising his constitutionally protected right to criticize his government. More from Rolling Stone Van Hollen: The U.S. Is 'Complicit' in Starving the People of Gaza Trump DOJ Considers Making it Easier to Indict Members of Congress Scott Bessent Compares Trump's Qatari Jet Gift to the Statue of Liberty Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mayor Baraka: Trump Admin has failed to show any evidence after ICE detention center arrest
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who is being targeted by Trump's DOJ, is now headed to trial on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. He joins The Weekend to discuss the legal battle after he tried to tour an immigration detention facility.
