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Trump’s DOJ has cut thousands of law-enforcement jobs while vowing to get tough on crime

Trump’s DOJ has cut thousands of law-enforcement jobs while vowing to get tough on crime

Reuters reports: The Trump administration has cut more than 4,000 employees from some of the nation’s top law-enforcement agencies, even as it vowed to crack down on crime, according to ​records obtained by Reuters. The records, from the U.S. Justice Department’s management unit, show that the total number of employees at the FBI has dropped more than 7% since the government’s ‌2024 fiscal year, a loss of about 2,600 people. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s staff has dropped by about 6%,…

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DOJ targets hundreds of citizens in new push for denaturalization

DOJ targets hundreds of citizens in new push for denaturalization

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department has identified 384 foreign-born Americans whose citizenship it wants to revoke, part of a push to increase the pace of denaturalizations by assigning the cases to prosecutors in dozens of U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. Senior Justice Department officials in Washington told colleagues during a meeting last week that civil litigators in 39 regional offices would soon be assigned to file denaturalization cases against the individuals, according to an official familiar…

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Rep. Chip Roy introduces MAMDANI Act aimed at deporting, denaturalizing socialist-, communist-affiliated immigrants, noncitizens

Rep. Chip Roy introduces MAMDANI Act aimed at deporting, denaturalizing socialist-, communist-affiliated immigrants, noncitizens

WFAA reports: U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, an Austin-based Republican, introduced new legislation today that, if passed, would allow for the deportation, denaturalization or inadmission of any immigrant or noncitizen found to be affiliated with communism, socialism or Islamic fundamentalism. Named after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, the MAMDANI Act would radically change U.S. immigration law. Any noncitizen found to be affiliated with a communist party, a socialist party, the Chinese…

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Worried about U.S. democracy, former NASA astronauts are launching a political nonprofit

Worried about U.S. democracy, former NASA astronauts are launching a political nonprofit

The Wall Street Journal reports: More than 100 former NASA astronauts are trading the flight deck for the political arena, launching a nonpartisan nonprofit that will advocate for constitutional limits and bringing back civic responsibility. Astronauts For America, which includes a mix of Republicans, Democrats and independents, plans to score political candidates and meet with federal policymakers to share concerns about the state of U.S. democracy. The group is independent of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and membership is…

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Clearing Strait of Hormuz of mines could take six months, Pentagon tells Congress

Clearing Strait of Hormuz of mines could take six months, Pentagon tells Congress

The Washington Post reports: It could take six months to fully clear the Strait of Hormuz of mines deployed by the Iranian military, and any such operation is unlikely to be carried out until the U.S. war with Iran ends, the Pentagon has informed Congress — an assessment that means the conflict’s economic impact could extend late into this year or beyond. A senior Defense Department official shared the estimate during a classified briefing Tuesday for members of the House…

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Iran’s military more capable than Trump administration is publicly acknowledging, sources say

Iran’s military more capable than Trump administration is publicly acknowledging, sources say

CBS News reports: The Islamic Republic of Iran maintains more military capabilities than the White House or Pentagon has publicly admitted, according to multiple U.S. officials with knowledge of intelligence on the matter. About half of Iran’s stockpile of ballistic missiles and its associated launch systems were still intact as of the start of the ceasefire in early April, three of the officials told CBS News. Roughly 60% of the naval arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is still…

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DOJ is aligning itself with the KKK and other extremists by indicting the Southern Poverty Law Center

DOJ is aligning itself with the KKK and other extremists by indicting the Southern Poverty Law Center

Joe Patrice writes: Running a confidential informant program inside hate groups is expensive and dangerous work. For about four decades, the Southern Poverty Law Center has done it anyway. Its work contributed to the dismantling of the Ku Klux Klan as a political force. The SPLC’s work is so important that it routinely shared what it learned with the FBI. On Tuesday, the Trump Justice Department indicted them for it. A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama…

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Republican Oversight members divided over whether to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, committee chair says

Republican Oversight members divided over whether to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, committee chair says

Politico reports: Members on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are divided over whether President Donald Trump should pardon Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for her cooperation in the panel’s Epstein investigation, Chair James Comer said in an interview Wednesday. Maxwell, who was deposed by the Oversight Committee as the sole convicted accomplice in the Epstein sex trafficking scheme, previously invoked her Fifth Amendment right in declining to answer the panel’s questions. Her lawyer has said…

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Top Trump terror official, Julia Varvaro, exposed on ‘sugar daddy’ site

Top Trump terror official, Julia Varvaro, exposed on ‘sugar daddy’ site

The Daily Beast reports: A Department of Homeland Security deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism has been accused of picking up men on a sugar daddy website. Julia Varvaro, 29, allegedly had a profile on Seeking.com, a site that is often used by young, attractive singles looking for older, wealthier partners to help fund their luxury lifestyles, according to the Daily Mail. The profile, which was under the name “Alessia,” said its owner worked for a government agency and offered “seductive…

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FBI said to have investigated New York Times reporter after article on Patel’s girlfriend

FBI said to have investigated New York Times reporter after article on Patel’s girlfriend

The New York Times reports: The F.B.I. began investigating a New York Times reporter last month after she wrote about the bureau’s director, Kash Patel, using bureau personnel to provide his girlfriend with government security and transportation, according to a person briefed on the matter. Agents interviewed the girlfriend, queried databases for information on the reporter, Elizabeth Williamson, and recommended moving forward to determine whether Ms. Williamson broke federal stalking laws, the person said. Those actions prompted concerns among some…

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Could the oldest human story really be 100,000 years old?

Could the oldest human story really be 100,000 years old?

Mihai Andrei writes: For as long as humans have existed, they have looked to the sky. There are thousands and thousands of different myths and legends linked to stars and constellations, but one radical new idea says that one such story could be incredibly old. The legend is linked to the Pleiades, a set of stars that many cultures call the “Seven Sisters”. But look at them with the naked eye and you’ll only see six; so where’s the seventh…

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Trump extends ceasefire indefinitely as Iran says it won’t join talks until U.S. ends the blockade

Trump extends ceasefire indefinitely as Iran says it won’t join talks until U.S. ends the blockade

The Washington Post reports: President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he would extend a ceasefire with Iran hours before it was due to expire, pledging to refrain from attacks until discussions with Tehran “are concluded, one way or the other.” Trump said Iran’s leadership was “seriously fractured” and needed to “come up with a unified proposal.” Trump made the announcement of an indefinite ceasefire as talks scheduled to take place between U.S. and Iranian delegations in the Pakistani capital were…

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Even Trump’s most basic claims about the Iran war can’t be trusted

Even Trump’s most basic claims about the Iran war can’t be trusted

Daniel Dale writes: On Monday morning, President Donald Trump told The New York Post that Vice President JD Vance was already on his way to Pakistan for negotiations with Iran. “They’re heading over now,” the Post quoted Trump as saying. “They’ll be there tonight, [Islamabad] time.” Except that wasn’t true. A bit later on Monday morning, people familiar with Vance’s plans told CNN’s Alayna Treene that the vice president was expected to depart for Pakistan on Tuesday for talks beginning…

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Trump is ‘easily the worst president in U.S. history’

Trump is ‘easily the worst president in U.S. history’

Thomas B. Edsall writes: I asked Donald Kettl, a professor emeritus and former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland and the author of “The Right-Wing Idea Factory: From Traditionalism to Trumpism,” which will be published in May, to assess — without regard to merit — how consequential the Trump presidency will be. On this measure he placed Trump in the Top 5 of American presidents, alongside George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon…

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