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Category: Law/Crime

War crimes: Strikes hit World Heritage sites in Iran

War crimes: Strikes hit World Heritage sites in Iran

The New York Times reports: In the city of Isfahan, Israeli airstrikes have damaged several of Iran’s most cherished cultural jewels, Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Heritage said. The Ali Qapu Palace and the Chehel Sotoun palace and garden, dating to the 17th-century Safavid dynasty, sustained serious harm, photos and videos released by the ministry show. The blast waves on Monday also sent the turquoise tiles of the iconic Jameh Mosque crashing to the ground, with ministry photographs showing a…

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Hegseth targets the lawyers

Hegseth targets the lawyers

Sarah Fitzpatrick and Missy Ryan write: One of Pete Hegseth’s first actions after taking charge at the Pentagon was to fire top lawyers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force—senior officers who the defense secretary said functioned as “roadblocks” to the president’s orders. The former National Guardsman has a history of hostility toward military lawyers and the legal restraints they impose on the use of military might. They are known as judge advocates general. Hegseth calls them “jagoffs.” This week,…

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U.S. at fault in strike on elementary school in Iran, preliminary inquiry says

U.S. at fault in strike on elementary school in Iran, preliminary inquiry says

The New York Times reports: An ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings. The Feb. 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part, the…

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Trump’s alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl: what we know and what’s still being hidden

Trump’s alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl: what we know and what’s still being hidden

Judd Legum writes: President Trump allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl who was trafficked to him by Jeffrey Epstein, according to documents released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) last Thursday. The White House insists the allegations are “completely baseless“ and “backed by zero credible evidence.” For three decades, the victim only told her mother and one close friend about the alleged assault by Trump. The DOJ became aware of the allegation when that friend called a tipline that had…

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Dept. of Homeland Security, created in 2002 to protect Americans, has turned its force against citizens

Dept. of Homeland Security, created in 2002 to protect Americans, has turned its force against citizens

The Wall Street Journal reports: Protesters, observers and passersby taken into custody by federal agents were declared terrorists and attackers in hundreds of social-media posts by U.S. officials and departments since the start of the immigration sweeps in cities. This includes Minneapolis, where two citizens were excoriated by officials after they were killed by federal agents in January. The Wall Street Journal found that the Department of Homeland Security, created in 2002 to protect Americans, has turned its force against…

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White House blocks intelligence report warning of rising homeland terror threat linked to Iran war

White House blocks intelligence report warning of rising homeland terror threat linked to Iran war

The Daily Mail reports: Donald Trump’s White House is blocking top US intelligence agencies from warning law enforcement across the country about rising threats to the homeland tied to his war with Iran, the Daily Mail can reveal. The FBI, Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism Center were preparing to put out a joint intelligence statement on Friday to state and local authorities alerting them of a heightened threat due to the ongoing war in Iran, a senior DHS official…

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Bodycam video indicates ICE lied about fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez in Texas

Bodycam video indicates ICE lied about fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez in Texas

CBS News reports: Video of the March 2025 fatal shooting of American citizen Ruben Ray Martinez obtained by CBS News appears to contradict claims by federal officials that Martinez was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent because he “accelerated” and “intentionally ran over” another agent with his car. The killing of Martinez, who was 23 at the time, in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025, was reported by local news outlets at the time. But it…

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Sen. Richard Blumenthal pushes to investigate Noem for perjury

Sen. Richard Blumenthal pushes to investigate Noem for perjury

The New York Times reports: Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said on Thursday evening that he would press for a perjury investigation into Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary whom President Trump fired hours earlier. Mr. Blumenthal said that he would call for the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to investigate whether Ms. Noem had lied under oath during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, when she said that Corey Lewandowski, one of her top advisers, did not approve contracts…

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‘See you at Nuremberg 2.0’: Sen Ron Wyden issues blistering statement on Kristi Noem’s firing

‘See you at Nuremberg 2.0’: Sen Ron Wyden issues blistering statement on Kristi Noem’s firing

KGW8 reports: Oregon’s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden posted a scathing statement on social media minutes after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was fired from her position: “Turns out lawlessness is not a winning strategy. See you at Nuremberg 2.0” Noem was fired from her position on Thursday as criticism mounted over the administration’s handling of its immigration policies and disaster response. Trump said Noem will be out of the Department of Homeland Security’s top role at the end of March….

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Judge’s order makes clear that all companies that paid illegal Trump tariffs get refunds

Judge’s order makes clear that all companies that paid illegal Trump tariffs get refunds

Jordan Rubin writes: The Supreme Court was clear last month when it ruled that President Donald Trump’s tariffs issued under an emergency federal law were illegal. But the high court left open the question and process of refunds, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh complaining in dissent that the majority “says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers.” A federal judge’s order on Wednesday set…

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An assertive Supreme Court turns to curbing state courts

An assertive Supreme Court turns to curbing state courts

The New York Times reports: When the Supreme Court issued an emergency order this week that protected the congressional district of a New York Republican, it intervened in a voting rights dispute, pre-empting the state’s highest court before it had a chance to act. Since President Trump returned to the White House, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has shown a willingness to short-circuit lower-court proceedings with a slew of emergency rulings in federal cases. But this was a rare instance…

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Kristi Noem misled Congress about Corey Lewandowski’s role in DHS contracts

Kristi Noem misled Congress about Corey Lewandowski’s role in DHS contracts

By Joshua Kaplan and Justin Elliott This story was originally published by ProPublica Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem misled Congress on Tuesday about the powers of her controversial top aide Corey Lewandowski, according to records reviewed by ProPublica and four current and former DHS officials. Lewandowski has an unusual role at DHS, where he is not a paid government employee but is nonetheless acting as a top official, helping Noem run the sprawling agency. For months, members of Congress have…

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DOJ pushes to supress state bar ethics investigations into DOJ lawyers

DOJ pushes to supress state bar ethics investigations into DOJ lawyers

Bloomberg reports: The Justice Department is seeking to empower Attorney General Pam Bondi to suspend state bar ethics investigations into current and former DOJ lawyers—a step outside attorneys quickly criticized as an illegal intervention into state-run processes. The proposed regulation, posted in the Federal Register Wednesday, would aim to halt state-level ethics proceedings against DOJ lawyers while the department conducts its own review, which would diminish local bar associations’ power. It comes as Bondi, members of her leadership team, and…

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The casino-fication of war through Polymarket

The casino-fication of war through Polymarket

Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, and Noel Sims report: On February 28, the United States and Israel began major combat operations in Iran. For some, the consequences of this action were fatal. By Monday, the war had claimed the lives of at least six U.S. soldiers, hundreds of people in Iran, and dozens more in neighboring Gulf states. The bombardment of Iran reportedly destroyed a girls’ primary school, killing about 150 people, the vast majority of them students. A spokesman for…

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This federal judge ruled against Trump. Then the death threats rolled in

This federal judge ruled against Trump. Then the death threats rolled in

  CBS News reports: Federal District Judge John Coughenour was unprepared for what happened after he temporarily blocked President Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order last year and called it “blatantly unconstitutional.” He said he faced “dozens if not hundreds” of death threats. “I’ve been at this for 44 years. I have never encountered the hostility toward the judiciary that has existed in this country in the last year,” Coughenour said. “And I don’t think it’s because we’re making bad decisions….

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Judges in a Trump stronghold condemn ICE tactics as ‘an assault on the constitutional order’

Judges in a Trump stronghold condemn ICE tactics as ‘an assault on the constitutional order’

Politico reports: Federal judges in one of the Trumpiest states in the country have suddenly become a firewall against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. District court judges in West Virginia describe rampant lawlessness by masked ICE agents, defiance of court orders and a wanton infliction of fear and intimidation by the federal government after the Trump administration deployed a targeted immigration enforcement operation in the state last month. “Operation Country Roads,” a partnership with federal and local law enforcement…

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