Attention to the Unseen

David Cole writes: On Monday Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, directed the Pentagon to investigate Senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain who flew combat missions during the gulf war and took several spaceflights as an astronaut before he was elected to serve Arizona’s citizens in Congress. His potential crime? Telling members of the armed services that they do not have to follow illegal orders. But saying so is not a crime; it’s a true statement of the law….

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  Trump’s former criminal judge, Judge Chutkan, has just granted summary judgment to force the IMMEDIATE release, among other things, of all Trump-Epstein correspondence. Michael Popok explains what just happened and what happens next.

Wired reports: Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expanding plans to outsource immigrant tracking to private surveillance firms, scrapping a recent $180 million pilot proposal in favor of a no-cap program with multimillion-dollar guarantees, according to new contracting records reviewed by WIRED. Late last month, the Intercept reported that ICE intends to hire bounty hunters and private investigators for street-level verification work. Contractors would confirm home and work addresses for people targeted for removal by—among other techniques—photographing residences, documenting comings and…

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The New York Times reports: Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to start serving a 27-year sentence for overseeing a failed plot to hold onto power after losing the country’s last election. After the nation’s top court rejected an initial appeal by Mr. Bolsonaro’s lawyers challenging his sentence, the court ruled that he will begin serving his sentence at a federal police facility in Brasília, the capital. Mr. Bolsonaro is already in custody at that same…

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  In a stunning reversal of fortune for Trump and his DOJ, a federal judge has not only declared Lindsey Halligan illegally appointed as a prosecutor, but she has dismissed both the criminal indictment against Former FBI Dir. James Comey and current NY Attorney General Tish James. Popok explains what that means for the DOJ, the “new” prosecutor to be appointed, an attempt to indict Comey and James in the future, and so much more.

Charlie Savage writes: The U.S. attorney in Miami, who is running a sprawling investigation into former officials who investigated President Trump, has been granted an unusual request to convene an extra grand jury at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla. The location ensures that just one judge can oversee it: Aileen M. Cannon. That raises a question with intriguing political and legal overtones. Could Judge Cannon again end up as a key player in a Trump-centric case, this one…

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WBUR reports: Emails show convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had a tight friendship with MIT professor Noam Chomsky that spanned discussions about vacation, politics and included an apparent letter of support from Chomsky. The emails were part of a trove of documents released last week by the U.S. House Oversight Committee detailing communications between Epstein and powerful figures across politics, academia and business. A WBUR review of the emails shows despite Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution…

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By Keri Blakinger This story was originally published by ProPublica After years of struggling to find enough workers for some of the nation’s toughest lockups, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is facing a new challenge: Corrections officers are jumping ship for more lucrative jobs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  This is one of the unintended consequences of the Trump administration’s focus on mass deportations. For months, ICE has been on a recruiting blitz, offering $50,000 starting bonuses and tuition reimbursement…

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The New York Times reports: The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee issued a report on Thursday calling for an investigation into whether JPMorgan Chase deliberately underreported more than $1 billion in suspicious transactions by Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. The report from the senator, Ron Wyden of Oregon, said the compliance failures by the nation’s largest bank during its nearly 15-year relationship with Mr. Epstein were “alarming” and impeded law enforcement’s ability to examine…

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