Attention to the Unseen

Politico reports: A prominent federal judge on Wednesday ripped President Donald Trump’s mass clemency for Jan. 6 rioters, saying the justification he offered in his proclamation — to correct an “injustice” and trigger a “national reconciliation” — was “flatly wrong” and a “revisionist myth.” “No ‘national injustice’ occurred here, just as no outcome-determinative election fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote in an eight-page order in the case of two Jan. 6 defendants who…

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BBC News reports: One of the people who served jail time for taking part in the US Capitol riot four years ago has refused a pardon from President Donald Trump, saying: “We were wrong that day.” Pamela Hemphill, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in prison, told the BBC that there should be no pardons for the riot on 6 January 2021. “Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of…

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The Washington Post reports: A lawsuit claiming billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” violates federal transparency rules was filed within minutes of President Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday, kicking off a legal battle over a key aspect of the incoming administration’s agenda. In a 30-page complaint obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its filing, the public interest law firm National Security Counselors says that the nongovernmental DOGE panel is breaking a 1972 law that requires advisory committees to the…

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Rolling Stone reports: In the last few days of Joe Biden’s presidency, Steven Donziger hopes Biden will pardon him — as do dozens of progressive lawmakers in Congress, as well as human rights and environmental activists across the world. Donziger’s story is unique. “I’m the only person in the country to be criminally prosecuted by a private corporation,” Donziger tells Rolling Stone. As a lawyer, he helped secure a historic judgment against the oil giant Chevron on behalf of 30,000…

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David Frum writes: Early this morning, the Department of Justice released the report of Special Counsel Jack Smith on his investigation of Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. The saga of the U.S. criminal-justice system’s effort to hold the coup instigator accountable is thus closed. No prosecution will take place. Compared with the present outcome, it would have been better if President Joe Biden had pardoned Trump for the January 6 coup attempt. A…

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The Associated Press reports: The Trump family business released a voluntary ethics agreement Friday that allows it to strike deals with private foreign companies, a move that could help outside actors try to buy influence with the new administration. The so-called ethics white paper bars the Trump Organization from striking deals directly with foreign governments, but allows ones with private companies abroad, a significant departure from President-elect Donald Trump’s first term. An ethics pact that Trump signed eight years ago…

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Mark Lawrence Schrad writes: Jan. 20, 2025, will mark the second inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Coincidentally, it will also mark my 20th year of teaching international law. Since many of my international politics students—now college juniors and seniors—were still in middle school during Trump’s first inauguration, they are largely unsure of what to expect from a second Trump administration. If history is any guide, the primary target of his foreign policy ire will be not…

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Quinta Jurecic writes: Donald Trump wasted little time after the election in claiming an “unprecedented and powerful mandate” and floating a series of extreme proposals with varying degrees of legal dubiousness. The president-elect has already winkingly suggested that he might stay in office for an unconstitutional third term, indicated that he intends to end the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, and said that he plans to deport U.S. citizens. If the mood on the right is triumphant, the atmosphere among…

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NPR reports: For the millions of Americans who watch the presidential inauguration every four years, the Lower West Terrace Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol is a familiar site. The incoming president walks through that tunnel and on to the inaugural platform, before taking the oath of office. On Jan. 6, 2021, it was a crime scene – the site of a bloody, hourslong struggle between law enforcement and a mob of supporters of President-elect Donald Trump. “My fellow officers and…

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