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Category: Law/Crime

After charges against ‘Broadview Six’ are dropped, judge admonishes federal prosecutors

After charges against ‘Broadview Six’ are dropped, judge admonishes federal prosecutors

Chicago Sun-Times reports: Chicago’s top federal prosecutor announced the permanent dismissal Thursday of charges against the remaining members of the “Broadview Six” in a stunning hearing that revealed apparent misconduct by his staff before a grand jury during Operation Midway Blitz. In a rare courtroom appearance, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros told U.S. District Judge April Perry he’d learned of what happened three weeks ago. He said he didn’t believe any member of his staff had intentionally misled the judge. Then,…

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Trump is a kleptocrat who will be remembered not for his ideas, nor for his power, but for his greed

Trump is a kleptocrat who will be remembered not for his ideas, nor for his power, but for his greed

Noah Shachtman writes: This new slush fund — set up with minimal guardrails, not even a definition of what constitutes “weaponization” — could take all the ethical disasters of the pardon market and multiply it by, well, 1.8 billion. Just think what people might be willing to do to get this money, and what Mr. Trump might get in return. This fund would institutionalize that ethical disaster. Forget the one-off deals or the handshakes at the 18th hole. This would…

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Ex-Proud Boys leader: Jan. 6 rioters will use slush fund payouts for ‘campaigns’ and ‘organizations’

Ex-Proud Boys leader: Jan. 6 rioters will use slush fund payouts for ‘campaigns’ and ‘organizations’

Rolling Stone reports: The exact criteria for receiving money from Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion “weaponization” compensation slush fund remains an open question — but his supporters who feel they have been victimized are already lining up to collect a slice of the pie, and laying out plans for what they might do with it. “Anybody can apply,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers during a hearing before the Senate on Tuesday. He even suggested that former first-child Hunter Biden…

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ICE recruitment tweets are so racist that police feared they could incite neo-Nazi violence

ICE recruitment tweets are so racist that police feared they could incite neo-Nazi violence

The Intercept reports: Colorado law enforcement officials warned their counterparts across the country that social media posts by the Department of Homeland Security recruiting for ICE contained so many white supremacist themes that they could endanger the public, according to internal records obtained by The Intercept. The Colorado Information Analysis Center cautioned in a March bulletin that “violent extremists” might perceive “White Supremacy Ideology in ICE Recruitment Materials, Leading to a Potentially Increased Threat Environment.” The bulletin from an agency…

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The president who sued himself

The president who sued himself

Anna Bower and Eric Columbus write: Donald J. Trump is famously the most litigious of all American presidents. From his years as a New York real estate mogul through both terms in the White House, he has used litigation not merely as a legal tool, but as a political weapon. In 2023, a federal judge fined him and his attorney, Alina Habba, nearly $1 million, for filing a “completely frivolous” lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and 30 other defendants. The judge described…

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State and local election officials are preparing for ICE to show up at the polls

State and local election officials are preparing for ICE to show up at the polls

Wired reports: Last week, as President Donald Trump prepared to leave the White House on his way to China for a state visit, he was asked if he would be willing to deploy troops from the National Guard or agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to polling locations during November’s midterms. “I would do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections,” Trump responded. Trump’s comments are the latest in a litany of confusing and sometimes contradictory statements…

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State and administrative law — backstops to federal corruption

State and administrative law — backstops to federal corruption

Reed Shaw and Winston Berkman-Breen write: The press, elected officials, and advocacy groups have sounded the alarm about what they describe as rampant corruption in the Trump administration: pardons issued following political contributions or a business deal that benefited the president and his family personally; mergers approved following multimillion dollar payoffs and backroom deals; access provided to government data that could benefit corporate interests aligned with the president; and some secret donations for the president’s gilded ballroom, in return for as-yet-undisclosed benefits. The New Yorker has tabulated “some three and a half billion dollars in Presidential profits” for Trump and his…

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How Israel-backed Sweida became Syria’s narcotics capital

How Israel-backed Sweida became Syria’s narcotics capital

Charles Lister writes: In the early hours of Sunday, May 3, Jordanian F-16 fighter jets crossed into Syrian airspace and launched strikes on at least six locations in the southern province of Sweida. In a statement issued hours later, Jordan’s military said that “Operation Jordanian Deterrence” had targeted “factories, facilities and warehouses used by trafficking groups as launch points for smuggling operations into Jordan.” This was the fifth time Jordan had launched military strikes in Sweida since the fall of…

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Trump shows his contempt for America and the rule of law by creating a 1776 slush fund

Trump shows his contempt for America and the rule of law by creating a 1776 slush fund

David Gardner writes: It is a sick joke on America’s history that Donald Trump chose the amount of $1.776 billion to bilk from taxpayers to pay his MAGA friends. He has already picked a sport with a fragile hold on the rules—UFC—to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary with a cage fight at the White House on June 14. Now the president is using 1776—the year the thirteen colonies declared independence from Great Britain—to frame an unprecedented challenge to the U.S….

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More than 145,000 U.S. citizen children have had one or both parents detained in immigration sweeps

More than 145,000 U.S. citizen children have had one or both parents detained in immigration sweeps

Brookings reports: The Trump administration has made detention and deportation the centerpieces of its immigration policy. Around 60,000 people are being held in detention currently, and around 400,000 people have been booked into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention from an interior arrest since the administration began. Detention capacity is likely to expand, with $45 billion allocated to expanding detention facilities in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Though it is mostly adults who are detained and deported, many children…

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Thieves are cloning trucks and blowing up pipelines to steal $1 billion in Texas crude oil every year

Thieves are cloning trucks and blowing up pipelines to steal $1 billion in Texas crude oil every year

Moneywise reports: West Texas is losing roughly a billion dollars in crude oil each year to theft — and the people taking it have gotten good enough that they clone service trucks, launder barrels through brokers and occasionally blow up the pipeline they’re trying to rob. “It’s like any other commodity,” Jim Wright, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, told Texas Public Radio. “When the price is high, they just get sexier.” With oil prices elevated by the Iran war…

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Pentagon quietly shut legally required program to prevent civilian deaths by military, watchdog finds

Pentagon quietly shut legally required program to prevent civilian deaths by military, watchdog finds

The Guardian reports: The Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog. A report released by the department’s inspector general concluded the US military no longer has the people, tools or infrastructure needed to comply with two federal statutes requiring it to maintain a functioning civilian casualty policy, and operate a Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (CP CoE). Donald Trump’s…

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Trump administration considers creating $1.7 billion slush fund for allies investigated under Biden

Trump administration considers creating $1.7 billion slush fund for allies investigated under Biden

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is considering the establishment of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate allies investigated by the Justice Department under President Biden, creating an ethical, legal and political minefield for Republicans and the department’s leadership. The unusual plan, which Democrats and former government officials criticized as a vast political slush fund financed by taxpayers, has yet to be finalized or approved, according to three people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition…

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Investigation indicates U.S. boat strikes were never a serious counter-drug operation

Investigation indicates U.S. boat strikes were never a serious counter-drug operation

The Guardian reports: A five-month investigation has named 13 previously unidentified victims of US attacks on boats allegedly carrying narcotics in a campaign that has killed nearly 200 people in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. It is unclear if the US has ever identified any of its 194 victims before attacking them, and the names of just three had previously emerged, after their families launched legal cases against the White House. The Trump administration has consistently sought to justify…

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Acting AG Todd Blanche was told last year to recuse from DOJ matters involving Trump

Acting AG Todd Blanche was told last year to recuse from DOJ matters involving Trump

CNN reports: It was less than two weeks after Todd Blanche took on his role of deputy attorney general in March 2025 when the Justice Department’s top ethics lawyer delivered some straightforward yet inconvenient news: His recusal from legal cases that involved President Donald Trump in his personal capacity was necessary. The official conducting the briefing, Joseph Tirrell, handed Blanche and his then-top deputy Emil Bove, who was also in the conference room, a printed PowerPoint presentation on ethics, according…

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