NEW: Read the resignation letter of three federal prosecutors who'd worked on the Eric Adams case: "Now, the Department has decided that obedience supersedes all else, requiring us to abdicate our legal and ethical obligations in favor of directions from Washington." static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics… [image or embed] — Joshua J. Friedman (@joshuajfriedman.com) April 22, 2025 at 3:36 PM
The U.S. flag flies above Department of Justice headquarters on Jan. 20, 2024, in Washington. J. David Ake/Getty Images By Cassandra Burke Robertson, Case Western Reserve University In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon tried to fire the Department of Justice prosecutor leading an investigation into the president’s involvement in wiretapping the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters. Since then, the DOJ has generally been run as an impartial law enforcement agency, separated from the executive office and partisan politics. Those guardrails are…
HuffPost: CNN host Jake Tapper slammed the chair of Paramount Global ― which owns CBS’s parent company ― saying she is “likely to bend the knee” to President Donald Trump on Tuesday after the exit of “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens. Tapper laid out the circumstances around Owens’ departure, noting that Paramount’s Shari Redstone “stands to make a fortune” as she looks to merge her company with Skydance Media, a multibillion-dollar deal that requires the approval of a…
The Wall Street Journal reports: The Trump rout is taking on historic dimensions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed almost 1,000 points on Monday and is headed for its worst April performance since 1932, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The S&P 500’s performance since Inauguration Day is now the worst for any president up to this point in data going back to 1928, according to Bespoke Investment Group. Worries about trade restrictions and the prospect of President Trump firing…
CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s unpredictable tariff policy and countermeasures by America’s trading partners will likely deal a heavy blow to economies worldwide, with US prosperity hit particularly hard, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday. Global economic growth will slow to 2.8% this year, from 3.3% last year and significantly below the historical average, the IMF forecast in its World Economic Outlook report. The slowdown expected in the United States is even steeper, with its economy likely to grow only…
Timothy W. Ryback writes: The Hitler tariffs, announced on Friday, February 10, 1933, stunned observers. “The dimension of the tariff increases have in fact exceeded all expectations,” the Vossische Zeitung wrote disapprovingly, proclaiming the moment a “fork in the road” for the German economy. It appeared that Europe’s largest and most industrialized nation would suddenly be returning “to the furrow and the plow.” The New York Times saw this for what it was: “a trade war” against its European neighbors….
NBC News reports: Minutes before U.S. fighter jets took off to begin strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last month, Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, used a secure U.S. government system to send detailed information about the operation to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The material Kurilla sent included details about when U.S. fighters would take off and when they would hit their targets — details that could, if they fell into the wrong hands,…
The New York Times reports: Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said on Tuesday that he would spend less time in Washington working for President Trump after the automaker reported a profit drop of 71 percent in the first three months of the year. Mr. Musk told Wall Street analysts in a conference call that he would continue to spend “a day or two per week” on Washington matters, probably for the duration of Mr. Trump’s presidency. The billionaire executive is…
Futurism reports: A Tesla engineer has accused Tesla of threatening her team with deportation after bringing up a brake safety issue with CEO Elon Musk in 2014. Balan was fired after informing Musk that she was worried floor carpets could curl up underneath the pedals in Model S vehicles, she says, in a major braking safety hazard. According to Balan, she was simply following Musk’s orders to “talk to me” if staffers thought it was the “fastest way to solve…
NPR reports: The White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. This comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues to find himself mired in controversy. NPR has also confirmed with the same official that Hegseth shared details ahead of last month’s Yemen strikes with his wife and brother in a Signal chat on his personal phone, minutes after being updated by a…
John Ullyot writes: It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership. President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer. The latest flashpoint is a near collapse inside the…
Pope Francis during the Palm Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Square on April 2, 2023, in Vatican City. Antonio Masiello/Getty Images By Mathew Schmalz, College of the Holy Cross Pope Francis, the Catholic Church’s first Latin American pontiff, has died, the Vatican announced on April 21, 2025. He was 88. Francis had served as pope for 12 eventful years, after being elected on March 13, 2013 after the surprise resignation of Benedict XVI. Prior to becoming pope, he was Jorge…
The Associated Press reports: In her 28 years working for the federal government, Shea Giagnorio provided day care for the children of U.S. soldiers, training for employees and oversight for safety net programs. Public service took her from Germany to Alaska to Kansas City, Missouri, where she moved last year for a long-sought promotion. But when she reported to a downtown federal building for work one day last month, her access card did not work. After a co-worker let her…
Reuters reports: General Motors’ Buick was on a roll. Sales for the once-stodgy brand were up 39% in the first quarter with a refreshed lineup of compact SUVs including the Envision, Encore GX, and the Envista, its top-selling SUV for under $30,000. Then President Trump’s tariffs hit. Buick’s three most popular models are made outside the U.S. The Envista and Encore GX are both built in South Korea, while the Envision SUV is made in China. That means all three…
Wired reports: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against the US Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In its lawsuit, the ACLU accuses the agencies of violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by ignoring the ACLU’s requests and subsequent appeals for information concerning the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) “attempted or actual access” to sensitive federal databases. The ACLU began pursuing documents under the federal transparency law in…
Eric Lutz writes: It had been a tough week for democracy when I got Senator Adam Schiff on the phone. Donald Trump—who has spent the first three months of his presidency decimating the federal government and trampling over the separation of powers at the heart of the American system—was now flouting a unanimous Supreme Court decision directing officials to facilitate the return of a Maryland man who’d gotten swept up in the president’s immigration crackdown and deported to a hellish…