Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Washington Post: How Stephen Miller is running Trump’s effort to take over D.C.

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The deputy White House chief of staff has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department.

From the head of the conference table in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Stephen Miller was in the weeds of President Donald Trump’s takeover of policing in the nation’s capital.

The White House deputy chief of staff wanted to know where exactly groups of law enforcement officers would be deployed. He declared that cleaning up D.C. was one of Trump’s most important domestic policy issues and that Miller himself planned to be involved for a long time.

Miller’s remarks were described to The Washington Post by two people with knowledge of the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House business. The result is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of one of Trump’s most trusted aides in action, someone who has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department and deployed thousands of National Guard troops to patrol city streets. While widely seen as a vocal proponent for the president’s push on immigration and law and order, Miller’s actions reveal how much he is actually driving that agenda inside the White House.

“It’s his thing,” one White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. “Security, crime, law enforcement — it’s his wheelhouse.”

Miller’s team provides an updated report each morning on the arrests made the night before to staff from the White House, Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security, among others. The readouts include a breakdown of how many of those arrested are undocumented immigrants.

He has also led weekly meetings in the Roosevelt Room with his staff and members of the D.C. mayor’s office. Last week, he brought Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to two people briefed on the meeting. It’s unclear why Bessent attended the meeting.

A person familiar with Bessent’s thinking said he was encouraged by D.C. officials’ enthusiasm and collaborative tone.

Miller frequently frames Trump’s approach to crime-fighting as a moral and spiritual war against those who oppose him.

“I would say to the mayors of all these Democrat cities, like Chicago, what you are doing to your own citizens is evil. Subjecting your own citizens to this constant bloodbath and then rejoicing in it is evil,” Miller said on Fox News last week. “You should praise God every single day that President Trump is in the White House.”

Trump has signaled that his crackdown on cities will continue, recently naming Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore and Oakland, California, as places that might require federal intervention. Critics have characterized the moves as counterproductive, a waste of federal resources and illegal. Supporters see the effort as bringing long-awaited relief to cities afflicted by violent crime.

In D.C., crime was already trending down before Trump moved to take over the police department, according to city data. But rates have decreased further when comparing the 15 days before the Aug. 11 order with the 15 days after Trump’s operation, with violent crime decreasing by roughly 30 percent and property crime decreasing by roughly 16 percent.

Since Trump initiated an unprecedented incursion into D.C. affairs, the city has transformed from a place that proudly welcomed immigrants into one primed for their deportations. D.C. police officers now work with agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who have detained people in front of schools and restaurants. Park Police officers, now operating as beat cops, have chased vehicles with tinted windows, fake tags and broken headlights — a major departure from a city policy to avoid pursuits that pose safety threats. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has attributed the drop in crime to the federal surge.

Miller and others close to Trump have celebrated the changes in Washington, which they see as a winning political issue and central to their plans to host a series of events for America’s 250th birthday next year. White House officials expect the increased federal law enforcement presence to continue in the District through the end of 2026 — a period that would not only come after the semiquincentennial celebrations but also the midterm elections. D.C. officials have not publicly committed to that timeline.

This week, members of the Republican National Committee were briefed on a call about the D.C. crime operation, getting data on arrests and talking points for how to tout the initiative in their states.

Bowser and other top D.C. officials have gone out of their way to show willingness to work with Trump and his staff, positioning themselves as allies in his public safety crackdown. They see that tactic as their best chance at maintaining power given D.C.’s unique status under the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress ultimate say over city laws and budgets.

Miller has been less involved in working directly with the mayor.

City Administrator Kevin Donahue, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah and the D.C. police department’s executive assistant chief Jeffrey Carrol have all attended Miller’s weekly meetings in the Roosevelt Room.

Bowser has maintained a separate line of communication with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, with Bondi speaking with Bowser sometimes daily, the White House official said.

Last week, as Trump’s complaints about the mayor escalated, Bondi and Wiles met with Bowser at the White House. Soon after, Bowser gave White House officials an executive order to review — which ultimately ordered indefinite coordination between the city and federal law enforcement officials. The president has since changed his tune on Bowser, holding her up as an example of how blue-city mayors should behave.

“Everyone at the White House is pleased with Mayor Bowser and the ongoing partnership,” a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share internal thinking.

Miller has made a point of being seen around the city since Trump infused it with federal troops. Last month, he appeared at a D.C. police station to address line officers and visited Union Station with Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Over the weekend, Miller and his family walked around the National Mall.

“Beautiful day to take in our monuments,” his wife, Katie Miller, wrote on X. “Thank you President Trump for Making DC Safe Again!”

She posted a picture in front of the Reflecting Pool, which stretches between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. Stephen Miller looked at his children and pointed toward the camera.

As deputy chief of staff, Miller oversees Trump’s domestic policy agenda. But he also serves in the lesser-known role of homeland security adviser, directing roughly 40 federal law enforcement officers in the Homeland Security Investigation division assigned to work on D.C. crime. Miller and his deputy on homeland security matters — a veteran law enforcement officer whose name the White House has declined to publicize — are also in close contact with the other federal and D.C. law enforcement agencies, the White House official said.

White House officials emphasized that Miller is acting on behalf of the president, who is personally invested in producing a successful operation. The officials said that his top domestic policy priority at the moment is reducing crime in large cities nationwide. Every day, those around him say, Trump inquires about the details of the D.C. operation. He has asked questions about the people arrested and how many guns and drugs officers seized from the streets, the White House official said.

“As President Trump has said himself many times, making D.C. safe and beautiful again is a top priority for the entire Trump Administration,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “The results of the highly successful operation speak for itself. President Trump has driven down crime in the District, removed countless violent criminals from the streets, and kick-started beautification efforts to make D.C. the greatest city in the world.”

Miller and his homeland security deputy, along with Terry Cole, the Drug Enforcement Administration chief whom Trump named D.C.’s “emergency police commissioner” last month; Gady Serralta, director of the U.S. Marshals Service; Bondi; and representatives from the FBI have all met with Trump a handful times since Trump signed the emergency declaration about D.C., according to the White House official.

By law, Trump’s federalization of the D.C. police force lasts 30 days and is set to expire next week. The White House has not announced its next steps, but those who know Miller say he almost certainly has a plan.

We must remember that Stephen Miller is an unrepentant bigoted racist whose #1 goal in life is to make America white again. The actions they are taking in L.A. and D.C. are targeted at Democrat mayors; the many Republican mayor of cities with HIGHER crime rates are getting a free pass. This is all about racism and politics, not public safety.

How Stephen Miller is running Trump’s effort to take over D.C.
The deputy White House chief of staff has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/05/trump-dc-takeover-stephen-miller-white-house

No paywall:

How Stephen Miller is running Trump’s effort to take over D.C.
The deputy White House chief of staff has emerged as a key enforcer of the D.C. operation in the month since Trump federalized the local police department.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-stephen-miller-is-running-trump-s-effort-to-take-over-dc/ar-AA1LW0Uf

Alternet: Legal expert warns Trump saving this ‘big heavy gun’ for ‘when all hell has broken loose’

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In an article for Democracy Docket published Thursday, journalist Jim Saksa argued that President Donald Trump is systematically expanding his authority to deploy military force within U.S. cities, and that the lack of sufficient legal or legislative pushback risks making such aggressive domestic deployments routine.

Saksa noted that over the past two weeks Trump has repeatedly threatened to send the National Guard not only to Chicago, but also to New York, Baltimore, Seattle, New Orleans and other major American cities. These threats follow earlier deployments of thousands of troops to Los Angeles in June and Washington D.C. in August.

Most recently, Trump signed an executive order establishing a National Guard “quick reaction force” prepared for rapid nationwide mobilization.

While these troop deployments are of questionable legality, Saksa pointed out that previous actions, particularly the deployments to LA and D.C., have largely gone unchecked by either the courts or Congress.

This, he warned, could embolden the president to continue deploying military force in Democratic-led cities

Trump’s rhetoric has reinforced this trajectory. He described Chicago as “a killing field right now,” despite evidence of its safest summer in decades.

He further asserted, “I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the President of the United States of America,” and added, “If I think our country is in danger, and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it.”

Saksa examined the legal response: a district court in California ruled that Trump’s administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which broadly prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement, but the court did not deem the deployment itself illegal.

The Ninth Circuit, moreover, upheld the administration’s actions, concluding the deployment to LA was lawful. As a result, around 300 National Guard personnel remain on federal active duty in Southern California nearly three months later.

The article noted the slow governmental response: nearly a month passed before Washington filed a legal challenge, a delay compounded by the District’s unique legal status.

Meanwhile, the White House continues to rely on obscure statutes and novel legal theories, while avoiding reliance on the Insurrection Act of 1807, a more traditional yet controversial legal pathway to deploy troops domestically.

David Janovsky, acting director of the Project on Government Oversight’s Constitution Project, told the outlet that courts and Congress have been “mostly feeble” in response to what he termed a “power grab.”

He voiced concern that there may be no clear limits left on such presidential authority: “I don’t know what the next meaningful limit is,” he said.

The article also included comments from William Banks, professor emeritus at Syracuse University College of Law, who said: “The insurrection act is the big heavy gun.”

He added: “It was intended to be utilized, if at all, when all hell is broken loose. It’s for extreme circumstances.”

Legal expert warns Trump saving this ‘big heavy gun’ for ‘when all hell has broken loose’

https://www.alternet.org/trump-military-deployment

LA Times: Contributor: The patrol that haunts me wasn’t in Baghdad; it was in Dupont Circle

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Traveling from my home in Northeast D.C. to Dupont Circle, I passed several pairs of National Guard soldiers in full gear — at stations, on trains and patrolling sidewalks. Some carried sidearms. One caught me looking and waved with an antagonistic grin. I stopped, showed him my military ID and spoke with him. We talked briefly about what it means to be a professional in uniform, about how the Army is judged not only by its strength but by its restraint.

I reminded him that the most important weapon a soldier carries in a city like this isn’t on his hip — it’s the trust of the people around him. He nodded politely, but as I walked away I wondered how much that message could stick when the mission itself pushes these young men and women into roles they were never trained for.

Dupont Circle isn’t some remote corner of Washington. It’s a hub — lined with embassies, think tanks, coffee shops, bookstores and crowded sidewalks. On any given day, you’ll find students debating politics over lattes, diplomats heading to meetings and activists gathering in the park that anchors the neighborhood. It’s a crossroads of international ideas and local community life. To see armed soldiers patrolling there is to see force imposed on a place built for conversation, exchange and civic trust.

I’ve been shot at in Iraq, led convoys through deserts scarred by war and spent nearly five years of my life on operations in the Middle East. Through it all, what unsettled me in those places was the fragility of trust between armed patrols and the civilians around them — the uneasy sense that one spark could undo any tenuous stability. I never expected to feel that same fear, not for myself, but for our society, while riding the D.C. Metro.

This Sunday, I retired as a command sergeant major. In nearly three decades of wearing the uniform, I never carried a government-issued weapon into civilian spaces in the States. Even convoys between installations were tightly regulated. Civilians didn’t see us walking into Krispy Kreme or boarding public transit with pistols on our hips. What I saw last week didn’t resemble the disciplined Army I know.

That should unsettle us.

While no doubt these Guardsmen are proud patriots, they aren’t seasoned veterans. Most are teenagers, far from home, trained for battlefield tasks but not for the unpredictable realities of a major city. In D.C., much like most large cities, you don’t just encounter commuters. You encounter people in crisis — homelessness, addiction, untreated mental illness. A local might avert their eyes or walk around. But what happens when the person in crisis steps aggressively toward an 18-year-old with a pistol on his hip and limited training in de-escalation?

The risk is not abstract. Police officers are trained for these situations because they encounter them every day. A homeless man shouts in someone’s face. A woman in distress resists an order. A soldier, out of his depth, is all but certain to misread the moment and reach for his weapon. The spark becomes a blaze, and trust between citizens and the military burns with it.

I do not question the courage or commitment of these Guardsmen. I’ve fought beside them in combat and know their grit. But I also know their limits. Asking them to police a city is unfair — to them, and to the people they’re supposed to serve.

This is not what the Guard was built for. Its mission is to respond to disasters, provide logistical support and back up civil authorities — not to serve as an armed show of force on city streets. Yet that is how they are being deployed in the nation’s capital, as they were in Los Angeles earlier this summer.

The sight of troops with weapons patrolling sidewalks, boarding trains and standing post outside coffee shops has now spread from the nation’s second-largest city to the nation’s capital. What was once extraordinary is quietly being treated as routine.

That should alarm us all.

The sight of soldiers with weapons patrolling D.C. and Los Angeles streets should feel jarring. Because once we accept it as normal, we begin to accept the very thing our military has always fought against — the idea that legitimacy comes from the barrel of a gun.

I’ve seen what that looks like in failed states abroad: checkpoints that divide neighborhoods, convoys that intimidate civilians, armed patrols that blur the line between protector and occupier. Those societies didn’t collapse overnight. They eroded slowly, as citizens became accustomed to soldiers carrying out tasks once reserved for police or community leaders. By the time people realized the cost, trust was gone.

That is not the America we should become.

For 28 years, I wore the uniform with pride. I deployed multiple times, led soldiers in combat and believed our service meant something larger — that we were defending a way of life rooted not in fear, but in freedom. As I take off the uniform for the last time, my greatest worry is that by placing young soldiers in impossible positions, we are undermining the very trust between society and service members that holds our democracy together.

The powder keg is real. And the sparks are already here.

Contributor: The patrol that haunts me wasn’t in Baghdad; it was in Dupont Circle
After serving in Iraq and Syria, I know the look of armed patrols. I never expected to see that same look on the subway in our own capital.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-09-02/washington-dc-national-guard-deployment

NBC News: Why a court order barring ICE from targeting people based on their race isn’t being enforced

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The order issued by a federal judge in Los Angeles is on appeal by the Trump administration, making its viability murky.

Mejia and her son are U.S. citizens…. The interaction has left lasting scars on her son, who now suffers from nightmares and sometimes “breaks down” in tears when she’s driving, Mejia said.

“People with the slightest shade of brown in their skin in L.A. fear that they may be the target of immigration officials,” Contreras said. “It’s across the board now.”

Federal agents are violating a court order that prohibits them from racially profiling Latinos and other Southern California residents as the directive winds it way through an appeals process, immigrant advocates and local officials say.

U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden-era appointee, imposed the temporary restraining order in Los Angeles more than a month ago, but arrests in locations frequented by Latino workers, such as Home Depots and car washes, have become daily occurrences.

“It’s a complete disregard,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA. “It’s almost like the rounding up of cattle in the road.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, denies racially profiling people in its efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

“Unelected judges are undermining the will of the American people,” DHS said Wednesday in an emailed statement. “What makes someone a target of ICE is if they are illegally in the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and Public Counsel, which filed the original lawsuit in July, filed a new motion Tuesday asking Frimpong to order additional evidence from the federal government “in light of apparent violations” of her order.

“This limited discovery is needed to determine whether further action may be necessary to enforce the Court’s TRO and to inform what additional measures, if any, may be needed to ensure compliance with any preliminary injunction the Court may issue,” the motion reads.

It details six arrests in August — three at Home Depots and three at car washes in Los Angeles County — that appear to undermine the temporary restraining order.

In one instance, on Aug. 22, federal agents detained seven people at a Pasadena car wash, including a legal resident, according to the motion. The man was handcuffed and detained despite having proper documentation nearby, the motion said. He was later released but described the incident as “devastating and humiliating.”

Frustrated by the lengthy court battle, immigrant rights’ organizers say communities are being torn apart while lawyers file motion after motion. But local officials say the order has been difficult to enforce while litigation remains ongoing.

“We’re using every tool at our disposal to put a stop to this behavior,” said Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto.

Last month, Soto’s office led a coalition of 20 California cities — including Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Long Beach — in joining a federal lawsuit alleging that the federal government conducted unconstitutional and unlawful arrests and raids without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.

The organizations asked the court to stop federal agencies from using “disproportionate force,” which has sometimes led to U.S. citizens being detained.

The federal government twice challenged the temporary restraining order, first in the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals and then in the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling was upheld in the appeals court, and the Supreme Court has not weighed in on the issue.

The lawsuit is set for a hearing on Sept. 24 for a preliminary injunction that would extend the order as the case progresses through the courts.

Meanwhile, immigration advocates said they recorded more than a dozen arrests at Home Depots and car washes in Los Angeles and Orange counties Tuesday.

Volunteers who witnessed the arrests or went to the scene to help families get information about their missing loved ones said the workers all spoke Spanish.

Eight people were arrested last week outside a Home Depot near a day labor center, which has been the target of at least three previous enforcement actions, NBC Los Angeles reported.

Video shot by immigration advocates and circulated on social media shows federal agents arriving in unmarked cars as workers run, some tripping over themselves.

DHS said in a statement that three of the eight people had “extensive rap sheets,” but did not mention the other five.

“Every day, DHS is enforcing our nation’s laws across all of LA not just Home Depots,” the department said in Wednesday’s emailed statement.

The operation unfolded at the same Home Depot where federal agents jumped out of a Penske rental van and took a dozen people into custody.

Joshua Erazo, a day laborer organizer who connects workers with employers at the center, told NBC Los Angeles that the people who were detained included street vendors.

Data compiled by CHIRLA shows that 471 of the 2,800 arrests made by the Department of Homeland Security from June 6 to July 20 occurred in predominantly Latino neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley.

As of Wednesday, Homeland Security has made more than 5,000 arrests in Los Angeles, “including murderers, rapists, and child abusers,” it said in the statement.

Believing they have little recourse, some residents have filed individual lawsuits instead of waiting for the temporary restraining order to be enforced.

Lawyers representing a Los Angeles mother took the first step last week toward suing the federal government after her teenage son was detained by agents at gunpoint in a case of mistaken identity. They filed a claim for $1 million in damages for personal injury, including “assault, battery, false arrest, false imprisonment,” according to court documents.

Andreina Mejia said she and her son, who is 15 and has special needs, were sitting inside her parked car outside Arleta High School when masked federal agents approached them with guns drawn. They were both pulled out and Mejia was handcuffed while agents questioned her son, she said.

“He didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “So, I just told him, ‘Don’t make any movement, don’t move, just follow instructions.’”

Agents asked for the whereabouts of a person whose name her son did not recognize and briefly detained him when he could not provide information, Mejia said. One of the agents appeared to realize they had the wrong person and let her son go, she said.

Mejia and her son are U.S. citizens. Agents said they were looking for a young man from El Salvador.

“The family is Mexican American,” said Mejia’s attorney, Christian Contreras. “It feels as if they were exploited, abused and taken advantage of because of the color of their skin.”

The interaction has left lasting scars on her son, who now suffers from nightmares and sometimes “breaks down” in tears when she’s driving, Mejia said.

“People with the slightest shade of brown in their skin in L.A. fear that they may be the target of immigration officials,” Contreras said. “It’s across the board now.”

Why a court order barring ICE from targeting people based on their race isn’t being enforced
The order issued by a federal judge in Los Angeles is on appeal by the Trump administration, making its viability murky.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/immigration-court-order-ice-targeting-people-race-not-enforced-why-rcna227792

Haaretz.com: ICE Gains Access to Israeli Spyware Maker Paragon’s Tool

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After the deal between Paragon and Homeland Security’s investigations unit was frozen, the first signs that Trump wants spyware emerged, sparking concerns amid a growing arsenal of digital tools

The contract between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Israeli spyware company Paragon has been reactivated, in what some say is the first sign of a shift in the current administration’s policies towards offensive cyber.

Last year, a $2 million contract was signed between Paragon and ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for its Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit. However, it was frozen a month later amid the Biden administration’s policy to clamp down on the offensive cyber industry, which sells technologies that allow states access to encrypted smartphones and has been misused across the globe over the past decade.

That policy included pressuring Israel to rein in its spyware exports, and also sanctions on Israeli companies like NSO and Candiru, which are regulated by Israel, as well as harsher personal sanctions against the owners and executives of Intellexa, which operated outside Israel’s regulatory oversight.

The temporary suspension of the Paragon contract stemmed from concerns it could violate Biden’s 2023 executive order restricting the purchase of foreign spyware by U.S. agencies, if those had been used to undermine U.S. national security or had been implicated in misuse.

Its renewal, announced with little fanfare this Saturday on an official U.S. procurement data website, is seen by some as an early signal of a potential shift in the Trump administration’s policy toward the offensive cyber industry. The contract renewal was first published by Jack Poulson, an independent journalist, on his Substack.

Paragon, the procurement documents details, will provide a “proprietary solution” to ICE via the HSI, an investigative arm that combats illegal immigration, human and arms trafficking, international crime, cyber threats, and more. It was founded by former Unit 8200 commander Ehud Schneorson and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and developed a spyware called Graphite.

It has been sold to intelligence and law enforcement agencies in Israel, Europe, the United States and Singapore. Infection with the spyware gives operators full access to a victim’s mobile phone, including files, photos, and contacts, as well as the ability to eavesdrop on calls and read encrypted messages. Earlier this year, Paragon was for the first time embroiled in a scandal regarding misuse of its tech in Italy, where the country’s intelligence service turned the spyware against activists and journalists.

Digital rights groups fear that Trump’s policies, coupled with the renewal of the Paragon contract, signal that the United States may roll back its efforts to regulate the spyware industry and could even emerge as a state that abuses these advanced tools.

According to U.S. media reports, the administration has budgeted $170 billion for enforcing Trump’s immigration policy, setting a daily target of 3,000 arrests for the authorities. To meet this goal, ICE is recruiting 10,000 agents, offering signing bonuses of $50,000.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has flooded the streets of Washington, Los Angeles, and other cities with immigration agents, ramping up arrests and deportations of undocumented migrants, as well as enforcing strict new policing measures.

“It is deeply concerning that the U.S. government and DHS are acquiring highly invasive spyware at a time of unprecedented crackdowns on students, protesters, and migrants,” said Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, head of Amnesty International’s Security Lab, which monitors technologies that violate human and civil rights. “Time and again, such tools have ultimately been found to be abused to target journalists and government critics.”

DHS-affiliated bodies have numerous ties to Israeli surveillance and intelligence companies: Cognyte provided various technologies to the Secret Service last year and this year reported a $20 million deal with a leading U.S. security organization; Cellebrite supplies law enforcement agencies, including ICE and the Secret Service, with phone-hacking technology for seized devices.

ICE also has access to intelligence technologies from companies like Palantir and Babel Street, Ó Cearbhaill explained. A Haaretz investigation last year revealed how Babel Street sells software that allows surveillance and tracking of individuals using advertising data collected online. According to him, the addition of Paragon’s spyware to the authorities’ surveillance toolkit increases the risk of unlawful and arbitrary arrests, investigations, visa revocations, and deportations, “in significant violation of numerous human rights.”

Late last year, Paragon was sold to the American private equity firm AE Industrial Partners, considered close to the U.S. defense establishment. The sale caused tension and criticism within Israel’s offensive cyber industry.

An investigation by Israeli television uncovered an intelligence community document that warned that the sale of Paragon posed a “potential danger” to national security, due to concerns about American influence over a “strategic sector” for Israel and the leakage of sensitive knowledge abroad. Similar concerns were exposed in 2022 when the American defense contractor L3Harris attempted to purchase NSO and relocate it to the United States.

Following the acquisition, Paragon’s U.S. branch joined REDLattice, a cyber-intelligence company also owned by the U.S. fund. Reporting on the contract renewal, journalist Poulson revealed the two firms’ deep ties to the U.S. intelligence community. According to Poulson’s substack, former CIA deputy director John “Finbar” Fleming was appointed head of Paragon’s U.S. branch.

ICE Gains Access to Israeli Spyware Maker Paragon’s Tool
After the deal between Paragon and Homeland Security’s investigations unit was frozen, the first signs that Trump wants spyware emerged, sparking concerns amid a growing arsenal of digital tools

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-regains-access-to-israeli-spyware-maker-paragon-s-tool/ar-AA1LNpsh

CNBC: Trump can’t use National Guard in California to enforce laws, make arrests, judge rules

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Major smackdown for our Grifter-in-Chief!

  • A federal judge Tuesday barred President Donald Trump from deploying National Guard troops in California to execute law-enforcement actions there, including making arrests, searching locations, and crowd control.
  • The ruling came in connection with a lawsuit by the state of California challenging Trump’s deployment of the Guard to deal with protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
  • Judge Charles Breyer said that Trump’s deployment of the troops violated the federal Posse Comitatus Act.

A federal judge on Tuesday barred President Donald Trump from deploying National Guard troops in California to execute law-enforcement actions there, including making arrests, searching locations, and crowd control.

The ruling came in connection with a lawsuit by the state of California challenging Trump’s and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s deployment of the Guard to deal with protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

Judge Charles Breyer said that Trump’s deployment of the troops violated the federal Posse Comitatus Act, which bars U.S. Military forces from enforcing the law domestically.

Breyer’s ruling in U.S. District Court in San Francisco is limited to California.

But it comes as Trump has considered deploying National Guard troops to other U.S. cities to deal with crime.

“Congress spoke clearly in 1878 when it passed the Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the use of the U.S. military to execute domestic law,” Breyer wrote.

“Nearly 140 years later, Defendants — President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the Department of Defense — deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced,” the judge wrote.

“There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence,” Breyer wrote.

“Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.”

Trump can’t use National Guard in California to enforce laws, make arrests, judge rules
The ruling in San Francisco federal court comes as Trump has considered deploying National Guard troops to cities outside California to deal with crime.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/02/trump-national-guard-california-newsom.html

Slingshot News: ‘I Thought You Said Sabbath’: When Trump Put His Cognitive Decline On Full Display During Remarks At Economic Summit In Miami

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‘I Thought You Said Sabbath’: When Trump Put His Cognitive Decline On Full Display During Remarks At Economic Summit In Miami
During his remarks at an economic summit in Miami in February, President Trump put his cognitive decline on full display. Trump stated, “I thought you said Sabbath.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/i-thought-you-said-sabbath-when-trump-put-his-cognitive-decline-on-full-display-during-remarks-at-economic-summit-in-miami/vi-AA1LCoFR

L.A. Times: As Noem confirms more ICE resources are heading to Chicago, mayor is defying crackdown

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that immigration operations will soon be expanded in Chicago, confirming plans for a stepped-up presence of federal agents in the nation’s third-largest city as President Trump continues to lash out at Illinois’ Democratic leadership.

Noem’s comments came a day after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson struck back against what he called the “out-of-control” plan to surge federal officers into the city. The Chicago Police Department will be barred from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or any related patrols, traffic stops and checkpoints during the surge, according to an executive order Johnson signed Saturday.

The Homeland Security Department last week requested limited logistical support from officials at the Naval Station Great Lakes to support the agency’s anticipated operations. The military installation is about 35 miles north of Chicago.

“We’ve already had ongoing operations with ICE in Chicago … but we do intend to add more resources to those operations,” Noem said during a Sunday appearance CBS News’ ”Face the Nation.”

Noem declined to provide further details about the planned surge of federal officers. It comes after the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops to Washington, saying they were needed to target crime, immigration and homelessness, and two months after it sent troops to Los Angeles.

Trump lashed out against Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in a social media posting Saturday, warning him that he must straighten out Chicago’s crime problems quickly “or we’re coming.” The Republican president has also been critical of Johnson.

Johnson and Pritzker, both Democrats, have denounced the expected federal mobilization, noting that crime has fallen in Chicago. They are planning to sue if Trump moves forward with the plan.

In his order signed Saturday, Johnson directed all city departments to guard the constitutional rights of Chicago residents “amidst the possibility of imminent militarized immigration or National Guard deployment by the federal government.”

Asked during a news conference about federal agents who are presumably “taking orders,” Johnson replied: “Yeah, and I don’t take orders from the federal government.”

Johnson also blocked Chicago police from wearing face coverings to hide their identities, as most federal immigration officers have done since Trump launched his crackdown.

The federal surge into Chicago could start as early as Friday and last about 30 days, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that had not been made public.

Pritzker, in an interview aired Sunday on “Face the Nation,” said that Trump’s expected plans to mobilize federal forces in the city may be part of a plan to “stop the elections in 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections.”

Noem said it was a Trump “prerogative” whether to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago as he did in Los Angeles in June in the midst of protests there against immigration raids.

“I do know that L.A. wouldn’t be standing today if President Trump hadn’t taken action,” Noem said. “That city would have burned if left to devices of the mayor and governor of that state.”

Unlike the recent federal takeover of policing in Washington, the Chicago operation is not expected to rely on the National Guard or military and is focused exclusively on immigration, rather than being cast as part of a broad campaign against crime, Trump administration officials have said.

Chicago is home to a large immigrant population, and both the city and the state of Illinois have some of the country’s strongest rules against cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts. That has often put the city and state at odds with the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.

Johnson’s order builds on the city’s longtime stance, that neither Chicago nor Illinois officials have sought or been consulted on the federal presence and they stand against Trump’s mobilization plan.

During his news conference Saturday, Johnson accused the president of “behaving outside the bounds of the Constitution” and seeking a federal presence in Democratic cities as retribution against his political rivals.

“He is reckless and out of control,” Johnson said. “He’s the biggest threat to our democracy that we’ve experienced in the history of our country.”

In response, the White House contended that the potential flood of federal agents was about “cracking down on crime.”

“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an email Saturday.

Critics have noted that Trump, while espousing a tough-on-crime push, is the only felon ever to occupy the White House.

As Noem confirms more ICE resources are heading to Chicago, mayor is defying crackdown
Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem says immigration operations will be expanded in Chicago, whose mayor has signed an order against cooperating with the feds.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-08-31/dhs-secretary-noem-confirms-more-ice-resources-are-heading-to-chicago-for-immigration-crackdown

Daily Beast: ICE Barbie Brutally Mocked for Claiming ‘L.A. Wouldn’t Be Standing’ Without Trump

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Kristi Noem’s “Face the Nation” comments were ridiculed across the internet.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is being mocked relentlessly after bizarrely claiming that Los Angeles “wouldn’t be standing today” if former President Donald Trump hadn’t deployed the National Guard.

During a Sunday morning appearance on Face the Nation, CBS host Ed O’Keefe asked Noem whether Trump would follow through on his threats to send federal troops into Chicago.

“I won’t speak to the specifics of the operations that are planned in other cities,” the former South Dakota governor began. “But I do know that L.A. wouldn’t be standing today if President Trump hadn’t taken action. That city would have burned down if left to the devices of the mayor and the governor of that state.”

Stunned, O’Keefe gave her a chance to walk it back, repeating:

“You said L.A. wouldn’t be standing, if not for these federal deployments?” But Noem doubled down.

“So many of those homes and businesses that were in downtown L.A. and in those areas were dealing with riots and violence, and coming in and bringing those federal law enforcement officers in was incredibly important to keeping peace,” she said. “And so we are grateful that President Trump was willing to send resources and people in in order to enforce the law.”

California Governor and certified online troll Gavin Newsom had a simple response: laughter.

Hahahahahhahahahahahahahaha https://t.co/sYbZRZcacV— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 31, 2025

“Hahahahahhahahahahahahahaha,” Newsom’s press office posted on X.

Others quickly piled on.

“There were protests in like three downtown blocks of L.A. over the course of a few days,” wrote Pod Save America co-host and California resident Tommy Vietor. “No one here wanted or needed troops on the streets—Kristi Noem is comically full of sh–, per usual.”

There were protests in like three downtown blocks of LA over the course of a few days. No one here wanted or needed troops on the streets. @KristiNoem is comically full of shit, per usual. https://t.co/fLhjSARpaA— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) August 31, 2025

“MRIs of Kristi Noem’s head showed nothing,” added journalist Keith Olbermann.

MRIs of @KristiNoem‘s head showed nothing pic.twitter.com/8FBNobYLHP— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) August 31, 2025

Noem’s comments come on the heels of Trump deploying thousands of National Guard troops into Democratic-led cities including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., with Chicago reportedly next on his list.

The administration claims the deployments are necessary to “liberate” residents from crime, arguing that Democratic leaders have allowed urban centers to become “war zones.”

The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

ICE Barbie Mocked for Claiming ‘L.A. Wouldn’t Be Standing’ Without Trump
Kristi Noem’s “Face the Nation” comments were ridiculed across the internet.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-barbie-kristi-noem-mocked-for-claiming-la-wouldnt-be-standing-without-trump

Salon: Trump’s DOJ power play on sanctuary cities fuels resignations

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New DOJ directive on sanctuary cities sparks internal revolt, prosecutors warn politics not law drive key decisions

The Justice Department is in turmoil as the Trump administration intensifies efforts to penalize sanctuary cities, prompting multiple resignations among senior attorneys who say they were sidelined in the enforcement push.

Since January 2025, the administration has rolled out a series of executive actions aimed at jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Executive Order 14287, signed in April, requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) to identify and pursue legal remedies against non-compliant cities. Meanwhile, the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” order emphasizes enforcement against individuals unlawfully present in the U.S., with a focus on public safety threats.

Officials within the DOJ say the administration has sidelined career attorneys and replaced them with political appointees, prompting several high-level resignations. Critics describe the reshuffling as a political purge rather than a legitimate enforcement initiative.

Legal challenges from sanctuary cities are already underway. Courts in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles have issued preliminary injunctions blocking attempts to withhold federal funding. The administration has signaled its intent to appeal, keeping the battles over federal authority versus local jurisdiction unresolved.

Despite the legal pushback, the administration is moving forward with enforcement operations. DHS plans to deploy hundreds of officers to cities like Chicago as part of a crackdown targeting sanctuary jurisdictions, focusing on individuals unlawfully present in the U.S., particularly those involved in criminal activity.

The developments highlight the administration’s aggressive posture on immigration, the tensions between federal and local governments, and internal strains within the DOJ as political priorities collide with career enforcement norms.

Trump’s DOJ power play on sanctuary cities fuels resignations – Salon.com
New DOJ directive on sanctuary cities sparks internal revolt, prosecutors warn politics not law drive key decisions

https://www.salon.com/2025/08/30/trumps-doj-power-play-on-sanctuary-cities-fuels-resignations