The review aims to ensure that U.S. attorneys in 94 offices nationwide share equal responsibility with headquarters officials in choosing whether to pursue public corruption cases, according to a department official speaking on background. No final decisions have been made, the department official said.
It would put these prosecutions under the control of political appointees who can quickly be replaced to do the President’s bidding, e.g. the appointment of Trump’s Bimbo #4 Alina Habba as the acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey. Previously such prosecutions were managed by DOJ’s career professional staff.
In latest Trump overhaul, Justice Department may change who prosecutes public corruption
The Justice Department may move decisions about charging public from headquarters to regional U.S. attorney offices.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s alleged connection to Qatar has drawn criticism as the Qatari government plans to gift President Donald Trump a luxury Boeing 747-8 for temporary use as Air Force One. Bondi previously lobbied Congress for Qatar, earning $115,000 a month in 2020. The situation has since fueled legal and ethical concerns regarding foreign gifts to U.S. officials.
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Democratic pollster Matt McDermott said, “The DOJ memo approving Trump’s Qatari jet? Written by Pam Bondi. Her last job? Lobbying for Qatar.”
Pam Bondi Under Fire Over Qatar Jet: ‘Wrong Signal’
A Houston judge on Monday ordered the U.S. government to track down a Venezuelan man who is believed to have been deported to El Salvador after government attorneys told the court they did not know where he was.
Widmer Josneyder Agelviz Sanguino, 24, was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody last fall after arriving in Houston as a refugee, but his family and attorneys stopped hearing from him on March 15 as his asylum case was awaiting a decision. Days later, his name appeared on a flight manifest published by CBS News identifying the 238 Venezuelan men who had been deported to a mega prison in El Salvador.
Neither his family nor his team has had contact with him since.
President Donald Trump is being “played by a fool” in negotiations over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, conservative columnist Max Boot warned in The Washington Post — and he has no idea how effortlessly he’s being used.
Trump has been tough to pin down on the Ukraine war. He has spent much of his political career sympathetic to Russia’s Vladimir Putin after his government interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and has frequently suggested Ukraine should give up territory to appease Russian aggression, but has more recently acted aware that Russia isn’t interested in peace — yet, Boot wrote, he keeps giving Putin far more chances than he is entitled to.
“President Donald Trump is not known for being patient or forgiving with those who defy his will,” wrote Boot. “In just the past few days, he has lashed out at New York Attorney General Letitia James, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and former FBI director James B. Comey — all of whom have incurred his wrath for various reasons. Yet when it comes to dealing with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin — who continues to sabotage Trump’s showcase efforts to end the war in Ukraine — the president seems to have an endless supply of patience, goodwill and understanding.”
Trump is being ‘played for a fool’: conservative columnist
President Donald Trump’s claim that a jet plane from the Qatari royal family was a “gift” is facing turbulence after multiple sources tell CNN it was in fact the Trump administration that initiated talks to acquire the Boeing 747 that could temporarily serve as Air Force One.
Four sources familiar with the discussions contradict Trump’s implied line that Qatar spontaneously offered the plane. Instead, they say US officials, frustrated by delays in Boeing’s delivery of the new presidential fleet, actively pursued alternative options — Qatar among them.
“Qatar was one of the clients,” a source told CNN, explaining that Boeing pointed the Pentagon toward existing international customers. “The Pentagon offered to buy the plane and Qatar indicated it was willing to sell it.”
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The administration was told by Boeing, which is making the next generation of Air Force One planes, that the two planes would not arrive until 2027. Trump wanted something sooner. So the Pentagon, with the White House backing, reached out to Qatar.
Boeing had given the administration a list of possible planes that could work as Air Force One in the meantime, and Qatar had one of those planes.
The president’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, he also helped facilitate these early meetings. The Pentagon then offered to buy the plane, and Qatar offered to sell it. Now, we’re told the lawyers are still hashing out the details, but the White House is still claiming that this is going to be a donation from Qatar. Or, as Trump wrote on Truth Social recently, a gift “free of charge.”
Trump Made the First Move for Jet ‘Gift’ From Qataris: Report
Trump’s claim that a promised Qatar jet plane was a “gift” is facing turbulence after sources tell CNN it was in fact the administration that initiated talks.
America’s national debt, which currently stands at more than $36.2 trillion, is increasingly rising on economists’ agendas. Their fear is that as the nation’s debt burden increases, alongside the interest payments to service the debt, the economy will not grow fast enough to sustain the spending.
Such fears were reflected in a Moody’s downgrade of U.S. credit last week from Aaa to Aa1. Moody’s justified: “While we recognize the US’ significant economic and financial strengths, we believe these no longer fully counterbalance the decline in fiscal metrics.”
U.S. economy is experiencing ‘death by a thousand cuts’, says Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid says Moody’s recent debt downgrade continues a drip of bad fiscal news for the American economic outlook.
More than 30 objects, including Harriet Tubman’s hymnal, have been rotated out of the National Museum of African American History and Culture amid President Trump’s executive order targeting “divisive” racial exhibits.
In all, NBC News counted 32 artifacts that have disappeared from public view at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) just weeks after Trump signed a March 27 executive order demanding that the Smithsonian eliminate material that “divides Americans based on race.”
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The executive order charges Vice President J.D. Vance with a top‑to‑bottom review of Smithsonian content deemed to “degrade shared American values.” Its timing has fueled accusations of historical whitewashing.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) criticized President Donald Trump and his administration for being “anti-American” following a confrontation involving Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Democratic lawmakers at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. Baraka was accused for trespassing and released after arrest. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused New Jersey Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver, and Robert Menendez of trespassing and assaulting ICE agents.
Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said, “If anyone’s breaking the law in this situation, it’s not members of Congress, it’s the Department of Homeland Security. It’s people like Tom Homan and Secretary Kristi Noem.” She added, “You lay a finger on someone, on Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman … or any of the representatives that were there, you lay a finger on them, we are going to have a problem. Because the people who are breaking the law are the people not abiding by it.”
AOC Rips ‘Anti-American’ Trump Over Democratic Arrests
Armando Rodriguez and his wife Karina have employed immigrant workers on Aloha Star Coffee Farms on the Big Island in Hawaii for decades, but ICE officials are now arresting their workers
Donald Trump’s war on immigration has impacted all corners of the U.S., but now, immigration officials have targeted an isolated patch on Hawaii’s Big Island.
“Even cats and dogs have rights here and in the United States, and they’re being treated better than some of our community members here,” Armando Rodriguez, owner of Aloha Star Coffee Farms, told local station KITV.
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He explained that his initiative, Aloha Latinos, has focused on protecting civil rights for Hispanic residents who live with their families on the island.
Yet, many lives were now being torn apart because of the recent raids, he added.
“Our fear has turned into anger. A lot of communities are mad, they’re creating angry people here,” he said.
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“It’s terrifying. People today are seeing their parents arrested right in front of them. Children are seeing their parents treated as criminals,” Kona Coffee farmer, Victoria Magana, told KITV.
ICE officials have been targeting Hawaii’s coffee farmers, locals say
Armando Rodriguez and his wife, Karina, employ green-card workers on Aloha Star Coffee Farms on the Big Island in Hawaii. They say ICE officials have now started arresting other local farmers on the island
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling in a two-page order, denying an emergency motion from the government for a stay of an April 18 preliminary injunction. The three-judge panel determined that DHS failed to satisfy the criteria required for such relief, and the court has “concerns regarding the continuing application of the Department of Homeland Security’s March 30 Guidance Regarding Third Country Removals,” among other things, according to the order.
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The ruling stems from a class-action lawsuit filed by immigration advocates after DHS issued new guidance authorizing the removal of certain noncitizens to “third countries” not named in their immigration proceedings, and with which they allegedly have no historical or legal ties. The plaintiffs argued that the policy violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, as well as obligations under the Convention Against Torture human rights treaty.
1st Circuit shoots down Trump DHS bid to continue ‘third country’ deportations
A federal appeals court on Friday declined to lift a nationwide injunction that blocks Trump’s plans to summarily deport immigrants to countries they are not from, allegedly without due process.
