update - Murdoch files motion to dismiss Trump's $10B libel suit as groundless bullshit garbage

[mandrill]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook referred to a condominium she purchased in June 2021 as a “vacation home" in a loan estimate, a characterization that could undermine claims by the Trump administration that she committed mortgage fraud.

President Donald Trump has sought to fire Cook “for cause," relying on allegations that Cook claimed both the condo and another property as her primary residence simultaneously, as he looks to reshape the central bank to orchestrate a steep cut to interest rates. Documents obtained by The Associated Press also showed that on a second form submitted by Cook to gain a security clearance, she described the property as a “second home.”




Cook sued the Trump administration to block her firing, the first time a president has sought to remove a member of the seven-person board of governors. Cook secured an injunction Tuesday that allows her to remain as a Fed governor.

The administration has appealed the ruling and asked for an emergency ruling by Monday, just before the Fed is set to meet and decide whether to reduce its key interest rate. Most economists expect they will cut the rate by a quarter point.

Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has accused Cook of signing separate documents in which she allegedly said that both the Atlanta property and a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, also purchased in June 2021, were both “primary residences.” Pulte submitted a criminal referral to the Justice Department, which has opened an investigation.




Claiming a home as a “primary residence” can result in better down payment and mortgage terms than if one of the homes is classified as a vacation home.

The descriptions of Cook’s properties were first reported by Reuters.

Fulton County tax records show Cook has never claimed a homestead exemption on the condo, which allows someone who uses a property as their primary residence to reduce their property taxes, since buying it in 2021.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fed Governor Lisa Cook claimed 2nd residence as 'vacation home,' undercutting Trump fraud claims

 

[Valcazar]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook referred to a condominium she purchased in June 2021 as a “vacation home" in a loan estimate, a characterization that could undermine claims by the Trump administration that she committed mortgage fraud.

President Donald Trump has sought to fire Cook “for cause," relying on allegations that Cook claimed both the condo and another property as her primary residence simultaneously, as he looks to reshape the central bank to orchestrate a steep cut to interest rates. Documents obtained by The Associated Press also showed that on a second form submitted by Cook to gain a security clearance, she described the property as a “second home.”




Cook sued the Trump administration to block her firing, the first time a president has sought to remove a member of the seven-person board of governors. Cook secured an injunction Tuesday that allows her to remain as a Fed governor.

The administration has appealed the ruling and asked for an emergency ruling by Monday, just before the Fed is set to meet and decide whether to reduce its key interest rate. Most economists expect they will cut the rate by a quarter point.

Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has accused Cook of signing separate documents in which she allegedly said that both the Atlanta property and a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, also purchased in June 2021, were both “primary residences.” Pulte submitted a criminal referral to the Justice Department, which has opened an investigation.




Claiming a home as a “primary residence” can result in better down payment and mortgage terms than if one of the homes is classified as a vacation home.

The descriptions of Cook’s properties were first reported by Reuters.

Fulton County tax records show Cook has never claimed a homestead exemption on the condo, which allows someone who uses a property as their primary residence to reduce their property taxes, since buying it in 2021.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fed Governor Lisa Cook claimed 2nd residence as 'vacation home,' undercutting Trump fraud claims

It does look like the pretext has not held up.
Now to see if the Supremes needed the fig leaf or not.

 

[mandrill]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Reserve holds its latest policy meeting this week with a historic challenge to its leadership pending in the courts and a rushed effort underway to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee to fill an open seat on the central bank's Board of Governors.




The Fed is confronting a potentially intense pace of change between Trump's attempted firing of Governor Lisa Cook and the Senate's move to approve his nominee for a separate open seat. The move against Cook is both a first-of-its-kind test of the Fed's independence but also potentially disruptive to how the central bank is perceived on global markets.

In an institution known for staid and technocratic debate over complex issues, it's currently not even clear who will be present and voting during the September 16-17 policy meeting.

"It's going to be a pretty big sea change for the Fed, which has always sort of kept a healthy distance from politics," said LH Meyer's Derek Tang, with people potentially coming to view Fed governors through the lens of who appointed them, rather than as people expected to make impartial judgments based on economic data. "I think that's getting harder and harder."




APPEALS COURT DECISION LOOMS OVER FED MEETING

The events of the next two days - with a pivotal appeals court ruling on Cook's status expected as soon as Sunday and a Senate vote set for Monday on Trump's Fed board nominee Stephen Miran - likely won't change the outcome of the meeting. Policymakers are expected to cut the benchmark interest rate by a quarter-percentage-point from the current level of between 4.25% and 4.50% -- the first rate cut since December 2024.

But it could begin in a significant way to put Trump's stamp on the central bank, reshaping the Fed's standing in the eyes of the public and its peer institutions, and influencing policy and other decisions.

By Tuesday, when the Fed's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee convenes, a central tenet of its independence may have been stripped away by federal judges, and Miran, a harsh critic of the Fed currently serving as chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers, may have been sworn in as a governor and participating in the debate.





The status quo could also remain largely intact if Miran's nomination hits any last-minute delays or a federal appeals court rules that Cook can remain in office pending a full resolution of Trump's attempt to fire her.

The substance of whether Trump has adequate "cause" to remove Cook over alleged false statements made in a mortgage application before she joined the Fed is likely headed to the Supreme Court. But in the meantime U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb concluded the president was unlikely to prevail in firing her and that Cook could stay in office until the matter is resolved.

Trump asked the federal appeals court to let the firing proceed while the matter is litigated, and a three-judge panel could rule as soon as Sunday on whether Cook will be allowed to continue at her job at least for now.

The Fed has said it would abide by any court decision.


MIRAN CONFIRMATION VOTE FAST-TRACKED FOR MONDAY

Miran's nomination to a board seat vacated unexpectedly last month by Adriana Kugler, meanwhile, is on a fast track to Senate approval in a vote scheduled for Monday. If his confirmation and paperwork are completed in time, Miran could be sworn in for the start of the two-day session on Tuesday.

During the meeting, the focus will be on a U.S. job market that is substantially shakier than it seemed when policymakers last met in July. Meanwhile, inflation continues to drift above the Fed's 2% target thanks largely to Trump's aggressive tariff policies. Analysts expect the job market to be the greater concern.

(Editing by Dan Burns and Lisa Shumaker)

Fed faces key week of decisions with membership, political independence in doubt

 

[mandrill]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is temporarily keeping in place measures preventing the Trump administration from deporting Guatemalan migrant children in government custody.

Judge Timothy J. Kelly's decision Saturday keeps the government from removing Guatemalan children who came to the U.S. alone and are currently living in government shelters and foster care through Sept. 16.




Kelly's order said he needed a brief extension to continue to study the issue because up until a hearing on Sept. 10 the facts of the case were still changing. His decision comes after the government during that hearing backtracked on previous claims that the children's parents requested them back.

The court decision stems from a Labor Day weekend operation when the Trump administration attempted to remove dozens of Guatemalan migrant children who had come to the U.S. alone and were living in U.S. government shelters and foster care.

In a late night operation on Aug. 30, the administration notified shelters where migrant children traveling alone initially live after they cross the southern border that they would be returning the children to Guatemala and that they needed to have the kids ready to leave in a matter of hours.

Contractors for Immigration and Customs Enforcement picked up the Guatemalan children from shelters and foster care and transported them to the airport. The government has said in court filings that it identified 457 children for possible removal to Guatemala although that list was eventually whittled down to 327. In the end, 76 got as far as boarding planes in El Paso and Harlingen, Texas, early morning on Aug. 31 and were set to depart to Guatemala in what the government described as a first phase.




Immigration and children’s advocates, who had been alerted of possible efforts to remove Guatemalan minors, immediately sued the Trump administration to prevent the children’s removal. The advocates argued that many of these children were fleeing abuse or violence in their home countries and that the government was bypassing longstanding legal procedures meant to protect young migrants from being returned to potentially abusive or violent places.

A federal judge in Washington granted advocates a 14-day temporary restraining order largely preventing the Trump administration from removing migrant children in its care except in limited circumstances where an immigration judge had already ordered their removal after reviewing their cases. Kelly's Saturday order extends that protection three more days.

The government has argued that it has the right to return children in their care and it was acting at the behest of the Guatemalan government.




The Guatemalan government has said that it was concerned over minors in U.S. custody who were going to turn 18 and would then be at risk of being turned over to adult detention facilities.

Children who cross the border alone are generally transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which falls under the Health and Human Services Department. The children usually live in a network of shelters across the country that are overseen by the resettlement office until they are eventually released to a sponsor, usually a relative.

Children's advocates have also asked the Washington court for longer-term protections preventing the government from removing all children in government custody, with a few limited exceptions, while the lawsuit plays out in court. Advocates made that request after hearing reports that the government was intending to remove Honduran children as well. The court has yet to rule on that request.


There are also temporary restraining orders in separate cases in Arizona and Illinois also filed during the Labor Day weekend where advocates sued to restrict the government from removing Guatemalan and later Honduran children, but those cases are more narrow in scope of children they cover than the Washington case.

Rebecca Santana, The Associated Press

Judge extends temporary measures protecting Guatemalan children from deportation

 

[mandrill]

With the Taliban barring women from college in her native Afghanistan, Bahara Saghari set her sights on pursuing higher education in the United States.

Saghari, 21, practiced English up to eight hours per day for several years, eventually winning an offer to study business administration at a private liberal arts college in Illinois. She was hoping to arrive this fall, but her plans were derailed again, this time by President Donald Trump's travel ban.




“You think that finally you are going to your dream, and then something came up and like, everything’s just gone,” Saghari said.

Thousands of students are among the people affected by the Trump administration's travel ban and restrictions on citizens from 19 countries, including many who now feel stranded after investing considerable time and money to come to the U.S.

Some would-be international students are not showing up on American campuses this fall despite offers of admission because of logjams with visa applications, which the Trump administration slowed this summer while it rolled out additional vetting. Others have had second thoughts because of the administration's wider immigration crackdown and the abrupt termination of some students' legal status.

But none face bigger obstacles than the students hit with travel bans. Last year, the State Department issued more than 5,700 F-1 and J-1 visas — which are used by foreign students and researchers — to people in the 19 travel ban-affected countries between May and September. Citizens of Iran and Myanmar were issued more than half of the approved visas.




The US is still the first choice for many students

Pouya Karami, a 17-year-old student from Shiraz, Iran, focused his college search entirely on the U.S. No other country offers the same research opportunities in science, he said. He was planning to study polymer chemistry this fall at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, but he had to shelve those plans because of the travel ban.

Karami deferred admission until next year and is holding out hope. He is still preparing for his embassy interview and reaching out to U.S. politicians to reconsider the travel ban's restrictions on students.

“I'm doing everything I can about it,” he said.

The full travel ban affects citizens from 12 countries spanning Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean. It blocks most people from obtaining new visas, although some citizens from the banned countries are exempt, such as green card holders, dual citizens and some athletes. Seven other countries have tighter restrictions that also apply to student visas.


When Trump announced the travel ban in June, he cited high visa overstay rates and national security threats from unstable or adversarial foreign governments as reasons for putting countries on the list. He has called some of the countries’ screening processes “deficient” and said he plans to keep the ban in place until “identified inadequacies” are addressed.

Hopes of extended families ride on students

In Myanmar, the family of one 18-year-old student made his education their top priority, saving paychecks for him to go abroad for college. They risked their stability so he could have the chance to live a better life, said the student, who asked to be identified by only his nickname, Gu Gu, because he is worried about being targeted by the Myanmar or U.S. government for expressing criticism.

When he shared a screenshot of his acceptance letter to the University of South Florida in a family group chat, it exploded with celebratory emojis, Gu Gu said. He had been waiting for visa appointments to be announced when one night, his mother woke him to ask about news of a U.S. travel ban. In an instant, his plans to study at USF this fall were ruined.


Many students his age in Myanmar have been drafted into the military or joined resistance groups since the military ousted the elected civilian government in 2021. While a civil war rages, he had been looking forward to simple freedoms in the U.S. like walking to school by himself or playing sports again.

“I was all in for U.S., so this kind of breaks my heart,” said Gu Gu, who was unable to defer his acceptance.

With the U.S.'s door closed, students are looking elsewhere

Saghari, the Afghani student, postponed her July visa interview appointment in Pakistan to August after learning of the travel ban, but ultimately canceled it. Knox College denied her request to defer her admission.

She later applied to schools in Europe but encountered issues with the admissions process. A German university told Saghari she would need to take another English proficiency test because an earlier score had expired, but taking the test the first time was already a challenge in Afghanistan's political climate.


She has been accepted to a Polish university on the condition she pay her tuition up front. She said her application is under review as the school validates her high school degree.

Amir, a 28-year-old Iranian graduate who declined to provide his last name for fear of being targeted, wasn't able to travel to the U.S. to take a position as a visiting scholar. Instead, he has continued to work as a researcher in Tehran, saying it was difficult to focus after missing out on a fully funded opportunity to conduct research at the University of Pennsylvania.

His professor at Penn postponed his research appointment until next year, but Amir said it feels like “a shot in the dark.”

He's been looking at research opportunities in Europe, which would require more time spent on applications and potentially learning a new language. He still would prefer to be in U.S., he said, but he isn't optimistic that the country's foreign policy is going to change.


“You lose this idealistic view of the world. Like you think, if I work hard, if I'm talented, if I contribute, I have a place somewhere else, basically somewhere you want to be,” he said. “And then you learn that, no, maybe people don't want you there. That's kind of hard to deal with it.”

Trump's travel ban keeps international students from coming to the US for college

 

[mandrill]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Trump administration is using civil rights laws to wage a campaign against the University of California in an attempt to curtail academic freedom and undermine free speech, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by faculty, staff, student organizations and every labor union representing UC workers.




The lawsuit comes weeks after the Trump administration fined the University of California, Los Angeles $1.2 billion and froze research funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus and other civil rights violations. It was the first public university to be targeted with a widespread funding freeze. The administration has frozen or paused federal funding over similar allegations against elite private colleges, including Harvard, Brown and Columbia.

According to the lawsuit, the Trump administration has made several demands in its proposed settlement offer to UCLA, including giving government access to faculty, student, and staff data, releasing admissions and hiring data, ending diversity scholarships, banning overnight demonstrations on university property and cooperating with immigration enforcement.

The Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of the UC system's president.




Stett Holbrook, a spokesman for the University of California system, said that while the university is not involved in the lawsuit, it is part of numerous legal and advocacy efforts to restore and maintain funding.

“Federal cuts to research funding threaten lifesaving biomedical research, hamper U.S. economic competitiveness and jeopardize the health of Americans who depend on the University’s cutting-edge medical science and innovation,” he said in a statement.

The coalition that sued is led by the American Association of University Professors union, or AAUP, and represented by Democracy Forward, a legal group that has brought other lawsuits against the Trump administration over frozen federal funds.

“The blunt cudgel the Trump administration has repeatedly employed in this attack on the independence of institutions of higher education has been the abrupt, unilateral, and unlawful termination of federal research funding on which those institutions and the public interest rely,” the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco said.


The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has launched dozens of federal investigations also targeting K-12 school districts.

University of California President James Milliken said on Monday that the federal government has also launched investigations and other actions against all of the UC’s 10 campuses, but he offered no details in a statement.

“This represents one of the gravest threats to the University of California in our 157-year history,” he said, adding that the university system receives more than $17 billion each year in federal support, including nearly $10 billion in Medicare and Medicaid funding, and funding that goes toward research and student financial aid.

The Trump administration has used its control of federal funding to push for reforms at elite colleges that the president decries as overrun by liberalism and antisemitism. The administration also has launched investigations into diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, saying they discriminate against white and Asian American students.


This summer, Columbia University agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into the government’s allegations that the school violated federal antidiscrimination laws. The agreement also restored more than $400 million in research grants.

The Trump administration is using its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation.

Olga R. Rodriguez, The Associated Press

University of California students, professors and staff sue the Trump administration

 

[mandrill]

Legal experts weighed in Monday night after a federal appeals court dealt President Donald Trump a major loss in his high-profile firing of a Federal Reserve official who was ousted over dubious mortgage fraud claims.

Lisa Cook was fired by Trump from her position as a Federal Reserve governor based on claims that she claimed two properties as primary residences on loan documents to obtain more favorable terms. The administration cited mortgage fraud claims lodged by Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as "cause" for dismissal, which is legally required for a president to remove a Fed governor.




Cook has not been charged with a crime and has denied wrongdoing. New documents show that her disclosures may not have constituted fraud.



On Monday evening, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. rejected a Justice Department request to pause a judge's order temporarily blocking Cook's firing. As such, Cook can — for now — remain at the Fed ahead of a key policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The administration is expected to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court — and legal experts warned the appeals court just set up the high court for a "huge ruling."

Lawrence Hurley‪, senior Supreme Court reporter for NBC News, wrote on Bluesky, "Needless to say, a potentially huge ruling via the Supreme Court's shadow docket now beckons."

Jill Wine-Banks, legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC,‬ wrote on Bluesky, "Good news. Appeals court won’t let Trump fire Lisa Cook ahead of Fed meeting."




Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote on Bluesky, "This may be too quick even for the shadow docket. We shall see."

Zoe Tillman, who writes about law and politics for Bloomberg, wrote on X, "Big tonight: A US appeals court rebuffed President Trump's latest push to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, with the 2-1 ruling coming hours before the Fed is set to meet tomorrow. Watching to see if DOJ makes a last-minute request for SCOTUS to step in.

Amanda Fischer, former SEC chief of staff and adviser in the U.S. House and Senate, wrote on X, "If the Katsas dissent is the playbook for SCOTUS, we’ve basically flattened any difference between for-cause & at will removal. Aka, say hello to a new Fed board with every new President. The WSJ ed board crowd maybe bit off more than they can chew with their legal project."

Politico's Kyle Cheney wrote on X that "Trump's last hope is a quick stay from SCOTUS."


Trump's loss just teed up Supreme Court for 'huge ruling': experts

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[silentkisser]

A few notes on the items posted on this page:

First, Fed Governor Cook. It is interesting that "Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" was the one who found this. Seems suspicious that the head of a HUGE organization would stumble upon mortgage documents for one person....Seems like she was targeted.

As for the Trump's DOJ going after the UC....the issue they will face is the UC is fucking HUGE. It has I five law schools filled with legal experts, plus the UC's in house counsel, to fight this. And, they've been gearing up for the fight. I have a former colleague who works at the Berkley campus's law office. He's not directly involved in any of this type of litigation (it isn't his focus), but he knows that the entire legal team is working on some aspect of a fight with Trump.

Finally, who the fuck wrote the law suit against Trump? It reads like a madlib. There is so much stupidity here that it will likely get immediately thrown out. Who the fuck has ever sued a newspaper or media organization because they made an endorsement for a particular candidate? Trump calls it an undeclared election expense or some bullshit. So, if this carries out, why doesn't Harris sue Fox News for the same reason? I mean, she theoretically has a better case, since she lost...

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[kherg007]

A few notes on the items posted on this page:

First, Fed Governor Cook. It is interesting that "Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" was the one who found this. Seems suspicious that the head of a HUGE organization would stumble upon mortgage documents for one person....Seems like she was targeted.

As for the Trump's DOJ going after the UC....the issue they will face is the UC is fucking HUGE. It has I five law schools filled with legal experts, plus the UC's in house counsel, to fight this. And, they've been gearing up for the fight. I have a former colleague who works at the Berkley campus's law office. He's not directly involved in any of this type of litigation (it isn't his focus), but he knows that the entire legal team is working on some aspect of a fight with Trump.

Finally, who the fuck wrote the law suit against Trump? It reads like a madlib. There is so much stupidity here that it will likely get immediately thrown out. Who the fuck has ever sued a newspaper or media organization because they made an endorsement for a particular candidate? Trump calls it an undeclared election expense or some bullshit. So, if this carries out, why doesn't Harris sue Fox News for the same reason? I mean, she theoretically has a better case, since she lost...

Like many things w Trump it's theatre. But give him credit - that same theatre worked with CBS and ABC Columbia and other places. They kowtowed and settled rather than going the distance.

 

[Frankfooter]

Like many things w Trump it's theatre. But give him credit - that same theatre worked with CBS and ABC Columbia and other places. They kowtowed and settled rather than going the distance.

That's just the threat of lawsuits, of a billionaire who can outlawyer them.

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s another blow to Rudy Giuliani’s withered wallet: A judge has ordered the former New York City mayor to pay $1.36 million in legal fees he racked up during investigations into his efforts to overturn President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Judge Arthur Engoron made the ruling Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by lawyer Robert Costello and the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP. In granting summary judgment for Costello and the firm, Engoron rejected Giuliani’s claim that he never received any bills for legal fees.




With interest, Giuliani owes nearly $1.6 million. He must also pay lawyer costs that Costello and the firm incurred in fighting to recoup his unpaid legal fees, the judge ruled.

Engoron, a Democrat, is the same Manhattan judge who last year ordered Trump to pay a massive civil penalty after finding that he had engaged in fraud by exaggerating his wealth for decades. The fine ballooned to more than $500 million with interest before an appeals court overturned it last month.

Giuliani’s spokesperson said the ex-mayor will appeal.

“The idea that Judge Arthur Engoron is permitted to sit on a case involving President Donald Trump’s good friend and former personal lawyer, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, flies in the face of justice and demonstrates the partisan political nature of this decision,” Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman said.

Messages seeking comment were left for Costello and Davidoff Hutcher & Citron.




The decision is the latest financial setback for Giuliani, once celebrated as “America’s mayor” for his leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In recent years, the Republican has filed for bankruptcy; been threatened with jail for failing to pay money owed to his third ex-wife, Judith; and reached an undisclosed settlement to keep his homes and belongings, including prized World Series rings, after he was ordered to pay $148 million to two former Georgia elections workers he defamed.

Last month, Giuliani, 81, sustained a fractured vertebra and other injuries in a car crash in New Hampshire. Soon after, Trump announced he was awarding Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Costello and Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP sued Giuliani in 2023, accusing him of paying only a fraction of nearly $1.6 million in legal fees for their work representing him in investigations related to his alleged election interference.




Giuliani was disbarred in New York and Washington for repeatedly making false statements about the 2020 election, and he was criminally charged in Georgia and Arizona in connection with efforts to undo Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Giuliani has denied wrongdoing.

Costello and the law firm alleged Giuliani paid them just $214,000, leaving a $1.36 million tab. Giuliani’s last payment was $10,000 on Sept. 14, 2023, about a week after Trump hosted a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser for Giuliani at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.

Costello was Giuliani’s lawyer from November 2019 to July 2023. He represented Giuliani in matters ranging from an investigation into his business dealings in Ukraine, which resulted in an FBI raid on his home and office in April 2021, to state and federal probes of his work in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss.


Costello and the firm said in their lawsuit that they also helped represent Giuliani in various civil lawsuits filed against him and in disciplinary proceedings that ultimately led to his disbarment. The lawyer and the law firm accused Giuliani of breaching a retainer agreement by failing to pay invoices in full in a timely fashion.

Costello, a former federal prosecutor, has since left Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP and was hired last in September 2024 as a lawyer for Republican-controlled Nassau County on Long Island.

Last year, Trump’s lawyers called Costello as a witness at the president’s hush money criminal trial in an effort to attack the credibility of a key prosecution witness, former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. Costello irritated the judge, Juan M. Merchan, by making comments under his breath, rolling his eyes and calling called the whole exercise “ridiculous.”

Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press

Rudy Giuliani is ordered to pay $1.36 million in legal bills

 

[mandrill]

Migrants being held at a $1.26 billion detention center at the Fort Bliss Army base in Texas were reportedly subject to numerous violations of federal standards, including medical neglect, poor access to legal counsel, and dysfunctional plumbing, according to detainees and federal inspectors.




The soft-sided, tent-like detention complex, which became operational last month, had at least 60 violations of federal detention standards, according to a non-public report from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention oversight unit, obtained by The Washington Post.

The records, as well as a former detainee at the Texas facility, described the compound as a hastily built, in-progress construction site, where medical providers failed to provide intake screenings and fill out charts, and a detainee was allegedly given psychotropic medication, despite a lack of records indicating they provided consent to the treatment, according to the outlet.

Former Arizona sheriff complains ICE treats detainees too well
The Independent has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and Loyal Source, the facility’s medical contractor, for comment.

The detention center, known as Camp East Montana, was rapidly erected in less than two months, and now often holds over 1,000 migrants at a time, with a goal of expanding capacity to 5,000 detainees by the end of the year.




Camp East Montana is one of 10 such facilities the administration reportedly plans to build to accommodate its mass deportation push.

Under the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” domestic spending legislation that passed earlier this year, ICE will receive $45 billion in additional funding over the next four years to spend on detaining undocumented immigrants.

Federal officials plan to use the ICE windfall to roughly double the nation’s immigration detention capacity, bringing the total to between 80,000 and 100,000 detention beds.

Mass immigration arrests and rapidly built facilities such as Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” have created a crisis of poor conditions inside detention centers, according to detainees and advocates.

In July, a leaked video from inside a detention facility at a federal building in New York City showed roughly two dozen people lying on a cement floor with nothing but emergency blankets, steps away from a toilet.




“Look how they have us like dogs in here,” the person filming the videos can be heard saying in Spanish.

Detainees at the Florida facility also alleged they were cut off from access to their legal counsel.

At least 12 people have died in ICE custody this calendar year, putting the administration on pace for one of the deadliest years in federal immigration detention in decades.


Migrants were locked up in temporary detention facility at Fort Bliss despite 60 violations of federal standards, inspectors find

 

[mandrill]

Over 150,000 people have now applied for jobs within the U.S. Department for Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency as the Trump administration ramps up its hardline stance on immigration.

With ICE raids on communities intensifying, it is proving to be a magnet to those supportive of the government’s divisive approach.




“ICE has received more than 150,000 applications from patriotic Americans who want to defend the homeland by removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the U.S., Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “We have already issued more than 18,000 tentative job offers.

“Americans are answering their country’s call to serve and help remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from our country.”



U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem touted the job figures (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Noem, nicknamed “ICE Barbie” due to her enthusiasm for donning ICE gear and asking her social media followers to judge their favourite image of her on horseback, has been in the state of Illinois this week, overseeing ICE raids.

On Tuesday she posted a video of a dawn raid by ICE on the outskirts of Chicago, appearing to show people being detained.





“President Trump has been clear: if politicians will not put the safety of their citizens first, this administration will. I was on the ground in Chicago today to make clear we are not backing down.”

The escalation in immigration enforcement, part of an operation targeting immigrants in the U.S. illegally with criminal records, has seen over 200,000 people arrested, and over 50,000 detained so far this year, with many being seized while going to work, outside courthouses, and at store parking lots.



LAPD officers arrest a protester wearing stilts during an anti-ICE protest in downtown Los Angeles (Middle East Images/AFP via Getty)
Major crackdowns in cities including Boston and Chicago have seen families hole up in homes – afraid to leave and risk detainment – and last week ICE agents shot a man dead in Illinois after he allegedly resisted arrest and hit officers with a car.

Noem has recently said she wants the U.S. to invest in a fleet of planes specifically for deportations following the ICE raids.




In June this year, protests against the government and ICE operations spread to at least 40 cities across the U.S. with major demonstrations and civil unrest in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and New York City.

On Tuesday ICE warned that “anyone – regardless of immigration status – who assaults an ICE officer WILL face federal felony assault charges and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.”

The agency’s post on X was accompanied by the image of a clenched fist emblazoned with the words “think before you resist”.

The Trump administration has deployed emotive language for the crackdowns, including “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, and “Patriot 2.0” in Massachusetts, and they come against a backdrop of political turmoil as the U.S. grapples with increasing polarisation worsened by the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

More than 150,000 ‘patriotic Americans’ apply for ICE jobs to help Trump’s immigration crackdown