update - Fed'l judge blocks Trump attack on Planned Parenthood

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The recent two-count indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is already doomed thanks to one key mistake by President Donald Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ), according to conservative attorney George Conway.

While speaking to MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Wednesday, Conway pointed out that when Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Lindsey Halligan to be interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in late September, she overlooked a key requirement in the federal law that governs U.S. attorney vacancies. Section B of that law reads: "The Attorney General shall not appoint as United States attorney a person to whose appointment by the President to that office the Senate refused to give advice and consent," meaning anyone an attorney general appoints to a vacant U.S. attorney's office has to have already been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

"She has no more authority than you or I — or my two corgis — to present an indictment to a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia," Conway explained.

According to Conway, Erik Siebert, who was in the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. attorney's office before Halligan, was also not Senate-confirmed. However, he noted that the vacancies law allows for any interim U.S. attorney to be allowed to keep serving on an interim basis provided that the federal judges of that respective district's court sign off on their appointment after a 120-day period.

Because the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia extended Siebert's appointment in May, he was legally able to prosecute cases on behalf of the DOJ. But Conway reminded viewers that Siebert was forced out of his role after saying there was insufficient evidence to bring cases against Trump's rivals, like Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. And he pointed out that former interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba was forced out of her role in the District of New Jersey after a judge ruled her appointment conflicted with the vacancies law. Former interim U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III was also rejected by judges in the Northern District of New York after his 120-day window expired.

"The president didn't like him because he didn't want to file this stupid and meritless indictment against Comey, so he resigned," Conway said. "If what had happened to [Halligan] that day had happened to me, I would want to crawl under a rock and never be heard from again. But, you know, good for her."

"[Halligan] has basically no authority. She's not the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia ... We saw her signature on that indictment — no one else signed that indictment — which means that it is invalid," he continued. "Because no other valid attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia's U.S. attorney's office signed the indictment, and because the statute of limitations has run, it's over."

"The statute of limitations expired at midnight last night. So Comey's home free," Conway added. "This case should be done. Sorry!"


'It's over': George Conway reveals Trump's big mistake that makes Comey charges 'invalid'

 

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and says the United States is now in an "armed conflict” with them, according to a Trump administration memo obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, following recent U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean.

The memo appears to represent an extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers, with Trump effectively declaring that trafficking of drugs into the United States amounts to armed conflict requiring the use of military force — a new rationale for past and future actions.

“The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” the memo says. Trump directed the Pentagon to “conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict.”

“The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations,” the memo says.

Besides signaling a potential new moment in Trump's stated “America First” agenda that favors non-intervention overseas, the declaration raises stark questions about how far the White House intends to use its war powers and if Congress will exert its authority to approve — or ban — such military actions.

“The United States is taking a much more dramatic step — one that I think is a very, very far stretch of international law and a dangerous one," said Matthew Waxman, who was a national security official in the George W. Bush administration. It "means the United States can target members of those cartels with lethal force. It means the United States can capture and detain them without trial.”



President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House before signing an executive order regarding childhood cancer and the use of AI, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)© The Associated Press
Declaration follows boat strikes in the Caribbean

The U.S. military last month carried out three deadly strikes against boats in the Caribbean that the administration accused of ferrying drugs. At least two of those operations were carried out on vessels that originated from Venezuela.

Those strikes followed up a buildup of U.S. maritime forces in the Caribbean unlike any seen in recent times. The Navy’s presence in the region — eight warships with over 5,000 sailors and Marines — has been pretty stable for weeks, according to two defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations.



President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)© The Associated Press
The memo did not include a timestamp, but it references a Sept. 15 U.S. strike that “resulted in the destruction of the vessel, the illicit narcotics, and the death of approximately 3 unlawful combatants.”

“As we have said many times, the President acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores, and he is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans,” the White House said.


Pentagon officials briefed senators on the strikes Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Pentagon referred questions to the White House.

What the Trump administration laid out at the classified briefing at the Capitol was perceived by several senators as pursuing a new legal framework that raised questions particularly regarding the role of Congress in authorizing any such action, that person said.

Pentagon officials also briefed House staffers last week on the strikes, according to another person who was briefed on the meeting and similarly spoke on condition of anonymity.

The memo, which was reported earlier by The New York Times, lays out a rationale seen both as the administration's justification for the military strikes it has already taken on the boats in the Caribbean — which have raised concerns from lawmakers as potentially unlawful — as well as any action to come.


A White House official who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said the memo was sent to Congress on Sept. 18 and does not convey any new information. The person familiar with the Senate briefing said it was transmitted this week.

Details weren't given on the cartels targeted

Trump has designated several Latin American drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and the administration had previously justified the military action as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.

Pentagon officials could not provide a list of the designated terrorist organizations at the center of the conflict, a matter that was a major source of frustration for some of the lawmakers who were briefed this week, according to one of the people familiar with the briefings.

While “friendly foreign nations have made significant efforts to combat these organizations,” the memo said, the groups “are now transnational and conduct ongoing attacks throughout the Western Hemisphere as organized cartels.” The memo refers to cartel members as “unlawful combatants.”


The Trump administration is trying to justify the use of military force against drug cartels in the same way the Bush administration justified the war against al-Qaida following the Sept. 11 attacks, said Waxman, who served in the State and Defense Departments and on the National Security Council under Bush.

Bush, however, had authorization from Congress, unlike Trump. The Trump administration is arguing that it no longer has to consider the individual circumstances of using force, said Waxman, who now chairs Columbia Law School’s National Security Law Program.

“It’s basically saying, ‘We don’t have to engage in that kind of case-by-case decision-making,’” Waxman said. “All of these vessels that are carrying enemy personnel can be targeted, whether they’re headed towards the United States or not.”

Waxman said he expects more strikes and “we’ll see if the United States takes the next big step and engages in lethal force or armed force on the territory of another state.”


Lawmakers of both major political parties have pressed Trump to seek war powers authority from Congress for operations against alleged drug traffickers. Several senators and human rights groups have questioned the legality of the strikes, calling them potential overreach of executive authority in part because the military was used for law enforcement purposes.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said drug cartels are “despicable” but the Trump administration has offered “no credible legal justification, evidence or intelligence for these strikes.”

Reed, a former Army officer, said “every American should be alarmed that their President has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he calls an enemy.”

Trump says US is in 'armed conflict' with drug cartels after ordering strikes in the Caribbean

 

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The Trump administration is looking to deploy federal troops to Oregon’s largest city while withholding federal funds and launching an investigation into its police department because a pro-Trump influencer was arrested after allegedly getting into a fight there late Thursday.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday said President Donald Trump was ordering Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to “to provide all necessary troops to protect war-ravaged Portland,” citing anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests at facilities which she described as being “under siege from attack by Antifa and other left-wing domestic terrorists.”

Leavitt also decried what she called a “extremely troubling incident” in which live-streamer Nick Sortor, a self-styled “independent journalist” who often travels to the sites of protests and disasters to make content attacking Democrats and promoting Trump and other GOP figures, was captured on video being placed under arrest late Thursday evening.

She claimed that the influencer had been “ambushed by Antifa thugs” and criticized the Portland Police Bureau for having “arrested a journalist who was there trying to document the chaos” there.

A review of Sortor’s X profile by The Independent shows had been in Portland filming and posting videos of the protests since earlier in the week.

According to a Portland Police Bureau press release, he allegedly began fighting with two people near the ICE building’s driveway.

All three were arrested, charged with second-degree disorderly conduct and later released.

Sortor, who did not immediately respond to a text message from The Independent requesting comment, has amassed a following of over one million followers on X, posted there after his release, claiming that the Portland police department was “going to absolutely HATE what’s coming.”

Within hours, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon took to her own official X account to say she’d spoken with both Sortor and Attorney General Pam Bondi about the case.

She also said that an investigation into the influencer’s arrest was a “high priority” for the department’s Civil Rights Division, which since Trump’s inauguration has moved away from its longstanding mission of protecting racial and ethnic minorities from discrimination in favor of investigating discrimination against Christians and white Americans.

Leavitt told reporters that the Justice Department would be “launching a full investigation” into Sortor’s arrest and said Trump has directed administration officials to review what federal funds to Portland can be cut as a result.

“We will not fund states that allow anarchy,” she said, adding later that there would be “an additional surge of federal resources to Portland immediately” including more Customs and Border Protection and ICE officers.

Trump, Leavitt said, is “genuinely serious about wanting to restore order in America's cities” and claimed it had “become apparent that the local and elected officials in Oregon do not feel the same.”

Trump threatens Portland with funding cuts and a DOJ investigation after police arrest a MAGA influencer
“That's very unfortunate for the people who live there,” she added.

 

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WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau is cutting ties with two organizations that for decades have tracked domestic extremism and racial and religious bias, a move that follows complaints about the groups from some conservatives and prominent allies of President Donald Trump.

Patel said on Friday that the FBI would sever its relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center, asserting that the organization had been turned into a “partisan smear machine” and criticizing it for its use of a “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States. A statement earlier in the week from Patel said the FBI would end ties with the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization that fights anti-Semitism.

The announcements amount to a dramatic rethinking of longstanding FBI partnerships with prominent civil rights groups at a time when Patel is moving rapidly to reshape the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency. The organizations over the years have provided research on hate crime and domestic extremism, law enforcement training and other services, but have also been criticized by some conservatives for what they say is an unfair maligning of their viewpoints.

That criticism escalated after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk amid renewed attention to the SPLC's characterization of the group, Turning Point USA, that Kirk founded. For instance, the SPLC included a section on Turning Point in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as a “case study in the hard right.” Prominent figures including Elon Musk lambasted the SPLC just this week about its descriptions of Kirk and the organization.

A spokesperson for the SPLC, a legal and advocacy group founded in 1971 as a watchdog for minorities and the underprivileged, did not directly address Patel's comments in a statement Friday but said the organization has for decades shared data with the public and remains "committed to exposing hate and extremism as we work to equip communities with knowledge and defend the rights and safety of marginalized people.”

The Anti-Defamation League has also faced criticism on the right for maintaining a “Glossary of Extremism.” The organization announced this week that it was discontinuing that glossary because a number of entries were outdated and some were being “intentionally misrepresented and misused.”

Founded in 1913 to confront anti-Semitism, the ADL has long worked closely with the FBI, not only through research and training but also through awards ceremonies that recognize law enforcement officials involved in investigations into racially or religiously motivated extremism.

Former FBI Director James Comey paid tribute to that relationship in May 2017 when he said at an ADL event: “For more than 100 years, you have advocated and fought for fairness and equality, for inclusion and acceptance. You never were indifferent or complacent."

A Patel antagonist, Comey was indicted last week on false statement and obstruction charges and has said he is innocent. Patel appeared to mock Comey's comments in a post Wednesday on X in which he shared a Fox News story that quoted him as having cut ties with the ADL.


“James Comey wrote ‘love letters’ to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them - a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans,” he said in a post made as Jews were preparing to begin observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. "That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.

An ADL spokesman did not immediately comment Friday on Patel's announcement, but CEO and executive director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement Friday that the ADL “has deep respect” for the FBI.

“In light of an unprecedented surge of antisemitism, we remain more committed than ever to our core purpose to protect the Jewish people,” Greenblatt said.

Eric Tucker, The Associated Press

FBI cuts ties with Southern Poverty Law Center, Anti-Defamation League after conservative complaints

 

[mandrill]

ATLANTA (AP) — The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others says he will dismiss the case in 14 days if a new prosecutor hasn't been appointed to take it over.

Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee set the deadline in a one-paragraph order Friday afternoon. It is up to the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia to name a prosecutor for the case after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from continuing the prosecution.

“Should an appointed prosecuting attorney or representative of PAC fail to file an entry of appearance or request a particularized extension within 14 days from the entry of this Notice, the Court will issue a dismissal without prejudice for want of prosecution,” the judge wrote.

Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the nonpartisan organization that supports prosecutors around the state, did not immediately respond to voice, text and email messages seeking comment Friday about the tight deadline.

When Willis announced the indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023, the nearly 100-page indictment was the most sweeping of four criminal cases brought against the then-former president in a span of five months. She used the state’s anti-racketeering law to allege a wide-ranging conspiracy to try to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Even if a new prosecutor is named within the two-week deadline it is unlikely that any prosecution against Trump could move forward while he is the sitting president. But there are 14 other people still facing charges in the case, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

If a new prosecutor is named, that person could continue on the track that Willis had charted, decide to pursue only some charges or dismiss the case altogether.

Defense attorneys sought Willis' removal after one of them revealed in January 2024 that Willis had engaged in a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she had hired to lead the case. The defense attorneys said the relationship created a conflict of interest, alleging that Willis personally profited from the case when Wade used his earnings to pay for vacations the pair took.

During an extraordinary hearing the following month, Willis and Wade both testified about the intimate details of their personal relationship. They maintained that their romance didn't begin until after Wade was hired and said that they split the costs for vacations and other outings.

McAfee rebuked Willis, saying in an order in March 2024 that her actions showed a “tremendous lapse in judgment.” But he said he did not find a conflict of interest that would disqualify Willis. He ultimately ruled that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which the special prosecutor did hours later.

Defense attorneys appealed that ruling, and the Georgia Court of Appeals removed Willis from the case in December, citing an “appearance of impropriety.” The high court last month declined to hear Willis' appeal, putting the case in the lap of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council.

Kate Brumback, The Associated Press

Judge sets 14-day deadline for appointment of new prosecutor in Georgia election case against Trump

 

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The Trump administration is offering migrant children $2,500 to voluntarily return to their home countries, dangling a new incentive in efforts to persuade people to self-deport.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t say how much migrants would get or when the offer would take effect, but the Associated Press obtained an email to migrant shelters saying children 14 years of age and older would get $2,500 each. Children were given 24 hours to respond.

The notice to shelters from Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Families and Children did not indicate any consequences for children who decline the offer. It asked shelter directors to acknowledge the offer within four hours.

ICE said in a statement that the offer would initially be for 17-year-olds.

“Any payment to support a return home would be provided after an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin,” ICE said. “Access to financial support when returning home would assist should they choose that option.”

Advocates said the sizable sum may prevent children from making informed decisions and have urged Homeland Security to abandon the plans.

“For a child, $2,500 might be the most money they’ve ever seen in their life, and that may make it very, very difficult for them to accurately weigh the long-term risks of taking voluntary departure versus trying to stay in the United States and going through the immigration court process to get relief that they may be legally entitled to,” Melissa Adamson, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, said in response to the plans Friday.

dismissed widespread reports among immigration lawyers and advocates that it was launching a much broader crackdown Friday to deport migrant children who entered the country without their parents, called “Freaky Friday.”

But the offer follows legal battles over aborted efforts to remove dozens of Honduran and Guatemalan children from the United States, as lawyers and shelter workers across the country scramble to prevent what they have feared are imminent attempts to deport them.

Legal aid groups believe federal immigration authorities, with the Honduran government’s support, are preparing to remove children from Honduras who arrived in the United States without a parent or guardian and are now in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Homeland Security investigators and representatives from the Honduran consulate met with several Honduran children at an Arizona shelter in recent weeks, and immigration court cases for Honduran children suddenly disappeared, according to aid groups.

The moves follow a “similar pattern” involving cases of Guatemalan children in August before the government tried to abruptly remove them without a court hearing — sparking a dramatic, fast-paced legal battle detailed in dozens of harrowing court statements from the children themselves.



The Trump administration was preparing to swiftly deport Guatemalan children in August when a federal court intervened (AP)
Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, which represents children who arrived in the United States without a parent or guardian, called the Trump administration’s latest maneuver an “egregious abuse of power and a cruel tactic that uses children as pawns.”

“Unaccompanied children seeking safety in the United States deserve our protection rather than being coerced into agreeing to return back to the very conditions that placed their lives and safety at risk,” she said.


“This operation undermines laws that guarantee that process for unaccompanied children, and it runs counter to our nation’s longstanding commitment to protect the most vulnerable among us — children — from violence, trafficking, abuse, persecution, and other grave dangers,” Young added.

New York Immigration Coalition has advised any child or person who receives an offer notice from ICE to immediately contact an immigration attorney.

“Children fleeing violence and seeking safety deserve compassion, stability, and fairness — not cruelty,” coalition president Murad Awawdeh said Friday.

“This policy pressures children to abandon their legal claims and return to a life of fear and danger without ever receiving a fair hearing,” Awawdeh said. “The chaos built into this policy will devastate families and communities — and it is targeted to hurt children.”


Trump administration offers migrant children $2,500 to self-deport

 

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[Frankfooter]

Go Shaman Go!

QAnon Shaman says he's rightful president, sues Trump for $40 trillion

In a rambling complaint, Jacob Chansley claims DJs are spies, that the NSA stole his work for a Batman movie and more.

www.phoenixnewtimes.com

 

[mandrill]

BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court in Boston ruled on Friday that the Trump administration cannot withhold citizenship from children born to people in the country illegally or temporarily, adding to the mounting legal setbacks for the president’s birthright order.

A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the fifth federal court since June to either issue or uphold orders blocking the president’s birthright order. The court concluded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claims that the children described in the order are entitled to birthright citizenship under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The panel upheld lower courts' preliminary injunctions, which blocked the birthright order while lawsuits challenging it moved ahead. The order, signed the day the president took office in January, would halt automatic citizenship for babies born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.

“The ‘lessons of history’ thus give us every reason to be wary of now blessing this most recent effort to break with our established tradition of recognizing birthright citizenship and to make citizenship depend on the actions of one’s parents rather than — in all but the rarest of circumstances — the simple fact of being born in the United States,” the court wrote.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose state was one of nearly 20 that were part of the lawsuit challenging the order, welcomed the ruling.

“The First Circuit reaffirmed what we already knew to be true: The President’s attack on birthright citizenship flagrantly defies the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and a nationwide injunction is the only reasonable way to protect against its catastrophic implications,” Bonta said in a statement. “We are glad that the courts have continued to protect Americans’ fundamental rights.”



Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Joseph Edlow speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the agency's headquarters Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, in Camp Springs, Md. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)© The Associated Press
In July, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the third court ruling blocking the birthright order nationwide after a key Supreme Court decision in June. Less than two weeks later, a federal judge in Maryland also issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the order. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court.

The justices ruled in June that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but they didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states.

A federal judge in New Hampshire later issued a ruling prohibiting Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action suit, and a San Francisco-based appeals court affirmed a different lower court’s nationwide injunction in a lawsuit that included state plaintiffs.

In September, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to uphold its birthright citizenship order. The appeal sets in motion a process at the high court that could lead to a definitive ruling from the justices by early summer on whether the citizenship restrictions are constitutional.

“The court is misinterpreting the 14th Amendment. We look forward to being vindicated by the Supreme Court,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

At the heart of the lawsuits challenging the birthright order is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which includes a citizenship clause that says all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to U.S. jurisdiction, are citizens.

Plaintiffs in the Boston case — one of the cases the 1st Circuit considered — told Sorokin that the principle of birthright citizenship is “enshrined in the Constitution,” and that Trump does not have the authority to issue the order, which they called a “flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands of American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”

Justice Department attorneys argued the phrase “subject to United States jurisdiction” in the amendment means that citizenship isn’t automatically conferred to children based on their birth location alone.

In a landmark birthright citizenship case, the Supreme Court in 1898 found a child born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was a citizen by virtue of his birth on American soil.

___

Michael Casey, The Associated Press

Federal appeals court rules Trump administration can't end birthright citizenship

 

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The Trump administration endured two significant courtroom defeats, as federal judges in Rhode Island and California struck down or restricted key policy actions.

Gender ideology


By: MEGA© Knewz (CA)
In Rhode Island, Senior District Judge William Smith ruled that President Donald Trump’s executive order on “gender ideology” cannot be applied to recipients of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants. The executive order, signed on January 20 and titled “Defending woman from gender ideology extremism,” declared that the federal government recognizes only two genders and prohibited the use of federal funds to “promote gender ideology.”

First Amendment protections


By: MEGA© Knewz (CA)
Judge Smith determined the measure violated First Amendment protections. “Defendants are therefore enjoined from applying a viewpoint-based standard of review to Plaintiffs that disfavor applications deemed ‘to promote gender ideology,’ and the Court vacates and sets aside Defendants’ current plans to implement the Executive Order,” Smith wrote. The ruling prevents the NEA from using the order as a basis to disqualify or penalize applicants for their artistic programming. In his conclusion, Smith emphasized that disfavoring applicants based on perceived “promotion” of gender ideology would constitute unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.

Second Trump legal blow


By: MEGA© Knewz (CA)
On the West Coast, a panel of Ninth Circuit judges in California delivered a second blow to the administration. In a 2-1 decision, the panel upheld a lower court ruling that required the government to hand over documents related to the firing of thousands of federal workers. The lawsuit — filed in April by labor groups, nonprofits, several cities and a Texas county — argued that sweeping job cuts imposed after Trump’s second inauguration exceeded executive authority and required Congressional approval. The layoffs were carried out under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk.

Trump challenges


By: MEGA© Knewz (CA)
Writing for the majority, Judge William Fletcher, a Clinton appointee, sided with the lower court’s approach. “We nowhere find clear error by the district court nor a clear entitlement to relief on the part of the government,” Fletcher wrote. “Our denial of mandamus accords with the longstanding presumption that district courts have broad latitude to control discovery matters. Far from abusing its discretion, the district court has exercised care and restraint in managing discovery, affording ‘careful consideration’ to the government’s assertion of privilege.” The decisions add to a growing list of legal challenges confronting the Trump administration, which has also faced setbacks on measures targeting Haitian migrants, sanctions on International Criminal Court employees and attempts to penalize law firms engaged in litigation against the president.

Trump suffers back-to-back legal blows within hours

 

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he reversed his administration's plan to cut $187 million from New York's security funding, which the state's governor described would have been "devastating."

"I am pleased to advise that I reversed the cuts made to Homeland Security and Counterterrorism for New York City and State," Trump said in a social media post.

Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, who had criticised the initial move, welcomed the reversal and said the cuts would have affected the state's law enforcement and counterterrorism operations.

"I’m glad President Trump heard our call and reversed course... Because of our efforts, $187 million in critical funding will be restored," Hochul said in a statement.

The grants were part of the Homeland Security Grant Program, which is overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and pay for states' counterterrorism and emergency preparedness projects.

FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

A federal judge in Rhode Island earlier this week temporarily blocked the Trump administration from cutting $233 million in counterterrorism grant funds for Democratic-led states, after eleven states sued over last-minute changes to such grants.

As of Friday, the administration has frozen at least $28 billion in funding for Democratic cities and states, escalating the president's campaign to use the extraordinary power of the U.S. government to punish political rivals.

(Reporting by Courtney Rozen and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

Trump says he reversed $187 million cut to New York's security funds

 

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Trump administration offers migrant children $2,500 to self-deport

Trump will pay; he always pays what he owes.