Monday, February 02, 2026

The Crooked Court gets even more secretive


The Crooked Court is working overtime on burying what's taking place.  Jodi Kantor (NYT) reports that Crooked Chief Justice John Roberts implemented NDAs:

In November of 2024, two weeks after voters returned President Donald Trump to office, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. summoned employees of the U.S. Supreme Court for an unusual announcement. Facing them in a grand conference room beneath ornate chandeliers, he requested they each sign a nondisclosure agreement promising to keep the court’s inner workings secret.

The chief justice acted after a series of unusual leaks of internal court documents, most notably of the decision overturning the right to abortion, and news reports about ethical lapses by the justices. Trust in the institution was languishing at a historic low. Debate was intensifying over whether the black box institution should be more transparent.

Instead, the chief justice tightened the court’s hold on information. Its employees have long been expected to stay silent about what they witness behind the scenes. But starting that autumn, in a move that has not been previously reported, the chief justice converted what was once a norm into a formal contract, according to five people familiar with the shift.

Over the years, journalists and authors have sought to penetrate the court, and the justices have tried varying methods to guard its secrets. Some generations of clerks, but not others, said they were asked to sign a different kind of confidentiality pledge.


THE TIMES offers a video report as well.  In addition, Patrick Healy (NEW YORK TIMES) notes the paper is expanding their Supreme Court coverage:


For decades The New York Times assigned one reporter to cover the Supreme Court, focusing chiefly on legal arguments and decisions. Now The Times has expanded that aperture to look further at the incredible power of the nine justices and how the least transparent branch of government operates.

Think about the reporting on the closed-door discussions on Trump presidential immunity or the Dobbs abortion case or on the private splits among the liberal justices. Or the reporting on Justice Clarence Thomas’s ties to wealthy conservatives, the questions surrounding the justices’ lucrative book deals or the controversial flags outside Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s homes. Tracking the cases before the court remains a major part of our coverage, but we are going more deeply behind the scenes, into the heart of how the justices use their influence and shape the law.

To do this work, The Times has built out its Supreme Court reporting team.

Adam​ Liptak, who practiced law for 14 years, has been the dominant and authoritative voice on the beat since he began covering the court in 2008. He has just taken on a new role, chief legal affairs correspondent, and will soon start writing a weekly newsletter, The Docket, about the most pressing legal questions of the day.

Nearly four years ago, Jodi Kantor, an investigative reporter with a track record of telling difficult stories, began taking readers inside the institution and delivering telling portraits of how the justices exercise their power, often working with Adam. In 2023, The Times added an investigative reporter and lawyer, Abbie VanSickle, to the team. Last summer Ann E. Marimow, who previously covered the court at The Washington Post, took over Adam’s role writing about major cases.


He speaks with the four reporters now covering the Supreme Court.

In the meantime, Chump continues his war on history.  Kathryn Rubino (ABOVE THE LAW) reports:


At a hearing last week over the Trump administration’s decision to rip out materials discussing slavery at George Washington’s former Philadelphia residence Senior U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe — a George W. Bush appointee! — delivered a sharp rebuke to the DOJ lawyers defending the government’s actions. The exhibit in question, located on Independence Mall, was created by the City of Philadelphia in partnership with the National Park Service and tells the story of the nine enslaved people who lived and labored in Washington’s home. Earlier this year, federal workers reportedly took a crowbar to the plaques, citing President Donald Trump’s executive order purporting to “restore truth and sanity to American history.” But let’s be so fucking for real right now, it’s a literal whitewashing of it.

Judge Rufe was not impressed. “You can’t erase history once you’ve learned it,” she said. “It doesn’t work that way.” That theme only sharpened as the hearing went on. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory in den Berken attempted to defend the removals by gesturing vaguely at disagreement and discretion. “Although many people feel strongly about this one way, other people may disagree or feel strongly another way,” he said, adding, “Ultimately, the government gets to choose the message it wants to convey.”
Danger, Will Robinson. Though appearing before a Republican-appointed judge, it does NOT mean they’re cool with the current administration’s we-get-to-rewrite-history plan. Judge Rufe cut off the AUSA, according to reports, saying, “That is a dangerous statement you are making. It is horrifying to listen to,” she said. “It changes on the whims of someone in charge? I’m sorry, that is not what we elected anybody for.”

“Dangerous.” “Horrifying.” A federal judge is characterizing statements made by the DOJ with this language. That’s what it is like to be an AUSA in the year of our lord 2026. No wonder they’re taking to social media to recruit saps like fraudulent telemarketers.

At present, the government has stripped the site of all substantive discussion of the enslaved people who lived there, leaving only their names — Austin, Paris, Hercules, Christopher Sheels, Richmond, Giles, Oney Judge, Moll, and Joe — engraved into a cement wall. Plaintiffs are asking the court to order the exhibit restored, and Judge Rufe instructed DOJ to ensure that the remaining materials are not damaged any further, and she intends to personally inspect the removed materials. She also indicated she intends to rule swiftly, particularly with the nation’s 250th birthday celebration looming and a surge of visitors expected at Independence Mall.


"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, February 2, 2026.  MORNING JOE calls out the continued thuggery of ICE, Chump is exposed in the latest release of Epstein documents but THE NEW YORK TIMES announced they will not cover it without ever noting what "it" is (complaints of rape), and much more.



"Get trained before you draw your gun, idiot!"  Joe Scarborough notes today on MS NOW's MORNING JOE.


As he observes, "This is an undisciplined paramilitary force that does not answer to anyone -- obviously -- because they're still doing this."

We should all share Joe's outrage.   This is how ICE is still behaving.  After murdering Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, this is how they're still behaving.


The key to holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accountable for constitutional violations may lie in a 1987 law review article by a young law professor named Akhil Reed Amar.

“I think it was a good idea then,” he said last week, “and it’s only taken more than half a lifetime for people to actually read the thing.”

The article has, in truth, been quite influential. It has been cited, for instance, in seven Supreme Court opinions. But it was also 96 pages long and touched on many issues.

“I was actually trying to do a bunch of different things — and get tenure,” Professor Amar, now a leading constitutional scholar at Yale Law School, said of the article, “Of Sovereignty and Federalism.”

His central point for present purposes was that state legislatures can authorize lawsuits against federal officials for violating the Constitution. If that is right, such state laws would close an odd gap in federal law that — broadly speaking — allows such suits against state and local officials, like police officers, but not against federal ones, like ICE agents.

Congress authorized the first kind of lawsuit in an 1871 law that most people call Section 1983. But Congress has not enacted legislation allowing suits against federal officials for violating the Constitution.

“It’s an enormous problem that federal officials are in some ways the hardest people to hold accountable for violating people’s constitutional rights, even harder than state and local officials,” said Carolyn Shapiro, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and a former solicitor general of Illinois.

The Supreme Court tried to address the gap in 1971 in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, allowing the victim of an unconstitutional search by federal agents to sue them. But the court has essentially abandoned that approach, saying instead that Congress must act if suits against federal officials are to be allowed.

That is where state lawmakers come in, Professor Amar said.


Somebody better come in real quick because this is a disaster and it's only getting worse.  They can see it in Canada.  GRAND PINNACLE TRIBUNE reports:

Michael Lipset, a Montreal resident originally from Minneapolis and one of the protest organizers, didn’t mince words when addressing the crowd. “The violence ICE is bringing upon people within the United States will not be tolerated anywhere,” he declared, as reported by CBC. Lipset and others also called out Canadian businesses—such as Vancouver-based Hootsuite, Ontario’s Roshel, and Montreal’s GardaWorld—for maintaining commercial ties with ICE. “We will not tolerate Quebec’s complicity and Canada’s complicity in that violence by way of corporate contracts with ICE,” Lipset added, urging an end to what he described as indirect support for U.S. immigration enforcement.

The anger on display in Montreal mirrors the frustration simmering inside the United States, particularly in places like the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas—the largest ICE family detention facility in the country. According to the Associated Press, attorney Eric Lee witnessed a protest inside the Dilley center on February 1, 2026. Detainees, including families and children, erupted in chants of “let us out, let us out,” as guards ordered visitors to leave and locked down the facility. The 2,400-bed center, which detains thousands of immigrants swept up in ICE raids, has become a flashpoint for criticism over deteriorating conditions and indefinite detention.

Lee, who represents several detained families, described what his clients have called “a deliberate policy of cruelty.” He detailed reports of contaminated water—used by mothers to mix baby formula—food infested with bugs and debris, and regular verbal abuse by guards. “The water is putrid yet mothers have to mix baby formula with it,” Lee told AP. “Food has bugs and debris in it. Guards are regularly engaging in verbal abuse.”

Conditions at other ICE centers have drawn similar scrutiny. At a Texas facility near El Paso, detainees allege routine beatings by guards and being forced to use clothing to mop up sewage water in areas where meals are served. In Baltimore, a viral video showing dozens of people crammed into a holding cell sparked a lawsuit by immigration advocates, who described “inhumane conditions.”

Despite these reports, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin categorically denied any wrongdoing.


And we stop there because we don't quote known liars. 

Last week, US House Rep Jasmine Crockett visited a Texas 'facility' (gulag) holding Liam, the five-year-old kidnapped from Minnesota.  Because of her work and the work of others in Congress in focusing on Liam, he has been released from the gulag.  

Desiree Anello (PEOPLE) reports:

 Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and went viral, has returned to Minneapolis with his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, after they were released from a detention center in Texas.

On Sunday, Feb. 1, the father-son duo boarded a plane to Minnesota, as seen in footage obtained by ABC News. The pair went viral back in January, when ICE agents detained them in their driveway following their return home from Conejo Ramos' preschool.

 "I'm happy to finally be going home," Adrian told ABC News as he carried his sleeping son onto the aircraft.

Their trip home comes a day after a Minnesota judge ordered that Adrian and Liam be released from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.

  Judge Fred Biery of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas pointed out an “ill-conceived and incompetently government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children," according to the order obtained by The New York Times. 

He also called out the “government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence.” 


CNN adds:

 Liam’s case, Biery wrote, originated in “the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”

“Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency,” wrote the judge. “And the rule of law be damned.”     

Biery also took aim at administrative warrants, which federal immigration agents often use to make arrests and which do not require a judge’s signature. “Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster,” he wrote. “That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.”

             Biery noted Liam and his father may well end up facing deportation anyway due to what he called the “arcane” US immigration system – but “that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.”

The judge finished his colorful opinion by quoting Benjamin Franklin’s description of the nascent nation at the 1787 Constitutional Convention: “Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?” “A republic, if you can keep it.”     



Adeola Adeosun (NEWSWEEK) notes, "Two federal immigration agents who fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month have been identified as 43-year-old Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and 35-year-old Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer Raymundo Gutierrez, according to government records viewed by ProPublica."

Andrew Stanton (NEWSWEEK) reports on his conversation with Dr. Aasma Shaukat who had been Alex's boss:

Shaukat told Newsweek that she hired Pretti as a research assistant at the Minneapolis VA in 2014, when he was looking to gain some experience in health care.

“He was very earnest and just very enthusiastic about contributing to patient care,” she said. “So we gave him a chance, we took him on. We trained him. He learned really well, he was a really valued team member.”

In 2019, Pretti became interested in going into nursing school while still working with Dr. Shaukat, who wrote a recommendation letter for him. During this time, she said he would bring “funny stories” to work from his side gig as a pizza delivery driver. He never expressed any “radical or crazy thoughts” and was “very honest and hard-working,” she added.

He returned to the same hospital, where he “rose the ranks in nursing all the way to his ICU position,” she said.

“That was really good for him and he literally just had his whole life ahead of him when this tragic event happened,” she said, describing him as a “good kid.”

Pretti found “deeper meaning” working in health care, particularly when it came to working with veterans, who are a more vulnerable population because of social and mental health challenges, she said.

He was always open about things he cared about, including the environment and helping his community, she said. Attending a peaceful protest was “very much like” him, as his community in south Minneapolis would have been the “epicenter” of what was happening, she added.


Friday, the Justice Dept released more from the Epstein files.  Adam Downer (DAILY BEAST) reports:

Elon Musk is now claiming the Epstein files are a “distraction” that “doesn’t matter” after he was busted begging to come to one of Jeffrey Epstein’s parties.

The 54-year-old billionaire had long been a vocal advocate for releasing the Epstein files and arresting the late sexual predator’s clients.

But after emails in which Musk planned to visit Epstein’s Island for the “wildest party” were exposed in Friday’s Epstein files release, Musk has changed his tune.

“What matters is not release of some subset of the Epstein files, but rather the prosecution of those who committed heinous crimes with Epstein,“ he wrote in an X post Saturday morning.

“When there is at least one arrest, some justice will have been done. If not, this is all performative. Nothing but a distraction,” he added.


Musk knows that corporate America has expanded as far as it's ever going to for him.  They've looked away at the drug use, they've taken him at his word that he learned the lesson about politics (something he is already demonstrating that he didn't learn) and now he's a part of the Epstein ring.  So he tries to down peddle it.   




Gabe Whisnant (NEWSWEEK) explains:

Billionaire Elon Musk exchanged emails with Jeffrey Epstein about visiting the financier’s private Caribbean island, according to newly released documents that include correspondence from 2012 and 2013.

The emails show Epstein discussing potential travel arrangements to Little Saint James, an island he owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands that later became the focus of numerous allegations of sexual abuse.


Musk is insisting that his e-mails are being misinterpreted.  At GIZMODO,  Mike Pearl writes:


Sorry but “misinterpreted”? Even if you do your absolute damndest to read this guy’s freshly released Epstein emails in a positive light, what you get is the story of a tech tycoon stating unambiguously that he wanted to attend an absolute rager on a sex criminal’s private island.

“What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Elon Musk asked Jeffrey Epstein on on Nov. 25, 2012. 

In 2019, Musk told Vanity Fair that in their past interactions, he had detected that Epstein was “obviously a creep.” Indeed, it wouldn’t have taken much sleuthing to pick up on this attribute of Epstein’s back in 2012. He already had a conviction on his record at the time for soliciting prostitution, and it was also widely reported in the media that the prostitution conviction stemmed from a generous plea bargain, and that the charges Epstein had been facing included sexual relations with minors.

So with that in mind, here’s what Musk and Epstein wrote as they attempted to make plans in 2012 for Musk to visit Epstein’s island with British actress Talulah Riley, Musk’s wife at the time (typos and other text issues are left in tact. I don’t want to be accused of misinterpreting):

Epstein: you are welcome to stay or just come for the day, plenty of rroom i will=send heli to get you

Musk: Do you have any parties planned? I’ve been working to the edge of sanity th=s year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hi= the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose. The invitation is=much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what=l’m looking for.

Epstein: Understood, , I will see you on st Barth, the ratio on my island might m=ke Talilah uncomfortable

Musk: Ratio is not a problem for Talulah

It may be true that Musk declined one or more invitations to visit, but he also tried to make plans to visit multiple times. In addition to the aforementioned change, he emailed Epstein on December 14, 2013 saying he was going to be in the Virgin Islands “over the holidays,” and asked “Is there a good time to visit?” In my opinion it sort of undermines the inherent morality of rejecting offers to be taken to Epstein’s island if you also repeatedly attempt to visit Epstein’s island.


While Musk continues his efforts to lie and spin, Mike Stunson (FORBES) notes one person is already backing up the assertion Musk visited Epstein Island:


Musk’s estranged daughter, 21-year-old Vivian Wilson, wrote in a post on Threads her memory of visiting the region where Epstein’s island was located when she was younger: “There was this boat ride from St Vincent to St Barth’s I remember from when I was little. We used to visit around the holidays. I remember the sea being so dark at night.” She would have been around 9 at the time. 


Friday's release was over three million pages, however, everything has not been released yet Deputy AG Todd Blanche has announced this will be all that the government releases. Per The Epstein Files Transparency Act,  everything was supposed to have been released by December 19th.  This is the law passed by Congress and signed, November 19th, by Donald Chump.  


CNN notes at the top of their coverage:


The Justice Department released more than 3 million pages of files related to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein today. The documents contain references to President Donald Trump and other powerful figures, including Elon Musk, Bill Clinton and a former Obama White House counsel.

• An FBI list of allegations related to Trump — many of which appear to have come from unverified tips — is among the new documents. The White House referred CNN to a Justice Department statement that called the claims “unfounded and false.” Trump has long denied wrongdoing in connection to Epstein.

• Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department has now completed its review of the Epstein files and that the White House had “no oversight” of the process.     


Despite the new disclosures, a group of survivors of Epstein’s alleged abuses said some of their alleged abusers “remain hidden and protected”.

A statement from 19 of the survivors, some using aliases or initials, said information about them still remained in the files, “while the men who abused us remain hidden and protected.” The letter demanded “the full release of the Epstein files” and that Attorney General Pam Bondi directly address the matter when she testifies before Congress next month.

 



Musk isn't the only one whose lies have been exposed by the latest release.  Nicholas Confessore (NEW YORK TIMES) notes:


On a podcast last year, Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, described being so revolted by a mid-2000s visit to Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan mansion that he decided to “never be in a room with that disgusting person ever again.”

Mr. Lutnick’s disgust appeared to prove temporary. In 2012, he emailed with Mr. Epstein to arrange a visit with his wife and children to Mr. Epstein’s private island just before Christmas. An assistant to Mr. Epstein later forwarded Mr. Lutnick a message from Mr. Epstein: “Nice seeing you,” it said. (On Friday, Mr. Lutnick said that “I spent zero time with him.”)


Also exposed is Melania Chump.  Sarah Ewall-Wice (DAILY BEAST) notes:


A gushing email exchange between First Lady Melania Trump and Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell was included in the latest dump of Epstein files.

In the first message from 2002, Mrs. Trump praised a New York magazine article about Epstein and complemented the socialite now serving 20 years in prison for sex-trafficking.

“Dear G! Howe are you?” it starts. “Nice story about JE in NY mag. You look great in the picture.”

At the time, the first lady was still Melania Knauss and was just dating Trump.

The pair were captured in multiple pictures with Epstein and Maxwell around that time, but the email appears to be the first written communication between Mrs. Trump and Maxwell from the files.

 




In other Epstein news, Carl Gibson reports on questions regarding the convict's death:


Before he died in prison, convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein was reportedly attacked in his cell, extorted by his cellmate and slipped a handwritten note into a book.

That's according to Miami Herald investigative journalist Julie K. Brown, who initially broke the story that led to the first arrests of Epstein and his chief accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. In a Thursday post to her Substack entitled "Why I don't believe Jeffrey Epstein Killed Himself (Part 2)," Brown delved into Bureau of Prisons records about an apparent suicide attempt that took place not long after he arrived at New York City's Metropolitan Corrections Center in the summer of 2019.

Brown alleged the Bureau of Prisons never fully investigated the suicide attempt, and asserted from available evidence that the convicted sex trafficker had instead been attacked by an inmate. She noted that child predators are at the bottom rung of the prison hierarchy, and that Epstein had a target on his back due to the volume of reporting on his crimes. Epstein's cellmate ["bunkie" in prison parlance], Nicholas Tartaglione — who Brown described as a "violent ex-cop-turned-drug-dealer — denied playing a role in the assault.

"Just 13 days after he arrived at MCC, he was found laying on the floor of his cell, with a piece of fabric around his neck," Brown wrote. "The very first story he told prison officials was that his cellmate tried to kill him."

However, Epstein later changed his story to say that he didn't remember the details of the attack. Eventually, an incident report attributed his injuries to "self-mutilation." Tartaglione was also accused of threatening to harm Epstein unless he paid him. Eventually, some details of the attack were apparently "expunged," according to Brown.


 Meanwhile Chump is mentioned throughout.  Many of the pages contain allegations of Chump with young women and girls.  Some of those pages were removed after being released yesterday.  Zachary Leeman (MEDIAITE) explains:

In a complaint made by a friend, the president was accused of forcing a 13-14-year-old to perform oral sex on him.

“[Redacted] reported an unidentified female friend who was forced to perform oral sex on President Trump approximately 35 years ago in NJ. The friend told Alexis that she was approximately 13-14 years old when this occurred, and the friend allegedly bit President Trump while performing oral sex. The friend was allegedly hit in the face after she laughed about biting President Trump. The friend said she was also abused by Epstein,” the complaint reads.

[. . .]

Another in Epstein’s orbit also made allegations of “sex trafficking” and murder. The unidentified person was following up on a tip given to the NYPD in which the person alleged they were raped at 13. The person also alleged Trump regularly paid them to perform sexual acts and claimed he was present when her newborn child was murdered.

“Complainant reported Donald Trump participated regularly in paying money to force her to perform sex acts with him and alleged Trump was present when her uncle murdered her newborn child,” notes on the complaint read.

According to the paperwork, there was “no contact made.”


By the way, THE NEW YORK TIMES will not be reporting on the 4,000+ pages about Donald Chump.  They say so in an article credited to "THE NEW YORK TIMES," "The New York Times is not describing the details of the unverified claims."  What is the paper of record ignoring?  


Donald Trump and his allies stayed connected to Jeffrey Epstein well after they claimed they had stopped communicating.

The president has long asserted that his close friendship with the child sex trafficker ended after the duo had a falling out over real estate in Palm Beach, ultimately nixing contact altogether after 2006, when a grand jury indicted Epstein on state charges related to prostitution. That same year, Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago (though Epstein publicly denied the finale of his membership at the time).

But documents published Friday amid the Justice Department’s larger rollout of another tranche of the Epstein files indicate that Trump’s narrative is far from the entire story.

An email out of the trove, issued by Epstein to an individual named William Riley, revealed that the sex trafficker was planning to call Trump as late as 2011.

“Before I call Trump, with regard vrginina ,, are there any other alternatives,” Epstein wrote on April 18, 2011.

It is not clear who Riley is, though a decorated Iraq War veteran known as William Sascha Riley was identified in November as another one of Epstein’s victims by Substack writer Lisa Noelle Voldeng. Riley claimed his adoptive father, William “Bill” Kyle Riley, worked as a pilot for Epstein and trafficked him to the global predator.

As it turns out, Trump’s friends had similarly malleable principles. In an interview with the New York Post podcast in October, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick recalled an instance in 2005 when Epstein—who was at the time his Upper East Side neighbor—invited him to tour his infamous East 71st Street townhouse.


And what else is being ignored?  Farrah Tomazin  (THE DAILY BEAST) notes:
 


 

 

The following sites updated:


Posted by at

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Trashy Garbage, what are you doing?

Trashy Garbage, what are you doing?  

Trashy Garbage is the nickname that Trina's given Tulsi Gabbard?  In fact, Trina noted early Wednesday morning:

News?  The administration does not trust our Director of National Intelligence.  Kareem Rifai (The Hill) explains:

In the final hours before the U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, President Trump was surrounded by a cadre of trusted advisers — with one noteworthy absence.

Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, was doing sun salutations on a beach in Hawaii. She had been routinely excluded from Venezuela operational planning for so long, in fact, that White House aides reportedly joked that “DNI” really stands for “Do Not Invite.” 
Gabbard’s exclusion may stem from her extensive history of opposing a hardline policy against the Maduro dictatorship, once writing that intervention would “wreak death and destruction on the Venezuelan people.” While the final death toll of the operation is still uncertain, assessments have found that fewer than 100 people died, of which a plurality were Cuban security personnel.

This raises a fundamental question: If the Trump administration does not trust its own Director of National Intelligence with a highly sensitive and crucial operation, how can the American people — or, for that matter, America’s intelligence-sharing partners? 

Although administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have formally denied Gabbard’s absence, it was far from inconspicuous. Dramatic photos from the Situation Room published by the White House prominently feature Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller and CIA Director John Ratcliffe flanking the president. Gabbard broke her silence on the operation over 48 hours later, praising the operation while noticeably omitting the words “Maduro” or “Venezuela.”

Although a State Department spokesman has denied that it was Rubio who was responsible for sidelining Gabbard, the two have a history of sparring on foreign policy during their time in Congress. In a pointed X post from 2015, for example, Gabbard criticized Rubio and the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for opposing Russian strikes in Syria, an operation that quickly devolved into a years-long campaign of Russian planes bombing Syrian hospitals in partnership with the now-deposed Assad regime.  

Gabbard’s isolation came to a head after a messy confirmation process, which included a statement where Gabbard felt it necessary to refute that she was a “puppet” of America’s adversaries, like Assad or Vladimir Putin. The fact that she failed to earn the faith on that account of the very administration that nominated her is a stunning indictment of her capability as Director of National Intelligence. 

Some comments:


Robert Wright
3 hours ago
📰 *The Gossip Desk: “The DNI Who Never Got the Call” Edition*

From the Desk’s vantage point, Tulsi Gabbard’s tenure as Director of National Intelligence reads less like a spy thriller and more like a Marlowe novel where the detective keeps showing up to the wrong crime scene because no one bothered to tell her where the real one was. She’s got the title on the door, the stationery, the parking spot — everything but the part where people actually invite her to the meetings.

In this town, power isn’t about what your business card says. It’s about who gets the late‑night knock, the whispered briefing, the folder slid across the table. And every time the big players gathered to plan the Venezuela operation, Gabbard’s chair sat empty, pushed just far enough from the table to make the point. DNI, they joked, stood for “Do Not Invite.” Cute line. Cruel truth.

She spent confirmation insisting she wasn’t anyone’s puppet, but the real sting is discovering you’re not even on the stage. The Situation Room photos told the story better than any leak: Rubio leaning in, Miller hovering, Ratcliffe close enough to breathe the same air — and Gabbard nowhere in the frame, like a character written out of her own novel.

In a city built on secrets, the biggest one is often the one they keep from you.


Patrick Gould
2 hours ago
Yeah, I'm not going to shed any tears over a broken clock being right once in denying Gabbard any kind of influence.  I just wonder if she knew she was going to be relegated to a window dressing job when she decided to endorse Trump, or if she assumed she'd be able to run rampant like RFK Jr. has been able to do for signing his soul over.


Not that she had much of a career before she made the Trump endorsement, but she's definitely near the top of the list of people who have zero future professional careers the second Trump dies.



Will .S
3 hours ago
Factually she was a "foreign agent" for the Turkish Government until recently, meaning she was on their payroll until recently.
Not incidently trump FORMER DNI was also on the Turkish payroll and did not disclose this as required by law.
Bottom line gabi does what she is paid to do we just don't know who is paying her currently but I think this goes for most of the regimes cabinet.

TommyR
3 hours ago
If Tulsi Gabbard actually had any principles, integrity, or character, she'd resign.


Trashy Garbage  never should have been confirmed.  She wasn't qualified.  Unfortunately for her, she got confirmed and she's revealed to whomever still thought she had ethics, that she has none and that she was a fake ass all along. 


Desperate to be in the public eye and part of the team (of  crooks). Trashy Garbage has further damaged her reputation.  Ryan Mancini (THE HILL) reports:


Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Wednesday shared Reuters’s photo of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard during the FBI’s search of 2020 voting records at the Fulton County, Ga., elections office, questioning why she was there.

“Why is Tulsi Gabbard at an FBI raid on an election office in Fulton County?” Warner asked in a post on the social platform X, which included a video.

Reuters photographer Elijah Nouvelage captured the photo of Gabbard wearing a baseball cap and talking into a smartphone while next to a vehicle loaded with boxes, her eyes turned toward the camera.

Warner said there were two explanations for why Gabbard would be at the election offices.

“Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus — in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees ‘fully and currently informed’ of relevant national security concerns — or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for the office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy,” he wrote in a response to his first post.


Trashy is trashy.  She's destroyed her own image.  She's not brave.  She doesn't call out foreign invasions.  She makes a lot of big talk but she never walks the talk.  She's a fake ass and always has been.  


"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, January 29, 2026.  Chump's back to attacking, Congress has questions about the murder of Alex Pretti,  "Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller break out into a nasty cat fight," Bruce Springsteen releases a new song,  and much more.




That's Bruce stepping up and showing the way.  Last night in "Patti Smith, Chris Hemsworth, Giancarlo Esposito, Tatiana Maslany, Martha Stewart, John Leguizamo, Jimmy Kimmel, Andy Cohen," Kat noted some like Bruce who have already been speaking out and others who are joining in.  

The actions of ICE and Border Patrol do not belong in a democracy and Chump's gestapo is facing real pushback including from judges.  


Late last night, Reis Thebault, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Chelsia Rose Marcius and Alan Feuer (NEW YORK TIMES) reported:


The chief judge in Minnesota condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday for violating more than 100 court orders in January alone, while Trump administration lawyers argued to another judge that the surge of federal agents in the state were a legitimate exercise of law enforcement power.

In the ICE case, Judge Patrick J. Schiltz said the agency had violated more judicial directives in a month than “some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.” But the Trump administration defended its actions in Minnesota in a court filing in another case, in which state officials are aiming to block the immigration crackdown.

The court actions came as Senate Democrats threatened to withhold votes for a spending package that would avert a government shutdown unless changes were made in the wake of Alex Pretti’s killing by federal agents. Democrats are trying to use the budget vote to ensure that federal agents remove their masks and end roving immigration patrols, according to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader. They also want agents to observe conventional law enforcement standards on use of force and to begin carrying proper identification.

The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown has prompted an outpouring of anger in Minnesota and beyond, especially after the fatal shootings of Mr. Pretti and Renee Good, another U.S. citizen.

Here's Ben and MEIDASTOUCH NEWS reporting on it.



As Aaron Blake (CNN) observed earlier this week:


But on Monday night, a Republican-appointed federal judge delivered a fresh reminder that the administration’s fast-and-loose approach isn’t going to stop giving it problems any time soon.

Patrick Schiltz, the chief US district judge in Minnesota, has become increasingly exasperated with the administration’s actions — and appears primed to be a thorn in its side.

He’s now taken the extraordinary step of summoning acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to court on Friday, threatening him with contempt ahead of what will surely be a much-watched hearing.

The hearing raises the prospect that a top federal official could be sanctioned for his agency’s failures to obey the courts. And at the very least, he’ll be forced to begin accounting for an extraordinary number of cases — more than 2,000, according to Politico’s Kyle Cheney — in which judges have ruled that ICE has illegally detained people.

And Schiltz’s actions in recent days suggest he’s ready to hold the administration’s feet to the fire in a way few other judges could — or would.

And while a judge’s personal politics and the president they were appointed by shouldn’t matter, in this case they very much do.

Schiltz was not only nominated by George W. Bush, but he’s a former clerk for the conservative icon, the late Justice Antonin Scalia. He becomes the latest Republican-appointed judge to cry foul about what the administration is doing.


Across the country, people of all political stripes are reeling as ICE continues to kill on the streets of America.  That includes clergy.  From last night's THE NEWSHOUR (PBS):


Geoff Bennett:  One of the country's highest-ranking Catholic leaders and a top ally of Pope Leo is sharply criticizing the Trump administration's immigration enforcement, calling ICE a lawless organization.

During an interfaith service this week, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the head of the Archdiocese of Newark, urged members of the church to pressure lawmakers to block funding for ICE. His remarks come after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, and after the detention of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy who was taken into custody by federal agents after arriving home from preschool and sent with his father to a family detention center in Texas.

For more now, we're joined by Cardinal Joseph Tobin.

Thanks for being with us.


Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark: Good evening.


Geoff Bennett:  Before speaking out, I imagine you must have weighed the implications. What specific moral and theological convictions ultimately compelled you to speak publicly?


Cardinal Joseph Tobin: I think the principle motivator was a concern for the common good.

In the Catholic way of thinking and approaching social-moral questions, it's not simply the vindication of competing rights, but it's rather the preservation of the common good. And so to look at how the actions in Minneapolis or anywhere else affect the common good, those are people like whom you mentioned, the refugees, people without legal status, as well as the citizens of the United States.


Geoff Bennett: And you have called not just for prayer, but for political action, calling for the defunding of ICE, as we mentioned.

What concrete changes do you envision?


Cardinal Joseph Tobin:  Well, I think what we want to do is -- as much as possible, is use as a principal motivator the human dignity of people.

And I think what I was calling for and I still call for and will call for is the recognition of the dignity of human beings, no matter what their legal status may be.


Geoff Bennett:  How do you reconcile this call to push back against actions you believe are unjust with the church's teaching and the Scripture's teaching of respect for government authority?


Cardinal Joseph Tobin:  Well, I think that we pray for our government officials. And as St. Paul says in First Timothy, we pray that in order that we can live tranquil and decent lives and following our values.

And so we not only pray for ourselves, but we pray for others, because we recognize, in human dignity, the dignity of especially people who don't -- do not necessarily look like us.



Let's turn to another piece of garbage trash, Douglas Collins.  Scaredy cat 'served' in the military as a chaplain -- continues to do so. He wasn't acting like a chaplain in Congress yesterday, he was acting like the lying coward he is.  And Senator Elissa Slotkin wasn't having it. 



Senator Patty Murray was also at the hearing.  Her office notes:




***WATCH: Senator Murray’s exchange at the hearing***

Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)—a former chair and senior member of the committee—spoke forcefully about the murder of Alex Pretti and Secretary Collins’ insulting and inadequate response, and pressed Secretary Collins on VA’s response to employees at the Minneapolis VA who are mourning the death of their colleague. Senator Murray also pressed Secretary Collins on the Trump administration’s extreme VA abortion ban, which prohibits abortion even in cases of rape or incest.

In opening comments, Senator Murray said:

“Before I begin my questions—people across America are really reeling from the horrifying murder of Alex Pretti by federal agents.

“As we all know, Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. He is remembered by colleagues and friends as a calm presence amid the chaos of the hospital, someone who cared deeply for the veterans he served. He was remembered as a mentor, a caretaker, and someone who wanted to make a difference in the world. The father of one veteran Mr. Pretti cared for until the end, described him as‘the sweetest person you can imagine.’

“Alex Pretti spent his last minutes trying to help a woman, she was a bystander who was being assaulted by federal agents. He was killed by those federal agents moments later.

“Immediately after he was killed—the Trump administration began spreading sickening lies about him. They lied about who he was, what he was holding, what he was doing in the moments before his death.

“Trump and the miserable folks at the DHS showed right away they didn’t care about getting the facts—any facts. They told Americans not to believe what we all saw and heard with our own eyes and ears. We all saw an American shot and killed by federal agents in broad daylight.

“Mr. Secretary, your initial response to a VA nurse being killed by federal agents was to blame it on Minnesota officials. You didn’t say a word about who Alex Pretti was, or the incredible work that he did for veterans. You mentioned him today but still didn’t refer to that. That is certainly a choice.

“Words cannot describe how outraged I am—and how outraged we all should be—at the killing of Alex Pretti, who simply did not have to die, and at this administration’s rush to spread lies about American citizens—whose only crime was peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.

“Joining ICE or Border Patrol does not give you a license to murder. So I want to reiterate to all of you that there must be an independent investigation and real accountability here.

“This can’t continue—and I hope that we agree on that basic point, and Republicans join us to work with us to make that happen.”

[VA STAFF MOURNING ALEX PRETTI]

Senator Murray began her questioning by pressing Secretary Collins on reports that Minneapolis VA employees have not been granted personal leave to mourn their colleague, saying: “It is my understanding that Minneapolis VA employees have not been granted personal leave to mourn their colleague because they’re subject to mandatory overtime due to staffing shortages. Are you allowing any of the employees there to get personal help, to take any time off, or to offer them your support as they go through a very trying time of losing a very close colleague?”

“Yes, we are providing all that we can through the Minneapolis VA to those workers,” Secretary Collins said, before turning the question to Gregory Goins, Acting Chief Operating Officer at the Veterans Health Administration. Mr. Goins replied that, “When… these tragedies occur; they’re offered employee assistance programs, they’re offered Whole Health employee assistance programs, they’re also offered things through community partners, if necessary. If anybody comes forward to want to take leave because of a coworker, a close coworker, we always have empathy in allowing them to do so.”

“And if I could just add—and I apologize—they just had a memorial service for Alex Pretti yesterday at noon, where over 300 employees attended and were able to memorialize and remember him,” Mr. Goins continued.

Later in the hearing, Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) followed up on Senator Murray’s line of questioning, grilling Secretary Collins on an email received by staff at the Minneapolis VA yesterday that said in part, “we have been instructed to pause the memorial planned for today.” The vigil was held anyway. Secretary Collins and Mr. Goins placed the blame for the email on “a leadership official in Minneapolis,” denying they had instructed staff at the Minneapolis VA to pause the memorial for Alex Pretti that they had referenced in their testimony.

[VA ABORTION BAN]

Senator Murray continued her questioning by pressing Secretary Collins on the Trump administration’s decision to implement a near-total ban on abortion care at VA, and ban providers from even discussing abortion with their veteran patients— moves Senator Murray has repeatedly and forcefully spoken out against:

“In late December, not long ago, the Trump administration quietly implemented a near-total abortion ban at the VA,” Senator Murray said. “VA’s final rule prevents the more than 460,000 women veterans of reproductive age—over half of whom live in states with abortion bans—from receiving abortion care at the VA now. VA providers aren’t even allowed to discuss abortion as an option with veteran patients.”

Senator Murray asked, “Secretary Collins, a simple question, if a veteran has been raped, is she able to get abortion care at the VA under current policy? Yes or No?” 

“The VA was up until ‘22, was not doing any abortions at all. This was a decision by the previous administration to bend the law to go back, something that had been of over generations of both Democrat and Republican administration, that the VA was not in the issue of abortion,” answered Secretary Collins in part.

Senator Murray reiterated, “No. A simple question, if you are raped, can you get abortion care?”

Secretary Collins replied in part, “There are no abortions to be done at the VA medical centers, except the ones that are the life threatening of a mother.”

“I just want everyone to know, under this VA Final Rule – no exceptions for rape or incest. And I find that outrageous,” Senator Murray responded.

“Up until October, or until ‘22 when Secretary McDonough changed what was the high precedent and law of this country, there were no abortions of any kind for any excuse or any reason,” said Secretary Collins in part.

“And he rightfully corrected that to make sure that if someone was raped or a victim of incest, they could get health care,” Senator Murray corrected Secretary Collins.

Senator Murray was the first woman to join the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the first woman to chair the Committee—as the daughter of a World War II veteran, supporting veterans and their families has always been an important priority for her. Senator Murray has been outspoken in standing up for veterans, VA employees, and VA researchers against Trump and Elon Musk’s indiscriminate mass layoffs this year—forcefully denouncing the administration’s plans, pressing administration witnesses at every opportunity, and holding multiple press conferences with VA employees and veterans in Washington state who were abruptly laid off for no reason. Earlier this year, Senator Murray forcefully denounced the Trump administration’s initial plan to fire 80,000 employees at VA. Toward the end of last year, Senator Murray released a videoslamming the Trump administration’s new plan not to fill thousands of open positions at VA, and demanding answers.

Advocating for women veterans and their access to reproductive health care has also been a longtime focus for Senator Murray. Senator Murray called on VA to provide abortion care to veterans early in the Biden administration, and she applauded the Biden administration’s announcement later in the year that would begin to provide abortion care for veterans and their eligible dependents to protect the health and life of the individual and in cases of rape or incest. Murray has helped lead the charge in calling out Republicans for their attacks on, and attempts to undo, this limited and commonsense policy. Senator Murray also leads the Veteran Families Health Services Act, comprehensive legislation that would expand fertility treatments—including IVF—and family-building services for servicemembers and veterans who are unable to conceive without assistance, and she has sought unanimous consent to pass the legislation on multiple occasions. She introduced new legislation last summer with Senator Duckworth to help cover IVF costs for servicemembers and military families—and slammed Speaker Johnson from working behind the scenes to strip an amendment mirroring that legislation from the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. Senator Murray voted against the NDAA last year, citing—among other things—the failure to include her provision to expand IVF care for servicemembers and veterans. Yesterday, Senator Murray introduced a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to overturn the Trump Administration’s new rule ending abortion counseling entirely and abortion care for veterans who have been raped or whose pregnancy is threatening their health.

Senator Murray slammed the Trump administration’s initial move to ban abortion care at VA in August, and sounded the alarm again in December when the Trump administration quietly implemented a near-total abortion ban at VA.

###


Senator Amy Klobuchar took to the floor of the Senate to call for ICE out of her state now:


January 28, 2026

WATCH KLOBUCHAR’S FULL REMARKS HERE

WASHINGTON — On the Senate floor today, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) delivered remarks honoring Renee Good and Alex Pretti, calling for ICE to leave Minnesota, and opposing the ICE funding bill.

“In the last year, we have too often come to the floor to discuss tragedies in our state. This summer, an assassin killed our friend Melissa Hortman, the former Speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark. And we were once again shaken to our core when a mass shooter attacked Annunciation Catholic Church right in the middle of mass. Children in their first week of school — two children murdered, 21 more people injured, including 18 kids.

In recent weeks, Minnesota has once again been at the center of America's heartbreak, but we are also at the center of America's courage and hope.

We honor Renee Good today. Renee Good, who left behind three children, including a six year old when she was shot and killed by an ICE agent. Her wife said this: ‘kindness radiated out of her. … She literally sparkled.’ And asked everyone to ‘honor her memory by living her values: rejecting hate and choosing compassion.’

We also honor the memory of Alex Pretti, a VA intensive care nurse who did one of the most selfless jobs people could think of: caring for our veterans, often in their final hours. A man described by his friends and family as ‘a kindhearted soul.’

Both Renee and Alex should be alive today.

…

Anyone who cares about federalism, about freedoms, about liberties should be horrified by what is happening. If you care about the Constitution, I say to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, you should be horrified because what is happening in our state has been a violation of the First Amendment, the right to assemble. … The Second Amendment — Alex was a lawful gun owner, but he was immediately criticized for that.… They've been violating the Fourth Amendment, ramming into people's homes without a judicial warrant. … And this administration is going after the Fifth Amendment, the right to due process.

…

There are 3,000 federal officers in Minnesota, and I can not state it more unequivocally: ICE must leave Minnesota. 

Law enforcement has made this clear. They can't do their jobs, they can't investigate burglaries, they can't help on some of the complex cases, because they're being called to people's homes all the time, because of the ICE agents hanging around homes of just regular citizens in parking lots, chasing people down local businesses. 

Business leaders have come out and said, enough. Police chiefs in our state have joined together. Police chiefs across the nation have joined together and said: we believe in proper police procedures and the rule of law. 

But the biggest story out of this is the everyday people, the ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They've rallied together, brought food to their neighbors, drove other kids to school, showed up for small businesses and marched -- 50,000 strong.”

Download Klobuchar's full remarks from HERE. 

###







Okay, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has now made a statement that should disturb us all.  Zachary Leeman (MEDIAITE) reports:

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is chalking up her actions in office to the direction of President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller.

Noem, Miller, and others in the administration have faced backlash over their description of the circumstances surrounding federal agents shooting and killing 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday. Noem and others claimed Pretti wanted to “massacre” agents before the confrontation. Administration officials have pointed to the fact that Pretti was armed as proof of his malicious intentions, but Second Amendment activists have consistently pushed back against this.

Pretti’s death followed an ICE agent shooting and killing 37-year-old mother Renee Good in the same city earlier this month. The city is currently suing the administration over ICE’s deployment.
 

Miller previously referred to Pretti as an “assassin.”
[. . .]

“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” Noem reportedly said to someone who relayed her comment to Axios.


Everything she's done?  Even the alleged ongoing affair with Corey Lewandowski?  Oh my goodness.  They're freaks in the administration.  Telling Kristi how to have sex with Corey.  Freaks.


MAGA operative Corey Lewandowski—who has long been rumored to be having an affair with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—will be extending his stay as her de facto chief of staff.

Despite being classified as a temporary employee, Lewandowski has been playing a shadow role of sorts at DHS since Trump was reelected, pulling many of the logistical strings behind the scenes while Noem played dress-up in tactical gear and posed for pictures.
Lewandowski’s continued work at DHS was confirmed when an Axios reporter spotted him loudly discussing DHS vendor contracts on the phone at Reagan National Airport in D.C. last week. Lewandowski reportedly mentioned a drone program, as well as Peter Thiel’s Palantir.

There have been countless reports of the alleged affair between Noem and Lewandowski over the last five years.

“Everybody knows they’re together. Can I prove it? No, but they’re together,” an anonymous administration employee told New York magazine last year. Another called it the “worst-kept secret in D.C.” Since 2019, various people have claimed they witnessed interactions like Noem sitting in Lewandowski’s lap and Lewandowski slapping Noem’s butt.



From Day 1, he was Donald Trump’s pit bull.

Corey Lewandowski was a hard-charging political operative who worked for a group backed by the Koch brothers when Mr. Trump put him in charge of a nascent White House campaign with only a handful of staff members in 2015. Untested at the presidential level, he led with a simple mantra: “Let Trump be Trump.”

With an attack-and-never-apologize style that mirrored his boss’s, Mr. Lewandowski could almost always count on Mr. Trump’s eventual support over the next decade, as he ping-ponged from government to lobbying and back again with several scandals in his wake.

Now back as a top adviser to Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, he finds himself at the center of the uproar over the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, where two American citizens have been killed by federal agents in the past month.

Mr. Lewandowski and Ms. Noem met with Mr. Trump on Monday for nearly two hours as the administration faced intense pressure, including from Republicans, to ease up federal immigration agents’ aggressive tactics in Minnesota.


You have to wonder about the religious fundamentalists -- the American Taliban -- who support Chump and how they tolerate two married people working together while cheating on their spouses -- being paid by the taxpayer to interact with their 'alleged' lover.  I guess that's just how they inform us that The Heritage Foundation is just a group of swingers having orgies.  And how they explain to us that while they pretend that they're religious as they hate on LGBTQ+ people and demand abortion be outlawed, they're just liars and fake asses who gladly look the other way during a high profile affair. They are fundamentalists when it's convenient for them.


In the meantime, as Ben points out this morning, Chump is spiraling again


 


Let's wind down with this from Senator Amy Klobuchar's office:

January 28, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), along with every other Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to heed the calls of career prosecutors and open a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minneapolis earlier this month. 

In their letter to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the Senators emphasize that DOJ’s decision not to investigate Ms. Good’s killing represents a broader trend of how the Department is neglecting the enforcement of civil rights laws.  

The Senators’ letter comes after Assistant AG Dhillon announced that DOJ’s Civil Rights Division would not investigate Ms. Good’s killing—reportedly ignoring the recommendations of career prosecutors, including the head of the Criminal Section, and despite the leading role the Civil Rights Division office normally assumes in investigating potential civil rights violations. The letter was sent last week, before a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. 

Along with Klobuchar the letter was signed by Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Senators Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chris Coons (D-DE), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Adam Schiff (D-CA). 

“Your decision not to investigate the ICE agent’s conduct is a marked departure from past administrations of both parties, which historically have taken swift action to open civil rights reviews of many fatal interactions with law enforcement. These investigations have been conducted even when criminal charges were considered unlikely,” wrote the Senators. “After you informed Division personnel that you would not consider opening an investigation into whether the ICE agent violated federal law, several career prosecutors —including the head of the Criminal Section, which is responsible for these investigations—accelerated planned departures from the Division.” 

“Instead of investigating Ms. Good’s killing, DOJ has announced the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota would investigate alleged connections between Ms. Good and her widow and groups that have been monitoring ICE activity in Minneapolis. DOJ ordered federal agents to conduct its investigation without Minnesota’s local authorities,” the Senators continued. “Refusing to share investigative materials or permit a joint investigation is highly unusual. Six lawyers from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota have also resigned in protest of this investigation.” 

The full letter is here and below.

 Dear Assistant Attorney General Dhillon:

On January 7, 2026, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Two days later, you announced the Division would not investigate the fatal incident—despite the reported request of career prosecutors in your office to do so and despite the leading role your office normally assumes in investigating potential violations of 18 U.S.C. 242.  

Your decision not to investigate the ICE agent’s conduct is a marked departure from past administrations of both parties, which historically have taken swift action to open civil rights reviews of many fatal interactions with law enforcement.  These investigations have been conducted even when criminal charges were considered unlikely.  

According to public reporting, multiple career prosecutors in the Division offered to lead an inquiry into the shooting.  Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, second-in-command at the Department of Justice (DOJ), reinforced your decision to take an investigation off the table when he publicly claimed there was “no basis” for a civil rights probe into Ms. Good’s death.  His assertion is contradicted by a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent’s determination—after an initial review—that sufficient grounds existed to open a civil rights investigation into the ICE agent who shot Ms. Good.  

After you informed Division personnel that you would not consider opening an investigation into whether the ICE agent violated federal law, several career prosecutors—including the head of the Criminal Section, which is responsible for these investigations—accelerated planned departures from the Division. 

Instead of investigating Ms. Good’s killing, DOJ has announced the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota would investigate alleged connections between Ms. Good and her widow and groups that have been monitoring ICE activity in Minneapolis.  DOJ ordered federal agents to conduct its investigation without Minnesota’s local authorities.  Refusing to share investigative materials or permit a joint investigation is highly unusual.  Six lawyers from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota have also resigned in protest of this investigation. 

Your decision not to investigate Ms. Good’s killing reflects a trend in the Division under your leadership of ignoring the enforcement of civil rights laws in favor of carrying out President Trump’s political agenda. This trend, combined with apparent political interference in investigative and prosecutorial decisions, undermines public trust, the legitimacy of our institutions, and the rule of law. We urge you to listen to career prosecutors and open a civil rights investigation into the death of Ms. Good. 

###


The following sites updated:

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