Biden posts on X for first time since leaving office
In his first social media post since he left office last week, former President Joe Biden commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"It’s our responsibility to stand up to antisemitism and give hate no safe harbor," Biden wrote on X.
Trump-appointed prosecutor and Capitol rioter advocate announces review of Jan. 6 cases
The acting U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, has announced a “special project” to investigate the use of the 1512 obstruction charge that was brought against hundreds of the more than 1,500 Capitol attack defendants pardoned by Trump, sources familiar with the matter said.
Martin said he was appointing two officials to look at the use of the 1512 charge and ordered them to issue a preliminary report by Friday.
“Obviously, the use was a great failure of our office ... and we need to get to the bottom of it,” Martin wrote before he asked workers to deliver “all files, documents, notes, emails and other information” about the use of the charge.
The note came in an email that also commiserated with Washington Commanders fans nursing the Commanders' loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in yesterday's NFC championship game and reminded U.S. attorney’s office workers of the hiring freeze and the end of “all DEI efforts.”
Martin is a “stop the steal” advocate who spoke at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021, and was on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. He was also on the board of the Patriot Freedom Project, which advocated for Jan. 6 defendants and held fundraisers at Trump’s properties.
Martin was an attorney for at least three Jan. 6 defendants and spread conspiracy theories about the attack on the Capitol, including one about a person he dubbed “Mr. Coffee.”
Chicago immigrant advocacy groups sue Trump admin to block ICE raids
A group of immigrants rights organizations in Chicago sued the Trump administration yesterday to stop ICE raids in the city, arguing they “are retaliatory in nature and violate the First Amendment.”
The advocacy groups, represented by Just Futures Law and the Civil Rights Clinic of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, are seeking an emergency hearing to obtain a temporary restraining order against ICE as they seek a long-term end to the raids.
Chicago has designated itself a sanctuary city under the Welcoming City Ordinance, which means it does not ask its residents about immigration status, disclose that information to law enforcement authorities or deny city services based on immigration status.
The groups argued in their lawsuit that the Trump administration's use of immigration enforcement personnel to conduct raids and make arrests across the city is an unconstitutional move intended to signal Trump's “animosity toward sanctuary cities.”
“The federal government’s plan to use Chicago-based immigration raids to quash the Sanctuary City Movement is a clear and obvious violation of the First Amendment,” the filing said.
The groups said in a news release that the lawsuit “is about prohibiting the Trump Administration from using law enforcement to decimate a vital social justice movement.”
“In Chicago, the Trump administration isn’t just trying to unleash arbitrary immigrant enforcement. The impending raids are a brazen attempt to stomp out the sanctuary city movement and run roughshod over the First Amendment,” said Sheila Bedi of the Community Justice Clinic, an advocacy organization involved in the suit.
The Justice Department has until Wednesday to file a response to the request for a temporary restraining order.
Speaker Mike Johnson says he hasn't talked to Trump about his California voter ID threats
Speaker Johnson said today he hasn't spoken to Trump after he threatened to withhold aid to California wildfire victims if voter ID laws are not established.
"We've got to work out the details of that. I have not spoken to the president about that issue since he said that," Johnson said. "Listen, there are a lot of issues going on in California, and we have been lamenting the lack of voter security there for some time."
Johnson said he plans to discuss the matter with Trump when they have dinner this evening at the House GOP Leadership Conference. He also called the idea a "commonsense notion."
Speaker Mike Johnson defends firing of inspectors general
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended Trump's recent firing of 18 inspectors general.
"We want to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in every way possible. The president is committed to that, and we are, as well," Johnson said at Trump’s golf club in Doral, Florida. "But sometimes you have to begin a new page and start with a fresh start."
The Trump administration said the terminations were an effort to let go of Biden-era officials who didn't "align" with the new administration.
Trump expected to sign executive order restricting transgender people's military service
Trump is expected to sign executive orders to restrict transgender people’s military service and crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military.
The order about transgender service members and potential recruits will reinstate a policy Trump issued during his first term and rescind an order President Joe Biden issued that allowed trans people to enlist and permitted currently enlisted trans service members to get coverage for transition-related medical care.
Fetterman defends meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., defended his meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago before the inauguration amid criticism from some on the left.
Calling the visit a "positive experience," Fetterman said in an interview on ABC’s “The View” that Trump was "kind" and "cordial."
"I’d like more bipartisan kinds of things," he added. "You are going to agree with things, and you’re going to disagree on things. ... I’m going to pick my fights."
The two met at Trump's Florida property this month, and after the meeting, Trump called Fetterman a "common-sense person" in an interview with The Washington Examiner.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes can once again come and go from D.C., U.S. Capitol, judge says
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes can once again come and go from Washington, D.C., including the Capitol, a federal judge said in a court filing today.
U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta wrote that the court will vacate an order last week that added "location restrictions" to defendants because, he said, it would be "improper" for the court to modify their original sentences after Trump commuted them.
"Further, by virtue of the President’s commutation order, the court acknowledges that its conditions of supervision will not be enforced," Mehta said.
Mehta ruled Friday that Rhodes would be barred from entering Washington without the court's approval, despite the commutation. Rhodes was released last week after having spent the last three years in prison for his conviction of seditious conspiracy over his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He was originally sentenced to 18 years in prison.
ICE makes over 2,500 immigration arrests since Trump inauguration
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say 956 people were arrested in raids across the country on Sunday, and 2,681 arrests have been made since Trump’s inauguration. Border czar Tom Homan confirmed to NBC News that some of those arrests were “collaterals," not criminals.
Trump to reinstate service members let go over Covid protocol and create an 'Iron Dome for America'
Trump is expected to sign four executive orders today, including one related to Covid vaccine requirements within the military and one that would create a defense system for the U.S. like Israel's Iron Dome.
Under the first executive order, U.S. service members who were dismissed from the military for refusing to take the Covid vaccine would be reinstated with full back pay and benefits. The order said "government redress of these wrongful dismissals is overdue."
Another order would create an "Iron Dome for America," named after the air defense system that protects Israel from rockets and missiles. It would implement "a next generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next generation aerial attacks," according to the White House.