New Piece: Court Watch commissioned @rachelweiner.bsky.social , until quite recently a journalist at the Washington Post, to write about reporting on the fastest court district in America and what is lost when there are no assigned reporters left to cover it. www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

Read this.

Last week, @tylermcbrien.com sat down with @pwbeck.bsky.social and @seamushughes.bsky.social to discuss what happens when “dockets die in darkness" in ‘news deserts,’ that are devoid of even a single newspaper, let alone a reporter dedicated to its federal court. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFZd...

Last month, @courtwatch.bsky.social reported on a Texas criminal defense that terrorist threats on Roblox were not "a true threat" because they were issued in an online game. This seems a more egregious case. Would such an argument also apply here? @seamushughes.bsky.social @pwbeck.bsky.social

I wrote about grief and my dad for the twentieth anniversary of his passing. open.substack.com/pub/pwbeck/p...

On Lawfare Daily, @tylermcbrien.com sat down with @pwbeck.bsky.social and @seamushughes.bsky.social to discuss the impact of ‘news deserts,’ a place that is largely devoid of even a newspaper that can cover its federal court and what happens when “dockets die in darkness.” youtu.be/oFZd2G--dJI

The Washington Post—for which I wrote editorials for nearly a decade—has closed its Kyiv bureau. @lawfaremedia.org has not—and we will not. We now employ more people in Kyiv than the Washington Post. Let me tell you about what we have done in Ukraine over the past year and why we are not leaving

I don’t ask a lot from y’all in exchange for spending thousands of dollars a year to give the public free court records. Please share this piece far and wide.

We dropped our paywall for this new piece. Court Watch picked one of the largest ‘news deserts’ in the South and examined all the new court dockets that went unreported to tell a larger story about the need for local journalism ‘Dockets Die In Darkness’ www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

NEW: In a blistering opinion, Judge Novak says Lindsey Halligan's response "contains a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show and falls far beneath the level of advocacy expected from litigants...particularly [DOJ]" and bars her from using the title of U.S. Attorney

A nihilistic online group is targeting minors. In this week's Rabbit Hole, we examined the prosecutions aimed at stopping what the Justice Department calls "one of the most heinous online child exploitation enterprises we have ever encountered" www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

Today, Sen. Mark Kelly filed a suit against the Department of Defense and Secretary Pete Hegseth over the military disciplinary proceedings initiated against him which argues that the government retaliated against Kelly for First Amendment-protected speech. Read the suit, from @pwbeck.bsky.social.

Here’s a gift link “This reporting is based on hundreds of pages of U.S. legal filings, interviews with national security officials who worked on the investigation, foreign court proceedings, and sentencing hearings attended by Court Watch reporters.” www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

UPDATE (h/t @pwbeck.bsky.social): Bruce Fein filed a response asking the judge to "definitively ascertain" who Maduro wishes to represent him. Fein also notes that Maduro "was apprehended under extraordinary, startling, and viperlike circumstances..."

A fascinating piece to come out shortly.

Spotted by eagle-eyed @lawfaremedia.org Associate Editor @pwbeck.bsky.social: Bruce Fein is......actually not Maduro's lawyer? Maduro's lawyer says he "confirmed with Mr. Maduro that he does not know Mr. Fein and has not communicated with Mr. Fein, much less retained him..."

My latest in @lawfaremedia.org: Nihilistic Violent Extremists (NVE) closely resemble two other forms of mass violence that have evaded simple characterization: incels and school shooters. Ambitious efforts to better classify such violence should be applauded. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-te...

On Dec. 15, the White House announced an executive order designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. The order claims that fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic and warns about its potential use by adversaries in a terror attack. Read the order, from @pwbeck.bsky.social.

"It seemed much closer to the alt-right site 4chan than a children’s game. The edgy and what’s real become blurred." Tremendous reporting by @courtwatch.bsky.social's @pwbeck.bsky.social on new counterterrorism front lines and the validity of violent threats. @seamushughes.bsky.social

a big runoff last night, in New Orleans: Calvin Duncan was exonerated after spending *28 years* in prison; he tried to get his own case records from the New Orleans city clerk—but the office dragged its feet. So Duncan ran to become city clerk himself, and yesterday ousted the incumbent.

For our second issue of ‘The Rabbit Hole’ where we dive deep into in one court docket, @pwbeck.bsky.social enters the Roblox world of edgy gamers to understand if a Texas arrest is terrorism or terminally online. Or perhaps both. www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

This morning, we’re happy to launch a new regular Sunday morning feature we’re affectionately calling ‘The Rabbit Hole.’ This weekly series, led by our reporting fellow, Peter Beck, picks a single federal court docket from the week and dives deep into the details www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

After the officers forced open her door, 92-year-old Johnston fired a single shot that hit no one. The officers responded with a swarm of 39 bullets screaming through Johnston’s living room.

setting *everything* else aside, "Vermin were not a problem prior to March 17, 2025" was a very funny line to read in a court doc h/t to @courtwatch.bsky.social for digging up this gem in this week's newsletter (and go subscribe!)

Anyway, @pwbeck.bsky.social either has an absolute banger coming out later today or something that has been well covered before. Who knows.

Court records lay out a relatively fast investigation by the FBI once alerted to Alexander White's alleged support for ISIS. The three-and-a-half-month investigation began after White had posted ISIS content online A exclusive by Peter Beck & me www.courtwatch.news/p/north-caro...

Today, we make the case why you should support Court Watch. Here’s our deeply transparent look at what it takes to make news www.courtwatch.news/p/help-us-tu...

I remember, as an arrogant young writer, being offended the first time something I’d written was properly fact checked. Now I wish a could get a fact checker for everything I write, and I feel like I’m flying without a net when I don’t have one.

I have a long investigative piece at the New Republic this morning on medical examiners, George Floyd, and our broken system of investigating suspicious deaths newrepublic.com/article/1769...