"For the first time in its history, WIRED is dedicating an issue to politics, citing concerns about the tech industry's alignment with President Trump. @katie-drummond.bsky.social explains what this shift means for Silicon Valley and for readers."

Proposed ‘safety’ bill would undermine accountability for lawmakers "The bill’s provisions empowering lawmakers to scrub the internet of personal information about them would seriously harm speech and press freedom," FPF's @caitlinvogus.bsky.social writes.

“Prosecutors are not supposed to be on fishing expeditions,” said Jeffrey M. Cohen, an associate professor at Boston College Law School. “A prosecutor set on investigating someone can very quickly invade someone’s life.” www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

As if you need more news... here's a new piece from my @pogo.org colleagues @neilegordon.bsky.social & Julienne McClure: www.pogo.org/investigatio...

The immigrant legal rights group @justfutureslaw.bsky.social got a trove of ICE records through FOIA on how the agency uses Palantir systems www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

"Sources with knowledge of the section’s operations say the reduction in staff means it can no longer advise the 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices around the country on how to build cases against crooked government officials — let alone prosecute new cases on its own." www.notus.org/courts/doj-p...

New statement from The Post on Pete Hegseth’s new crackdown on the press at the Pentagon:

Big scoop by @carolleonnig.bsky.social & @kendilanian-nbc.bsky.social. Undercover FBI agents recorded Trump border czar Tom Homan accepting $50k in cash as he promised to steer federal contracts. Trump's DOJ shut the probe down www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

I gave my heart and soul to that place. Built entire sections for journalists pushed out of their home countries. When the writer I hired, Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi Arabia, they paraded me around as a symbol for press freedom. I put MY LIFE on the line to defend journalism and WaPo.

Just a reminder that, in 2020, the first Trump administration brought up going after "antifa." I'm flagging not to minimize the issue, but to show that there's a pattern here: www.axios.com/2020/05/31/antifa-protests-trump

🚨NEW🚨 ICE this week spent $2m for social media surveillance tech called Tangles. Created by an Israeli company called Cobwebs, it was banned by Meta for targeting activists across Facebook and WhatsApp in 2021. Now owned by PenLink, an ICE go-to surveillance vendor. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

"Some defense officials and career military lawyers have provided written and verbal legal opinions to decision makers inside the Pentagon, but believe they are being ignored or deliberately sidelined" gift link: www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

“What happened here in Curry county, New Mexico, can happen in any town in USA, so we should all pay attention because it’s your water and your family next.” #PFAS www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

One of the definitive days of this admin imo was the WSJ identifying racist posts from a DOGE staffer - the kind of stuff that would be read out loud to you as HR explains why you're not getting severance - and Vance saying no, we won't let the media cancel people anymore.

NEW: Mercenary spyware is coming to the US. ICE just quietly unsuspended their contract with spyware maker #Paragon. Remember them? Caught earlier this year being used to hack Italian journalists. This is bad, let's talk about how we got here 1/ jackpoulson.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

The indictment came down two days after career prosecutor Richard Barker, the acting US attorney for eastern Washington state, resigned... “I am grateful that I never had to sign an indictment or file a brief that I didn’t believe in,” he wrote www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The head of the Defense Innovation Unit — the Pentagon’s in-house tech incubator — has abruptly stepped down, severing a key link with Silicon Valley.

New Executive Order (Aug. 25, 2025) - despite its name - reaches far beyond DC in potential use of the U.S. military inside and across the United States. Link: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential... Highlight of some key provisions⬇️

NEW from the POGO Investigations desk: The Golden Dome missile defense project could be a “slush fund” for tech companies AND for high-level Trump administration officials with financial stakes: https://bit.ly/3UGPqjl

NEW! A top White House official has a $2 million to $10 million stake in Palantir. That official's office is playing a key role in the gargantuan Golden Dome missile defense program, which Palantir is seen as likely to benefit from - more @pogo.org www.pogo.org/investigatio...

UPDATE: Fox News reports that ICE told Kilmar Abrego Garcia they are going to deport him to Uganda on Monday.

Just updated with story: NY Post pics now seem to *not* have been from this morning.

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout. On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar. This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵

Yet another defense tech company with a name from Lord of the Rings: Valinor Enterprises - it has Palantir and Anduril as "strategic partners" www.valinor.co

Amid ICE's plans to double detention space this year, it also plans "to dramatically expand its capacity for detaining parents and children in what could amount to the nation’s largest family detention program in decades.” wapo.st/45hE9fq%E2%8...

The lies are so blatant. It wasn’t “the Biden DOJ” “who told us about her.” Trump’s DOJ filed criminal charges against Maxwell in 2020: www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr...

"...escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence & integrity of the federal statistical system. "The president seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news. "...firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit & undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics..."

Grossman is one of the most important living Israeli writers. His son died in the 2006 Lebanon war, 2 days after Grossman, AB Yehoshua & Amos Oz called for a ceasefire. "Of course I am grieving, but my pain is greater than my anger," he said 4 mos later, calling for a Pal state. This matters:

Hard to explain this as anything but retaliatory given the timing (e.g. right after bad #s come out, not enough time to do fact-finding if there indeed was funny business inside BLS; btw BLS revised #s all the time) donmoynihan.substack.com/p/trump-shoo...

As one former attorney wrote: “It is impossible to ignore the perverse irony of the emailed letter I received from DHS/ICE today… pitching bonuses… for an employment shortage that can only be attributed to the administration’s unprecedented and retaliatory purge of career public servants.”

Useful new tracker from the Partnership for Public Service that links cuts to federal jobs to impacts "This rapid loss of institutional knowledge and operational capacity has already begun to affect how, and how well, the government functions." ourpublicservice.org/federal-harm...

A top GEO Group executive, ICE's #1 contractor, returns to a top position at ICE A fantastic scoop on the revolving door by the Washington Post's Doug MacMillan & Aaron Schaffer wapo.st/3HdeJGo

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Michelle Bercovici, an employment attorney who specializes in representing federal employees. “It seems so wasteful.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

In DC today through Thursday AM, get in touch if you want to meet up!

Former DOJ corruption prosecutor @amymarkopoulos.bsky.social and Just Security’s Director of Democracy Initiatives, @dschulkin.bsky.social, break down their new series, When Guardrails Erode—and unveil the interactive Anti-Corruption Tracker mapping how U.S. oversight systems are being dismantled.

A needed journalistic update to the state of the federal government's watchdogs... long story short: the state of the watchdogs is not good www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/u...

"Donald Trump has overseen nearly as many air strikes in the first five months of his second term as Joe Biden launched in his entire presidency..." www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

A thread about DOJ’s astoundingly misleading responses to the 27-page Reuveni letter (since backed with 150pp of corroborating texts/emails), alleging contempt-like conduct in 3 cases: JGG, Abrego, DVD. Let’s examine DAG Todd Blanche’s & AG PamBondi’s responses. ... 1/9

Simply put, this could massively expand the # of people held in ICE detention. Gift link: wapo.st/40e4rfK

I've been trying the FBI's #FOIA web portal since yesterday and I keep getting this screen Fun times #FOIA4eva

A 21-year-old American was beaten to death by Israeli settlers while he was visiting family in the West Bank. The settlers blocked paramedics from helping. www.haaretz.com/middle-east-...

Our staff is on the ground supporting families. Many workers-including US citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for 8 hours or more. US citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones. 4/

Hearing from UFW spokesperson just now that this man has died.

Justice Dept. Whistle-Blower Warns of Trump Administration’s Assault on the Law www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/u...

The staff of the @latimes.com wins the July Sidney for their impactful coverage of the ICE raids.

"before his Grecian holiday, Cruz ensured a reduction in funding to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (Noaa) efforts to improve future weather forecasting...." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Albuquerque, NM - a man was filmed being tazed in a Walmart by unidentified people wearing ICE and HSI vests.

More domestic military deployments… 200 Marines deploy to Florida as Pentagon approves more support to ICE www.defensenews.com/news/pentago...

The Declaration of Independence, signed this day 249 years ago, is always worth a read. But on this July 4th, it seems particularly resonant. The full text: www.archives.gov/founding-doc...