NEW: Sex, Lies and Secrets: A Federal Judge’s Trysts Go Public We talked to three of Judge Eleanor Ross’s clerks. Gift link >> nytimes.com/2026/06/11/u... by Nick Bogel-Burroughs and myself

NEW: Losing Trust in Justice Dept., Judges Call Out Its Lawyers’ Behavior The federal courts have long assumed that the government’s lawyers are trustworthy. Now judges across the country are criticizing their lack of candor. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/u...

An important piece from @schwartzesque.bsky.social, about the destruction of DOJ norms in federal courts, and its costs. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/u...

NEW: First, DHS ordered that info be withheld from Judge Melissa DuBose. Now it is accusing her of an "intimidation campaign." Authorities still can't find the man who she ordered released. He's wanted overseas, for homicide. But DHS didn't tell DuBose that. 🎁 >> www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/u...

NEW: Special Counsel to Investigate Trump Administration Lawyer for Possible Misconduct 🎁https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/us/politics/special-counsel-lawyer-misconduct.html?unlocked_article_code=1.glA.Y3gx.ryzl8-8d84u2&smid=url-share

NEWS: Federal judges in Rhode Island have chosen a special counsel to investigate possible misconduct by Kevin Bolan, a DOJ attorney.

the Spice must flow

Current mood.

Hegseth reads prayer at the Pentagon: • "Pour out your wrath" • "Let every round find its mark" • Asks for "overwhelming violence" • "Let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse — that evil may be driven back and wicked souls delivered to the eternal damnation"

NEW: Some Judges See Risks in Fiery Opinions Warning of Threats to Democracy Federal judges are weighing strategies for how to respond to the high stakes, anonymous threats and politicized atmosphere of the Trump era. gift link >> www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/u...

Very grateful to get to speak with @schwartzesque.bsky.social about judicial opinions that are increasingly sounding the alarm — (🎁 link)

We spent hours talking to Greg Bovino in his final days as a Border Patrol official. He mocked Tom Homan. Criticized the current CBP chief. Acknowledged clashes with ICE and the National Guard. Lots more here: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/u...

Former CIA Director John Brennan comes pretty close to saying that Russian interference was decisive in 2016 From this newly-posted Miller Center interview... d1b57bn6yaf7zy.cloudfront.net/BHO-Brennan2...

My old write-around profile of Robert Mueller for @gqmagazine.bsky.social, RIP www.gq.com/story/robert...

Overnight: The Trump administration is making a renewed push to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, telling a judge they've sorted out logistics to send him to Liberia (and rejected his proposal to go to Costa Rica) assets.bwbx.io/documents/us...

“Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation’s security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech. That principle has preserved the nation’s security for almost 250 years.”

not to justify the therapist but if i had an affair i’d also want him to come x2/week during my office hours

Some good news! Jesse Barron's "Transference in the Afternoon" is now free to read at @grantamag.bsky.social. Is sex with a therapist an affair or abuse? A trove of emails may hold the answer. Gripping reading, best nonfiction I've read in a long time. 🎁 granta.com/transference...

Significance: "It is a landmark case that tests both the limits of immunity for military contractors, as well as the ability of foreign citizens to pursue accountability in American courts for offenses that happened thousands of miles away."

Our story on the ruling, gift link — www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/u...

Justin Sun, a Chinese-born crypto billionaire, was accused by Biden’s SEC of making $31m+ through fraudulent crypto trades. After Trump won, Sun spent $75m on a cryptocurrency developed by the Trump family’s crypto company. Last week, Trump’s SEC settled the case against Sun for a $10m fine.

I highly recommend Jesse Barron's "Transference in the Afternoon" ... you can find it in the new Granta granta.com/transference...

A 20-year-old freshman at Babson College in Massachusetts said she would remain in Honduras on Friday, the deadline that a judge had given the Trump administration for facilitating her return to the US after it violated a court order by mistakenly deporting her. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...

🚨SCOOP: Perhaps you’re familiar with Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ, co-founder of Binance, Trump pardon recipient, crypto’s 60-billion-dollar man? Here’s what’s in his unpublished memoir… www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/t...

NEW: Any Lucia López Belloza, a freshman at Babson College, was deported by mistake, in violation of a judicial order. A judge ordered her return by Friday. Now the Trump administration has said it will deport her again if she comes back. Free gift link >>> www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...

miss this guy ... it's been too long

A Trump-aligned legal team, which includes attorneys from Stephen Miller’s America First Legal, has been filing lawsuits against DEI efforts in Philly. After challenging diversity in city contracting and school admissions, their latest is about police promotions. www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

And here's the @nytimes.com story by John Yoon, free gift link -- www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/u...

The daughter of Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, has sued the Trump admin. She claims that an EO imposing sanctions on people connected to the International Criminal Court violates amendments 1, 4, and 5. Complaint >> storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NEWS: Matthew Isihara, the first DOJ attorney to be held in contempt of court for years, is now appealing that ruling to Eighth Circuit. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02...

▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 15.07%

Since 2022, Matthieu Aikins and I have been investigating the CIA’s Afghan surrogate commandos, known in Afg as the Zero Units but officially called the CTPTs by the CIA. These units’ existence has been publicly known since 2010, but their relationship with the CIA is still an official secret...

If it’s too snowy for school, there should not be laptop school This is not a pandemic

Federal judges have ordered the Trump administration at least 35 times since August to explain why it should not be punished for violating their orders in immigration cases, according to a New York Times review of federal dockets.

At least 35 times since August, federal judges have ordered the administration to explain why it should not be punished for violating their orders in immigration cases. @schwartzesque.bsky.social and co from NYT (Philly-based reporters get h/t priority) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/u...

“'I want to just stress that an adverse decision from a judge is not a reason to stop doing what you know to be right,' Mr. Singh (an associate deputy attorney general) said. 'We are the ones charged with keeping America safe.'” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/u...

Where we are: Associate Deputy Atty General tells assembled US federal prosecutors: “I want to just stress that an adverse decision from a judge is not a reason to stop doing what you know to be right.” That. statement. is. not. consistent. with. the. rule. of. law.

🚨SCOOP: One judge found a Trump official in contempt. Dozens have gotten close. That's the backdrop. Now check this out. Here's what Main DOJ is saying in private: "An adverse decision from a judge is not a reason to stop doing what you know to be right." gift >> www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/u...

With ICE conducting warrantless arrests and shuttling detainees around the country too chaotically for DOJ to keep up, judges are increasingly looking to the penalty box. Minnesota may have been the tipping point, but judges in CA, NY and TX aren’t far behind. w/ @schwartzesque.bsky.social

this is so ... Edith Wharton

NEW: "Terror against noncitizens" ... "unlawful, wanton acts" ... "shameless" claims by the government A barnburner of a ruling on detaining immigrants without bond, and executive-branch defiance, from Judge Sunshine S. Sykes, C.D. Ca. Free gift link ... www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/u...

This is the first civil contempt ruling, according to two experts. The attorney in question is a special assistant US attorney who was brought in to help the Minnesota USAO with the unprecedented amount of habeas petitions

🚨DOJ Lawyer is Found in Contempt by Federal Judge 🚨 A long fuse on this one ... Boasberg, Xinis, Schiltz, and now Provinzino Free gift link ... www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...

NEW: Returning to office, Trump sought massive budget cuts and the total elimination of some federal agencies and programs. In the end, Congress quietly rejected that vision over a series of deals in recent months, our analysis shows. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...

In a secret deportation arrangement, the Trump administration flew nine people, nearly all of whom had been granted U.S. court protections from being sent back to their home countries, to the African nation of Cameroon in January.

After a Border Patrol agent shot a Chicago woman five times in October, Gregory Bovino reached out to the agent via email to offer his praise, newly released evidence shows.

Bovino reached out to praise a Border Patrol agent who shot a 30-year-old Chicago woman five times last October, new documents show. "In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you have much yet left to do!!" @schwartzesque.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/u...

Wow the polar bears work for Pepsi now … so much for the unipolar world order

In 1979, the “New York Times” asked Isaac Bashevis Singer if he planned to watch the Super Bowl.

While reporting this, I had something happen that's never happened. A comms rep for one of the co's disputed my reporting and said what I was telling them was untrue because it was not in Grok, xAI's chatbot. I was looking directly at the files. And this person was using AI to challenge the truth.