Senior legal affairs reporter at POLITICO with a focus on democracy, the balance of power and the clash between the Trump administration and courts.
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UPDATE: A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from deporting 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children overnight, halting the effort while many of them sat on the tarmac in El Paso — and maybe have, in one case, been in the air. t.co/4QRs4oLf0G
Lawyers for the children say they're still on planes in El Paso. SOOKNANAN: "I have the government attempting to remove minor children from the country in the wee hours of the morning on a holiday weekend. That's surprising." www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
ENSIGN says all 600 children in question are still in the United States, planes are grounded and will not leave while the judge's order is in place. He said it's possible one had taken off and was returned. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Ensign said he was not aware of the broader order Sooknanan just issued, so she urged him to check it and ensure it was circulated to the Trump administration so there would be no confusion. Sooknanan takes a 5 minute recess to let him do that. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Sooknanan's hearing is underway. Representing DOJ is Drew Ensign. Sooknanan is likelty to ask about status of deportation effort and whether any planes are in the air. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
BREAKING: Judge Sooknanan has now expanded her restraining order as she attempts to block ongoing efforts to remove hundreds of Guatemalan children, which their lawyers say are currently underway. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
BREAKING: Judge Sooknanan says the children are being removed right now so has advanced today’s hearing to 12:30pm. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
MORE: This is reminiscent of the emergency fight over Alien Enemies Act — an overnight lawsuit alleging abrupt deportations and violation of due process, quick restraining order by a judge, hearing set for the afternoon. We'll learn more at 3pm. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
NEW: Judge Sooknanan acted quickly to block as many as 600 Guatemalan children from being deported by the Trump administration without due process. A judge in Illinois took a similar step for 4 children whose lawyers sued Saturday. w/ @joshgerstein www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
BREAKING: A federal judge has *blocked* the Trump administration from abruptly deporting 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children — perhaps within a matter of hours — granting an emergency restraining order after advocates called the plan illegal + dangerous. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
JUST IN: Judge Cobb has blocked the Trump administration’s effort to extend rapid-fire deportation procedures to immigrants who have been in the U.S. more than two years — warning that it is a flagrant deprivation of due process that could ensnare anyone. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
NEW: An appeals court concluded that Trump misused his emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners, casting a cloud over the trade deals he’s been making. SCOTUS is next. w/ Doug Palmer, Dan DesRochers @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
The ruling, however, doesn’t take effect immediately. The court withheld the mandate for its decision until *Oct. 14*
BREAKING: Appeals court rejects Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs under IEEPA. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
NEW: Judge Cobb gave no hint about how she might rule on Lisa Cook’s firing, and the uncertainty is likely to linger into next week as she seeks further argument on the issue. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social @vtg2.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
NEW: The battle over the power of the purse has been joined. Trump's bid to unilaterally slash billions foreign aid funding may force courts to delve into Trump's latest attempt to amass power at Congress' expense. w/ Jen Scholtes www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
NEW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is asking a federal judge for a gag order against Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi and their subordinates. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
JUST IN: A D.C. Circuit panel has revised its recent impoundment decision to keep alive a challenge to the Trump administration's cancelation of massive sums of foreign aid funding. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
NEW: A judge authorized a $2,200 refund for a Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump, saying he had no choice: "Sometimes a judge is called upon to do what the law requires, even if it may seem at odds with what justice or one’s initial instincts might warrant." www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
COBB also slowed an effort by DOJ to obtain a list of FBI officials who worked on Jan. 6 cases. She also presided over the trial/conviction of Ryan Samsel, the violent instigator of the J6 riot. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
NEW: Judge Cobb, who will weigh Trump's effort to fire Lisa Cook, recently ruled against a pillar of his mass deportation policy, saying it resembled the countries migrants were fleeing from. More about Judge Cobb here, w/ @joshgerstein www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
JUST IN: Judge COBB has set a 10am hearing for *tomorrow* on the emergency bid by Lisa Cook to remain in her job at the Fed.
UPDATE: Lisa Cook's lawsuit goes to ... Jia COBB, a Biden appointee who has handled a slew of sensitive cases in recent years — from the trial of J6 instigator Ryan Samsel to the FBI retaliation lawsuit to immigration parole. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
JUST IN: Lisa Cook's forthcoming lawsuit to contest her firing appears to list Trump *and* Fed Chairman Jerome Powell as defendants.
NEW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States didn’t just end his saga in a Salvadoran prison, it may have given him a new chance to seek asylum. The latest on his new bid to stave off deportation. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social t.co/KfLMrXhMxl
At presser, BOWSER says increase in federal officers has significantly reduced crimes like carjacking, but it has broken police-community relationship. "Masked ICE agents in the community has not worked. National Guard from other states has not been an efficient use of those resources."
SUB-OPTIMAL www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...
HAPPENING NOW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia's lawyers say in court he has filed a motion to reopen his immigration proceedings, set aside his deportation order and seek asylum. Judge Xinis says that process is totally distinct from her purview.
NEW: The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to permit it to withhold foreign aid funding that groups say is being illegally impounded by the president — setting up a crucial high court clash over the power of the purse. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Judge Cannon approves prosecutors’ motion to bring firearms into the courthouse as evidence in the trial of alleged would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh
NEW: Donald Trump is betting the courts won’t stop him from firing a Federal Reserve board member “for cause” — and legal experts think he may be right. That would leave a ‘supine’ Congress and market forces as the only remaining checks w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
JUST IN: A federal judge rules that a lawsuit against Elon Musk and his America PAC — alleging they broke a promise to pay voters for signing a political petition — may proceed. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
NEW: It's unconstitutional for Pennsylvania officials to discard mail-in ballots simply because the outer envelope is undated or misdated, a federal appeals court ruled, finding the requirement disenfranchised thousands with negligible benefits. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
After prosecutors failed three times to secure a felony indictment against a woman they accuse of interfering with an ICE arrest, the judge in the case is calling a conference with the lawyers Thursday:
NEW: A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump rebuked the Trump administration for its unprecedented lawsuit against federal judges in Maryland — and lamented the "smear" of the judiciary by the White House and its allies. w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Today in federal jurisprudence: An appeals court orders further proceedings to determine if the word FUCK can be trademarked. www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-ord...
BREAKING: Trump-appointed judge *dismisses* DOJ lawsuit against Maryland judges over their decision to automatically pause deportation cases for 48 hours He also calls Trump and his admin's attack on judges a "smear" that is "unprecedented and unfortunate storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
The full opinion: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
JUST IN: A federal appeals court concludes that discarding mail ballots in misdated or undated envelopes violates the Constitution.
UPDATE: Lisa Cook says she's not going anywhere and Trump's bid to fire her is baseless. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Lastly, DOJ emphasizes that Trump's pardon of Tarrio does not erase his guilt for seditious conspiracy, and notes that the other four convicted Proud Boys leaders' — whose sentences Trump commuted — are still technically in ongoing criminal cases. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
DOJ also defends FBI special agent Nicole Miller, who is named in the lawsuit and was a key witness at the Proud Boys trial. They say the lawsuit presents no evidence she took part in any alleged wrongdoing — and she has immunity anyway. t.co/I8xG3f8Fz2](storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...)
JUST IN: The Trump administration seeks to dismiss the lawsuit by Enrique Tarrio and other Proud Boys leaders over their Jan. 6 prosecutions. There's simply no evidence the evidence against them was fabricated or knowingly false, DOJ says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
NEW: Trump is testing the limits of his power once again, seeking to fire a member of the Federal Reserve board. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
BREAKING: Judge Lamberth orders Kari Lake to sit for a deposition about whether she is operating Voice of America up to legal minimum standards. He says this is "one final opportunity" before a contempt trial.
DOJ tried and failed three times to indict a woman for allegedly assaulting an ICE officer during an arrest of two purported gang members. So they were forced to reduce her charge to a misdemeanor. www.courtlistener.com/recap/og-loo...
UPDATE: A federal judge has halted efforts to quickly deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda while she considers his latest legal bid to stymie the Trump administration’s efforts to cast him out of the country. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
JUST IN: Federal judge in Maine rejects lawsuit by Medicaid providers who say the Big Beautiful Bill's defunding of Planned Parenthood could endanger patients' health. He says Congress may have made a "cold calculus" but it's not his to second-guess. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
XINIS orders that Abrego not be moved from his detention facility in Virginia, in order to ensure he has access to counsel. Xinis asks Ensign if her oral order is enough — knowing Ensign has previously argued that only written orders count. Ensign says the oral order is fine(!)
ABREGO's lawyer says his client is currently detained in Virginia. He wants Judge Xinis to order that Abrego be detained within 200 miles of her courthouse so he can be present for hearings.
XINIS emphasizes to Ensign: "Your clients are absolutely forbidden at this juncture to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the continental United States." ENSIGN: "Your honor, yes, we certainly understand that."
XINIS says she has serious concerns about the claim that DOJ pressured Abrego into a guilty plea by offering him deportation to Costa Rica — and threatening deportation to Uganda if he refused. DOJ's Drew Ensign says Abrego's deportation is not "imminent," given pace of 3rd-country removals.
XINIS says law may require Abrego's deportation to his country of choice, given that Costa Rica has indicated a willingness to accept him, give him refugee status and vow not to re-deport him to El Salvador. Uganda, where administration plans to send him, has made no promises.
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Xinis is leaning toward issuing another restraining order to block Kilmar Abrego Garcia's immediate deportation to Uganda at least through this week — she wants an evidentiary hearing on Friday.
NEW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is asking federal courts to again shield him from imminent deportation -- this time to Uganda. w @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
JUST IN: Kilmar Abrego Garcia has filed a new legal action to block his immediate deportation. The habeas petition has been assigned to Judge Paula Xinis, who handled earlier legal proceedings demanding his return from El Salvador. www.courtlistener.com/docket/71191...
NEW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia says DOJ has given him an ultimatum: Plead guilty to human smuggling by Monday and be deported to Costa Rica — or refuse and be deported to Uganda. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Rep. Summer Lee says House Dems reviewed the Epstein files provided by DOJ to the Oversight Committee and found they were 97% "recycled" material that is already public. The 3% that's new? CBP flight logs of Epstein's plane from 2000-2014.
Abrego’s lawyers say the coordination between DOJ and DHS to exert leverage over the plea negotiations is proof of a vindictive motive warranting dismissal of the criminal case. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
JUST IN: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say the Trump administration is trying to coerce him to plead guilty to the charges he is facing by promising to deport him to Costa Rica — and threatening to deport him to Uganda if he doesn’t. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
One thing she didn’t tell him: who submitted letters to Epstein’s birthday book. She recalled making it but not a single name of a contributor. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
NEW: Ghislaine Maxwell, eager for a pardon from her 20-year sex trafficking conviction and once accused of brazen perjury by prosecutors, says Trump was always “gentleman” in her presence. What she told (and didn’t tell) Todd Blanche, w @eorden @joshgerstein www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
MAXWELL told DOJ she believes Epstein was killed by a prison inmate over "internal" matters, not some conspiracy to silence him. www.justice.gov/storage/audi...
NEW: The FBI search of John Bolton’s home comes years after Trump accused him of criminality over handling of classified information - but DOJ dropped the matter. w @joshgerstein.bsky.social @giselleruhiyyih.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
JUST IN: A federal judge has barred the Trump admin and FL from bringing new detainees into “Alligator Alcatraz” and to dismantle some aspects of the facility as current detainees are moved out. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
JUST IN: Judge Berman agrees that effort by DOJ to unseal Epstein grand jury files is a “diversion” when DOJ could just release a trove of far more comprehensive documents without court involvement. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
JUST IN: A federal judge in Illinois has thrown out the Trump administration's lawsuit against the state that claims IL's workforce privacy law conflicts with federal immigration enforcement. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
REYES now trying to encourage a short-term agreement between DC and the Trump administration to can stave off immediate crisis and revisit more fully next week. If she can’t, though, she’s likely to issue a restraining order.
REYES continuing to be skeptical that the Home Rule Act's provision allowing the president to use DC police for federal services permits a wholesale takeover. Asking for discrete services is different than saying police can't do anything without president's permission.
HAPPENING NOW: Judge REYES not leaving a lot of mystery here: "The statute would have no meaning at all if the president could just say we’re taking over your police department."
Here is the dial-in info, which was not clear in the photo above: The Public Access telephone number is 1-833-990-9400, and the meeting ID is 787605272.
Katsas (Trump) and Rao (Trump) say Judge Amy Berman Jackson had no jurisdiction to consider the claims of mass-terminated CFPB employees and that the other claims about shutting down the agency were not reviewable. Judge Pillard (Obama) dissents. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
NEW: Judge Reyes has called a 2pm hearing on D.C.'s emergency bid to reclaim control of its police department. A restraining order could be in place within hours. w Nicole Markus www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
HERE WE GO: Judge Reyes calls a 2pm hearing on DC's restraining order motion, which will be publicly accessible:
BREAKING: The D.C. Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, has lifted Judge Amy Berman Jackson's injunction blocking the dismantling of the CFPB. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
UPDATE: The D.C. lawsuit goes to Judge Ana REYES, a Biden appointee who pulls no punches. She blocked Trump's transgender military ban before the DC Circuit paused her injunction.
DC POLICE CHIEF: "In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
MORE: D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith has filed a statement with the court saying she didn't know about Trump's intent to take control of the city police until he announced it at a press conference. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
👀The city's lawsuit says Terry Cole obtained an MPD badge with an expiration of Aug. 13, 2026. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
DC says the attempted takeover of the MPD is both illegal and creating "havoc" for officers trying to determine who is in charge of the department. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
JUST IN: Blistering ruling by Judge Ho on ICE arrests in immigration court. He says the Trump administration has turned attendance at immigration court proceedings into a game of "detention roulette" that violates due process. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
JUST IN: A few days after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration had obstructed about $94m Congress approved for the National Endowment for Democracy, DOJ confirms the money is being “expeditiously” made available
NEW: Donald Trump’s encroachment on Congress’ power of the purse has raised increasing alarm in courts and the Capitol — but a crucial legal. victory today may help him stave off challenges. w/ @sophiacai.bsky.social and crew. www.politico.com/newsletters/...
JUST IN: A D.C. Circuit panel just cleared the way the Trump administration to block significant foreign assistance funds appropriated by Congress, ruling that only the head of GAO could sue over alleged violations of the Impoundment Control Act. media.cadc.uscourts.gov/opinions/doc...
NEW: A federal judge has ordered ICE to improve squalid living conditions at a NYC detention facility, including -Only 2 meals per day -Lack of hygiene/feminine products -No in-person access to lawyers -No sleeping mats -Overcrowding. w/ @eorden.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
NEW: AG Paxton says Beto O'Rourke defied a court's restrictions on his political fundraising and told rallygoers "fuck the rules." But O'Rourke says Paxton's characterization is a lie and plans to seek sanctions for the "frivolous" suit. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
AG Paxton has asked a TX district court to "confine" Beto O'Rourke over his fundraising pushes linked to the redistricting fight. He has also filed to revoke the nonprofit registration of Beto's group Powered by People. www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/defaul...
JUST IN: DC Circuit denies emergency bid by advocates for immigrants to block a newly enforced requirement that undocument people register with the federal government or risk a criminal sanction. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
JUST IN: A federal appeals court panel has cleaed the way for DOGE to access employee data at Treasury, Education and OPM, lifting a lower-court judge's injunction that found privacy risks. Majority Richardson (Trump) Agee (GWB) Dissent King (Clinton) www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
NEW: Trump’s deployment of the military on American streets went on trial in California just hours after he expanded his gambit D.C. Gov Gavin Newsom’s lawyers say the troops strayed from their narrow mission, violating Posse Comitatus. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
This is a significant one for Trump's intent to test of the Impoundment Control Act by withholding congressionally appropriated funds. Congress directly funds NED and says no conditions can be put on its award other than what Congress itself imposes. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
JUST IN: Judge Friedrich, a Trump appointee on the bench in DC, rules that the administration is illegally withholding funds from the National Endowment for Democracy, in violation of Congress' direct appropriation. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
NEW: Donald Trump's bid to commandeer D.C. law enforcement implicates a long list of laws and precedents governing federal law enforcement and use of the military for domestic purposes. An overview: www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
The irony is not lost on many in Washington that Trump says spitting on a DC cop is justification for hitting/punching back "hard" when he pardoned hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters who assaulted those same cops — and said attacks on them that day were "minor."
Engelmeyer also describes "irregularities" about the unsealing effort, noting that it was filed by DAG Todd Blanche and not supported by any member of the trial team that handled the case. "Suggestive of haste rather than reflective deliberaiton." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Judge Engelmeyer is particularly brutal here: "The one colorable argument under that doctrine for unsealing in this case, in fact, is that doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
ENGELMEYER: Any person "who reviewed these materials expecting, based on the Government’s representations, to learn new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes and the investigation into them, would come away feeling disappointed and misled. There is no 'there' there."
MORE: Engelmeyer says he reviewed the grand jury material and confirmed there is virtually nothing in it that isn’t public already. It would “not reveal new information of any consequence.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
ENGELMEYER says the Trump administration’s claim that they wanted to release the Epstein grand jury records to shed new light on the case is “demonstrably false.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
BREAKING: Judge Engelmeyer has *denied* the Trump administration’s bid to unseal Jeffrey Epstein grand jury material. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
