This Week in Democracy – Week 46: From Naps in the White House to War Crimes at Sea
Another week of Zeteo's project to document the ongoing growth of authoritarianism in Trump's second term.
Have you read our morning politics newsletter, ‘First Draft’? Currently, anyone can access it, but it will go behind the paywall starting this Monday, Dec. 8. If you’re not already a paid subscriber, upgrade today to get full access to all of Zeteo’s content, including ‘First Draft.’
Just when you thought things in the US couldn’t get more insane, Week 46 of Donald Trump’s presidency happened.
It was a week of passing the buck on potential (likely) war crimes, racist rants against the Somali community, tirades against women journalists, and sweeping changes to immigration policy. But it was also another week that exposed further cracks in Trump’s MAGA movement and delivered humiliating blows to the president’s efforts to go after his perceived political enemies.
It was such a busy few days, even Trump couldn’t stay awake for his own Cabinet meeting (or perhaps that’s just because of his age?!).
Brace yourself, this week’s list is long, and it’s not just because we, as promised, included the days we missed last week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
From pardoning a convicted drug trafficker to fresh threats against Democratic-led states to dangerously rolling back the long-standing hepatitis B vaccine guidelines for newborns, here’s how Trump and his cronies harmed democracy, undermined the Constitution, and hurt free societies worldwide:
Thursday, November 27
On Truth Social, Trump announced, without giving details, that his administration will “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries,” and added that the US will “remove anyone who is not a net asset” to the country, as well as “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
In another post, Trump ridiculously claimed that “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia” are “completely taking over” Minnesota, used the r-word to describe Governor Tim Walz, and attacked Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom he falsely said “probably came into the U.S.A. illegally.”
On Twitter, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow announced that, at Trump’s direction, his agency will launch a “full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card” for holders from countries “of concern,” which USCIS later told NBC News are the 19 countries listed in Trump’s June presidential proclamation restricting entry into the US, including Afghanistan, Haiti, and Venezuela.
While speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Trump continued his attacks against women journalists, asking CBS News White House correspondent Nancy Cordes, “Are you a stupid person?” after she pushed back against Trump’s claim that there was “no vetting” of Afghan citizens who were brought to the US under Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome” program.
While giving Thanksgiving remarks to US troops, Trump suggested that the US could “very soon” expand operations and launch military action on land to target alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers, saying that “It’s about 85% stopped by sea” because of military strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, and adding, “We’ll be starting to stop them by land,” which he said is “easier.” The strikes have been widely condemned as violations of international law.
Friday, November 28
On Twitter, Trump said the US will “stop all payments and subsidies” to South Africa, “effectively immediately,” days after he announced he would not invite the country to the G20 in 2026, which is slated to take place at his golf resort in Doral, Florida. Trump said South Africa “has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere,” and he continued to baselessly claim the country is committing a “genocide” against white people. Later, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country “is and will remain a full, active, and constructive member of the G20,” and called Trump’s claims about genocide “blatant misinformation.”
On Truth Social, Trump claimed that he will nullify any executive order from the Biden administration that was signed with an autopen and “anything else that was not directly signed” by Biden himself. He warned that Biden “will be brought up on charges of perjury” if he says he was involved in “the Autopen process.” While the president has the power to revoke executive orders issued by their predecessors, Trump, who has admitted to using the autopen himself, has no legal authority to nullify pardons issued by Biden, which included his son and members of the Jan. 6 House select committee that investigated Trump’s involvement in the Capitol insurrection.
The Trump administration reached an agreement with Northwestern University to restore more than $790 million in federal research funding and end an investigation into alleged discrimination against Jewish students at the school. As part of the agreement, the school will pay $75 million to the federal government, develop training materials to “socialize international students,” overhaul its policies on campus demonstrations, and comply with federal anti-discrimination laws.
The State Department announced that it would immediately suspend issuing visas for travelers with Afghan passports.
On Twitter, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow announced that the agency has halted all asylum decisions until it can ensure that every applicant “is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
Politico reported that at least 225 judges have ruled in more than 700 cases that the Trump administration’s mass detention policy, which sees ICE arrest and detain nearly all immigrants facing deportation proceedings even if they haven’t committed a crime, likely violates the law and the right to due process. Meanwhile, only eight judges have sided with the policy.
The Washington Post reported that the US military conducted a follow-up strike to kill survivors on a boat in the Caribbean in early September after an initial strike didn’t kill everyone on board. Before the strike, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given an order that a source described to the Post as a directive “to kill everybody.” In response, Hegseth tweeted that the reporting was “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory” and argued that the operations “are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict.” However, legal experts have said the killing of the survivors in the second strike would likely be considered extrajudicial killings under international law.
On Truth Social, Trump announced he would grant a pardon to former Honduran President and convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández, who he claims was “treated very harshly and unfairly.” Hernandez, who served two terms, was sentenced to 45 years in prison in 2024 for conspiring to import cocaine to the US, as part of what then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said was “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”
Costco Wholesale sued the Trump administration before the Court of International Trade in an effort to get a “full refund” of all tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which the company argues are unlawful.
The White House added a “Media Bias Tracker” to its website that named the Boston Globe, CBS News, and the Independent as “media offenders of the week,” and featured the Washington Post, CBS News, CNN, and MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) in its “Offender Hall of Shame.” The page includes a database of articles, along with their corresponding publications and reporters, with ridiculous categories including “bias,” “lie,” and “left-wing lunacy” to describe their coverage.
Saturday, November 29
The New York Times reported that Trump granted a commutation to David Gentile, a private equity executive who was convicted in 2024 of securities and wire fraud charges in a case prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of investors. Gentile had served less than two weeks of a seven-year prison sentence. It’s unclear whether he had connections to Trump or any of his allies.
The Washington Post reported that the country’s top vaccine regulator told officials in an email without offering evidence that “at least 10 children have died after and because of receiving” a COVID-19 vaccine. He added that the Food and Drug Administration will take a stricter approach to approving federal vaccines, including “revis[ing] the annual flu vaccine framework” and reviewing whether people should receive multiple vaccines at the same time.
On Truth Social, Trump declared that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.” In response, the Venezuelan government said it “forcefully rejects” Trump’s claim, calling it a “colonial threat” designed to undermine the country’s “territorial integrity, aeronautical security, and full sovereignty.” The Foreign Ministry added that “such declarations constitute a hostile, unilateral, and arbitrary act.”
A group of ex-military attorneys said Hegseth’s reported orders to “kill everyone” in the Sept. 2 boat strike in the Caribbean, and the execution of the orders, would constitute “war crimes, murder, or both.” They also noted that international law not only prohibits targeting survivors, but requires the attacking group to protect and rescue them.
Sunday, November 30
The Washington Post reported that of the more than 4,000 people who officials say were arrested by immigration officers in Chicago over the past two months, only roughly 120 of them had a criminal record. Additionally, of more than 600 people arrested who have their detentions reviewed by a court, ICE identified fewer than 70 as posing a “high public safety risk.”
Monday, December 1
The New York Times reported that five US officials confirmed that Hegseth ordered the lethal Sept. 2 attack on a vessel in the Caribbean, but the officials also claimed that it was Special Operations commander Admiral Frank Bradley who directed the initial missile strike, followed by several additional strikes that killed the survivors and sank the boat. The narrative matched what White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing that afternoon.
The White House published a letter from Trump’s physician that included details about the MRI he received during his physical exam in October. The letter said the advanced imaging was performed “because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health.” Additionally, the physician said the MRI was “preventative,” and said both Trump’s cardiovascular and abdominal imaging are “perfectly normal.”
NBC News reported that at least 11 Republican lawmakers in Indiana have faced swatting attacks and other threats since Trump’s Nov. 16 Truth Social post pressuring state legislators to approve a new congressional map that would benefit Republicans.
Reuters reported that during a 15-minute phone call on Nov. 21, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro told Trump he was willing to leave the country on conditions that included he and his family members receiving full legal amnesty, as well as the removal of sanctions for over 100 Venezuelan government officials, and that Vice President Delcy Rodriguez lead an interim government until elections take place. Trump rejected most of Maduro’s requests and told him he had a week to leave Venezuela. That deadline expired on Nov. 28.
In a racist tweet, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she met with Trump and is “recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leaches, and entitlement junkies,” adding, “WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.”
The Trump administration fired eight immigration judges in New York City, who worked out of the immigration court’s offices at 26 Federal Plaza, a building that has become the main ICE holding facility for immigrants in the city and has been the scene of violent arrests by immigration officials. Among those fired was the assistant chief immigration judge, who supervised other judges at 26 Federal Plaza.
A federal appeals court ruled that Trump’s efforts to keep Alina Habba, his former personal attorney, as the top prosecutor in New Jersey were unlawful, upholding a lower court’s decision that disqualified Habba from her post.
Tuesday, December 2
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández’s lawyer said his client was released from prison after Trump formally pardoned him on Monday evening. Axios reported that Trump’s plan to pardon Hernandez came hours after ally Roger Stone, who wrote three Substack posts following the president’s inauguration calling for a pardon for Hernandez, reached out to the president to lobby for the move. Stone also said on his radio show that he sent Trump an October letter Hernandez wrote to the president, where he referred to him as “Your Excellency” and noted, “I have found strength from you.”
Axios also reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Trump to continue pushing for him to secure a pardon from Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
During a Cabinet meeting where Trump struggled to stay awake, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins threatened to withhold Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding to Democratic-led states beginning next week if they refuse to provide the Trump administration with data about recipients, including their names and immigration status.
Trump ended the Cabinet meeting by going on a racist rant attacking Somalis, claiming without evidence that they “ripped off” the state of Minnesota “for billions of dollars,” and said “they contribute nothing.” Trump went on to say, “I don’t want them in our country…Somebody said, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care.” He noted that Somalia is “no good for a reason” and said “their country stinks.” He also called Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar “garbage,” and said “we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”
USCIS issued a policy memo suspending all immigration applications filed by people from the 19 countries included in Trump’s travel ban, including green card and US citizenship processing. The memo also directed agency staffers to conduct a “comprehensive re-review” of approved benefit requests for immigrants from the 19 countries who entered the US since Biden was inaugurated in 2021.
In a court filing, Trump urged a federal judge to extend her order prohibiting the Justice Department from releasing former special counsel Jack Smith’s full final report, which details the criminal case against the president for mishandling classified documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago. His lawyer claimed that the failure to block the report’s release would “perpetuate Jack Smith’s unlawful criminal investigations and proceedings.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continued to distance himself from the second strike carried out on a boat in the Caribbean to kill two survivors in September, saying he watched the first strike he authorized live but “a couple of hours passed” before he was informed of the follow-up strike. Hegseth claimed he “did not personally see survivors…because that thing was on fire and was exploded,” and added, “this is called the fog of war.”
Meanwhile, Zeteo reported that Trump administration lawyers have been warning senior colleagues that if the Washington Post’s reporting on the second strike is true, it would be blatantly illegal, with one administration official saying, “There’s defending the homeland, and then there’s criminal behavior.”
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is targeting Afghan immigrants who had previously been ordered to leave the US following the shooting of two National Guard troops in DC last week, with an ICE official telling agency field offices in a Saturday email that “it has become vital to review the population of Afghanistan citizens,” and directed agents to locate and apprehend more than 1,860 Afghans who have received final deportation orders but aren’t currently in detention.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from implementing a provision in the president’s tax and spending bill to cut federal Medicaid funding from affiliates of Planned Parenthood, ruling that the ban appears to violate the Constitution.
NBC News reported that officials in Illinois told national rental car companies that federal immigration agents using their vehicles for enforcement operations are prohibited from switching out the license plate in an effort to disguise the vehicle, and warned that the companies could be held liable if agents do so.
A federal judge blocked immigration officers from making arrests without a warrant unless they can prove the individual is a flight risk, finding that the failure to consider an escape risk “directly violates the clear statutory requirements” for arrests.
On Truth Social, Trump doubled down on his plan to terminate all of Biden’s executive orders signed by autopen, but expanded the list to documents, proclamations, memorandums, and contracts.
The Atlantic reported that approximately 35,000 people have used the Customs and Border Patrol’s app CBP Home to “self-deport,” according to data from DHS. The department started a $200 million advertising campaign promoting the app in the spring and promising that immigrants who use it to “self-deport” would get a free plane ticket and $1,000 in cash. The Atlantic determined that each self-deportation cost about $7,500.
The family of a Colombian fisherman who was killed in a Sept. 15 boat strike by the US military filed a formal complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, arguing he was murdered. Any ruling made by the commission wouldn’t be legally binding in the US.
The Justice Department sued six more states (Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington), arguing they have violated federal voting laws by failing to turn over statewide voter registration lists. The DOJ has now sued at least 14 states, and AP says the department has requested voter data from at least 26 states.
“I’m a very smart man,” Trump said, bragging about the results from a cognitive exam for dementia he took in April. Zeteo published the test so you can see just how smart a US president, who thought Haitian immigrants eat cats and wind turbines kill whales, really is.
Wednesday, December 3
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it was launching a new immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans, Louisiana, named “Operation Catahoula Crunch.”
On Truth Social, Trump said he would issue a “full and unconditional” pardon of Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who was charged alongside his wife in 2024 with bribery and acting as a foreign agent after allegedly accepting roughly $600,000 from Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company and a Mexican bank in exchange for official acts as a member of Congress (Cuellar denied any wrongdoing). Trump claimed that Biden “used the FBI and DOJ to ‘take out’ a member of his own party” for speaking out “against Open Borders.”
The Guardian reported that a leaked memo showed that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been building a massive internal database of non-US citizens who are “employed or affiliated” with the department. Asked whether the data would be shared with ICE, a spokesperson for the department said the VA “will share any adverse findings with the appropriate agencies to ensure anyone who is not authorized to be in the US is dealt with accordingly.”
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) subpoenaed former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his handling of classified documents, for a closed-door deposition on Dec. 17.
CNN reported that a Pentagon watchdog concluded Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to discuss sensitive attack plans in Yemen could have endangered US troops. It also determined that Hegseth has the authority to declassify information, but there is no documentation supporting him making a decision to properly declassify the attack plans before sharing them in a Signal group chat with senior Trump administration officials and the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who was mistakenly added to the group. Hegseth refused an interview with the inspector general and instead provided a written account of his version of events.
The State Department announced it would expand a new requirement for online presence reviews to include all H-1B applicants and their dependents, and instructed applicants to ensure their social media profiles are set to “public.”
The Hill reported that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sent a letter to CBS News ombudsperson Ken Weinstein demanding answers about its editing of a ‘60 Minutes’ interview with Trump that aired Nov. 2. Raskin wrote that Trump “increasingly appears to be exercising direct control over CBS’s editorial decisions, destroying CBS’s ‘journalistic integrity’ while violating its right to be free from governmental coercion and manipulation.”
The New York Times reported that Trump’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, worked with consultants assisting the campaign of right-wing Honduran presidential candidate Nasry Asfura, who Trump endorsed last week in the same Truth Social post where he announced a pardon for former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández. Pascale confirmed to the Times that he advised the Asfura campaign, but claimed he “had no contact at all with the administration, including the president, about the election in Honduras or the pardon.”
The Times also reported that Hegseth had approved contingency plans for how the military should respond if there were survivors of an initial strike on a boat before the Trump administration began its barrage of attacks in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. The plans stated that the military would only conduct follow-up strikes to kill survivors if they engaged in what the US would consider hostile action, including communicating with suspected cartel members. Otherwise, the military would attempt to rescue survivors.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the October resignation of the military commander overseeing the Pentagon’s attacks against boats in the Caribbean was a de facto ouster following months of conflict with Hegseth, including disagreements about whether the lethal strikes were lawful.
Bloomberg reported that the FBI headquarters has been pressuring its domestic terrorism agents to launch a seditious conspiracy probe into six Democratic lawmakers over their viral video urging military service members to refuse illegal orders, though career leaders at the bureau’s Washington Field Office have pushed back on that request due to a lack of legal or factual basis to launch a criminal investigation against the lawmakers.
In a court hearing, Justice Department lawyers said Trump has asserted executive privilege in a lawsuit brought by police officers who were injured while responding to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, though it’s unclear what specific records Trump is trying to claim are “clearly constitutionally protected.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump ramped up his racist attacks against Somali immigrants, saying Somalia is “not even a nation, it’s just people walking around killing each other.” He added that “those Somalians should be out of here, they’ve destroyed our country.” He claimed that “Somalia is considered by many to be one of the worst countries on Earth.” He also continued to attack Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, saying she “should be thrown the hell out of our country” and adding that her “friends shouldn’t even be allowed to be congresspeople because they don’t represent the interests of our country.”
Trump pardoned a real estate developer who was indicted by a federal grand jury in July and accused of orchestrating a conspiracy to rig the bidding process to ensure his own company would secure a contract to build an arena at the University of Texas. While Trump has claimed many of the people he has pardoned were victims of a weaponized Biden-era Justice Department, the real estate developer was indicted under Trump’s own DOJ.
Nearly a dozen Democratic officials sent major tech companies, including Apple, Meta, and Nvidia, letters that raised concerns about possible “quid-pro-quo exchange[s]” and “significant tax break[s]” in return for their donations to Trump’s $300 million ballroom. Several of these companies are currently facing DOJ antitrust investigations. Officials warn the federal government should enforce “antitrust laws based on the merits rather than political favors.”
On Truth Social, Trump called Colorado Governor Jared Polis a “SLEAZEBAG” and said he “should be ashamed of himself” for not releasing Tina Peters from jail. Peters, a former county clerk in Colorado, was convicted of several charges after using someone’s security badge to allow an associate of Trump ally and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to access county election equipment following the 2020 presidential election.
Thursday, December 4
A federal appeals court allowed the Trump administration to continue its deployment of National Guard troops in DC, pausing a lower court order that found the move was probably illegal and directed the troops to leave by Dec. 11.
USCIS announced it would reduce the length of time Employment Authorization Documents are valid for certain groups of immigrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, from five years to 18 months, in an effort to vet these immigrants more frequently.
After military officials showed lawmakers video footage of the second strike that killed survivors during the Sept. 2 military operation in the Caribbean, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) told reporters, “What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.” Himes added that the survivors were in “clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel” when they were killed by the US military.
Meanwhile, CNN reported that Admiral Frank Bradley told lawmakers that the survivors who were killed by a second military strike didn’t appear to have radio or other communication devices, directly contradicting claims made by defense officials in at least one briefing to congressional staff that the survivors were legitimate targets because they appeared to be radioing for help or backup.
Amnesty International released a report on conditions at “Alligator Alcatraz” and the Krome ICE detention facility in the Everglades following a September visit. The organization noted that individuals are being held in conditions at both facilities that amount to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” They also said the use of a small cage-like structure at “Alligator Alcatraz” known as the “box,” where people are put in punishment with their feet attached to restraints on the ground, amounts to “torture or other ill-treatment,” along with prolonged solitary confinement at Krome.
The New York Times sued the Pentagon, arguing its new policy restricting reporting on the military “violates the Constitution’s guarantees of due process, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.”
A federal grand jury declined to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage fraud charges, less than two weeks after the original criminal case against her was dismissed. In a statement, James noted, “As I have said from the start, the charges against me are baseless. It is time for this unchecked weaponization of our justice system to stop.”
The US military, at the direction of Hegseth, conducted a strike on a boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people. On Twitter, Hegseth responded to a tweet from Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet, who said he wants to see “another narco boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean” for every new “attack” against Hegseth, saying, “Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat.”
The Supreme Court allowed Texas to move forward with its new congressional map, which was designed to net Republicans up to five additional House seats in the 2026 midterm elections. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the order “disrespects the work” of the district court that ruled the map was unconstitutional and “disserves millions of Texans.”
The Government Accountability Office confirmed it is opening an investigation into Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte to determine whether he misused his authority and agency resources in his decisions to refer New York Attorney General Letitia James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), and Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to the Justice Department on allegations of mortgage fraud.
On Fox, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Trump administration will expand its travel ban to more than 30 countries and added that Trump is considering which countries to include in the ban.
The Trump administration released its National Security Strategy, which, among other things, railed against America’s long-standing European allies, claiming Europe faced “civilizational erasure” due to its immigration policies, “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition,” and a “loss of national identities and self-confidence.” It noted, however, that the rise of far-right “patriotic European parties” gives “cause for great optimism.”
Friday, December 5
The New York Times reported that video footage of the two survivors of the US military’s Sept. 2 boat strike in the Caribbean showed them climbing on top of the overturned vessel and waving, a move that has been interpreted differently by people who have seen the footage, with some believing the waving could have been an effort to surrender or signaling for a rescue.
Meanwhile, CNN, citing unnamed sources, reported the alleged drug boat hit on Sept. 2 was not heading to the US, but it was going to hook up with a larger vessel bound for Suriname, Admiral Frank Bradley told lawmakers.
The Supreme Court agreed to review a case challenging Trump’s executive order to ban birthright citizenship. A ruling in the case is expected by the end of June 2026.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to eliminate the recommendation for all newborns to receive a hepatitis B vaccine, which has been in place since 1991. The panel said the vaccine isn’t necessary for babies whose mothers have tested negative for hepatitis B, and suggested parents delay the first dose for at least two months. The recommendation now moves to the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for approval.
MS Now (formerly MSNBC) reported that FBI Director Kash Patel has ordered the security detail responsible for protecting his girlfriend to escort one of her allegedly intoxicated friends home after partying in Nashville, Tennessee, on more than one occasion.
A federal judge granted a request by the Justice Department to release grand jury records from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, finding that the new law passed by Congress to release the Epstein files “trumps” the regulations that prevent grand jury material from being publicly released.
Did you miss previous weeks? Catch up here.
Subscribe to Zeteo to make sure you get ‘This Week in Democracy’ in your inbox every week.
If you are already a Zeteo subscriber but would like to increase your support for our accountability journalism in this era of Trump and authoritarianism, please do consider a donation, too.
The lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean are not “war crimes” or “likely war crimes.” They are murders, pure and simple. First, in order to be war crimes, we would have to be at war. Congress has not declared war, and the passengers on these boats are not combatants. Even with all its lies, the Trump
Administration has not gone so far as to assert that the targeted individuals were armed. Nor did they pose a threat, much less an “imminent” threat to the U.S. There’s not even evidence that they were headed to the U.S.
Much of the media is now focused exclusively on the possibility that these strikes were war crimes, often singling out the second strike (“tap”) on the two survivors of the last boat who were clinging to debris following the first strike.
This is misguided if not irresponsible reporting. Focusing as they do on the second strike suggests that the other strikes may have been legal. They are not. Again, we are not at war. As a separate issue, neither Congress nor the public at large have been provided a shred of evidence that the targeted individuals were drug runners. We’re expected to take on faith the allegations of serial liars that these people were running drugs. Even if they were, however, there are procedures for interdicting boats believed to be transporting drugs. The Coast Guard has successfully carried out these operations in the past, according those who were apprehended due process. And drug running, even if proven, is not a death penalty offense.
In sum, the Administration’s excuses of “fog of war,” suggesting that in war anything is justified, is misleading garbage. These are murders, not war crimes, and the distinction is important. The NYT, which we often have reason to mistrust (e.g., for its coverage or lack thereof, of Israel’s ongoing genocide), actually had two good articles on the distinction on Thursday and Friday of this week, citing legal experts, some with a military background, who know the difference between war crimes and murder. By contrast, the coverage by MS NOW, as it now calls itself, has been lousy. The latter has focused almost exclusively on the second strike on the last boat, which, although egregious in its own right, distracts viewers from the overriding fact that all these strikes are illegal. They also suggested that Admiral Bradley, who directly ordered the strikes, is being scapegoated by those who are responsible. Although in a democracy, Hegseth and Trump would be prosecuted for crimes, Bradley is also culpable in that he knowingly carried out illegal orders. Congress should be drawing up impeachment charges against Trump and calling for the court martial of Hegseth and Bradley. But then, that would mean we are a nation of laws.
The blanket examination of green cards is Unacceptable - that is going at. Class of people who have done NOTHING WRONG. It needs to be block or a major lawsuit needed.