This Week in Democracy – Week 53: Threats to the Media, Jack Smith, and Even FBI Agents
Zeteo's weekly round-up, documenting the growth of authoritarianism in Trump's second term.
Welcome to ‘This Week in Democracy – Week 53’ – the first edition of our new abridged format, highlighting Donald Trump and his cronies’ biggest attacks on democracy on each day of the week. We had so much to choose from that Trump’s deranged Tuesday press conference and his even more insane Davos speech on Wednesday didn’t even make the cut.
From attacks on the press to Trump’s personal paramilitary invading Maine, here’s just a taste of what Trump and his allies did this week that harmed democracy, undermined the Constitution, and hurt people in the US and worldwide:
Saturday, Jan. 17 – ‘We’ll Sue Your Ass Off’
The New York Times reported that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil and his colleagues that Trump would sue the network again if there were any edits made to the president’s 13-minute interview that aired on the Jan. 13 edition of the show.
“Make sure you guys don’t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full,” Leavitt said, according to a recording, adding, “If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.”
In a statement, CBS News noted that “The moment we booked this interview, we made the independent decision to air it unedited and in its entirety.”
Sunday, Jan. 18 - Readies the Troops
Roughly 1,500 active-duty soldiers in Alaska have been ordered by the Pentagon to get ready for a potential deployment to Minnesota, days after Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the military to the state, Reuters reported.
The Trump administration has already sent 3,000 federal agents to the state, in what the Department of Homeland Security described as its “largest enforcement operation” ever.
Monday, Jan. 19 – Honors MLK by Threatening a Black Journalist
The Justice Department’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, threatened to invoke the Ku Klux Klan Act to bring a conspiracy charge against a Black journalist on MLK Day after the reporter, Don Lemon, covered an anti-ICE protest inside a St. Paul, Minnesota, church.
Later in the week, a federal magistrate judge rejected the Justice Department’s initial attempt to bring charges against Lemon.
Tuesday, Jan. 20 – Bullies Dems in Minnesota
Trump’s Justice Department subpoenaed several Minnesota officials, including Democratic Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, as part of a federal investigation into whether they obstructed or impeded federal agents conducting a mass immigration crackdown through their public statements.
Frey, who has described the probe as a bullying tactic to quash political opposition, said: “We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with.”
Wednesday, Jan. 21 – A Day of Terrifying ICE News
AP reported that an internal ICE memo from May 2025 authorizes agents to use force to enter people’s homes without a warrant from a judge. Legal experts say such guidance flies in the face of the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure by the government.
That’s not all: The Department of Homeland Security launched an immigration crackdown operation in Maine, disgustingly dubbed “Catch of the Day”; a Texas medical examiner ruled that the death of a 55-year-old man in ICE custody, who died after guards held him down, was officially a homicide due to asphyxia; and a federal appeals court decision paved the way for federal officers to continue using tear gas and pepper spray against peaceful protesters in Minnesota.
(Guess how senior US Border Patrol official Greg Bovino celebrated that ruling? Yep, by throwing tear gas at protesters in Minneapolis.)
Thursday, Jan. 22 – Attacks Jack Smith – Again
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee embarrassed themselves by trying – and failing – to create a “gotcha” moment during former special counsel Jack Smith’s public testimony about his investigations into Trump. They spent much of the time either repeating their go-to political attacks or focusing on his procedure during the probe, not his findings.
During the hearing, Smith said he believes Trump administration officials will “do everything in their power” to indict him “because they’ve been ordered to by the president,” but added that he “will not be intimidated.” He also noted that he doesn’t understand why Trump would “mass pardon people who assaulted police officers.”
“I think all of us, if we’re reasonable, know that there’s going to be more crimes committed by these people in the future,” Smith said.
On Truth Social, Trump responded to Smith’s testimony by calling for him to “be prosecuted for his actions,” arguing that, “At a minimum, he committed large scale perjury!”
Friday, Jan. 23 – Patel Fires FBI Agents for Doing Their Job
FBI Director Kash Patel ramped up his purge of senior agents and field office leaders who were involved in investigations into Trump, MS Now reported.
Among those fired by Patel were as many as six agents in Miami who had done work related to the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents. Others were forced out for their involvement in the “Arctic Frost” investigation that focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
It’s unclear how many officials were fired by Patel, but the outlet called the turnover “unheard of at the FBI.”
Did you miss previous weeks of ‘This Week in Democracy’? Catch up here. And check out more of Zeteo’s coverage from this week below:
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I don’t think I can bring myself to relive it yet.