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A government erasing its own history. The Trump administration has deleted the searchable database of cases against the Jan. 6 insurrectionists and Capitol rioters from the Justice Department’s website. Historians say that’s a time-tested tactic of autocratic rulers. What’s lost now isn’t just the raw data, writes Alec MacGillis, it's “our ability to consider the events of Jan. 6 in all their complexity and particularity.” ProPublica More: FBI agents and federal lawyers fear retribution by Capitol rioters pardoned by President Donald Trump. “A lot of us are already not reporting these threats, because we don't think they'll care,” one official says. NPR
Labeling immigrants a tuberculosis risk. The White House is searching for medical pretexts like measles or tuberculosis to label asylum-seekers and other migrants a public health risk. The Wall Street Journal The Justice Department sues Chicago and Illinois over immigration detention. WBEZ Texas lawmakers say they want to spend another $6.5 billion on border security over the next two years. The Texas Tribune TMP Context: Billions more for Operation Lone Star. The Marshall Project An update on immigration detention in Florida. Tallahassee Democrat Democratic leaders in “blue” states worry that their Republican counterparts will order National Guard troops over state lines to gather people for deportation. Stateline
The illusion of success. Trump officials are gaming Google results to create a mirage about the pace of deportations. Old press releases about immigration enforcement are being updated to top search results. The Guardian Federal immigration officials are quick to pump out arrest and deportation figures. But always check the math. The Boston Globe Despite their claims to the contrary, federal immigration agents have arrested scores of non-citizens who have no criminal records. NPR The GEO Group, which runs a federal immigration center in Tacoma, Washington, has gone to court to block the release of inspection records. Cascade PBS
Undermining public safety. Trump’s purge of Justice Department lawyers featured the firing of more than a dozen young assistant U.S. attorneys in Washington, D.C.; they were crime-fighting prosecutors who had nothing to do with DOJ policy decisions during the Biden administration. Lawfare Ed Martin, the acting U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C. just dropped a case against an accused Capitol rioter whom he represented. It’s an obvious conflict of interest, legal experts say. Reuters More: Current and former FBI agents say Trump’s suggested mass firings at the FBI will undermine public safety and counterterrorism operations by eliminating thousands of years of institutional knowledge and experience. NBC News
Fighting the weaponization of the Justice Department by weaponizing the Justice Department. On her first full day as U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi issued a flurry of orders, among them a directive to shut down the Foreign Influence Task Force established by the FBI during the Biden administration. Politico Bondi also ordered federal prosecutors to investigate companies with diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Slate Justice Department lawyers will also spend time and money investigating the federal and state criminal investigations and prosecutions of Trump, the new U.S. Attorney General promises. CNN
Alabama executioners killed Demetrius Frazier by nitrogen gas last night for a 1991 rape and murder. It was the state’s fourth nitrogen execution. Frazier apologized to the victim’s family before he died. Alabama Reflector TMP Context: New execution methods, old problems. The Marshall Project More: In Arizona, new details about a challenge to the state’s lethal injection protocols as an execution date looms in March. Arizona Mirror
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy this week commuted the sentences of three women convicted of killing their domestic abusers. Some lawmakers there want more comprehensive help for survivors of abuse. Bolts TMP Context: The domestic abuse survivor pipeline to prison. The Marshall Project
Vermont officials don’t track the deaths of unhoused people. Two news organizations did. At least 82 unhoused people died between 2021 and 2024, either outdoors or in an emergency shelter, according to a new data investigation. Vermont Public/SevenDays
Federal officials evicted former Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan from her Washington, D.C. home with three hours’ notice on Trump’s order. Fagan was summarily fired from her job when Trump took office on Jan. 20. NBC News
A new district attorney, a new wave of retaliation claims by prosecutors. Two prosecutors in Los Angeles County, California, say they have been demoted in the past few months because of their support for the resentencing of the Menendez brothers and their perceived ties to former District Attorney George Gascón. NBC News
Advice for Pam Bondi, who certainly won’t take it. “You’re the only attorney general we have, and you alone can arrest a drift in Justice Department internal actions that is veering towards the truly catastrophic.” Lawfare
What did Kash Patel know about the FBI purge, and when did he know it? Senators will abdicate their “advise and consent” function if they confirm a FBI director in the middle of a historic partisan purge of FBI agents. Just Security
What could go wrong? Trump’s plan to send thousands of asylum-seekers and migrants to detention at the military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is legally flawed and practically impossible. Politico More: Advice from a former Guantánamo Bay detainee: It’s horrifying that Trump would want to send asylum-seekers and migrants there. The Guardian
Voter suppression of a different sort in North Carolina. Defeated Republicans are asking the courts to ignore the will of the people who voted for a Democrat for a state supreme court seat, argues former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The New York Times
We’ll soon see how serious the White House is about Mexico’s drug cartels. “If Mr. Trump and those around him are serious about weakening the cartels, they need a serious plan. They need to see the cartels for what they truly are: predatory multinational businesses. He needs a strategy to hit them where it hurts — in the pocketbook.” The New York Times
Prison beating a “homicide,” medical examiner says. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says she wants criminal charges brought against the prison guards who beat Robert Brooks to death in December. More than a dozen prison employees have been suspended without pay over the incident after a video of the attack was made public. CNN
Gendered injustice. “The rape-kit backlog in the U.S. is especially mind-boggling when one considers exactly what a forensic exam demands of a patient.” The New Yorker TMP Context from 2015: Questions about untested rape kits. The Marshall Project
That gun database that Second Amendment zealots always warned about? Turns out it was created by the gun lobby — to help elect Trump and other Republican candidates in 2016. ProPublica
Make sure your judge is a lawyer. A New York judge elected to office with no understanding of basic due process principles resigned this week after he responded to jury service by claiming that all defendants who appear before them are guilty. The Associated Press/ABC News
All you ever wanted to know about your Sixth Amendment right to counsel. A handy new guide for policymakers, advocates, and others. Sixth Amendment Center
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