Trump Administration

The Miami Herald reports: U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta has called a Wednesday press conference to discuss the controversy around his handling of a federal sex trafficking case in South Florida against accused convicted sex offender and wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein. Acosta, President Donald Trump’s labor secretary since April 2017, has been under intense pressure from Democrats and some Republicans …

Science Magazine reports: A March news release from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) touted a new study that could be useful for infrastructure planning along the California coastline. At least that’s how President Donald Trump’s administration conveyed it. An earlier draft of the news release, written by researchers, was sanitized by Trump administration officials, who removed references to the dire …

The Guardian reports: Alexander Acosta, the US labor secretary under fire for having granted Jeffrey Epstein immunity from federal prosecution in 2008, after the billionaire was investigated for having run a child sex trafficking ring, is proposing 80% funding cuts for the government agency that combats child sex trafficking. Acosta’s plan to slash funding of a critical federal agency in …

The Hill reports: Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) lit into White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday after Conway took aim at the freshman Democrat for voting against a President Trump-backed border aid bill. Her tweet came in response to a tweet Conway made in which she mocked a disagreement between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Pressley and other progressive Democrats …

Bloomberg reports: Acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper has proposed new exceptions from a pledge to recuse himself from decisions involving his former employer Raytheon Co., reflecting his move to the top of Pentagon decision-making. Esper, who was the defense contractor’s chief lobbyist before coming to the Defense Department, sold his Raytheon stock in early 2018 under an agreement reached with …

Common Dreams reports: On the heels of the EPA’s June approval of a bee-killing pesticide, the White House said it would stop collecting data on declining honey bee populations—potentially making it impossible to analyze the effects of the chemical and the administration’s other anti-science policies on the pollinators. The USDA cited budget cuts when it said Saturday that it would …

The Washington Post reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday night became the highest-profile lawmaker to call for the resignation of Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, citing his handling as a U.S. attorney of an earlier case against Jeffrey Epstein that resulted in a minimal sentence. Pelosi’s call for Acosta to “step down” followed Monday’s indictment of the billionaire financier …

The Post & Courier reports: In a visit to South Carolina today, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said to expect the administration will present a legal path work-around that will allow a question on citizenship to be added to the 2020 Census. Speaking to reporters after touring a federal prison, Barr said “I think over the next day or two …

Reuters reports: A new team of Civil Division lawyers at the Department of Justice will take over handling 2020 census-related cases, a spokeswoman for the agency said on Sunday, a shake-up that came as President Donald Trump pushes to include a contentious citizenship question in the decennial population survey. Spokeswoman Kerri Kupec did not give a reason for the change, …

The New York Daily News reports: New York Attorney General Letitia James joined with the ACLU on Friday night in filing a motion in the Southern District of New York to block the Trump administration from delaying the printing of the 2020 census questionnaire or changing it to include a citizenship question. In its motion, James and the civil liberties …

ABC News reports: An internal memo from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that the agency’s leadership was aware, from as early as February 2018, of at least one private Facebook group that included “inappropriate and offensive posts” by its personnel. The agency said on Monday it has launched an investigation into a Facebook group known as “I’m 10-15,” after …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump just explained why he thinks we need a citizenship question on the census. But in doing so, he seems to have said the quiet part out loud — and conceivably could have undercut the Justice Department’s legal case. “Number one, you need it for Congress — you need it for Congress for districting,” he …

CBS News reports: The Justice Department signaled to a federal judge in Maryland Friday they’re still fighting to place the citizenship question on the census, something Mr. Trump has insisted he wants. The Justice Department, unsurprisingly, was unable to provide a different rationale for adding the question, as the Supreme Court has insisted is necessary to proceed. U.S. District Judge …

CNN reports: US Customs and Border Patrol agents at a migrant processing center in Texas allegedly attempted to humiliate a Honduran migrant by making him hold a sign that read, “I like men,” according to emails written by an agent who witnessed the incident. The emails — obtained by CNN — were sent to the agent’s supervisor and outlined the …

Reuters reports: A U.S. Justice Department lawyer told a Maryland-based federal judge on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking a “path forward” to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a dramatic change of course. “We at the Department of Justice have been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward … that would allow us …

Brandon Judd writes for Fox News: As the president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing 16,000 Border Patrol agents, I am personally and professionally offended by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s outrageous, inflammatory and false claims about the dedicated law enforcement officers I represent. By comparing Border Patrol agents to Nazis, Ocasio-Cortez is trying to dehumanize us. Interestingly, this …

The New York Times reports: Within the Trump administration, Vice President Mike Pence is known as a port of calm and stability amid the churn of chaos. So on Tuesday, when he abruptly abandoned a planned trip to New Hampshire after he had already boarded Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland, it raised immediate questions. It …

The Hill reports: The Trump administration said Tuesday that it was dropping a citizenship question from the 2020 census, days after the Supreme Court ruled against the question’s inclusion. Former Obama White House lawyer Daniel Jacobson made the revelation in a tweet Tuesday, sharing a screenshot of an email he received from a Justice Department lawyer confirming the decision. DOJ …

The Washington Post reports: The White House is distributing tickets for President Trump’s July Fourth speech on the Mall to Republican donors and political appointees, prompting Democratic lawmakers to question whether the administration’s planned celebration violates federal ethics rules. The Republican National Committee confirmed on Tuesday that it had received some passes to Trump’s address at the Lincoln Memorial, which …

ProPublica reports: Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings. …