Tag: lawsuit
'Suck It': How Kristi Noem Is Keeping It Classy

'Suck It': How Kristi Noem Is Keeping It Classy

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem shared a notice of the voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit against DHS on the social platform X on Thursday, captioning the post, "Suck it."

The lawsuit Espinoza Escalona v. Noem was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where a number of immigrants alleged wrongful deportation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under Noem’s leadership, claiming violations of due process.

Supported by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other human rights groups, the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in March after defendants removed the plaintiffs from deportation proceedings.

Social media users reacted with surprise to the strong language in Noem's post.

Democratic influencer Harry Sisson quoted her post and wrote: "This is DHS Secretary Kristi Noem saying 'suck it' in celebration over deporting people to El Salvador without due process. She’s celebrating constitutional rights being ignored. How evil and depraved."

The Daily Beast columnist Julia Davis wrote: "Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is keeping it classy."

"Not AI. This is a real tweet from the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. This is our life now," wrote the account "Republicans against Trump."

"US government officials tweeting 'Suck it' is exactly why nobody takes Kristi, or this administration as a whole, seriously. I can’t believe how far our country has fallen. We used to have decorum, class, and integrity. Now we have this," one X user tweeted.

"I support the Trump Administration and think y’all are doing a good job. But this post? Really? It’s embarrassing," wrote another in response to Noem's post.

On Wednesday, a federal judge told President Donald Trump's administration that its reported attempt to deport migrants to South Sudan clearly violated his court injunction.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy's order set the stage for yet another legal clash for the Trump administration, which has been frequently accused of defying the courts.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Trump Susman Godfrey order

Law Firm That Won Fox Defamation Case Files Suit Against Trump

Susman Godfrey, the firm that won a $787 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News for spreading lies about Dominion Voting Systems, is now suing the administration over President Donald Trump’s executive order “penalizing firms that employed his enemies or engaged in work he opposes,” the Daily Beast reports.

“No administration should be allowed to punish lawyers for simply doing their jobs, protecting Americans and their constitutional right to the legal process,” the firm wrote in a statement about the suit.

As the Beast reports, “On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order barring Susman Godfrey from federal contracts held by the firm’s clients, removed its employees’ security clearances, and banned them from accessing federal buildings.”

According to the suit, Trump has made “no secret of its unconstitutional retaliatory and discriminatory intent to punish Susman Godfrey for its work defending the integrity of the 2020 presidential election.”

“But this goes far beyond law firms and lawyers,” Susman Godfrey said in a statement, “Today it is our firm under attack, but tomorrow it could be any of us. As officers of the court, we are duty-bound to take on this fight against the illegal executive order.”

According to the Beast, “Four firms—including the two largest firms in the country, Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins—cut deals on Friday to avoid falling victim to one of Trump’s executive orders. They agreed to provide a total of at least $500 million in pro bono work for the current administration.”

“Susman Godfrey joined the handful of firms—including Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale—that have taken action against the president, calling the president’s spree of executive orders ‘so obviously unconstitutional,’” the Beast reports.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Former President Donald Trump

Trump Vows To Suspend 'All Environmental Approvals' For Any Billion-Dollar Investor

President-elect Donald Trump pledged to fast-track permits and tamp down regulations, including environmental, for any entity that wants to invest $1 billion or more in America, while offering no specifics or parameters, including how the federal government could arbitrarily overrule state and local laws.

“Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals. GET READY TO ROCK!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.

During the campaign, Trump told oil and gas executives and lobbyists at a closed-door Mar-a-Lago fundraiser that if they invested $1 billion in his campaign, he would scale back or remove environmental regulations.

“Attendees included executives from ExxonMobil, EQT Corporation and the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies for the oil industry,” The New York Times had reported in May. “The event was organized by the oil billionaire Harold Hamm, who has for years helped to shape Republican energy policies.”

Trump has announced his nominee for Secretary of the Interior will be North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

“Under the National Environmental Policy Act,” Forbes reports, “the federal government is required to conduct environmental reviews before approving energy production plans, infrastructure builds and other projects. How Trump will help investors get around regulations isn’t clear, but Trump has vowed to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas, projects that are often stymied or killed in the regulatory process.”

Critics blasted Trump’s statement.

314Action, which says it is “the only organization in the nation focused on recruiting, training, and electing Democrats with a background in science to public office,” wrote: “To tackle the climate crisis, Congress needs to pass and enforce bold, evidence-based legislation. However, Donald Trump doesn’t believe that billionaires should have to follow the law. In his world, they can pay-to-play and bypass crucial environmental protections. That’s why we’ll always fight to #ElectScientists who will fight back against his anti-science agenda and hold these bad actors accountable.”

“A government of oligarchs that will exist to solely serve the interests of oligarchs while distracting working people with culture wars. Foreign corporations & persons can loot & pollute the US and bypass regs that protect the health of Americans as long as they got lots of cash,” observed MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski.

Journalist David Leavitt asked, “How many animals will go extinct because of this? How much quicker will this hasten the destruction of our planet?”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Robert Hur

CNN Sues For Audiotape Of Biden In Classified Documents Probe

CNN filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice Thursday in order to obtain recordings of President Joe Biden's interview with investigators regarding the now defunct probe into his mishandling of classified documents, the news outlet reports.

This comes almost exactly two months after special counsel Robert Hur released a special report, announcing his decision not to charge Biden over the mishandling of documents, and one month after transcript of investigators' interview with the president was released.

Hur — who was appointed by ex-President Donald Trump as a US Attorney — said that "no criminal charges are warranted in this matter," but in the report he "described Biden as a 'sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,'" which the White House and many legal experts deemed unnecessary.

White House spokesperson Ian Sams blasted Hur's comments, saying, "The inappropriate criticisms of the President’s memory are inaccurate, gratuitous, and wrong."

Per the report, "The filing from CNN on Thursday outlined how the news organization requested the Justice Department make public audio and any video tapes pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act days after Hur’s report became public. Nearly a dozen other news outlets also have sought access to the recordings and may join the lawsuit, CNN’s filing said."

Last month, CNN’s Manu Raju posted excerpts from the network’s report on the transcript of the five-hour interview, "including one noting that President Biden 'told jokes and unfurled lengthy detailed stories from his decades-long political career as he parried questions from special counsel Robert Hur and his investigators over two days last October."

While the transcript was released by the DOJ in February, CNN notes the department also has recordings.

"Without access to any of the interview records, the press and public initially could not form their own conclusions about Hur’s characterization of Biden. … Transcripts, however, are no substitute for recordings," CNN lawyers wrote in the filing.

The news outlet notes, "While Congress has prompted some transparency around the special counsel’s work, several other organizations are suing in federal court in Washington, DC, for access to records from Hur’s office. Those lawsuits are still in early stages."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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