Poli Alert Politics & Civics

Several career prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced their resignations this week after learning there would be no federal civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by a federal immigration agent, according to six people briefed on the matter. At least six prosecutors …

A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy grants for projects located in states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, concluding the move violated the Constitution’s equal protection requirements. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta …

Former special counsel Jack Smith will testify publicly before the House Judiciary Committee next week, Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, announced Monday night, setting up a high-profile confrontation over Smith’s investigations into President Donald Trump. The Jan. 22 hearing comes weeks after Smith sat for more than eight hours of closed-door …

President Donald Trump threatened Monday to impose a sweeping 25% tariff on any country that continues doing business with Iran, a move that could disrupt U.S. trade relations with major global economies including China, India, the European Union and the United Arab Emirates. “Effective immediately, any Country doing business with …

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona filed a civil lawsuit Monday against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, seeking to block the Pentagon from downgrading his military retirement rank and pay in what Kelly calls an unprecedented act of political retaliation by the Trump administration. In a 46-page complaint filed in federal …

References to President Donald Trump’s two impeachments have been removed from his display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the latest apparent shift at the nation’s premier museum complex as Trump asserts greater influence over how U.S. history is publicly presented. The wall text summarizing Trump’s first presidency — including …

Former Rep. Mary Peltola announced that she is running for the U.S. Senate in Alaska, giving Democrats a high-profile recruit as they seek to unseat two-term Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in a state President Donald Trump carried comfortably in 2024. “Growing up, Alaska was a place of abundance. Now, we …

Federal immigration authorities intensified a weekslong operation in the Twin Cities over the weekend following the Wednesday killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. Residents pushed back, led by a growing network of rapid responders hounding U.S. ICE and Border Patrol vehicles and agents across the metro …

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Sunday that the Justice Department subpoenaed the central bank late last week and threatened a criminal indictment, escalating what he described as a sustained pressure campaign by the Trump administration to influence monetary policy. Powell said the subpoena, issued Friday, relates to his June …

The Department of Homeland Security has again imposed a requirement that members of Congress provide advance notice before inspecting immigration detention facilities, issuing a new policy designed to sidestep a federal court order that blocked similar restrictions last month. The policy, dated Jan. 8 and submitted Saturday in federal court, …

A viral video posted just after Christmas spurred an avalanche of news coverage, changes from the Trump administration, and congressional hearings that appeared to indicate that a massive trove of child care fraud was just uncovered in Minnesota. Much of it has been misleading. The video by right-wing YouTuber Nick …

President Donald Trump on Friday escalated his rhetoric over Greenland, declaring that the United States will take action to acquire the Arctic territory regardless of opposition from Denmark or Greenland’s government. “We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump told reporters at the …

A federal judge on Friday temporarily barred the Trump administration from withholding billions of dollars in federal funding for child care and family assistance programs from five Democratic-led states, ruling that the states had shown an immediate need to preserve the status quo while the dispute plays out in court. …

The Senate on Thursday unanimously approved a resolution to display a plaque honoring the law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, stepping around House Speaker Mike Johnson after he refused to install the memorial despite a federal law requiring it. The resolution directs …

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the top federal prosecutor in the Northern District of New York is serving unlawfully, marking the fifth time courts have rejected the Justice Department’s effort to keep an acting U.S. attorney in place without Senate confirmation under President Donald Trump’s administration. U.S. District Judge …