Washington
Head of agency that protects whistleblowers sues Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, sued President Donald Trump on Monday, saying he was illegally fired as part of the president’s massive overhaul of the government.
Hampton Dellinger was informed of his firing in an email Friday evening from the White House personnel director, who said he was writing on behalf of the president. Dellinger’s termination comes as Trump’s Republican administration is testing the limits of well-established civil service protections by moving to dismantle federal agencies and push out staffers
Dellinger notes in his lawsuit, filed in Washington federal court, that special counsels can be removed by the president “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Dellinger was confirmed last year by the Senate for a five-year term to lead the watchdog agency.
“The effort to remove me has no factual nor legal basis — none — which means it is illegal,” Dellinger said in an email.
The Office of Special Counsel is responsible for enforcing laws related to federal employees, including the Hatch Act, which restricts the partisan political activities of government workers. Dellinger’s firing comes as Trump administration employees have touted their support on social media for his policies even though the Hatch Act is meant to restrict political advocacy while on duty.
The independent agency is separate from Justice Department special counsels, who are appointed by the attorney general for specific investigations, like Jack Smith.
Before becoming special counsel, Dellinger served as an assistant attorney general in the Biden administration Justice Department overseeing its Office of Legal Policy. He was also a deputy attorney general in the North Carolina Department of Justice and was chief legal counsel in the governor’s office there.
Dellinger is the son of Walter Dellinger, an esteemed attorney who died in 2022. The elder Dellinger led the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in the Clinton administration and served as acting U.S. solicitor general.
Washington
Judge finds Trump administration hasn’t fully followed his order to unfreeze federal spending
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge found Monday that the Trump administration hasn’t fully followed his order to unfreeze federal spending and told the White House to release all the money.
U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell found there’s evidence that some federal grants and loans are still not going out to the recipients and ordered that the cash be released.
McConnell ordered a halt to Trump administration plans for a sweeping freeze of federal funding in late January. The Republican administration has said the pause was necessary to ensure federal spending fits with the president’s agenda.
The judge said his temporary restraining order also blocks the administration from making billions of dollars in cuts to the National Institutes of Health that were announced Friday.
“These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the (temporary restraining order),” he wrote. “The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The order comes in a lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen states.
A different federal judge in Washington has issued a temporary restraining order against the funding freeze plan and since expressed concern that nonprofit groups weren’t getting their funding.
Texas
Drug lord’s son-in-law pleads guilty in border price-fixing plan
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The son-in-law of a Mexican drug lord pleaded guilty this week to a scheme that used violence and threats to fix prices and control the transnational used-car market at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Carlos Favian Martinez, son-in-law to former Gulf Cartel drug lord, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, entered a guilty plea before a federal court in Houston to charges including conspiracy to fix prices, monopolizing, interfering with commerce by extortion and money laundering. Nine others were also indicted in November 2022 for their participation.
Prosecutors alleged the eleven-year scheme started in 2011 and involved fixing prices of forwarding agency services operating in Los Indios, Texas, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Brownsville. The port of entry is used by thousands of migrants every year who buy used vehicles in the U.S. and drive them back to Central America through the U.S.-Mexico border.
The indictment and court testimony highlighted beatings, kidnappings and fatal shootings that were part of the conspiracy between the defendants who used brutal force against several people who charged less for their services or who were noncompliant with the extortion tax.
Martinez’s relationship to Osiel Cárdenas Guillén was discussed during a detention hearing held in July 2023 when a federal agent said Martinez spoke of his relationships across the border in Matamoros and Reynosa during a kidnapping.
The agent said Martinez married the daughter of the drug lord, Guillén, a 57-year-old native of the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, who started a violent brand of cartel violence through the formation of the Zetas.
On Thursday, Martinez entered a guilty plea as first reported by local media. The plea agreement outlined an 11-year imprisonment term, though a sentencing hearing is scheduled in May.
“After two years of litigation we were able to arrive at a mutual agreement that calls for a sentence of eleven years,” Kent A. Schaffer, an attorney representing Martinez, said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “Mr. Martinez has been incarcerated since his arrest over two years ago and sees this resolution as one that will get him back home as soon as possible.”
Martinez’s father-in-law was recently sent back to Mexico after serving a portion of his sentence in the U.S. The former drug lord is facing drug, organized crime and money-laundering charges in Mexico.
Massachusetts
Nearly two dozen states sue Trump Administration to halt funding cuts in medical, public health research
BOSTON (AP) — Attorney generals from 22 states filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump Administration for slashing funding for medical and public health research at universities nationwide.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston challenges the Trump Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health over efforts to reduce indirect costs to these institutions, including lab, faculty, infrastructure, and utility costs.
“We will not allow the Trump Administration to unlawfully undermine our economy, hamstring our competitiveness, or play politics with our public health,” Massachusetts Attorney Andrea Campbell said in a statement.
Rhode Island Attorney General Neronha, whose state has several significant research institutions including Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, said the Trump Administration seemed “hell-bent on upending advancement in this country.”
“This reduction in funding would seriously threaten the future of this research,” Neronha said in a statement. “If you’ve ever wished for a cure, for better treatment options, for yourself or a loved one, this should feel personal.”
Last week, the NIH announced it was cutting payments toward overhead costs for research institutions that receive its grants, a policy that could leave universities with major budget gaps. Currently, some universities receive 50% or more of the amount of a grant to put toward support staff and other needs, but that would be capped at 15%.
Connecticut
Aaron Hernandez’s brother sentenced to time served in case over shooting threats
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The brother of the late New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was sentenced Friday to 18 months of prison time already served for threatening to carry out a shooting at the University of Connecticut and to kill three people including a judge in 2023.
Dennis Hernandez, 38, who went by “DJ” while playing quarterback and wide receiver for UConn football in the mid-2000s, was suffering severe mental health problems at the time of the threats and has since been receiving treatment and taking medication, according to his public defender, Josh Ewing.
U.S. District Judge Sarala Nagala in Hartford also sentenced Hernandez to three years of supervised release, during which he must continue mental health and substance abuse treatment, allow probation officials to monitor his electronic devices and stay away from UConn and other locations he threatened, the Connecticut U.S. attorney’s office said.
Hernandez, who apologized for his actions during brief comments in court, was expected to be released from custody on Friday afternoon, The Hartford Courant reported. Federal Bureau of Prison records showed he was no longer in custody Friday evening.
A message left at a phone listed for Hernandez was not immediately returned.
State criminal charges in Connecticut and Florida in other cases — including allegations he threw a brick with a note critical of the media attached onto ESPN headquarters property in Bristol, Connecticut — are expected to be dismissed because of the federal case, Ewing said, adding that those incidents happened during the same mental health crisis.
Ewing did not immediately return phone and email messages after the sentencing. In court documents, he wrote that Hernandez was “horrified” at how his actions terrified others, is remorseful and is committed to maintaining his mental health.
Hernandez pleaded guilty to a felony — transmitting interstate communications containing a threat to injure — in December.
Police said he drove to the UConn campus and to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he once served as quarterbacks coach, to “map the schools out” for a shooting in July 2023. Court filings said Hernandez was struggling financially, was frustrated at seeing other people get hired as football coaches and felt owed by UConn.
Also that month, prosecutors said Hernandez made multiple Facebook posts threatening to harm or kill three people who live in other states, including a state court judge.
His mother, Terri Hernandez, told police around the time of his 2023 arrest in Bristol that he had deteriorating mental health problems including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Dennis Hernandez was shocked with a Taser and taken into custody after he came out of his sister’s house with his arms raised, yelling “shoot me” and threatening to harm officers, police said.
Terri Hernandez and several other relatives and friends wrote letters to the judge supporting Dennis Hernandez asking that he be released from detention.
Head of agency that protects whistleblowers sues Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, sued President Donald Trump on Monday, saying he was illegally fired as part of the president’s massive overhaul of the government.
Hampton Dellinger was informed of his firing in an email Friday evening from the White House personnel director, who said he was writing on behalf of the president. Dellinger’s termination comes as Trump’s Republican administration is testing the limits of well-established civil service protections by moving to dismantle federal agencies and push out staffers
Dellinger notes in his lawsuit, filed in Washington federal court, that special counsels can be removed by the president “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Dellinger was confirmed last year by the Senate for a five-year term to lead the watchdog agency.
“The effort to remove me has no factual nor legal basis — none — which means it is illegal,” Dellinger said in an email.
The Office of Special Counsel is responsible for enforcing laws related to federal employees, including the Hatch Act, which restricts the partisan political activities of government workers. Dellinger’s firing comes as Trump administration employees have touted their support on social media for his policies even though the Hatch Act is meant to restrict political advocacy while on duty.
The independent agency is separate from Justice Department special counsels, who are appointed by the attorney general for specific investigations, like Jack Smith.
Before becoming special counsel, Dellinger served as an assistant attorney general in the Biden administration Justice Department overseeing its Office of Legal Policy. He was also a deputy attorney general in the North Carolina Department of Justice and was chief legal counsel in the governor’s office there.
Dellinger is the son of Walter Dellinger, an esteemed attorney who died in 2022. The elder Dellinger led the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in the Clinton administration and served as acting U.S. solicitor general.
Washington
Judge finds Trump administration hasn’t fully followed his order to unfreeze federal spending
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge found Monday that the Trump administration hasn’t fully followed his order to unfreeze federal spending and told the White House to release all the money.
U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell found there’s evidence that some federal grants and loans are still not going out to the recipients and ordered that the cash be released.
McConnell ordered a halt to Trump administration plans for a sweeping freeze of federal funding in late January. The Republican administration has said the pause was necessary to ensure federal spending fits with the president’s agenda.
The judge said his temporary restraining order also blocks the administration from making billions of dollars in cuts to the National Institutes of Health that were announced Friday.
“These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the (temporary restraining order),” he wrote. “The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The order comes in a lawsuit filed by nearly two dozen states.
A different federal judge in Washington has issued a temporary restraining order against the funding freeze plan and since expressed concern that nonprofit groups weren’t getting their funding.
Texas
Drug lord’s son-in-law pleads guilty in border price-fixing plan
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The son-in-law of a Mexican drug lord pleaded guilty this week to a scheme that used violence and threats to fix prices and control the transnational used-car market at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Carlos Favian Martinez, son-in-law to former Gulf Cartel drug lord, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, entered a guilty plea before a federal court in Houston to charges including conspiracy to fix prices, monopolizing, interfering with commerce by extortion and money laundering. Nine others were also indicted in November 2022 for their participation.
Prosecutors alleged the eleven-year scheme started in 2011 and involved fixing prices of forwarding agency services operating in Los Indios, Texas, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Brownsville. The port of entry is used by thousands of migrants every year who buy used vehicles in the U.S. and drive them back to Central America through the U.S.-Mexico border.
The indictment and court testimony highlighted beatings, kidnappings and fatal shootings that were part of the conspiracy between the defendants who used brutal force against several people who charged less for their services or who were noncompliant with the extortion tax.
Martinez’s relationship to Osiel Cárdenas Guillén was discussed during a detention hearing held in July 2023 when a federal agent said Martinez spoke of his relationships across the border in Matamoros and Reynosa during a kidnapping.
The agent said Martinez married the daughter of the drug lord, Guillén, a 57-year-old native of the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, who started a violent brand of cartel violence through the formation of the Zetas.
On Thursday, Martinez entered a guilty plea as first reported by local media. The plea agreement outlined an 11-year imprisonment term, though a sentencing hearing is scheduled in May.
“After two years of litigation we were able to arrive at a mutual agreement that calls for a sentence of eleven years,” Kent A. Schaffer, an attorney representing Martinez, said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “Mr. Martinez has been incarcerated since his arrest over two years ago and sees this resolution as one that will get him back home as soon as possible.”
Martinez’s father-in-law was recently sent back to Mexico after serving a portion of his sentence in the U.S. The former drug lord is facing drug, organized crime and money-laundering charges in Mexico.
Massachusetts
Nearly two dozen states sue Trump Administration to halt funding cuts in medical, public health research
BOSTON (AP) — Attorney generals from 22 states filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump Administration for slashing funding for medical and public health research at universities nationwide.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston challenges the Trump Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health over efforts to reduce indirect costs to these institutions, including lab, faculty, infrastructure, and utility costs.
“We will not allow the Trump Administration to unlawfully undermine our economy, hamstring our competitiveness, or play politics with our public health,” Massachusetts Attorney Andrea Campbell said in a statement.
Rhode Island Attorney General Neronha, whose state has several significant research institutions including Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, said the Trump Administration seemed “hell-bent on upending advancement in this country.”
“This reduction in funding would seriously threaten the future of this research,” Neronha said in a statement. “If you’ve ever wished for a cure, for better treatment options, for yourself or a loved one, this should feel personal.”
Last week, the NIH announced it was cutting payments toward overhead costs for research institutions that receive its grants, a policy that could leave universities with major budget gaps. Currently, some universities receive 50% or more of the amount of a grant to put toward support staff and other needs, but that would be capped at 15%.
Connecticut
Aaron Hernandez’s brother sentenced to time served in case over shooting threats
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The brother of the late New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was sentenced Friday to 18 months of prison time already served for threatening to carry out a shooting at the University of Connecticut and to kill three people including a judge in 2023.
Dennis Hernandez, 38, who went by “DJ” while playing quarterback and wide receiver for UConn football in the mid-2000s, was suffering severe mental health problems at the time of the threats and has since been receiving treatment and taking medication, according to his public defender, Josh Ewing.
U.S. District Judge Sarala Nagala in Hartford also sentenced Hernandez to three years of supervised release, during which he must continue mental health and substance abuse treatment, allow probation officials to monitor his electronic devices and stay away from UConn and other locations he threatened, the Connecticut U.S. attorney’s office said.
Hernandez, who apologized for his actions during brief comments in court, was expected to be released from custody on Friday afternoon, The Hartford Courant reported. Federal Bureau of Prison records showed he was no longer in custody Friday evening.
A message left at a phone listed for Hernandez was not immediately returned.
State criminal charges in Connecticut and Florida in other cases — including allegations he threw a brick with a note critical of the media attached onto ESPN headquarters property in Bristol, Connecticut — are expected to be dismissed because of the federal case, Ewing said, adding that those incidents happened during the same mental health crisis.
Ewing did not immediately return phone and email messages after the sentencing. In court documents, he wrote that Hernandez was “horrified” at how his actions terrified others, is remorseful and is committed to maintaining his mental health.
Hernandez pleaded guilty to a felony — transmitting interstate communications containing a threat to injure — in December.
Police said he drove to the UConn campus and to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he once served as quarterbacks coach, to “map the schools out” for a shooting in July 2023. Court filings said Hernandez was struggling financially, was frustrated at seeing other people get hired as football coaches and felt owed by UConn.
Also that month, prosecutors said Hernandez made multiple Facebook posts threatening to harm or kill three people who live in other states, including a state court judge.
His mother, Terri Hernandez, told police around the time of his 2023 arrest in Bristol that he had deteriorating mental health problems including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Dennis Hernandez was shocked with a Taser and taken into custody after he came out of his sister’s house with his arms raised, yelling “shoot me” and threatening to harm officers, police said.
Terri Hernandez and several other relatives and friends wrote letters to the judge supporting Dennis Hernandez asking that he be released from detention.
