Washington
Judge blocks firing of intelligence agency employees who worked on DEI programs
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge in Virginia blocked the Trump administration’s move to fire more than a dozen intelligence agency employees who worked on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga granted a preliminary injunction Monday that prohibits the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from firing 19 workers who challenged their terminations.
In a written decision published Tuesday, Trenga said the government must allow the employees to seek reassignment or appeal their termination as set forth in employment rules governing their agencies.
Trenga, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush, said the employees should remain on paid administrative leave or be reinstated. He said he would review decisions to terminate any employees to ensure they had been given a chance to appeal or be reassigned under the order.
The employees were set to be terminated as part of the Trump administration’s effort to end DEI programs across the federal government. The lawsuit comes amid a push by Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to reduce personnel as part of their overhaul of the federal government.
In their lawsuit, the employees argued that their assignments to DEI programs were only temporary and that they also have held other duties as intelligence officers. The employees are not named in the lawsuit.
Intelligence agencies including the CIA and National Security Agency already have offered voluntary resignations to some employees. The CIA also has said it plans to lay off an unknown number of recently hired employees. Still, America’s intelligence community hasn’t seen some of the deep cuts made to other agencies, like the U.S. Agency for International Development or the Department of Education.
Musk visited CIA headquarters Monday at the invitation of Director John Ratcliffe. The two discussed Musk’s work to reshape other agencies and lessons that could be applied to the CIA, according to a statement from the agency.
It comes after Musk met with the leaders of the NSA last month.
A spokesperson for the CIA declined to comment on the legal decision. A spokesperson for ODNI did not respond to a request for comment.
Washington
Trump pardons Navy veteran convicted in Capitol riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned a Virginia man whose sentence already was commuted for his convictions stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer, was tried alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes but acquitted of seditious conspiracy — the most serious charge brought in the Jan. 6 attack.
Caldwell’s pardon is dated March 20. Defense attorney David Fischer said he informed Caldwell of the pardon on Monday after learning about it from news reports.
“And he’s elated,” Fischer added.
A jury convicted Caldwell of obstructing Congress and of obstructing justice for tampering with documents after the riot. One of those convictions was dismissed in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year.
On Jan. 10, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Caldwell to time served with no supervised release. Prosecutors had recommended four years in prison for Caldwell.
Ten days later, on his first day back in the White House, Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus people charged in the Capitol riot. Trump commuted the sentences of several defendants who were leaders and members of the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys extremist groups.
More than a dozen defendants were convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said were violent plots to keep Trump in power.
Prosecutors had alleged at trial that Caldwell helped coordinate “quick reaction force” teams prosecutors said the Oath Keepers stationed outside the capital city to get weapons into the hands of extremists if they were needed. The weapons were never deployed, and lawyers for the Oath Keepers said they were only there for defensive purposes in case of attacks from left-wing activists.
But Caldwell, who didn’t enter the Capitol, took the witness stand and down played messages he sent leading up to Jan. 6, including one floating the idea about getting a boat to ferry “heavy weapons” across the Potomac River. Caldwell said he was never serious about it, calling it “creative writing.”
Fischer said his client was “first among equals for a pardon.”
“When a progressive D.C. jury acquits him of most of the charges and an Obama-appointed judge sentences him to basically time served and a fine, I think it’s safe to say the government got it wrong,” the attorney said.
Arkansas
Longest-serving inmate on state’s death row dies from natural causes
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Bruce Ward, a convicted murderer who was the longest-serving inmate on Arkansas’ death row, has died, the state Department of Corrections said. Ward was 68.
The state Department of Corrections said Ward was pronounced dead Tuesday from natural causes. He had been held on death row at the Varner SuperMax unit in Gould, located 67 miles (108 kilometers) south of Little Rock.
Ward was on death row for 35 years after being convicted for the 1989 killing of Rebecca Doss, who was found strangled in the men’s room of the Little Rock convenience store where she worked. Ward’s death leaves 24 inmates on death row in the state.
Ward was among eight inmates the state had planned to execute over a two-week period in 2017 before its supply of a lethal injection drugs expired. Ward’s executions and three others were halted by court decisions, though the state executed four other inmates.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last month signed a new law allowing the state to use nitrogen gas for executions. The measure makes Arkansas the fifth state to legalize that method and supporters said it would allow the state to resume executions.
The longest serving inmate now on Arkansas’ death now is Don Davis, who was sentenced in 1992 for killing a northwest Arkansas woman after breaking into her home.
Judge blocks firing of intelligence agency employees who worked on DEI programs
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge in Virginia blocked the Trump administration’s move to fire more than a dozen intelligence agency employees who worked on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga granted a preliminary injunction Monday that prohibits the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from firing 19 workers who challenged their terminations.
In a written decision published Tuesday, Trenga said the government must allow the employees to seek reassignment or appeal their termination as set forth in employment rules governing their agencies.
Trenga, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush, said the employees should remain on paid administrative leave or be reinstated. He said he would review decisions to terminate any employees to ensure they had been given a chance to appeal or be reassigned under the order.
The employees were set to be terminated as part of the Trump administration’s effort to end DEI programs across the federal government. The lawsuit comes amid a push by Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to reduce personnel as part of their overhaul of the federal government.
In their lawsuit, the employees argued that their assignments to DEI programs were only temporary and that they also have held other duties as intelligence officers. The employees are not named in the lawsuit.
Intelligence agencies including the CIA and National Security Agency already have offered voluntary resignations to some employees. The CIA also has said it plans to lay off an unknown number of recently hired employees. Still, America’s intelligence community hasn’t seen some of the deep cuts made to other agencies, like the U.S. Agency for International Development or the Department of Education.
Musk visited CIA headquarters Monday at the invitation of Director John Ratcliffe. The two discussed Musk’s work to reshape other agencies and lessons that could be applied to the CIA, according to a statement from the agency.
It comes after Musk met with the leaders of the NSA last month.
A spokesperson for the CIA declined to comment on the legal decision. A spokesperson for ODNI did not respond to a request for comment.
Washington
Trump pardons Navy veteran convicted in Capitol riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned a Virginia man whose sentence already was commuted for his convictions stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer, was tried alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes but acquitted of seditious conspiracy — the most serious charge brought in the Jan. 6 attack.
Caldwell’s pardon is dated March 20. Defense attorney David Fischer said he informed Caldwell of the pardon on Monday after learning about it from news reports.
“And he’s elated,” Fischer added.
A jury convicted Caldwell of obstructing Congress and of obstructing justice for tampering with documents after the riot. One of those convictions was dismissed in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year.
On Jan. 10, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Caldwell to time served with no supervised release. Prosecutors had recommended four years in prison for Caldwell.
Ten days later, on his first day back in the White House, Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus people charged in the Capitol riot. Trump commuted the sentences of several defendants who were leaders and members of the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys extremist groups.
More than a dozen defendants were convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said were violent plots to keep Trump in power.
Prosecutors had alleged at trial that Caldwell helped coordinate “quick reaction force” teams prosecutors said the Oath Keepers stationed outside the capital city to get weapons into the hands of extremists if they were needed. The weapons were never deployed, and lawyers for the Oath Keepers said they were only there for defensive purposes in case of attacks from left-wing activists.
But Caldwell, who didn’t enter the Capitol, took the witness stand and down played messages he sent leading up to Jan. 6, including one floating the idea about getting a boat to ferry “heavy weapons” across the Potomac River. Caldwell said he was never serious about it, calling it “creative writing.”
Fischer said his client was “first among equals for a pardon.”
“When a progressive D.C. jury acquits him of most of the charges and an Obama-appointed judge sentences him to basically time served and a fine, I think it’s safe to say the government got it wrong,” the attorney said.
Arkansas
Longest-serving inmate on state’s death row dies from natural causes
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Bruce Ward, a convicted murderer who was the longest-serving inmate on Arkansas’ death row, has died, the state Department of Corrections said. Ward was 68.
The state Department of Corrections said Ward was pronounced dead Tuesday from natural causes. He had been held on death row at the Varner SuperMax unit in Gould, located 67 miles (108 kilometers) south of Little Rock.
Ward was on death row for 35 years after being convicted for the 1989 killing of Rebecca Doss, who was found strangled in the men’s room of the Little Rock convenience store where she worked. Ward’s death leaves 24 inmates on death row in the state.
Ward was among eight inmates the state had planned to execute over a two-week period in 2017 before its supply of a lethal injection drugs expired. Ward’s executions and three others were halted by court decisions, though the state executed four other inmates.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last month signed a new law allowing the state to use nitrogen gas for executions. The measure makes Arkansas the fifth state to legalize that method and supporters said it would allow the state to resume executions.
The longest serving inmate now on Arkansas’ death now is Don Davis, who was sentenced in 1992 for killing a northwest Arkansas woman after breaking into her home.
