Washington
Watchdog files bar complaint against Jeanine Pirro over bid to indict Democratic lawmakers
WASHINGTON (AP) — A legal watchdog says it filed bar complaints on Tuesday accusing U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and two lieutenants of violating their ethical duties in seeking to charge six Democratic lawmakers with federal crimes for appearing in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.
The Legal Accountability Center’s bar complaints, filed in New York and Virginia, claim Pirro and her subordinates, Carlton Davis and Steven Vandervelden, abused their prosecutorial powers to seek “meritless” indictments against President Donald Trump’s “perceived political enemies.”
A spokesperson for Pirro’s Washington-based office didn’t immediately comment on the allegations.
In February, a grand jury in Washington refused to indict Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and four House Democrats for urging U.S. service members to follow established military protocols and reject orders they believe to be unlawful. All six lawmakers previously served in the military or at intelligence agencies. Trump accused them of sedition “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post.
A grand jury’s refusal to hand up an indictment is extraordinarily rare, but it has become increasingly common in Washington during Trump’s second term. Pirro’s critics have accused her of pursuing other legally dubious and politically motivated cases at the Republican president’s behest, such as the recently abandoned felony charge against a former Olympian who was accused of defacing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The center has filed complaints against other Trump administration officials, including Ed Martin Jr., Pirro’s predecessor as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin has been a leading figure in Trump’s campaign to use the Justice Department to prosecute his political opponents.
In its complaint against Pirro, the center asks bar officials to investigate whether she and her colleagues violated rules of professional conduct for attorneys — and to “pursue appropriate discipline” against them. Its complaint against Pirro says there was no legal basis for her office’s “patently improper effort” to secure an indictment against the six lawmakers.
“The only purpose could have been political animus and a desire to intimidate perceived enemies of the federal government and the President, who personally criticized the lawmakers’ video as seditious and punishable by death,” the complaint says.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tried to punish Kelly, a former Navy pilot representing Arizona, for participating in the video. Kelly sued in federal court to block the censure from Hegseth. A district court judge ruled in his favor. Hegseth has asked an appeals court to review the decision.
The center filed its complaint against Pirro and Vandervelden with a grievance committee based in White Plains, New York. In New York, the state Supreme Court’s appellate division governs ethical complaints against attorneys. The center filed its complaint against Davis with the Virginia State Bar.
“Prosecutors have enormous power, and with that power comes an obligation to exercise independent legal judgment rather than use the criminal justice system to carry out a president’s political demands,” the center’s co-founder, Michael Teter, said in a statement.
Pirro, who served as a county prosecutor and judge in New York, left her Fox News hosting job to become the top federal prosecutor for Washington last year.
Washington
ICE arrests jumped to nearly 50,000 in July, the highest monthly total of Trump’s 2nd term
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people during July, the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration, according to new figures.
The spike in immigration arrests shows that the administration has continued to advance its mass deportations agenda despite a shift in approach earlier this year from high-profile operations in large American cities that sparked a public outcry to arrests that have garnered less attention but have nonetheless been disruptive.
The July arrest tally of 49,571 marks a 15% jump from 43,021 arrests a month earlier and a 70% increase from 29,241 in February, in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota, according to government data that was provided by ICE to the University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project and analyzed by The Associated Press.
Immigration arrests the month before Trump entered office hovered a little over 8,000 a figure largely made up of immigrants transferred from city or state jails and prisons and turned over to ICE to remove from the country. During Trump’s first year in office the numbers started climbing as the administration loosened restrictions on where and who ICE could arrest while it also infused the agency with billions of dollars.
By December, the number of arrests jumped to more than 40,177, according to the data, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
In the aftermath of two fatal shootings in Minnesota in January that sparked protests and an uproar from Democratic lawmakers, arrests began to fall to nearly 30,000 in February. After remaining stagnant for months, the numbers of people arrested in June jumped to more than 43,000 and then to roughly 49,500 in July.
In his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledged to keep ICE out of the headlines, suggesting that the administration’s immigration crackdown might take a softer approach. But his tenure has been marred by a number of fatal shootings of immigrants in encounters with ICE officers. And the figures show Mullin hasn’t shifted the agency from President Donald Trump’s vision for mass deportations.
Texas and Florida accounted for nearly 20,000 of the July arrests, in a sign of how important those states have become to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Both states have leaned heavily into cooperation agreements with ICE called 287g agreements that allow local and state law enforcement to essentially operate as arms of federal immigration enforcement.
The spike in arrests comes as the agency, infused with billions of dollars last summer by Congress, has also hired 12,000 new deportation officers and investigative agents.
Watchdog files bar complaint against Jeanine Pirro over bid to indict Democratic lawmakers
WASHINGTON (AP) — A legal watchdog says it filed bar complaints on Tuesday accusing U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and two lieutenants of violating their ethical duties in seeking to charge six Democratic lawmakers with federal crimes for appearing in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.
The Legal Accountability Center’s bar complaints, filed in New York and Virginia, claim Pirro and her subordinates, Carlton Davis and Steven Vandervelden, abused their prosecutorial powers to seek “meritless” indictments against President Donald Trump’s “perceived political enemies.”
A spokesperson for Pirro’s Washington-based office didn’t immediately comment on the allegations.
In February, a grand jury in Washington refused to indict Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and four House Democrats for urging U.S. service members to follow established military protocols and reject orders they believe to be unlawful. All six lawmakers previously served in the military or at intelligence agencies. Trump accused them of sedition “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post.
A grand jury’s refusal to hand up an indictment is extraordinarily rare, but it has become increasingly common in Washington during Trump’s second term. Pirro’s critics have accused her of pursuing other legally dubious and politically motivated cases at the Republican president’s behest, such as the recently abandoned felony charge against a former Olympian who was accused of defacing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The center has filed complaints against other Trump administration officials, including Ed Martin Jr., Pirro’s predecessor as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin has been a leading figure in Trump’s campaign to use the Justice Department to prosecute his political opponents.
In its complaint against Pirro, the center asks bar officials to investigate whether she and her colleagues violated rules of professional conduct for attorneys — and to “pursue appropriate discipline” against them. Its complaint against Pirro says there was no legal basis for her office’s “patently improper effort” to secure an indictment against the six lawmakers.
“The only purpose could have been political animus and a desire to intimidate perceived enemies of the federal government and the President, who personally criticized the lawmakers’ video as seditious and punishable by death,” the complaint says.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tried to punish Kelly, a former Navy pilot representing Arizona, for participating in the video. Kelly sued in federal court to block the censure from Hegseth. A district court judge ruled in his favor. Hegseth has asked an appeals court to review the decision.
The center filed its complaint against Pirro and Vandervelden with a grievance committee based in White Plains, New York. In New York, the state Supreme Court’s appellate division governs ethical complaints against attorneys. The center filed its complaint against Davis with the Virginia State Bar.
“Prosecutors have enormous power, and with that power comes an obligation to exercise independent legal judgment rather than use the criminal justice system to carry out a president’s political demands,” the center’s co-founder, Michael Teter, said in a statement.
Pirro, who served as a county prosecutor and judge in New York, left her Fox News hosting job to become the top federal prosecutor for Washington last year.
Washington
ICE arrests jumped to nearly 50,000 in July, the highest monthly total of Trump’s 2nd term
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people during July, the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration, according to new figures.
The spike in immigration arrests shows that the administration has continued to advance its mass deportations agenda despite a shift in approach earlier this year from high-profile operations in large American cities that sparked a public outcry to arrests that have garnered less attention but have nonetheless been disruptive.
The July arrest tally of 49,571 marks a 15% jump from 43,021 arrests a month earlier and a 70% increase from 29,241 in February, in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota, according to government data that was provided by ICE to the University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project and analyzed by The Associated Press.
Immigration arrests the month before Trump entered office hovered a little over 8,000 a figure largely made up of immigrants transferred from city or state jails and prisons and turned over to ICE to remove from the country. During Trump’s first year in office the numbers started climbing as the administration loosened restrictions on where and who ICE could arrest while it also infused the agency with billions of dollars.
By December, the number of arrests jumped to more than 40,177, according to the data, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
In the aftermath of two fatal shootings in Minnesota in January that sparked protests and an uproar from Democratic lawmakers, arrests began to fall to nearly 30,000 in February. After remaining stagnant for months, the numbers of people arrested in June jumped to more than 43,000 and then to roughly 49,500 in July.
In his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledged to keep ICE out of the headlines, suggesting that the administration’s immigration crackdown might take a softer approach. But his tenure has been marred by a number of fatal shootings of immigrants in encounters with ICE officers. And the figures show Mullin hasn’t shifted the agency from President Donald Trump’s vision for mass deportations.
Texas and Florida accounted for nearly 20,000 of the July arrests, in a sign of how important those states have become to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Both states have leaned heavily into cooperation agreements with ICE called 287g agreements that allow local and state law enforcement to essentially operate as arms of federal immigration enforcement.
The spike in arrests comes as the agency, infused with billions of dollars last summer by Congress, has also hired 12,000 new deportation officers and investigative agents.
