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23 Apr, 4 tweets, 4 min read
Busy week for the DOJ Civil Rights Division: One day after the announcement of a probe into the Minneapolis Police Dept., the govt has filed a statement of interest in a case about the constitutional rights of transgender persons in prison assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2068… ImageImage
As @dominicholden previously reported, the Trump admin rolled back Obama-era protections for transgender persons in federal prisons: buzzfeednews.com/article/domini…

Biden pledged during the campaign to return to the Obama-era version: Image
@dominicholden DOJ's latest filing is about the Georgia Department of Corrections, not federal prison facilities. The brief notes that there's an open DOJ investigation into the treatment of LGBT people housed in the GDC that launched in 2016 (justice.gov/crt/special-li…) ImageImageImage
@dominicholden DOJ's brief cites Biden's Jan. 20 executive order on combatting LGBTQ discrimination: "The United States also has a strong interest in protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals." Image

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More from @ZoeTillman

Zoe Tillman Profile picture
22 Apr
This is the first I've seen of DOJ bumping up the estimate for how many prosecutions to expect re: Jan. 6 and updating boilerplate language in motions to delay deadlines. Previously it was 300+ charged with at least 100 to go, now it's 400+ charged with at least 100 to go
Note the rest of the language that DOJ has used in these continuance motions stayed the same in terms of giving the court a sense of the resources expended so far in the investigation (search warrants, hours of footage, tips, etc.)

Here's the full doc: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2068…
An est'd 800 people went inside the Capitol, and many others were on the grounds with varying degrees of interaction w/ law enforcement. As Ryan notes, there's a known universe of people who haven't been identified/arrested but have been flagged by the FBI
Read 4 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
21 Apr
A judge is hearing args now on Capitol riot def. Michael Curzio's request for release. It's an unusual situation — he's charged with misdemeanors only, but the govt is arguing for detention given his crim history (attempted 1st degree murder conviction) + white supremacist ties
Prosecutors argue that because he was wearing a "Thor's hammer" pendant when he was arrested, that's proof of ongoing white supremacist ties (see excerpt above). Curzio disputes that, saying that he practices Odinism and has disassociated from the prison gang he'd been part of
Curzio asks to speak directly to the judge to explain what Odinism is (it's very unusual to hear from defendants at detention hearings, but his lawyer let's him go for it) — he says he got really into Norse mythology some years ago, reads the poetry and studies "the runes"
Read 11 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
21 Apr
Now, with more to come: The Justice Department will investigate policing in Minneapolis after George Floyd's murder buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
A note on timing: Just last week, AG Garland rescinded a Jeff Sessions memo from 2018 that restricted when and how DOJ could enter into consent decrees and settlements with police departments that imposed long-term court oversight of reforms buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Minneapolis City Attorney Jim Rowader says they've already started working with DOJ on the police dept. probe announced by AG Merrick Garland today: "The City welcomes the federal investigation"
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Read 4 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
19 Apr
Happening now: A judge will order Ethan Nordean and Joseph Biggs — indicted in a Proud Boys conspiracy case — back to jail. Both were previously released, but DOJ went back and argued for pretrial detention after they were indicted. More to come.

Prev: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Judge Timothy Kelly is announcing his decision from the bench now. He heard arguments on 4/6
Judge Kelly is still reading his ruling on detention for Joseph Biggs and Ethan Nordean — on the nature of the charges, Kelly says this supports detention, given evidence of "extensive involvement" in prior planning, coordination before/during/after Jan. 6, leadership roles
Read 13 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
15 Apr
Here's the text of the new bill from Sen. Markey and Reps. Nadler, Johnson, and Jones to expand SCOTUS from nine justices to 13. It's been at nine since the Circuit Judges Act of 1869 (fjc.gov/history/timeli…)
The fact that there is a bill at all is a sign of how far this movement has come in a short amount of time, but it faces a steep uphill climb from here — GOP will fight tooth and nail, Biden's not on board yet, and liberals aren't united behind it (see: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…)
This bill is just about SCOTUS, and doesn't dive into adding more lower court judgeships — something that the judiciary has asked Congress to do for years, and that liberal advocacy groups have more recently proposed as a way to catch up to the 220+ judges confirmed under Trump
Read 4 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
14 Apr
A judge is hearing args on the govt's request to keep Kenneth Harrelson, charged in the 1/6 Oath Keepers conspiracy, in jail. One tidbit so far — govt says a member of the OK group was right at the door as the mob breached Rotunda entrance, but that person hasn't been charged yet
Why does this matter? The Oath Keeper indictment charges members with destroying govt property as they breached the doors, incl. under a theory of aiding/abetting as part of the larger mob. So this un-ID'd person would link the group more directly to the broken Capitol doors
It's also just more confirmation that the Oath Keepers case could get bigger. As Rachel notes here, there was another reference by the govt to an unnamed member
Read 21 tweets

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