BREAKING: Judge CHUTKAN has *denied* Trump's motion to dismiss his criminal charges based on a claim of "presidential immunity. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_p…
"Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens." ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_p…
Trump's charges in the Washington D.C. case do not violate the First Amendment because "it is well established that the First Amendment does not protect speech that is used as an instrument of a crime," Chutkan rules.
NEWS: The constitution does *not* preclude Trump from being prosecuted for trying to subvert the 2020 election, Judge Chutkan rules. In fact, the charges he's facing are precisely the kind George Washington warned of, she says.
Chutkan has now developed something of a habit of telling Donald Trump he is not a king, as she did in her ruling granting the Jan. 6 committee access to his White House records from NARA. politico.com/news/2023/12/0…
This ruling is certain to be appealed and all but certain to reach the Supreme Court. It's the most difficult test of Jack SMith's D.C. indictment and will likely determine whether Trump faces trial at all ahead of the 2024 election.
Chutkan twice cited the hours-old appeals court decision finding Trump can be sued for claims that his Jan. 6 speech at the Ellipse incited violence at the Capitol.
MORE: Chutkan’s relatively swift ruling on this extremely tricky constitutional question is aligned with special counsel Smith’s plea that she act on the immunity question quickly — since it’s one of the few issues Trump can appeal pretrial.
The cases have surged as ICE reclassified millions who have resided in the United States for years as “arriving aliens” or “applicants for admission” — making them subject to mandatory detention typically meant for those who just crossed the border. politico.com/news/2025/11/2…
NEWS: The criminal cases against James Comey and Letitia James are gone. A federal judge ruled that the appointment of Lindsey Halligan as the lead prosecutor was illegal.
DOJ could try again, but there are other headwinds.
JUST IN: A federal judge says one of the Venezuelan men — illegally deported to El Salvador in March before he was swapped back to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange — is now missing, possibly a victim of the violence he was seeking asylum from.
Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee in MD, says the administration flagrantly and repeatedly defied her orders to provide regular updates about the man’s return. But she stops short of finding contempt bc it was Rubio, who isn’t named in the lawsuit, who was responsible for communicating w El Salvador
BREAKING: Prosecutors in the Comey case just told the judge that they’re under orders from the Deputy Attorney Generals’s office not to disclose whether career prosecutors wrote a memo recommending *against* indicting Comey prior to Halligan going to the grand jury.
AUSA Tyler Lemons told Judge Nachmanoff that he hasn’t gotten permission to disclose what could be considered “privileged” or “work product” material. He did say he asked to review and possible declination memo and has seen “drafts.”
NEW: The prosecution of James Comey is hanging by a thread, besieged on all sides by challenges to the legitimacy of the prosecutor, the grand jury process and the motives for bringing the case in the first place.
w/ @joshgerstein
BREAKING: A panel of federal judges has enjoined Texas from using its redrawn congressional maps , ordering the state to use its 2021 boundaries. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
NEWS: A panel of Texas judges, led by a Trump appointee, concluded that Texas' mega-redistricting push was likely an illegal racial gerrymander and must be blocked from taking effect.
@andrewjfhoward @joshgerstein The court also sharply rejected the notion that its ruling would disrupt the midterms. The filing deadline hasn't passed, the judges say, and if anyone is to blame, it's the state for operating on a rushed timeline. politico.com/news/2025/11/1…
BREAKING: Magistrate orders DOJ to turn over grand jury materials to Comey, finding real prospect that "government misconduct" may have tainted the case.
MORE: The magistrate said an FBI agent who may have viewed Comey's privileged materials was nevertheless permitted to present evidence to the grand jury — a "highly irregular" decision and "radical departure" for DOJ. He was the only witness at the GJ. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
👀Fitzpatrick said Halligan made two apparent "fundamental misstatements of law" to the grand jury that could threaten the case. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…