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Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Kyle Cheney
@kyledcheney
Senior legal affairs reporter for @POLITICO with a focus on democracy, law and the balance of power in government. Tips: kcheney@politico.com NY ➡️ BOS ➡️ DC
146 subscribers
Nov 28 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: ICE’s policy of mass detaining immigrants w pending deportation proceedings has led to an avalanche of rejections in court.

More than 220 judges — including 23 Trump appointees — have called it an illegal distortion of long-settled law. politico.com/news/2025/11/2…Image Those judges have ruled against the administration more than 700 times since ICE implemented its draconian new policy on July 8.

Only 8 judges have side with ICE’s position. politico.com/news/2025/11/2…Image
Nov 24 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING: Comey case dismissed without prejudice. Halligan invalidly appointed, judge rules. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image This applies to the Letitia James indictment as well. Both cases are now dismissed without prejudice. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Nov 21 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
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.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image 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

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Image
Nov 19 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
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.”
Nov 18 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
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…Image 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.

w/ @andrewjfhoward @joshgerstein

politico.com/news/2025/11/1…Image
Nov 17 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
BREAKING: Magistrate orders DOJ to turn over grand jury materials to Comey, finding real prospect that "government misconduct" may have tainted the case. Image 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…Image
Nov 13 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: A week before Donald Trump surged past Hillary Clinton to win the presidency, author Michael Wolff approached Jeffrey Epstein with a proposal to "finish" Trump's candidacy.

"Interested?" Wolff wrote.

Epstein, apparently, declined.

w/ @eorden

politico.com/news/2025/11/1…Image MORE: The emails released by Congress reveal Epstein's vast connections -- and how he used them to track and influence Trump's orbit during his first term.

Epstein's contacst included:
-Larry Summers
-Peter Thiel
-Ken Starr
-Tom Barrack
-Tom Pritzker
politico.com/news/2025/11/1…Image
Nov 12 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The emails released today shed new light on Epstein's vast influence network — foreign leaders, political bosses, billionaire executives, journalists, government officials — and how he used them to track and affect Trump's first term.

Some of the exchanges are extraordinary... NEW: Jeffrey Epstein said in emails that he had been advising the Russian government on how to deal with Donald Trump, one of several cases in which he wielded his connections to try to influence the course of foreign affairs. w @nahaltoosi

politico.com/news/2025/11/1…Image
Nov 12 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Judge Murphy cites to my Oct. 31 story about the extraordinary, one-sided rebuke judges have given to the Trump administration's policy of mass detention for immigrants facing deportation proceedings: more than 100 judges had ruled against the administration in around 200 cases.

The stats from two weeks ago included judicial rejections from :
-Biden appointees (50)
-Obama appointees (31)
-Trump appointees (12)
-George W. Bush appointees (12)
-Clinton appointees (6)
-Reagan appointees (2)

Compared to two judges who sided with the administration:

-Obama appointee (1)
-Trump appointee (1)

However...

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image In the last two weeks, the number has skyrocketed in similarly lopsided ways. The current count, as of yesterday:

140 judges have now rejected the administration's policy of mass detention without bond — in at least 335 cases. The updated states, by my count:

Biden appointees: 60
Obama appointees: 38
George W. Bush appointees: 14
Trump appointees: 14
Clinton appointees: 10
Reagan appointees: 2
George H.W. Bush appointees: 2

Five judges have now sided with the administration

Obama appointees: 1
Trump appointees 4
Oct 29 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Two federal prosecutors who characterized the Jan. 6 attack as a "mob of rioters" were placed on leave this morning.

Confirming @kfaulders
@alex_mallin

politico.com/news/2025/10/2…Image The sentencing memo by Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White noted that Taylor Taranto, pardoned by Trump but facing sentencing for other crimes, spread "conspiracy theories" about the attack. It also noted that Taranto stalked Barack Obama's neighborhood after Trump posted (and Taranto reposted) his address on Truth Social. politico.com/news/2025/10/2…Image
Oct 6 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Judge Immergut has called a 10PM (ET) hearing on Trump's effort to circumvent her National Guard order by calling up California troops. NEW: Judge Immergut could quickly halt Trump's deployment of CA guard troops to Portland, a workaround that tested her warning that Trump's initial callup was illegal and based on false claims about the unrest facing ICE.

w/ @joshgerstein @jonesblakej

politico.com/news/2025/10/0…
Oct 4 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING: A federal judge has granted a restraining order blocking President Trump's call-up of the National Guard in Portland.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image Judge IMMERGUT, a Trump appointee to the bench, ruled that Trump's call-up was based on false claims about unrest in Portland and that Trump's own statements were "simply untethered to the facts." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Sep 27 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Trump now going after the rank-and-file FBI agents who responded to help restore order to an overrun Capitol on Jan. 6 — falsely accusing them based on inaccurate/misleading reports yesterday of being agitators in the crowd. Image The reporting Trump claims supports this allegation … simply doesn’t.
Sep 24 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Over the weekend, we wrote about how dozens of judges have found ICE's new detention policy — seeking to lock up millions of people facing deportation without a chance for bond — is illegal.

Last night, four more judges added to the growing list: politico.com/news/2025/09/2… One detainend man has lived in the US for 32 years with no criminal record. Judge Sherriff ordered his release yesterday: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Sep 20 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Trump criticizes Pam Bondi for not charging his adversaries quickly enough, in a Truth Social post that looks a lot like a DM. truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTru…Image Trump reposted the message makes explicit he's referring to Lindsey Halligan, his onetime personal lawyer who now works in the WH. truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTru…Image
Sep 20 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: In a break from decades of history, the Trump administration has started detaining virtually everyone facing deportation — even if they’ve lived in the U.S. for decades.

Dozens of judges, with increasing alarm, have ruled the policy shift illegal.

politico.com/news/2025/09/2… At issue is an interpretation of immigration law that requires detention for “applicants for admission” — long interpreted to mean people who are trying to come into the U.S.

Those already in the U.S. have been allowed to seek bond from an immigration judge.

But on July 8, ICE reinterpreted these laws to say that the millions of people inside U.S. borders are still “applicants for admission” and must be detained.

politico.com/news/2025/09/2…
Sep 18 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Magistrate judge Faruqui, who has been on a tear over DOJ's flimsy prosecutions in recent weeks, was floored by the Trump administration's decision to level a federal marijuana possession charge against a recently arrested defendant. But that's not all... storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image He says DOJ held the man in detention for *three days* on this misdemeanor charge even though prosecutors later agreed he shouldn't be detained at all. And that's still not all... storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Sep 16 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
GRASSLEY asks if Jeffrey Epstein was a U.S. government or foreig government asset. Patel says he can only speak for the FBI and that Epstein was not a source for the bureau. PATEL uses his opening statement tosay Alex Acosta's handling of the original Epstein case was the "original sin" of the saga, saying the nonprosecution agreement he struck after initial plea deal locked down many records under court order.
Sep 10 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
LAWSUIT INCOMING: FBI leaders fired by Director Kash Patel — including Brian Driscoll and Steve Jensen — have filed some kind of action against the Patel and the bureau. Details TK Image UPDATE: In the lawsuit, three senior FBI officials fired by Kash Patel say Patel informed them that he was instructed to "fire anyone" who worked on any investigation related to Trump. And said his own job depended on carrying out the firings. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Aug 31 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
BREAKING: A federal judge has *blocked* the Trump administration from abruptly deporting 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children — perhaps within a matter of hours — granting an emergency restraining order after advocates called the plan illegal + dangerous. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image NEW: Judge Sooknanan acted quickly to block as many as 600 Guatemalan children from being deported by the Trump administration without due process. A judge in Illinois took a similar step for 4 children whose lawyers sued Saturday.

w/ @joshgerstein
politico.com/news/2025/08/3…Image
Aug 25 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Xinis is leaning toward issuing another restraining order to block Kilmar Abrego Garcia's immediate deportation to Uganda at least through this week — she wants an evidentiary hearing on Friday. XINIS says law may require Abrego's deportation to his country of choice, given that Costa Rica has indicated a willingness to accept him, give him refugee status and vow not to re-deport him to El Salvador.

Uganda, where administration plans to send him, has made no promises.