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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
144 subscribers
Apr 11 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
Hello from Greenbelt, MD, a few hours before an urgently arranged court hearing in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

DOJ is under a court order to provide an update on efforts to bring him to the U.S. from El Salvador by 9:30am.

politico.com/news/2025/04/1… DOJ trying to cancel today's hearing and delay filing a response to the judge's order.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Apr 11 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
A federal judge is not prepared to “rubber stamp” the dismissal of charges against a Jan. 6 defendant who was separately convicted of an unrelated gun charge.

Judge James Bredar is asking prosecutors to explain why they suddenly claim Trump’s pardon covers this — and to explain the “inconsistent” positions it has taken on this question over the past two months.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image DOJ has taken the position that Trump J6 pardon applies to:

1) Ben Martin (gun conviction w history of domestic violence)
2) Dan Wilson (gun conviction w a felony record)
3) Elias Costianes (gun conviction w history of drug abuse)
4) Jeremy Brown (possession of grenades, guns, classified info)
Apr 9 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: The Justice Department says Jan. 6 defendants whose convictions were wipred out by Trump are owed a refund for the restitution they paid to Congress.

politico.com/news/2025/04/0…Image DOJ's position came in response to a request for a refund by defendant Stacy Hager, who wants back the $500 he paid to the architect of the Capitol after his conviction.

"The government agrees that Hager is entitled to the return of those funds." politico.com/news/2025/04/0…Image
Apr 8 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Judge McFadden has *granted * the AP’s injunction against the White House’s ban on access to the Oval Office and East Room. Image There are plenty of good reasons the White House could restrict access to reporters from some events, the Trump-appointed judge concluded. But singling out some outlets over viewpoint is not one of them.
Apr 7 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Just two US senators asking questions abut random assignment in the federal US district court in DC that could be answered by ... actually paying attention to the federal district court in DC. 1/6 Image There are an enormous number of high-profile cases in Washington because the seat of government is here. Boasberg, over the last 4 years, probably got a lower share. of those explosive, Trump-related cases than most of his colleagues. 2/6
Apr 7 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: The 4th Circuit has *denied* the Trump administration's effort to resist an order to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States by midnight tonight.

Judge Xinis' order is still in effect. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2588…Image MORE: The panel, which ruled unanimously, scolds the Justice Department for penalizing the lawyers who argued the case. "The duty of zealous representation is tempered by the duty of candor to the court ... and the duty to uphold the rule of law." s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2588…Image
Apr 6 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
JUST IN: Saying the Trump administration’s “grievous error” “shocks the conscience,” a federal judge has rejected their call to lift her order demanding the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image Judge Xinis notes that the prison in El Salvador is known to deprive prisoners of food, water and shelter and “fosters routine violence.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Apr 3 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Boasberg says he believes the Trump administration "acted in bad faith" on the day of the Alien Enemies Act deportations.

Boasberg says his impression is that "if you really believed everything you did that day was legal and would survive a court challenge, you wouldn’t have operated the way you did"

He notes that Trump signed the proclamation on Friday, March 14 but it wasn't made public until Saturday the 15th in the afternoon. Yet in the meantime, ICE teed up more than 100 purported Venezuelans for summary deportation well before it was made public. Boasberg began the hearing by ticking through a set of undisputed facts, with the Trump administration lawyer agreeing to each.

-"My TROs did not order any TdA member to be released from custody"
-"The TROs did not prevent the govenrment from apprehending any TdA member."
-The TROs, he noted, also did not bar the administration from deporting any TdA member through other well-established processes.
Mar 29 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: Marko Elez is back in govt (and has been for weeks); Amy Gleason’s job is to recommend DOGE detailees to agencies (who can say no), Luke Farritor has access to 12 sensitive databases.

New details on DOGE in Saturday court filing.

w/ @joshgerstein

politico.com/news/2025/03/2…Image Here are the details on Farritor’s extensive access as well as the system’s Elez can see. politico.com/news/2025/03/2…Image
Image
Mar 28 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING: A second federal judge has barred the military from enforcing its ban on transgender service members. Details TK storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image Judge Settle, a George W. Bush appointee, says the Trump administration provided no evidence that transgender service members negatively affect readiness, unit cohesion or lethality.

65-page opinion: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Mar 26 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: The DC Circuit has *rejected* DOJ's effort to lift Judge Boasberg's block on Alien Enemies Act deportations.

Ruling is 2-1, with Judge Walker dissenting.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image Judge Henderson (GHW Bush appointee) bases her ruling almost entirely on determination that Trump failed to justify claim of "invasion" or "predatory incursion." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Image
Mar 21 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Boasberg has taken the bench as he weighs whether to vacate his restraining order on deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg comes in hot: Wants to know why the lawyer who originally argued the case didn't show up to hearing Monday. He says the filings since have used "the kind of intemperate and disrespectful language I’m not used to hearing from the United States."
Mar 20 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING: A federal judge in Maryland has just barred DOGE from accessing Social Security systems, saying the group is on a "fishing expedition" that jeopardizes people's personal data.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image NEW: Judge Hollander ruled that DOGE was granted unusual access to non-anonymized social security data and could not identify any basis for that degree of access.

She wants access limited, installed software removed and data taken out of SSA destroyed.

politico.com/news/2025/03/2…Image
Mar 19 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
NEWS: An Indian national teaching at Georgetown was arrested by immigration authorities in Rosslyn, Va. Monday.

His lawyers say he's being targeted for his pro-Palestinian views. His U.S. citizen wife's father was a Hamas adviser.

w/ @joshgerstein

politico.com/news/2025/03/1… Badar Khan Suri has not been charged with any crime, but his lawyer says DHS whisked him to detention Monday night. He's since been trasnferred to a facility in Louisiana. His lawyer compares Suri's plight to Mahmoud Khalil.

politico.com/news/2025/03/1…Image
Mar 18 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
HMMM: So the administration reveals in a new court filing (ordered by Judge Bates) that Amy Gleason was actually hired by HHS as an "expert/consultant" on March 4, just a few days after the White House identified her as the administrator of DOGE. Image MORE: In an earlier filing, without identifying Gleason by name, HHS identified her as being "detailed" to HHS in February (around time she was IDed as DOGE administrator) They indicate she will remain a DOGE/USDS employee while also working at HHS. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Mar 13 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
HAPPENING NOW: A judge is sounding off on the Trump administration over effort to mass fire probationary employees, says decision not to submit OPM director Chad Ezell to questioning hide the truth about it.

"That’s a sham," he says, suggesting he might order mass rehiring. Judge Alsup says he's feeling "misled by the U.S. government" over a representation that fired employees had recourse via MSPB, but now notes that President Trump fired the special counsel and attempted to remove a board member of MSPB, depriving it of quorum.
Mar 12 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Reyes has kicked off a crucial hearing President Trump's effort to ban transgender people from serving in the military. She is beginning by pressing DOJ lawyer on the changes in military policy toward transgender people beginning in 2017. REYES now wondering how the government intends to define people who "exhibit symptoms of gender dysphoria," which could include all sorts of things -- like depression. "This seems like it opens up the entire scope to basically anything."

DOJ says there is no guidance on this yet
Mar 5 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
JUST IN: A trove of emails posted tonight in court reveal the utter chaos unleashed at the CFPB after Acting Director Russ Vought ordered a total work stoppage on Feb. 10. Mass cancelation of contracts soon followed. documentcloud.org/documents/2555…Image
Image The order set off panic and confusion among staff with legally required responsibilities -- they warned that complaints were being ignored despite laws requiring them to advance and records were at risk of deletion depsite legal obligations to retain them . Image
Mar 4 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: The Justice Department has spent the last week arguing that Donald Trump’s pardon for Jan. 6 defendants covers totally unrelated crimes — from possessing guns to grenades to classified info.

Four federal courts are pushing back.

politico.com/news/2025/03/0…Image The courts are particularly curious about DOJ’s abrupt reversal. In mid-February, prosecutors forcefully rejected the notion that Trump’s pardon covered non-J6 crimes. Within days, they reversed course.

politico.com/news/2025/03/0…Image
Image
Feb 22 • 17 tweets • 7 min read
🧵CUTTING ROOM FLOOR from the return of prominent J6 defendants to the Capitol, shortly before Enrique Tarrio’s arrest on a simple assault charge.

It started at the base of the west front Image The group included: Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, who had been sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy Image
Feb 21 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: USCP is arresting Enrique Tarrio for swiping his hand at a counterprotester who got in his face. Image Tarrio had just left a press conference at the Capitol with dozens of pardoned Jan. 6 defendants announcing plans to sue DOJ. He was exchanging info with a photographer when the incident occurred. Image