Weekly Spotlight: Wishful Thinking

DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE

“And for my first act...”

Despite widespread opposition — including from us here at POGO — the Senate voted to confirm Todd Blanche as permanent attorney general, the head law enforcement officer of the federal government. With his very first act as official AG, Blanche is already proving that we can expect more of the same injustice he delivered in an acting capacity. On Monday, the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) released a memo that expands “executive privilege,” allowing the president and his direct advisers to shield their communications with private, external advisers from Congress, the courts, and the public. You know President Trump has been mixing personal gain with his presidential duties. We're concerned that this memo could shield conversations about “fancy jets, crypto deals, and funneling money to family businesses” from the public record. Blanche is helping the Trump administration turn even more opaque than it already is.

• Why now? “[To] gain cover if Congress flips and it conducts oversight hearings about the activities and decisions that have been made in the past two years,” POGO’s Scott Amey tells The Center Square.
• The OLC sits within the Department of Justice (DOJ) and is charged with giving legal advice to presidents and other high-ranking officials. Its opinions are treated like law — and it can keep those opinions secret from the public. POGO has been calling for guardrails on its authority for years. Read our explainer.
• The Senate should have blocked Blanche. It must now make up for poor decision-making by being uncompromising in its oversight of the DOJ. Your representatives have the power to hold the Justice Department accountable, and they must use it.

NEW FROM POGO INVESTIGATES

DHS Contractors Battle Over Deportation Dollars

Migrants are caught in the middle as rival companies fight over immigration enforcement contracts while alleging the procurement system is rigged. By Dan Friedman, Will Sytsma, and POGO’s Nick Schwellenbach. Read more on pogo.org/investigates.

WARMONGERING

A munitions crisis is coming

With the Iran War, the Trump administration has no congressional authorization, no plan, no exit strategy — and now, a rapidly dwindling munition stock. Key air defense weapons stocks are “extremely” and “dangerously” low, according to numerous reports. This is a crisis that could be seen coming from a mile away. A potential positive outcome: The depleted munitions stock could force the administration to end its illegal war with Iran. But with officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hesgseth, denying any shortage of weapons and President Trump threatening to jail those who’ve made that information public, expecting a withdrawal (or any sort of prudent, cautious deliberation from this administration) is woefully wishful thinking.

• Read our recently published report on munitions, The American Military’s Center of Gravity, and what the war with Iran has revealed about what is broken in our munitions procurement system. By POGO’s Virginia Burger.
• The cost of war: A Pentagon report found that 153 civilians were killed and 243 injured by U.S. military operations last year. Those figures don't include the boat strikes that occurred in the Caribbean and East Pacific in 2025. By comparison, the Pentagon reported that two were killed and two injured in 2024. That is an arresting increase, and a direct result of the Trump administration’s illegal war-waging. As a reminder, POGO is currently suing the White House for access to a video of a boat strike on September 2, 2025, during which the Pentagon allegedly killed shipwrecked survivors in an illegal “double-tap” attack.

DOT&E goes dark

The Pentagon has removed decades’ worth of reports from the website of its internal watchdog, the Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E, for short). This office is responsible for overseeing the testing of weapons and other systems to make sure they are combat-ready and safe for our troops. The DOT&E staff was already gutted last year. The Pentagon’s moves to undercut its own testing office are deeply disturbing. We are in the midst of a war for which the Pentagon is asking for billions in additional funding. We deserve to know that this money is being funneled toward weapons programs that actually work, and work well. Service members’ lives are on the line. Congress must demand that these records are made public again.

• “Removing access to these reports now, when no exemptions were claimed for 20 plus years, seems to flagrantly violate the law,” POGO’s Greg Williams told Federal News Network.

GUTTING THE GOVERNMENT

To no one’s surprise

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional watchdog, found that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fudged the numbers on the money it saved taxpayers during its crusade to reshape the federal government last year. This doesn’t surprise us — transparency and ethics failures were characteristic of DOGE from the start. DOGE operated like a bull in a china shop. We’re glad to see GAO scrutinizing and publicizing its shortcomings. We deserve a full reckoning of what the entity did and all it failed to do.

• ANALYSIS DOGE Owes Us an Explanation: “Avoiding accountability to Congress and transparency to the American people is a slap in the face. But it’s nothing new: DOGE has been operating this way all along, and the slaps have been frequent,” writes POGO’s Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette.
• In defense of GAO: Just this week, the Senate voted to cut its watchdog office’s budget by nearly 30%. It's a nonsensical move. GAO’s investigations are invaluable to Congress and the public. Undercutting GAO will only hinder Congress’s cause.

SURVEILLANCE STATE

What the Flock

Flock Safety’s dragnet surveillance has been all over the papers. But as we wrote to you earlier this week, it’s just one player in a huge market that profits from the collection and trade of your private, personal information. Flock primarily contracts with local and state police departments that want your license plate data. But the federal government is a big buyer in the data market, too. ICE, the FBI, the Pentagon, and many other agencies have bought information about people like you from private data brokers without a warrant. It’s a practice we’re working hard to stop. Privacy is your right, and fundamental in a democracy.

• NOW TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to close the data broker loophole that allows for mass warrantless surveillance. Email your representatives now.

ANALYSIS

Prediction Markets Are a National Security Risk

Profit motives created by prediction markets incentivize trading on military information for personal gain, potentially compromising national security. From POGO’s Janice Luong and Virginia Burger. Read now.