The Paper Trail: October 7, 2025

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The Paper Trail

Announcements

How to: Plan a Hearing: POGO’s virtual training on how to plan a hearing will be held on Friday, October 17, at 12 noon EDT. This event is only open to staff in Congress, GAO, and CRS. Register HERE.

Top stories for October 7, 2025

Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from sending National Guard troops to Oregon: U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut late Sunday blocked the Trump administration from deploying any state’s National Guard units to Portland, after the president tried to get around Immergut’s Saturday order that blocked him from using Oregon’s National Guard. (Christopher Weber and Jack Brook, Seattle Times)

🔎 See Also: White House official inadvertently reveals plans to send elite army unit to Portland (Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian)

Analysis: Portland precedent risks more unchecked, unlawful deployments: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s order calling the Oregon National Guard into federal service makes it clear that the Trump administration is prepared to deploy the military anywhere there’s a protest — without any further justification or limitations on troops’ conduct — based on a vague memorandum President Trump signed in June. (David Janovsky, The Constitution Project at POGO)

🔎 See Also: Illinois National Guard to patrol Chicago area, as troops depart from Texas (Stephanie Wade, ABC7 Chicago)

“They need to suffer”: Inside Trump’s war on dissent: Within 24 hours after Charlie Kirk’s death, top Trump officials and administration lawyers got to work crafting a road map for cracking down on liberal groups and the president’s domestic foes. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller sat at the top of these frantic intradepartmental efforts, which lean heavily on the infrastructure from George W. Bush’s Global War on Terror. (Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng, Rolling Stone)

Bisignano to lead IRS in addition to SSA duties, raising questions about the Senate confirmation process: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent named Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano to serve in a newly created CEO role at the IRS, raising concerns about Bisignano’s newly split priorities and the Trump administration’s effort to consolidate government databases of Americans’ personal information to aid in its mass deportation efforts. (Erich Wagner, Government Executive)

CIA deputy director has replaced agency’s top legal official with himself: Michael Ellis, the deputy director of the CIA and a Trump loyalist, demoted a career lawyer who had been serving as the agency’s acting general counsel and installed himself in that role, a move that has raised conflict-of-interest concerns. (Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt, and Adam Goldman, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Keep Senate confirmation for top intelligence lawyers, civil liberties groups urge (David DiMolfetta, Government Executive)

Trump’s massive Argentina bailout set to benefit one GOP billionaire: The administration’s $20 billion Argentina bailout is not only poised to prop up President Javier Milei’s regime, it will also deliver a significant windfall to an old friend of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. (Robert McCoy, The New Republic)

Analysis: Why Trump’s pledge to defend Qatar is so extraordinary: President Trump last week bestowed upon the nation of Qatar a remarkable security guarantee that could include coming to its defense militarily. And he did so unilaterally, bypassing the Senate’s power over treaties, on behalf of a country with which Trump and his family have significant financial ties. (Aaron Blake, CNN)

Trading on Tom Homan: Inside the push to cash in on the Trump administration’s deportation campaign: At least half a dozen companies vying for a slice of the $45 billion Congress has allocated for immigration detention hired Pennsylvania businessman Charles Sowell, whose consulting firm had once employed Trump border czar Tom Homan. (Avi Asher-Schapiro, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Mica Rosenberg, ProPublica)

Florida hands over prime Miami property for Trump library: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis donated state-owned property in Miami worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the nonprofit raising money for President Trump’s presidential library. Under the terms of the transaction, which essentially puts the property under the Trump family’s control, part of the land could be used for other purposes, such as a hotel, condos, or other commercial ventures. (Patricia Mazzei, New York Times)

Government Shutdown

Trump aimed shutdown cuts at Democrats, but GOP districts are hit, too: The White House funding cancellations have hit projects in 28 Republican House districts, including six in which politically vulnerable lawmakers face re-election next year. A total of 108 Democratic districts have been hit by cancellations. (Catie Edmondson, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Trump’s shutdown architect: Russ Vought’s plan to deconstruct the government was years in the making (Phil Mattingly and Jeremy Herb, CNN)

Analysis: The administration’s latest attack on oversight: The White House is launching another damaging attack on watchdogs by refusing to release congressionally approved funding to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), an office that plays a vital role in supporting the work of inspectors general exposing waste, fraud, and abuse of power within federal agencies. (Faith Williams, Project On Government Oversight)

🔎 See Also: Government watchdog websites go dark as OMB withholds funds from IG committee (Natalie Alms, FCW/Nextgov)

Federal agencies use official websites to blame Democrats for shutdown: Several agencies used their official websites and social media accounts for political attacks after the shutdown began, declaring that Democrats or the “radical left” were to blame. (Eileen Sullivan and Chris Cameron, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Trump administration “co-opted the voices” of Education employees in shutdown blame game, union lawsuit alleges (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

Other Shutdown News:

→ Government shutdown 2025: A guide to what’s still open, what’s closed and what’s fuzzy

→ Flight delays begin as air traffic staffing shortages worsen

→ OMB deletes reference to law guaranteeing backpay to furloughed feds from shutdown guidance

→ As Trump promises shutdown layoffs, fights over previous layoffs stall due to shutdown

→ Military families seek out food assistance amid shutdown anxiety

→ Construction on White House ballroom continues amid shutdown

→ How much smaller is the federal work force? Shutdown plans offer a clue

Weaponization of the Government

The FBI is weighing an arrest and perp walk for Comey — and suspended an agent for refusing to help, sources say: The FBI is considering carrying out a showy arrest of former FBI Director James Comey on his arraignment court date this week. When a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s Washington field office refused leadership’s request to assign “large, beefy” agents “in full kit” to conduct the arrest, he was suspended for insubordination. (Daniel Klaidman, Jake Miller, Scott MacFarlane, CBS News)

Trump administration illegally targeted pro-Palestinian protesters, judge rules: U.S. District Judge William Young ruled the administration’s push earlier this year to arrest and deport international students for their pro-Palestinian activism was illegal, calling the crackdown a “truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech.” Young said he would decide an appropriate remedy at a future hearing. (Joanna Slater, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: U.S. used a transnational crime unit to secretly target campus protesters (Joanna Slater and John Hudson, Washington Post)

Trump offers top universities funds if they boost conservative ideas: The president presented nine U.S. universities with the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” a deal in which they would agree to advance conservative ideas and commit to a range of other anti-DEI conditions in exchange for “multiple positive benefits”, including “substantial and meaningful federal grants.” (Ed Pilkington, The Guardian)

The War on “Narcoterrorists”

Trump “determined” the U.S. is now in a war with drug cartels, Congress is told: President Trump declared in a confidential notice to Congress that the U.S. is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels, and suspected smugglers are “unlawful combatants.” Under international law, the designation allows the U.S. to lawfully kill enemy fighters even when they pose no threat, detain them indefinitely without trial, and prosecute them in military courts. (Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt, New York Times)

Natural Disasters

In unusual move, FEMA halts preparedness grant money, orders states to recount their populations excluding deported migrants: FEMA halted the release of hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency preparedness grants, requiring states to prove their population counts — including a confirmation that individuals removed under U.S. immigration laws aren’t included — before they can access the money. The new rule adds another layer of bureaucracy and uncertainty for states already struggling to secure previously awarded federal funding. (Gabe Cohen, CNN)

Insurrection

Biden-era FBI requested Senate Republican phone records, lawmakers say: The phone records sought by special counsel Jack Smith’s team were for calls that took place between January 4 and January 7, 2021. The FBI probe didn’t obtain the content of the calls, only the recipients, the length of calls, and the date on which they were placed. The request for this information was approved by a grand jury. (Hailey Fuchs, Politico)

Reproductive Freedom

FDA under pressure from right after abortion pill approval: The anti-abortion movement’s patience with the FDA is wearing thin following the agency’s recent approval of a second generic version of mifepristone. Separately, a group of House conservatives called on Health Secretary Kennedy to fire the division leaders responsible for greenlighting the drug. (Nathaniel Weixel, The Hill)

Middle East Conflicts

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation security contractor hires Trump-linked lobbyists: UG Solutions, a security contractor serving the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, hired Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with Trump administration ties, as the president’s proposed peace deal for Gaza puts the controversial company’s future in doubt. (Matt Sledge, The Intercept)

Russia-Ukraine War

U.S. to provide Ukraine with intelligence for missile strikes deep inside Russia: The expanded intelligence-sharing with Kyiv is the latest sign that Trump is deepening support for Ukraine as his efforts to advance peace talks have stalled. The White House is also weighing deliveries of ground- and air-launched missiles that have ranges up to 1,500 miles. (Bojan Pancevski, Alexander Ward, and Lara Seligman, Wall Street Journal)

Police Misconduct

ICE just bought new tool to monitor hundreds of millions of smartphones. Experts say it’s dangerous: ICE is seeking to buy access to a powerful suite of surveillance tools that will allow the agency to monitor people’s locations based on data from hundreds of millions of mobile phones, likely in violation of Fourth Amendment privacy protections. (Josh Marcus, The Independent)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Opinion: The chilling reason the military is silent now: Why has the military been so silent as the Trump administration has pushed the bounds of law by deploying troops to aid immigration enforcement and attack alleged drug-smuggling boats? One answer is that the administration has gutted the judge advocate generals, who advise commanders on the rule of law, including whether presidential orders are legal. Without JAGs backing them up, commanders have no recourse other than to comply or resign. (David Ignatius, Washington Post)

Pentagon plans widespread random polygraphs, NDAs to stanch leaks: The DOD will impose strict nondisclosure agreements and random polygraph testing for thousands of uniformed and civilian officials. In addition, new directives will overhaul how troops and defense personnel file whistleblower complaints. (Alex Horton, Tara Copp, and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Soldiers under misconduct investigation won’t see careers stall under new Hegseth policy (Patty Nieberg, Task & Purpose)

🔎 See Also: Hegseth wants AI used in inspector general investigations (Patty Nieberg, Task & Purpose)

Hegseth attack on “beardos” targets troops on race and religion, military sources say: The defense secretary’s push for clean-shaven troops is drawing criticism from service members who say the policy tramples religious freedoms and disproportionately targets Black men, Muslims, Sikhs, and pagans. Federal courts have repeatedly found that service members who grow beards have a First Amendment right to keep them. (Austin Campbell, The Intercept)

Nuclear missile workers are contracting cancer. They blame the bases: Within the community of service members who staff nuclear missile silos scattered across the Northern Rockies and Great Plains, suspicions have long been brewing that their workplaces were unsafe. The Air Force is wrapping up a study of the health risks the workers may have faced. (Patricia Kime, KFF Health News)

Anduril and Palantir battlefield communication system has deep flaws, Army memo says: The much-needed modernization of the Army’s battlefield communications network being developed by Silicon Valley tech firms Anduril and Palantir is rife with “fundamental security” problems and vulnerabilities and should be treated as a “very high risk,” according to a recent internal Army memo. (Mike Stone, Reuters)

Army selects company with checkered past to manage private dining facilities at 5 bases: The U.S. Army awarded a contract to manage dining facilities at five bases to Compass Group USA, despite the company’s history of settling multimillion-dollar claims of overcharging on contracts. (Rose L. Thayer, Stars & Stripes)

How some veterans exploit $193 billion VA program, due to lax controls: Military veterans are swamping the VA with dubious disability claims — including cases of brazen fraud totaling tens of millions of dollars. The disability program is prone to rampant exaggeration and fraud, making it harder for veterans with legitimate claims to get their benefits processed. (Craig Whitlock, Lisa Rein, and Caitlin Gilbert, Washington Post)

AI at the VA: Tech gains shadowed by infrastructure and data security concerns: Although the use of AI is not a new concept at the VA, lawmakers and the GAO have raised concerns over privacy and proper staffing to match the increasing reliance on AI. (Bridget Craig, Military.com)

Business and Finance

This billionaire Trump ally and his son are building an unprecedented media empire: The financial holdings of software billionaire Larry Ellison and his son, movie producer David Ellison, span movies, TV networks, CBS News, and soon a stake in TikTok — a paradigm-shifting portfolio with huge influence. (Caroline O’Donovan and Will Oremus, Washington Post)

Republicans take aim at “industry behind the curtain” of college prices: The chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees sent letters to two consulting firms — along with the College Board, Oracle, and a company called Ellucian — probing whether their use of college tuition pricing and financial aid algorithms violates antitrust laws. (Ron Lieber, New York Times)

Tech

Analysis: Pitfalls of Trump’s info silo executive order compromise privacy: President Trump’s March executive order, “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos,” grants the agencies unfettered access to highly personal data and fails to articulate how it will achieve its purpose of “enhancing the Government’s ability to detect overpayments and fraud.” (Janice Luong, Project On Government Oversight)

🔎 See Also: Class action lawsuit alleges data consolidation within USCIS is illegal (Natalie Alms, Government Executive)

Spam and scams proliferate in Facebook’s political ads: Facebook profits from political ads that include deepfakes and other content prohibited by its own policies. (Steven Lee Myers, New York Times)

OpenAI’s Sora makes disinformation extremely easy and extremely real: While worries about AI’s ability to enable misleading content and outright fabrications have risen steadily in recent years, Sora’s advances underscore just how much easier such content is to produce, and how much more convincing it is. (Tiffany Hsu, Stuart A. Thompson, and Steven Lee Myers, New York Times)

AI can design toxic proteins. They’re escaping through biosecurity cracks.: Researchers generated thousands of AI-engineered versions of 72 toxins that escaped detection. The researchers designed a patch to fix this problem, but they warned that experts will have to keep searching for future breaches in this safety net. (Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post)

Infrastructure

“Semiconductor slush fund”: How the Trump admin seized control of Biden’s $7.4 billion chips initiative: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s clawback of CHIPS Act funds produced deep uncertainty while companies, researchers, and lawmakers scrambled to understand where it leaves over a dozen awardees. (Christine Mui, Politico)

Health Care

Alabama doctor who replaced Fauci claims Trump administration fired her for whistle blowing, vaccine support: Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo claims she was fired from her job as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases after filing a whistleblower complaint accusing NIH officials of the "cancellation of several critical research grants, the politicization of scientific research, and the baseless hostility towards vaccinations." (Patrick Darrington, AL.com)

Patients are diagnosing themselves with home tests, devices and chatbots: With a shortage of doctors, long wait times for appointments, and an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases earlier in adulthood, patients are taking a more active role in shouldering responsibility for diagnosing their own symptoms, tracking their own medical data, and even ordering their own lab tests using AI and other new technologies. But this DIY health trend brings risks. (Laura Landro, Wall Street Journal)

How private equity oversees the ethics of drug research: Many drug trials are vetted by review boards with ties to the drugmakers, raising concerns about conflicts of interest and patient safety. (Walt Bogdanich, Carson Kessler, and Jeremy Singer-Vine, New York Times)

Pharma has paid billions in opioid settlements — but not to many victims’ families: Roughly $57 billion is set to flow to state and local governments from legal settlements with drug manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacy chains alleged to have fueled the opioid crisis. But so far, families scarred by the crisis have seen less than 2% of the settlement money. (Marisa Iati, Washington Post)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Trump’s deportation machine has diverted some 42,000 crime fighters from other tasks

→ Inside the Trump administration’s unprecedented purge of immigration judges

→ ICE targets unaccompanied immigrant children, offering $2,500 payment for deportation

→ Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: “I feel defeated”

→ How Washington became a testing ground for ICE

→ Scores accused of immigration fraud in federal sweep in Minnesota

→ ICE officers to attend Super Bowl after Bad Bunny announcement, Lewandowski says

→ Apple removes app that tracks ICE agents

Other News:

→ Judge disqualifies Nevada’s acting U.S. attorney from handling cases

→ Firings and resignations roil U.S. attorney’s office prosecuting Comey

→ “Widespread” breach let hackers steal employee data from FEMA and CBP

→ Supreme Court allows Lisa Cook to remain on Fed board for now

→ Justice Department sues L.A. sheriff’s department over gun permit delays

→ The Navy commissioned $400K worth of safety videos. Then it tried to make them disappear

→ After declining to give Trump a sword for King Charles, a museum leader is out

→ MAGA’s top “voter fraud” watchdog votes in a swing state. He doesn’t live there

On The Lighter Side

Trump-Epstein statue returns to National Mall: A 10-foot-tall statue of President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands and each with a foot raised behind him returned to the National Mall, a week after the National Park Service removed it for not being compliant with an issued permit. The statue, spray-painted bronze, appears fully restored with only minor damage and the hands once again clasped together. (Joe Heim, Washington Post)

Chunk, a 1,200-pound bear with a broken jaw, wins Alaska's popular Fat Bear Week contest: After finishing in second place for the past three years, the brown bear finally came out on top in the National Park Service’s Fat Bear Week competition, which this year attracted over 1.5 million fans who watched the bears gorge on a record run of salmon in the Brooks River. (Cedar Attanasio and Mark Thiessen, Associated Press)

Upcoming Events

📌 ZOOM EVENT: Letter to the Editor Training: Domestic Deployment. Project On Government Oversight. Tuesday, October 7, 8:00 p.m. EDT.

Hot Docs

🔥📃 GAO - Extreme Heat: Limited FEMA Assistance Highlights Need for Reevaluation of Agency’s Role. GAO-25-107474 (PDF)

Nominations & Appointments

Nominations

• William Boyle - U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina
• David A. Bragdon - Judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
• Erin Creegan - U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire
• Mark Roosevelt Ditlevson - Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs
• Charles Neil Floyd - U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington
• Lindsey Ann Freeman - Judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
• Lindsey Halligan - U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
• Zachary Keller - U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana
• Matthew E. Orso - Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina
• Susan Courtwright Rodriguez - Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina

Withdrawals

• Erwin Antoni - Commissioner of Labor Statistics
• Mark Brnovich - Ambassador, Serbia
• Theodore Cooke - Commissioner of Reclamation
• Jeremy Ellis - Inspector General, Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Jeffrey Kaufman - Member, Farm Credit Administration Board
• Chris Pratt - Assistant Secretary of State (Political-Military Affairs)
• Brian Quintenz - Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission
• Erik Siebert - U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia