The Paper Trail: February 24, 2026

The Paper Trail

Top stories for February 24, 2026

Ex-ICE instructor testifies that agency slashed officer training, lied to Congress: Former ICE instructor Ryan Schwank accused the agency of drastically slashing training for new officers — including instruction about the legal boundaries for the use of force and the proper way to detain and arrest immigrants — and lying to Congress about it. (David Nakamura and Sarah Blaskey, Washington Post)

The next phase of ICE’s $38 billion detention plan: centralized, DHS-owned warehouses: ICE plans to shrink its network of detention facilities to 34 government-owned sites, replacing the current patchwork of more than 200 local jails and privately run facilities. (Sophie Alexander, Fola Akinnibi, and Alicia A. Caldwell, Bloomberg)

🔎 See Also: Metadata exposes authors of ICE’s “mega” detention center plans (Maddy Varner, Wired)

A new lawsuit alleges DHS illegally tracked and intimidated observers: A lawsuit alleges federal immigration enforcement agents are unconstitutionally retaliating against observers by gathering their personal information and labeling them domestic terrorists. (Jude Joffe-Block, NPR)

DHS assault cases spiked to a record high. Experts and judges have raised alarms: From Minneapolis to San Antonio, D.C. to Los Angeles, DHS has been quick to claim that people have assaulted or impeded its agents. In fiscal 2025, DHS sent a record number of assault and interference referrals to federal prosecutors. At least two dozen of these claims were later dismissed by prosecutors, resulted in not-guilty verdicts, or were rejected by grand juries. (Will Sytsma and Nick Schwellenbach, Project On Government Oversight)

Amid mass ICE arrests, Trump pardon recipient Juan Orlando Hernández given special treatment: After the former Honduran president was pardoned, ICE dropped its immigration detainer on him, and he was whisked away from a prison in West Virginia to a luxury hotel in New York City. (Keri Blakinger, ProPublica)

DHS treatment of whistleblowers under investigation by GAO: The GAO is seeking interviews with DHS whistleblowers who filed complaints between October 2017 and September 2025. In December, two former DHS contractor employees criticized the DHS inspector general office’s handling of whistleblower complaints, writing in an op-ed that the office is “between ten and 25 times less likely to confirm retaliation than comparable federal offices.” (Nick Schwellenbach, Project On Government Oversight)

Longtime Virginia lawyer chosen by judges as U.S. attorney, and then fired: For the second time this month, the administration fired an interim U.S. attorney appointed by federal judges. Two hours after James Hundley was appointed, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced his firing via social media. (Alan Feuer, New York Times)

FBI director invites fresh scrutiny over travels with appearance at U.S. men’s hockey team celebration: To FBI Director Kash Patel’s critics, his celebration with the U.S. men’s hockey team on Sunday was another questionable use of government resources by an FBI chief already facing scrutiny for using government aircraft for trips that have no apparent law enforcement purpose. (Eric Tucker, Associated Press)

CIA withdraws nearly 20 intelligence reports, citing bias: The CIA formally withdrew nearly 20 intelligence reports issued over the last decade, including reports on white nationalism, LGBTQ activism, and family planning, after a review determined they were biased or an inappropriate use of agency resources. (Warren P. Strobel, Washington Post)

Labor secretary’s spouse not charged but remains banned from agency: A local police investigation of a report that Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s husband sexually assaulted a female staffer has been closed after police found no evidence of a crime. But Shawn DeRemer remains banned from the Labor Department’s headquarters, amid an ongoing investigation of allegations that the secretary misused public funds and had an inappropriate relationship with a member of her security team. (Lauren Kaori Gurley, Kadia Goba, and Meryl Kornfield, Washington Post)

Workplace inspections by OSHA dropped over a six-month period of 2025: Data released by Sen. Elizabeth Warren shows a 20% decrease in work site inspections by OSHA during a six-month period last year compared with the same period in 2024. The decrease comes on top of efforts by the administration to roll back regulations for worker safety and protections. (Eileen Sullivan and Rebecca Davis O’Brien, New York Times)

Bridge owner donated $1 million to MAGA group before Trump blasted competitor: Less than one month before President Trump threatened to block a planned bridge connecting Michigan with Canada, the billionaire owner of an existing bridge donated $1 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. The White House and the super PAC denied there was a quid-pro-quo. (Kenneth P. Vogel and Matina Stevis-Gridneff, New York Times)

What was Bill Pulte’s charity really funding with this mystery donation? In 2023, a charity run by Bill Pulte — who now runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency — made a previously unreported donation that raises questions about whether it was an effort to quietly funnel money to Trump’s legal defense. (Hannah Levintova and Dan Friedman, Mother Jones)

Tensions in the Twin Cities

ICE drawdown? Indications point to steady enforcement activity outside the Twin Cities: In recent days, ICE seems to have shifted its activities from the Twin Cities to the state’s suburbs, exurbs, and small towns. (Jon Collins, Minnesota Public Radio)

Judge threatens government lawyer with fines after ICE violates court order: U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino held special assistant U.S. attorney Matthew Isihara in contempt of court and threatened him with $500 daily fines after the government failed to return identification documents and other personal property to a Minnesota man unlawfully arrested and sent to a Texas immigration detention center. (Matt Sepic, Minnesota Public Radio)

Police investigate ICE arrest of a man who suffered severe head injuries: St. Paul police are investigating an immigration arrest last month that left a man with a fractured skull and bleeding in his brain. ICE agents claimed Alberto Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries were a result of his running into a wall; Castañeda Mondragón said the agents beat him. (Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, New York Times)

Epstein Files

DOJ scrubs record of interviews with Trump accuser from Epstein files: The DOJ in 2019 spoke four separate times with a woman who accused Donald Trump of having sex with a minor he met through Jeffrey Epstein — but most accusations against the president appear to have been removed from the Epstein files. (Edith Olmsted, The New Republic)

New details from Epstein files reveal Lutnick had years-long business tie with sex offender: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed he cut ties with Epstein in 2005, but the files show he maintained a relationship with Epstein until at least 2018. (Noah Lanard, Mother Jones)

Other Epstein Files News:

→ Former British ambassador to the U.S. arrested after Epstein files release

→ Epstein files investigated as possible motive of armed man fatally shot at Mar-a-Lago

→ Longevity guru Peter Attia quits CBS News after Epstein files fallout

→ Deepak Chopra acknowledges “poor judgment” over emails with Epstein

Weaponization of the Government

Colleges quietly cut ties with organizations that help people of color: Thirty-one schools have signed agreements with the Department of Education to end their associations with a range of organizations that help racial minorities. (Todd Wallack, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Department of Education backs down on anti-DEI directive after suit (Lisa Hornung, UPI)

DOGE

A year later, experts say full effect of DOGE cuts may never be known: The full costs of the DOGE freezes, cuts, and terminations and the toll they’ve taken on Americans and people around the world likely will never be fully known. DOGE’s actions covered 64 federal departments and agencies and affected Americans in every state, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Washington, DC. (Dinah Voyles Pulver and John Heasly, USA Today)

White House Ballroom

Commission, packed with Trump allies, approves White House ballroom project: The Commission of Fine Arts voted unanimously last week to approve the planned 90,000-square-foot, $400 million White House ballroom — even as a federal judge weighs whether to halt the project. The president’s team will next seek approval from the National Capital Planning Commission and plans to start construction in April. (Jonathan Edwards and Dan Diamond, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Trump picks his White House assistant for panel reviewing ballroom (Dan Diamond and Jonathan Edwards, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Why is Trump dumping East Wing rubble in a public park? (Shawn McCreesh, New York Times)

Natural Disasters

FEMA national security functions “significantly constrained” during shutdown, email warns: One of FEMA’s most critical but lesser-known functions — keeping the government running during a national emergency — is “significantly constrained” amid the partial government shutdown, according to an internal email. (Brianna Sacks, Washington Post)

Despite court order, a critical FEMA program remains frozen: Over two months after a judge ordered FEMA to restore climate adaptation grants under the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, the agency hasn’t budged. As a result, state and local governments across the country are holding critical projects in limbo. (Jake Bittle, Government Executive)

Did the USDA just forget about $400M in drought aid for farmers? Nearly two years ago, the USDA launched a grant program to help farmers in areas grappling with droughts. Today, the $400 million promised to irrigation districts, associations, and tribes remains unaccounted for, and grant recipients have received no indication of when the money will be paid out. (Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist)

Classified Documents

Judge blocks release of special counsel’s report on Trump classified documents case: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon permanently barred the release of a report by special counsel Jack Smith on his investigation into President Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House in 2021 and his obstruction of government efforts to get the documents back. (Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker, Washington Post)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Trump aides struggle with how to spend $500 billion more on military: Administration officials are struggling to figure out how to increase U.S. military spending by $500 billion in their forthcoming budget, slowing the overall White House spending plan. The 50% funding boost sought by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ran into internal criticism from several officials, including White House budget chief Russell Vought. (Jeff Stein and Dan Lamothe, Washington Post)

Air Force maintenance staff can’t stop buying fancy knives with tax dollars: Air Force maintenance units spent nearly $1.8 million on high-end knives and other luxury items with no legitimate practical use. It’s a drop in the bucket of a military budget creeping ever closer to a trillion dollars, but the knife-ordering frenzy illustrates how frivolous spending can go unchecked. (Austin Campbell, The Intercept)

U.S. sent a rescue plane for boat strike survivors. It took 45 hours to arrive: U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said it “immediately notified” the Coast Guard to launch search and rescue protocols after striking a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on December 30. It took the Coast Guard almost two days to begin searching the area for survivors. The slow response is part of a pattern of what appear to be perfunctory rescue missions that since mid-October haven’t saved a single survivor. (Tomi McCluskey and Nick Turse, The Intercept)

Watchdog finds gaps in military response to missing service members: When a service member goes missing, the first hours can determine whether they are found safely or not at all. But the GAO found that unclear timelines and inconsistent processes across the services could delay lifesaving responses when time is critical. (Eve Sampson, Military Times)

Defense Dept. and Anthropic square off in dispute over AI safety: For months, the DOD and AI company Anthropic have been negotiating a contract over the use of AI on classified defense systems. Last week, those discussions erupted in a war of words, with Anthropic demanding that its technology not be used for domestic mass surveillance and mass propaganda or deployed in autonomous weapons. (Sheera Frenkel and Julian E. Barnes, New York Times)

VA doesn’t know how many calls it’s answering or how long veterans are waiting to get through: According to an inspector general review, the VA is failing to track how many calls from its patients it’s answering and what’s happening with those calls. The IG said the failures are putting veterans at risk, particularly high-risk patients seeking radiology or mental health services. (Eric Katz, Government Executive)

Business and Finance

FedEx sues Trump administration for “full refund” of tariff payments: The Supreme Court didn’t indicate whether businesses are entitled to refunds for the tariffs it struck down. The issue is expected to draw a flood of lawsuits and years of legal wrangling over billions of dollars in tariff payments. (Jacob Rosen, CBS News)

Elon Musk’s xAI gets $3 billion investment from Saudi-backed AI firm: Saudi Arabia’s state-backed AI company invested $3 billion in xAI, giving Saudi investors a stake in SpaceX, a key U.S. national security contractor. (Adam Satariano, New York Times)

Binance employees find $1.7 billion in crypto was sent to Iranian entities: Binance, the world’s largest venue for crypto trading, has continued to find evidence of potential legal violations on its platform, even after it pleaded guilty to breaking anti-money-laundering laws in 2023. (David Yaffe-Bellany and Michael Forsythe, New York Times)

IRS tactics against Meta open a new front in the corporate tax fight: After years of struggling to stop firms like Amazon, Microsoft, and Coca-Cola from shifting trillions of dollars to island havens, the IRS is deploying new legal tactics in a court battle with Meta that, if successful, could lead to the recovery of hundreds of billions in taxes. (Jesse Drucker, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: “The subpoenas are coming,” bipartisan firm warns corporate America (Mike Allen, Axios)

Tech

This economic idea transfixed Wall Street and Washington. It may be a mirage: While it’s clear that the huge spending on AI is adding to the economy, the available economic data doesn’t neatly capture its effects. That may enable political and corporate leaders to choose the numbers that fit their preferred narratives on how AI is changing American life and work. (Shira Ovide, Washington Post)

Health Care

Controversial NIH director now in charge of CDC, too, in RFK Jr. shake-up: Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, is now also the acting director of the CDC, an unusual arrangement that has drawn criticism from researchers and public health experts who question his leadership skills. (Beth Mole, Ars Technica)

After leaving WHO, Trump officials propose more expensive replacement to duplicate it: HHS proposes spending $2 billion a year to re-create the functions the U.S. accessed through the World Health Organization at a fraction of the cost. (Lena H. Sun and Jacob Bogage, Washington Post)

As more Americans embrace anxiety treatment, MAHA derides medications: Doctors and researchers say medications such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Lexapro are being misrepresented as addictive and harmful by the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, even though they’ve been proved safe for extended use. (Phillip Reese, KFF Health News)

How safe is America from polio?: All 50 states require polio vaccination for school attendance. But in recent years, more and more parents have used exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children. (Jon LaPook, CBS News)

Study shows how rocket launches pollute the atmosphere: New research bolsters growing concerns that a handful of companies and countries are using the global atmospheric commons as a dumping ground for potentially toxic and climate-altering industrial waste byproducts from loosely regulated commercial space flights. (Bob Berwyn, Ars Technica)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ DHS expands ICE’s ability to detain legal refugees in latest memo

→ Third American death linked to ICE crackdown uncovered by Newsweek

→ Kristi Noem repeatedly claimed ICE deported a cannibal. It was “completely made up”

→ Maryland sues to block planned ICE detention center

→ Conservative Georgia town pushes back against ICE detention center: “We are Americans after all”

→ Inside the Homeland Security forum where ICE agents talk s**t about other agents

→ Amid immigration agent hiring surge, watchdog flags shortages on the U.S.-Canada border

Other News:

→ Administration targets noncitizen voting, despite finding it rare

→ Coast Guard investigating swastika found at recruit training center

→ France bars U.S. ambassador Kushner from meeting government officials

→ Giant banner of Donald Trump hung at Justice Department headquarters

→ FDA reverses course and will review Moderna’s mRNA-based flu shot

On The Lighter Side

Boneless wings are still wings, judge rules, and chefs take a bite of the battle: U.S. District Judge John Tharp Jr. ruled a customer’s lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings had “no meat on its bones.” Will Judge Tharp’s nugget of wisdom put the debate to bed, or is there still a bone to pick? (Andrea Margolis, Fox News)

Hot Docs

🔥📃 GAO - Indian Affairs: Opportunities Exist to Address Bureau’s Strained Regional Workforce Capacity. GAO-26-107940 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Weather Modification: NOAA Should Strengthen Oversight to Ensure Reliable Information. GAO-26-108013 (PDF)

Nominations & Appointments

Nominations

• Jeffrey Kuhlman - Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas
• Tony Mattivi - Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas
• Tony Powell - Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas
• Justin Smith - Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit