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The Paper Trail: April 18, 2025

Intel Findings Contradict Mass Deportation Rationale; U.S. Attorney Nominee a Regular on Russian TV; Thousands of Donated Organs Discarded Each Year; And More.

Apr 18, 2025

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Top stories for April 18, 2025

U.S. intelligence contradicts Trump’s justification for mass deportations: The National Intelligence Council, drawing on the acumen of the 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, determined that the Venezuelan government isn’t directing an invasion of the U.S. by the Tren de Aragua gang. The determination is the government’s most comprehensive assessment to date undercutting the administration’s rationale for deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence dismissed the findings as the work of “deep state actors” working in conjunction with the media. (John Hudson and Warren P. Strobel, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Trump administration likely acted in contempt of court by not turning around deportation flights, judge says (Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin, and Peter Charalambous, ABC News)

🔎 See Also: Sen. Van Hollen meets with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador (Ashleigh Fields, The Hill)

🔎 See Also: El Salvador’s Bukele plans to double the size of giant prison holding U.S. deportees (Vera Bergengruen and Michelle Hackman, Wall Street Journal)

Trump’s D.C. U.S. attorney pick appeared on Russian state media over 150 times: Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin failed to disclose to the Senate Judiciary Committee his more than 150 appearances on RT and Sputnik between 2016 and 2024. The State Department has accused both Russian government-funded networks of engaging in covert influence activities aimed at undermining democracies around the world. (Spencer S. Hsu and Aaron Schaffer, Washington Post)

CIA director’s messages in leaked chat were deleted, agency says: All of the messages from a Signal group chat last month about plans to strike Yemen were deleted from the phone of CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Court records suggest that settings on Ratcliffe’s phone to automatically delete Signal messages may have been changed just before or after a judge issued an order to preserve the messages. (Julian E. Barnes, New York Times)

Law firms made deals with Trump. Now he wants more from them: President Trump has indicated that he sees the nearly $1 billion in free legal services extracted from elite law firms as a legal war chest to be used as he pleases. White House officials believe that the pro bono services could even be used to help Trump or his allies if they became ensnared in legal matters. (Michael S. Schmidt et al., New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Judge blocks Trump from retaliating against another top law firm (Zach Montague, New York Times)

Trump’s freeze on $2.2 billion to Harvard provided no proof of wrongdoing: The administration’s decision to freeze $2.2 billion to Harvard didn’t follow procedures set out in civil rights law, which require the government to identify violations, offer a hearing, notify Congress, and wait 30 days before applying penalties. (Ben Brasch and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Washington Post)

Trump “anti-fraud” memo could allow SSA to stop paying some Americans’ earned benefits: The memo, “Preventing Illegal Aliens from Obtaining Social Security Act Benefits,” tasks federal officials with issuing new guidance aimed at preventing undocumented immigrants from receiving Social Security benefits and punishing state and local governments that don't follow suit. (Erich Wagner and Natalie Alms, Government Executive)

Nearly 90% of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cut as Trump’s government downsizing continues: Roughly 1,500 employees are slated to be cut, leaving around 200 people. According to Mark Paoletta, the chief legal officer for the agency, the CFBP “will shift resources away from enforcement and supervision that can be done by the States.” Problems with mortgages will be the top priority, while issues involving medical debt, student loans, and digital payments will receive less attention. (Chris Megeran, Associated Press)

Trump team eyes politically connected startup to overhaul $700 billion government payments program: The GSA is eying tech startup Ramp to get a piece of the government’s $700 billion internal expense card program, known as SmartPay. Ramp is backed by powerful figures in Silicon Valley who are also Trump supporters. (Christopher Bing and Avi Asher-Schapiro, ProPublica)

Elon Musk & DOGE

Musk’s SpaceX is frontrunner to build Trump’s Golden Dome missile shield: SpaceX and two partners — software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril — have emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part of the president’s “Golden Dome” missile defense shield. All three companies were founded by entrepreneurs who are major political supporters of Trump. (Mike Stone and Marisa Taylor, Reuters)

User with Russian IP address tried to log into NLRB systems following DOGE access, whistleblower says: According to a whistleblower, a user with a Russian IP address tried to log into NLRB systems just minutes after DOGE moved to access and extract troves of sensitive data from inside the agency. The alleged incident suggests that adversaries may be testing entry points potentially exposed by DOGE’s activities across the government. (David DiMolfetta, Government Executive)

Trump’s war on measurement means losing data on drug use, maternal mortality, climate change and more: As a result of DOGE’s cuts, the government is losing its capacity to measure how American society is functioning, making it much harder for elected officials or others to gauge the nature and scale of the problems we’re facing and the effectiveness of solutions being deployed against them. (Alec MacGillis, ProPublica)

DOGE begins to freeze health-care payments for extra review: DOGE put new curbs on billions of dollars in federal health-care grants, requiring government officials to manually review and approve previously routine payments — and paralyzing grant awards to tens of thousands of organizations, including funding for doctors’ and nurses’ salaries at federal health centers for the poor. (Dan Diamond, Carolyn Y. Johnson, and Hannah Natanson, Washington Post)

ICE, DOGE seek sensitive Medicare data as immigration crackdown intensifies: ICE and DOGE are seeking to use a sensitive Medicare database as part of their crackdown on undocumented immigrants. (Hannah Natanson, Rachel Roubein, and Dan Diamond, Washington Post)

SEC officials push back as Musk’s DOGE seeks broad access, source says: A DOGE team led by former financial exchange executive Eliezer Mishory is seeking access to the SEC’s email, personnel, contract, and payment systems. The request, which would include communications regarding investigations, was met with “some pushback” by agency leaders. (Chris Prentice and Douglas Gillison, Reuters)

Other DOGE News:

→ DOGE unemployment “fraud” discoveries are old finds from Biden era, experts say

→ Musk’s team is building a system to sell “gold card” immigrant visas

→ DOGE sought to assign a team to an independent nonprofit group

→ Musk’s fury over a Tesla investigation foreshadowed his war on Washington

Political Misbehavior

DOJ sues Maine in standoff over transgender athletes in women’s sports: The DOJ filed suit challenging Maine’s policy regarding transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports. The lawsuit is likely just the first in a series of legal challenges: Attorney General Pam Bondi previously sent warning letters to state officials in California and Minnesota ordering them to “keep men out of women’s sports.” (Alexander Mallin, ABC News)

Justice gets criminal referral alleging mortgage fraud by NY attorney general: The Federal Housing Finance Agency made a criminal referral to the DOJ alleging mortgage fraud by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who prosecuted a fraud case against President Trump last year. (Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Third top Pentagon official suspended in leak investigation: Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, was suspended a day after two other political appointees — Dan Caldwell, one of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s top advisors, and Darin Selnick, the DOD’s deputy chief of staff — were placed on leave following a probe into potential leaks of sensitive information. The leaks concerned military operational plans for the Panama Canal, a second carrier headed to the Red Sea, Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon to discuss China, and a pause in the collection of intelligence for Ukraine. (Daniel Lippman and Jack Detsch, Politico)

DOD stops offering rape kits to most overseas civilian workers: A new DOD memo ordered the Defense Health Agency to stop providing rape kits to some overseas civilian workers and contractors. (Riley Ceder, Military Times)

Pete Hegseth is gutting Pentagon programs to reduce civilian casualties: The DOD is in the process of eliminating or downsizing offices, programs, and positions focused on preventing civilian casualties during U.S. combat operations. (Nick Turse, The Intercept)

Military families challenge Trump’s stricter federal voting rules: Advocates say a new executive order would add barriers for troops and families who vote by absentee ballot. (Karen Jowers, Military Times)

Fight over Space Command HQ continues with new watchdog report: The fight over the location of the U.S. Space Command headquarters drags on after a Pentagon IG report found uncertainty and unanswered questions over moving the HQ from Colorado Springs to Huntsville. (Ellen Mitchell, The Hill)

Opinion: I’m a military spouse and federal contractor. Here’s how people like me are falling through the cracks: Behind nearly every federal agency is a network of contractors working in the background. When federal budgets are slashed and contracts aren’t renewed, entire teams of private sector workers lose their livelihoods with little to no warning and virtually no safety net. For military spouses and veterans working as contractors, these layoffs are especially devastating. (Hana Romer, Military.com)

Business and Finance

Climate activists were hacked. There was a link between victims and an alleged attacker: Federal prosecutors allege that hackers linked to ExxonMobil and one of its lobbyists are targeting prominent climate activists in an effort to gather information to foil lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry over damages caused by global warming. (Michael Copley, NPR)

U.S. Treasury in talks with federal agencies to ease bank oversight, Bloomberg News says: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is hosting private meetings with federal and other bank agencies as a part of an expanded effort to streamline oversight and ease regulation. (Reuters)

Google holds an illegal monopoly in ad sales, federal court rules: U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google’s advertising technology unit is an illegal monopoly, raising the specter that Google may have to divest itself of a major source of revenue. It’s the third major antitrust loss for the company since 2023. (Eva Dou and Gerrit De Vynck, Washington Post)

Health Care

Women, minorities fired in purge of NIH science review boards: Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the NIH are female, Black, or Hispanic. Six percent of White males who serve on boards were fired, compared with half of Black and Hispanic females and a quarter of all females. (Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Leading nutrition scientist departs NIH, citing censorship (Alice Callahan, New York Times)

Kennedy calls autism “preventable,” drawing ire from researchers: In remarks laced with scientific inaccuracies, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Wednesday that autism was preventable, directly contradicting researchers within his own agency. (Karoun Demirjian, Dani Blum, and Azeen Ghorayshi, New York Times)

FDA making plans to end its routine food safety inspections, sources say: The FDA is drawing up plans that would end most of its routine food safety inspections work and effectively outsource this oversight to state and local authorities. (Alexander Tin, CBS News)

🔎 See Also: Patients cut off from cheaper obesity drugs as the FDA halts sales of copycats (Rebecca Robbins and Dani Blum, New York Times)

COVID worsened shortages of doctors and nurses. Five years on, rural hospitals still struggle: Five years after the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, the U.S. faces a crucial shortage of medical providers. Experts say the problem has been building for a while, but the pandemic accelerated the shortages by pushing health-care workers into early retirement or other fields. (Natalie Krebs, KFF Health News)

Discarded: Why donated organs are left unused: In the U.S., nearly 12,000 potentially life-saving organs were discarded last year. (Tom Hanson et al., CBS News)