Newsletter

The Paper Trail: June 27, 2025

DOJ Sues Federal Judges; Trump Preparing to Challenge Impoundment Law; Military Domestic Violence Convictions Skyrocket; And More.

Jun 27, 2025

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The Paper Trail

Editor’s Note

Starting next week, the Paper Trail will be sent out on Tuesdays only.

Top stories for June 27, 2025

DOJ sues all federal judges in Maryland over deportation order: The DOJ sued all 15 federal district court judges in Maryland on Tuesday over an order that pauses deportations under legal challenge in the state for 48 hours. Legal experts say the move is an unprecedented attack on judicial independence. (Salvador Rizzo and Katie Mettler, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: The Supreme Court is at war with its own judiciary (Adam Bonica, On Data and Democracy)

Justice Dept. leader suggested violating court orders, whistleblower says: Senior DOJ official and federal appeals court nominee Emil Bove III told subordinates he would ignore court orders in order to carry out President Trump’s deportation campaign, according to a whistleblower complaint by a DOJ lawyer who has since been fired. The whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, also claims that other agency officials also indicated a willingness to defy the courts. (Devlin Barrett, New York Times)

A new Trump plan gives DHS and the White House greater influence in the fight against organized crime: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has been the key architect of a plan that would give the White House more influence over investigations into drug traffickers and other transnational criminal groups. There is concern the creation of new task forces jointly led by the FBI and DHS would make it easier for political appointees like Miller to disregard norms that have long walled off the White House from criminal investigations. (Tim Golden, ProPublica)

Trump administration is preparing to challenge budget law, U.S. officials say: Current and former federal employees said the administration appears to be readying to push the boundaries of the law meant to prevent the president from unilaterally overturning spending decisions made by Congress. Although the White House denies any funds have been “impounded” so far, the disbursement of funds at several agencies has slowed, stopped, or been delayed — often with no clear legal justification. (Jeff Stein et al., Washington Post)

House GOP advances bill “gutting” government watchdog: The GOP-led House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines to advance legislation that cuts funding for the GAO by roughly 50% for fiscal year 2026 and blocks the agency from bringing civil actions against the executive branch for not complying with the Impoundment Control Act. (Aris Folley, The Hill)

NTSB faults Boeing for lack of safety protocols in 737 Max door plug blowout: NTSB investigators say there were multiple systemic failures that led to a midair blowout on a Boeing 737 Max jet last year. The board concluded that the probable cause of the accident was “Boeing’s failure to provide adequate training, guidance, and oversight” to its workers, and that the FAA also contributed to the accident by failing to “adequately identify and ensure that Boeing addressed the repetitive and systemic nonconformance issues” in its factories. (Joel Rose, NPR)

U.S.-Iran Conflict:

→ Iran and the war powers problem

→ White House to limit intelligence sharing, skip Gabbard at Senate Iran briefing

→ War powers resolution from House Democratic leaders may not limit Trump’s war powers

→ Members of Congress bought defense stocks, then watched them rise as the bombs dropped

→ Donald Trump and Sean Hannity set off a wave of disinformation after Iran bombing

→ White House official claims Trump’s nuclear strikes in Iran were “pointless” and ordered by the “deep state”

→ Trump’s name could adorn Tel Aviv hotel, becoming a symbol or a target

Elon Musk & DOGE

Is DOGE doomed to fail? Some experts are ready to call it: Critics are increasingly branding DOGE a failure, including lawmakers fiercely debating how much funding to allot next year to the agency. DOGE still has $22 million left over from this year to keep pursuing its goals, as Congress debates whether $45 million in new funding is warranted. (Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica)

🔎 See Also: DOGE enters ATF with mandate to slash gun regulations (Perry Stein, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: “Big Balls” no longer works for the U.S. government (Jake Lahut et al., Wired)

Weaponization of the Government

FTC announces merger condition that prohibits advertising boycotts: The FTC approved the merger between advertising agencies Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group after the companies agreed to the FTC’s condition that the new company won’t lead or participate in any ad boycotts based on political or ideological viewpoints — a stipulation that could benefit Elon Musk’s X social network and President Trump’s Truth Social platform. (Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica)

Rep. LaMonica McIver pleads not guilty as watchdog group files complaint against Alina Habba: New Jersey Rep. McIver appeared in court this week and pled not guilty to charges following a May scuffle outside a federal immigration facility. Meanwhile, watchdog group Campaign for Accountability filed an ethics complaint against interim New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, citing her actions in the McIver case, her comments about turning “New Jersey red,” and launching investigations into the state’s Democratic governor and attorney general. (Ry Rivard, Politico)

DOJ pressuring University of Virginia president to resign: DOJ officials are demanding that the University of Virginia oust its president, claiming that he hasn’t dismantled the school’s DEI programs and misrepresented the steps taken to end them. (Michael S. Schmidt and Michael C. Bender, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Justice Dept. says it is investigating Univ. of California hiring practices (Justine McDaniel and Julian Mark, Washington Post)

Reproductive Rights

South Carolina can deny Medicaid patients Planned Parenthood care, SCOTUS rules: The Supreme Court moved to limit access to health care for over 1.3 million South Carolinians this week by allowing the state to block Medicaid recipients from getting care at Planned Parenthood. The ruling will likely pave the way for similar bans on access to maternal, gynecological, and other forms of health care in other states. (Jessica Washington, The Intercept)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Purple Heart Army veteran self-deports after nearly 50 years in the U.S.: Sae Joon Park’s story reflects both the challenges of life after combat and the perils noncitizen veterans face if caught in the legal system — realities made harsher amid the Trump administration’s deportation push. (Juliana Kim, NPR)

Military domestic violence convictions skyrocketed after commanders were removed from process: The military is bringing to court significantly more domestic violence cases against service members, including an increasing share of senior ranking officers, with conviction skyrocketing in a surge tied to a major overhaul of how serious crimes in the ranks are prosecuted. Despite the improvements, thousands of cases may still be falling through the cracks. (Steve Beynon and Patricia Kime, Military.com)

Thousands of LGBTQ+ veterans were supposed to get pardons. A year later, only four have succeeded: Of the tens of thousands of veterans who were separated from the military due to their sexuality, only 21 have applied for a pardon, and only four have received one. (Leah Rosenbaum, The War Horse)

Senators concerned with Navy shipbuilding delays, budget: The Navy remains years behind in projected ship deliveries and can’t provide firm timelines for improvement, military officials told the Senate on Tuesday. The Navy’s proposed base budget garnered the most controversy during the hearing — not because of potential over-budgeting, but because lawmakers were surprised by the lack of funds requested. (Zita Ballinger Fletcher, Defense News)

Business and Finance

How foreign scammers use U.S. banks to fleece Americans: Major U.S. banks play a key role in, but are unable to stop, “pig-butchering” fraud scams conducted by Asian crime syndicates. (Cezary Podkul, ProPublica)

“Forest fire”: Corporate America’s bitcoin buying spree fuels concern: Dozens of companies are pouring billions of dollars into bitcoin. Critics worry that hoovering up digital assets could backfire when the volatile crypto markets take a turn for the worse, and that the fallout from a crypto crisis could reach beyond digital assets. (Declan Harty, Politico)

Tech

Flock removes states from national lookup tool after ICE and abortion searches revealed: Automatic license plate reader company Flock stopped agencies across the country from searching cameras inside Illinois, California, and Virginia after it was reported that local police departments were accessing and sharing data for immigration and abortion related investigations. (Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler, 404 Media)

Health Care

All childhood vaccines in question after first meeting of RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel: Heath Secretary Kenndey’s hand-selected vaccine panel gathered for its first meeting Wednesday — and immediately announced that it would re-evaluate vaccination schedules for children and adults. The meeting overall was packed with anti-vaccine talking points and arguments. (Beth Mole, Ars Technica)

🔎 See Also: CDC to hire former head of anti-vaccine group founded by RFK Jr. (Alexander Tin, CBS News)

“Unsafe to inhabit”: The toxic homes of L.A.: As wildfires become more frequent, researchers are looking harder at what happens when smoke infiltrates an undamaged home: What does it do to the people who move back in? Insurance companies often don’t cover tests for post-wildfire toxic contamination of homes. (Blacki Migliozzi, Rukmini Callimachi, and K.K. Rebecca Lai, New York Times)

The surprising ways food packaging is exposing us to microplastics: New research shows that microplastics are shedding from reusable plastic containers and food packaging, but the particles can also come from glass bottles with painted caps, as well as highly processed foods packaged in any material. (Shannon Osaka, Washington Post)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Trump officials plan to resettle 1,000 Afrikaners while blocking other refugees

→ Trump’s global gulag search expands to 53 nations

→ Court orders Trump administration to return another man deported to El Salvador

→ “They’re not breathing”: Inside the chaos of ICE detention center 911 calls

→ Canadian citizen dies in ICE custody; Ottawa “urgently seeking” information

→ On a quiet southern border, empty farms and frightened workers

→ Meet the DC bigwigs literally profiting off Trump’s deportations

Other News:

→ Thune says Senate won’t overrule parliamentarian

→ National Parks scramble to fill top leadership positions, but fix could create more vacancies

→ Trump appointee prosecuting L.A. protesters defended Jan. 6 suspects

→ 11 Eastern Europeans charged in $10.6 billion Medicare fraud scheme

→ Former top aide to Jill Biden subpoenaed in House GOP’s Biden age probe

Because It’s Friday

How a Papa Johns pizza surge near the Pentagon tipped off social media before Trump’s decisive Iran strike: Less than one hour before President Trump announced the U.S. military attack on Iranian nuclear sites, the social media account “Pentagon Pizza Report” detected “high activity” at a Papa Johns close to the Pentagon. The account also reported that Freddie’s Beach Bar, a nearby restaurant that has also been used as an indicator of impending military action, had “abnormally low activity levels” for a Saturday night. (Alexandra Koch, Fox News)