TV News LIES

When Elon Musk and his youthful Department of Government Efficiency warriors boasted of taking a “chainsaw” to the U.S. Agency for International Development, they did more than destroy a government agency. They violated the law by summarily firing USAID’s public servants while placing millions of people around the world in mortal danger.

The thousands of public servants, fired without due process, care deeply about the agency’s mission. They did not deserve to be fired, nor did they deserve the efforts by the president himself to pile on by besmirching their reputation.

These actions have ramifications far beyond the impact on the individuals involved. They place every government employee at risk. Career professionals in the State Department and the intelligence community have also been summarily relieved of duty.

If the courts fail to intervene, our nation will be sent hurtling back in history to the era of the corrupt spoils system. That era ended when the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 created a system based on merit. The law was updated in 1978 and it explicitly states that a public servant can only be removed if there is evidence of misconduct or poor performance — and only then after providing an opportunity for due process.

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A federal appeals panel has reversed a lower court decision ordering the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi, opening the door to the re-arrest of a student protest organizer whom the Trump administration has spent more than a year trying to deport.

Tuesday’s ruling from the second US circuit court of appeals in New York City overturns a previous decision by a federal judge in Vermont, which likened the government’s efforts to expel him and other activists to McCarthyist repression.

In their unanimous decision, the panel found that the judge had overstepped his authority by intervening in Mahdawi’s case before it had moved fully through the immigration court system.

The ruling mirrors a separate appellate panel’s decision earlier this year against Mahmoud Khalil, a former classmate of Mahdawi’s at Columbia University.

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A federal prosecutor in Seattle who was sacked by President Trump last week after barely an hour on the job is challenging his removal in court, setting the stage for an unprecedented legal battle that could determine who has the power to fire court-appointed U.S. attorneys.

As the top prosecutor for the Western District of Washington last Wednesday, after he was unanimously appointed by federal judges to fill a vacancy in the U.S. attorney’s office.

News of his dismissal came in an email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office less than an hour after he was sworn in, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The complaint, which names Trump and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, argues Rogoff’s firing was unlawful because the president does not have the authority to “nullify the district’s court’s appointment power” granted by the Appointments Clause.

It also argues that the Trump administration has violated a federal statute governing how vacancies are filled and asks a federal judge to reinstate him as the “validly appointed” pick until a successor is chosen through the presidential nomination and Senate confirmation process.

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Paramount's owners were planning to have secured firm control of Hollywood rival Warner Bros. Discovery by the end of this week in a blockbuster deal that has the blessing of President Trump's Justice Department.

A federal judge has instead ground the process to a halt, at least for now. And her ruling on Monday in response to a lawsuit filed a week ago by a dozen states suggests Paramount may have some tough sledding ahead in order to get the deal through.

In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted a 14-day temporary restraining order to pause the acquisition. The Democratic attorneys general allege that Paramount's purchase of Warner Bros. would reduce competition, hurting filmgoers along with TV and news consumers and especially those who create entertainment programming and the news content that the public relies on.

The $111 billion deal would put under the same corporate roof Paramount's and Warner's movie and television studios, streamers Paramount+ and HBO Max, Paramount's CBS (the nation's most watched broadcast outlet), and 50 cable TV channels, not to mention both CBS News and CNN.

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Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (D) on Sunday ripped into CNN host Jake Tapper for asking him questions related to Iran and Israel — specifically about past comments the candidate has made.

Tapper first asked El-Sayed about a comment New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) made to The New York Times. When asked if there was room in the Democratic Party for candidates who take money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — the pro-Israel lobbying group — the mayor said, “If they are Democrats and they run as Democrats and they win as Democrats, then they should be part of the Democratic Party.”

Tapper suggested that El-Sayed disagrees based on past remarks, where the candidate told CNN that support for Israel could only be about AIPAC influence and “not if you’re a Democrat and you believe in human rights.”

“So, it sounds as though — and correct me if I’m wrong — it sounds as though you and Mayor Mamdani disagree about how big this tent should be, whether there’s room … in the tent for Israel supporters,” Tapper said.

El-Sayed began saying that in the Democratic Party “there’s always room in the tent for folks.”

“Every time I come on CNN, you guys ask me the same questions about these theoretical rights of existence, or whether or not I agree with the mayor of New York,” El-Sayed said.

“I’m running for Senate in Michigan and, in Michigan, people can’t afford their basic needs. They don’t get the healthcare they need and deserve. They’re worried about the quality of their kids’ school. And the questions seem less to be about the interests of Michiganders than the fact of something happening 6,000 miles away,” he added.

Referring to Mamdani’s comment to the Times, El-Sayed only said that he thinks his “tax dollar should be spent here.”

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Detroit’s Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib has called for the resignation of Neil Barofsky, the federal monitor tasked with overseeing the United Autoworkers, following reports of a call in which Barofsky hammered UAW President Shawn Fain in 2024 over the union’s call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Drop Site obtained and authenticated a recording of the conversation, which undercuts previous claims by Barofsky about his interactions with Fain. During a board meeting around the same time, Barofsky claimed, according to previously leaked minutes, that he had never said that the UAW statement crossed a line into antisemitism, but in the call he repeatedly made that claim. Barofsky also claimed he didn’t share his own opinion with Fain on the call, but in fact Barofsky does so at length.

The recording also undercuts Barofsky’s claims about what Fain said during the call. Barofsky claimed that Fain told him he had intended to compare Israel to Nazi Germany, that Fain said he wasn’t interested in hearing other perspectives, and that he said it was “bullshit” that Jews were suffering as a result of rising antisemitism.

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