Response Center

The White House terminated 17 different Inspectors General across the government

On January 24th, President Trump fired 17 Inspectors General (IG) across the US government. In the wake of the abuses of the Nixon administration, Congress created IGs in order to serve as independent watchdogs who could audit and investigate their agencies when allegations of waste, fraud and abuse arose. Their role is essential to holding corrupt actors to account, and their unlawful removal should be seen as an attempt by the Trump administration to avoid accountability with the American people. According to the law, before removing an IG, a president must give Congress a 30-day notice and substantive reasoning for the firing.

These pardons grant clemency to 23 people convicted of threatening reproductive rights by violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

The FACE Act, which became law in 1994, was designed to protect clinics that provide abortion, as well as the people seeking care, from violence. President Trump and other far-right groups have characterized the Biden administration's enforcement of the law as another example of a "weaponized" Justice Department. These pardons advance that narrative and undermine federal support for reproductive rights.

Underway

Updated:

2/14/25

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This order grants a full pardon to DC police lieutenant Andrew Zabavsky, despite a jury finding him guilty of murder and obstruction of justice in the death of Karon Hylton-Brown.

D.C. police lieutenant Andrew Zabavsky was convicted by a jury of his peers of conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown in 2020. Hylton-Brown had a three-month old daughter at the time he was killed, following an unauthorized pursuit by Zabavsky's partner Terrence Sutton. After Hylton-Brown was struck by another motorist, the officers extensively covered up the crime, including shutting off their body worn cameras at key moments. President Trump justified the pardon with the false and irrelevant claim that Hylton-Brown was "an illegal."

This DHS directive will allow ICE enforcement in places previously deemed off-limits, including churches and houses of worship, hospitals, schools, playgrounds, and courthouses.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has rescinded a Biden Administration policy — which expanded upon a policy in place since at least 1993 — restricting immigration enforcement at or near certain designated areas, previously known as "protected areas" or "sensitive locations." DHS has issued a yet-unreleased directive allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to conduct immigration enforcement at these key locations using only their "common sense." The previously protected locations included churches and other houses of worship, hospitals and health clinics, schools, playgrounds, social services providers (including shelters and food pantries), disaster and emergency response sites, weddings, funerals, religious ceremonies, parades, demonstrations, and rallies. DHS is still constrained by the Fourth Amendment and cannot enter private residences or private property that is not open to the public without a judicial warrant (signed by a judge), but this new directive gives them much wider latitude to conduct immigration enforcement in public at locations core to civic life, education, freedom of religion, and public heath.

Underway

Updated:

2/14/25

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This order grants a full pardon to D.C. police officer Terence Sutton for murder and obstruction of justice in the death of Karon Hylton-Brown.

D.C. police officer Terence Sutton was convicted by a jury of his peers of second-degree murder, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice in the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown in 2020. Karon had a three-month old daughter at the time he was killed, following an unauthorized pursuit by Sutton. After Hylton-Brown was struck by another motorist, the officers extensively covered up the crime, including shutting off their body worn cameras at key moments. President Trump justified the pardon with the false and irrelevant claim that Hylton-Brown was "an illegal."

This new EO promotes the untested cryptocurrency industry through a variety of mechanisms.

This new EO promotes the cryptocurrency industry through a variety of mechanisms, including by revoking President Biden's EO entitled "Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets" and by establishing a new cryptocurrency working group chaired by David Sacks, which will, among other things, consider the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile. Much is still unclear about the cryptocurrency industry and blockchain technology, but there are serious downsides associated with both, from the environmental impacts of bitcoin mining, to the potential for cryptocurrency to be used to launder money, to the highly volatile and uncertain nature of cryptocurrency investments.