Archive of Trump Law-Breaking and Corruption Tracker from Substack

March 17 – 23, 2025

Breaking the Law

Detaining U.S. Citizens Without a Warrant, Throughout the week

This has occurred numerous times but I will use the example of Julio Noriega of Chicago. WBEZ Chicago tells the story: Noriega, 54, a U.S. citizen who, according to court documents, was arrested, handcuffed and spent most of the night at an ICE processing center in suburban Broadview. He was never questioned about his citizenship and was only released after agents looked at his ID. “I was born in Chicago, Illinois and am a United States citizen,” Noriega said in his statement, adding that on Jan. 31, after buying pizza in Berwyn he was surrounded by ICE agents and arrested. Officers took away his wallet, which had his ID and social security card. “They then handcuffed me and pushed me into a white van where other people were handcuffed as well.” There’s a reason due process is a thing.
Immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and created warrants after an arrest, lawyers say in court – WBEZ Chicago

No Due Process for Immigrants Being Deported, Friday, March 21st
Another illegal aspect of the deportation of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador that I covered last week is there was no due process. On Friday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg questioned the Trump administration about this issue. The ramifications of the Trump administration deporting people en masse with no clear idea if they are really part of a Venezuelan gang became even more clear this week. For example, a journalist at the El Salvadoran prison reports, “The intake began with slaps. One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.’ I believed him. But maybe it’s only because he didn’t look like what I had expected—he wasn’t a tattooed monster.” Barbarians inside the gate.
Judge rebukes Justice Dept., raises due process questions in deportation case

Corruption

Attacks on Judges, Throughout the week
Both Trump and Elon Musk called judges names and threatened impeachment for their fulfilling their judicial duties. Here’s the Washington Post’s report: Elon Musk sought to rally support on social media Wednesday for the impeachment of a federal judge, echoing calls from President Donald Trump and his allies for Congress to take action against judges who rule against the Trump administration. Musk took aim at a judge who recently blocked the administration’s attempted ban on transgender people serving in the military. Earlier Wednesday, Trump leveled a fresh attack on a federal judge who ordered the government not to use a wartime authority to deport suspected Venezuelan gang members without due process. Not that it should matter but some of the judges that Trump, Musk and their minions are attacking are conservative. In fact, one study found that liberal, moderate and conservative justices are ruling against the Trump administration at a similar rate. Regardless, the Trump administration’s attacks on the judiciary branch are yet another blaring alarm about the state of our democracy.
Elon Musk seeks to rally support for impeachment of judge who ruled against Trump – The Washington Post

Law Firm Making Deal To Avoid Sanction, March 20, 2025
Earlier this month, as I previously documented, the Trump administration sanctioned law firms purely as an act of revenge for their doing legal legal work on behalf of Trump’s perceived enemies. This week one of those firms—Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison—agreed to “provide $40 million in pro bono legal services to the Trump administration.” So now the law firm will no longer lose security clearances, access to government buildings, and lose contracts. It’s hard to be shocked by anything the Trump administration does but this is a breathtaking piece of corruption. Private companies are threatened with sanctions and then avoid the sanctions by paying off Trump. This is the very definition of corruption.
Law firm Paul Weiss agrees to deal with Trump, prompting criticism – The Washington Post

Commerce Secretary Lutnick urging people to buy Tesla stock, March 20, 2025

On Thursday on Fox News, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged viewers to buy Telsa stock. This was in the wake of a variety of knuckleheads around the country vandalizing Telsa cars (stop doing this, knuckleheads—it is counterproductive to fighting the corruption and law-breaking of the Trump administration). Lutnick said on Fox, “I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla. It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. It’ll never be this cheap again.” This, of course, is a violation of ethic standards for government officials. The Washington Post reports, “With only a few exceptions, the Code of Federal Regulations prohibits executive branch employees from using their public office ‘for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise.’”
Lutnick urges Fox News viewers to buy Tesla stock, raising ethics questions – The Washington Post

Eliminating the collection and publication of data, March 19 and previously

This appears to be taking place in a number of agencies as part of DOGE’s slash and burn policies. The latest example is at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage institutions. Jed Kolko notes on X: “Is this the end of the FHFA house price index? Sounds like most of the research & stats division of FHFA was put on leave. FHFA produces the essential government report on home price trends, nationally and locally.” So, you may ask, this might be dumb, but why is it corrupt? Authoritarian countries often misrepresent economic data to paint a rosy picture of the economy to help them hold onto power. Many studies have documented this. Here is one example. Eliminating data is a worrisome sign for what the Trump administration might do in the future.
Housing agencies begin closing offices, escorting employees out – Government Executive

March 10 – 16, 2025

Breaking the Law

Invoking Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to Deport Venezuelans, March 15, 2025
This act has been used three times—during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. What do those three instances have in common? Congress had formally declared war. We are, you might have noticed, not at war with Venezuela. Congress has not declared war, there are no battles or skirmishes between the U.S. and Venezuela. A judge quickly blocked the action of the Trump administration, including forcing planes in the air with Venezuelans to turn around and come back to the U.S. It should be noted that the Trump administration tried to quietly invoke this law illegally, knowing full well if word got out a judge would block it—because the action is illegal. Trump not only breaks the law, he knows he’s breaking the law, so acts like a thief in the night to steal American democracy. Between this and the actions by the Trump administration below, we are in a full-blown constitutional and democracy crisis in the United States.
Judge blocks Trump after he invokes wartime Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations – The Washington Post

Cancelling of 83 percent of USAID Programs, March 10, 2025
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the “cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.” As we’ve noted in previous posts, only Congress can cancel programs that were authorized and appropriated by Congress. Some of the USAID programs, if they are funded by funds generally authorized for USAID by Congress without specific directions on how it is to be spent, could be cancelled. But the administration would still have to use the funds for similar purposes. If the Trump administration wants to delete these programs and funding, they have to work through Congress to get legislation passed.
Marco Rubio on X: “After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID. The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States. In” / X

The Detention of Mahmoud Khalil, March 9, 2025
Khalil is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. But he was taken away by the federal government and is being detained in Louisiana (for judge shopping purposes) without access to a lawyer. He has not been charged with a crime. After initially offering no explanation for detaining Khalil, the Trump administration cited the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, “which allows the Secretary of State to declare someone ‘deportable’ if they have ‘reasonable ground to believe’ that the immigrant’s “presence or activities in the U.S. … would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” The Trump administration is also stating that there will be many more to come like Khalil. This is an astonishing attack on the First Amendment which will be tested in Court. We’re very worried the Supreme Court, which last summer declared the President above the law, will now demolish the First Amendment.

Khalis may have views that you don’t agree with, which I may not agree with, but in America he has the right to hold these views. If a legal permanent resident can be deported for stating their beliefs—not for acting on those beliefs or breaking the law—then we have eliminated free speech for permanent legal residents. The Trump administration is asserting that a single official—the Secretary of State—can determine what is free speech and what is an adverse consequence for U.S. foreign policy. We remind you that foreign policy changes in the United States all the time. Sometimes within the same administration. So, if a legal permanent resident expresses a belief earlier in a presidential administration that is in synch with that administration’s foreign policy, but that foreign policy changes later in the administration, under the Trump administration’s assertions, that legal permanent resident can be deported. And it’s a slippery slope to full American citizens facing the same loss of a fundamental American right. If the Trump administration arrested Khalil for somehow aiding and abetting Hamas in a way that breaks the law, then detaining him would not break the First Amendment. But that is not what the Trump administration did. Its actions against Khalil are terrifying and should be protested in every effective manner.
Can Marco Rubio Revoke Mahmoud Khalil’s Green Card? What To Know About Little-Known Law Used To Justify Protester’s Arrest.
FIRE demands answers from Trump admin officials on arrest of Mahmoud Khalil | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Corruption

Trump Calls Certain News Media Organizations Illegal, March 14, 2025
During a speech at the Department of Justice, the very fact of which is unusual, Trump said, ““I believe that CNN and MS-DNC, who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what do they do is illegal.” Trump went on to say, “And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal, and they do it in total coordination with each other.” We’re not here to defend cable TV news, most of which is inane and counter-productive to understanding the world. But they are not illegal. News media organizations, and I can’t believe I have to remind people of this, are protected by the First Amendment. Trump isn’t concerned by bad news organizations or he would have included places like Fox News in his list of complaints. Trump wants to cut off specific viewpoints. He is an authoritarian and stopping free speech is what authoritarians do. He continues to corrupt and damage American democracy at an unprecedented rate and level.
Trump suggests media outlets be deemed illegal

Shredding of USAID Documents, March 11, 2025
U.S. Administration for International Development (USAID) officials ordered staff to shred documents at the U.S. headquarters building, according to the Washington Post. The article states, “…senior USAID official ordered employees to shred or burn documents at the organization’s Washington headquarters, including those related to agency personnel and those stored in safes used for classified material.” First, there are procedures and laws for determining what documents to shed and it’s not at all clear those were followed in this case. Second, there are numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration for the way it is firing USAID staff and cutting its programs and funds. Now is not the time for shedding documents, some of which could be relevant to those cases.
USAID workers told to shred, burn documents, unnerving Congress – The Washington Post

Musk Calling Senator Mark Kelly a “traitor” and calling for the impeachment of judges, Throughout the week of March 10 – 16, 2025
Elon Musk called Mark Kelly a traitor for his expressing support for Ukraine in its defending itself against Russia’s invasion. Musk also multiple times said judges should be impeached for ruling against the Trump administration. That a figure with so much power within the Trump administration (though not in a position that required confirmation by the Senate) called an elected leader a traitor for frankly benign views—views that more than 50 percent of the American public share—is a betrayal of democracy. That he is calling for impeachment of a judge is an interference in the that branch of the U.S. government. That Musk does so holding immense power in the U.S. government but with no ability for Congress or the Judiciary to check that power, is an abomination.
Musk calls Sen. Mark Kelly a ‘traitor’ in response to post about visiting Ukraine – The Washington Post
Elon Musk Immediately Calls for Judges to Be Impeached After Rulings Overturn DOGE Firings

March 3 – 9, 2025

Breaking the Law

More firings of Justice Department officials, March 7, 2025
The Justice Department fired some more Justice Department officials, including those involved with ethics (can’t have any of that in this administration) and pardons. The Washington Post reports, “Jeffrey Ragsdale, the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Liz Oyer, the U.S. pardon attorney, were among those removed…” The lawyer heading up bankruptcy was also fired which makes sense for an administration bankrupt of morals. These are apolitical positions and are supposed to only be fired for political reason. But not in this administration.
Trump’s Justice Department ousts several top career officials – The Washington Post

Corruption

Targeting Law Firms Trump Doesn’t Like, March 6, 2025
This is likely illegal but for now we’ll put it in the corruption category. Trump signed an executive order calling out by name Perkins Coie Law Firm (headquartered here in Seattle—I once knew many of their lawyers and partners). The Washington Post reports that the executive order, “bans the federal government from hiring it, or from using contractors who work with it, except in limited circumstances. The order also bars Perkins Coie employees from entering federal buildings and suspends their security clearances.” This is all because Perkins Coie has represented Hillary Clinton in the past and been involved in the Russian dossier investigation of the first Trump administration. The Trump administration, like a developing or authoritarian country, continues to favor specific companies and target others. This corruption inevitably will degrade the U.S. economy, among many other bad effects.
Trump expands retribution campaign against law firms that aided his foes – The Washington Post

FAA Using Starlink, Ongoing
Elon Musk has directed one of his SpaceX engineers to implement Starlink technology at FAA, despite Verizon having won a contract in 2023 to do the same thing. There is no doubt that the FAA’s communications network, and air traffic control technology, is long overdue for an upgrade. But just willy-nilly implementing Starlink technology, with no process whatsoever (even admitting that federal government procurement processes are also in need of reform) is blatant corruption. The Atlantic reports, “In 2023, they awarded Verizon a 15-year, $2.4 billion contract to modernize the network. But that award is now in jeopardy, as agency officials race to determine whether aspects of the work can be allocated to SpaceX instead—and how much extra money they would need to come up with to make that happen.” That Elon Musk, arguably the most powerful person in the second Trump administration, can mandate his company does the work at the FAA, outside of any established procedures, is not what anyone but Elon Musk signed up for.
The FAA’s Troubles Are More Serious Than You Know – The Atlantic

February 24 – March 2, 2025

Breaking the Law

Asking IRS for taxpayers data of possible illegal immigrants. Reported February 27, 2025
The Washington Post reported, “Department of Homeland Security authorities asked the IRS on Thursday to connect the names of potentially undocumented immigrants with the people’s last known addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.” It is illegal for the IRS to provide taxpayer information to outsiders, including other parts of the federal government. The IRS itself can do investigations, including of those suspected of being in the country illegally (though since DOGE has fired hundreds of IRS employees there’s fewer workers to conduct investigations). But they can’t hand over taxpayer information to DHS. Remember the names DHS are asking for are potentially here illegally, not definitively here illegally.
IRS rejected request for addresses of people believed to be in U.S. illegally – The Washington Post

Corruption

SEC Halts investigation of Justin Sun, who has infused funds into Trump-owned company. January 26, 2025
In March, 2023, Sun, a Chinese national, had been charged by the SEC of crypto fraud. After Trump was elected, Sun announced he “purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial (WLF), a new venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family.” This apparently was the largest investment in WLF. On Wednesday, the SEC, now under Trump control, asked the judge to drop the case. The judge did so.
BREAKING: SEC halts fraud prosecution of Chinese national who sent Trump millions

Demotion of Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney DC Office for working on January 6th investigations. January 28th
The Trump administration continues to punish anyone involved in the January 6th investigations and prosecutions. The Washington Post reports, “Seven top leaders of the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., were demoted to misdemeanor and entry-level intake positions Friday.” In previous years, these seven were assigned to work on January 6th and other cases against those associated with Trump, such as Steve Bannon. The demotion of these seven comes on top of other retribution and firings of others involved in investigating and prosecuting the January 6th insurrection. These are blatantly corrupt actions by Trump II and undermine democracy.
Seven top D.C. prosecutors demoted in Trump U.S. attorney-led purge – The Washington Post

Dismantling of Civil Rights Office. January 28, 2025
The Trump administration is closing civil rights offices and firing staff across multiple agencies who work on civil rights issues. It is part of the anti-woke crusade, which sure seems very woke to us in its zeal and inaccuracies. One example of the closings and firings: “The Social Security Administration this week announced it was closing its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, where about 150 people worked investigating civil rights complaints, preventing harassment and ensuring accommodations for people with disabilities…” You might be against some of the investigations these agencies do. But these offices and staff are upholding current law. Change the law if you don’t want investigations of the laws being broken.
Federal agencies are dismantling civil rights, EEO offices – The Washington Post

February 17 – 23, 2025

Breaking the Law

Ignoring court order to resume foreign assistance spending. February 20, 2025
”U.S. District Court Judge Amir H. Ali ordered the Trump administration to comply with a temporary restraining order (TRO) lifting its 90-day pause on foreign aid.” But the Trump administration has ignored this order. We know first-hand organizations who are still not receiving USAID funding despite this Judge’s order. People keep saying they are worried we will enter a constitutional crisis. They are using the wrong tense, it has already occurred. In fact, there is an ongoing assault on the Constitution.
Trump administration says it can keep acting despite judges’ orders – The Washington Post

Corruption

Musk threatening companies to advertise on x. Revealed on February 19, 2025
The advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group asserts that a lawyer from X told them, “Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else….Interpublic leaders interpreted the communications from X as reminders that the recently announced $13 billion deal to merge Interpublic with rival Omnicom Group could be torpedoed, or at least slowed down, by the Trump administration.” This is a blatant case of corruption. Hat tip: Kevin Drum.
Exclusive | X Hinted at Possible Deal Trouble in Talks With Ad Giant to Increase Spending – WSJ

February 10 – 16, 2025

Breaking the Law

Continuing to break TikTok law. February 13, 2025
This week the Trump administration’s justice department sent a letter to Apple and Google assuring them they would not be prosecuted under the TikTok law. This letter essentially executes on a promise made in the January 20th executive order calling for a 75-delay in the law. Consequently, Google and Apple have now restored TikTok to their app stores. The Justice Department has no legal power to do this just as Trump had no power to issue such an executive order. The law was passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed by Biden. This is a blatant breaking of the law.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/13/tiktok-app-stores-apple-google/

Corruption

Dismissing Without Prejudice charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. February 11, 2025
As the Washington Post reports, “acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove said the decision was not based on the evidence or theory of the case against Adams” but rather because Adams “should be free ‘to devote full attention and resources’ to addressing illegal immigration and violent crime in New York City.” It’s okay to break the law as long as you adhere to Trump’s immigration policies. Thus far lawyers in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in NYC are refusing to implement this corruption.
Prosecutors should drop charges against NY Mayor Eric Adams, DOJ says – The Washington Post

Suspending enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). February 10, 2025
The idea behind the suspension is to bolster U.S. business competitivness abroad. I’ve seen usually level headed analysts such as Noah Smith approve of this. But to our mind, this is further evidence of a descent into 19th century geopolitics and economy. The world economy is becoming less efficient and this will add to it.
Relief for Adani as Trump suspends foreign corrupt practices law

February 3 – 9, 2025

Breaking the Law

Corruption

January 28 – February 2, 2025

Breaking the Law

  • Deletion of federal websites. February 1, 2025
    On Saturday, a bunch of websites we’re deleted, including foreignassistance.gov—that website is required by law by the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountabilty Act of 2016. If the site goes down for maintenance, that is probably not against the law but an extended downtime might be.
    US Government Websites Are Disappearing in Real Time | WIRED
  • “Deferred resignation” offered to federal employees. January 28th, 2025
    For now we’re putting this in italics. It is not clear under what authority the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) can offer these buyouts since the workers are employees of the agencies and their salaries funded by those agencies. It’s also not clear there is legal authority to offer early retirement
    Musk team’s push for federal worker buyouts bypassed key Trump officials – The Washington Post

January 20 – 27, 2025

Breaking the Law

Corruption

· Pardoned and commuted sentences of January 6 insurrectionists. January 20th, 2025
Excuses past anti-democratic behavior and sanctions future such efforts
Trump pardons some 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters, commutes 14 sentences : NPR

· Executive Order “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government. January 20, 2025
Orders the federal government to investigate those who investigated the insurrection of January 6, 2020. It makes a baseless claim of persecution of insurrectionists: “And while the Department of Justice has ruthlessly prosecuted more than 1,500 individuals associated with January 6, and simultaneously dropped nearly all cases against BLM rioters. “
Ending The Weaponization Of The Federal Government – The White House

· Creation of meme coin, $Trump. January 18, 2025
Enriches Trump and his family by allowing individuals to buy his meme coin. This can easily become influence peddling.
Trump launches his own $TRUMP meme coin, price soars overnight – CBS News

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