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Attorney General’s Statements Raise Concern Over Independence from Trump
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche reignited fears last week during a media interview that he would become the enforcer for the president's political policies.
He said President Donald Trump’s views would be considered in deciding whether the Justice Department prosecutes someone.
Blanche told NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press that he would not promise that the Justice Department would always operate independently from the president.
“No, I’m not going to pledge that,” Blanche said. “And no attorney general should ever pledge that.”
Blanche, a former personal criminal defense lawyer for Trump, argued that the president has a legitimate role in setting law enforcement priorities.
Judge Blocks Plan to Keep FBI Headquarters in Downtown Washington
A federal judge last week blocked the FBI from moving its headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.
The ruling said the Trump administration unlawfully abandoned a written directive from Congress to relocate the agency to Greenbelt, Maryland.
“Notably, the text provides no conditions under which the selection could be unilaterally rescinded or switched to a nonconforming site,” U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang wrote in his 47-page ruling.
The judge said the General Services Administration should have been left with no option but to select the headquarters site from locations that were identified through procedures set by the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
All three of the initial candidate sites were located in Washington’s suburbs. The GSA selected Greenbelt in 2023.
FBI Crime Data Show Sharp Drop
Violent crime in the United States fell sharply in 2025, with the murder rate dropping 18.1 percent and overall violent crime declining 9.3 percent, according to recent FBI statistics.
The figures were embraced by President Donald Trump as evidence that his law and order policies are working.
“In 2025 we achieved the single largest reduction in violent crime in American history,” Trump said during a speech this month in suburban New York City.
The FBI claimed the murder rate was down to its lowest level in 125 years with about 4.1 killings per 100,000 people.
“Together we’re showing what is possible when you have a president in the White House who lets you do your jobs,” Trump told Nassau County police who sat in the audience behind him.
Legal Briefs
Project Veritas Wins Appeal After Secret Agent Infiltrates Democracy Partners
A lawsuit in Washington, D.C., between two advocacy organizations came out in favor last week of a conservative group that infiltrated a political rival and published results of its undercover operation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned a $120,000 jury verdict against Project Veritas and two of its journalists in a lawsuit brought by Democracy Partners.
The court said the $120,000 damages award violated the First Amendment.
Democracy Partners is a Washington-based political consulting and advocacy firm that provides communications, organizing and campaign services to Democratic and liberal organizations.
It was infiltrated by an agent of Project Veritas, a conservative activist organization that conducts undercover investigations, often using hidden cameras and deceptive identities, to expose what it characterizes as misconduct by political, media and other groups.
In Democracy Partners’ case, Project Veritas reporter Allison Maass used a false identity and resume to obtain an unpaid internship at Democracy Partners' Washington office. She was investigating what Project Veritas described as voter fraud.
Maass worked there for eight days while secretly recording conversations and meetings with a camera concealed on her clothing. Some of the conversations involved the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
Project Veritas subsequently published a three-part video series called "Rigging the Election."
D.C. in Brief
D.C. Police Employees Charged in $441,000 Overtime Fraud Scheme
Six current and former Washington Metropolitan Police Department employees are facing fraud and theft charges after prosecutors accused them of collecting $441,137 in overtime pay they did not earn during 2024.
Prosecutors allege the six falsified overtime records and forged supervisory approvals.
The biggest claim is against Sgt. Frantz Fulcher, who received $174,915 in overtime pay prosecutors say was fraudulent. Six of the defendants were police officers, one was a civilian employee.
The charges followed an investigation launched by MPD’s Internal Affairs Division after investigators noticed unusually high volumes of claimed overtime. They also spotted discrepancies between employees’ reported hours and independent information on time they actually worked.
The information was taken from body-worn-camera footage, radio and GPS data and travel records.
In some cases, they allegedly used their administrative positions to process or approve fraudulent claims. Some of the allegedly false overtime was submitted when the employees were on annual leave or traveling outside Washington, prosecutors said.
“These six officers abused their positions of power, exploiting the District and the residents they took an oath to serve and protect,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement. “No one is above the law, especially those trusted with enforcing it.”
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro joined in the criticism, saying her office would hold the accused employees accountable.
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