April, 14 2017, 02:15pm EDT
ACLU Comment on Trump White House Keeping Visitor Logs Secret
American Civil Liberties Union Political Director Faiz Shakir issued the following statement on news that the Trump White House will be keeping visitor logs secret:
"Elected officials work for the people and we deserve to see government business conducted in transparent daylight. This 'Good Friday' news dump is simply the latest in a series of efforts by President Trump to avoid public accountability, and it's not the way to improve the people's declining trust in this administration.
WASHINGTON
American Civil Liberties Union Political Director Faiz Shakir issued the following statement on news that the Trump White House will be keeping visitor logs secret:
"Elected officials work for the people and we deserve to see government business conducted in transparent daylight. This 'Good Friday' news dump is simply the latest in a series of efforts by President Trump to avoid public accountability, and it's not the way to improve the people's declining trust in this administration.
"Trump has bullied the press when they report on him. He has promoted the reporting of fake and outright false information. He imposed gags on federal employees in the earliest days of his administration. He has avoided disclosing his tax records, and he has avoided releasing information about his conflicts of interest.
"The only reasonable conclusion is to believe the Trump administration has many things it is trying to hide."
This statement is online here:
https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-comment-trump-white-house-keeping-visitor-logs-secret
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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Slotkin Panned Online After Claiming That Voters Don't Know What 'Oligarchy' Means
"It's condescending to say that the median person doesn't understand what oligarchy is," said one progressive strategist. "They're living it."
Apr 25, 2025
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' tour headlined with this word has drawn more than 107,000 Americans in blue and deep-red states alike. Former President Joe Biden's use of it in his farewell speech prompted a spike in Google searches. And one recent poll found that a majority of U.S. voters, including 54% of Democrats and more than two-thirds of Independents, know exactly what it means.
Yet Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) was among the Democratic politicians insisting this week that no one does.
The word is "oligarchy"—a government ruled by a small group of elites—and as experts have warned for years, the U.S. increasingly resembles one. As Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have told huge crowds in places like Nampa, Idaho and Greeley, Colorado in recent weeks, President Donald Trump's alliance with billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk has made the country's shift even more obvious.
But even as evidence mounts that Americans understand that the political system has been captured by corporations and the wealthiest people—and are living their day-to-day lives with the results, including higher healthcare costs and disinvestment in public services—Slotkin toldPolitico on Thursday that Democrats should "stop using the term 'oligarchy,' a phrase she said doesn't resonate beyond coastal institutions."
On Bluesky, The Nation writer John Nichols said that the tens of thousands people who have packed stadiums and parks in recent weeks to hear Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez speak would disagree with Slotkin.
Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin says Democrats should stop using the term "oligarchy" because, she says, no one knows what it means. These people say she’s wrong.
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— John Nichols (@nicholsuprising.bsky.social) April 24, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Slotkin's advice for Democrats, which she dubbed her "war plan" and gave ahead of several speeches she has planned, also included a call for the party to stop being "weak and woke," phrases she said she heard in Michigan focus groups.
Her comments echoed those of former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a longtime Democratic operative who told California Gov. Gavin Newsom on his podcast last week that using terms like "oligarchs" and "special interests" makes Democrats "worse marketers"; Newsom appeared to agree that people don't "understand" what an oligarchy is.
Emanuel also appeared on the political and pop culture podcast "I've Had It," hosted by Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan, and seemed caught of guard when Welch took him to task for his suggestion that Democrats should end their advocacy for issues that affect transgender Americans.
"That is total bullshit, that is buying into the right-wing media narrative, and I'm so sick of Democrats like you selling out and saying this," said Welch. "You know who talks about trans people more than anybody? MAGA... We've got to fucking fight. They're the gender-obsessed weirdos, not us. We're the ones who fight for Social Security, we fight for Medicare, and yeah, we're not gonna bully trans people."
Semafor political reporter Dave Weigel said Emanuel's derision of the word "oligarchy" is a clear "shot at Sanders/AOC, who keep saying it."
At one stop on the Fighting Oligarchy Tour recently, Sanders told a crowd that the enthusiasm for his and Ocasio-Cortez's message is "scaring the hell out of" Trump and Musk.
But shortly after Slotkin's comments, Ocasio-Cortez remarked—without naming the senator—that "plenty of politicians on both sides of the aisle feel threatened by rising class consciousness."
Angelo Greco, a progressive strategist who works with grassroots organizations including Our Revolution and One Fair Wage, told Common Dreams on Friday that establishment Democrats' dismissal of the term oligarchy is "out of touch" and "underestimates" voters.
"Tell me that farmers don't understand what the oligarchy is when there's a consolidation of the agribusiness that impacts them. Tell me that workers in Michigan don't understand what it means when trade deals that are written by multinational corporations have led to lower wages and plant closures," said Greco. "It's condescending to say that the median person doesn't understand what oligarchy is. They're living it."
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"This isn't justice," said one observer. "It's a warning shot: Obey, or get cuffed."
Apr 25, 2025
This is a breaking story... Please check back for possible updates...
Federal agents arrested a sitting Wisconsin judge on Friday, accusing her of helping an undocumented immigrant evade arrest after he appeared in her courtroom last week, FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media.
In a since-deleted post, Patel said the FBI arrested 65-year-old Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan "on charges of obstruction."
"We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse... allowing the subject—an illegal alien—to evade arrest," Patel wrote. "Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he's been in custody since, but the judge's obstruction created increased danger to the public."
FBI arrests judge in escalation of Trump immigration enforcement effort Federal agents arrested Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan on obstruction charges. Dugan is accused of “helping” an immigrant evade arrest. The fascism getting turned up!
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— RootsAction (@rootsaction.org) April 25, 2025 at 8:05 AM
It is unclear why Patel deleted the post. U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson Brady McCarron and multiple Milwaukee County judges confirmed Dugan's arrest, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. McCarron said Dugan is facing two federal felony counts: obstruction and concealing an individual.
The Journal Sentinel reported that Dugan "appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries during a brief hearing in a packed courtroom at the federal courthouse after her arrest. Dugan, who was wearing a black dress with white flowers, made no public comments during the brief hearing."
Dugan's attorney, Craig Mastantuono, told the court that "Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest," which "was not made in the interest of public safety."
Responding to Dugan's arrest, liberal podcaster Brian Allen wrote on social media: "This isn't justice. It's a warning shot: Obey, or get cuffed."
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"ICE has admitted it detained Mahmoud illegally and without a warrant—to justify it, they are now flat out lying with an absurd claim that he tried to flee," said a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents did not have a warrant when they arrested Palestinian activist and green-card holder Mahmoud Khalil on March 8, according to court papers filed by the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday—an admission that elicited outrage from members of Khalil's legal team.
Marc Van Der Hout, an attorney representing Khalil, said Thursday that "DHS agents who arrested Mahmoud lied to him: They wrote in their arrest report that the agents told him that they had an arrest warrant, but DHS has now admitted in their filing that that was a lie and that there was no warrant at all at the time of the arrest."
"The government's admission is astounding," added Van Der Hout.
Officers with DHS served Khalil with a warrant after his arrest when he arrived at an ICE facility in New York for processing, according to court filings. In the filing, an attorney for DHS argued that "an exception to the warrant requirement exists where the immigration officer has reason to believe that the individual is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained."
According to the government, immigration agents did not need a warrant to arrest Khalil because his conduct gave them reason to believe it was likely he would flee. The government also alleged that Khalil "refused to cooperate" with immigration agents arresting him—an account that Khalil's supporters say contradicts a video of his arrest that was taken by his wife, Noor Abdalla.
"ICE has admitted it detained Mahmoud illegally and without a warrant—to justify it, they are now flat out lying with an absurd claim that he tried to flee. At every step of the way, the Trump administration has flouted the law," said Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Another attorney for Khalil, Amy Greer, said she was on the phone with Khalil, his wife, and even spoke to the agent making the arrest on March 8.
"In the face of multiple agents in plain clothes who clearly intended to abduct him, and despite the fact that those agents repeatedly failed to show us a warrant, Mahmoud remained calm and complied with their orders," she said Thursday. "Today we now know why they never showed Mahmoud that warrant—they didn't have one."
According to CNN, these latest documents were filed to fulfill a request from the New Jersey federal district court judge overseeing Khalil's federal case, who directed Khalil's legal team and attorneys at the Department of Justice to submit all filings that were presented in his immigration case in Louisiana, where he is currently being held at an ICE detention center.
In federal court, Khalil's attorneys are challenging the legality of his detention and have sought his release on bail.
Khalil, who completed work on his masters degree from Columbia University in December, was active in pro-Palestine organizing on the school's campus last year. Another Palestinian green-card holder active in Columbia's student protest movement, Mohsen Mahdawai, was also recently arrested by federal immigration agents.
Abdalla was eight months pregnant when Khalil was detained. ICE denied Kahlil's request for a temporary furlough to be with his wife while she gave birth on April 21.
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