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The maternity ward of the Vilniansk Multidisciplinary Hospital in southeastern Ukraine lies in ruins after a Russian missile attack that claimed the life of a two-day-old infant.
(Photo: Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Report Details ‘Staggering Toll’ of Russian War on Ukrainian Healthcare, With 700+ Attacks
“The research shows that Russian armed forces have bombed hospitals, tortured medics, attacked ambulances, and looted clinics,” said a co-author. “Evidence strongly suggests these acts constitute war crimes.”
Feb 21, 2023
Nearly a year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, five groups on Tuesday released a report and interactive map documenting at least 707 attacks on healthcare facilities and workers in what the researchers argue are war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity.
As the war continues—with U.S. President Joe Biden visiting Kyiv to express support for Ukraine and Russian leader Vladimir Putin ramping up nuclear fears this week—the report, Destruction and Devastation: One Year of Russia’s Assault on Ukraine’s Healthcare System, tracks attacks between the launch of the invasion on February 24, 2022 and the end of last year.
Compiled and published by eyeWitness to Atrocities, Insecurity Insight, Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center (UHC), the document also features 10 case studies.
“Prosecutors must urgently investigate these attacks and hold perpetrators to account.”
“Our report illustrates the staggering toll that Russia’s war of aggression has had on Ukraine’s doctors, nurses, and patients,” explained co-author Christian De Vos, director of research and investigations at PHR. “The research shows that Russian armed forces have bombed hospitals, tortured medics, attacked ambulances, and looted clinics.”
“Based on the findings of our investigation, evidence strongly suggests these acts constitute war crimes and a course of conduct that could potentially constitute crimes against humanity as well,” De Vos continued. “As we mark one year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—and with imminent threats of further violence against healthcare amid Russia’s latest offensive—prosecutors must urgently investigate these attacks and hold perpetrators to account.”
While recognizing that the overall figure is “likely an undercount,” the publication says that researchers found:
- 292 attacks that damaged or destroyed 218 hospitals and clinics—many of which were attacked more than once;
- 181 attacks on other infrastructure such as blood centers, dental clinics, pharmacies, and research facilities;
- 65 attacks on ambulances; and
- 86 attacks on healthcare workers, with 62 deaths and 52 injuries.
“Healthcare workers, who became witnesses, talk about the horrific crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine,” noted MIHR analyst Lyubov Smachylo. “Some were held hostage by the Russian military, others were under fire, and some were forced to work under occupation. Witnesses described these events with horror and tears in their eyes.”
“It is worth emphasizing that these are just a few testimonies and only from those who survived,” Smachylo added. “Witnesses share their stories to hold Russia accountable for its crimes.”
Researchers suggested that accountability efforts could come from investigators and prosecutors not only in Ukraine but also at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in other countries that can act under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
“The findings presented in the report urgently warrant further investigation by prosecutorial authorities,” asserted Wendy Betts, director at eyeWitness to Atrocities. “The 10 highly detailed case studies in particular provide compelling evidence for prosecutors—be they at the ICC, in Kyiv, or beyond—to pursue accountability for these heinous acts.”
\u201c\u201cThey saw very well, they knew that this was a medical institution\u2026. We hoped this would somehow save us. But it turns out nothing is sacred in this war.\u201d \n\n- Dr. Alla Barsihian, director of Bashtanka Multiprofile Hospital, which was heavily damaged in an attack.\u201d— Physicians for Human Rights (@Physicians for Human Rights) 1676988799
According to figures from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC), globally last year, there were at least 1,892 attacks on healthcare in conflict zones—including 628 facilities damaged, 215 workers killed, and another 287 kidnapped.
“It is a great concern that damage and destruction of the health system is common in so many conflicts around the world despite the fact that international humanitarian law protects access to healthcare,” said Insecurity Insight director Christina Wille. “We have been monitoring patterns of violence against healthcare in conflict for several years around the world, and never before have we seen such widespread damage and destruction to the health system from indiscriminate use of force.”
Over a third of the 2022 attacks recorded by SHCC occurred in Ukraine after Russian forces invaded. Wille said that “the frequent use of explosive weapons with wide area effects across cities of Ukraine causes unacceptable devastation to the whole health system with concerning consequences for access to healthcare.”
Report co-author and UHC co-founder Pavlo Kovtoniuk pointed out that “Russia’s brutal strategy is deliberately merging civilian and military targets in war. For them, destroying hospitals, schools, and the power grid is a way to achieve military aims.”
“Russia used this murderous tactic before, in Chechnya and Syria, but faced no accountability,” Kovtoniuk added. “If impunity doesn’t end now, we will see many more hospitals destroyed as a means of war in the future. Unpunished evil always grows.”
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healthcareinternational criminal courtrussiacrimes against humanityukraineeyewitness to atrocitiesmedia initiative for human rightsukrainian healthcare centerphysicians for human rightswar crimesinsecurity insight
Nearly a year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, five groups on Tuesday released a report and interactive map documenting at least 707 attacks on healthcare facilities and workers in what the researchers argue are war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity.
As the war continues—with U.S. President Joe Biden visiting Kyiv to express support for Ukraine and Russian leader Vladimir Putin ramping up nuclear fears this week—the report, Destruction and Devastation: One Year of Russia’s Assault on Ukraine’s Healthcare System, tracks attacks between the launch of the invasion on February 24, 2022 and the end of last year.
Compiled and published by eyeWitness to Atrocities, Insecurity Insight, Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center (UHC), the document also features 10 case studies.
“Prosecutors must urgently investigate these attacks and hold perpetrators to account.”
“Our report illustrates the staggering toll that Russia’s war of aggression has had on Ukraine’s doctors, nurses, and patients,” explained co-author Christian De Vos, director of research and investigations at PHR. “The research shows that Russian armed forces have bombed hospitals, tortured medics, attacked ambulances, and looted clinics.”
“Based on the findings of our investigation, evidence strongly suggests these acts constitute war crimes and a course of conduct that could potentially constitute crimes against humanity as well,” De Vos continued. “As we mark one year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—and with imminent threats of further violence against healthcare amid Russia’s latest offensive—prosecutors must urgently investigate these attacks and hold perpetrators to account.”
While recognizing that the overall figure is “likely an undercount,” the publication says that researchers found:
- 292 attacks that damaged or destroyed 218 hospitals and clinics—many of which were attacked more than once;
- 181 attacks on other infrastructure such as blood centers, dental clinics, pharmacies, and research facilities;
- 65 attacks on ambulances; and
- 86 attacks on healthcare workers, with 62 deaths and 52 injuries.
“Healthcare workers, who became witnesses, talk about the horrific crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine,” noted MIHR analyst Lyubov Smachylo. “Some were held hostage by the Russian military, others were under fire, and some were forced to work under occupation. Witnesses described these events with horror and tears in their eyes.”
“It is worth emphasizing that these are just a few testimonies and only from those who survived,” Smachylo added. “Witnesses share their stories to hold Russia accountable for its crimes.”
Researchers suggested that accountability efforts could come from investigators and prosecutors not only in Ukraine but also at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in other countries that can act under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
“The findings presented in the report urgently warrant further investigation by prosecutorial authorities,” asserted Wendy Betts, director at eyeWitness to Atrocities. “The 10 highly detailed case studies in particular provide compelling evidence for prosecutors—be they at the ICC, in Kyiv, or beyond—to pursue accountability for these heinous acts.”
\u201c\u201cThey saw very well, they knew that this was a medical institution\u2026. We hoped this would somehow save us. But it turns out nothing is sacred in this war.\u201d \n\n- Dr. Alla Barsihian, director of Bashtanka Multiprofile Hospital, which was heavily damaged in an attack.\u201d— Physicians for Human Rights (@Physicians for Human Rights) 1676988799
According to figures from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC), globally last year, there were at least 1,892 attacks on healthcare in conflict zones—including 628 facilities damaged, 215 workers killed, and another 287 kidnapped.
“It is a great concern that damage and destruction of the health system is common in so many conflicts around the world despite the fact that international humanitarian law protects access to healthcare,” said Insecurity Insight director Christina Wille. “We have been monitoring patterns of violence against healthcare in conflict for several years around the world, and never before have we seen such widespread damage and destruction to the health system from indiscriminate use of force.”
Over a third of the 2022 attacks recorded by SHCC occurred in Ukraine after Russian forces invaded. Wille said that “the frequent use of explosive weapons with wide area effects across cities of Ukraine causes unacceptable devastation to the whole health system with concerning consequences for access to healthcare.”
Report co-author and UHC co-founder Pavlo Kovtoniuk pointed out that “Russia’s brutal strategy is deliberately merging civilian and military targets in war. For them, destroying hospitals, schools, and the power grid is a way to achieve military aims.”
“Russia used this murderous tactic before, in Chechnya and Syria, but faced no accountability,” Kovtoniuk added. “If impunity doesn’t end now, we will see many more hospitals destroyed as a means of war in the future. Unpunished evil always grows.”
Nearly a year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, five groups on Tuesday released a report and interactive map documenting at least 707 attacks on healthcare facilities and workers in what the researchers argue are war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity.
As the war continues—with U.S. President Joe Biden visiting Kyiv to express support for Ukraine and Russian leader Vladimir Putin ramping up nuclear fears this week—the report, Destruction and Devastation: One Year of Russia’s Assault on Ukraine’s Healthcare System, tracks attacks between the launch of the invasion on February 24, 2022 and the end of last year.
Compiled and published by eyeWitness to Atrocities, Insecurity Insight, Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center (UHC), the document also features 10 case studies.
“Prosecutors must urgently investigate these attacks and hold perpetrators to account.”
“Our report illustrates the staggering toll that Russia’s war of aggression has had on Ukraine’s doctors, nurses, and patients,” explained co-author Christian De Vos, director of research and investigations at PHR. “The research shows that Russian armed forces have bombed hospitals, tortured medics, attacked ambulances, and looted clinics.”
“Based on the findings of our investigation, evidence strongly suggests these acts constitute war crimes and a course of conduct that could potentially constitute crimes against humanity as well,” De Vos continued. “As we mark one year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—and with imminent threats of further violence against healthcare amid Russia’s latest offensive—prosecutors must urgently investigate these attacks and hold perpetrators to account.”
While recognizing that the overall figure is “likely an undercount,” the publication says that researchers found:
- 292 attacks that damaged or destroyed 218 hospitals and clinics—many of which were attacked more than once;
- 181 attacks on other infrastructure such as blood centers, dental clinics, pharmacies, and research facilities;
- 65 attacks on ambulances; and
- 86 attacks on healthcare workers, with 62 deaths and 52 injuries.
“Healthcare workers, who became witnesses, talk about the horrific crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine,” noted MIHR analyst Lyubov Smachylo. “Some were held hostage by the Russian military, others were under fire, and some were forced to work under occupation. Witnesses described these events with horror and tears in their eyes.”
“It is worth emphasizing that these are just a few testimonies and only from those who survived,” Smachylo added. “Witnesses share their stories to hold Russia accountable for its crimes.”
Researchers suggested that accountability efforts could come from investigators and prosecutors not only in Ukraine but also at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in other countries that can act under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
“The findings presented in the report urgently warrant further investigation by prosecutorial authorities,” asserted Wendy Betts, director at eyeWitness to Atrocities. “The 10 highly detailed case studies in particular provide compelling evidence for prosecutors—be they at the ICC, in Kyiv, or beyond—to pursue accountability for these heinous acts.”
\u201c\u201cThey saw very well, they knew that this was a medical institution\u2026. We hoped this would somehow save us. But it turns out nothing is sacred in this war.\u201d \n\n- Dr. Alla Barsihian, director of Bashtanka Multiprofile Hospital, which was heavily damaged in an attack.\u201d— Physicians for Human Rights (@Physicians for Human Rights) 1676988799
According to figures from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC), globally last year, there were at least 1,892 attacks on healthcare in conflict zones—including 628 facilities damaged, 215 workers killed, and another 287 kidnapped.
“It is a great concern that damage and destruction of the health system is common in so many conflicts around the world despite the fact that international humanitarian law protects access to healthcare,” said Insecurity Insight director Christina Wille. “We have been monitoring patterns of violence against healthcare in conflict for several years around the world, and never before have we seen such widespread damage and destruction to the health system from indiscriminate use of force.”
Over a third of the 2022 attacks recorded by SHCC occurred in Ukraine after Russian forces invaded. Wille said that “the frequent use of explosive weapons with wide area effects across cities of Ukraine causes unacceptable devastation to the whole health system with concerning consequences for access to healthcare.”
Report co-author and UHC co-founder Pavlo Kovtoniuk pointed out that “Russia’s brutal strategy is deliberately merging civilian and military targets in war. For them, destroying hospitals, schools, and the power grid is a way to achieve military aims.”
“Russia used this murderous tactic before, in Chechnya and Syria, but faced no accountability,” Kovtoniuk added. “If impunity doesn’t end now, we will see many more hospitals destroyed as a means of war in the future. Unpunished evil always grows.”
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LATEST NEWS
Italy’s Unions Lead General Strike for Gaza
“Meloni should take a stand with the facts against those who have slaughtered 20,000 children, rather than limiting herself to saying ‘I do not agree,’” said one critic of Italy’s right-wing prime minister.
Sep 22, 2025
Italian labor unions led a massive 24-hour general strike on Monday to protest Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, with estimates of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallying in dozens of cities across Italy.
Protesters took to squares, streets, transport hubs, ports, university campuses, and other spaces in more than 75 cities and towns, rallying under the call to "Block Everything." Places including schools, train stations, and retail stores were shut for the day.
"The strike is called in response to the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the blockade of humanitarian aid by the Israeli army, and the threats directed against the... Global Sumud Flotilla, which has on board Italian workers and trade unionists committed to bringing food and basic necessities to the Palestinian population," explained Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), a grassroots union confederation known for its militant stance on labor and political issues.
In Rome, tens of thousands of Palestine defenders rallied at the Termini rail station, Italy's largest, with many of the demonstrators occupying the building.
While protest activities snarled traffic in some parts of the Italian capital, many Roman motorists showed solidarity with the demonstrators by honking their horns and raising their fists into the air.
Watch: Pro-Gaza protesters who blocked a highway near Rome were met with visible solidarity from drivers. Regional news coverage of the paralyzed Central Station showed only people expressing support for the protest.Source: Paolo Mossetti on X (@paolomossetti)
[image or embed]
— Drop Site (@dropsitenews.com) September 22, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Milan saw an estimated 50,000 people turn out to locations including the central rail station, where some protesters damaged property and clashed with police, who said 10 people were arrested and 60 officers were injured.
“If we don’t block what Israel is doing, if we don’t block trade, the distribution of weapons and everything else with Israel, we will not ever achieve anything,” protester Walter Montagnoli, who is the Base Unitary Confederation's (CUB) national secretary, told The Associated Press at a march in Milan.
In Bologna—home to the world's oldest continuously operating university—students occupied lecture halls and thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, including the Tangenziale, the ring highway around the city, where police attacked them with water cannons and tear gas.
Dockworkers and other demonstrators marched and blocked ports in cities including Genoa, Trieste, and Livorno.
Thousands of protesters also blocked the main train station in Naples.
Source: Potere al Popolo via X (@potere_alpopolo)
[image or embed]
— Drop Site (@dropsitenews.com) September 22, 2025 at 11:06 AM
In the Adriatic seaside resort of Termoli, hundreds of student-led Palestine defenders rallied in St. Anthony's Square and, with Mayor Nicola Balice's permission, draped a Palestinian flag from the façade of City Hall.
"Faced with such an important subject, the genocide in Palestine, we students... said this would be a nonpartisan demonstration because in the face of what is happening in the Gaza Strip—hospitals bombed, children killed every day—there can be no political ideology," said one Termoli protester. "We must all be united.”
Some participants in Monday's general strike pointed the finger at their own government.
"In the face of what is happening in Gaza you have to decide where you are," Italian General Confederation of Labor leader Maurizio Landini told La Stampa. "If you don’t tell the Israeli government that you have to stop and don't send them more weapons, but instead you keep sending them... you actually become complicit in what’s happening.”
While European nations including Ireland, Norway, Spain, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Luxembourg, and Denmark have formally recognized Palestine or announced their intent to do so since October 2023, Italy has given no indication that it will follow suit. More than 150 of 193 United Nations member states have recognized Palestine.
Although increasingly critical of Israel's 718-day genocidal assault—which has left at least 241,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing in Gaza—right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been accused of complicity in genocide for actions including presiding over arms sales to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Meloni has rejected the ICC warrants and said Netanyahu would not be arrested if he enters Italy.
"Meloni should listen to the voice of those who are peacefully protesting and asking her to act, rather than curling up to Washington to protect her friend, the war criminal Netanyahu," Giuseppe Conte, who leads the independent progressive Five Star Movement, said Monday on social media. "Meloni should take a stand with the facts against those who have slaughtered 20,000 children, rather than limiting herself to saying, 'I do not agree.' And she should stop running away from the debate in Parliament."
Supreme Court to Weigh 90-Year-Old Precedent and Let Trump Fire FTC Commissioner
“Rest in peace to the presidency, and long live the king,” quipped one attorney.
Sep 22, 2025
As US President Donald Trump faces mounting accusations of authoritarian conduct, the Supreme Court's right-wing majority on Monday empowered him to proceed with firing a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to review a 90-year-old precedent that restricts executive power over independent agencies such as the FTC.
Trump in March fired the FTC's two Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, without cause. Slaughter fought back, and US District Judge Loren AliKhan allowed her to return to work while the case continued. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld that decision, but it was halted Monday by the nation's top court.
Monday's decision was unsigned, though the three liberals collectively dissented, led by Justice Elena Kagan. In addition to letting Trump move forward with ousting Slaughter, the majority agreed to reconsider the precedent established with Humphrey's Executor v. United States, a 1935 case that centered on whether the Federal Trade Commission Act unconstitutionally interfered with the executive power of the president.
In Humphrey's Executor, the high court found that Congress' removal protections for FTC members did not violate the separation of powers. Along with revisiting the precedent established by that landmark decision in December, the justices plan to weigh whether a federal court may prevent a person's removal from public office.
The court's stay allowing Trump to fire Slaughter was granted as part of the court's emergency process, or shadow docket. In a short but scathing dissent, Kagan noted that it is part of a recent trend: "Earlier this year, the same majority, by the same mechanism, permitted the president to fire without cause members of the National Labor Relations Board, the Merits Systems Protection Board, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission."
"I dissented from the majority's prior stay orders, and today do so again. Under existing law, what Congress said goes—as this court unanimously decided nearly a century ago," she wrote. In Humphrey's Executor, Kagan continued, "Congress, we held, may restrict the president's power to remove members of the FTC, as well as other agencies performing 'quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial' functions, without violating the Constitution."
"So the president cannot, as he concededly did here, fire an FTC commissioner without any reason. To reach a different result requires reversing the rule stated in Humphrey's: It entails overriding rather than accepting Congress' judgment about agency design," she argued. "The majority may be raring to take that action, as its grant of certiorari before judgment suggests. But until the deed is done, Humphrey's controls, and prevents the majority from giving the president the unlimited removal power Congress denied him."
More broadly, Kagan declared that "our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars. Still more, it should not be used, as it also has been, to transfer government authority from Congress to the president, and thus to reshape the nation's separation of powers."
Kagan, of course, is correct that the Supreme Court will soon overturn Humphrey's Executor and allow the president to fire leaders of any independent agency (other than the Fed—maybe?!). She's also right to bemoan the fact that SCOTUS effectively overruled Humphrey's on the shadow docket already.
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) September 22, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director at the anti-monopoly think tank Open Markets Institute, slammed the court in a Monday statement.
"Today, in a one-paragraph order, the Supreme Court authorized President Trump's illegal firing of Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and his ongoing destruction of the independent, bipartisan Federal Trade Commission," Vaheesan said.
"As Justice Kagan wrote in her dissent, Commissioner Slaughter was fired without cause and is clearly entitled to her position under the FTC Act and controlling Supreme Court precedent," he added. "The court could override Congress' decision to create an independent FTC on specious constitutional grounds but until it takes that step Commissioner Slaughter has a right to her job.”
While the justices agreed to take Slaughter's case, they turned away petitions from two ousted Democratic appointees referenced by Kagan: Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board. According to SCOTUSblog: "The court did not provide any explanation for its decision not to take up Harris' and Wilcox's cases at this time. They will continue to move forward in the lower courts."
The New York Times noted that "the justices are separately considering the Trump administration’s request to remove Lisa Cook as a Federal Reserve governor. The Supreme Court has yet to act, but has suggested that the central bank may be insulated from presidential meddling under the law."
However, as Law Dork's Chris Geidner highlighted on social media, the second question the justices will consider in the Slaughter case, regarding courts preventing removals from public office, "would have implications even for the 'Fed carveout' exception that the court suggested exists."
Warren Calls for Probe as Whistleblowers Accuse Trump Appointees of ‘Systematically Destroying’ Fair Housing Act
Warren says new whistleblower reports “show the extent of the Trump administration’s attack on civil rights and show how the administration appears to be ignoring the law.”
Sep 22, 2025
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling for an investigation into the Department of Housing and Urban Development after several whistleblowers reported that Trump appointees have gutted enforcement of the decades-old law banning housing discrimination.
A New York Times report published Monday, quotes "half a dozen current and former employees of HUD’s fair housing office" who "said that the Trump political appointees had made it nearly impossible for them to do their jobs" enforcing the 1968 Fair Housing Act "which involve investigating and prosecuting landlords, real estate agents, lenders and others who discriminate based on race, religion, gender, family status or disability."
In a video posted to social media, Warren (D-Mass.) explained that “if you’re a mom protecting her kids from living with an abusive father or if you’re getting denied a mortgage because of the color of your skin, you have civil rights protection under US law. But the Trump administration has been systematically destroying these federal protections for renters and homeowners.”
According to the Times, when President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, formerly led by billionaire Elon Musk, launched its crusade to dismantle large parts of the federal government at the start of Trump's second term earlier this year, the Office of Fair Housing (OFH) had its staff cut by 65% through layoffs and reassignments, with the number of employees dropping from 31 to 11. Just six of the remaining staff now work on fair housing cases.
The number of discrimination charges pursued by the office has plummeted since Trump took office. In most years, it has 35. During Trump's second term, the office has pursued just four. Meanwhile, it's obtained just $200,000 total in legal settlements after previously obtaining anywhere from $4 million to $8 million per year.
Emails and memos obtained by the Times show a pattern of Trump appointees obstructing investigations:
In one email, a Trump appointee... described decades of housing discrimination cases as “artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary.”
In another, a career supervisor in the department’s [OFH] objected to lawyers being reassigned to other offices; the supervisor was fired six days later for insubordination.
In a third, the office’s director of enforcement warned that Trump appointees were using gag orders and intimidation to block discrimination cases from moving forward. The urgent message was sent to a US senator, who is referring it to the department’s acting inspector general for investigation.
Several lawyers said they have been restricted from using past cases in enforcement and communicating with certain clients without approval from Trump's appointees.
A memo also reportedly went out to employees informing them that documents “contrary to administration policy” would be thrown out, and that “tenuous theories of discrimination” would no longer be pursued.
Among those supposedly "tenuous" cases have been ones involving appraisal bias—the practice of undervaluing homes owned by Black families—zoning restrictions blocking housing for Black and Latino families, and cases related to discrimination against people over gender or gender expression.
The administration has also abandoned cases related to the racist practice of "redlining"—the decades-old practice of denying mortgages to minorities and others in minority neighborhoods—with memos from Trump appointees calling the concept "legally unsound."
The changes follow a sweeping set of executive orders from Trump during his first week in office, targeting "diversity equity, and inclusion" (DEI) programs. Employees at the Office of Fair Housing told the Times that Trump appointees had begun to describe much of the department's work as "an offshoot of DEI."
A HUD spokesperson, Kasey Lovett, told the Times that it was "patently false" to suggest that the administration was trying to weaken the Fair Housing Act. She pointed out that HUD was still handling approximately 4,100 cases this year, on par with the previous year. As the Times notes, "Lovett did not address, however, how many of the cases had been investigated or had resulted in legal action."
According to the Times:
Hundreds of pending fair housing cases were frozen, and some settlements revoked, even when accusations of discrimination had been substantiated, according to the interviews and the internal communications.
In one instance, a large homeowner’s association in Texas was found to have banned the use of housing vouchers by Black residents. That case had been referred to the Justice Department, but the referral was abruptly withdrawn by the new Trump appointees.
Four current staff members have provided the trove of documents to Warren, who announced Monday that she'd sent a request to Brian Harrison, HUD’s acting inspector general, to open an investigation into its handling of discrimination cases.
Warren said that the documents "show the extent of the Trump administration's attack on civil rights and show how the administration appears to be ignoring the law."
In a press release from the Democrats on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Warren, the ranking member, highlighted the particularly devastating impact staffing cuts have had on the enforcement of complaints under the Violence Against Women Act, which the Times says only two of the six lawyers remaining at HUD have experience with.
According to Warren, whistleblowers said the cuts were "placing survivors in greater danger of suffering additional trauma, physical violence, and even death."
Warren said that as a result of the hundreds of dropped cases, "Now people are asking, 'well, why would I file a case at all if nothing's going to happen?'"
Calling for an independent investigation, Warren said, "We wrote these laws to make this a fairer America, and now it's time to enforce those laws."
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