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department of justice
Trump-Appointed Judges Give Him Green Light to Send Troops Into Portland
In a dissent, Judge Susan Graber accused her 9th Circuit colleagues of eroding "core constitutional principles."
Oct 20, 2025
Two federal judges are giving President Donald Trump the green light to send National Guard troops into Portland, Oregon on Monday.
The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit granted the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) request to put a hold on US District Judge Karin Immergut's earlier order blocking deployment of the National Guard to Oregon's largest city.
The two judges who ruled in the DOJ's favor were appointed by Trump, while the lone dissenter in the case, Judge Susan Graber, was appointed by former President Bill Clinton.
The court's majority ruled that the protests outside the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility were sufficiently disruptive to justify deploying the National Guard, despite the fact that demonstrations outside the facility in recent weeks had not disrupted operations.
Judge Ryan Nelson, one of the Trump appointees, went so far as to issue a concurring opinion stating that the president's right to deploy the National Guard, even over the objections of state and local officials, cannot be reviewed by the judiciary.
In a scathing dissent, Graber noted that "the record contains no evidence whatsoever that, on September 27... ICE was unable either to protect its Portland facility or to execute the immigration laws it is charged with enforcing." This is relevant, she said, because the law states that the president may only deploy the National Guard "to repel a foreign invasion, quell a rebellion, or overcome an inability to execute the laws."
Graber then accused her colleagues of eroding "core constitutional principles, including sovereign states’ control over their states’ militias and the people’s First Amendment rights to assemble and to object to the government’s policies and actions."
Graber's argument echoed a ruling made earlier this month by Immergut, who was also appointed to the bench by Trump and who said his declarations that violent protests at the Portland ICE facility prevented the enforcement of the law were "untethered to facts."
Sandy Chung, executive director of the ACLU of Oregon, said in a statement responding to the ruling that "we are very disappointed that the majority on this 9th Circuit panel were unable to see through President Trump's political theater, divisive rhetoric, and extreme abuse of power and misuse of our military."
"The fact remains that Portland is peaceful," Chung added. "Portland protesters have shown a remarkable level of humor, creativity, and community care in the face of this administration's persistent and violent abuses of power. Inflatable frog and unicorn costumes, bike rides, and musical events are hardly a threat or reason to take the extremely dangerous and anti-democratic action of sending American troops into our communities."
In addition to Portland, Trump is also seeking to send National Guard troops to Chicago over the objections of both Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. The administration has appealed that case to the US Supreme Court.
This article has been updated with comment from the ACLU.
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Comey’s Indictment: A Timeline of Weaponization
What Trump has done to Jim Comey, he can do to anyone who displeases him.
Sep 30, 2025
The Department of Justice has become US President Donald Trump’s personal weapon. Former FBI Director James Comey’s indictment crossed a line that no democracy can tolerate. The timeline tells the story.
Act I: The Setup
January 27, 2017: Trump held a private dinner at the White House with FBI Director Comey. In their meeting, Trump told Comey—twice, “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty.”
On Trump’s first pass, Comey didn’t respond. The second time, Comey said, “You will always get honesty from me.”
“That’s what I want,” Trump answered. “Honest loyalty.”
February 14, 2017: In a private meeting with Comey, Trump raised the subject of former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, who was under investigation and later pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russia during the 2016 campaign.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump said. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” Comey did not say that he would.
March 30, 2017: Trump asked Comey to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation.
April 11, 2017: Trump asked what Comey had done in response to his prior request to “get out” the word that he was not personally under investigation.
Act II: The Firing
May 3, 2017: During Comey’s Senate testimony, he refused to answer questions about whether Trump was under investigation relating to Russian election interference. He also said, “It makes me mildly nauseous to think we might have had some impact on the election.” Trump was furious.
May 9, 2017: Trump fired Comey.
Act III: The Mueller Report
May 17, 2017: Comey’s firing prompted Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to name former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election.
April 18, 2019: Mueller’s report became public and concluded:
- “[T]he Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome.” (Vol. I, p. 5)
- The Trump campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.” (Vol. I, p. 5)
- Trump tried repeatedly to obstruct the investigation into his campaign ties to Russia.
- “[I]f we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment… Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” (Vol. II, p. 2)
Mueller’s investigation produced 37 indictments and seven guilty pleas or convictions. More than 1,000 former federal prosecutors signed a statement that if any other American engaged in the same efforts to impede federal proceedings as Trump did, they would likely be indicted on multiple charges of obstruction of justice.
Throughout the remainder of Trump’s first term and after his defeat in 2020: Trump continued to rant that “Jim ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey” should be tried for treason—which is punishable by death. But his threats carried little weight.
Act IV: Weaponization
Department of Justice guidelines require sufficient evidence to prove and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. And charging decisions cannot be influenced by a defendant's political affiliation: “There is no place in the decision-making process for animosity or careerism….”
January 2025: Trump appointed Erik Siebert, a career prosecutor, acting US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Early September: With the statute of limitations on potential charges against Comey expiring on September 30, 2025, Siebert had serious doubts about the case. His views quickly made their way up the Justice Department’s chain of command.
September 19: Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he wanted Siebert “out” because he hadn’t prosecuted another Trump enemy, New York Attorney General Letitia James: “It looks like she’s very guilty of something….”
Later on September 19: Siebert resigned..
September 20, 6:44 pm: Trump claimed that he had fired Siebert and pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey, Letitia James, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.):
Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’ Then we almost put in a Democrat supported US attorney, in Virginia, with a really bad Republican past. A Woke RINO, who was never going to do his job. That’s why two of the worst Dem Senators PUSHED him so hard. He even lied to the media and said he quit, and that we had no case. No, I fired him, and there is a GREAT CASE, and many lawyers, and legal pundits, say so. Lindsey Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! President DJT
September 20, 7:51 pm: Trump congratulated Bondi on doing a “GREAT job as Attorney General” and announced Lindsey Halligan, 36, as his choice to replace Siebert. Halligan—a former insurance lawyer—had never handled a criminal case and was a staff secretary in the White House effort to remove "improper ideology" from Smithsonian properties. She was one of Trump’s personal lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
September 22: Halligan was sworn in as acting US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
September 25: After Halligan personally presented evidence to the grand jury, it indicted Comey on two counts in a sparse indictment consisting of only one-and-a-half pages and signed only by Halligan.
Count 1 accused Comey of lying to the Senate when he said he “had not ‘authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports’ regarding an FBI investigation.” Count 2 accused him of obstructing Congress, presumably with the same alleged lie, but it was not specified.
September 25, 5:45 pm: Bondi posted:
No one is above the law. Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people. We will follow the facts in this case.
September 25, 5:52 pm: FBI Director Kash Patel posted:
Today, your FBI took another step in its promise of full accountability. For far too long, previous corrupt leadership and their enablers weaponized federal law enforcement, damaging once proud institutions and severely eroding public trust. Every day, we continue the fight to earn that trust back, and under my leadership, this FBI will confront the problem head-on. Nowhere was this politicization of law enforcement more blatant than during the Russiagate hoax, a disgraceful chapter in history we continue to investigate and expose. Everyone, especially those in positions of power, will be held to account—no matter their perch. No one is above the law.
September 25, 7:24 pm: Trump posted:
JUSTICE IN AMERICA! One of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the former Corrupt Head of the FBI. Today he was indicted by a Grand Jury on two felony counts for various illegal and unlawful acts. He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Act V: Who’s Next?
September 25: Trump told reporters that he expected more political enemies to face charges: “It’s not a list, but I think there’ll be others. I mean, they’re corrupt. They were corrupt radical left Democrats.”
September 26, 6:57 am: Trump posted:
Whether you like Corrupt James Comey or not, and I can’t imagine too many people liking him, HE LIED! It is not a complex lie, it’s a very simple, but IMPORTANT one.
He left himself ZERO margin of error on a big and important answer to a question. He just got unexpectedly caught. James ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey was a destroyer of lives. He knew exactly what he was saying, and that it was a very serious and far reaching lie for which a very big price must be paid.
September 26, 7:00 am: Trump posted: “JAMES COMEY IS A DIRTY COP. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
September 27, 6:40 pm: Trump posted:
I’d like to thank Kash Patel and the outstanding members of the FBI, for their brilliant work on the recent indictment of the Worst FBI Director in the History of Our Country, James ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey. The level of enthusiasm by the FBI was incredible, but only caused by the fact that they knew Comey for what he is, and was, a total SLIMEBALL! Again, thank you to the FBI and, specifically, those that worked on this case with U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, and the DOJ. Thanks you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. President DJT.
In his 6:57 a.m. rant on September 26, Trump began his verbal assault on the judge assigned to Comey’s case:
There is no way he [Comey] can explain his way out of it. He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been, but he was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start.
What Trump has done to Jim Comey and is now doing to the judge in the case, he can do to anyone who displeases him. And he will.
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A Timeline of Trump’s Futile Epstein Diversions
For months, US President Trump has tried to divert public attention from the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell files. But he can’t shake the story, and it keeps getting worse.
Aug 27, 2025
Drip, drip, drip…
For months, US President Trump has tried to divert public attention from the Jeffrey Epstein-Ghislaine Maxwell files. But he can’t shake the story, and it keeps getting worse.
The Reversal
Trump campaigned for the presidency on the promise to release all of the files relating to Epstein’s sex trafficking in minors. To supercharge his MAGA base, he fueled conspiracy theories that the files contained something sinister involving prominent Democrats.
February 2025: Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, told a Fox News interviewer that Epstein’s client list was sitting on her desk, awaiting her review before its release.
May: Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche informed Trump that his name appeared in the Epstein files, the New York Times later reported.
July 7: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel—who had also pushed conspiracy theories about the files during Trump’s campaign—issued a two-page memo stating that there was no Epstein client list and that the Justice Department (DOJ) would not release any additional materials relating to the matter.
July 16: Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Maurene Comey was fired. Comey was a lead prosecutor in the investigation and prosecution of Epstein and his coconspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. She was also the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and chief of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit. The memo gave no reason for Comey’s abrupt termination.
July 17: The Wall Street Journal published Trump’s alleged birthday note to Epstein that included his sketch of a naked woman.
The Blowback
Trump’s MAGA base erupted in anger over his refusal to release the DOJ’s Epstein files. Trying to appease his followers, Trump directed Bondi to ask that the courts release the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury transcripts. It was disingenuous because: 1) the courts were not likely to release the material; and 2) even if they did, the transcripts would constitute a small fraction of the Justice Department’s Epstein-Maxwell files.
July 23: A Florida judge denied Bondi’s motion to release the files relating to the Justice Department’s Epstein investigations in 2005 and 2007 that had resulted in a non-prosecution agreement. Trump’s then-Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta had negotiated the agreement with Epstein’s high-powered lawyers while serving as US attorney for the Southern District of Florida during George W. Bush’s presidency.
The Blunder
July 24: Deputy Attorney General (and Trump’s former personal attorney) Todd Blanche flew to Tallahassee and met with Maxwell for two days—an unprecedented visit for a No. 2 official in the Justice Department. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
July 31: Contrary to prison assignment policies for sex offenders, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Prisons transferred Maxwell from a Tallahassee prison to a “Club Fed” camp in Texas.
The Boomerang
August 11: A federal judge in New York denied Bondi’s motion to unseal Maxwell’s grand jury files. The court observed that anyone “who reviewed these materials expecting, based on the Government’s representations, to learn new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes and the investigation into them, would come away feeling disappointed and misled. There is no ‘there’ there.”
The entire exercise was a farce—another Trump con job:
The one colorable argument under that doctrine for unsealing in this case, in fact, is that doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal. A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at “transparency” but at diversion—aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such.
August 20: A different federal judge in New York blasted Bondi’s motion to unseal the Epstein grand jury transcripts. Describing the “trove” of materials that the Justice Department had assembled but withheld from the public, the court observed:
The Government’s 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials.
Trump’s directive that Bondi seek the release of the grand jury materials was always a ruse. As the court continued:
The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein files. By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a “diversion” from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession.
The court specifically called out Trump’s about-face on releasing the files:
In February 2025, the Government, as noted, was prepared to release the “Epstein Files” to the public. See DOJ Press Release. But then, on July 6, 2025, the Government announced that it would not make the files available to the public.
And the judge concluded: “The information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigation and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice.”
The Newest Scam
Meanwhile, on August 5, several Republicans voted with Democrats on the House Oversight Committee to force chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to subpoena the Justice Department for the Epstein-Maxwell materials. Comer also issued deposition subpoenas to former Attorneys General William Barr, Merrick Garland, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, and Alberto Gonzales; former FBI Director James Comey; former special counsel and FBI Director Robert Mueller III; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and former President Bill Clinton.
That’s superficially impressive, but purely performative. Notably missing from the committee’s witness list are the frontline prosecutors and investigators who actually know something meaningful about the Epstein-Maxwell cases.
One is Maurene Comey.
August 22: The FBI’s surprise search of former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s home and office dominated the media. Coincidentally, the Justice Department also released a transcript of Blanche’s July interview with Maxwell during which she asserted that no one connected with Epstein’s alleged crimes had done anything wrong—including her and, of course, Trump, upon whom she lavished praise.
Sharing the news cycle was the Justice Department’s production of documents to the House Oversight Committee. It provided a fraction of the DOJ’s Epstein file, and only 3% was new.
August 25: The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed materials from Epstein’s estate and announced that it will depose Alex Acosta on September 19.
Drip, drip, drip…
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