A social media and phone surveillance system ICE bought access to is designed to monitor a city neighborhood or block for mobile phones, track the movements of those devices and their owners over time, and follow them from their places of work to home or other locations, according to material that describes how the system works obtained by 404 Media.Commercial location data, in this case acquired from hundreds of millions of phones via a company called Penlink, can be queried without a warrant, according to an internal ICE legal analysis shared with 404 Media. The purchase comes squarely during ICEs mass deportation effort and continued crackdown on protected speech, alarming civil liberties experts and raising questions on what exactly ICE will use the surveillance system for.This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency. This granular location information paints a detailed picture of who we are, where we go, and who we spend time with, Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the American Civil Liberties Unions (ACLU) Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media.This week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) started deploying as many as 2,000 officers to Minneapolis, including from ICEs deportation arm. On Wednesday, an ICE official repeatedly shot and killed a woman, Renee Nicole Good, 37, when she was turning around her car.Do you know anything else about this tool? Do you work for ICE, CBP, or another agency? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.In September, 404 Media reported on ICEs planned purchase of the technology, consisting of two Penlink products called Tangles and Webloc. 404 Media has now obtained material that explains in greater detail how the system works.The material shows Webloc users can search its databases of mobile phone data in various ways. Users can perform a single perimeter analysis to search a specific area for mobile phones across a certain time period. They can draw the target area with a rectangle, circle, or polygon. They then select the maximum number of results the system should display, and the maximum number of devices to return.Once a Webloc user has identified a device of interest, they can get more details about that particular phone, and, by extension, its owner, by seeing where else it has travelled both locally and across the country. Users can click a route feature which shows the path the device took. The material suggests that if users look at where the device was located at night, they might find the persons possible home, and during the day, the persons possible employer.The software can also do a multi-permiter analysis, which monitors multiple locations at once to see which devices have been present at two or more specific places.A results page then displays the list of discovered devices. This includes whether the phone is an Android or iOS device; the number of days the device visited a given location; the average amount of time a device stayed at the location; and the total number of pieces of location data for that phone.A screenshot of Penlink marketing material. Available here.The material does not say how Penlink obtains the smartphone location data in the first place. But surveillance companies and data brokers broadly gather it in two different ways. The first is from small bundles of code included in ordinary apps called software development kits, or SDKs. SDK owners then pay the app developers, who might make things like weather or prayer apps, for their users location data. The second is through real-time bidding, or RTB. This is where companies in the online advertising industry place near instantaneous bids to get their advert in front of a certain demographic. A side effect is that companies can obtain data about peoples individual devices, including their GPS coordinates. Spy firms have sourced this sort of RTB information from hugely popular smartphone apps.The Webloc material says users can filter devices by their unique Apple and Android advertising identifiers, which are often collected by surveillance companies. The material also says users can filter location data by GPS, WiFi, or IP address.It's dangerous for ICE or any government agency to be vacuuming up this type of sensitive data in bulk and absent checks. This type of surveillance dragnet will enable draconian policing andabuse, Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Security and Surveillance Project, told 404 Media.Senator Ron Wyden, whose office has repeatedly investigated the location data industry, told 404 Media, Under Trump, ICE has terrorized American cities with zero regard for due process or the wishes of the people who live there. In the hands of Trumps shock troops, location data could do tremendous harm to people who have done nothing wrong.ICE paid nearly $2 million for access to Tangles in September, Forbes reported. The agency then bought additional licenses in December for another $312,500, according to public procurement data. The purchase was on behalf of ICEs Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which traditionally has focused on criminal investigations, but has recently been roped into ICEs mass deportation effort, according to data obtained by the CATO Institute.A document ICE previously published signalling its intent to buy the products explicitly mentioned Webloc. Webloc isnt a unique capability in the location data industry. A former employee of a similar company called Babel Street previously told me users can draw a shape on a map to see all devices Babel Street has for that location, then see where else that device has been. But the ICE document indicated the agency chose Penlink over its competitors because the company provides an all-in-one tool for searching both masses of location data and information from social media.A government official told 404 Media commercial location data can be less useful than other types of location information, such as that from telecoms. 404 Media granted the official anonymity as they werent permitted to speak to the press. One glaring issue for government users is if a targets device happens to be in the sold dataset or not. For example, the IRS previously tried to use location data from Venntel to find where targets lived, but were unsuccessful because the people the agency were looking for werent included in that particular dataset.Location data has been used to identify groups, or movements, of people. When the Wall Street Journal first revealed the sale of commercial location data to government agencies, it reported Customs and Border Protection (CBP) used the data to look for phone activity in unusual places along the Mexican border. The report also said ICE had used the data to help identify immigrants who were later arrested.A screenshot of the internal ICE legal analysis. Available here.The ACLU obtained an internal ICE legal analysis on the use of smartphone location data through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. At the time it was written it was discussing data from another location broker. But it provides insight into ICEs legal justification to not seek a warrant when using such data. 404 Media has uploaded a copy of the document here.Under longstanding Supreme Court precedent, an individual has no reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment in information voluntarily disclosed to third parties, the analysis says, referring to data collected by location data companies and sold to the government. The rationale is that the phones owner has provided this information willingly because they could, theoretically, remove apps gathering their location data or turn off location services altogether. (In multiple investigations into the location data industry, Ive found apps did not always disclose how their location data might be used or sold, and in some cases apps still collected data even when people opted-out, meaning users could not have meaningfully consented.)The governments justifications are tremendously self-serving. The government tries to satisfy privacy concerns by noting that this tracking data is attached to a phones AdID number instead of a phone number, but thats a meaningless distinction, Wessler from the ACLU continued. This data allows precise tracking of millions of peoples phones, revealing granular detail about us that can be easily linked to our identities. Nobody expects that by carrying a phone, they are somehow consenting to let the government make a record of their every move. Thats a chilling power. The governments scrabbling about for legal loopholes cant cover for the massive privacy violation that this technology enables.In 2018 the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Carpenter v. United States case that authorities need a warrant to access historical cellphone location data sourced from telecoms. The ICE legal analysis suggests that the agency does not think the same protection extends to commercially available smartphone location data.By claiming the power to buy access to this information with no judicial oversight, ICE can track any of us or all of us for as long as it wants at an agents mere whim. Anyone can become a suspect, and theres no meaningful safeguard against abuse. And of course, in a time of rampant racial profiling by ICE agents, members of immigrant communities and communities of color are likely to suffer particularly acute harms, Wessler added.Senator Wyden added, The Federal Trade Commission made clear in multiple settlements that selling location data from apps and online adsincluding to the governmentis a violation of federal law unless users receive clear notice and consent to selling their data to the government. But now that the FTC is effectively a wing of the White House, data brokers have continued to sell data to ICE and other agencies with impunity. The abuse of Americans personal data won't stop until Congress or states pass clear laws that give users an easy way to block the sale of their data, or to ban the sale of personal data altogether.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to a series of questions about ICEs legal analysis or its use of Webloc.ICE, CBP, and the Secret Service all broke the law when using commercial location data, a government report found in 2023. That included a CBP official using the technology to track the location of coworkers with no investigative purpose, and the agencies not having enough formal guardrails in place. At the time, the Inspector General recommended that ICE stop using commercial location data until it obtained the necessary approvals. ICE declined to do so. CTD [Commercial Telemetry Data] is an important mission contributor to the ICE investigative process as, in combination with other information and investigative methods, it can fill knowledge gaps and produce investigative leads that might otherwise remain hidden. Accordingly, continued use of CTD enables ICE HSI to successfully accomplish its law enforcement mission, the agencys response read.404 Media also obtained material related to Tangles, the social media monitoring product ICE bought access to. That shows users can detect faces in an image and then attempt to identify them; perform sentiment analysis on a targets posts; and add specific social media accounts to a watch list. Independent journalist Jack Poulson previously reported on Tangles material showing how the tool could be used to monitor protesters, including the Black Lives Matter movement.A Penlink spokesperson told 404 Media in an email, The tools we provide to the government exclusively use publicly or commercially available data and are used to advance criminal investigations and save lives. They enable law enforcement to spot threats faster and use evidence more efficiently.It added, Penlink operates under strict compliance, due diligence, and responsible-use standards. PenLink is committed to transparency, legality, and integrity in every aspect of our work.

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Pedestrians walk past a help wanted sign posted on the door of a restaurant in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)2026-01-08T13:42:39Z WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. filings for jobless benefits rose in the last week of 2025 but remain historically low, despite signs that the labor market is weakening.The number of Americans filing for jobless claims for the week ending Jan. 3 rose by 8,000 to 208,000, up from 200,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The figure was right in line with what analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.Last month, the government reported that the U.S. gained a decent 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October as federal workers departed after cutbacks by the Trump administration. That helped to push the unemployment rate up to 4.6%, the highest since 2021. The governments December jobs report will be released Friday, with analysts expecting that the U.S. added 55,000 non-farm jobs.On Wednesday, the Labor Department reported that businesses posted far fewer jobs in November than the previous month, a sign that employers arent yet ramping up hiring even as growth has picked up. Businesses and government agencies posted 7.1 million open jobs at the end of November, down from 7.4 million in October. Layoffs also dropped as companies seem to be retaining workers even as they are reluctant to add staff, a trend economists refer to as low hire, low fire. Recent government data has revealed a labor market in which hiring has clearly lost momentum, hobbled by uncertainty raised by President Donald Trumps tariffs and the lingering effects of the high interest rates the Fed engineered in 2022 and 2023 to rein in a spike of pandemic-induced inflation. Since March, job creation has fallen to an average 35,000 a month, compared to 71,000 in the 12 months ended in March. In an attempt to stabilize a softening labor market, the Federal Reserve last month trimmed its benchmark lending rate by a quarter-point, its third straight cut.Fed Chair Jerome Powell said members of the committee are increasingly concerned that the job market is even weaker than it appears. Powell suggested that recent job figures could be revised lower by as much as 60,000, which would mean employers have actually been shedding an average of about 25,000 jobs a month since the spring, when the Trump administration rolled out its sweeping import taxes.Companies that have recently announced job cuts include UPS, General Motors, Amazon and Verizon.The Labor Department reported Thursday that the four-week average of claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 7,250 to 211,750.The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Dec. 27 jumped by 56,000 to 1.91 million, the government said.

Billionaire Toby Neugebauer laughed when the Amarillo City Council asked him how he planned to handle the waste his planned datacenter would produce.Im not laughing in disrespect to your question, Neugebauer said. He explained that hed just met with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who had made it clear that any nuclear waste Neugebauers datacenter generated needed to go to Nevada, a state thats not taking nuclear waste at the moment. The answer is we don't have a great long term solution for how were doing nuclear waste.The meeting happened on October 28, 2025 and was one of a series of appearances Neugebauer has put in before Amarillos leaders as he attempts to realize Project Matador: a massive 5,769 acre datacenter being built in the Texas Panhandle and constructed by Fermi America, a company he founded with former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.If built, Project Matador would be one of the largest datacenters in the world at around 18 million square feet. What were talking about is creating the epicenter for artificial intelligence in the United States, Neugebauer told the council. According to Neugebauer, the United States is in an existential race to build AI infrastructure. He sees it as a national security issue.Youre blessed to sit on the best place to develop AI compute in America, he told Amarillo. I just finished with Palantir, which is our nations tip of the spear in the AI war. They know that this is the place that we must do this. Theyve looked at every site on the planet. I was at the Department of War yesterday. So anyone who thinks this is some casual conversation about the mission critical aspect of this is just not being truthful.But its unclear if Palantir wants any part of Project Matador. One unnamed clientrumored to be Amazondropped out of the project in December and cancelled a $150 million contract with Fermi America. The news hit the companys stock hard, sending its value into a tailspin and triggering a class action lawsuit from investors.Yet construction continues. The plan says itll take 11 years to build out the massive datacenter, which will first be powered by a series of natural gas generators before the planned nuclear reactors come online.Amarillo residents arent exactly thrilled at the prospect. A group called 806 Data Center Resistance has formed in opposition to the projects construction. Kendra Kay, a tattoo artist in the area and a member of 806, told 404 Media that construction was already noisy and spiking electricity bills for locals.When we found out how big it was, none of us could really comprehend it, she said. We went out to the site and we were like, Oh my god, this thing is huge. Theres already construction underway of one of four water tanks that hold three million gallons of water.For Kay and others, water is the core issue. Its a scarce resource in the panhandle and Amarillo and other cities in the area already fight for every drop. The water is the scariest part, she said. Theyre asking for 2.5 million gallons per day. They said that they would come back, probably in six months, to ask for five million gallons per day. And then, after that, by 2027 they would come back and ask for 10 million gallons per day.During an October 15 city council meeting, Neugebauer told the city that Fermi would get its water with or without an agreement from the city. The only difference is whether Amarillo benefits. To many people it sounded like a threat, but Neugebauer got his deal and the city agreed to sell water to Fermi America for double the going rate.It wasnt a threat, Neugebauer said during another meeting on October 28. I know people took my answeras a threat. I think its a win-win. I know there are other water projects we can dowe fully got that the water was going to be issue 1, 2, and 3.We can pay more for water than the consumer can. Which allows you all capital to be able to re-invest in other water projects, he said. I think what youre gonna find is having a customer who can pay way more than what you wanna burden your constituents with will actually enhance your water availability issues.According to Neugebauer and plans filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the datacenter would generate and consume 11 gigawatts of power. The bulk of that, eventually, would be generated by four nuclear reactors. But nuclear reactors are complicated and expensive to make and everyone who has attempted to build one in the past few decades has gone over budget and they werent trying to build nuclear power plants in the desert.Nuclear reactors, like datacenters, consume a lot of water. Because of that, most nuclear reactors are constructed near massive bodies of water and often near the ocean. The viewpoint that nuclear reactors can only be built by streams and oceans is actually the opposite, Neugebauer told the Amarillo city council in the meeting on October 28.As evidence he pointed to the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona. The massive Palo Verde plant is the only nuclear plant in the world not constructed near a ready source of water. It gets the water it needs by taking on the waste and sewage water of every city and town nearby.Thats not the plan with Project Matador, which will use water sold to it by Amarillo and pulled from the nearby Ogallala Aquifer. I am concerned that were going to run out of water and that this is going to change it from us having 30 years worth of water for agriculture to much less very quickly, Kay told 404 Media.The Ogallala Aquifer runs under parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. Its the primary source of water for the Texas panhandle and its drying out.They dont know how much faster because, despite how quickly this thing is moving, we dont have any idea how much water theyre realistically going to use or need, so we dont even know how to calculate the difference, Kay said. Below Lubbock, theyve been running out of water for a while. The priority of this seems really stupid.According to Kay, communities near the datacenter feel trapped as they watch the construction grind on. Theyve all lived here for several generationstheyre being told that this is inevitable. Fermi is going up to them and telling them this is going to happen whether you like it or not so you might as well just sell me your property.Kay said she and other activists have been showing up to city council meetings to voice their concerns and tell leaders not to approve permits for the datacenter and nuclear plants. Other communities across the country have successfully pushed datacenter builders out of their community. But Texas is this other beast, Kay said.Jacinta Gonzalez, the head of programs for MediaJustice and her team have helped 806 Data Center Resistance get up and running and teaching it tactics theyve seen pay off in other states. In Tucson, Arizona we were able to see the city council vote no to offer water to Project Blue, which was a huge proposed Amazon datacenter happening there, she said. If you look around, everywhere from Missouri to Indiana to places in Georgia, were seeing communities pass moratoriums, were seeing different projects withdraw their proposals because communities find out about it and are able to mobilize and organize against this.The community in Amarillo is still figuring out what thats going to look like for them, she said. These are really big interests. Rick Perry. Palantir. These are not folks who are used to hearing no or respecting community wishes. So the community will have to be really nimble and up for a fight. We dont know what will happen if we organize, but we definitely know what will happen if we dont.

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2026-01-08T09:56:08Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Protests in Iran sparked by economic woes have spread nationwide across the Islamic Republic, activists said Thursday, signaling both their staying power and intensity as they challenge the countrys theocracy. Wednesday saw the most-intense day of demonstrations, reaching rural towns and major cities in every province though still localized enough for daily life to continue in Tehran, Irans capital, and elsewhere. So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 38 people while more than 2,200 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. The growth of the protests increases the pressure on Irans civilian government and its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. So far, authorities havent shut down the internet or fully flooded the streets with security forces like they did to put down the 2022 Mahsa Amini demonstrations. But any intensification may seem them act. Meanwhile, the protests themselves have remained broadly leaderless, though a call for protests by Irans exiled crown prince will test whether or not demonstrators are being swayed by messages from abroad. The lack of a viable alternative has undermined past protests in Iran, wrote Nate Swanson of the Washington-based Atlantic Council, who studies Iran. There may be a thousand Iranian dissident activists who, given a chance, could emerge as respected statesmen, as labor leader Lech Wasa did in Poland at the end of the Cold War. But so far, the Iranian security apparatus has arrested, persecuted and exiled all of the countrys potential transformational leaders. Wednesdays protests broadest yetOn Wednesday, at least 37 protests took place across the country, activists said. They included Shiraz, where online videos purported to show an anti-riot truck using a water cannon to target demonstrators. The state-run IRNA news agency, which has largely been silent about the demonstrations, reported on a mass demonstration in Bojnourd, as well as demonstrations in Kerman and Kermanshah. Iranian officials have offered no acknowledgment of the scale of the protests. However, there has been reporting regarding security officials being hurt or killed. The judiciarys Mizan news agency report a police colonel suffered fatal stab wounds in a town outside of Tehran, while the semiofficial Fars news agency said gunmen killed two security force members and wounded 30 others in a shooting in the city of Lordegan in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province.A deputy governor in Irans Khorasan Razavi province told Iranian state television that an attack at a police station killed five people Wednesday night in Chenaran, some 700 kilometers (430 miles) northeast of Tehran. Demonstrations continued Thursday, with merchants closing their shops in Irans Kurdistan province and soon after in other cities.It remains unclear why Iranian officials have yet to crack down harder on the demonstrators. U.S. President Donald Trumps warned last week that if Tehran violently kills peaceful protesters, America will come to their rescue. Trumps comments drew a new rebuke from Irans Foreign Ministry. Recalling the long history of criminal interventions by successive U.S. administrations in Irans internal affairs, the Foreign Ministry considers claims of concern for the great Iranian nation to be hypocritical, aimed at deceiving public opinion and covering up the numerous crimes committed against Iranians, it said. But those comments havent stopped the U.S. State Department on the social platform X from highlighting online footage purporting to show demonstrators putting up stickers naming roads after Trump or throwing away government-subsidized rice. When prices are set so high that neither consumers can afford to buy nor farmers can afford to sell, everyone loses, the State Department said in one message. It makes no difference if this rice is thrown away. Exiled prince calls for protests The demonstrations so far broadly appear to be leaderless, like other rounds of protests in Iran in recent years. However, Irans exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, has urged the public in Iran to shout from their windows and roofs on Thursday and Friday nights at 8 p.m. (1630 GMT). Wherever you are, whether in the streets or even from your own homes, I call on you to begin chanting exactly at this time, Pahlavi said in an online video thats also been promoted by Iranian satellite news channels abroad. Based on your response, I will announce the next calls to action.Whether people take part will be a sign of possible support for Pahlavi, whose support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isnt clear whether thats support for Pahlavi or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials appeared to be taking the planned protests seriously. The hard-line Kayhan newspaper published a video online claiming security forces would use drones to identify those taking part. Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi remains imprisoned by authorities after her arrest in December. Since Dec. 28, 2025, the people of Iran have taken to the streets, just as they did in 2009, 2019, her son Ali Rahmani said. Each time, the same demands came up: an end to the Islamic Republic, an end to this patriarchal, dictatorial and religious regime, the end of the clerics, the end of the mullahs regime.Biggest protests since Mahsa Aminis deathIran has faced rounds of nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran struggled after a 12-day war with Israel in June, its rial currency collapsed in December, reaching 1.4 million to $1. Protests began soon after, with demonstrators chanting against Irans theocracy. Prior to Irans 1979 Islamic Revolution, the rial was broadly stable, trading at around 70 to $1. At the time of Irans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, $1 traded for 32,000 rials. Shops in markets across the country have shut down as part of the protests. JON GAMBRELL Gambrell is the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. He has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. twitter instagram mailto

A group of African American students, left, enter the Boothville-Venice School in Plaquemines Parish, La., on Sept. 12, 1966, as a group of white mothers wait at the entrance of the school. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)2026-01-08T15:41:38Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration and Louisiana officials have lifted another decades-old school desegregation order, part of a campaign to end court mandates they describe as outdated.A federal judge on Monday approved a joint motion from Louisiana and the U.S. Justice Department to dismiss a 1967 lawsuit in DeSoto Parish schools, a district of about 5,000 students in the states northwest. Its the second such dismissal since the Justice Department began working to overturn desegregation cases it once championed.Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill thanked President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday for helping us to finally end some of these cases.DeSoto Parish has its school system back, Murrill said in a statement. For the last 10 years, there have been no disputes among the parties, yet the consent decree remained. The case dates to 1967, when the Justice Department sued DeSoto Parish to end its racially segregated school system. The case resulted in a 1970 court order requiring the district to eliminate segregation and provide regular progress reports. The order was modified several times over the decades but there had been little activity in recent years. In the motion for dismissal, Louisiana and Trump officials said the order was no longer needed.While this case has been pending for over a half-century, there has been no dispute among the parties since 2014, they wrote in a Dec. 30 court filing. The parties thus are no longer adverse, and there is no case or controversy. Their motion was approved by U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr., who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.State officials say the court orders place an unfair burden on school districts. Districts under such orders usually have to get approval from the court to build new schools, change attendance boundaries or make policy changes touching on court orders. Civil rights groups say the orders are needed to fight the enduring impact of racial discrimination.DeSoto went to the court for numerous changes over the years, including new attendance zones in 2014 that remain in place today. The district also files status reports showing the racial breakdown of students and teachers, along with data on student transfers. The districts last report was filed in October.Louisiana Republicans see the decades-old desegregation orders as a challenge to local control and have worked to get them lifted in recent years. Working alongside Trumps justice officials, they successfully dismissed a 1966 order in the Plaquemines Parish.In the Plaquemines case, the lawsuit had been idle for decades after the judge overseeing it died in the 1970s.An effort to overturn a 1960s order in Concordia Parish schools has faced pushback from a federal court. A judge in that case rejected a motion to dismiss the suit, saying Concordia must first demonstrate it has fully ended segregation. State and federal officials are appealing the decision.The Concordia case was originally brought by Black families who demanded access to the towns all-white schools.___The Associated Press education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. COLLIN BINKLEY Binkley covers the U.S. Education Department and federal education policy for The Associated Press, along with a wide range of issues from K-12 through higher education. twitter mailto

The biggest AI story of the first week of 2026 involves Elon Musks Grok chatbot turning the social media platform into an AI child sexual imagery factory, seemingly overnight.Ive said several times on the 404 Media podcast and elsewhere that we could devote an entire beat to loser shit. Whats happening this week with Grokdesigned to be the horny edgelord AI companion counterpart to the more vanilla ChatGPT or Claudedefinitely falls into that category. People are endlessly prompting Grok to make nude and semi-nude images of women and girls, without their consent, directly on their X feeds and in their replies.Sometimes I feel like Ive said absolutely everything there is to say about this topic. Ive been writing about nonconsensual synthetic imagery before we had half a dozen different acronyms for it, before people called it deepfakes and way before cheapfakes and shallowfakes were coined, too. Almost nothing about the way society views this material has changed in the seven years since its come about, because fundamentallyonce its left the camera and made its way to millions of peoples screensthe behavior behind sharing it is not very different from images made with a camera or stolen from someones Google Drive or private OnlyFans account. We all agreed in 2017 that making nonconsensual nudes of people is gross and weird, and today, occasionally, someone goes to jail for it, but otherwise the industry is bigger than ever. Whats happening on X right now is an escalation of the way its always been, and almost everywhere on the internet.Do you know anything else about what's going on inside X? Or are you someone who's been targeted by abusive AI imagery? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at sam.404. Otherwise, send me an email at sam@404media.co.The internet has an incredibly short memory. It would be easy to imagine Twitter Before Elon as a harmonious and quaint microblogging platform, considering the four years After Elon have, comparatively, been a rolling outhouse fire. But even before it was renamed X, Twitter was one of the places for this content. It used to be (and for some, still is) an essential platform for getting discovered and going viral for independent content creators, and as such, its also where people are massively harassed. A few years ago, it was where people making sexually explicit AI images went to harass female cosplayers. Before that, it was (and still is) host to real-life sexual abuse material, where employers could search your name and find videos of the worst day of your life alongside news outlets and memes. Before that, it was how Gamergate made the jump from 4chan to the mainstream. The things that happen in Telegram chats and private Discord channels make the leap to Twitter and end up on the news.What makes the situation this week with Grok different is that its all happening directly on X. Now, you dont need to use Stable Diffusion or Nano Banana or Civitai to generate nonconsensual imagery and then take it over to Twitter to do some damage. X has become the Everything App that Elon always wanted, if everything means all the tools you need to fuck up someones life, in one place.Inside the Telegram Channel Jailbreaking Grok Over and Over AgainPutting people in bikinis is just the tip of the iceberg. On Telegram, users are finding ways to make Grok do far worse.404 MediaEmanuel MaibergThis is the culmination of years and years of rampant abuse on the platform. Reporting from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the organization platforms report to when they find instances of child sexual abuse material which then reports to the relevant authorities, shows that Twitter, and eventually X, has been one of the leading hosts of CSAM every year for the last seven years. In 2019, the platform reported 45,726 instances of abuse to NCMECs Cyber Tipline. In 2020, it was 65,062. In 2024, it was 686,176. These numbers should be considered with the caveat that platforms voluntarily report to NCMEC, and more reports can also mean stronger moderation systems that catch more CSAM when it appears. But the scale of the problem is still apparent. Jack Dorseys Twitter was a moderation clown show much of the time. But moderation on Elon Musks X, especially against abusive imagery, is a total failure.In 2023, the BBC reported that insiders believed the company was no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-co-ordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation following Musks takeover in 2022 and subsequent sacking of thousands of workers on moderation teams. This is all within the context that one of Musks go-to insults for years was pedophile, to the point that the harassment he stoked drove a former Twitter employee into hiding and went to federal court because he couldn't stop calling someone a pedo. Invoking pedophelia is a common thread across many conspiracy networks, including QAnonsomething hes dabbled inbut Musk is enabling actual child sexual abuse on the platform he owns.Generative AI is making all of this worse. In 2024, NCMEC saw 6,835 reports of generative artificial intelligence related to child sexual exploitation (across the internet, not just X). By September 2025, the year-to-date reports had hit 440,419. Again, these are just the reports identified by NCMEC, not every instance online, and as such is likely a conservative estimate.When I spoke to online child sexual exploitation experts in December 2023, following our investigation into child abuse imagery found in LAION-5B, they told me that this kind of material isnt victimless just because the images dont depict real children or sex acts. AI image generators like Grok and many others are used by offenders to groom and blackmail children, and muddy the waters for investigators to discern actual photographs from fake ones.Groks AI CSAM ShitshowWe are experiencing world events like the kidnapping of Maduro through the lens of the most depraved AI you can imagine.404 MediaJason KoeblerRather than coercing sexual content, offenders are increasingly using GAI tools to create explicit images using the childs face from public social media or school or community postings, then blackmail them, NCMEC wrote in September. This technology can be used to create or alter images, provide guidelines for how to groom or abuse children or even simulate the experience of an explicit chat with a child. Its also being used to create nude images, not just sexually explicit ones, that are sometimes referred to as deepfakes. Often done as a prank in high schools, these images are having a devastating impact on the lives and futures of mostlyfemale students when they are shared online.The only reason any of this is being discussed now, and the only reason its ever discussed in generalgoing back to Gamergate and beyondis because many normies, casuals, the mainstream, and cable news viewers have just this week learned about the problem and cant believe how it came out of nowhere. In reality, deepfakes came from a longstanding hobby community dedicated to putting womens faces on porn in Photoshop, and before that with literal paste and scissors in pinup magazines. And as Emanuel wrote this week, not even Groks AI CSAM problem popped up out of nowhere; its the result of weeks of quiet, obsessive work by a group of people operating just under the radar.And this is where we are now: Today, several days into Groks latest scandal, people are using an AI image generator made by a man who regularly boosts white supremacist thought to create images of a woman slaughtered by an ICE agent in front of the whole world less than 24 hours ago to put her in a bikini.As journalist Katie Notopoulos pointed out, a quick search of terms like make her shows people prompting Grok with images of random women, saying things like Make her wear clear tapes with tiny black censor bar covering her private part protecting her privacy and make her chest and hips grow largee[sic] as she squatting with leg open widely facing back, while head turn back looking to camera at a rate of several times a minute, every minute, for days.A good way to get a sense of just how fast the AI undressed/nudify requests to Grok are coming in is to look at the requests for it https://t.co/ISMpp2PdFU Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) January 7, 2026In 2018, less than a year after reporting that first story on deepfakes, I wrote about how its a serious mistake to ignore the fact that nonconsensual imagery, synthetic or not, is a societal sickness and not something companies can guardrail against into infinity. Users feed off one another to create a sense that they are the kings of the universe, that they answer to no one. This logic is how you get incels and pickup artists, and its how you get deepfakes: a group of men who see no harm in treating women as mere images, and view making and spreading algorithmically weaponized revenge porn as a hobby as innocent and timeless as trading baseball cards, I wrote at the time. That is whats at the root of deepfakes. And the consequences of forgetting that are more dire than we can predict.A little over two years ago, when AI-generated sexual images of Taylor Swift flooding X were the thing everyone was demanding action and answers for, we wrote a prediction: Every time we publish a story about abuse thats happening with AI tools, the same crowd of techno-optimists shows up to call us prudes and luddites. They are absolutely going to hate the heavy-handed policing of content AI companies are going to force us all into because of how irresponsible theyre being right now, and were probably all going to hate what it does to the internet.Its possible were still in a very weird fuck-around-and-find-out period before that hammer falls. Its also possible the hammer is here, in the form of recently-enacted federal laws like the Take It Down Act and more than two dozen piecemeal age verification bills in the U.S. and more abroad that make using the internet an M. C. Escher nightmare, where the rules around adult content shift so much were all jerking it to egg yolks and blurring our feet in vacation photos. What matters most, in this bizarre and frequently disturbing era, is that the shareholders are happy.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters he would speak with the officials after days of mounting threats from the Trump administration to take Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory.

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Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks to reporters about a war powers resolution regarding Venezuela on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)2026-01-08T14:02:28Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate advanced a resolution Thursday that would limit President Donald Trumps ability to conduct further attacks against Venezuela, sounding a note of disapproval for his expanding ambitions in the Western Hemisphere.Democrats and five Republicans voted to advance the war powers resolution on a 52-47 vote and ensure a later vote for final passage. It has virtually no chance of becoming law because Trump would have to sign it if it were to pass the House. Still, it was a significant gesture that showed unease among some Republicans after the U.S. military seized Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid. Trumps administration is now seeking to control Venezuelas oil resources and its government, but the war powers resolution would require congressional approval for any further attacks on the South American country. Democrats have failed to pass several such resolutions in the months that Trump escalated his campaign against Venezuela. But lawmakers argued that now that Trump has captured Maduro and set his sights to other conquests such as Greenland, the vote presents the Republican-controlled Congress with an opportunity. Its time for Congress to assert its control over military action of this kind, and its time to get this out of secrecy and put it in the light, said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who forced the vote. Republican leaders have said they had no advance notification of the raid early morning Saturday to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, but mostly expressed satisfaction this week as top administration officials provided classified briefings on the operation. The administration has used an evolving set of legal justifications for the monthslong campaign in Central and South America, from destroying alleged drug boats under authorizations for the global fight against terrorism to seizing Maduro in what was ostensibly a law enforcement operation to put him on trial in the United States. Republican leaders have backed Trump. I think the president has demonstrated at least already a very strong commitment to peace through strength, especially in this hemisphere, said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. I think Venezuela got that message loudly and clearly.Lawmakers response to the Venezuela operationBefore the vote on the resolution, several Republicans said they were carefully considering their decision, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who have previously voted against similar measures.We have a history of going in, liberating and leaving. Im interested in the leaving part, Tillis said.Asked whether he would support putting troops on the ground in Venezuela, he responded: Not without congressional authorization.A vote on a similar resolution in November narrowly failed to gain the majority needed for passage. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the only Republicans voting in favor.Paul, an outspoken proponent of war powers resolutions, acknowledged that Maduro is seen as a bad guy and a socialist and an autocrat. But, Paul added, The question is about who has the power to take the country to war? Some progressive Democrats have suggested inserting language in a defense appropriations bill to limit certain military actions, but that idea met resistance from more pragmatic members of the caucus. Democratic leaders have tried to cast Trumps foreign ambitions as a distraction from the issues that voters face at home.The American people are asking what the hell is going on in Venezuela and why is this president, who campaigned on America First, now spending all his time and energy on escapades overseas? Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a floor speech. The rarely enforced War Powers ActCongress was once again left in the dark during the military operation in Venezuela, with Trump later confirming that he talked to oil executives but not leaders on Capitol Hill. That reflects a broader pattern in Trumps second term, unfolding under a Republican-controlled Congress that has shown little appetite for reasserting its constitutional authority to declare war.Under the Constitution, Congress declares war while the president serves as commander in chief. But lawmakers have not formally declared war since World War II, granting presidents broad latitude to act unilaterally.Congress attempted to rein in that authority after the Vietnam War with the War Powers Resolution, passed over Republican President Richard Nixons veto. The law requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying forces and to end military action within 60 to 90 days absent authorization limits that presidents of both parties have routinely stretched.Democrats argue those limits are being pushed further than ever. Some Republicans have gone further still, contending congressional approval is unnecessary altogether. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close Trump ally who traveled with the president aboard Air Force One on Sunday, said he would be comfortable with Trump taking over other countries without congressional approval, including Greenland.The commander in chief is the commander in chief. They can use military force, Graham said.Greenland may further test the limitsGrahams comments come as the administration weighs not only its next steps in Venezuela, but also Greenland. The White House has said the military is always an option when it comes to a potential American takeover of the worlds largest island.While Republicans have cited Greenlands strategic value, most have balked at the idea of using the military to take the country, instead favoring a potential deal to purchase the country.Democrats want to get out in front of any military action and are already preparing to respond. Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego said he is working on a resolution to block Trump from invading Greenland.We must stop him before he invades another country on a whim, Gallego wrote on X. No more forever wars.Kaine also said Wednesday that a resolution on Greenland would soon be filed, in addition to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Nigeria.Greenland belongs to a NATO ally, Denmark, which has prompted a much different response from Republican senators than the situation in Venezuela. Paul said Republicans discussed Trumps plans for Greenland at their Wednesday luncheon and he heard zero support for taking military action to seize it.Tillis, a co-chair of the Senate NATO Observer Group, used a Senate floor speech to criticize White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller for comments this week that the U.S. should take control of Greenland. Tillis said such remarks were amateurish and absurd.This nonsense on whats going on with Greenland is a distraction from the good work hes doing, Tillis said of the president. And the amateurs who said it was a good idea should lose their jobs. STEPHEN GROVES Groves covers Congress for The Associated Press. twitter mailto JOEY CAPPELLETTI Cappelletti covers Congress for The Associated Press. He previously reported on Michigan politics for AP. twitter mailto

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WASHINGTONClaiming that most people only get a fraction of the benefits the nutritional gold mine has to offer, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued new dietary guidelines this week encouraging Americans to drink anything that comes out of a cow. While milk is already an established part of many American diets, its really only the tip of the iceberg where health-enhancing cow-based liquids are concerned, said Kennedy, who remarked that substances ranging from cow pus and sweat to cow bile and amniotic fluid were all associated with better health outcomes in those who imbibed them. Drinking these things straight from the cow means youre not losing any of their beneficial properties to pasteurization, so I urge all Americans to get out in the field and start sucking ASAP. It can be the front of the cow, the back, the middle, doesnt matter. Any opening you can get your lips around is going to leak something that does wonders for your body, be it an orifice or an open wound. And if its too thick to drink, just lick it, or try spreading it on toast. At press time, Kennedy had reportedly been placed on an intravenous drip of bovine cerebrospinal fluid after unwittingly drinking from a cow that had been vaccinated.The post RFK Jr. Recommends Drinking Anything That Comes Out Of Cow appeared first on The Onion.

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A bullet hole is seen on the windshield of a vehicle at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (Ben Hovland /Minnesota Public Radio via AP)2026-01-08T16:50:09Z MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A federal immigration operation in Minneapolis turned deadly this week when a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good during a confrontation involving her vehicle. Cellphone video captured the shooting, which federal officials claimed was an act of self-defense but that the citys mayor described as reckless and unnecessary. Video shows an ICE officer approaching Goodes SUV stopped in the road as the vehicle begins to move forward. Another ICE officer standing in front of it draws his gun and fires at close range as he jumps out of the way.Heres what to know about regulations on using deadly force in these situations:When can officers fire at a moving vehicle?There is no universal training standard for law enforcement. But most police departments and federal guidance bar shooting at a moving vehicle unless the driver poses an imminent threat of deadly force beyond the car itself. Why are shootings at vehicles restricted?Experts say firing at a moving car is one of the riskiest forms of lethal force, increasing the chance of stray gunfire or a loss of vehicle control that can endanger bystanders. Are officers expected to move out of the way?Yes. Justice Department policy says deadly force is allowed only when no reasonable alternative exists, including stepping out of the vehicles path. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on Can officers use deadly force just to stop or arrest someone?No. Policies generally state officers cannot use deadly force solely to arrest someone or to disable a fleeing vehicle if the person does not pose an immediate threat. Do federal immigration agents follow different rules?Not fundamentally. ICE and other federal officers operate under similar Justice Department guidance limiting gunfire at vehicles, although federal agents have added legal protections when acting within their official duties. What is ICEs policy?The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, allows deadly force only when an officer reasonably believes someone poses an imminent threat of death or serious injury.Who investigates these shootings?Federal agencies conduct internal reviews, and state and local authorities may also pursue criminal investigations. Federal agents are not immune from prosecution if they act outside their authority. The FBI is leading the investigation into the Minneapolis shooting.

Commuters ride a bus past a mural calling for the release of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was detained by U.S. forces, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)2026-01-08T17:31:44Z CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Venezuela will release a significant number of Venezuelan and foreigners imprisoned in the country, the head of Venezuelas national assembly said Thursday.Jorge Rodrguez, brother of acting President Delcy Rodrguez, did not specify who they would be releasing or how many people would be released. Despite mass detentions following the tumultuous 2024 election, Venezuelas government maintains it doesnt keep political prisoners.The U.S. government and the countrys opposition have demanded the release of opposition figures and critics.Consider this gesture by the Bolivarian government, which is broadly intended to seek peace, Rodrguez said in an announcement publicized over TV.___Follow APs coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial, June 11, 2025, in New York. (Steven Hirsch /New York Post via AP, Pool, File)2026-01-08T05:01:47Z NEW YORK (AP) Harvey Weinstein is weighing a potential guilty plea to resolve an undecided rape charge and avoid going to trial for a third time in New York, a judge said Thursday. But, amid the plea talk, the disgraced movie mogul struck a defiant tone, telling a court hearing: I know I was unfaithful, I know I acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.Weinstein spoke after Judge Curtis Farber denied his bid to overturn his lone conviction at his previous trial, a charge of forcibly performing oral sex on a woman in 2006 that carries a potential sentence of up to 25 years in prison.The same jury acquitted Weinstein of a charge involving similar allegations involving a different woman, also in 2006, and failed to reach a verdict on a charge that he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013. Lawyers for the Oscar-winning producer had argued that the verdict last June in state court in Manhattan was tainted by infighting and bullying among jurors. Farber rejected that and scheduled a March 3 new trial for the unresolved third-degree rape charge. The rape charge is punishable by up to four years less than Weinstein already has served. I am disappointed in todays decision, Weinstein told the judge. You witnessed the trial and saw how forces beyond my control stripped me of my most basic right to be judged fairly. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on He accused one juror of carrying a personal agenda into deliberations, intimidating others and spreading false allegations. That, he said, shattered any hope of impartiality. After Farber issued his decision, Weinsteins lawyer Arthur Aidala said he wanted to pursue plea negotiations before going behind closed doors with the judge, prosecutors and other defense lawyers to discuss the matter.Minutes later, Farber returned to the bench and said Weinstein wanted time to think about it. Its the latest convoluted turn in the ex-Hollywood honchos path through the criminal justice system. His landmark #MeToo-era case has spanned seven years, trials in two states, a reversal in one and a retrial that came to a messy end in New York last year.Weinstein has denied all the charges.They were one outgrowth of a stack of sexual harassment and sex assault allegations against him that emerged publicly in 2017 and ensuing years, fueling the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. Early on, Weinstein apologized for the way Ive behaved with colleagues in the past, while also denying that he ever had nonconsensual sex.At trial, Weinsteins lawyers argued that the women willingly accepted his advances in hopes of getting work in various capacities in show business, then falsely accused him to net settlement funds and attention. The split verdict last June came after multiple jurors took the unusual step of asking to brief the judge on behind-the-scenes tensions. In a series of exchanges partly in open court, one juror complained that others were shunning " one of the panel members; the foreperson alluded to jurors pushing people verbally and talking about Weinsteins past in a way the juror thought improper; yet a third juror opined that discussions were going well. The foreperson later came forward again to complain to the judge about being pressured to change his mind, then said he feared for his safety because a fellow panelist had said he would see me outside. The foreperson eventually refused to continue deliberating. In court, Farber cited the secrecy of ongoing deliberations and reminded jurors not to disclose the content or tenor of them. Since the trial, Weinsteins lawyers have talked with the first juror who openly complained and with another who didnt. In sworn statements, the two said they didnt believe Weinstein was guilty, but had given in because of other jurors verbal aggression. One said that after a fellow juror insulted her intelligence and suggested the judge should remove her, she was so afraid that she called two relatives that night and told them to come look for me if they didnt hear from me, since something was not right about this jury deliberation process. All jurors identities were redacted in court filings. Weinsteins lawyers contend the tensions amounted to threats that poisoned the process, and that Farber didnt look into them enough before denying defense mistrial requests.Prosecutors maintain that the judge was presented with claims about scattered instances of contentious interactions and handled them appropriately.Weinstein, who is being held in New York, also is appealing a rape conviction in Los Angeles. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

John Sarcone, acting U.S. Attorney for Northern New York, leaves Manhattan federal court, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Michael Sisak, File)2026-01-08T16:59:32Z ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) A judge disqualified a federal prosecutor from overseeing investigations into New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling Thursday that he had been serving in his post unlawfully when he requested subpoenas.U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield blocked subpoenas requested by John Sarcone, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.The judge said the Department of Justice did not follow statutory procedure after judges declined to extend Sarcones tenure. When the Executive branch of government skirts restraints put in place by Congress and then uses that power to subject political adversaries to criminal investigations, it acts without lawful authority. Subpoenas issued under that authority are invalid. The subpoenas are quashed, and Mr. Sarcone is disqualified from further participation in the underlying investigations. James, a Democrat, had challenged Sarcones authority after he issued subpoenas seeking information about lawsuits she filed against President Donald Trump, claiming he had committed fraud in his business dealings, and separately against the National Rifle Association and some of its former leaders. Justice Department lawyers say Sarcone was appointed properly and that the subpoenas were valid. James claims the inquiry into her lawsuits is part of a campaign of baseless investigations and prosecutions of Trumps perceived enemies. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on The judge said the Justice Department did not follow statutory procedure after judges declined to extend Sarcones tenure. Instead, on the same day that the judges declined to extend Mr. Sarcones appointment, the Department took coordinated steps through personnel moves and shifting titles to install Mr. Sarcone as Acting U.S. Attorney. Federal law does not permit such a workaround. James office issued a statement calling Thursdays ruling an important win for the rule of law. We will continue to defend our offices successful litigation from this administrations political attacks, the statement said.A call and an email to the U.S. attorneys office for the Northern District of New York were made seeking comment.The ruling is the latest to address the legality of unusual maneuvers the Trump administration has performed to try and keep its favored candidates for U.S. attorney in those jobs indefinitely, without going through the usual process of getting them confirmed in the U.S. Senate.On Dec. 1, a federal appeals court ruled that Alina Habba, Trumps former personal lawyer, had unlawfully stayed on as the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey for longer than a 120-day limit set by federal law. Habba resigned the next week.In November, a federal judge in Virginia dismissed indictments brought there against James and former FBI Director James Comey. That judge said the interim U.S. attorney who brought the charges, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.Also, a federal judge in Nevada in September disqualified from several cases the Trump administrations pick to be U.S. attorney there. And a federal judge in Los Angeles disqualified the acting U.S. attorney in Southern California from several cases after concluding he had stayed in the job longer than allowed by law. In New York, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Sarcone to serve as the interim U.S. attorney in March. But when his 120-day term elapsed, judges in the district declined to keep him in the post.Bondi then appointed Sarcone as a special attorney and designated him first assistant U.S. attorney for the district, moves that federal officials say allows him to serve as an acting U.S. attorney.James lawyers called the maneuvers an end-run around federal law. They claimed that because Sarcone lacks legitimate authority to act as U.S. attorney, the subpoenas should be blocked. The lawyers argued that Sarcone should be disqualified.Federal lawyers argued in court that the U.S. attorney general has broad authority to appoint attorneys within her department and to delegate her functions to those attorneys. Sarcone was part of Trumps legal team during the 2016 presidential campaign and worked for the U.S. General Services Administration as the regional administrator for the Northeast and Caribbean during Trumps first term.

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