3 Prosecutors Quit After Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow; The New York Times, January 13, 2026

Ernesto Londoño , The New York Times; 3 Prosecutors Quit After Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow

"Three Minnesota federal prosecutors resigned over the Justice Department’s push to investigate the widow of a woman killed by an ICE agent and its reluctance to investigate the shooter, according to people with knowledge of their decision.

Joseph H. Thompson, who was second in command at the U.S. attorney’s office and oversaw a sprawling fraud investigation that has roiled Minnesota’s political landscape, was among those who quit Tuesday, according to three people with knowledge of the decision.

Mr. Thompson’s resignation came after senior Justice Department officials pressed for a criminal investigation into the actions of the widow of Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis woman killed by an ICE agent last Wednesday.

Mr. Thompson, 47, a career prosecutor, objected to that approach as well as to the Justice Department’s refusal to include state officials in investigating whether the shooting itself was lawful, the people familiar with his decision said."

Personal Details of Thousands of Border Patrol and ICE Goons Allegedly Leaked in Huge Data Breach; The Daily Beast, January 13, 2026

Tom Latchem , The Daily Beast; Personal Details of Thousands of Border Patrol and ICE Goons Allegedly Leaked in Huge Data Breach

"Sensitive details of around 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees—including almost 2,000 agents working in frontline enforcement—have allegedly been released by a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower following last week’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good...

Prior to the Monday’s leak, which Skinner said he received on Monday, ICE List had been in possession of details of around 2,000 federal immigration staff, including names it has chosen not to make public. 

Roughly 800 of these, he said, are frontline agents or are permitted to deputise for them on the ground. The latest leak brings details of the total number of federal immigration staff in its possession to around 6,500...

He added: “We will make exceptions on a case-by-case basis, the best examples of which will be those who work in childcare within the agency, and nurses. There will be more exceptions, but we will have a discussion once the team flags a position as something we need to think twice about...

He said his project was important because DHS refuses to hold its own agents accountable for violations of the law."

Türkiye issues ethics framework to regulate AI use in schools; Daily Sabah, January 11, 2026

Daily Sabah; Türkiye issues ethics framework to regulate AI use in schools

"The Ministry of National Education has issued a comprehensive set of ethical guidelines to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in schools, introducing mandatory online ethical declarations and a centralized reporting system aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability and student safety.

The Ethical Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence Applications in Education set out the rules for how AI technologies may be developed, implemented, monitored and evaluated across public education institutions. The guidelines were prepared under the ministry’s Artificial Intelligence Policy Document and Action Plan for 2025-2029, which came into effect on June 17, 2025."

Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by ‘My Own Morality’; The New York Times, January 8, 2026

David E. SangerTyler PagerKatie Rogers and Zolan Kanno-Youngs , The New York Times; Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by ‘My Own Morality’

[Kip Currier: Trump's statement below is contrary to the very founding ideals and precepts of the United States of America. Indeed, this nation is the manifestation of revolutionary action against unaccountable one-person rule.

For Trump to unabashedly declare that "the only thing that can stop me" is "my own morality" and "my own mind" is Shakespearean in its arrogance and grandiosity.

It is hubris immortalized in Greek tragedy.]

[Excerpt]

"Asked in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times if there were any limits on his global powers, Mr. Trump said: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

“I don’t need international law,” he added. “I’m not looking to hurt people.”"

Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioters Rally and Demand More from Trump; The New York Times, January 6, 2026

Karoun Demirjian , The New York Times; Pardoned Jan. 6 Rioters Rally and Demand More from Trump

[Kip Currier: Contrast these remorseless January 6 pardoned insurrectionists with Pamela Hemphill, who turned down a pardon offer from Trump and on 1/6/26 apologized to the Capitol Hill police for her part in furthering Trump and MAGA's conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.]

[Excerpt]

"Five years after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, several dozen rioters, including many who were jailed and later pardoned, gathered in Washington to retrace their steps and vow to keep fighting for payback, even against the Trump administration.

The “J6ers,” as they refer to themselves, have been emboldened by President Trump, who pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly 1,600 people who planned or participated in storming the Capitol to protest the results of the 2020 election. During Tuesday's anniversary march, they praised Mr. Trump for setting them free, but were critical of his administration for not doing more for them.

“Retribution is what we seek,” said Enrique Tarrio, a far-right activist and leader of the Proud Boys, one of the organizers of the Jan. 6, 2021, demonstration and Tuesday’s anniversary event. “Without accountability, there is no justice.”

“I am loyal to Donald Trump, but my loyalty doesn’t extend to his administration,” said Barry Ramey, who was convicted of assaulting a police officer during the Capitol riot, an act he says he regrets. He listed Attorney General Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, among Trump administration officials who “could be doing a better job.”"

January 6th Participant Who Refused Pardon: "I am guilty, and I own that guilt."; C-SPAN, January 6, 2026

C-SPAN ; January 6th Participant Who Refused Pardon: "I am guilty, and I own that guilt."

"January 6th participant Pamela Hemphill, who refused President Trump's pardon: "Once I got away from the MAGA cult and started educating myself about January the 6th, I knew what I did was wrong...I am guilty, and I own that guilt...I had fallen for the president’s lies."

A code of ethics for AI in education; The Times of Israel, December 29, 2025

 Raz Frohlich, The Times of Israel; A code of ethics for AI in education

"Generative artificial intelligence is transforming every corner of our lives — how we communicate, create, work, and, inevitably, how we teach and learn. As educators, we cannot ignore its power, nor can we embrace it blindly. The rapid pace of AI innovation requires not only technical adaptation, but also deep ethical reflection.

As the largest education provider in Israel, at Israel Sci-Tech Schools (ISTS), we believe that, as AI becomes increasingly present in classrooms, we must ensure that human judgment, accountability, and responsibility remain at the center of education. That is why we are the first in Israel to create a Code of Ethics for Artificial Intelligence in Education. This is not just a policy document but an open invitation for discussion, learning, and shared responsibility across the education system.

This ethical code is not a technical manual, and it does not provide instant answers for daily classroom situations. Instead, it offers a holistic approach — a way of thinking, a framework for educators, students, and policymakers to use AI consciously and responsibly. It asks essential, core-value questions: How do we balance innovation with privacy? How do we ensure equality when access to technology is uneven? How do we maintain transparency when using AI? And when should we pause, reflect, and reconsider how we use AI in the classroom?

To develop the code, we drew from extensive global research and local experience. We consulted with ethicists, educators, technologists, psychologists, and legal experts — and, perhaps most importantly, we listened to students, teachers, and parents. Through roundtable discussions, they shared real concerns and insights about AI’s potential and its pitfalls. Those conversations shaped the code’s seven guiding principles, designed to help schools integrate AI ethically, transparently, and with respect for human dignity."

Judge blocks Trump effort to strip security clearance from attorney who represented whistleblowers; AP via The Washington Post, December 24, 2025

Joey Cappelletti | AP via The Washington Post; Judge blocks Trump effort to strip security clearance from attorney who represented whistleblowers

 "A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a March presidential memorandum to revoke the security clearance of prominent Washington attorney Mark Zaid , ruling that the order — which also targeted 14 other individuals — could not be applied to him."

Government Officials Once Stopped False Accusations After Violence. Now, Some Join In.; The New York Times, December 25, 2025

Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times ; Government Officials Once Stopped False Accusations After Violence. Now, Some Join In.

"A churn of disinformation after a major news event is hardly a surprise anymore, but its spread after the Brown killings was not limited to the dark fringes of the internet. It was fueled by prominent figures in business and government whose false statements or politically charged innuendo compounded public anger and anxiety.

That has raised new alarms about the nature and quality of public discourse — and whether there is any consequence for those who degrade it or for the social media platforms that reward it."

So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files; The Atlantic, December 24, 2025

Sarah Fitzpatrick , The Atlantic; So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files

"Trump has also insisted that he knew nothing of Epstein’s criminal activity—though his critics have questioned how that could be true given their close relationship and history of chasing women together. Members of Congress from both parties have said they will continue to probe the issue in the upcoming year. Representatives I spoke with told me their takeaway from reading the files is that top officials in the Trump administration have not been honest about what was in them, and that they intend to press Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel for more information.

“Although the files are overly redacted, they’ve already demonstrated that the narrative painted by Patel in hearings, Bondi in press statements, and Trump himself on social media wasn’t accurate,” Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who co-authored the Epstein legislation, told me. “A complete disclosure consistent with the law will show there are more men implicated in the files in possession of the government.”"

74 suicide warnings and 243 mentions of hanging: What ChatGPT said to a suicidal teen; The Washington Post, December 27, 2025

Nitasha Tiku

 and 

Kevin Schaul

 , The Washington Post; 74 suicide warnings and 243 mentions of hanging: What ChatGPT said to a suicidal teen

"The Raines’ lawsuit alleges that OpenAI caused Adam’s death by distributing ChatGPT to minors despite knowing it could encourage psychological dependency and suicidal ideation. His parents were the first of five families to file wrongful-death lawsuits against OpenAI in recent months, alleging that the world’s most popular chatbot had encouraged their loved ones to kill themselves. A sixth suit filed this month alleges that ChatGPT led a man to kill his mother before taking his own life.

None of the cases have yet reached trial, and the full conversations users had with ChatGPT in the weeks and months before they died are not public. But in response to requests from The Post, the Raine family’s attorneys shared analysis of Adam’s account that allowed reporters to chart the escalation of one teenager’s relationship with ChatGPT during a mental health crisis."

War-Crazed Putin Unleashes Epidemic of Horrific Teenage Crimes; The Daily Beast, December 26, 2025

Anna Nemtsova , The Daily Beast; War-Crazed Putin Unleashes Epidemic of Horrific Teenage Crimes

"There’s no shortage of horror stories in the news about brutal crimes by children...

Experts say it’s impossible to ignore the connection between this rise in brutal violence and the Kremlin’s glorification of war. On state television, military service is glamorized and teenagers are encouraged to join, with one new movie about a young rapper who joins the war clearly designed to appeal to Russian teens.

And the fallout from Russia’s war is routinely ignored. A study of court filings published by the independent news outlet Verstka earlier this month found that more than 1,000 Russians have been killed or injured by Russian soldiers returning from Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in February 2022. At least 551 people were killed in incidents involving veterans, while 274 of those victims were murdered, according to the report. 

One of the key ways to get canon fodder for Putin’s war is to recruit criminals. Families of crime victims have protested Putin’s practice of pardoning killers in exchange for their participation in the war, hoping those who murdered their loved ones would remain behind bars. But the Kremlin has defended the practice, insisting the freed killers are “atoning” for their crimes on the battlefield."

Ethics Shmethics; Substack, December 25, 2025

Robert Reich, Substack; Ethics Shmethics

"Why haven’t the American Bar Association or the American Medical Association stood up against the unethical behavior of professionals in the Trump regime? 

I was always told that professional associations existed to maintain professional standards, not merely to restrict the number of licensed professionals to maintain professional prices...

If legal ethics mean anything, Halligan should be disbarred. 

If medical ethics mean anything, Dr. Vinay Prasad should no longer be a doctor...

If professional associations have any legitimate purpose in our system, it is to enforce ethical standards and hold professionals accountable to them...

Where are the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association during Trump’s unscrupulous reign?"

60 Minutes episode on brutal El Salvador prison, pulled from air by CBS, appears online; The Guardian, December 23, 2025

Jenna Amatulli , The Guardian; 60 Minutes episode on brutal El Salvador prison, pulled from air by CBS, appears online

"Alfonsi notes the poor conditions in the prison, showing images of half-dressed men with shaved heads all lined up in rows in front of bunks stacked four high. The bunks have no pillows or pads or blankets. The lights are kept on 24 hours a day and detainees have no access to clean water.

Alfonsi pointed to a 2023 report from the state department that “cited torture and life-threatening prison conditions” in Cecot, she said: “But this year, during a meeting with President Bukele at the White House, President Trump expressed admiration for El Salvador’s prison system,” before airing footage of Trump saying: “They make great facilities. Very strong facilities. They don’t play games.”

The segment also talks to Juan Pappier, deputy director at Human Rights Watch, who helped write an 81-page report that detailed Cecot’s pattern of “systematic torture” and found that nearly half the men in the prison did not actually have a criminal history. Pappier said the study was based on information obtained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s own records. Alfonsi confirmed that 60 Minutes independently corroborated Human Rights Watch’s claims.

William Losada Sánchez, a Venezuelan national and former Cecot inmate, also describes to Alfonsi what it was like to get sent to “the island” – a punishment room where prisoners would be sent if they could not comply with being forced to sit on their knees for 24 hours a day.

“The island is a little room where there’s no light, no ventilation, nothing. It’s a cell for punishment where you can’t see your hand in front of your face. After they locked us in, they came to beat us every half hour and they pounded on the door with their sticks to traumatize us,” he said.

The segment briefly touches on Kristi Noem’s visit to Cecot. Pinto claims the Department of Homeland Security secretary did not speak to a single detainee during her visit...

Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator, shared the episode online, saying: “Take a few minutes to watch what they didn’t want you to see. This story should be told.”"

New York Times Sues Pentagon Over First Amendment Rights; The New York Times, December 4, 2025

Erik Wemple, The New York Times ; New York Times Sues Pentagon Over First Amendment Rights

"The New York Times accused the Pentagon in a lawsuit on Thursday of infringing on the constitutional rights of journalists by imposing a set of new restrictions on reporting about the military.

In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, The Times argued that the Defense Department’s new policy violated the First Amendment and “seeks to restrict journalists’ ability to do what journalists have always done — ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that take the public beyond official pronouncements.”

The rules, which went into effect in October, are a stark departure from the previous ones, in both length and scope. They require reporters to sign a 21-page form that sets restrictions on journalistic activities, including requests for story tips and inquiries to Pentagon sources. Reporters who don’t comply could lose their press passes, and the Pentagon has accorded itself “unbridled discretion” to enforce the policy as it sees fit, according to the lawsuit."

Trump Frees Fraudster Just Days Into Seven-Year Prison Sentence David Gentile had been found guilty for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.; The New York Times, November 29, 2025

Kenneth P. Vogel, The New York Times ; Trump Frees Fraudster Just Days Into Seven-Year Prison Sentence 

David Gentile had been found guilty for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.

"President Trump has set free a private equity executive who had served less than two weeks of a seven-year sentence for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of victims.

David Gentile, 59, a onetime resident of Nassau County, N.Y., had reported to prison on Nov. 14, and was released on Wednesday, according to Bureau of Prisons records and a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Mr. Gentile and a co-defendant, Jeffry Schneider, were convicted in August 2024 of securities and wire fraud charges, and sentenced in May. Unlike a pardon, the commutation granted to Mr. Gentile will not erase his conviction. 

Mr. Schneider, who was sentenced to six years, does not appear to have received clemency from Mr. Trump...

Mr. Trump has used the unfettered presidential clemency power to forgive an array of white-collar crimes and to make political points, including by casting prosecutions of his supporters as corrupt witch hunts like those that he claims had targeted him.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Gentile had connections to Mr. Trump or to the president’s supporters."

AI, ethics, and the lawyer's duty after Noland v. Land of the Free; Daily Journal, November 24, 2025

Reza Torkzadeh, Daily Journal; AI, ethics, and the lawyer's duty after Noland v. Land of the Free

"Noland establishes a bright line for California lawyers. AI may assist with drafting or research, but it does not replace judgment, verification or ethical responsibility. Technology may change how legal work is produced -- it does not change who is accountable for it."

Nygren served with ethics complaint as questions go unanswered; Navajo Times, November 22, 2025

Krista Allen, Navajo Times ; Nygren served with ethics complaint as questions go unanswered

"President Buu Nygren was formally served Friday with an ethics complaint outlining four counts of alleged violations of Navajo Nation law, marking a new stage in the case filed by Special Prosecutor Kyle T. Nayback.

The summons, stamped by the Window Rock Judicial District on Nov. 21, gives the president 30 days to file a written response with the Navajo Nation District Court in Window Rock.

The complaint accuses Nygren of misusing public resources, directing staff to conceal improper spending and placing a relative in a political job after being warned the hire violated Navajo Nation personnel rules. The filing seeks his removal from office, a five-year ban on public employment, forfeiture of up to one year of compensation and restitution for unauthorized spending."

Colleen Walsh, Harvard Law Today; Holding the past accountable by making it visible

Harvard Law School Library’s Paul Deschner discusses the decades-long effort to make the full archive of Nuremberg Trials records available online

"“The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored.” So said United States Supreme Court Justice and U.S. Chief of Counsel to the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson, during his opening statement for the prosecution at the first of 13 Nuremberg Trials, which began 80 years ago, on Nov. 20, 1945.

For decades, the Harvard Law School Library has been working to make the nearly complete set of Nuremberg Trials records publicly available online. It launched the first version of Harvard’s Nuremberg Trials Project website in 2003, but until recently only roughly 20 percent of the Law School’s trove of Nuremberg materials had been accessible to online visitors. Today, the full collection of 140,000 documents comprising more than 700,000 pages is live and searchable by anyone around the globe.

Harvard Law School Library’s Paul Deschner, who has helped guide the project almost since its inception, spoke with Harvard Law Today about the scope of the archive and what it took to bring the entire collection online."

Congress to send bill to Trump to force disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein files; The Washington Post, November 18, 2025

Kadia Goba

, 

Amy B Wang

 and 

Theodoric Meyer

, The Washington Post; Congress to send bill to Trump to force disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein files

"Congress was poised Tuesday to send a bill to President Donald Trump to force the Justice Department to release files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, overcoming a months-long impasse in the House and quickly dispatching with the issue in the Senate.

Hours after the bill passed the House on a 427-1 vote, the Senate agreed to deem the legislation passed as soon as it arrives from the House. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) offered a motion that received unanimous consent and will require no further action by the chamber."