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Supreme Court upholds government’s claim of secrecy in case of prisoner tortured by CIA

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Supreme Court upholds government’s claim of secrecy in case of prisoner tortured by CIA

The Supreme Court docket dominated Thursday that the federal government could invoke the “state secrets and techniques” privilege to dam former U.S. contractors from testifying in regards to the now well-known waterboarding and torture of prisoners held at CIA websites in Poland.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices mentioned the U.S. authorities can declare a privilege of secrecy even when there isn’t any secret.

“We agree with the federal government that generally info that has entered the general public area could nonetheless fall throughout the scope of the state secrets and techniques privilege,” Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for almost all in U.S. vs. Abu Zubaydah. He mentioned it might “considerably hurt nationwide safety pursuits” if the previous CIA contractors testified that prisoners had been held and tortured in Poland, “even when that info has already been made public by means of unofficial sources.”

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In dissent, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote that the case was not about secrets and techniques however the authorities’s want to “keep away from … additional embarrassment for previous misdeeds.”

“We all know already that our authorities handled Zubaydah brutally — greater than 80 waterboarding classes, a whole bunch of hours of dwell burial, and what it calls ‘rectal rehydration.’ … However as embarrassing as these information could also be, there isn’t any state secret right here,” he mentioned. “This courtroom’s obligation is to the rule of regulation and the seek for reality. We should always not let disgrace obscure our imaginative and prescient.”

The excessive courtroom first mentioned in 1953 that the federal government could shut down a lawsuit or defend sure paperwork from courts so as to defend army secrets and techniques. However that doctrine has expanded over time. Furthermore, the federal government argues it deserves the “utmost deference” each time it claims nationwide safety could also be in danger if a courtroom case proceeds.

Zubaydah’s case was uncommon as a result of the occasions had been long gone and the information had been well-known. The important thing information “have lengthy been declassified,” Gorsuch wrote. “Official stories have been revealed, books written, and flicks made about them.”

However six justices mentioned the previous CIA contractors could not testify about what occurred to Zubaydah as a result of they might verify the CIA black websites had been in Poland. A former Polish president has already confirmed that, however U.S. officers haven’t.

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined Gorsuch in dissent. Justice Elena Kagan mentioned the case needs to be allowed to proceed with out testimony about Poland.

A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union‘s Nationwide Safety Undertaking known as the courtroom’s resolution “flawed and harmful.”

“U.S. courts are the one place on the planet the place everybody should faux to not know fundamental information in regards to the CIA’s torture program,” legal professional Dror Ladin mentioned Thursday. “It’s long gone time to cease letting the CIA conceal its crimes behind absurd claims of secrecy and nationwide safety hurt.”

Cornell regulation professor Joseph Maguilies, who represented Zubaydah, mentioned a majority of the justices advised his remedy was not a state secret, regardless that the placement was.

“We’re weighing our choices in mild of that recognition,” he mentioned.

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Nonetheless pending earlier than the courtroom is a state secrets and techniques case that arose in Orange County. The justices will determine whether or not a number of Muslim males could proceed with a lawsuit in opposition to the FBI for the key surveillance of their mosques within the years after the 9/11 assaults. Authorities attorneys say the go well with have to be dismissed as a result of the idea for the surveillance is a secret.

When Zubaydah was shot and captured in Pakistan in 2002, U.S. officers wrongly believed he was an in depth affiliate of Osama bin Laden who might reveal the subsequent plot to assault this nation.

When he revealed little info, he grew to become the primary identified sufferer of the CIA’s brutal strategies for searching for to extract info in the course of the George W. Bush administration’s so-called warfare on terrorism.

Zubaydah was strapped to a board 83 occasions in a single month whereas water was poured into his mouth and nostril to simulate drowning, in keeping with the Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence. He was hung bare from hooks on the ceiling, spent 11 days in a tiny coffin, was slapped and thrown in opposition to a wall, and was disadvantaged of sleep for 11 consecutive days. He misplaced an eye fixed.

Since 2006, Zubaydah has been locked up on the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, going through no expenses however given no alternative to talk about what occurred to him.

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In 2010, legal professionals for Zubaydah filed prison complaints in Poland and earlier than the European Court docket of Human Rights searching for to reveal what occurred to him. When a Polish prosecutor requested the Guantanamo prisoner to submit proof, U.S. officers mentioned he was being held “incommunicado for the rest of his life.”

His attorneys then went to a federal decide in Washington state, counting on a regulation that authorizes testimony that’s wanted by a “overseas or worldwide tribunal,” and sought testimony from the 2 CIA contractors, James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen, who designed the system of interrogations.

The 2 males didn’t object, however the Justice Division intervened and invoked the state secrets and techniques privilege. The decide dismissed Zubaydah’s case on that foundation, however the ninth Circuit Court docket of Appeals disagreed in a 2-1 resolution, saying the state secrets and techniques privilege shouldn’t be interpreted so broadly as to forbid all testimony.

Attorneys for the Trump administration appealed, arguing that the case needs to be dismissed primarily based on the state secrets and techniques privilege and noting that U.S. authorities had not admitted that the CIA had secret prisons in Poland.

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Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'

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Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.” 

“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote. 

Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.

TRUMP SAYS MEXICO WILL STOP FLOW OF MIGRANTS AFTER SPEAKING WITH MEXICAN PRESIDENT FOLLOWING TARIFF THREATS

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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.

U.S. Border Patrol agents cut an opening through razor wire after immigrant families crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.

LIBERAL NANTUCKET REELS FROM MIGRANT CRIME WAVE AS BIDEN SPENDS THANKSGIVING IN RICH FRIEND’S MANSION

Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.

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TEXAS BORDER RAZOR WIRE

A Venezuelan immigrant asks Texas National Guard troops to let his family pass through razor wire after they crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.” 

“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”

Texas border

Migrants attempt to cross the southern border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in February. (David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration. 

In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.

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The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.

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Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations

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Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations

U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”

Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”

Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.

In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.

She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”

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“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.

Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.

Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.

The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.

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Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.

Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”

The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”

Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.

One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.

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Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.

Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.

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Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats

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Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats

Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously. 

“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family. 

“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”

Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump. 

HARRIS NEVER LED TRUMP, INTERNAL POLLS SHOWED — BUT DNC OFFICIALS WERE KEPT IN THE DARK

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President Elect Donald Trump, left, and new appointed Tom Homan, right (Getty)

“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”

Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.

ARMED FELON ARRESTED FOR THREATENING TO KILL TRUMP ATTENDED RALLY WEEKS AFTER BUTLER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Donald Trump in a blue suit and red tie pumps his fist in the air and looks up

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in Uniondale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

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“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.” 

Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted. 

Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family. 

Trump holds fist

Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024.  Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)

Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”

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“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”

Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”

“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”

The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report

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