This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"
Tuesday, December 16, 2025. Who's running Homeland Security, while Chump files one frivilous lawsuit after another, Americans attempting to sue ICE for assault have to struggle, Chump's first year ends in 35 days and he's accomplished nothing, was Susie Wiles drunk when she spoke to VANITY FAIR, and much more.
There are so many things that Kristi Noem does wrong, so many laws she breaks. So the notion that she needs to be the subject of a Congressional investigation is not shocking. But the reason may be surprising.
The issue is Kristi and Corey Lewandowski.
Over the weekend, the rumor became that Corey is running Homeland Security. That Kristi's just a false façade. That would explain her obsession with photo ops and social media.
The American people have a right to know who is running the department. The US Congress has the duty to know whether the person they voted to be Secretary of Homeland Security is the person carrying out the tasks of the office. If it's not, then someone is acting as Secretary of Homeland Security and doing so without Congressional approval.
Kristi needs to stand before the American people and clarify this issue immediately. For her to do that would probably require Congressional 'encouragement.' Congressional encouragement should be strongly applied.
Before she brought Corey into Homeland Security, years before, the press had already published items about their 'supposed' affair. For years. And yet, she's been allowed to bring him on board. One of them is supervising the other and I don't see how that meets basic HR standards
Still on the department Noem allegedly heads, Tom Latchem (THE DAILY BEAST) reports:
SEATTLE TIMES: Indigenous actor Elaine Miles says ICE called her tribal ID ‘fake’
Senators: “The disrespect and harassment of U.S.-born Tribal citizens by ICE is outrageous and inexcusable, and we request that you take immediate steps to put an end to it.”
***LETTER HERE***
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, led 11 of her Senate colleagues in a new letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noemdemanding answers regarding the outrageous mistreatment of Tribal citizens by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a number of recent incidents, including in Washington state. In their letter, the lawmakers called out reports of ICE improperly stopping or detaining Tribal citizens for no apparent reason aside from their physical appearance, and urged Secretary Noem to develop policy and trainings to ensure that all ICE agents are trained to recognize Tribal IDs, regardless of whether they are working on Tribal lands.
Joining Senator Murray in sending the letter were U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
“We write to share our alarm over the completely unacceptable treatment of U.S.-born citizens of federally recognized Tribes, who have been stopped and questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on suspicion of being undocumented,” the senators wrote. “In February, several Senators wrote to you following reports of ICE agents improperly stopping or detaining Tribal citizens. In June, you replied with a letter in which you failed to respond to the majority of the questions raised in the letter. Over the past month, we have heard additional alarming reports of ICE improperly stopping or detaining Tribal citizens for no apparent reason aside from their physical appearance. The disrespect and harassment of U.S.-born Tribal citizens by ICE is outrageous and inexcusable, and we request that you take immediate steps to put an end to it.”
In November, Elaine Miles, an Indigenous actor, was approached by four men who identified themselves as ICE agents while waiting for a bus in Redmond, Washington. When she handed them her Tribal ID issued by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, the immigration agents reportedly claimed that her ID was “fake” and that “anyone can make that.” When she attempted to call the Umatilla Tribal enrollment office phone number to verify her ID to the officers, an officer tried unsuccessfully to pry her phone out of her hands, then departed with his counterparts in unmarked vehicles. Miles alleges that her son and uncle were also both detained by ICE agents who initially did not accept their Tribal IDs before eventually releasing them. In response, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin—a frequent liar—said in an emailed statement that allegations that DHS law enforcement officers engage in racial profiling “categorically FALSE.”
The senators referenced this incident in their letter, noting that ICE had previously told Members of Congress that “The ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Academy does not train ERO officers to require any specific document to prove U.S. citizenship.” “The experience of these Tribal citizens in Washington suggests that this is false: ICE agents are demanding certain documents to prove citizenship and are unaware of different forms of Tribal ID,” the Members wrote.
In another recent incident, a member of Arizona’s Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Leticia Jacobo, was nearly deported after an Iowa jail mistakenly issued an ICE detainer for another inmate. Despite the fact that Jacobo was in possession of her Tribal ID and had her Social Security number on file with the jail, her family had to scramble to prove her identity and Tribal citizenship to the jail staff, who released her just hours before she would have been transferred into federal custody. At least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico reported being questioned or detained by ICE agents in January of 2025. Harassment of Navajo Nation citizens by ICE has been so widespread that Navajo President Buu Nygren took to the airwaves to advise his members to carry identification, driver’s licenses and their Certificate of Indian Blood on their person at all times.
“You have an obligation to uphold the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribes and to treat Tribal citizens with respect—this is not optional. In light of recent incidents, we urge you to develop policy and trainings to ensure that all ICE agents are trained to recognize Tribal IDs, regardless of whether they are working on Tribal lands,” the senators concluded. The Members also demanded answers by January 11th to a number of questions about DHS policies regarding interactions with Tribal citizens and Tribal ID, and how the Department is working with its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to review and investigate allegations of civil rights violations.
Senator Murray has spoken out forcefully and constantly throughout this year against the Trump administration’s cruel and counterproductive mass deportation campaign and the egregious treatment by ICE and DHS of American citizens, legal immigrants, and undocumented immigrants. Recently, Murray called attention to the violent assault of Wilmer Toledo-Martinez in Vancouver, Washington and she has called for his immediate release from the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC). Wilmer was lured out of his home under false pretenses, violently detained by federal agents, and mauled by an attack dog despite not resisting arrest or attempting to flee. Murray also recently called attention to the case of Jose Paniagua Calderón, whose foot was run over by agents in Vancouver.
Last month, Senator Murray joined 48 of her colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives in introducing the Restoring Access to Detainees Act, which would mandate that DHS allow people who have been detained to contact their legal counsel and families. In February, Senator Murray signed onto a letter led by Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) demanding that DHS end wrongful searches and interrogations of Tribal members. She and Senator Richard Blumenthal led 27 of their Senate colleagues earlier this year in a letter expressing concern with the prevalence and treatment of pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women in ICE detention, and she also joined a recent letter led by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) calling for ICE to end the misuse of solitary confinement in immigration detention.
The full text of the letter is available HERE and below.
Dear Secretary Noem:
We write to share our alarm over the completely unacceptable treatment of U.S.-born citizens of federally recognized Tribes, who have been stopped and questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on suspicion of being undocumented. In February, several Senators wrote to you following reports of ICE agents improperly stopping or detaining Tribal citizens. In June, you replied with a letter in which you failed to respond to the majority of the questions raised in the letter. Over the past month, we have heard additional alarming reports of ICE improperly stopping or detaining Tribal citizens for no apparent reason aside from their physical appearance. The disrespect and harassment of U.S.-born Tribal citizens by ICE is outrageous and inexcusable, and we request that you take immediate steps to put an end to it.
In one recent incident, several Tribal citizens were stopped by ICE agents at a bus stop in Redmond, Washington. These agents reportedly questioned the validity of their Tribal ID, with agents allegedly telling one Tribal citizen that her Tribal ID was “fake” and that “anyone can make that.” ICE agents also reportedly refused an offer to contact her Tribal government to verify these individuals’ enrollment and identification documents.
In our February letter, you were asked to supply information about the training offered to ICE agents about different forms of valid identification and documentation of United States citizenship for enrolled members of federally recognized Tribes. In response, you wrote, “The ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Academy does not train ERO officers to require any specific document to prove U.S. citizenship.” The experience of these Tribal citizens in Washington suggests that this is false: ICE agents are demanding certain documents to prove citizenship and are unaware of different forms of Tribal ID.
You have an obligation to uphold the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribes and to treat Tribal citizens with respect—this is not optional. In light of recent incidents, we urge you to develop policy and trainings to ensure that all ICE agents are trained to recognize Tribal IDs, regardless of whether they are working on Tribal lands. Additionally, we request that you answer the following questions:
- What steps, if any, has your Department taken to develop new or change existing policies regarding its interactions with Tribal citizens and governments this year?
- Please provide a detailed description of how agents are trained to respond when presented with a Tribally-issued identification card or document.
- Does the Department require additional resources to develop training and policies for ICE agents to recognize identification documents issued by Tribal governments?
- Please provide a detailed description of how the Department is working with its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to review and investigate any allegations of civil rights and civil liberties violations as it pertains to ICE’s treatment of United States-born citizens of federally recognized Tribes.
- In both your June letter and in the Department’s public response to the Redmond incident, your Department has denied that it racially profiles Tribal members. How do explain the pattern of ICE agents stopping and detaining Tribal citizens under the current Administration?
We appreciate your attention to this request and ask that you respond to these questions no later than January 11, 2026.
###
Moving from one lunatic in the Chump administration (Noem) to another, Susie Crazy Eyes Wiles. Peter Baker (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:
President Trump’s chief of staff said she tried to get him to end his “score settling” against political enemies after 90 days in office, but acknowledged that the administration’s still ongoing push for prosecutions has been fueled in part by the president’s desire for retribution.
Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, told an interviewer that she forged a “loose agreement” with Mr. Trump to stop focusing after three months on punishing antagonists, an effort that evidently did not succeed. While she insisted that Mr. Trump is not constantly thinking about retribution, she said that “when there’s an opportunity, he will go for it.”
Ms. Wiles made the comments in a series of extraordinarily unguarded interviews over the first year of Mr. Trump’s second term with the author Chris Whipple that are being published Tuesday and Wednesday by Vanity Fair. Not only did she confirm that Mr. Trump is using criminal prosecution to retaliate against adversaries, she also acknowledged that he was not telling the truth when he accused former President Bill Clinton of visiting the private island of the sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
Over the course of 11 interviews, Ms. Wiles offered pungent assessments of the president and his team: Mr. Trump “has an alcoholic’s personality.” Vice President JD Vance has “been a conspiracy theorist for a decade” and his conversion from Trump critic to ally was based not on principle but was “sort of political” because he was running for Senate. Elon Musk is “an avowed ketamine” user and “an odd, odd duck,” whose actions were not always “rational” and left her “aghast.” Russell T. Vought, the budget director, is “a right-wing absolute zealot.” And Attorney General Pam Bondi “completely whiffed” in handling the Epstein files.
Translation, the administration looks as screwed up from the inside as it does from the outside.
And then there's Chump. Like some parody of nineties Courtney Love, staying up all night getting drunk and posting on the internet, Chump's early morning rages make about as much sense as Love's did. It's part of the reason Courtney went from respected rocker and Golden Globe nominated actress to . . . who? It's the trajectory Chump has decided to follow and he's passe as well now.
Yet even with the brand dying and him suffering from over exposure, Chump continues to throw one attention seeking tantrum after another. Christal Hayes, Aoife Walshand Ian Aikmanto (BBC NEWS) note:
The BBC has said it will defend a $5bn (£3.7bn) lawsuit filed by US President Donald Trump against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.
Trump accused the broadcaster of defamation and of violating a trade practices law, according to court documents filed in Florida.
The BBC apologised to Trump last month, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was a "basis for a defamation claim".
Trump's legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by "intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech".
A BBC spokesperson said: "As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case."
Someone needs to tell Chump to Shut His Damn Mouth and Sit The F**k Down already. He is becoming an embarrassment and let's all hope the UK courts put him in his place.
In "Chump needs to stay in his lane," Mike notes:
And while Chump sues anyone and everyone he wants, if you're assaulted by ICE, you're going to struggle in the current system to hold them legally accountable. Some members of Congress are attempting to address that. From Senator Alex Padilla's office:
Amid troubling pattern of violence by ICE and CBP officers, federal law provides no statutory right to sue federal law enforcement for violating constitutional rights
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the Trump Administration conducts widespread and indiscriminate immigration enforcement operations in cities across the country, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act to allow individuals — regardless of citizenship — the right to sue federal law enforcement officers and agencies in civil court for violations of their civil and constitutional rights.
Under current law, individuals can sue state and local officers for constitutional violations, but there is no comparable statutory right to sue federal officers for doing the same. While the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents allowed some lawsuits against federal officers, courts have repeatedly narrowed that ruling, leaving many victims of federal misconduct without meaningful recourse.
Federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have recently expanded their sweeping enforcement raids into cities like Charlotte, North Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana, continuing a troubling pattern of violence and excessive force seen in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and other American cities. These abuses show how easily federal officers can act with impunity when there are no effective avenues to hold them accountable, eroding public trust and weakening the basic principles of constitutional accountability.
“For months, ICE and CBP officers have terrorized communities across the country, deploying violent and excessive tactics against immigrants, U.S. citizens, journalists, and bystanders alike with no accountability. These abuses of individuals’ constitutional rights without consequence shatter public trust and stoke fear among hardworking members of our communities,” said Senator Padilla. “By ensuring every individual, regardless of citizenship, can sue federal law enforcement when their constitutional rights are violated, this bill reaffirms that the rule of law applies equally to all — including those who enforce it.”
“In a democracy, the government is accountable to the people. Last week, we heard directly from five American citizens whose constitutional rights were flagrantly violated when they were illegally detained for hours – sometimes days – and some of whom were violently assaulted by federal agents. The brave witnesses at our forum represent hundreds, even thousands, more who have been abused and mistreated by federal immigration agents and who deserve their day in court. This legislation is immediately necessary – to hold officers and agencies accountable for violations of civil rights, and to prevent these kinds of violent abuses in the future,” said Senator Blumenthal.
The Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act is cosponsored by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore).
“Federal officials should not be allowed to violate someone’s constitutional rights with impunity, and one of the best ways to prevent that is to hold accountable the agencies responsible for those officials’ conduct,” said Senator Whitehouse, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. “Our legislation ensures that individuals targeted by this or any other Administration have access to justice in an honest courtroom.”
“Donald Trump is throwing due process and constitutional rights out the window in his rush to dehumanize and deport immigrants who are living peacefully in the United States. As ICE and CBP follow Trump’s marching orders, people must have the tools needed to stop this administration from carrying out its cruel and inhumane mass deportation agenda. I support restoring due process rights by giving people the right to sue law enforcement agencies for carrying out Trump’s authoritarian fever dream,” said Senator Wyden.
“Federal law enforcement officers, like their state and local counterparts, take an oath to uphold the Constitution and the rights of the people they serve. When they violate that oath, those who have been harmed must be able to seek accountability. Yet decades of judicial precedent have narrowed individuals’ ability to recover monetary damages when federal law enforcement violates their constitutional rights,” said Senator Booker. “This bill ensures Americans hold federal law enforcement accountable just as they can state and local officers. At a time when federal forces have expanded by the tens of thousands, and incidents of excessive force by federal officers are occurring daily in streets across the country, Americans cannot be barred from seeking justice in the courts. Congress must pass this bill to correct this court-created flaw in the law.”
The Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act would close the loophole in accountability for federal officers by:
- Creating a statutory right of action allowing individuals, regardless of citizenship, to seek damages for civil rights violations committed by federal law enforcement officers;
- Amending 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to include federal law enforcement agencies (“public employers”) alongside state and local actors;
- Allowing suits against federal agencies when their employees violate constitutional rights, regardless of whether an agency policy caused the harm, and waiving sovereign immunity for these claims to ensure victims have access to redress in federal court;
- Preserving existing defenses for individual officers, leaving the qualified immunity doctrine unchanged.
The bill is endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Brennan Center.
Senator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump’s cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda, including against his unprecedented, illegal militarization of Los Angeles and other American cities. In October, Padilla walked out of Senate Republicans’ unserious subcommittee hearing entitled “ICE Under Fire: The Radical Left’s Crusade Against Immigration Enforcement,” as the Trump Administration conducts violent immigration enforcement actions across the country. Last week, Padilla denounced the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) unlawful arrests of U.S. citizens during Senator Blumenthal’s bicameral spotlight forum, which included three U.S. citizens from California whom DHS arrested or detained. Additionally, Padilla and Senator Booker recently demanded answers from DHS leadership on the hiring standards and training protocols for newly hired ICE agents. In July, Padilla and Senator Booker introduced the VISIBLE Act to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions.
A one-pager on the bill is available here.
Full text of the bill is available here.
###
His first year in office? It concludes in 35 days. What does he have to show for it?
In what way has he helped the American people?
There is nothing to list.
He's harmed us and the country a great deal but he's done nothing that improved the lives of the average American.
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