Overview

• The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles filed over 35 felony charges against June ICE protesters but faced multiple grand jury refusals, leading to eight dismissals and several downgrades to misdemeanors.
• Prosecutors dropped trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after a federal judge sharply criticized the case’s evidentiary basis.
• Attorney General Pam Bondi’s push to revisit the 2016 “Russia hoax” has produced no indictments and no clear deadlines for presenting evidence to grand juries.
• An Office of Special Counsel Hatch Act inquiry into former special counsel Jack Smith cannot impose criminal penalties and is largely symbolic since he has already resigned.
• Legal safeguards such as independent grand juries, evidentiary standards and judicial oversight have so far constrained Trump’s retribution efforts, though experts warn norms remain vulnerable to erosion.