SARAH BURNS
April 7, 2025
RAW STORY
U.S. Marshals Service alongside partner federal agencies and local law enforcement conduct enforcement operations focusing on state and local felony cases of homicide, sexual assault, robbery and assault during Operation North Star II (ONS II) in Columbus, Ohio, January 2023. USMS Director Ronald L. Davis launched ONS II, a month-long National Enforcement Initiative aimed at combating violent crime in nine cities: Albuquerque, N.M., Buffalo, N.Y., Cleveland, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, M.I., Jackson, Miss., Kansas City, M.O., Milwaukee, W.I., Oakland, C.A., and the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico, all which have a significant rate of homicides and shootings. (U.S. Marshals Service photo by Bennie J. Davis III)
Tech billionaire Elon Musk's private security detail was deputized by the Marshals Service, alarming experts, according to Mother Jones.
"The Marshals Service regularly deputizes people outside the agency—often local or state cops—to help with specific tasks for a set period of time," the report explained. "These deputized officers are known as special deputy marshals, and they usually have the power to make federal arrests, execute search warrants, serve subpoenas, and carry firearms in federal buildings, just like regular deputy marshals do."
Musk's team used them after a staffer in the Department of Government Efficiency told Marshals that Jan. 6 defendants weren't being released fast enough. A marshal "reportedly prodded judges," said MoJo.
Last month, The New York Times and the Washington Post reported that DOGE used the Marshals to break into the offices of a small federal agency, leading to "a frantic and 'traumatizing' scene," the report said.
It rattled MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who implied it was strange for a federal agency to turn on another, the report continued.
“We have reason to question whether the men reported as US marshals, now in multiple press accounts, are actually US marshals in the usual sense,” Maddow said.
The confusion is whether they were indeed marshals or if they were Musk's private security.
The Justice Department refused to give Maddow any information on the men's identities, but a nonprofit is now suing using the Freedom of Information Act.
"Even though federal policy allows the Marshals Service to deputize private actors, it’s rare for the agency to do so," Mother Jones said. "The former USMS officers I spoke with had never witnessed it happening. All the special deputy marshals" that one supervisory deputy marshal in New York until 2020 "interacted with were from law enforcement agencies like the NYPD."
“It’d be unusual to deputize someone who wasn’t a law enforcement officer or didn’t have the law enforcement experience required,” special deputy marshal James Meissner told Mother Jones.
There is an open question about whether Trump is politicizing the Marshals Service and if that could have "constitutional implications."
Rutgers University Law School professor David Noll, who studies private enforcement of the law, told Mother Jones that “deputizing purely private actors” is “not really a thing that’s been done in the 21st century or the 20th century."
“If you have a private security force that is exercising the power of the marshals, you have to start worrying about whether they are acting in the public interest and whether they understand the rules that apply to marshals,” Noll told the outlet.
Another expert agreed that alarm bells are ringing.
“The risk to people’s civil rights is enormous,” said Jonathan Smith, who helped lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division during the Obama administration. Typically, when private forces gain policing power, he said, “there are real questions about who they’re accountable to and what rules they’re going to play by.”
Read the full report here.
U.S. Marshals Service alongside partner federal agencies and local law enforcement conduct enforcement operations focusing on state and local felony cases of homicide, sexual assault, robbery and assault during Operation North Star II (ONS II) in Columbus, Ohio, January 2023. USMS Director Ronald L. Davis launched ONS II, a month-long National Enforcement Initiative aimed at combating violent crime in nine cities: Albuquerque, N.M., Buffalo, N.Y., Cleveland, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, M.I., Jackson, Miss., Kansas City, M.O., Milwaukee, W.I., Oakland, C.A., and the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico, all which have a significant rate of homicides and shootings. (U.S. Marshals Service photo by Bennie J. Davis III)
Tech billionaire Elon Musk's private security detail was deputized by the Marshals Service, alarming experts, according to Mother Jones.
"The Marshals Service regularly deputizes people outside the agency—often local or state cops—to help with specific tasks for a set period of time," the report explained. "These deputized officers are known as special deputy marshals, and they usually have the power to make federal arrests, execute search warrants, serve subpoenas, and carry firearms in federal buildings, just like regular deputy marshals do."
Musk's team used them after a staffer in the Department of Government Efficiency told Marshals that Jan. 6 defendants weren't being released fast enough. A marshal "reportedly prodded judges," said MoJo.
Last month, The New York Times and the Washington Post reported that DOGE used the Marshals to break into the offices of a small federal agency, leading to "a frantic and 'traumatizing' scene," the report said.
It rattled MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who implied it was strange for a federal agency to turn on another, the report continued.
“We have reason to question whether the men reported as US marshals, now in multiple press accounts, are actually US marshals in the usual sense,” Maddow said.
The confusion is whether they were indeed marshals or if they were Musk's private security.
The Justice Department refused to give Maddow any information on the men's identities, but a nonprofit is now suing using the Freedom of Information Act.
"Even though federal policy allows the Marshals Service to deputize private actors, it’s rare for the agency to do so," Mother Jones said. "The former USMS officers I spoke with had never witnessed it happening. All the special deputy marshals" that one supervisory deputy marshal in New York until 2020 "interacted with were from law enforcement agencies like the NYPD."
“It’d be unusual to deputize someone who wasn’t a law enforcement officer or didn’t have the law enforcement experience required,” special deputy marshal James Meissner told Mother Jones.
There is an open question about whether Trump is politicizing the Marshals Service and if that could have "constitutional implications."
Rutgers University Law School professor David Noll, who studies private enforcement of the law, told Mother Jones that “deputizing purely private actors” is “not really a thing that’s been done in the 21st century or the 20th century."
“If you have a private security force that is exercising the power of the marshals, you have to start worrying about whether they are acting in the public interest and whether they understand the rules that apply to marshals,” Noll told the outlet.
Another expert agreed that alarm bells are ringing.
“The risk to people’s civil rights is enormous,” said Jonathan Smith, who helped lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division during the Obama administration. Typically, when private forces gain policing power, he said, “there are real questions about who they’re accountable to and what rules they’re going to play by.”
Read the full report here.
DOJ accused of ‘abuse of power’ after sending armed US Marshals to whistleblower’s home
David Badash,
David Badash,
The New Civil Rights Movement
April 7, 2025
Fired U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney Liz Oyer testifies during a hearing organized by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate about President Donald Trump's administration's treatment of the Justice Department and law firms who act in cases disliked by the president, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 7, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
A former U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney delivered sworn testimony before Congress on Monday, accusing her former agency—now under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi—of “corruption and abuse of power.” She claimed that armed U.S. Marshals were sent to her home to deliver what she described as a “warning” from the DOJ, cautioning her about the risks of testifying.
Liz Oyer “told U.S. media outlets that her firing came shortly after she declined to recommend restoring gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, a supporter of President Donald Trump,” Reuters reports. She reportedly was fired by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on March 7.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last month reported that “Oyer says she was fired as the pardon attorney at the Justice Department within hours of saying she couldn’t add Mel Gibson to a list of individuals she recommended should have their gun rights restored.”
“Within hours of my decision not to do that,” Oyer said, “I was escorted out of my office by DOJ security officers.”
During her testimony, Oyer described the tense situation.
“The letter was to be served at my home between 9 o’clock and 10 o’clock on Friday night,” she explained (video below). “I was in the car with my husband and my parents, who are sitting behind me today, when I got the news that the officers were on their way to my house, where my teenage child was home alone. Fortunately, due to the grace of a very decent person who understood how upsetting this would be to my family, I was able to confirm receipt of the letter to an email address, and the deputies were called off.”
Oyer blasted the DOJ.
“At no point did Mr. Blanche’s staff pick up the phone and call me before they sent armed deputies to my home,” she said in her testimony. “The letter was a warning to me about the risks of testifying here today. But I am here because I will not be bullied into concealing the ongoing corruption and abuse of power at the Department of Justice.”
“DOJ is entrusted with keeping us safe, upholding the rule of law, and protecting our civil rights. It is not a personal favor bank for the President. Its career employees are not the president’s personal debt collectors.”
“It should alarm all Americans that the leadership of the Department of Justice appears to value political loyalty above the fair and responsible administration of Justice. It should offend all Americans that our leaders are treating public servants with a lack of basic decency and humanity.”
Attorney Michael Bromwich, who is representing Oyer, in a letter to DOJ called it an “unusual step” to direct “armed law enforcement officers to the home of a former Department of Justice employee who has engaged in no misconduct, let alone criminal conduct, simply to deliver a letter.” He characterized the act as “both unprecedented and completely inappropriate.”
Bromwich also challenged the administration’s apparent claim of executive privilege over Oyer’s testimony, calling it”baseless,” and wrote “that she is entitled to certain legal protections for whistleblowers.”
According to NBC News, Bromwich also accused Blanche of appearing “to be using the Department’s security resources to intimidate a former employee who is engaged in statutorily protected whistleblower conduct, an act that implicates criminal and civil statutes as well as Department policy and your ethical obligations as a member of the bar.”
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and popular MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst, remarked: “Sending two armed marshals to a former DOJ lawyers [sic] home at 9pm to ‘deliver a letter’ when they’re in email contact with her or could have just called smacks of an effort to intimidate.”
CBS News justice correspondent Scott MacFarlane posted a copy of the letter Oyer was sent.
Watch the video below or at this link.
April 7, 2025
Fired U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney Liz Oyer testifies during a hearing organized by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate about President Donald Trump's administration's treatment of the Justice Department and law firms who act in cases disliked by the president, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 7, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
A former U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney delivered sworn testimony before Congress on Monday, accusing her former agency—now under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi—of “corruption and abuse of power.” She claimed that armed U.S. Marshals were sent to her home to deliver what she described as a “warning” from the DOJ, cautioning her about the risks of testifying.
Liz Oyer “told U.S. media outlets that her firing came shortly after she declined to recommend restoring gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, a supporter of President Donald Trump,” Reuters reports. She reportedly was fired by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on March 7.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last month reported that “Oyer says she was fired as the pardon attorney at the Justice Department within hours of saying she couldn’t add Mel Gibson to a list of individuals she recommended should have their gun rights restored.”
“Within hours of my decision not to do that,” Oyer said, “I was escorted out of my office by DOJ security officers.”
During her testimony, Oyer described the tense situation.
“The letter was to be served at my home between 9 o’clock and 10 o’clock on Friday night,” she explained (video below). “I was in the car with my husband and my parents, who are sitting behind me today, when I got the news that the officers were on their way to my house, where my teenage child was home alone. Fortunately, due to the grace of a very decent person who understood how upsetting this would be to my family, I was able to confirm receipt of the letter to an email address, and the deputies were called off.”
Oyer blasted the DOJ.
“At no point did Mr. Blanche’s staff pick up the phone and call me before they sent armed deputies to my home,” she said in her testimony. “The letter was a warning to me about the risks of testifying here today. But I am here because I will not be bullied into concealing the ongoing corruption and abuse of power at the Department of Justice.”
“DOJ is entrusted with keeping us safe, upholding the rule of law, and protecting our civil rights. It is not a personal favor bank for the President. Its career employees are not the president’s personal debt collectors.”
“It should alarm all Americans that the leadership of the Department of Justice appears to value political loyalty above the fair and responsible administration of Justice. It should offend all Americans that our leaders are treating public servants with a lack of basic decency and humanity.”
Attorney Michael Bromwich, who is representing Oyer, in a letter to DOJ called it an “unusual step” to direct “armed law enforcement officers to the home of a former Department of Justice employee who has engaged in no misconduct, let alone criminal conduct, simply to deliver a letter.” He characterized the act as “both unprecedented and completely inappropriate.”
Bromwich also challenged the administration’s apparent claim of executive privilege over Oyer’s testimony, calling it”baseless,” and wrote “that she is entitled to certain legal protections for whistleblowers.”
According to NBC News, Bromwich also accused Blanche of appearing “to be using the Department’s security resources to intimidate a former employee who is engaged in statutorily protected whistleblower conduct, an act that implicates criminal and civil statutes as well as Department policy and your ethical obligations as a member of the bar.”
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and popular MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst, remarked: “Sending two armed marshals to a former DOJ lawyers [sic] home at 9pm to ‘deliver a letter’ when they’re in email contact with her or could have just called smacks of an effort to intimidate.”
CBS News justice correspondent Scott MacFarlane posted a copy of the letter Oyer was sent.
Watch the video below or at this link.
No comments:
Post a Comment