Donald Trump’s administration has shut down a national database documenting police misconduct.
The Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo reports:
Donald Trump’s second presidential administration shut down a national database that had tracked misconduct by federal police, a resource that policing reform advocates hailed as essential to preventing officers with misconduct records from being able to move undetected among agencies.
The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD), which had stored police records documenting misconduct, is now unavailable, the Washington Post first reported.
The US justice department also confirmed the database’s elimination in a statement issued online.
“User agencies can no longer query or add data to the NLEAD,” the statement read. “The US Department of Justice is decommissioning the NLEAD in accordance with federal standards.”
For the full story, click here:
In response to an order from Donald Trump to “get more aggressive”, Elon Musk vowed on X: “Will do, Mr President!”
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump wrote: “Elon is doing a great job but I would like to see him get more aggressive. Remember, we have a country to save, but ultimately, to make greater than ever before. Maga!”
On Thursday, Trump appeared to embrace an idea from Musk to give a share of a portion of the mass cuts made by Musk’s “department of government efficiency” to US households.
“There’s even under consideration a new concept, where we give 20% of the Doge savings to American citizens, and 20% goes to paying down debt,” Trump said.
In recent days, the Trump administration has carried out mass layoffs across the federal government, affecting hundreds of thousands of employees and their respective agencies, including the National Nuclear Security Administration and the agriculture department.
Kash Patel, the newly appointed FBI director, has told senior officials that he plans to relocate 1,000 employees from Washington to field offices across the US, the Associated Press reports, citing an individual familiar with the matter.
According to the AP, Patel also said he plans to move an additional 500 employees to a bureau facility in Huntsville, Alabama.
The plans were communicated on Friday when Patel was sworn in at the White House, the AP reports.
Good morning,
Donald Trump is expected to address the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday at the National Harbor in Maryland – his speech largely expected to demonstrate how his “Make America great again” movement has moved from the fringes to the mainstream, as the Guardian’s David Smith writes.
Trump’s appearance at CPAC will follow a chaotic week of domestic and global politics during which federal workers in the US continued to face mass layoffs by his administration while European geopolitics remained in a precarious position as Trump lambasted the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for being a “dictator” over Zelenskyy’s grievances that Ukraine was not invited to US-Russia talks about the future of Ukraine.
In 2023, Trump made a dark promise to his supporters during his CPAC speech in which he said: “I am your retribution.” With Trump set to take center stage again, his speech two years ago – laden with threats and a framing of his White House bid at the time as a “final battle” for America – foreshadowed what some describe as the “deification of Trump [that] will be complete” at CPAC this Saturday.
Here are other developments in US politics:
-
A Republican lawmaker from Missouri has proposed a registry of pregnant women “at risk” for abortions.
-
Texas’s congresswomen Jasmine Crockett has said she is “rooting” for Canada and Mexico amid Trump’s threats.
-
A New York judge on Friday rejected calls from the justice department to immediately dismiss the city’s mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case.
