Trump Judges Block Ruling Freeing Pro-Palestine Protester

A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling that freed Columbia student and pro-Palestinian protester Mohsen Mahdawi from ICE custody.

A Second Circuit panel, made up of one George W. Bush judge and two Donald Trump first-term appointees, determined that Mahdawi should not have been released from ICE custody in 2025. They argued that the Vermont-based federal judge that made the initial ruling lacked jurisdiction to do so.

The panel concluded that only an immigration court could oversee Mahdawi’s detention challenge, as the case was inextricably linked to his deportation suit.

Mahdawi was arrested by masked agents in April 2025 during his scheduled citizenship interview. He later told ABC News that he felt the appointment was a “trap.”

His detention was the result of an aggressive pressure campaign fronted by State Secretary Marco Rubio to push the West Bank refugee out of the country. Rubio at one point argued that Mahdawi’s presence in the U.S. could “potentially undermine” U.S. foreign policy on the basis that his pro-Palestinian advocacy could create “adverse foreign policy consequences.”

Mahdawi grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, where most of his family remains. He has been outspoken about his experiences growing up in the occupied region, describing the murders of his friends and loved ones by Israeli forces, and the violence he experienced when he was shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier at the age of 15.

He co-founded Columbia University’s Palestinian Student Union alongside detained (and freed) peer Mahmoud Khalil, another legal U.S. permanent resident who was shipped to an ICE center in Louisiana last year shortly after being ripped away from his pregnant wife by plainclothes ICE agents.

U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford in Vermont, who released Mahdawi after two weeks’ detention last year, ruled at the time that the 35-year-old enjoyed the same First Amendment rights as U.S. citizens. In Trump’s America, that is apparently not the case.

This story has been updated.

Donald Trump is distancing himself from Capitol Hill at a time when his Congressional allies need him most.

The president seemingly does not care that Congress’s long August recess is mere days away, or that the break will force Republicans to head into midterms woefully ill equipped to impress voters.

When asked about Trump’s current engagement on the Hill, a person close to him told Politico Playbook Tuesday that it was currently at “zero.”

Trump “doesn’t care about anything beyond SAVE, Iran, and the ballroom,” another White House ally told the newsletter.

That’s left Republicans in the lurch. Without Trump’s help to ram through key legislation before midterms, incumbent conservatives will have to rely on weak ad hominem attacks to whittle down the predicted Democratic advantage.

Michigan Representative Lisa McClain, the GOP conference chair, told Politico that her party’s midterm tagline will rely on framing Democrats as crazy—as opposed to advertising Republican candidates on their own slim merits.

“We voted for capitalism,” McClain told Playbook. “We voted to lower your taxes: every Democrat voted to raise your taxes, and they are crazy. They want communism. They hate this country. They hate what this country stands for. That’s crazy.”

But Trump can’t even get behind that. When asked if the White House had bought into the agreed-upon message, McClain told Politico: “No.”

“We need to use it, and then when we think we’ve exhausted it, we need to use it some more,” McClain said.

Trump hasn’t had many wins in his year and a half back in office, either. So far through his second term, the president has failed to resurrect the economy or adequately address the cost of living crisis, inflamed long-standing U.S. alliances, repeatedly tested the rule of law, attempted to create a slush fund for his far-right allies with taxpayer funds, and started another wildly unpopular war in the Middle East—all while grifting billions of dollars in the process.

In the meantime, he’s fixated on his White House ballroom renovation and his highly controversial voter ID bill, the SAVE America Act, which even House Republicans have dropped as a lost cause.

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein may have been acting as a foreign agent for multiple countries, and House Democrats are launching an investigation. 

Representative Jamie Raskin sent a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Director of National Intelligence nominee Jay Clayton, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday asking for records from the Trump administration on Epstein’s international ties.  

“Our examination of available evidence has already revealed damning indications of Mr. Epstein’s activities on behalf of foreign states,” Raskin wrote in the letter, pointing out public evidence of the billionaire’s ties to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia, and Israel.  

In addition, Epstein “repeatedly capitalized on his long-term friendship with President Donald Trump to sign up business from these and other foreign governments and actors in the aftermath of President Trump’s first election, without ever registering as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),” Raskin added. “By advocating and facilitating on behalf of foreign countries without filing the mandatory disclosures, Mr. Epstein almost certainly violated FARA. His actions also create serious questions about the extent to which he wielded his ties to President Trump in dealings with foreign governments.”

The Department of Justice still has not released 2.5 million files related to Epstein, and Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, believes that some of them concern his foreign dealings. Raskin also asked in the letter for the DOJ to respond in writing as to whether Epstein was ever investigated for being a foreign agent. 

“Jeffrey Epstein never registered as a foreign agent. Yet numerous recently released documents now show he acted aggressively on behalf of multiple foreign governments, including several with interests adverse to the United States, in order to influence policies of the first Trump Administration,” the letter states. 

Trump’s Justice Department has been under fire from Republicans and Democrats alike over its handling of the Epstein files, from its selective redactions to its barely meeting with Epstein’s victims. Investigating Epstein’s foreign ties could reveal more damning decisions from administration officials. 

FBI Director Kash Patel has come under fire from all sides for his upcoming trip to Russia in October.

Patel will likely be hosted on his trip by the FSB, the Russian security service that succeeded the Soviet Union’s KGB, Politico reported Monday. Democrats and Republicans alike were shocked by news of the trip.

“Kash Patel, the man who spent years peddling conspiracy theories to protect Trump from Russia investigation fallout, is now planning to personally fly to Russia and cozy up with the very security apparatus his own agency is supposed to be defending America against,” Occupy Democrats wrote on X. “No sitting FBI director has visited Moscow since Robert Mueller, back in 2013, before he went on to lead the very investigation into Trump-Russia collusion that Patel has spent years dismissing as a ‘hoax.’ Let that sink in.”

“Our FBI Director, who was an unregistered lobbyist for Qatar, is heading to Russia as the White House prepares to impose more sanctions on Russia, which is supplying Iran with weapons to murder U.S. soldiers,” far-right sycophant and close Trump ally Laura Loomer said. “Nothing to see here.”

“On the same day Trump imposes a 50% tariff on Canada, Kash Patel announces he’s traveling to Russia,” said Democratic Representative Andy Kim. “Trump continues to destroy our reputation abroad by treating enemies like friends and friends like enemies.”

Patel’s short time as FBI director has been mired with controversy, from his reported drinking problem to his temper tantrums, to his private jet flights with his young girlfriend on the taxpayer’s dime. While it’s not yet clear whether he plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on his trip, it’s still telling that both the right and center left are suspicious of Patel’s motives—especially given the Trump administration’s greater deference to the Kremlin.

Lindsey Graham’s little sister has officially decided to run for his empty Senate seat—much to the chagrin of MAGA world.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham Nordone to temporarily fill Graham’s vacancy last week, days after the 71-year-old lawmaker suddenly passed away from a heart issue.

“I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes, absolutely,” she told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in an interview clip shared Monday. “I’ve made a decision: I’m in.”

The younger Graham took the reins of her brother’s position with Donald Trump’s blessing, despite bringing zero legislative experience to the job. Yet her determination to fill Graham’s shoes for another six years surprised the South Carolina GOP.

“My understanding is that she told Governor McMaster that she would accept the appointment to fill the rest of the term, not to be a candidate for it,” state GOP Chair Drew McKissick told Politico last week, when Nordone first began publicly mulling running for a full term.

Her Monday decision also aggravated a number of right-wing influencers and media personalities, some of whom referred to the high-powered inheritance as moronic.

“Hard pass. Birthright senatorship is idiotic,” Sean Davis, the CEO of The Federalist, wrote on X.

“Trump continues to fill the Swamp with the worst congressional creatures, including his predictable endorsement of Darline Graham,” posted former Virginia Representative and chair of the House Freedom Caucus Bob Good. “Are there worse criteria than 1) family name, and 2) pledged unconditional and unconstitutional allegiance and obedience to the president?”

Glenn Greenwald, one of the co-founders of The Intercept, observed that “it didn’t take Lindsey Graham’s sister very long to go from ‘thank you for this placeholder appointment to honor my brother until an election can be held’ to ‘you know what? I kind of like sitting in this Senate seat. Like a lot. I think I’ll stay for life, like my brother did.’”

But Nordone does not have much time to prepare herself for what will likely be a whirlwind special election. The deadline to enter the August race is July 28. Other GOP candidates already in the mix include Representatives Russel Fry and Ralph Norman, as well as businessman Mark Lynch, who lost to Graham in the June primary. The winner will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November.