American Oversight

The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretty during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota last January were a turning point in the public's awareness of the problem, but their deaths were not the first.

Ten months earlier, in South Padre Island, Texas, Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen was shot and killed by an ICE officer, something that the government didn't disclose for nearly a year until American Oversight, a nonprofit group, obtained the incident report.

In one week, this past July, ICE agents killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who had lived in this country for 35 years, raising a family and running a building company.

and Johann Sebastian Duran Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian with a wife and toddler.

ICE leaders are aware of the findings.

Before signing a $16.5 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of shock gloves in August, according to records obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and shared with the Associated Press, that awareness came.

The shocks had a profound impact on Army employees who played the role of combative prisoners during the exercise.

It took place on the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas a year ago.

...

Democracy Forward, um, American Oversight, all, a, a whole number of groups that have been really at the forefront of trying to protect our democracy, um, and, you know, protect our right to vote and our, have our votes counted.

And, you know, there have, there have certainly been statements made by governors and state attorneys general of their determination to protect the election results.

There have been orders by federal judges, you know, against the militarization or the deployment, uh, you know, uh, of, uh, intimidation forces around our, our polling places.

Additionally, ICE leaders were aware of those findings before signing a $16.7 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of the gloves in August.

That's according to records obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and shared with the Associated Press.

The 2024 study took place at a military prison in Kansas, and found participants touched by the gloves experienced, quote, "Fatigue, soreness, and excessive apprehensiveness to being shocked again." ICE calls the gloves, quote, "Distraction and de-escalation devices that are safer than other non-lethal weapons to subdue people subject to arrest and deportation, as well as protesters who create civil disturbances." ICE argues that the gloves will help ensure quick compliance, thus helping keep agents safer and prevent the potential use of lethal force.

Critics warn the gloves give ICE another weapon-

The Mar-A-Lago volume two report of Jack Smith is back in the news as the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals wakes up and sets oral argument on the motion to intervene by the Knight Foundation at Columbia University and American Oversight, who have tried to intervene in the case in order to reverse Judge Cannon's decision from February of this year, in which she put into a tomb, a sealed tomb, never to be opened, Mar-A-Lago volume two of the special counsel, Jack Smith.

The public demands to know what serious crimes Jack Smith was talking about when he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, when he said Donald Trump committed, beyond a reasonable doubt, serious crimes, when he, when he referred to the litigation in Florida.

We want to know what he's talking about.

Like, "Hey, Judge, I need off on November 2nd to do an oral argument at the 11th Circuit in Atlanta." Judges accommodate those kind of requests.

And lastly, Kendra Wharton, who is Donald Trump's local lawyer in West Palm Beach, Florida, she argues, "I haven't had time to consult with my client.

Uh, he's busy with the midterms, and this has been rescheduled a number of times, and it's very confusing." Knight Foundation, American Oversight have responded.

I'm covering it here to kick off our Wednesday morning on Legal AF.

As you know, I'm traveling.