This Week in Democracy – Week 47: Judges and Grand Juries Block Trump
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Grand jury
14 min read
The article references grand juries refusing to participate in Trump's 'retribution train.' Understanding the specific legal role, history, and independence of grand juries in the American judicial system provides crucial context for why their refusal is significant as a check on executive power.
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Juan Orlando Hernández
13 min read
The article mentions Trump pardoning the former Honduran president who was serving a 45-year sentence for cocaine trafficking conspiracy. His story involves deep connections between US drug enforcement, Central American politics, and now presidential pardon power.
Welcome to Week 47 of ‘This Week in Democracy.’ We’ve almost made it a year.
The good news: From lower court rulings to grand juries refusing to get on the president’s retribution train to members of his own party breaking rank, Donald Trump appears to be losing a lot more than he is winning these days.
The bad news: Trump and his cronies are still managing to do a lot of harm to the country and free societies worldwide.
From continuing to escalate tensions with Venezuela to a litany of lies and racist comments to failing to ensure millions of Americans won’t experience a spike in healthcare subsidies, here’s what Trump and his allies did this week that underscore the growth of authoritarianism during Trump’s second term.
Saturday, December 6
A federal judge blocked the Justice Department from using communication records between James Comey and Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman as evidence to re-indict the former FBI director.
On Truth Social, Trump attacked CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, calling her “Stupid and Nasty” over what he claimed was a question about the increasing cost of his new White House ballroom. Later, Collins responded that her question was actually about Venezuela.
Sunday, December 7
The Washington Post spoke with Bruna Ferreira, the mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, who was detained by ICE last month for being in the US illegally (a civil violation) after overstaying a visa while she was a child. Ferreira disputed a White House statement claiming she hadn’t spoken to Leavitt in years, saying she asked Leavitt to be the child’s godmother, signed off on her son’s visit to the White House for the Easter egg hunt, and “moved mountains” to make sure he could attend Leavitt’s wedding in January.
In the final draft of their annual defense policy bill, congressional leaders included an amendment to withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon provides the House and Senate Armed Services Committees with “unedited video of strikes” conducted against boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
On Truth Social, Trump lashed out at Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, whom he pardoned last week, for announcing he would seek re-election as a Democrat rather than switching parties. Trump called the
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