Trump Action Archive

Supporting reports

• Federal judge orders Trump to sit for deposition in BBC lawsuit; threatens sanctions for non-compliance — Federal magistrate judge Enjoliqué Lett ordered Donald Trump to cooperate with discovery and sit for a deposition by 11 December in his $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC over a Panorama documentary from 6 January 2021. The judge rejected Trump's request to prevent videotaping of the deposition, found his legal team had not produced adequate internal documents, gave them 30 days to comply, and threatened sanctions including dismissal of the suit. The judge also allowed the BBC's subpoena to Mar-a-Lago to proceed.

Supporting reports

• Preliminary injunction ruling — California Nurses Association v. Mullin (N.D. Cal.) 4:26-cv-10680 — Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted a preliminary injunction for the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United (CNA/NNU). The court found they are likely to succeed on their claim that the Unlawful Voter Initiative and Surge violate Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which bars intimidating people for urging or aiding others to vote. It reasoned that the use of admittedly flawed data that sweeps in U.S. citizens, rushed reviews, and publicized deployments of armed officers before the midterms created a fear among voter-outreach members the court found “objectively reasonable,” and it rejected Defendants' arguments that federal officers fall outside the statute or that their investigative authority overrides it. CNA/NNU were determined to be the only Plaintiffs with standing and only on that claim. The court found their members' fear of being wrongly targeted showed a cognizable harm to their voter-assistance and mobilization work, but not to their own voting, so it did not reach the constitutional right-to-vote claim or the § 11(b) claim on intimidation of voters themselves. It also did not reach the APA claims because CNA/NNU had not, at this stage, shown a discrete “final agency action.” In California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin, Defendants are enjoined, through Nov. 3, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. (or poll closing), from conducting election-related field operations and interviews involving people they know, suspect, or should reasonably know or suspect are U.S. citizens, and from conducting such operations against those individuals based wholly on TECS records (entries in a DHS law enforcement database) generated by the Voter Eligibility Matching Policy. The order is stayed until 5:00 p.m. on Oct. 23, 2026.
• Federal judge restricts DHS voter investigations in 9 states — On October 22, a federal judge restricted certain Department of Homeland Security investigations into suspected noncitizen voting across nine states, finding that unreliable government data could cause citizens to be wrongly investigated. The judge paused her order until 5 p.m. Eastern time on Friday to allow the administration time to appeal.

Supporting reports

• Motion denied — DC Preservation League v. Department of Interior (D.D.C.) 1:26-cv-00477 — Judge Reyes denied Defendants' motion to disqualify her from the case under 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), which requires a federal judge to step aside when her “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The court held that Defendants had not met their “heavy burden” of showing, by clear and convincing evidence, that a reasonable observer informed of the full record would doubt her impartiality. It provided excerpts from prior hearing transcripts, showing its repeated praise of Defendants and noting that it had denied Plaintiffs' requests for relief nearly a dozen times before granting their motion for a TRO on tree removal at East Potomac Golf Course. Citing Liteky v. United States (1994), the court explained that a judge's “expressions of impatience, dissatisfaction, annoyance, and even anger” during proceedings do not by itself establish disqualifying bias. It also stated that Defendants' separation-of-powers objections were substantive legal arguments that a recusal motion is not the place to resolve.
• — In a minute order , Judge Reyes denied Plaintiffs' motion to extend the TRO, which was set to expire Oct. 26, and denied without prejudice their motion to recall Deputy Chief of Staff Greg Wischer to testify further about his text messages with Tom and Gavin Fazio, noting that Plaintiffs may renew their motion to resume testimony before a permanent injunction hearing. The court also ordered Defendants to ensure Wischer has taken appropriate steps to preserve the contents of his personal phone, and expanded his existing preservation order to cover any material concerning East Potomac Golf Course and this litigation, directing that the order be “broadly construed.”

Supporting reports

• Federal court dismisses Trump administration lawsuit against New York City sanctuary laws — US District Judge Ramón E Reyes Jr dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration challenging New York City's sanctuary laws on Thursday. The judge affirmed that federal law does not obligate states to participate in immigration enforcement or compel them to comply with federal requests. The ruling rejected the administration's argument that local officials were illegally obstructing its immigration agenda. Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated the decision, stating the city would not force public servants into deportation roles or abandon immigrants.