January 24, 2025

2 entries on this date.

Jan 24

Trump fired 17 Senate-confirmed inspectors general without the 30-day congressional notice required by law

On the evening of January 24, 2025, the White House Presidential Personnel Office sent two-sentence termination emails to at least 17 Senate-confirmed inspectors general across federal departments including Agriculture, Defense, Education, HHS, and State, informing them they were fired effective immediately. The firings provided no 30-day advance notice to Congress and no substantive rationale, violating the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 as amended in 2022. In September 2025, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes ruled the firings unlawful but declined to reinstate the IGs, finding that Trump could simply re-fire them after providing the required notice.

Jan 24

CBP agents denied Samuel Tunick a lawyer during a warrantless, pretextual border search targeting his Stop Cop City activism

On January 24, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents pulled Atlanta activist Samuel Tunick into secondary inspection at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, denied him access to a lawyer despite his requests, and told him no warrant was required because he had not yet formally entered the country. When Tunick entered his phone's passcode, a GrapheneOS duress feature wiped the device; agents seized it regardless. Tunick's attorneys allege the stated child-exploitation-imagery pretext for the stop was fabricated and that CBP was actually investigating his ties to the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement. Federal prosecutors later indicted Tunick under a statute against destroying property to prevent government seizure — the first known federal case charging use of a duress password — and he pleaded not guilty and moved to suppress the evidence, arguing the underlying search was unlawful.