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- Reuters
CAPE MAY, New Jersey, Dec 18 (Reuters) - It was Megan O'Rourke's dream job. As a top climate scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she oversaw grants for research projects aimed at making food production healthier and more sustainable.
But when President Donald Trump's administration began targeting funding programs associated with climate change, O'Rourke decided she could no longer work for the government and remain true to her moral compass – or the oath she swore to serve the country, not just the president.
- The Associated Press
Many political candidates like to talk up their résumé in their stump speech.
Ryan Crosswell reads from his resignation letter.
A former federal prosecutor now running for Congress, he quit in February when President Donald Trump’s administration dropped corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in return for his cooperation on immigration enforcement.
- The New York Times Magazine
President Trump’s second term has brought a period of turmoil and controversy unlike any in the history of the Justice Department. Trump and his appointees have blasted through the walls designed to protect the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency from political influence; they have directed the course of criminal investigations, openly flouted ethics rules and caused a breakdown of institutional culture. To date, more than 200 career attorneys have been fired, and thousands more have resigned. (The Justice Department says many of them have been replaced.)
- Politico
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Cash dash: Ryan Crosswell, who is running as a Democrat for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District and has been endorsed by VoteVets and New Politics, raised more than $370,000 this quarter, Adam reports. Crosswell earlier this year resigned as a Justice Department attorney following Trump’s demands that DOJ drop its case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
- NOTUS
Proud prosecutors tend to talk about the defendants they sent to prison, not the ones who went free. Ryan Crosswell leads with the latter.
Crosswell is running for Congress in eastern Pennsylvania, and while knocking on doors there last week, he introduced himself to voters by explaining that he was one of the federal prosecutors who quit rather than agreeing to drop the criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Crosswell was a member of the Justice Department’s elite Public Integrity Section, which has been obliterated in all but name under the Trump administration.
- The New Republic
It was about 500 outrages ago, but the dropping of all charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a move that was ordered just three weeks into the new administration, still ranks up there as among the lowest moments of the Trump 2.0 regime. The Southern District of New York, after a lengthy investigation, persuaded a grand jury to indict Adams in September 2024. The indictment laid out a pattern of bribes and gifts that, over nearly a decade, totaled more than $100,000. Sometimes, it was alleged, Adams took cash. At other times, he took the graft in forms such as being charged $300 a night for the normally $2,500-a-night Bentley Suite at the St. Regis Istanbul, where the curved leather sofa has two built-in champagne coolers.
- The New York Times
One candidate in Michigan would be the first Navy SEAL to serve in the House as a Democrat. Another Democrat in Arizona is a former Marine drill instructor seeking to be the first woman from the Marines to serve in the House. A third Democrat in New Jersey is a former Navy helicopter pilot whose campaign logo incorporates pilot wings.
