Margo Brooder
margobrooder.bsky.social
Margo Brooder
@margobrooder.bsky.social
Chicago-bred U. Michigan grad. Former reporter. Crew parent. Journalism wife. Real estate photographer. Dogs are PG County MD shelter alums.
Reposted by Margo Brooder
More than 2,900 attorneys quit the Justice Department or were fired during the first 10 months of this year -- about triple the number who depart in a typical year. personnel records obtained by Reuters show.
December 17, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Extraordinary WSJ reporting today that unveils the extent to which Trump, Witkoff, Kushner and US business executives are salivating over business deals with Russia while Putin’s forces kidnap Ukranian children and bomb civilians in their apartments.

🎁 www.wsj.com/world/russia...
November 29, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Five-byline alert: 🚨

“.. the full scope of [Witkoff’s talks] went much further, according to people familiar .. They were privately charting a path to bring Russia’s $2 trillion economy in from the cold—with American businesses first in line .. to the dividends. 🇺🇦

www.wsj.com/world/russia...
November 29, 2025 at 12:30 PM
F.B.I. Director Is Said to Have Made a Pledge to Head of MI5, Then Broken It www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/w...
F.B.I. Director Is Said to Have Made a Pledge to Head of MI5, Then Broken It
www.nytimes.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:33 PM
The 1986 law EMTALA, signed by Reagan, requires hospitals to provide ER care to people who arrive with an emergency. The reason is if they wait to check insurance or legal status, patients would bleed out and/or die. The law exists to protect Americans, not people here illegally.
November 1, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
🧵Where did all the Alligator detainees go?

Over 1200 have vanished from federal records.

By late August about 800 no longer appeared in ICE's database, while another 450 were listed with no location, only the instruction "Call ICE for details."

Lawyers and families don't know where they are.
Lawyers Report Disappearance of Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz Detainees From ICE Database: 'It's a Black Hole'
The Miami Herald reported that by late August about 800 detainees no longer appeared in ICE's database, while another 450 were listed with no location
www.latintimes.com
September 19, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
With disappearing federal assistance and no China trade deal in sight, US agricultural communities that had expected President Trump to have their back are feeling betrayed, angry and distressed.
American Farmers Are Feeling the Pain of Trump’s Policies
US agricultural communities that had expected Trump to have their backs have found themselves flung into a second trade war. If the situation continues, it could put loyalties at risk.
bloom.bg
September 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Sen. Bill Cassidy: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expected you to change the childhood vaccine schedule, despite a lack of science or data to support that move?

Former CDC Director Susan Monarez: "Correct."
September 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Olympic grifters: Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...
Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches.
www.nytimes.com
September 16, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
I wrote about that ugly spectacle in front of the White House from a few days ago, and why it's important for reporters to start coming to the defense of their colleagues.

There's also a reference to wedgies.

Via @columjournreview.bsky.social

www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...
September 12, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Hours after Kirk was murdered, the FBI director was chowing down at Rao’s.

(Editor’s note: It is notoriously difficult to get a table at Rao’s.)
September 13, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
NEW: FBI Director Patel was at Rao’s the night of posts about a person in custody in Charlie Kirk’s shooting www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
FBI Director Patel was at Rao’s the night of posts about a person in custody in Kirk’s shooting
FBI Director Kash Patel was dining at Rao’s in New York on Wednesday night after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, two sources familiar with his whereabouts
www.nbcnews.com
September 12, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Allison “had graduated as a nursing assistant and had earned a $60,000 scholarship to attend Gardner-Webb University.”
Allison, 20, has been detained for six months at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.

She had nearly given up her legal fight due to health issues and unsanitary conditions at the facility.
Charlotte nursing student arrested by ICE in February to go to Honduras
ICE was looking for someone else when they raided the home of Allison Bustillo Chinchilla, 20.
www.charlotteobserver.com
September 1, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Backstory here on the moped delivery driver violently detained by federal agents in D.C.

We benefit from having so many Post local reporters including Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff on the ground during a time like this
www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
August 18, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
So the upshot of what Noem is saying is this:

Security is so loose at an event featuring **the secretary of Homeland Security** that any random noob can bust into the room and confront her.
June 12, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
What Elon Musk didn’t realize is that reducing the deficit is not—and has never been—the GOP’s priority. The big priorities (since Reagan) are cutting taxes and increasing military spending. Hence deficits regularly go up when Republicans are in power.
June 6, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
This is how our country treats *ICE officers* who are guarding deported migrants in Djibouti:

They live downwind of burn pits filled with human waste. They wear N95 masks even while sleeping, as the temperature is 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit.
June 5, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Steve Bannon says Elon Musk should be deported.
June 6, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Last week, Linda McMahon was threatening to cut funds to NY schools because of a state ban on Indian-themed mascots.

She said she was deeply concerned that the move was “an attempt to eliminate the history and culture of Native American tribes.”
NEW: A nearly 90% funding cut proposed by the Trump administration would likely shut down and devastate the 37 tribal colleges and universities created to serve the students disadvantaged by the nation’s historic mistreatment of Indigenous communities.

By @mattkrupnick.bsky.social
Trump Wants to Cut Tribal College Funding by Nearly 90%, Putting Them at Risk of Closing
ProPublica found that Congress was underfunding tribal colleges by a quarter-billion dollars per year. Rather than fixing the problem, proposed federal funding cuts unveiled this week would devastate ...
www.propublica.org
June 3, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
This is Mertarvik, Alaska, population 300. It’s a new town.

Its residents, the vast majority of whom are Yup’ik, began moving in around 2019.

The move was by necessity: The nearby village where many residents previously lived, Newtok, is sinking, its riverbanks eroding. THREAD 🧵
June 3, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
On June 1, 1996, the last nuclear missiles were brought from Ukraine into Russia. The next day, Ukraine has lost its status of a nuclear state after signing the Budapest Memorandum.

The US, the UK and Russia gave their assurances that Ukrainian security and sovereignty would not be violated.
June 1, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
Investigators believe the man may have been framed to get him arrested & deported before he could testify in a case where he was a victim of assault. The person who spoke to the AP did so on condition of anonymity, because they couldn't speak publicly. apnews.com/article/ice-...
Kristi Noem said an immigrant threatened to kill Trump. The story quickly fell apart
A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of President Donald Trump has begun to unravel.
apnews.com
May 31, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Margo Brooder
When it comes to DOJ and the judiciary, we are firmly in the “How many divisions does the Pope have” territory.
DOJ had assured a federal appeals court court that Melgar-Salmeron wouldn't be deported before May 8-9. But after the court issued a May 7 order blocking his deportation, ICE put him on a plane just minutes later and told the court he was gone. www.politico.com/news/2025/05...
May 30, 2025 at 11:06 PM