Trump’s Pentagon JUST CAVED in Court…

The Trump regime has temporarily caved. in its efforts to try to fire three. people who worked at the Stars and. Stripes newspaper who accurately. reported on the horrible conditions our. troops are facing in connection with. this catastrophic war in Iran. So, you. may recall the headline that the Trump. regime's Pete Hegseth and others fired. the editor-in-chief and the publisher of.

the Stars and Stripes newspaper. That's. the main newspaper read by our service. members abroad. About 1.3 million people. receive Stars and Stripes. They have. been doing some powerful coverage. lately. I do want to give Midas Touch. affiliate Aaron Parnas, who also has his. own independent media company, credit. too, cuz he's been doing a great job on. this. Uh speaking with the families of. service members, sailors, marines aboard. the aircraft carriers about the horrible.

conditions there, which the reporting. has been proven to be accurate, sadly. very accurate. Also, Stars and Stripes. doing reporting, for example, of the. horrible treatment of service members. who used to live in and around Middle. East bases like in Bahrain who don't. know where to go. They're displaced. after Iran has destroyed these bases. And so, family members are going out of. pocket to the tune of tens of thousands,

30, 40, 50,000. not being reimbursed by the military, which is effectively bankrupt at this. point like a Trump casino, and they're. not getting feedback about where should. they move or where do their children go. to school? Just very basic stuff. So, after this reporting, uh the publisher, editor-in-chief, and a main reporter at. Stars and Stripes were very quickly. fired. Now, the publisher was thinking. about resigning and was intending to. resign anyway based on the fact that he.

felt that the independence had been. compromised around this time period. because the Trump regime was having. military chaperones. basically oversee all of the articles so. it conformed to Trump propaganda only. But then the Trump regime immediately. fired the publisher before the period of. time within which he said that he would. resign. Interestingly, the case was. originally they that so the three.

people, the publisher, the. editor-in-chief, and the writer filed a. federal lawsuit in Washington D.C. federal court against the Trump regime. It was initially assigned to an Obama. appointee, Judge Christopher Cooper, who. then reassigned the case and said I'm. not going to do in this case to Judge. Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointed. judge. Now, McFadden held an initial. hearing regarding the preliminary.

injunction request by these Stars and. Stripes employees who argue their First. Amendment rights have been violated. They're demanding reinstatement and also. monetary damages as well. And after. McFadden got assigned the case and. listened to some of the preliminary. arguments and read the preliminary. arguments, Trump's lawyers. and the Department of Justice lawyers. who are representing the Pentagon here.

agreed to hold off on the firings. And. they said we will pause the firing at. least through next Friday to allow oral. arguments to take place because I think. they felt that the federal judge, even a. Trump appointee, um not looking favorably on the initial. retaliation and the direct causal. uh link between their article and being.

immediately fired on an area that so. touches the lives of our uh service. members. And uh so there was an. agreement to hold off on their firings. after announcing their firings. And then. the Trump regime's uh filed their heard. the DOJ on their behalf did this really. offensive filing. Here's what they then filed uh at the. close of business on Friday. Plaintiffs. are three employees of the Department of.

War. Their job responsibilities involved. publishing, editing, and reporting for. Stars and Stripes, a Department of War. publication. It should be noted it's not. fully a Department of War. Department of. War is responsible for funding it, but. it also has funding outside as well. Kind of a hybrid. Recently plaintiffs. Eric Slavin, that's the editor-in-chief, Laura Escorti, she's their writer, publicly commented on their job. responsibilities in a manner designed to.

undermine the government agency that. employs them. All they said was that. they value their journalistic. independence as Stars and Stripes always. had had, and that they stand by their. reporting. That's it. Plaintiff Max. Letterer, Stripes publisher, then. refused a directive to deliver proposed. separation notices to Slavin and Corti, and then gave an interview in which he. too criticized changes that his employer.

has affected at the Stripes. The changes. are their independent reporting would be. muzzled by a military chaperone which. had never existed before. As a result on. August 21, 2026, the Department informed. Slavin, Corti, and Letterer of their. proposed separation, offering them an. opportunity to respond within five. business days instead. Plaintiff. commenced the suit and requested a. temporary restraining order prohibiting. the department from making the. separation effective. First, plaintiffs.

are unlikely to succeed on the merits of. their First Amendment retaliation. complaint, which is the only claim they. argue justifies emergency relief. The. First Amendment does not forbid. government employers from disciplining. government employees for speech pursuant. to official duties. Here, plaintiffs. spoke as a government employee about. matters squarely within their job. responsibilities. Second, plaintiffs. failed to demonstrate any irreparable. harm, let alone harm that outweighs the.

equities and public interest favoring. permitting the government to proceed. with separation. Plaintiffs do not claim. any monetary loss from their separation. constitutes irreparable harm. Instead, they claim that the temporary loss of. their First Amendment right does. But. even if plaintiffs had demonstrated such. a loss, courts have rejected similar. arguments to evade the usual rule that. job loss is not irreparable harm. I want. to bring in Harry Litman. First. Amendment, schmirst Amendment. At the.

end of the day, Harry. Well, it's just a. little It's Yeah, it's number one, but. like whatever. If the government wants. to put chaperones to edit the articles. of the Stars and Stripes employees, so. be it. Sorted tail. Um, fascinating procedural. history there that the Trump-appointed. judge now has the case. There's this weak separation. a weak period of when, you know, the. firing's not being deemed effective yet.

We'll see what happens, but uh again, these are these are people who have been. with the Stars and Stripes for a long. time. They just report on the conditions. our military's experiencing and. snowflake Heggseth and this whole crew. can't stand that accurate reporting is. being done about the horrible conditions. our troops are facing. And this is what. they file in court. I wanted to read the. words so people understand, man. This is. a cruel and unusual regime. Harry, what. do you make of it all?

>> Yeah, you make it sound pretty extreme. and yet that is exactly what they've. said. Here's a really big uh point to. add to the whole stew here. Congress set. up Stars and Stripes as did the. Department of Defense with specifically. to be. uh professionals with First Amendment. protection. We're going to do this thing. and you can imagine why they would in. say the United States of America as. opposed to Russia. We've got a.

newspaper. It's especially. for our service members and things that. are that matter to them. But we're not. just serving them up problem and. propaganda. We're actually giving them. the facts. Imagine that the people. serving our country are entitled to the. facts. It's just a course. What Stars. and Stripes did with their They had a. They had a big part and you had a. shout-out to your colleague, Ben, in. revealing all the horrors on the USS.

Lincoln. What the hell? You're a real. paper with access to this reporting on. things that matter to service members. That's your actual kind of raison d'être. reporting on the Lincoln. And then when. there was some flak, one of the three. who've now been fired said, "I don't. work for the Pentagon. I work for Stars. and Stripes." And that was what Heggseth. took to be the in in intolerable. uh statement. But it's a factual.

statement of just what Congress set up. So what they're They're really trying to. do here is completely alter that regime. by bringing in a whole other. area of law that does apply to federal. employees. And it's true that federal. employees, you know, you work for the. Department of Justice, Department of. Justice may be able to say if you want. to be an employee here, you can't go, I. don't know, wear a sandwich board and demonstrate.

against Todd Blache every day. Or just. there are ways in which government. employees do temper or have some lesser. First Amendment rights. The old saw by. Justice Holmes, the you first the. fireman's First Amendment rights, but he. doesn't have the right to be a fireman. There are ways in which that matters, but expressly not for Stars and Stripes. that are that are there to give the. straight scoop. And for good reason, out.

of respect and dignity for service. members rather than giving them some. trash propaganda. And so they came. forward when when she made that. statement and said, "How dare you?" And. her answer is very strong, "How dare I? This is how we were set up. And moreover, you have rules for when. you can get rid of us and you didn't. follow the rules. That's basically the. First Amendment part of things and the. APA part of things. And now as happens.

often, this. these claims get initially funneled into. a legal regime of do you get a stay? Who's likely to win? Where are where is. the irreparable injury and the like. And. they are saying they're they're leading. with the First Amendment claims and. saying that's irreparable injury because. the administration is trying to say, "Maybe we screwed you, but under the APA. we're allowed to just pay you at the end.

of the day. That is in fact happening. All these people who were completely. unlawfully and summarily fired from. their jobs, they're now bringing their. lawsuits and it's going to be maybe. years until they get full relief. And of. course by then, they'll have moved on. They won't want their job. One other. point I think about so Judge McFadden, I. don't think they were doing anything. reasonable, God forbid, in saying we'll. wait till Friday. I think McFadden.

indicated, you know what? There's. something here. I could do an immediate. TRO or maybe government, you could just. wait till Friday. Judge Cooper, who has. the. JFK Center case, did the exact same. thing. Rather than right away start inscribing. restored or renovated by Don, maybe you. want to wait a little bit till I. consider the claims. But he made very. clear that if they said no, he would. force them to say yes. It was his way of. being reasonable. In any event, this is.

a rule of basic First Amendment claim. and it's not just about the rights of. the Stars and Stripes. It's about the. just as the New York Times has First. Amendment rights so its readers can be. well informed. This is a specific. program of Congress so that service. members can be accurately informed about. things that really matter to them. And. Heggseth wants to just come in, wipe out. that regime and just have more uh you.

know, uh good God truth in America and. apple pie with some tattoos uh slathered. in and instead of actual news. >> Harry Litman Talking Feds YouTube. channel, podcast, and Substack. Harry, thanks for all you do. Everybody. subscribe to Harry Litman's Talking Feds. uh right now and uh we will be keeping. everybody updated there as well. Thanks, Harry. >> Thank you, Ben. >> Hey, if you want the full story, how. democracy got here and how we take it. back, pre-order our new book WTF America.

today. Just scan the QR code or click. the link in the description. Let's do. this.