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Vue lecture

Judge Orders Trump Administration to Answer for Tree Removals at D.C. Golf Course

During a four-hour hearing, a federal judge demanded answers from the Trump administration about who authorized the removal of hundreds of trees at the East Potomac Golf Links.

© Andrew Leyden for The New York Times

Workers cutting down trees at the East Potomac Golf Links on Saturday.
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Federal Agents Search Home of Rep. Ilhan Omar

The search takes place within the 60-day window of the midterm elections, when the Justice Department has historically avoided such investigative steps related to political candidates.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, at the Capitol earlier this year.
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How the White House Manufactured a Narrative About a Trump Aide’s Call Logs

A release of selected records from the classified documents inquiry is a case study in how omitting context can create political ammunition.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

President Trump speaking to reporters at the White House last week.
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Donor Says Kimberly Guilfoyle Sought Money From Him to Cover Debt

Correspondence suggests that Ms. Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece and former fiancée of Donald Trump Jr., asked a G.O.P. donor to pay off her credit card.

© Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

Kimberly Guilfoyle and the president’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were previously paid by the donor, Eric Deters, to speak at pro-Trump events he held in Kentucky.
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How Trump’s Revenge Campaign Descended Into Turmoil

The president’s allies have sought to prove a “grand conspiracy” through a sprawling Justice Department inquiry. It has buckled under staffing shake-ups, internal disputes and trouble finding evidence.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

President Trump’s demands for revenge have divided the Justice Department, diverted resources from other investigations and mingled politics with federal law enforcement.
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Security Guard Fatally Shoots Armed Man at Nashville Federal Courthouse

A 42-year-old man tried unsuccessfully to fire a gun, then wielded a knife before he was shot inside the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building, the police said.

© Kirsten Fiscus/The Tennessean, via USA TODAY NETWORK, via Imagn Images

The police closed roads outside the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building after a shooting on Thursday.
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Justice Dept. Turns to Partisans and Conspiracists to Fill Depleted Ranks

The civil rights unit has recruited people whose questionable work histories and dearth of education and experience might have disqualified them in the past, former officials said.

© Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Under its chief, Harmeet Dhillon, the civil rights division of the Justice Department has pushed hard to replenish the ranks of a unit that was once a magnet for top legal talent.
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Wrongly Indicted Man Seeks Inquiry of Official Conduct in Reflecting Pool Case

Lawyers for the former Olympian David Hearn accused prosecutors of ignoring their own evidence to indict him and then providing “blatantly false” information about what they knew when.

© Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Charges were dismissed against David Hearn, the former Olympian wrongly accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool, and a judge has barred prosecutors from trying to revive the case against him.
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Christa Pike’s Case Puts Execution Methods Under Scrutiny

Tennessee’s unsuccessful attempt to end the life of Christa Pike is spurring more scrutiny over capital punishment techniques, and whether the death penalty should exist at all.

© South Carolina Department of Corrections, via Associated Press

In a photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections, the state’s death chamber in Columbia, S.C., including the electric chair, right, and a firing squad chair, left.
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Cornell Case Highlights Drop in Resolved Sexual Assault Cases Under Trump

The administration has shifted its enforcement of a civil rights law from allegations of sexual misconduct to issues like blocking protections for transgender students.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Trump’s administration has had a minimal response to the allegations of gang rape at Cornell University.
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Judge Sides With Justice Dept. in Dispute Over Subpoena to Times Freelancer

The magistrate judge’s conclusion is only a recommendation, and a Federal District Court judge is scheduled to hold a hearing on the issue next month.

© Lucia Vazquez for The New York Times

Investigators are seeking the freelance reporter’s testimony as they seek to identify his sources for an article about a top-secret operation in North Korea.
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Chicago Woman Shot by Border Patrol Agent Sues Federal Government

The lawsuit is the latest in a widening push from people who claim they were harmed by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and now want justice.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

Marimar Martinez was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago last year.
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Biden-Era Memo on Covid and Schools Set Off Dispute in Justice Dept.

The Trump administration released a report showing career officials had objected to the 2021 memo as evidence that the policy was biased against conservatives. But in an ironic twist, the administration has forced out many of the objectors.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland issued the memo in 2021 to investigate purported threats to schools officials as schools across the country started a third academic year of Covid-related restrictions.
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‘How Does That Happen?’: America’s Execution System Is Long Flawed

The failed execution of Christa Pike, which left her clinging to life in Tennessee, was the latest grisly error to take place in an American execution chamber.

© Denny Simmons / The Tennessean/USA TODAY NETWORK, via Reuters

Emergency vehicles arrived at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville after the failed execution of Christa Pike.
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Senator Marsha Blackburn Sues Over Jack Smith’s Subpoena During Trump Inquiry

The lawsuit, brought by Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, tests the reach of the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause.

© Photographs by Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Senator Marsha Blackburn’s lawsuit seeks a declaration that Jack Smith, the former special counsel, conspired to violate her rights during an investigation into Donald J. Trump.
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Justice Dept. Tries to Rebuke Federal Judges for Speaking to The Times

Judge Patrick J. Schiltz had warned that the administration’s actions “created a grave threat to the rule of law.” The attorney general accused him of “obvious bias.”

© Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

Judge Patrick Schiltz said he was “acting well within the ethical rules that apply to federal judges in speaking to The New York Times.”
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A Russian Software Company Duped the Secret Service, U.S. Prosecutors Say

Executives from a Russian-owned company are accused of misrepresentation in order to secure U.S. government contracts.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

A Secret Service Agent seen from Air Force One.
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Russian-linked software sold to US government as CEO allegedly hid Russian control – two now arrested

A tablet with cybersecurity forensics software from Oxygen Forensics. Photo via Militarnyi

The US has arrested the CEO of Virginia-based digital forensics company Oxygen Forensics and a Russian national over allegations that they concealed the company’s Russian ownership and the fact that its software was developed in Russia while selling it to US government agencies, according to the US Justice Department.

The case highlights a potential route through which Russian-linked networks could seek access to sensitive US institutions: concealing Russian ownership and influence behind seemingly legitimate American companies.

Lee Reiber, 55, and Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The US Justice Department alleges that five Russian nationals, including Davydov, owned and controlled Oxygen Forensics through a Cyprus-based holding company, while its software was developed by a team in Russia.

Software sold to US government agencies

According to the criminal complaint, Oxygen Forensics presented itself to US agencies as an independent American company with no foreign ownership or control.

The company sold digital forensic software used to recover and analyze data from electronic devices to the US Department of War and three Department of Homeland Security components: the Secret Service’s National Computer Forensics Institute, Homeland Security Investigations, and the DHS Office of Inspector General.

The National Computer Forensics Institute awarded Oxygen Forensics a five-year contract in September 2024. The award file included a certification from Reiber stating that the company had no immediate or highest-level owner, according to the affidavit.

The Justice Department alleges that this was false. The Russian owners allegedly continued to make significant company decisions, set Reiber’s compensation, control payments and retain signatory authority over bank accounts after their names were removed from public corporate filings.

Russian software development allegedly concealed

The complaint says the same five Russian nationals also owned a Russian company founded by Davydov in 2000, previously known as Oxygen Software and now called MKO Systems.

According to the affidavit, the Russian company developed the software used by Oxygen Forensics, with developers working in Russia under Davydov’s direction. MKO Systems also sold its software in Russia under different product names to customers that reportedly included the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian Investigative Committee and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

After the US expanded sanctions against Russia in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian owners allegedly agreed with Reiber to conceal both the company’s ownership and its Russian development operations.

Reiber was installed as CEO, president and chairman in March 2022, while the Russian owners were removed from the company’s public filings, according to the Justice Department.

The complaint alleges that the arrangement did not end the Russian owners’ control. One of them was later appointed to the company’s board using a Turkish identity, according to the affidavit.

OSINT investigators had traced Russian software links

Militarnyi separately reported that OSINT investigators from InformNapalm had previously traced corporate and technological links between Oxygen Forensics and Russia’s Oxygen Software, now known as MKO Systems.

According to Militarnyi, the Russian company’s products were supplied to Russian security and law-enforcement agencies, including the FSB and Ministry of Internal Affairs. The investigation traced a common corporate and technological origin between the Russian and US software ecosystems.

CEO allegedly denied Russian involvement

The Justice Department says Reiber repeatedly certified to US authorities that the company had no foreign ownership or control.

In March 2026, he allegedly told DHS personnel that no Russian was involved in developing Oxygen Forensics’ software and that no one in Russia had access to its development environment. Days later, he published a statement saying the company had no development presence in any restricted jurisdiction.

The complaint alleges that the software was in fact written and managed by a team in Russia, using a cloud environment administered by one of the Russian owners.

The affidavit also describes a November 2023 exchange in which Reiber allegedly told the Russian owners that public reporting about the company’s Russian connections could jeopardize a pending US government contract.

Arrests and seizures

Reiber was arrested in Idaho on 20 September and released on bond after appearing in federal court. Davydov was arrested the same day at London Heathrow Airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul. The US says it will seek his extradition.

Separately, a federal judge authorized the seizure of Oxygen Forensics’ corporate bank accounts, around 57 domains and other cyber infrastructure allegedly used in the scheme. The domains and related infrastructure were seized on 20 September.

The case is being investigated by the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, with assistance from the Department of War Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

Each could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

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