Newsletter: February 2025

Trump nominations: DRAD’s Chip Gibbons offers insights on Democracy Now! 

Policy Director Chip Gibbons appeared on Democracy Now! to help viewers understand two high-profile Senate confirmation hearings: Kash Patel as FBI Director, and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. 

Chip rebuked Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) for his tirade against Gabbard over her refusal to denounce Edward Snowden as a traitor. “Senator Bennet’s performance was worthy of the House Un-American Activities Committee,” Chip told host Amy Goodman.

Chip explained that Snowden was a “patriotic whistleblower” who, working with journalists, revealed illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of US citizens by their own government. As Chip mentioned, the 9th Circuit of Appeals ruled one of the surveillance programs exposed by Snowden to be illegal and likely unconstitutional. 

As a preeminent expert on FBI political surveillance and author of a forthcoming book on the Bureau’s political surveillance, Chip also provided important context for the confirmation hearing of Kash Patel — one of Trump’s more disturbing nominations, and one we strongly oppose. Patel’s desire to use the FBI against journalists and their sources makes him unfit to head the FBI. Chip noted that the FBI has been a political police force since J. Edgar Hoover. He stressed that bipartisan abuse of the Espionage Act against whistleblowers like Snowden and Chelsea Manning, and the prosecution of journalist Julian Assange, gave Patel the tools to crack down on the press. 

DRAD drives coalition efforts to educate Congress on nominations

We rallied constitutional watchdog organizations to push back against criticism of Tulsi Gabbard’s past support for civil liberties, writing to the Senate Intelligence Committee:

“It is unfathomable that basic support for human rights and civil liberties should be disqualifying. In fact, consistent support for Americans’ Constitutional rights and opposition to the intelligence community’s abuses of powers should be lauded, if not required for the position.”

We led a coalition effort to urge Senate Judiciary Committee members to ask Patel about his positions on press freedom, Espionage Act prosecutions of journalists, and stance on DOJ regulations shielding journalists from surveillance. Patel’s comments on prosecuting journalists should be of profound concern to every Senator.

Responding to the first raft of Trump executive orders

Trump drew on unconstitutional and discriminatory tactics from day one. In the first tranche of anti-immigrant executive orders, he invoked the Alien Enemies Act to go after immigrants. But we’re fighting back with support for the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, which would repeal the Alien Enemies Act. You helped us flood the inboxes of members of Congress, emphasizing that discriminatory anti-immigrant legislation should have no place in our society. 

If you haven’t already, take action! 

A final spurt of pardon advocacy

Victory! In December, we drove a flood of emails to the White House urging a pardon for Leonard Peltier, an American Indian Movement activist wrongfully convicted for the murder of two FBI agents in 1975. Thanks to persistent advocacy – and a successful final push – Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence. After nearly five decades in prison, Peltier will finally return home.

In the last weeks of the Biden administration, we collaborated with environmental lawyer Steven Donziger to urge a pardon. In Donziger’s case, a judge took the unprecedented step of appointing a private prosecutor with ties to Chevron to prosecute a misdemeanor contempt of court charge. We organized 16 organizations to call on Biden to pardon Donziger to rebuke this sore example of corporate hijacking of the legal system, as well as organized our supporters to contact the White House. 

We also joined the press freedom community to urge the Biden administration to pardon Julian Assange, and rallied grassroots supporters to ask Biden to exonerate Ethel Rosenberg. Biden declined to grant pardons to Donziger, Assange, and Rosenberg.

On our radar:

• With the final confirmation votes to come on Patel and Gabbard, we’ll continue our advocacy. Expect opportunities to take action coming your way!
• We’re anticipating the return of the Nonprofit Killer Bill and other attempts to undermine civil society. We’re closely monitoring the situation, and will mobilize a fierce response when waves of attacks against civil society come down the pike. 
• Trump handed down a pair of executive orders with potentially calamitous implications for pro-Palestine dissent. The first, in raising the specter of Travel Ban 2.0, could facilitate the exclusion and deportation over pro-Palestine beliefs. The second, “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” is clearly tailored to attack pro-Palestine protesters. We will continue our defense of free expression in this time of crisis.