Newsletter: July 2025

Defending Your Right Know: Investigating Our Government’s Role in Gaza “killing fields” 

Defending Rights & Dissent is using Freedom of Information Act requests to urgently investigate our government’s role in supporting crimes against humanity in Gaza. We filed two Freedom of Information Act requests: The first request was with the State Department, Department of Defense, and the former USAID for all contracts awarded for services to be performed in the besieged Gaza Strip since the start of Israel’s genocidal war. The second FOIA request aims to shed light on the U.S. government’s involvement with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-backed shadowy private aid group that has been accused of potential complicity in war crimes and crime against humanity. The request seeks the State Department’s internal communications and reports on the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as well as their communications with the Government of Israel about the group.

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites have been described as “killing fields,” and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said their distribution effort “is a slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid.”

Defending Rights & Dissent also met with offices on the Hill to strengthen and support Congressional oversight over the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the U.S. government’s likely involvement in war crimes.

Mahmoud Khalil is Finally Out of Jail

We’re continuing to cover the Trump administration’s crackdown on the Palestinian solidarity movement across U.S. college campuses. Dozens of students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza have been arrested and detained without charge, and hundreds have had their student visas revoked. Subscribe to the Gaza First Amendment Alert, a free biweekly newsletter on the crackdown, for more detailed coverage.

Mahmoud Khalil was finally released from detention last month, but his legal fight is far from over. Our Policy Director Chip Gibbons has reported on Khalil’s dual proceedings – fighting deportation in Louisiana and a constitutional challenge in New Jersey – for Jacobin since Khalil’s arrest in March. On June 2, Chip reported on the first breakthrough for Khalil when U.S. district judge Michael E. Farbiarz of New Jersey found that the legal provision granting Sec. Rubio the unilateral power to expel noncitizens he thinks threatens U.S. foreign policy was likely unconstitutional when applied to Khalil.

Chip also reported on Khalil’s release from detention, detailing the court’s ruling and what it means not only for Khalil but for other protesters fighting deportation over their speech as well. Chip outlines what’s still to come for Khalil but as he notes, for now:

Khalil’s release is not only a much-needed victory for a young father separated from his family. It is also a setback for the Trump administration in its campaign to curtail the First Amendment rights of those willing to stand up to Israel’s genocide.

Read all of Chip’s Jacobin coverage here.

Chip discussed Khalil’s release and the wider crackdown with FAIR’s CounterSpin, as well as with Project Censored’s podcast.

Trump’s War on Iran was Unconstitutional

Trump ignored Congressional warnings against an unauthorized strike and bombed three Iranian nuclear sites last month. We’re supporting Congressional efforts to invoke the War Powers Act, which prohibits the President from unilaterally taking the country into war.

Congress members in both chambers introduced legislation in an attempt to rein Trump in. Before the strikes, in response to Trump’s threats to bomb Iran, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced a resolution invoking the War Powers Act and calling for a Congressional vote, while Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) cosponsored a similar version in the House.

We supported both bills, and thousands of Defending Rights & Dissent supporters using our online action tool urged support for the War Powers Act to prevent more war.

Defending Rights & Dissent Files Amicus in Khalil v Columbia

Defending Rights & Dissent has submitted an amicus brief to support the plaintiffs in Khalil v Columbia. Eight students, led by Mahmoud Khalil, are suing Columbia University to prevent the University from turning their disciplinary records over to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Our brief makes the case that Congressional committees do not have the authority to compel the release of the records because it violates the First Amendment. Our argument centers on our own organizational history as targets of abusive governmental overreach during the McCarthy era, citing court decisions from that era limiting congressional investigatory authorities.

Trump Expands the Moral Horror of Guantánamo Bay; We Fight Back

On June 22, Representative Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) led 15 members of Congress in a letter to the Trump administration calling for an immediate halt to the use of the Guantánamo Bay prison for migrant detention and demanding its permanent closure. The letter followed news reports that Trump was planning to immediately transfer thousands of migrants to Guantánamo. Defending Rights & Dissent endorsed the letter and worked to recruit additional signatories.

The letter had an impact. The Trump administration halted their plans for a mass transfer of migrants, but it continues to use the base to hold smaller numbers of immigrants.

Our Coverage: Asif Rahman Gets 37 Months in Prison

The U.S. prosecution of Asif Rahman has largely flown under the radar of major media outlets. Rahman is a former CIA analyst who released Top Secret documents to the media detailing Israel’s military plans for an upcoming attack on Iran.

Defending Rights & Dissent has stepped in to cover every major development in Rahman’s legal proceedings, beginning with his arrest and pretrial detention in December 2024 and concluding with Rahman’s sentencing on June 11 to three years and one month in federal prison, after pleading guilty to one count under the Espionage Act in February.

Policy Director Chip Gibbons has covered the entire case for The Dissenter, where he recaps the full hearing that saw Rahman sentenced to 37 months. The following week, Chip discussed the case in detail for The Dissenter’s podcast.

Paramount Caves to Trump’s Attack on Press Freedom

The Trump administration sued CBS News over 60 Minutes’ editing of an interview with Kamala Harris last year in an obviously frivolous SLAPP lawsuit. CBS’s own lawyers argued the suit was an affront to the First Amendment, and yet the company ultimately decided to settle with Trump for $16 million. The move is widely seen as a concession aimed at securing FCC approval for CBS’s forthcoming merger with Paramount.

We don’t think the First Amendment should be up for sale. That’s why we partnered with Freedom of the Press Foundation to organize mass letter-writing to CBS and Paramount executives, urging them not to settle and to fight the case instead.

Millions Protest Authoritarianism at No Kings Rallies

Defending Rights & Dissent activists joined more than 5 million demonstrators in the streets in more than 2,100 cities across the United States for “No Kings” protests on June 14. It was a mass outpouring against the militarization of our democracy.

Defending Rights & Dissent endorsed the ‘No Kings’ rallies in opposition to Trump’s unconstitutional policies, which include cracking down on free speech, detaining people for their political positions, and now deploying federal troops against domestic protesters.