The state of Oregon is taking the president to court for sending the troops to its door.

One day after Donald Trump said he would issue the national guard to Portland, the Beaver State filed a 41-page legal complaint accusing the country’s leader of having “trampled” the U.S. Constitution by federalizing Portland’s law enforcement. The city of Portland also joined the lawsuit.

“Our nation’s founders recognized that military rule—particularly by a remote authority indifferent to local needs—was incompatible with liberty and democracy,” the lawsuit said. “Foundational principles of American law therefore limit the president’s authority to involve the military in domestic affairs.”

The lawsuit further condemned Trump’s “provocative and arbitrary actions,” which it argued legitimately threaten Portland’s peace by “inciting a public outcry.”

Rather than rely on data before commanding the National Guard across the country, Trump decided earlier this month to target Rose City after he claimed he witnessed its “destruction” when he “watched television.” On Saturday, he directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland” in order to defend ICE. He also supported their use of “full force.”

Hours later, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek publicly undercut the White House’s rhetoric, insisting there was no need to invite the military to solve the state’s problems.

“The president does not have the authority to deploy federal troops on state soil,” Kotek said. “There is no insurrection. There is no threat to national security, and there is no need for military troops in our major city.”

Kotek further emphasized that the National Guard’s needless deployment sullied their commitment to national defense, and that they would be a wasted resource in Portland.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said that Trump’s solution to the fictional threat of violence was unpresidential and would never serve to solve any legitimate problems facing communities across America.

“If you really wanted public safety, you wouldn’t threaten to send the United States military into any city,” Rayfield said in a video statement Sunday. “I know for a fact, from talking to cities across Oregon and across the country, that if you pick up the phone and ask, ‘What do you need? What could be helpful?’ the answer would not be the United States military.”

After failing to correctly read and understand a batch of documents, Republicans have revived an old conspiracy theory that the so-called “deep state” staged the January 6 insurrection.

The GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on January 6 announced on X Friday that the FBI had “finally” revealed that it deployed 276 agents to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

A closer look at the document revealed that the agents were responding to the rioters, not inciting them. “This number includes agents that responded to the Capitol grounds as well as inside the Capitol, the pipe bombs, and the red truck that was believed to contain explosive devices as well as CDCs/ADCs.”

Crucially, Republicans have still provided no evidence that those working with law enforcement were involved in planning the deadly riot or instigating violence that day.

Not only is this not a bombshell—it’s not even new. The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General already reported in December 2024 that the FBI had deployed agents to the Capitol as part of a review of its handling of the incident.

“After the Capitol had been breached on January 6 by rioters, and in response to a request from the USCP, the FBI deployed several hundred Special Agents and employees to the U.S. Capitol and the surrounding area,” the report said.

Still, Just the News, a conservative blog, reported that plainclothes agents had been “secretly” deployed, though the after-action report the it referenced said absolutely nothing about what they were wearing. President Donald Trump shared the article on Truth Social, writing “Wow: A Radical Left Democrat Scam!” And failed Arizona Republican Kari Lake shared Trump’s post on X, saying, “They staged a riot on January 6 to frame patriotic Americans and cover-up a stolen election. Justice is coming.”

But Republicans have never needed any proof to fuel this particular conspiracy theory. In July 2023, Trump shared a meme on Truth Social claiming, “JANUARY 6 WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE DAY THE GOVERNMENT STAGED A RIOT TO COVER UP THE FACT THAT THEY CERTIFIED A FRAUDULENT ELECTION.”

Superintendent Ian Roberts of Des Moines Public Schools was detained Friday by federal agents. The reason for his detention was not clear, according to the school district.

An email issued Friday afternoon by DMPS Board President Jackie Norris announced that Associate Superintendent Matt Smith would take over Roberts’s role effective “immediately” and “until further notice.”

“This action follows Dr. Ian Roberts being detained by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents this morning,” Norris wrote in an email obtained by Iowa Public Radio. “We have no confirmed information as to why Dr. Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps.”

Roberts’s whereabouts are also, alarmingly, unclear. A list of detainees on ICE’s website lists the educational administrator in the Pottawattamie County Jail in Council Bluffs, but an employee at the jail told Iowa Public Radio that Roberts was “not located there.”

The ICE website claims that Roberts was born in Guyana. Roberts’s district profile states that the educator’s parents were immigrants from Guyana and that he grew up in Brooklyn.

Roberts has been responsible for the largest public school district in Iowa since 2023. At the time of his hiring, Roberts’s “focus on creating equitable experience for students” was openly celebrated by then–school board Chair Teree Caldwell-Johnson. Roberts was named a top 100 education influencer by a K-12 magazine, District Administration, earlier this summer for his Reimagining Education program, a plan to modernize the district’s classrooms as requested by local residents.

It’s not the first instance of federal immigration officers throwing their weight around........

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