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John Roth

@johnrothdc.bsky.social
1.4K followers 586 following 132 posts

Former federal prosecutor, former DHS Inspector General. Ethics and compliance leader in the private sector. Interested in governance, corruption, and justice issues.

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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Both whether they failed to disclose information and, which I suspect, they affirmatively misled the GJ. Because this cannot possibly meet even the probable cause standard under current law, which requires an "imminent threat."
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Comey is well positioned to chop the DOJ into tiny little pieces. I just feel for all those who don't have the resources Comey has.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Not going to lie, you had me for a second. Sometimes laughter is all you can accomplish.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I can't imagine what self-respecting AUSA would touch this case with a ten foot pole...
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Congrats. Always a big fan of your work and hope we continue to see it.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
“Creating lawyer fillets” 😂
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
bsky.app/profile/wash...
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
bsky.app/profile/wash...
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
bsky.app/profile/wash...
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Reposted by John Roth
Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
SHOULD THE U.S BLOT OUT THE SUN AND USHER IN AN AGE OF ETERNAL DARKNESS? - Gallup 2/20/26-3/5/26 NO - 41% YES - 38% UNSURE - 21%
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
But I was assured by Justice Kavanaugh that this would not happen.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Caught the pop fly to win the series! I was 10 and living in Royal Oak.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Isn’t that a felony? It would have to go before a grand jury.
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Reposted by John Roth
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
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Robert Black @hurricanexyz.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
This country's problems are, first and foremost, the fault of its people The people need to be better for the country to get better
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Davy Pottel @drpottel.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
The catalog of ICE abuses in Noah Smith’s article is staggering.
Here’s a video of ICE agents in Arkansas beating up an unarmed U.S. citizen. Here’s a video of ICE agents arresting two U.S. citizens in a Target. Here’s a story about a similar arrest. Here’s a video of an ICE agent brandishing a gun in the face of a protester. Here’s the story of ICE agents arresting a pastor who complained about an arrest he saw. Here’s a video of ICE agents arresting an American citizen and punching him repeatedly. Here’s a video of ICE agents threatening a bystander who complained about their reckless driving. Here’s a video of ICE agents arresting a man for yelling at them from his own front porch. Here’s a video of ICE agents making a particularly brutal arrest while pointing their weapons at unarmed civilians nearby. Here’s a story about another ICE killing, this one in Maryland, under dubious circumstances.

These are all things I noticed on X within just the last two days. There has been a pretty constant stream of these for months. Here’s a roundup of some others, by Jeremiah Johnson:
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
Paywall.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Do professors ever consider the price of the book in selecting the reading list? $30 for paperback/kindle seems predatory.
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LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @longtimehistory.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
ICE detain father shopping on Christmas Eve—then steal his family's groceries. Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves. "Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks. "No, guess he should've complied," agent says. Yakima, Washington
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Keep fighting!
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Luca Trenta @lucatrenta.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Just so we are all on the same page, when Trump says that 11 months ago he inherited a ‘mess,’ this is the mess he inherited.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Brilliant writing!
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Facts matter.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
This is quite a startling drop, to the detriment of public safety.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
For those interested in the case, the good folks at Courtlistener.com have compiled the pleadings and docket sheets for both cases, to save you from paying Pacer fees. www.courtlistener.com/docket/71191... www.courtlistener.com/docket/70476...
courtlistener.com
CourtListener
Create alerts, search for and browse the latest case law, PACER documents, judges, and oral arguments. Updated automatically with the latest court documents. An initiative of Free Law Project.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Here is the Washington Post article reporting on it. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
washingtonpost.com
Costa Rica says it would accept Kilmar Abrego García, contradicting U.S.
The statement from a Costa Rican official conflicts with what the Trump administration told a federal judge about its attempts to deport the undocumented immigrant
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Credibility is the coin of the realm for those who represent the interests of the United States in court. With more evidence of more misrepresentations to a court by Department of Justice lawyers, that credibility has been shattered.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Abrego's lawyers maintain that this misrepresentation is further "unmistakable proof" of the government's selective and vindictive prosecution resulting from his animus against him, resulting from challenging the government's original, unlawful deportation.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Previously, the government had offered Costa Rica as an option if he would plead guilty to the pending trafficking charge, which he declined to do. As it turns out, Costa Rican officials had told the State Department since August that Abrego would be accepted and his civil rights respected.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
In the government represented to the courts that Abrego's preferred country for deportation, Costa Rica, was unavailable so he must be deported to Liberia. Abrego, a Salvadorian who was living in Maryland with his American wife and children, has no ties to Liberia.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Another apparent series of misrepresentations to two federal courts by the Department of Justice in the Abrego Garcia cases.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
My pleasure! Still an open question as to whether it can be re-indicted at all.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
The handbook and the US attorney’s manual are not binding per se, but in this instance it cites binding case law. So the indictment can be no broader than the one just dismissed.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Thank you!
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
THREAD: Judge Ellis is the first federal judge to review extensive body cam video of DHS's actions in Chicago. She finds that DHS *repeatedly* misled the public and made claims that were disproven by agents' own videos. I'll go through some of the most egregious ones here.
II. Credibility
The Court next addresses the credibility of the parties’ evidence and witnesses. After reviewing all the evidence submitted to the Court and listening to the testimony elicited at the preliminary injunction hearing, during depositions, and in other court proceedings, the Court finds Defendants’ evidence simply not credible. [FN 6]

Plaintiffs submitted a mountain of evidence, providing the Court with over eighty declarations, numerous videos and articles, and other evidence. Defendants did not rebut anything that Plaintiffs set forth in their declarations or testimony, even with BWC footage. 

[FN 6] In another case considering some of the same evidence presented to this Court, another court in this district also found that the perceptions of certain of Defendants’ declarants, such as Hott and Parra, were not reliable. See Illinois v. Trump, No. 25-cv-12174, 2025 WL 2886645, at *5 (N.D. Ill. Oct. 10, 2025) (noting a “troubling trend of Defendants’ declarants equating protests with riots and a lack of appreciation for the wide spectrum that exists between citizens who are observing, questioning, and criticizing their government, and those who are obstructing, assaulting, or doing violence”), motion to stay denied in part, 155 F.4th 929 (7th Cir. 2025).
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
😉thanks!
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
This is insane. A government I no longer recognize.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Paywalled article.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Inconceivable numbers. Each one would be a scandal in normal times.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
So valuable. I returned to college after retirement and am loving it. Thanks to the Virginia university system that waives tuition for those over a certain age!
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
What We Know about the Day of Jim Comey's Indictment www.emptywheel.net/2025/11/20/w...
emptywheel.net
What We Know about the Day of Jim Comey's Indictment - emptywheel
Let’s assume for the moment that, to the extent the players involved in indicting Jim Comey understand the least little bit about what went down, they’re telling the truth. Here’s what Lindsey Halliga...
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
link to the opinion. The discussion of the DOJ letter starts on page 19. thearp.org/documents/19...
thearp.org
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
This is just another example of the destruction of the Department’s credibility during this Administration. In the end, all of us will lose.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
I and others have written about high profile matters in the last few months -- the Chicago litigation, in Abrego Garcia, and Comey, just to name three -- in which courts have taken the Department to task for its lack of integrity, credibility, and general competence.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
That an Assistant Attorney General would author such a letter should be shocking to both lawyers and non-lawyers. The Department had a proud culture of getting it right on both the facts and law, and it was drilled into us that our integrity mattered.
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
"Indeed, even attorneys employed by the Texas Attorney General—who professes to be a political ally of the Trump Administration—describe the DOJ Letter as ‘legally[] unsound,’ ‘baseless,’ ‘erroneous,’ ‘ham-fisted,’ and ‘a mess.’”
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
“It’s challenging to unpack the DOJ Letter because it contains so many factual, legal, and typographical errors."
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
The majority -- one appointed by President Obama and the other by President Trump -- had this to say about the letter DOJ sent to Texas:
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John Roth @johnrothdc.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
In so holding, they noted that the legislative redistricting was instigated by a letter from the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division for the Department of Justice, which urged Texas to correct the district lines drawn up after the census in 2021.
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