Trump Pardoned Officers Who Covered Up a Murder

Mitch McConnell hasn't voted since June but is cosponsoring bills, Texas is reinstating voters it wrongly purged, and ICE punished a DACA recipient it deported for leaving the country

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

A jury convicted two Washington police officers of covering up the death of a young Black man, and Trump pardoned them before either served a day. Mitch McConnell has not cast a Senate floor vote since June but is still cosponsoring legislation remotely. Texas wrongly flagged some of its 2,724 “potential noncitizen” voters and is now scrambling to reinstate the citizens it purged. And the government terminated a DACA recipient’s status for “unauthorized travel” on the exact day it deported her to Mexico.

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Trump Pardoned Two Officers Who Covered Up a Murder

You could teach an entire law school course on what went wrong here

Karon Hylton-Brown was riding a minibike in his D.C. neighborhood in October 2020 when Officer Terence Sutton pulled up and asked why he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Hylton-Brown fled, spurring Sutton and Officer Andrew Zabavsky to chase him through the streets at speeds up to 30 miles per hour. Hylton-Brown sped into the path of a minivan and was killed.

Federal prosecutors said Sutton’s vehicle did not have its lights and sirens on, meaning the minivan driver had no idea a police chase was happening. The officers told the driver to leave within 20 minutes. Neither of them took witness statements, and Sutton never told his superiors there had been a chase at all.

A jury convicted Sutton of murder and both men of obstructing justice, and a judge sentenced them to five years and four years, respectively.

Under Justice Department guidelines, neither man qualified for a pardon, which are supposed to go to people who served most of their sentence and showed remorse. Trump pardoned both officers before either served a day.

One of the officers was reinstated and remains on the force, whereas the prosecutor who called it “a murder and a cover-up” was fired by Trump’s DOJ. The officers are now suing that same DOJ for malicious prosecution.

Mitch McConnell Has Cosponsored Legislation Since Being Hospitalized

“Working remotely” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

Senator Mitch McConnell, 84, has not cast a floor vote since he was hospitalized in June after a fall left him briefly unconscious. His office says he continues to work remotely with his staff, and records show he has cosponsored several pieces of legislation, including a resolution honoring the late Senator Lindsey Graham and a sanctions bill named after him.

McConnell said Monday in a statement, released alongside a photo with his wife Elaine Chao, that he has not been medically cleared to return. Doctors have ruled out a stroke, heart attack, concussion, tumor, and hemorrhage, though he did develop mild pneumonia during his hospitalization.

In a chamber with a razor-thin Republican majority, every vote counts. McConnell has missed votes on appropriations bills, judicial nominations, war powers resolutions, and roughly two dozen named measures.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has called for McConnell to publicly demonstrate he is “fit to serve” or resign. Beshear’s office says the senator hasn’t responded to his requests, and as far as they know, haven’t responded to GOP senators either.

Texas Purged ‘Noncitizen’ Voters. Some of Them Were Citizens.

In most jobs, doing things in the wrong order gets you fired. In Texas, it gets you an election security contract.

Texas flagged 2,724 registered voters as potential noncitizens using a federal tool called SAVE, the same program the Trump administration has urged every state to adopt. Counties mailed notices demanding proof of citizenship, and those who didn’t respond within 30 days had their voter registration canceled.

Now the Texas Secretary of State’s Office has told county officials to immediately reinstate some voters who were incorrectly flagged. State elections director Christina Adkins said a review of Department of Public Safety records confirmed the citizenship of some of the flagged voters, such as those who had already provided proof of citizenship when they got a driver’s license or registered to vote.

The state admits it did not check the flagged names against DPS records before sending the list to counties. Nobody yet knows how many actual U.S. citizens had their registrations canceled.

Texas is among the states that voluntarily handed the Justice Department its unredacted list of more than 18 million voters, including dates of birth, driver license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers. At least three Texas counties have received DOJ subpoenas for voter records.

They couldn’t check a list against their own database, but they had no trouble shipping 18 million voters’ personal information to the federal government.

Deported DACA Recipient Punished for Leaving the Country

If you're wondering how immigration enforcement works right now, the government deported a woman and then penalized her for the trip.

Jessica Treviño, 34, was brought to the U.S. at age 7 and received DACA status at 20. Her status and work permit were authorized through April 2027.

Treviño and her husband were arrested in December after agents followed them and two of their daughters into a South Texas Home Depot parking lot. Both were deported to Matamoros, Mexico. Their three children are living with family on the American side of the border.

Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent her a notice of intent to terminate her status for “unauthorized travel outside of the United States on or about March 25, 2026,” the same day DHS deported her.

Treviño says she never signed any forms at the ICE detention facility and did not want to be deported. An immigration judge issued a voluntary departure order in February while she was in custody, but a valid DACA status is supposed to prevent DHS from deporting her at all.

The Trump administration has deported 86 DACA recipients and arrested 241 more, according to a DHS letter to Senator Dick Durbin. Advocates call it a pattern: deport first, justify after.

“I would be so blessed to be able to go back home,” Treviño said.

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