RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations'

Picks of the Week

January 25 to January 31

Featured Investigation:

About FACE: Trump Administration Using

Abortion-Focused Law To Defend Believers

A January 2025 protest that disrupted a Sunday worship service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, has become a flashpoint in the long-running debate over the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and its enforcement. Ben Weingarten reports for RealClearInvestigations that the Trump administration’s decision to charge protest leaders under the law signals a major shift in how the Justice Department applies a statute historically used almost exclusively in abortion-related cases. Highlights:

• Activists affiliated with “Operation Pullup” interrupted a Cities Church service with chants and insults, targeting the congregation over the belief that a pastor was a federal immigration officer. Four days later, protest leader Nekima Levy Armstrong was arrested under the FACE Act, a move followed by additional arrests.
• For decades, FACE Act prosecutions overwhelmingly targeted pro-life protestors outside abortion clinics. Conservatives long argued the law was selectively enforced against Christians, especially under the Biden administration, which paired FACE charges with harsher “conspiracy against rights” counts.
• Early in his second term, President Trump pardoned pro-life activists convicted under FACE and sharply limited future abortion-related FACE prosecutions. At the same time, his Justice Department has revived long-ignored provisions of the law to protect houses of worship and religious liberty.
• Although passed in 1993 to address abortion clinic violence, the FACE Act was amended to protect religious worship after Sen. Orrin Hatch insisted that religious freedom receive equal protection. That provision, though rarely used, is now central to current prosecutions.
• Recent FACE actions defending churches and synagogues mark a “changing face” of the law. Supporters see overdue, viewpoint-neutral enforcement; critics argue the statute is now being weaponized against progressive activists.
• Together, these cases suggest a significant reorientation of federal civil rights enforcement – away from abortion-focused prosecutions and toward broader protection of religious worship.

Featured Investigation:

Biden’s Push for Renewables Funding

Trump’s Push To ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’

James Varney reports for RealClearInvestigations that President Trump’s effort to redirect U.S. energy policy towards oil, gas and nuclear power is being funded by an unlikely source: hundreds of billions of dollars the Biden administration secured to promote renewables. Tapping unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and other Democratic-backed legislation, the Trump administration aims to dismantle what it views as a flawed green-energy lending regime and replace it with a “common sense” approach focused on reliability, affordability, and energy dominance.

• More than $280 billion in previously approved but unspent energy funds are now being redirected through a new Energy Dominance Financing Office (EDF). Energy Secretary Chris Wright has canceled billions in Biden-era loans and announced that up to $83 billion more will be revised or eliminated, criticizing them as rushed and financially unsound.
• EDF lending will prioritize oil, natural gas, coal in some cases, critical minerals, and nuclear power, including major loans to restart or extend nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Administration officials and allied experts argue global energy realities have undermined NetZero strategies, with Europe retreating from aggressive decarbonization goals.
• Some analysts warn massive federal loans could crowd out private investment, though EDF officials say strict due diligence will prevent misuse.
• The administration points to Inspector General reports showing potential conflicts of interest in Biden-era loan programs at DOE and EPA, prompting new compliance measures and the EPA’s exit from energy lending. Environmental groups warn the policy shift will raise emissions and worsen climate impacts, while free-market critics argue the federal government should abandon energy lending altogether and use the funds to reduce the deficit.
• Overall, the Trump administration frames its energy pivot as a corrective to what it sees as wasteful, ideologically driven spending, emphasizing energy abundance, lower prices, and national competitiveness.

RCI Podcast

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss Russiagate, the mounting death toll war in Ukraine and the unrest in Minneapolis. They also interview RCI Senior Contributor Ben Weingarten about the DOJ’s efforts to redirect a law used primarily against pro-life demonstrators to charge anti-ICE protestors in Minneapolis.  Watch it here. 

Waste of the Day

by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books

“Zombie” Programs Live Again, RCI

 How the Grinch Stole $30,000, RCI

U.S.-Funded International Groups Don’t Have to Report Fraud, RCI

Throwback Thursday - Monkeys Throw Poop, And $600K, RCI

NYC Healthcare Fund is Out of Cash, RCI

Trump 2.0 and the Beltway

Trump Risks Making an Enemy of the Gun Lobby, Intercept

More Republicans Drawing from Progressive Playbook, Reason

Earmarks Continue to Flow from GOP House, Daily Signal

Feds Seek $1M from Woman Who Failed to Self-Deport, Politico

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

What I Saw Inside Anti-ICE Signal Chats

Substack

The deaths of two protestors at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Minneapolis continues to dominate the news and divide the nation. For the most part the legacy media has cast the Trump administration’s efforts to arrest and deport illegal immigrants as an unconscionable misuse of power. Here’s the opening of a “news” article by New York Times reporter Charles Homan published this week:

Donald Trump’s most profound break with American democracy, evident in his words and actions alike, is his view that the state’s relationship with its citizens is defined not by ideals or rules but rather by expressions of power, at the personal direction of the president. That has been clear enough for years, but I had not truly seen what it looked like in person until I arrived in Minneapolis, my hometown, to witness what Trump’s Department of Homeland Security called Operation Metro Surge.

Meanwhile, conservative outlets have focused more on what they see as the questionable tactics of the protestors. The Daily Caller reported that anti-ICE protestors used dumpsters and trash cans to erect “barricades in the streets of Minneapolis after Border Patrol agents fatally shot a man in possession of a gun Saturday. … Police and the Minnesota State Patrol are letting them take to the streets and not making any effort to remove the barricades.”

In separate articles, Red State and Substacker Andy Ngo reported on how protestors are using social media platforms such as Signal to organize their resistance to ICE. The two people Minneapolis citizens killed while allegedly resisting ICE, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, were reportedly members of the chat group. Ngo reported:

The mass mobilization agitation now unfolding in Minneapolis and St. Paul by far-left, open-border extremists bears the hallmarks of a coordinated and professional operation designed to obstruct federal law enforcement. None of this should come as a surprise. These tactics are an evolution of methods tested during the deadly 2020 BLM–Antifa riots, which were centered largely in the Twin Cities. In recent weeks, numerous Antifa-linked revolutionary anarchist collectives have promoted organizing guides that explicitly instruct extremists on how to carry out obstructionist campaigns. These materials consistently recommend the encrypted messaging app Signal as the primary tool for coordination. Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two militant leftist activists shot dead this month, may have been part of these groups.

While also reporting on the protestors' “sophisticated” communication networks, Red State highlighted revelations about who is funding and supporting those efforts. “On Sunday evening, Data Republican published a spreadsheet of 4000+ donors to the effort and their possible identities, and made that publicly downloadable. She also sent a non-redacted spreadsheet to the FBI and other federal authorities.” The article reports the list includes at least one member of Minnesota’s state senate and one member the Minneapolis city council.

Illinois: 725% Increase in Medicaid for Kids Without SSNs 

Center Square

Almost forgotten amidst the immigration imbroglio taking place in Minneapolis is the Somali welfare-fraud scandal that is also unfolding in Minnesota. This article reports that large-scale massive fraud is not confined to Minnesota. It details the claims of a Republican candidate running for the Illinois statehouse, Bailey Templeton, who says her review of public records shows 1,085 Illinois children under 18 without Social Security numbers had Medicaid bills of $66 million in 2025.

That’s up 725% from $8 million for 450 children in 2021. “It's roughly $40 million spent on inpatient treatment, that's a lot of time for children to be in hospitals,” Templeton told The Center Square. … “It raises questions about what would be called medical trafficking, where things are conducted on  children when they're too young to be able to consent to these things.”

This article reports that documents Templeton received from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services show inpatient hospital costs for children without SSNs in 2021 were $1.9 million. That jumped to $39.3 million in 2025. Outpatient hospital costs went from $3.4 million in 2021 to $10.6 million in 2025. Other categories that also increased in costs were pharmacy, physician/clinic/APN, and social worker/psychologist/LCPC.

Drones Mean No Lull in Ukraine War 

New York Times

As it has for centuries, winter warfare slowed during the first years of Russia’s warfare against Ukraine as the tanks and other heavy armor that dominated the battlefield found tough sledding in the snow and ice. As arms and tactics have changed, this article reports, that’s no longer the case.

Now, as omnipresent drones watch and attack from the skies, heavy armor struggles to move in any season. Tactics have changed: Russia sends small groups of soldiers on motorcycles or on foot to try to infiltrate Ukrainian lines, hoping they are less noticeable to drones. For these small groups, the mission is largely the same no matter the time of year. So the fighting mostly keeps the same pace – a plodding one – from season to season. “Nothing really changes, summer or winter,” said a Ukrainian infantry platoon commander who, according to military protocol, went by his call sign, Salo. “The only difference is the cold.”

This article reports that winter can make drones more effective. “Trees are bare, their leaves no longer providing camouflage. That makes troops more exposed to drones and renders any movement dangerous. Footprints in the snow are easy to spot from above. Lower temperatures make thermal cameras on drones more effective.”

In a separate article, the AP reports that a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that “the number of soldiers killed, injured or missing on both sides of Russia’s war on Ukraine could be 2 million by spring, with Russia sustaining the largest number of troop deaths for any major power in any conflict since World War II, a report warned Tuesday. Instead of seeking peace, the AP reports in another article that Russia is offering cash bonuses to induce its citizens and foreigners to join the fight. Iraqi officials, for example, say about 5,000 of its citizens have joined the Russian military along with an unspecified number who are fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. Officials in Baghdad cracked down on such recruiting networks, with one man convicted last year of human trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.

Treasury Cancels Booz Allen Contracts

Over Tax Record Leaks

NPR

In 2023, Paul Sperry reported for RealClearInvestigations that the man who stole and leaked thousands of confidential tax returns of wealthy Americans, including Donald Trump, had gained access to the records through his work as contractor for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. “The massive IRS theft,” Sperry reported, “is the third major breach of confidential and classified government information by Booz Allen contractors over the last decade – including Edward Snowden's 2013 leak exposing the National Security Agency’s worldwide anti-terror surveillance program. Now NPR reports that the Treasury Department is canceling $21 million worth of contracts with the Booz Allen Hamilton.

A Booz Allen contractor, Charles Edward Littlejohn, pleaded guilty in 2023 to leaking the confidential data to reporters. He was sentenced to five years in prison. … That information was the basis of explosive stories in the New York Times and ProPublica, showing how wealthy people like Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos manage to minimize their tax obligations. … "Canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans' trust in government," [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent said in a statement. "Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.

The 600 Times Trump Administration Has Been Sued So Far 

New York Times

The Trump administration has been a godsend to lawyers. This detailed article provides snapshots of the approximately 600 lawsuits that have been brought against the administration’s policies, highlighting district court cases where a judge has entered a final order for or against the administration.

In more than 350 cases, the courts have let the administration’s policies stay in effect even as they remain in active litigation. In more than 100 cases, however, the courts have at least partially halted the administration’s policies either through temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions.

In a separate article about these cases, the Times reports that “the volume and stakes of the litigation have put an unusually bright spotlight on the often unheralded work of district court judges. Normally, the 677 active-status judges toil at the bottom rung of the federal judiciary. Today, they are on the front lines of a clash between two branches of government. They have faced harsh criticism from the White House and rising threats to their safety, and have complained about the Supreme Court’s penchant for overriding their rulings on its emergency docket.”