Flights halted at US airports as watchdog warns over hacking threat

Senator Ron Wyden calls for swift action after GAO report finds systems guiding US aircraft vulnerable to interference…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/21/airports-flight-ground-stop-hacking-threat

 

DOGE overstated savings, government watchdog says - POLITICO

A report from the Government Accountability Office found that the cost-cutting operation counted savings it didn’t secure and criticized its opaque methodology...

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/06/doge-savings-overstated-watchdog-report-01027797

DHS watchdog opens probes into ICE treatment of detainees - POLITICO

Per a memo to ICE chief David Venturella posted on the watchdog’s website, the DHS inspector general is looking at whether “systemic factors, policies, or processes contributed to detainee deaths that occurred in ICE,” from October of 2021 through March 2026. That covers the tenures of both former Secretaries Alejandro Mayorkas and Kristi Noem...

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/25/dhs-watchdog-opens-probes-into-ice-treatment-of-detainees-00976800

 

Pentagon quietly shut legally required program to prevent civilian deaths by military

The Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog...

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/15/pentagon-civilian-death-program

 

Federal discrimination watchdog sues New York Times for editor snub - POLITICO

Kalpana Kotagal, the commission’s sole Democratic appointee, blasted the Republican majority’s decision to file the lawsuit as politically motivated. 

“I fear this litigation is driven not by the merits, but by a desire to advance the administration’s political agenda, which weakens civil rights protections for workers and undermines employer efforts to advance equal employment opportunity,” Kotagal wrote in a statement posted on social media…

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/05/federal-discrimination-watchdog-new-york-times-lawsuit-00907157

 

‘Incredibly dangerous’: court records reveal gutting of DHS oversight

The Trump administration has so radically transformed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) independent watchdog teams that thousands of cases related to conditions in immigration detention, deaths in custody and officers' use of force are not being investigated, according to court records reviewed by the Guardian. 

Hundreds of pages of court filings in a key legal battle in federal court serve to contradict the Trump administration's repeated claims that the DHS watchdogs are performing "all required functions". The allegations of failings within the shrunken oversight offices at the DHS, tasked by Congress with investigating civil rights and related concerns, come as the department grapples with public criticism of killings by immigration agents, escalating arrest tactics and plans to increase immigrant detention…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/08/dhs-oversight-court-record-review

 

Trump's EPA issues record low legal actions against polluters, watchdog group finds

By examining court records, the group found that only 16 legal actions were taken against alleged polluters on the EPA's behalf by the Department of Justice. That's 87% lower than Obama's first year of his second term and 76% lower than Biden's first year. And that's 81% lower than even the first year of Trump's first term in 2017.

 https://www.npr.org/2026/02/05/nx-s1-5699511/epa-trump-enforcement

 

 

 

 

DHS watchdog investigating use of force by ICE - POLITICO

The Trump administration has signaled a willingness to soften its approach to immigration enforcement in recent weeks, with Democrats threatening to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and withhold funding for the department over its aggressive tactics...

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/03/dhs-investigation-use-of-force-ice-00761953 

 

Gutting of key US watchdog could pave way for grave immigration abuses, experts warn

The federal watchdog system at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that oversees complaints about civil rights violations, including in immigration detention, has been gutted so thoroughly that it could be laying the groundwork for the Trump administration to "abuse people with impunity", experts warn. 

Former federal oversight officials have sounded the alarm at the rapid dismantling of guardrails against human rights failures – at the same time as the government pushes aggressive immigration enforcement operations...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/30/us-watchdog-human-rights-department-homeland-security

 

Fannie Mae's fraud watchdogs doubted charges against James - POLITICO

The defense team representing New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday cited internal communications from Fannie Mae showing the government-controlled company's top fraud investigators believed the mortgage fraud case against James was relatively weak...

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/17/fannie-maes-fraud-watchdogs-letitia-james-00655533 

 

Hegseth Signal messages came from email classified ‘SECRET,’ watchdog told - The Washington Post

The revelation contradicts the Trump administration's long-standing claims that no classified information was shared by the defense secretary's account during the "Signalgate" scandal...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/07/23/hegseth-signalgate-classified-secret/

DHS shuts down internal watchdog agencies that advocated for immigrants - The Washington Post

The three agencies investigated complaints, including about detention conditions and delays in processing green card and citizenship applications. They had about 300 employees...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/03/21/dhs-immigrant-advocates-watchdogs-oversight/

 

Watchdog report shows just how bad another Trump term would be

An inspector general's report claims the Trump administration altered an intelligence report so Trump wouldn't look bad...

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/watchdog-report-shows-just-how-bad-another-trump-term-would-n1295207

EPA watchdog says Trump appointees kept fired employees on payroll - POLITICO

The improper payments were directed by former chief of staff Ryan Jackson and carried out by former White House liaison Charles Munoz...

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/25/epa-report-fired-employees-496398

SEC fires Republican audit watchdog after push from Warren, Sanders - POLITICO

…In a letter to Gensler on May 25, the lawmakers said the new board was populated with "partisan cronies with a deregulatory agenda and little relevant experience." They said the PCAOB under Duhnke moved to weaken audit standards and that enforcement actions plummeted. Duhnke himself has faced internal complaints about his conduct and a wrongful termination lawsuit…

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/04/sec-fires-republican-watchdog-491939

Republican senator 'personally benefited from tax change he sought'

Ron Johnson, the senator from Wisconsin who has led the Republican campaign in the Senate of making unfounded claims about Joe Biden’s son Hunter, is facing a host of questions about his own ethics, including whether he personally benefited from a change in tax law that he sought in 2017. A letter sent by Johnson to the Senate ethics committee in May has revealed the senator began the process of selling a company he partly owned in February 2018, just months after he insisted the Trump administration change a portion of the tax law in a way that ultimately benefited the sale. The issue has become a focus of the Congressional Integrity Project, a Democratic watchdog group that is seeking to expose allegations of corruption within the Republican ranks.....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/21/senator-ron-johnson-republican-tax-change-benefit

Warren asks watchdogs to probe private White House coronavirus briefings for insider trading | TheHill

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has asked the two U.S. financial market regulators to investigate whether the Trump administration’s private February warnings to a conservative think tank about the potential economic harm of the coronavirus pandemic spurred insider trading. In a Thursday letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Heath Tarbert, Warren asked the agencies to probe if administration officials privately shared information that was later used to preempt the March financial meltdown during late February briefings with the Hoover Institution.....
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/521280-warren-asks-watchdogs-to-probe-private-white-house-coronavirus-briefings-for

More than 1,250 former Justice Dept. workers call for internal watchdog to probe Barr role in clearing demonstrators from Lafayette Square - The Washington Post

More than 1,250 former Justice Department workers on Wednesday called on the agency’s internal watchdog to investigate Attorney General William P. Barr’s involvement in law enforcement’s move last week to push a crowd of largely peaceful demonstrators back from Lafayette Square using horses and gas.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/more-than-1250-former-justice-dept-workers-call-for-internal-watchdog-to-probe-barr-role-in-clearing-demonstrators-from-lafayette-square/2020/06/10/608827fe-aa73-11ea-9063-e69bd6520940_story.html

“I Can’t Speak Negatively About the President,” Says Official Charged With Stimulus Oversight — ProPublica

President Donald Trump’s purge of watchdogs is on the mind of one of the newly hired officials charged with overseeing the more than $2 trillion CARES Act.
https://www.propublica.org/article/i-cant-speak-negatively-about-the-president-says-official-charged-with-stimulus-oversight

GOP senator blocks Trump nominations until admin explains why it fired watchdogs

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Thursday said he would block two Trump administration nominations until the White House explained why it fired two federal watchdogs. Grassley had previously sent letters to President Donald Trump asking for explanations after the firings of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson and State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. The White House counsel responded to Grassley’s letter in late May about Linick’s ouster, but it “failed to address” the requirement that there be a “good reason” for such a termination, Grassley said at the time.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/04/gop-senator-blocks-trump-nominations-until-admin-explains-why-it-fired-watchdogs.html