The Week Ahead

July 19, 2026

There is a lot on the horizon, and we’ll be keeping an eye on multiple flags this week to see what develops.

The dormant contempt hearing against the government for disobeying Judge James Boasberg’s orders not to transfer migrants to El Salvador’s custody last year picks back up on Wednesday, when the petitioner’s brief is due in the Court of Appeals en banc rehearing of the matter in the District of Columbia. At stake is whether the Judge will be able to move forward with contempt proceedings.

The bipartisan Elections Commission in Wisconsin has referred two complaints against Elon Musk for his effort to influence the 2025 Supreme Court election in that state to the Brown County district attorney’s office. Musk paid voters in an effort to flip control of the state’s highest court. The Commission found that his influence campaign likely broke state law against election bribery. Most notably, he gave checks for $1 million each to three voters. The DA must determine whether to bring criminal charges and has a late August deadline to report back to the Commission.

Federal agents across the country have been told the FBI is out of the business of investigating ICE interactions with the public that have gone wrong, including shootings and other physical violence, according to The New York Times’ reporting. If true, it’s highly significant because the FBI is the agency federal prosecutors would work with to develop cases on civil rights violations and excessive force. The reporting is that FBI offices received written directions to “stop investigating claims of assaults against Department of Homeland Security agents.” It is in the course of investigating alleged assaults against agents that evidence is frequently adduced that they were the aggressors.

DHS and DOJ put out a carefully worded joint statement saying that it wasn’t true, that the “F.B.I. will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy.” But there has been no effort by federal prosecutors to bring charges in connection with the deaths of Renee Good or Alex Pretti after investigation suggested they were not at fault in any way in their own deaths. In fact, it seems likely that this new policy is an effort to avoid developing evidence that could be used against agents. The timing is interesting, as the government has just turned over evidence in the Minneapolis killings to the local DA.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that DOJ is also “pulling back” on the prosecution of corporate crime. So, let me make sure I’ve got this straight: No excessive force cases, at least when ICE is involved, no corporate, i.e., white collar crime, and no public corruption cases—that work was eviscerated and the unit at DOJ that specialized in it all but shut down when the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams was dismissed last year.

One might ask, what’s left? What is it that DOJ is doing? Of course, there are federal prosecutors in U.S. Attorneys’ offices across the country trying to keep their heads down and do their jobs. But DOJ’s leadership seems far more interested in specious revenge cases. And, of course, there’s the prospect of prosecuting “Antifa” under NSPM-7, the National Security Presidential Memorandum and an accompanying executive order Trump signed last year, designating “Antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization. The directive expanded federal surveillance, authorized financial investigations, and directed agencies to “disrupt and dismantle” related opposition. One must do something with all those resources that used to protect the American public.

Then there is DHS Secretary Markwayne McMullin, who threatened top election officials in all 50 states with criminal charges if they do not comply with the Trump administration’s demands to feed their voter rolls through a very questionable federal database.

Mullin says he’s making “mandatory” changes to elections, including requiring states to “scrub” their voter rolls. Apparently, his background as an MMA fighter and a successful plumbing business owner doesn’t include constitutional law. The federal government doesn’t control or manage elections.

On Saturday, news broke that British prosecutors would seek to extradite brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate from the U.S. on rape and sex trafficking charges. They were arrested in Miami on an extradition warrant after British prosecutors authorized 38 new charges (the total is now 59), including allegations of rape, sex trafficking, assault, and distributing indecent images of a child. They are also the subject of ongoing proceedings in Romania on human trafficking and sexual abuse charges from 2023. The brothers claim that the allegations are politically motivated.

They were able to come to the U.S. from Romania despite those pending charges. In December 2025, The New York Times reported that although forbidden to leave Romania because of the investigation, Andrew Tate messaged a friend, “I had word from The Trump admin that theyre on top of things.” Their ability to leave the country came the following month. The Times reported that Romania “lifted the travel restrictions, a move that Romania’s prime minister thought would appease the Trump administration.”

As the Times puts it, the brothers deny criminal wrongdoing, but “have boasted about recruiting women to make lucrative sexual content, and have sold courses teaching young men how to follow in their footsteps.” One offering was called PHD, for “pimping hoes degree.” “I’m in Dubai, I’m still rich, all I do is win,” Andrew said in a video posted in April of 2025 that showed him driving a Bugatti. The brothers earned tens of millions of dollars doing this.

They also garnered followers in the U.S. when Tucker Carlson did a highly favorable interview. Charlie Kirk, who expressed disgust over Tate’s pornography business, said in an interview that he agreed with him that masculinity was under siege. “He is hitting on something that you’re not allowed to say, where there’s a lot of truth to it.” Nick Fuentes told Tucker Carlson that while Tate wasn’t “a paragon of Christian morality … men are going with him because he’s putting women in their place.”

Over the weekend, Deputy U.S. Marshals took the brothers into custody in Miami, where they are held pending an initial extradition hearing in federal court in Florida. Their initial appearance is scheduled for this coming week.

Commenting on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plan to boost testosterone levels among members of the military, Jesse Watters said on Fox News: “Women on base, you better be careful. Port calls, women in Asia, you better be careful. Because these guys are going to be wild animals and you better watch out.”

There have been few, if any, sustained calls for accountability despite the public outcry. Fox News has not publicly disciplined Watters for his comments. Some weeks, Margaret Atwood seems more like a seer than a fiction author.

The news cycle rewards forgetting. The Trump administration depends on it. Accountability demands that we remember. That’s why we keep following these stories. If this work matters to you, becoming a paid subscriber is the best way to support it and to make sure this community continues to support democracy.

We’re in this together,

Joyce