Wednesday, July 15 — the clemency test

0:00 R. Kelly wants a pardon. ICE just had its third enforcement death in a week. And the president is openly talking about outsourcing a ground war in Iran. Let’s walk through it. R.

0:12 Kelly’s clemency petition landed at the Justice Department today — the singer, serving 30 years for sex trafficking and racketeering, is asking President Trump for a commutation.

0:25 His lawyer says the sentence is excessive and Kelly has been a model inmate. But here’s what this really tests: the administration’s own law-and-order posture.

0:37 Attorney General Pam Bondi — a Project 2025-aligned DOJ chief — now has to decide whether to recommend clemency for a convicted sex trafficker. If she says yes, it undercuts the tough-on-crime rhetoric.

0:53 If she says no, it still shows the process is opaque, political, and wide open to the next celebrity petition. Either way, the system itself — unmoored from clear standards — loses public trust.

1:10 Meanwhile, the list of people killed during ICE enforcement keeps growing. Three deaths in eight days. A 52-year-old Mexican father shot in Houston. A 26-year-old Colombian man shot in Maine.

1:26 And now a 28-year-old man — not yet publicly named — hit by a tractor-trailer in St. Augustine, Florida, after running from agents at a gas station.

1:36 ICE has now suspended most vehicle stops, which is a de facto admission that its own tactics are killing people.

1:45 But the deeper problem hasn’t changed: no body cameras, no real oversight, and a quota-driven system that rewards aggressive enforcement over safety. The administration calls these deaths tragic accidents.

2:01 The pattern says otherwise. Then there’s Iran. President Trump today refused to rule out a ground campaign — and specifically mentioned using “other people” to lead it.

2:15 That’s a direct end-run around the War Powers Resolution, which requires congressional approval for sustained hostilities. By sending contractors or allied proxies rather than U.S.

2:27 troops, the White House could claim this isn’t a war at all. But if U.S. air support, intelligence, and equipment are involved, it’s a war by any other name.

2:39 Congress has not authorized hostilities against Iran — and under this logic, maybe it never will.

2:46 A few other things today: Republican Senator Jim Banks released a framework to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants — this would require overturning the 127-year-old Wong Kim Ark precedent.

3:03 Teddy Roosevelt’s attorney general once called that ruling unassailable.

3:08 Banks is trying anyway, through legislation rather than executive order, after the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s previous attempt. The Paramount-Warner Bros.

3:20 Discovery merger is barreling toward a September close. The company’s lawyer told CNBC today it’s on track, despite a state antitrust lawsuit from 12 attorneys general.

3:33 The problem: the Trump-aligned DOJ already cleared the deal with no conditions.

3:40 That federal approval gives the merger a powerful presumption of legality — and makes it much harder for states to stop it before the deal closes.

3:50 Creative workers, meanwhile, are looking at a future where HBO, CNN, Paramount Pictures, and DC Comics all answer to the same corporate boss.

4:02 The Biden-era precedent from the Penguin Random House merger — blocked on labor market grounds — is sitting right there, waiting for a court to use it.

4:13 On Capitol Hill, West Virginia congressman Riley Moore has introduced a bill to eliminate the H-1B visa program entirely. He says it’s a scam that displaces American workers.

4:26 But the bill offers nothing to stop the real abuse — outsourcing firms that depress wages for everyone. It punishes immigrant workers while letting the companies that game the system off the hook.

4:39 And at the Justice Department, Acting AG Todd Blanche — Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer — spent his confirmation hearing refusing to commit to recusing himself from cases involving his old client’s co-defendants.

4:55 He wouldn’t rule out accepting a presidential pardon. He wouldn’t release the Jack Smith report. The line between personal loyalty and prosecutorial independence has been erased.

5:08 Nobody on the Hill seems able to draw it back. Every day, we read and log another piece of Project 2025. So far, 147 of its specific actions have been reframed and recorded.

5:23 Across the full arc of this agenda, 12 hundred and 19 distinct actions are now mapped and watched. The work is steady, methodical, and ongoing — we just track the shape of what’s being built.

5:37 Next week, the House takes up the H-1B elimination bill — expect a markup before the judiciary committee.

5:45 The Paramount-WBD merger faces an August 11 hearing on the state attorneys general’s request for a temporary restraining order.

5:55 And the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination for Associate Attorney General within the next two weeks. That’s what happened today — and what it means. I’m Gus Calloway.

6:10 We’ll be back tomorrow.