The Hound | April 10

Hi there,

It’s Friday. Yesterday, Melania Trump gave a statement out of the blue denying any knowledge or connection to Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes. The US birthrate declined again, largely thanks to a decline in teen pregnancies. And the DOJ has launched an assault on the Presidential Records Act, claiming the post-Watergate law “exceeds” the legislative branch’s powers and “aggrandizes” Congress “at the expense of the constitutional independence and autonomy of the Executive.”

These rules were designed to ensure transparency and prevent abuses of power—but shifting them now, in ways that benefit Trump, risks undermining those safeguards and shielding critical information from public scrutiny. Yet too much media coverage treats this as a technical legal dispute or bureaucratic adjustment rather than confronting its broader implications. Framing it as process obscures the central question: whether the justice system is being used to protect, rather than hold accountable, those in power.

🖊️ Add your name to call on major news organizations to cover this development clearly and forcefully as an attempt to shield Donald Trump—examining the legal precedent being altered, who benefits from the change, and what it means for transparency and the rule of law.

The public deserves reporting that names when accountability is being weakened, not coverage that normalizes it.

Read about this, and more, with today’s stories:

DOJ Wants to End Crucial Watergate-Era Rule to Give Trump Cover (The New Republic)

710,000 fewer babies were born last year in U.S. compared with two decades ago (NPR)

Trump’s Wreckage of Social Security and Medicare (The American Prospect)

Melania Trump holds extraordinary White House event to deny ties to Epstein, knowledge of his crimes (AP News)

Appeals court decides against Anthropic in latest round of its AI battle with the Trump administration (PBS)

US agency proposes rolling back rules for safe disposal of toxic coal ash (The Guardian)

Severe Exposure to ‘Forever Chemicals’ During Pregnancy Could Lead to Childhood Asthma (Inside Climate News)

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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