The Hound | July 28

Hi there,

It’s Tuesday. The same week the DOJ was forced to withdraw its subpoenas of New York Times journalists, the House Ways and Means Committee quietly subpoenaed BreakThrough News, a left-wing outlet critical of U.S. and Israeli foreign policy, along with two affiliated nonprofits. The committee claims it's a tax probe into funding from a U.S. citizen living in Shanghai — but its own prior correspondence never cited financial illegality, focusing instead on BreakThrough's coverage of ICE and Israel and its ties to a lawfully organized domestic political party.

🖊️ Sign the petition to call on the media to cover the subpoenaing of BreakThrough News with the same urgency and solidarity it brought to the New York Times story. The administration's strategy is transparent: start at the margins, where the blowback is smaller, and work inward.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation was blunt: the government is targeting outlets it knows it can harass without the blowback that comes from going after the New York Times. If journalists wait until the targets are outlets they recognize as their own, it will be too late. The public deserves a press corps that understands press freedom is indivisible — or it isn't freedom at all.

In addition, The Atlantic fights back against FBI Director Kash Patel’s defamation lawsuit. And, the largest ICE facility in California has been neglecting the medical needs of detainees.

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

House Investigation of BreakThrough News Is an Attack on All Journalism (The Intercept)

California’s largest ICE facility neglected detainees’ medical needs, monitor finds (The Guardian)

Yes, Trump Will Attempt a Coup (The American Prospect)

Kash Patel Spirals After The Atlantic Bashes His Defamation Lawsuit (The New Republic)

Defendant in Salman Rushdie stabbing declines to testify in terrorism trial (AP News)

Trump Administration Moves to Open American Samoa’s Waters to Deep-Sea Mining (Mother Jones)

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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