Letters from an American - October 20, 2025

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

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October 20th, 2025. Over the weekend, as millions of Americans attended no kings protests, President Donald J. Trump's social media accounts responded by posting images not just of Trump as a king, defecating on Americans even, but also of Vice President J.D. Vance in a royal crown, suggesting that American democracy has been supplanted by tyranny that will last pass Trump into the future. In the United States, no man is a monarch. The law is supposed to be king. In January 1776, newly arrived immigrant Thomas Payne published common sense, explaining to his new countrymen why they should declare independence from the king of

England. He called for a new government based not in heritage or tradition, but in the law. In America, the law is king, Payne wrote. For as in absolute governments, the king is law, so in free countries, the law ought to be king, and there ought to be no other. But under Trump, the law is under attack. Last night, on CBS's 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley, Aaron Wise, Eliza Chason, and Ian Flickinger presented the story of Erez Ruvaney, a former lawyer for the Department of Justice, or DOJ, who alleges that the Trump administration is destroying the rule of law in America. Ruvani was part of the first administration of President Donald J. Trump, where he defended Trump's travel ban order, prohibiting travelers from

Muslim-majority countries from coming to the United States. He was so effective, the journalists note, he quickly took on a prominent role in Trump's second term. On March 14th, the same day he was promoted to become the acting deputy director of the DOJ's immigration section, Rovaney and others in his section met with Emil Bovey, who had once been Trump's criminal defense attorney and was then the third highest official at the DOJ. Bovey told the lawyers, that Trump would invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport more than 100 Venezuelan migrants the administration claimed were terrorists.

They would not receive due process. According to Rouveni, Bovi emphasized those planes need to take off no matter what. Then, after a pause, he also told all in attendance, and if some court should issue an order preventing that, we may have to consider telling that court, you. I felt like a bomb had gone off, Ruvani told 60 Minutes. Here's the number three official using expletives to tell career attorneys that we might just have to consider disregarding federal

court orders. The next day, some of the prisoners sued, and U.S. District Court Judge James Bozberg called a hearing. Bosberg asked Drew Ensign, representing the DOJ, whether the planes would be leaving that weekend. Ensign said he didn't know, even though, according to Ruveni, ensign was at the same meeting with Bovi he was. Ruveni called that moment in court, stunning. It is the highest, most egregious violation of a lawyer's code of ethics to mislead a court with intent, Ruveni told 60 minutes. Bozberg ordered the planes not to leave and ordered the government to return any planes in the air. But instead, more than five hours after Bozberg's order,

the planes carrying the migrants arrived at the notorious terrorist prison, Seacott, in El Salvador. And then it really hit me. It's like, we really did tell the courts, screw you. We really did just tell the courts, we don't care about your order. You can't tell us what to do, Ruvani told 60 Minutes. That was just a real gut punch.

Then it turned out that Maryland man Kilmar Obrego-Garcia, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, whose deportation to El Salvador a U.S. court had prohibited, had been rendered to Seacot. Rovaney told CNN that one of his superiors called him and ordered him to say that Obrigo Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang and a terrorist. Ruveni said he couldn't say such a thing because it was a lie. What's to stop them if they decide they don't like you anymore? To say you're a criminal, you're a member of MS-13, you're a terrorist, Ruvani told 60 Minutes. What's to stop them from sending in some DOJ attorney at the direction of DOJ leadership to delay, to filibuster, and if necessary, to lie?

And now that's you gone and your liberties changed. when Ruvani refused to sign a brief calling Abrago Garcia a terrorist, the administration fired him. John Hudson, Jeremy Robuck, and Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post reported yesterday that the day before Ruvani was promoted and Bovi called a meeting with him and other DOJ lawyers to tell them the planes need to take off no matter what, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a phone conversation with Salvadoran President Nae Buckely. The Trump administration wanted to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to Seacot, but Buckely had a price. Buckely wanted nine leaders of the MS-13 gang

returned to El Salvador with the other prisoners. The individuals he wanted had threatened to expose the relationship between Buckely and MS-13. Buckele's government has allegedly cut deals with MS-13 leaders to reduce the number of public murders, to make it look as if homicide rates are falling, a development that boosts Bucaly's popularity. The Washington Post journalists report that Rubio promised to return the MS-13 leaders. But some of those leaders were informants who were under the protection of the U.S. government. For years, U.S. law enforcement had worked first to capture high-ranking members of the deadly MS-13 gang, and then to secure their cooperation with the promise of protection by the U.S. government.

Rubio told Buckely the U.S. would renege on those agreements and turn the informants over to the government whose corruption they were exposing. The deal is a deep betrayal of U.S. law enforcement, whose agents risked their lives to apprehend the gang members, said Douglas Ferry. a contractor who had investigated and helped U.S. officials to dismantle MS-13. Who would ever trust the word of U.S. law enforcement or prosecutors again? The 60-minute story noted that the nonpartisan law journal, Just Security, has discovered more than 35 cases in which judges have said the government is lying to them.

One judge warned that trusts that had been earned over generations has been lost in weeks. Republicans in the U.S. Senate confirmed Bovi as a U.S. appeals court judge in July, although Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined all Democrats in voting no. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican of Iowa, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said of Bovie, he has a strong legal background and has served his country honorably. I believe he will be diligent, capable, and a fair jurist. At the same time the administration undermines the rule of law that the founders expected would rule the nation, it is illustrating the destruction of the people's government with a symbolism that is hard to miss. Although the U.S.

government has been shut down now for 20 days, leaving vital public servants without pay, work on Trump's 90,000 square foot ballroom has continued. In July, when he announced the project, Trump said, It won't interfere with the current building. It won't be. It'll be near it, but not touching it. And pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of.

It's my favorite. It's my favorite place. I love it. Trump's promise notwithstanding, demolition crews have begun to tear down the east wing of the White House. the People's House. Jonathan Edward and Dan Diamond of the Washington Post noted that today a backhoe began ripping through the structure.

The National Capital Planning Commission, which approves construction of federal buildings, has not signed off on the destruction. But in September, Will Weissert of the Associated Press reported that the Trump-appointed head of the commission, Will Scharf, who is also the White House staff secretary, said the board has no jurisdiction over demolition or site preparation. What we deal with is essentially construction, vertical build,

Sharf said during the only public meeting about the ballroom. But White House officials do not appear to want to advertise their destruction of part of the historic building. Natalie Andrews and Alex Leary of the Wall Street Journal reported that officials at the Treasury Department, which has a front row seat to the demolition, have told employees not to share photos of the grounds. According to Trump, funding for his ballroom has been provided by dozens of companies, including Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, and Coinbase.

As of September, the White House had not yet submitted building plans to the National Capital Planning Commission. The first president to live in the White House, after its construction, was a contemporary of Thomas Payne, John Adams. When he moved into the house in 1800, Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that she'll hear after inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.

It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead of Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.