Ken Cuccinelli

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Ken Cuccinelli, an immigration hardliner, is refusing to step down as deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security after a federal judge said his appointment violated federal law.

Cuccinelli insists his appointment was appropriate.

“The succession for the deputy secretary of homeland security ties back to my official position as the principal deputy at USCIS [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services], there’s not a problem with me at my current position,” Cuccinelli said on Fox and Friends Monday after initially laughing at the news. “The only issue in the case is related to being the acting director at USCIS. And this ruling is really something of an outlier. This is a methodology that has been used in the past. It’s been thought of as legal as — pretty broadly.”

A federal district court judge in Washington D.C. ruled that Cuccinelli, a 51-year-old former attorney general, failed to meet the requirements in the Federal Vacancies Reform Act to secure the job.

The judge said Cuccinelli was illegally appointed to lead a department agency, a move that the Trump administration believed made him qualify for his current job.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the judge will respond to Cuccinelli’s refusal to step down.

By Steve Neavling.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Detroit police are pulling out of a DEA task force over the use of an informant who went on a killing spree.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig told The Detroit News that he pulled his officers from a DEA/Detroit police task force after meeting with Keith Martin, special agent in charge of the DEA’s operations in Michigan and Ohio.

“I said during the meeting I felt there was a breach of trust,” Craig said. “Because of this failure to acknowledge ownership that (Kenyel) Brown was signed as an informant working for the DEA/DPD task force, I’m pulling my officers from the task force.”

Detroit police had worked with the DEA for more than 20 years, the chief said.

Martin responded that the DEA is still “committed to working with the Detroit Police Department.”

The controversy involves the DEA’s use of Kenyel Brown, whom the task force paid $150 in October for information about a southwest Detroit gang dealing drugs.

Brown committed suicide by shooting himself in the head Monday as officers prepared to arrest him on allegations he was involved in six homicides, a shooting and two carjackings in Detroit and two suburbs.

Brown was kept out of prison while he was used as a federal informant, despite “multiple violations of his probation,” The Detroit News reported.