Dissenter Headlines For June 9, 2025

Thank you for subscribing to The Dissenter Update. Here are your headlines for the week of June 9, 2025.

Whistleblower Alleges Colorado Governor Pressured State Employees To Violate Law And Share Data With ICE

Scott Moss, the director of the state of Colorado’s Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in which he argues that Governor Jared Polis instructed him to illegally provide information to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Lever first reported the lawsuit, which revealed that ICE had issued a secret subpoena demanding that officials “hand over private financial information of residents sponsoring unaccompanied immigrant children.”

The lawsuit argues that the order to comply “harms an unknown but potentially large number of state employees, by directing them to commit illegal acts, risking a wide range of professional and personal harms, including personal penalties of up to $50,000 per violation under the legislation Governor Polis himself signed into law.” (The Lever)

Former DOGE Engineer Says He Lost Access After Blog Published His Interview

Sahil Lavingia, a software developer and founder of an online sales platform called Gumroad, was part of Elon Musk’s “DOGE.” In particular, according to NPR, he was embedded in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Lavingia told NPR that he believed Musk wanted DOGE to be “maximally transparent,” and so he granted an interview to a writer. But after the interview in which he discussed DOGE was published to the writer’s blog, Lavingia says his access was revoked shortly after. (NPR)

At Behest Of Trump White House, ABC News Suspends Correspondent

President Donald Trump’s White House contacted ABC News and demanded that they “take action” against ABC News senior national correspondent Terry Moran. White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that they hoped Moran would be “suspended or terminated.” Trump officials objected to Moran’s post on the platform formerly known as Twitter, where he called White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller a “world-class hater” and expressed his view that Miller differs from Trump by obtaining “spiritual nourishment” from spreading hate. ABC News responded shortly after suspending Moran with a statement that the network stood for “objectivity and impartiality” and did not “condone subjective personal attacks on others.” (Variety) 

Town Council Takes Table Away From Newspaper In Retaliation For Coverage

In the state of Arizona, officials in the small town of Fountain Hills removed a table for the local Fountain Hills Times Independent newspaper. A “right-wing contingent” of town council members “did not like the tone of the paper’s coverage. The paper can still cover town council meetings but must sit among the crowd.” The fact that council members took the table away from the newspaper in retaliation for their coverage was confirmed in emails that Councilmember Brenda Kalivianakis obtained. (Phoenix New Times) 

County In Virginia Imposes Ridiculous Gag Policy On Government Employees 

As reported by The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Virginia, the board of supervisors for Greene County imposed a gag order on staff members at all county departments. Not only does it designate staff members as the only people who may talk to the press, but it also instructs staff to mark what they communicate as “opinion” or “fact,” because only facts may be provided when speaking for the “majority opinion of the board.”

In response, a coalition of organizations, including the Freedom of the Press Foundation and Society of Professional Journalists, called the policy unconstitutional and absurd. They added that “courts have consistently struck down government policies that broadly ban public employees from talking to members of the press without authorization, because they are prior restraints that violate the First Amendment.” (Society of Professional Journalists)