Federal judges in Rhode Island have ordered a special counsel investigation into a Department of Homeland Security lawyer who withheld information about a migrant's international criminal charges, according to The New York Times (May 7, 2026). The misconduct finding came from the bench — not from DOJ self-policing — which is itself the tell.
Now DHS says it cannot locate the migrant in question. That is not a footnote. A lawyer conceals charges; the subject disappears; the department pleads ignorance. That sequence is either catastrophic incompetence or something worse.
The strategic read: courts are doing the accountability work that a captured DOJ will not. Judges forcing a special counsel over executive-branch lawyer misconduct is a pressure valve, not a solution — but it's what the system looks like when internal checks have been hollowed out. Watch whether the special counsel appointment survives the week.