Ryan Lucas
Ryan Lucas covers the Justice Department for NPR.
He focuses on the national security side of the Justice beat, including counterterrorism and counterintelligence. Lucas also covers a host of other justice issues, including the Trump administration's "tough-on-crime" agenda and anti-trust enforcement.
Before joining NPR, Lucas worked for a decade as a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press based in Poland, Egypt and Lebanon. In Poland, he covered the fallout from the revelations about secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. In the Middle East, he reported on the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the turmoil that followed. He also covered the Libyan civil war, the Syrian conflict and the rise of the Islamic State. He reported from Iraq during the U.S. occupation and later during the Islamic State takeover of Mosul in 2014.
He also covered intelligence and national security for Congressional Quarterly.
Lucas earned a bachelor's degree from The College of William and Mary, and a master's degree from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
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Since taking the helm more than 100 days ago, Patel has yet to shutter the FBI headquarters and reopen it as a museum as he once said he would, but he has begun trying to remake the bureau. -
President Trump said he is appointing Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to be acting U.S. attorney in Washington DC. This is after the president pulled his controversial first pick for the job, Ed Martin.
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Critics warn that despite President Trump's call to end weaponization of the DOJ, the department has become more politicized in the president's first three months back in office.
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The ripple effects of Trump's actions targeting specific law firms already are being felt beyond boardrooms, in declining interest in pro bono work for causes that are unpopular with the president. -
President Trump's top intelligence officials return to Capitol Hill for another hearing where they are likely to face questions about sensitive military information shared with a journalist in a Signal chat.
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President Trump is going to the Department of Justice to deliver a speech about law and order. It is rare for a president to physically visit the agency meant to independently uphold the rule of law.
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The No. 2 acting official at the DOJ, Emil Bove, has been shaking up the agency and its past work on the 2021 Capitol riot. But he also has his own history with Jan. 6 cases.
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The DOJ is moving to implement President Trump's agenda for the agency, including reevaluating past criminal cases against him.
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Kash Patel, President Trump's pick to run the FBI, answered questions Thursday in a public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. -
In termination letters sent to more than a dozen officials, acting Attorney General James McHenry wrote that he did not believe they "could be trusted to faithfully implement the President's agenda."
