General involved in Trump's L.A. military deployment testifies he didn't hear protests described as "rebellion"

Source: CBS News

Updated on: August 12, 2025 / 6:20 AM EDT


Three officials involved in President Trump's controversial deployment of National Guard troops to respond to protests in Los Angeles testified Monday as the trial in California Gov. Gavin Newsom's lawsuit against the Trump administration began. The question at issue is whether the military forces sent in by Mr. Trump — including members of the Marine Corps and National Guard — violated the 19th century Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the military from enforcing domestic laws.

Newsom called the deployment of around 4,000 California National Guard troops, who normally are under the governor's command, an illegal "power grab." But Mr. Trump argued the move was legal and necessary to protect immigration agents and federal property during tense protests against operations by ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mr. Trump's early June executive order calling up the Guard said the protests "constitute a form of rebellion." And the administration has justified the deployment using a law called Title 10 that allows the president to call up Guard forces during a "rebellion" or "invasion," or if he is unable "with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States."

In one notable moment during Monday's testimony, Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman — who at one point was deployed as the commanding general of the Guard task force in Los Angeles — said he never heard the term "rebellion" used to describe the situation in the nation's second-largest city.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/general-involved-in-trumps-l-a-military-deployment-testifies-he-didnt-hear-protests-described-as-rebellion-trump/