Minutes after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth trumpeted plans to "flood" Washington with National Guard troops, a senior U.S. military official took the stand in federal court in California to defend the contentious deployment of soldiers to Los Angeles.

The move during protests earlier this summer has since become the model for President Trump's increasing use of soldiers to police American streets.

But the trial, which opened Monday in San Francisco, turns on the argument by California that Trump's troops have been illegally engaged in civilian law enforcement.

"The military in Southern California are so tied in with ICE and other law enforcement agencies that they are practically indistinguishable," California Deputy Attorney General Meghan Strong told the court Tuesday.

"Los Ange

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