GOP waste fraud EG

tent 725 // gop voter fraud

doge musk USAID FOOD ROT BURNED --> VOUGHT SECURITY?!

KASH PATEL PVT JEt, HOCKEY BEER ITALY GIRLFRIEND SWAT?

NOEM jets lewandowski MILLER? MILITARY BASE HOUSING?

NOEM ADS?

SEE TRUMP PARDONS

dod pentagon usn sub

1.5b$ bd of peace from usaid fema

MERRI OK

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an 10 26

Trumpster wants to kill the Ed Department — but not before a $43K office makeover

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rww

Zach Despart @ ProPublica: Ken Paxton’s Security for Travel Cost Taxpayers Millions. Just 1 in 6 of His Trips Had a Stated Business Purpose

Records show the Texas attorney general has taken nearly 1,000 trips during his tenure, costing $3.3 million in security. We could only connect 138 of those trips and $553,000 in security costs to state business.

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'I’m so tired!' Trump DHS chief unravels as reporter asks about luxury jets

AN 10 26 NOEM BOT ON WAY OUT DOOR? FROM DONOR?

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note msnbc? jan p? other ag won case; corp sent offer to fla, which sat 3 yrs, carved off 10B 1 sk to send

PKO

Kimberly Leonard and Gary Fineout

08/27/2026

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Democrats are using a leaked grand jury report on Hope Florida as a fresh line of attack against Sunshine State GOP incumbents, seizing on findings that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration “misappropriated” $10 million in taxpayer funds from a health care settlement intended to help needy children.

The controversy — first uncovered by GOP state lawmakers — has given Democrats an opening to tie two prominent Republicans to a dispute over millions of dollars in taxpayer money that ultimately flowed into a DeSantis-backed political committee.

The long-running scandal involved a charity connected to an initiative spearheaded by Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, called the Hope Florida Foundation, and has entangled GOP Sen. Ashley Moody and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, both of whom were appointed to their current jobs by the governor and are up for elections in November.

On Wednesday, a grand jury report looking into the funds was leaked to CBS Miami. According to the report, jurors concluded that state officials shifted upwards of $10 million as part of a “sophisticated scheme to fund political activities” because the money eventually went to a political committee and the Republican Party of Florida to defeat an amendment that would have broadly legalized marijuana in the state. Some of the money also flowed into a political committee tied to Gov. DeSantis himself, according to the grand jury.

But the report — which was apparently issued in January but has been kept under seal since then — also concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to criminally charge anyone because “nobody will take responsibility” for routing the money to the foundation or “had any memory of who made it.” At the time money was shifted, Moody was state attorney general while Uthmeier was the governor’s chief of staff.

CBS Miami published its story on the grand jury report on Wednesday, the same day state Rep. Angie Nixon, the Democrat running against Moody, launched her campaign kickoff event in Jacksonville. Ahead of her kickoff, Nixon called on Moody to resign and described the funds transfer as “corrupt” and “disrespectful” in an interview with POLITICO. She drew attention to the report in her stump speech before a crowd of around 200 people who gathered for her campaign launch later that night.

“It just came out today,” Nixon said of the news report. “She stole $10 million for medically needy kids in order to defeat two citizen-led ballot initiatives that you all placed on the ballot that would have allowed you all to have healthier lives.”

Asked about this before the revelations in the grand jury report were published, Moody’s campaign pointed to how Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, which is responsible for setting health policy and planning, negotiated and settled the agreement with health insurer Centene after Centene overbilled Florida’s Medicaid program. The settlement ultimately led to the health insurer paying back the state $57 million, with another $10 million flowing into Hope Florida.

Moody’s Senate office spokesperson, Will O’Grady, said Thursday the leaked report “confirms what we have said all along,” regarding how AHCA negotiated the agreement “and the settlement funds were disbursed according to its terms.”

“Neither the Department of Legal Affairs nor the former attorney general had knowledge of how the settlement money would be spent,” he said. “Attempts to characterize this any other way are disingenuous.” Moody released a similar statement on X, blaming the news on the “political season” where “there may be a tendency to misrepresent the facts.”

But the grand jury report concluded Moody knew about the plans to divert the money to the foundation and “authorized” John Guard — then a top official in her office — to sign the settlement agreement. The report additionally stated Guard worried about the transfer and raised it with Moody, and as a result the settlement was rewritten so that AHCA was directing the funds instead of the attorney general. In her statement, Moody said “multiple agencies” signed the final agreement.

President Donald Trump nominated Guard for a federal judgeship last year but did not renominate him this year. Guard appeared before the grand jury, though Moody and Uthmeier didn’t. Asked about the leaked grand jury report on Thursday, DeSantis said during a press conference in Lake City, Florida, that “the only crime that was apparent” was its leak.

“There was no diversion of any Medicaid funds. It was a private settlement,” he said. The governor also argued that the “whole reason” the investigation came up was to “smear” his wife, though he didn’t raise the fact that the news had reached a fever pitch last year while Casey DeSantis was weighing a run for governor. The first lady is only mentioned in the grand jury report in the context of describing what Hope Florida is, not in regard to any transfer of funds.

Uthmeier was not only the governor’s chief of staff when the money was transferred but was also leading the political committee the governor was pushing to try to convince the public to vote against the pot ballot measure. Asked about the report Thursday, Uthmeier during a press conference in The Villages called it a “politically motivated witch hunt” and “hoax,” and maintained “nobody did anything wrong here.” He accused Democrats of collusion with the press to leak the report, though didn’t offer evidence of how CBS obtained the report, and pointed out how he wasn’t allowed under Florida law to comment on grand jury proceedings.

Democrat José Javier Rodríguez, who’s running against Uthmeier for Florida attorney general, called on his rival to “resign, come clean and turn himself in.” He pointed out that the report also said that Uthmeier was a key figure in the diversion of the funds and later was among those who’d been blocking the release of the report.

“This report pulls back the veil on the corruption Floridians have been seeing for years,” Javier Rodríguez said. “Enough is enough.”

David Jolly, the Democratic nominee for governor, pledged Thursday to “reopen” an investigation “into the laundering of Medicaid funds” if elected. Jolly, in a statement posted on X, noted that those involved — including Uthmeier and Moody — had been appointed to key posts by DeSantis, which he asserted was designed to “further insulate anyone from accountability and hide the truth from Floridians.” The campaign for Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nixon said she wasn’t certain whether her campaign would be able to run ads on the matter — she has raised about $2.5 million since launching her campaign in January, an amount that falls far short of what would be needed to run a statewide ad. She added, however, that she would “hit [Moody] hard on it.”

“Kids are probably going to die because they didn’t get the resources that they needed,” she told POLITICO.

Annette Taddeo, the Democratic candidate for Florida chief financial officer, used the report to criticize current CFO Blaise Ingoglia, another DeSantis appointee, for “ignoring stealing in plain sight” and spending time criticizing local government instead of focusing on issues in state government.

Ingoglia was not in his position at the time the transfer occurred, but Katie Strickland, now a top aide for him, worked in the DeSantis administration at the time and was identified by other witnesses “as a participant in meetings and conversations.” The grand jury found her testimony “not credible” and called her testimony “least informative” because “she could hardly recall any details or information” about the settlement. Strickland did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, state Senate Democrats called on both Moody and Uthmeier to resign.

Democrats aren’t the only ones raising concerns. The initial investigation was started by GOP members of the state House before the grand jury took it up. The GOP state representative leading the investigation, Alex Andrade, had sent his records to the Second Judicial Circuit. GOP Sen. Rick Scott, a two-term former governor, had praised the state House’s work and said the money should be paid back. When asked about the latest report, Scott called it “deeply concerning.”

“Money designated to help poor kids was diverted to political ads,” he said. “Florida families deserve accountability, not more finger pointing in Tallahassee.”

Andrade declined to comment on the leaked report.

Former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, now a host on One America News Network, praised CBS Miami’s Jim DeFede over X for producing a “great scoop” and later drew attention to the fact that Uthmeier had been leading the political committee against the marijuana amendment.

When Uthmeier celebrated a $1.2 million settlement on X with consulting firm Deloitte over its diversity, equity and inclusion practices, Gaetz taunted with, “What PAC are you sending the settlement money to?”

Kimberly Leonard reported from Jacksonville, and Gary Fineout reported from Tallahassee.

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OOPS

an 8 26

While President Donald Trump claims he’s been waging a war against fraud, one of his former officials asserts that the White House-led anti-fraud task force is really a “ruse to prosecute political foes.” This is according to Miles Taylor, who served as Homeland Security Deputy Chief of Staff during Trump’s first term and at the time penned an anonymous article exposing the dysfunctional inner workings of the administration.

As Taylor wrote on Thursday, according to reports from the New York Times and other outlets, the Trump administration has been leveling claims of fraud against targets ranging from immigrant-owned ice cream trucks to Democratic governors. “The goal was not to take down serious criminals,” argues Taylor. “It was storytelling. Trump says his enemies are grifters. Accordingly, he’s reorienting the federal government to prove — whether they’re governors or immigrants — that his political and societal opponents are rotten right down to the food trucks from which they sell.”

YES I AM CROOKED BUT SO ARE THEY THEM ENEMY

Taylor says there is a clear giveaway to the president’s intentions, writing, “As DOJ is building these types of cases, it’s simultaneously abandoning major white-collar prosecutions. Corporate investigations (which can uncover billions in theft and billions in restitution for victims) have fallen to their lowest level in decades. In fact, the Times found that the volume of such cases is literally thousands below the Biden administration and far below Trump’s own first term. Meanwhile, the president has been pardoning wealthy executives and dropping cases left and right against friendly corporations. So no, the Trump administration is not hunting fraud. It’s hunting down its enemies with anything it can find. ‘Fraud’ just happens to be the easiest label to apply.”

Trump’s actions in Minnesota, says Taylor, offer a clear example. As he writes, “Late last year, welfare fraud was used as the thinly veiled pretext for the Trump administration to launch a massive immigration crackdown (and political shakedown) in a state led by Democrat Tim Walz, who challenged Trump for the White House in 2024. Thousands of ICE and CBP agents flooded into Minnesota to address a problem that — if the reasons were genuine — should have required not more than a few dozen accountants. It certainly didn’t need gun-toting agents. While Trump was forced into retreat, his team first tried to coerce state leaders to forfeit their voter rolls, which critics pointed out had precisely nothing to do with the original fraud claims. Of course it didn’t; from the start, the whole exercise was about political leverage.”

“To understand what Trump’s task force is actually meant for,” says Taylor, “just look at how it’s being managed. The DOJ’s new fraud division doesn’t report to some expert in criminal investigations. It reports directly to Vice President JD Vance, an arrangement without precedent, especially since it effectively circumvents the Attorney General himself…In June, he personally made the criminal referral against Walz. Asked where the ‘war on fraud’ goes next, Vance answered: California. (Surely it’s just a coincidence that they’re going after the blue state led by the man Trump most fears will try to succeed him.)”

Taylor notes other examples, such as charges of mortgage fraud leveled against New York Attorney General Letitia James — who had previously won a nine-figure civil fraud case against Trump — Senator Adam Schiff (D-NY), and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. According to Taylor, “‘Fraud’ has become the administration’s codeword for ‘revenge.’ The term is a respectable-sounding wrapper for criminalizing the political opposition. And now that Trump’s team has systematized the plan with a task force — making the issue a top priority for all U.S. attorneys in the country — we will see more and more cases brought, like the recent cases against left-leaning nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center.”

The reality, asserts Taylor, is that Trump’s White House is rampant with fraud, the scale of which will be exposed by a future Democratic administration. While Trump and his allies will attempt to conceal their crimes, “They can’t shred it all on the way out the door, because they’ve trapped themselves. If they want their prosecutions to survive, there must be evidence, discovery, and a chain of custody. The records must exist somewhere, or the cases go away. I suspect that when investigators finally follow that paper trail, it will lead exactly where the Letitia James and Adam Schiff cases already point — back to the White House — and to proof of the deliberate weaponization of the American government against its own citizens. That’s when the real fraud trials will begin.”

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8 26 MAJ REPT

BLIND SPOT IRS INTEL UNIT "BRIEFCASE" TRACK $, ANDERSON APPT NIXON 86 WEALTH DEF INDUSTRY

IRS REQ TO REPORT DIFF BETWEEN OWED COLLECTED 1B$/YR > DOD

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AN 8 26

Writing for the Washington Post, a conservative "defense hawk" confessed to feeling "sticker shock" over President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion military funding request, trashing the Pentagon for trying to spend such an outlandish amount on "funding boondoggles and sweetheart deals."

Max Boot is a Russian-American author who has in the past written about walking away from the American conservative movement after Trump's takeover of the Republican Party. In his new piece for the Post, he wrote that he has "long been in favor of more military spending," even backing the $1 trillion budget that the Pentagon reached this year. Despite that, however, even he now balks at the $1.5 trillion requested for next year.

"In inflation-adjusted terms, that 50 percent increase would result in the largest defense budget ever — exceeding even the World War II peak," Boot explained. "And this comes at a time when the federal budget deficit is at $1.8 trillion and federal debt is nearly $40 trillion. On its current trajectory, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product in 2030 will exceed the record set in 1946."

Boot further noted that Congress has not been "rushing to rubber-stamp the staggering defense budget," with the House passing a measure that would provide $1.15 trillion, and an extra $73 billion for the Iran war. The Senate has opposed this measure, however, meaning the military budget as of October 1 will likely be the $838 billion set by a continuing resolution. This state of affairs, Boot argued, is entirely the fault of Trump's administration.

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has no one but himself to blame," Boot continued. "He has been contemptuous of Congress, so it’s hardly surprising that its members are not rushing to hand him a massive pot of cash. If Hegseth wants to win bipartisan support for the defense budget — something that was taken for granted in years past — he needs to start briefing Senate Democrats, not just Republicans. And he needs to do a much better job of addressing lawmakers’ concerns about controversies such as the unexplained firings of general officers, the lawless attacks on alleged drug boats, the deteriorating conditions aboard an aircraft carrier deployed to the Middle East and the failed war with Iran."

He added: "No one denies the need to replenish missile stockpiles running low because of the Iran conflict, but the very fact that the United States has used up such a large part of its missile arsenal so quickly is a damning indictment of years of defense misappropriations that long predate President Donald Trump. You would think that $1 trillion would buy enough missiles to fight China or Russia, but it turns out that we don’t even have enough to fight Iran. The Iran war also revealed that the military was woefully ill-prepared to fight an enemy equipped with low-cost drones; Iran’s drones and missiles have done serious damage to U.S. military installations in the Middle East. It’s true that the new defense budget has a lot more money for drones and drone defenses, but it also includes massive boondoggles that can’t be justified on the merits.

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AN 8 26

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports a Republican candidate for local city council got sentenced after running what prosecutors described as “Georgia’s largest Ponzi scheme.”

U.S. District Judge Tiffany Johnson sentenced Todd Burkhalter, 55, to 20 years in prison on Friday after he plead guilty to wire fraud. Burkhalter is primarily responsible for defrauding more than 2,000 investors out of around $380 million through his Alpharetta investment firm, Drive Planning, according to federal prosecutors.

His company, which is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since 2024, is now in receivership, reports the AJC.

At his sentencing, Judge Johnson said many investors lost their retirement savings and children’s college funds, and others had to remortgage their homes because of Burkhalter’s scheme.

“It was almost difficult to physically read all the victim impact statements in this case, because there were so many people who were devastated,” the judge said. She then noted that Burkhalter used investors’ money to “buy jets, diamonds, luxury cars, a ranch, a condo in Mexico and more than $300,000 in clothing, among other things.”

“Though prosecutors recommended Burkhalter be sentenced to 17½ years in prison, Johnson said his conduct warranted 20 years, the maximum term she could impose,” reports AJC. “She said the investors who were scammed will probably never get all their money back.”

Burkhalter was also ordered to pay $233.7 million in restitution to the victims. He will be subject to supervision for three years after he completes his prison sentence.

In 2015, Burkhalter entered the race for the Johns Creek City Council’s Post 2 seat. At the time, Burkhalter said his campaign platform focused on open government, “direct and blunt communication” with voters and “good stewardship” of city tax dollars.

“Far too many politicians run for office with promises of never raising taxes yet somehow our taxes continue to go up,” said Burkhalter. “I will speak bluntly with citizens and not engage in political word games to deceive voters. A fee increase is a tax increase - I will oppose all tax and fee increases on the residents of Johns Creek. I love this city and I love the people. This is where my wife and I will retire. I will always be honest with you. You may not always agree, but you will know I’m always shooting straight.”

That year, Burkhalter lost his race to candidate Jay Lin, who won with 59 percent of the vote.

“He knew from its inception that it was all a sham,” prosecutor Kelly Connors said at the time of Burkhalter’s Friday sentencing. “There was never a point where this was somehow legitimate conduct that went astray. Mr. Burkhalter was calculated, and he was ruthless.”

The AJC reports two investors who lost money in the scheme spoke in court without entering their names into the record. One of the investors said she put most of her Social Security and life insurance money into Drive Planning after her husband died, hoping to get a little money back to live on.

She said she now relies on her adult daughter for financial support.

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RICK SCOTT FLORIDA MAN

Columbia/HCA: Scott served as the CEO and co-founder of Columbia/HCA, a massive hospital and health care network. [1, 2, 3]
Record Settlement: Under his leadership, the company became the center of a federal investigation into Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Columbia/HCA ultimately pleaded guilty and paid a historic $1.7 billion fine to the U.S. government. [1, 2]

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COMM DR

New Face of GOP Healthcare Fix Is Senator Linked to Largest Medicare Fraud Scheme in US History

Sen. Rick Scott is warning fellow Republicans of a “slow creep” toward single-payer healthcare if they don’t craft an alternative to the Affordable Care Act.Jake Johnson

Dec 03, 2025

US Sen. Rick Scott, former CEO of the company that was at the center of the biggest Medicare fraud scheme in American history, has emerged as the most vocal Republican proponent of healthcare reform, warning his fellow GOP lawmakers that continued refusal to engage with the issue risks a “slow creep” toward single-payer healthcare.

On Thursday, according to Axios, Scott (R-Fla.) is “convening a group of House and Senate conservatives on Capitol Hill to pore over fresh polling to develop GOP alternatives to the Affordable Care Act.”

Late last month, Scott unveiled his own proposal titled the More Affordable Care Act, which would keep ACA exchanges intact while creating “Trump Health Freedom Accounts” that enrollees could use to pay for out-of-pocket costs. Scott’s plan, as the health policy group KFF explained, would allow enhanced ACA tax credits to expire and let states replace subsidies in the original ACA with contributions to the newly created health savings accounts.

“Unlike ACA premium tax credits, which can only be used for ACA Marketplace plans, the accounts in the Scott proposal could be used for any type of health insurance plan, including short-term plans that can exclude people based on preexisting conditions,” KFF noted. “States could also waive certain provisions of the ACA, including the requirement to cover certain benefits.”

“While ACA plans would still be required to cover people with preexisting conditions under the Scott proposal,” the group added, “it is likely that the ACA marketplace would collapse in states that seek a waiver under his approach.”

Last month, amid the longest government shutdown in US history, Scott leapt at the opportunity to champion possible Republican alternatives to the healthcare status quo, despite his ignominious record.

In 2003, the US Justice Department announced that the hospital chain HCA Inc.—formerly known as Columbia/HCA—had agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and damages to settle what the DOJ characterized as the “largest healthcare fraud case in US history.”

Scott resigned as CEO of Columbia/HCA in 1997, days after federal agents raided company facilities as part of the sweeping fraud probe. The federal government and company whistleblowers said the hospital giant “systematically defrauded” Medicare, Medicaid, and other healthcare programs through unlawful billing and other ploys.

“In 2000, Scott invoked the Fifth Amendment 75 times in a deposition as part of a civil case involving his time leading the company,” Florida Phoenix reported last year. A former HCA accountant accused Scott, who was never directly charged in the case, of leading “a criminal enterprise.”

...

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CZ BITCOIN MONEY LAUNDER ?

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SEE NOEM 2 PVT JET 737MAX VOUGHT SECURITY KASH GIRLFRIEND?

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an 7 26

I’m no political consultant, but I don’t think I would make “fraud” the theme of the Trump administration’s midterm election campaign push.

At least not while the reflecting pool disaster remains in the news, the White House is doubling down on sticking with its no-bid contract for the company that oversaw the algae-infested, peeling pool mess, and President Donald Trump is making headlines for raking in $2.2 billion since he came back into office, including $1.4 billion from the Trump family’s cryptocurrency scheme.

“We have got to have a governor who takes fraud as seriously as the President of the United States,” Vice President JD Vance declared Wednesday in Milwaukee during a speech apparently intended to boost Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany.

Vance’s remarks, delivered ahead of a $10,000-per-couple fundraiser ($35,000 if you wanted a photo with the VP), could be read in different ways.

One way is in the context of the poster-sized photo Vance displayed of a Black woman “with the smug look and a Louis Vuitton bag,” as Vance put it — one of the people who owned prenatal care coordination businesses that a 2022 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found had defrauded Medicaid, costing the state more than $15.5 million among them between 2019 and 2022.

Vance, although he was elaborately praised by other Republicans at the Wednesday event in Milwaukee for leading the Trump administration’s crackdown on healthcare fraud, had nothing to do with uncovering the prenatal care scandal in Milwaukee. That was the dogged work of the Journal Sentinel reporters whose efforts led the state Department of Justice to investigate, cut off Medicaid to the fraudulent businesses and pursue criminal charges — all of that years before Vance took office. But Vance saw an opportunity in Milwaukee to connect various Trump administration claims about fraud to a picture of someone Ronald Reagan would have called a “welfare queen.” In his speech, Vance moved directly from that photo to the Trump administration’s efforts to “kick illegal aliens out of our country.”

Black people, immigrants and people who receive food assistance and Medicaid are the “fraudsters,” according to Vance and Republican Reps. Tiffany, Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil, who joined Vance on stage in Milwaukee. They denounced Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers for not sharing sensitive personal data on SNAP recipients with the Trump administration. Vance called Evers’ refusal “borderline criminal.”

“Why won’t Tony Evers turn over the SNAP rolls? ‘Cause he’s cooked the books!” Van Orden hollered.

Steil connected claims about fraud in SNAP and Medicaid to discredited allegations of voter fraud, calling the federal takeover of elections Trump has been trying to force on Congress as “total common sense.”

When a reporter asked Vance about Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s request to talk to him about the harassment of election workers by FBI agents deployed to Milwaukee to “investigate” nonexistent voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Vance implied that Johnson is trying to cover up the fraud.

All of this hype about fraud and repeated assertions by the GOP chorus in Milwaukee that the Trump administration had saved the taxpayers of Wisconsin billions of dollars by rooting it out, is meant to cover up a much, much bigger problem.

Medicaid cuts pushed by the Trump administration and supported by Tiffany, Van Orden and Steil, coupled with the same Republicans’ refusal to renew Affordable Care Act tax credits, have already pushed about 22,000 Wisconsinites off their health insurance. A new KFF report shows that insurers on the ACA marketplace are planning another double-digit increase in rates this year, driven by inflation and the loss of the tax credits, which will cause even more people to lose coverage. Altogether, more than 258,000 Wisconsinites will lose health coverage by 2034 because of Trump administration policy changes, according to projections by the Congressional Budget Office.

While Van Orden was yelling from the stage in Milwaukee about people who are ineligible for SNAP allegedly signing up for the program and “literally taking the food out of the mouths of hungry babies,” Wisconsinites know that he voted for SNAP cuts and changes to eligibility rules that led to 15,500 Wisconsinites losing food assistance.

Instead of adequately funding healthcare, food and a decent society, Republicans pushed through trillions of dollars in tax giveaways to corporations and the very rich, tens of billions of dollars for a domestic paramilitary organization that is conducting violent arrests of people who pose no public safety risk, and hundreds of millions of dollarsfor an obscene White House ballroom and no-bid contracts for Trump’s vanity projects on the national mall. That is the real fraud.

Republicans are screaming about “waste, fraud and abuse” to try to distract voters from all of this destruction and graft. But their “fraud” talk just reminds people of the stunning theft of public resources they’ve enabled and are now trying to cover up with flimsy, slanderous lies.

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CONTEXT? JDV SPOZED TO FIGHT? SEE PARDONS

Fox News ignored Trump’s pardons of health care fraudsters while promoting his administration’s efforts to fight health care fraud

07/02/26

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REF https://www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-influencers-find-a-medicare-fraudster-they-love-mccubbins

WITH DONALD TRUMP INCREASINGLY UNPOPULAR, and with fewer woke Democratic initiatives to bemoan, right-wing media figures have united around a cause seemingly every faction of their audiences can get behind: targeting minority communities for alleged fraud.

Twenty-four-year-old MAGA influencer Nick Shirley became a star doing this early this year when he posted videos of himself visiting Somali-American daycares in Minnesota. In January, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Oz visited Los Angeles to do his own fraud hunt. Vice President JD Vance has embraced the title of fraud czar even as the rest of his portfolio appears to have narrowed. And just this week, the Daily Wire published a multi-part investigation of home-care fraud.

Yet at the same time as this fraud focus has grown nearly monomaniacal, MAGA influencers have rallied behind a fraudster of their own. In what appears to be a coordinated effort on X, MAGA influencers as varied as a pro-Trump rapper and a Gateway Pundit editor are calling for leniency for Utah businessman Andrew McCubbins, arguing that his conviction for looting $89 million in Medicare money isn’t really that big of a deal, all things considered.

McCubbins is the former head of a Utah company that was found to have ordered unnecessary genetic testing, with nurses and doctors bribed to request the tests for patients.

There isn’t a question about his guilt. In September 2020, he pleaded guilty to three charges, including conspiracy to defraud Medicare. He agreed to hand over his multi-million-dollar Utah house as part of a forfeiture, and even testified about the details of the scheme in a co-conspirator’s trial.

But he also happens to have financially supported a couple of projects dear to MAGA’s heart. McCubbins was an executive producer of Sound of Freedom, the runaway 2023 hit conservative movie about human trafficking, and participated in the undercover operations carried out by the now-embattled group that movie was based on.

With McCubbins’s sentencing on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud Medicare looming later this month, conservative influencers have launched a months-long—and what appears to be coordinated—effort to win him a pardon, or at least to get the Justice Department to drop the case.1

“The math on this case just doesn’t add up,” pro-Trump rapper Forgiato Blow, who calls himself “Trump’s nephew,” wrote on X on May 1.

Blow tagged Justice Department official Ed Martin, addressing the U.S. pardon attorney as “My nxgga” (sic).

Blow is known for songs like ” and for wearing a blinged-out Trump head on a chain, rather than his sober analysis of criminal justice cases. But he wasn’t the only unexpected MAGA-ite who suddenly was intrigued by the McCubbins case.

“Sound of Freedom showed the grit needed to save kids,” wrote Ada Lluch, a pro-Trump influencer in Spain. “Andrew McCubbins was a key operative on those missions. It is crazy that a case from the last administration is still active against him.”

Influencer Erik Finman, who was positioned as a sort of Trumpworld wunderkind a few years ago after selling a “Freedom Phone” to Trump supporters, has recently become one of McCubbins’s most frequent boosters on X. Citing Trump’s pardon of drug-trafficking former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, Finman claimed that it was time for McCubbins to get his own pardon.

“The Honduran president caught helping cartels move 500 tons of cocaine into America was recently pardoned,” Finman wrote on X. “Okay. Meanwhile this man who went into the field rescuing 100+ children from trafficking rings is staring down real prison time.”

Other influencers—from the founder of “Gays Against Groomers” to the pro-Trump “Bluesky Libs” X account—have also gotten on board.

ONE THING THAT IS STRIKING about the push to obtain a pardon for McCubbins is the uncomfortable racial double standard it suggests: After all, the right-wing anti-fraud campaign this year has largely focused on minority and immigrant communities whose populations include many people dependent on government support for services and funding, like those Somali-American daycare providers in Minnesota.2 For right-wingers to push for leniency for a well-connected white guy who confessed to white-collar fraud has an odor of hypocrisy.

The McCubbins campaign is also striking because, outside of the posts from these conservative influencers, there is no broader groundswell on the right or anywhere else to free McCubbins. I couldn’t find any articles, podcasts, videos, or anything else suggesting there’s a real base of support for a McCubbins pardon, even among the conservative commentariat.

Yet for weeks, a coterie of pro-Trump activists have been pushing for it—often with similar language, tagging Martin or another Justice Department official, like acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The campaign appears to have stepped up this month, as McCubbins’s long-delayed sentencing approaches on May 20.

Despite McCubbins’s guilty plea, the well-connected influencers backing him have argued that he’s somehow the victim of a deep-state frame-up. Finman has even described the prosecution as a “Biden-era case,” despite the fact that McCubbins pleaded guilty during the first Trump administration.

None of the influencers trying to help McCubbins avoid jail time responded to my requests for comment about whether someone is coordinating this effort, if so who, and whether or not that person or entity is paying them. But the similarities in the posts are striking.

For example, many of them quote-tweeted a January post by Gateway Pundit blogger Ben Kew calling for McCubbins to receive a presidential pardon.

The MAGA influencers will also seemingly tie any—and I mean any—news event to the Free McCubbins cause.

A week after counterterrorism chief Joe Kent quit the administration over the Iran war, MAGA influencer Joey Mannarino struggled to turn Kent’s resignation into a demand that then-Attorney General Pam Bondi step in to save McCubbins.

“One guy quits and gets a media tour,” he tweeted. “The other saved kids and got a federal case. The system tells you everything about its priorities by who it rewards and who it punishes.”

If McCubbins’s family or legal team are behind this effort, I have to admit, it’s actually a pretty good idea! Despite the administration’s claims to be stamping out fraud, Trump has pardoned or commuted sentences for several people who ripped off Medicare and other government programs for hundreds of millions of dollars. The Justice Department, meanwhile, has repeatedly dropped cases against white-collar criminals and the politically connected.

McCubbins must be hoping a few positive tweets aimed at the DOJ can get him some of that action.

That said, some of these efforts are pretty ham-handed, even by the anything-goes standards of right-wing-media X accounts. After actor Chuck Norris died in March, Kew strained to somehow make the martial artist’s death about McCubbins.

“A true man of action,” Kew wrote of Norris. “Not enough of them in this world. Andrew McCubbins is a man of action as well.”

an 5 26

President Donald Trump and his supporters are focusing on alleged fraud cases, from accusations against Minnesotan Somali-American daycares to supposed home-care fraud and Medicaid/Medicare fraud. Yet as one conservative commentator pointed out, these same Trump supporters are singing a very different tune when it comes to one of their own.

“In what appears to be a coordinated effort on X, MAGA influencers as varied as a pro-Trump rapper and a Gateway Pundit editor are calling for leniency for Utah businessman Andrew McCubbins, arguing that his conviction for looting $89 million in Medicare money isn’t really that big of a deal, all things considered,” The Bulwark’s Will Sommer wrote on Thursday. “McCubbins is the former head of a Utah company that was found to have ordered unnecessary genetic testing, with nurses and doctors bribed to request the tests for patients.”

Sommer added that McCubbins pled guilty to all three charges in September 2020, had to forfeit his multi-million-dollar Utah house and testified at a co-conspirator’s trial about his crimes. Yet McCubbins also financially supported projects near and dear to MAGA hearts, most notably by executive producing the 2023 film “Sound of Freedom,” which promoted the QAnon conspiracy theories of alleged serial sexual abuser Tim Ballard and reportedly grossed almost $20 million in ticket sales by conservatives buying thousands of unused tickets. For these reasons, McCubbins is widely admired in MAGA circles regardless of his criminal background.

“With McCubbins’s sentencing on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud Medicare looming later this month, conservative influencers have launched a months-long—and what appears to be coordinated—effort to win him a pardon, or at least to get the Justice Department to drop the case,” Sommer wrote. These include the pro-Trump rapper Forgatio Blow, who calls himself “Trump’s nephew,” who wrote that “the math on this case just doesn’t add up and addressing the U.S. pardon attorney as “My nxgga” (sic). Blow has previously described himself as “the Donald Trump of rap.”

“In the music industry, everyone loved me, but nobody wanted to support me on a big record label,” Blow said in 2022. “Or everybody wants to support me and be my friend when they need something from me. I felt like that was like Trump—before he was president, everybody loved him… Said he’s going to be the president and they said, ‘No way.’ And then what happened? He became the president. That’s like me and music. I said I was going to make it through, you know, being a white rapper.”

A pro-Trump influencer in Spain cited McCubbins’ involvement in Ballard’s group that he and his supporters claim rescued children, although others have described it as a scam for allegedly exaggerating and/or fabricating claims and ignoring Ballard’s own alleged serial sexual misconduct.

“Sound of Freedom showed the grit needed to save kids,” Ada Lluch, the pro-Trump influencer in Spain, claimed. “Andrew McCubbins was a key operative on those missions. It is crazy that a case from the last administration is still active against him.”

Sommer had a different interpretation besides the desire to free McCubbins.

“One thing that is striking about the push to obtain a pardon for McCubbins is the uncomfortable racial double standard it suggests: After all, the right-wing anti-fraud campaign this year has largely focused on minority and immigrant communities whose populations include many people dependent on government support for services and funding, like those Somali-American daycare providers in Minnesota,” Sommer wrote. “For right-wingers to push for leniency for a well-connected white guy who confessed to white-collar fraud has an odor of hypocrisy.”

McCubbins, Ballard and others also have not condemned Trump for his decades-long and close friendship with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly facilitated Trump sexually assaulting a 13-year-old in the 1980s.

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an 4 26

President Donald Trump’s choice to fight global hunger subscribes to a philosophy that will only make it worse.

Trump appointed Luke Lindberg, the Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, to lead the Rome-based World Food Program, which is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, according to a report by PassBlue. Yet Lindberg’s most recent job was rebranding the Food for Peace international food aid program as "America First" international food assistance. Under Trump the federal government has pushed for cuts to the McGovern-Dole program, which provides food assistance to low-income nations, as well as for Lindberg’s own Food for Peace program.

“Under the second Trump administration, funding for the World Food Program was slashed in half after the dismantling of USAID,” PassBlue reported. “The loss of $2.6 billion in US funding in the last year triggered the layoff of a third of WFP’s staff and a surge in malnutrition in some of the most fragile countries. Despite the cuts, Washington remains at the top of the donors’ list for WFP. This reality makes it more likely that Trump’s nominee will pull through the Senate confirmation hearings without major opposition.”

In addition to supporting Trump's funding cuts, Lindberg is also linked with unpopular food distribution methods. Both the World Food Program and other UN humanitarian agencies prefer to either provide cash or help local and regional governments obtain food, arguing that these approaches are cheaper, more efficient and less disruptive. But Lindberg advocates exporting US-grown commodities to provide the same international food aid.

“Sam Vigersky, an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that recourse to the old practice of WFP procurement restricted only to US commodities is a strong possibility if an American leads the agency again,” PassBlue reported.

“The practice is inefficient in that it involves shipping grain at significant cost from America, which is rarely the most readily available or the cheapest source; nor is it always the locally preferred kind of grain,” Nick Coghlan, a former Canadian diplomat with experience in Sudan and South Sudan, told PassBlue.

He added, “Moreover, the practice seriously undermines regional food markets which would otherwise receive a useful boost; and it discourages more innovative WFP programmes that require cash injections.”

When Trump dismantled USAID, more than a million people were left without three months worth of food because $98 million in ready-made meals and other rations were abandoned in four warehouses by the administration.

“Contracts with suppliers, shipping companies, and contractors have been canceled since USAID was taken over by the Trump administration's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, with the White House saying the agency—with a relatively small budget of just $40 billion—was responsible for ‘significant waste,’” Common Dreams reported in May. “Since DOGE, run by tech billionaire Elon Musk, targeted USAID in one of its first full-scale attacks on a federal entity, the agency is being run by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.”

In response to Trump’s attacks on food programs, a current federal official told NOTUS in July that Trump’s actions are a sign of America slipping into authoritarianism.

“Take it from those of us who worked in authoritarian countries: We’ve become one,” the official told NOTUS. “They were so quick to disband AID, the group that supposedly instigates color revolutions. But they’ve done a very foolish thing. You just released a bunch of well‑trained individuals into your population. If you kept our offices going and had us play solitaire in the office, it might have been safer to keep your regime.”

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AN 4 26

President Donald Trump's Navy secretary revealed "we screwed up."

The USS Boise, a nuclear sub is being taken offline after spending about $800 million trying to overhaul it. The goal was to use what they have and rebuild, but the costs are mounting, and it isn't even halfway completed. The full maintenance cost could reach $1.9 billion. So, they've decided to scrap it and build a new one instead,Semafor reported on Friday.

Secretary John Phelan said that Trump is aiming for a new "Golden Fleet" of ships. His 2027 budget allocated less than $42 billion for 19 new battle force ships.

“We screwed up,” said Phelan, who said he was embracing “radical transparency” now that he's in charge. “We did. This doesn’t look good. It is what it is. Time to move on, and try to get going in the future and move forward.”

A Congressional Budget Office report cited that building a modern equivalent of the Boise, a Los Angeles-class submarine (SSN-764), would cost about $8.7 billion. The Navy calculates it closer to $7.1 billion. A 2024 report from The National Interest said, "Modern aircraft carriers, like the U.S. Navy’s Gerald R. Ford-class, cost around $13 billion each due to their immense complexity and advanced technology."

Trump's "golden fleet" demand would be "battleships described as highly advanced and heavily armed. The proposal requests $65.8 billion for shipbuilding, aiming to produce 18 battle force ships, 16 non-battle vessels, as well as an increase in public shipyard capacity," Business Insider reported.

“I think, by killing these programs, it’s sending a message that we’re not going to continue to send good money after bad investments, and that we’re going to try to make prudent economic decisions that are in the best interest of the fleet and the force,” Phelan explained.

He implied, however, that Trump's $65.8 billion budget request for shipbuilding won't be enough to meet the goal Trump has set for ship production.

“The ’27 budget [will have] a very big impact on this, and in trying to get after it, and really an exponential increase in our readiness,” Phelan said.

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an 2 26

'Head scratcher': Trump aides struggle to spend $500 billion more the military asked for

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AN 4 26

Kimberly Guilfoyle, President Donald Trump's ambassador to Greece, has been busted engaging in a "lavish" spending spree at her Athens residence, drawing new scrutiny as she burns through taxpayer funds.

Guilfoyle, who was also previously engaged to Donald Trump Jr. until 2024, currently resides at the Jefferson House, the customary home of the U.S. ambassador to Greece and a common venue for diplomatic events. According to a Wednesday report originating in the Daily Mail, she recently requested 50,000 euros, or about $58,000, to construct a new basketball court at the residence. She has also requested roughly $29,000 to pay for a new personal photographer, according to a contract that the outlet obtained.

Guilfoyle signed off on the order for the construction in December, in the wake of meeting "newfound friends," Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos, brothers involved in the oil and steel shipping industries, who also co-own Greece's Olympiacos basketball team. The Mail noted that the new ambassador attended a game with brothers, courtside seats and all, just weeks before ordering the basketball court. The pair also gifted her a jersey for the famed Greek basketball player, Vassilis Spanoulis.

"The new court is set to be built beside the estate’s pool and manicured gardens, adding another luxury feature to the already opulent property the 57-year-old has called home since November," the report detailed, later adding, "The contract includes strict terms: the court must be built in 45 days, with fines if it runs past schedule and includes a menu of optional add-ons like chain-link fencing, windscreens and LED lighting that could push costs even higher."

The report continued: "The courtside diplomacy continued in February when Guilfoyle was pictured with Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley and Greek-American shooting guard Tyler Dorsey. 'In the spirit of friendship, respect and US-Greek ties,' the 57-year-old wrote on Facebook, sharing photos of herself embracing the hunky players at a jersey swap. To capture these transatlantic ties better, a new photographer is to be hired on an 'as-needed basis,' including 'after-hours and weekend' shifts for up to 20 hours a month, according to a prospective contract dated February 20. The work order mandates that edited images be delivered within a day, or sooner if requested by the embassy."

The combined new costs of the basketball court and photographer are just shy of $90,000. As an ambassador, these costs would be covered by taxpayer dollars if they go through.

A Daily Beast report on the revelations noted that Guilfoyle "has embraced a high-profile diplomatic lifestyle" since arriving at her post on November 1 of last year, including a "luxury hotel dinner" and a special "nightclub event" hosted by Greek singer, Konstantinos Argyros.

"Since then, she has launched into a string of high-profile appearances, attending elite social events, sitting courtside at local basketball games, and reportedly even taking excursions in the Aegean Sea aboard Vassilatos’ yacht," The Daily Beast detailed. "Last week, she returned to Washington to attend an event at the White House."

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an 7 25

President Donald Trump has loudly criticized the roughly $2.5 billion renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters. Yet, when it comes to another costly Washington project — refurbishing a “free” Air Force One jet gifted by Qatar — talk around the White House goes silent, the New York Times noted in a report Sunday.

Air Force officials appear to have disguised the cost of revamping the Qatar‑donated jet by embedding it within the over‑budget Sentinel nuclear missile modernization program, per the report. A recently revealed $934 million reallocation from the Pentagon’s beleaguered Sentinel ICBM modernization program has alarmed lawmakers, even as officials insist the missile project remains fully funded.

Officials have classified the refurbishment cost entirely, and efforts to conceal the funding behind Trump’s pet project are unusually elaborate.

The report noted that in hearings this summer, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed that surplus 2024 funds from the LGM‑35A Sentinel program were diverted to help finance a highly controversial project: converting a luxury Boeing 747‑8 gifted by Qatar into a makeshift Air Force One.

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Meink said the missile upgrade effort "is fully funded … and has all the resources it needs" despite the fund shift.

According to the report, no one seems willing to explain why exactly $934 million was shifted.

Democratic leaders including Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Jack Reed have demanded answers about the legality and propriety of redirecting funds from the Sentinel program — a flagship nuclear modernization effort — into what critics see as a politically motivated retrofit of a foreign-donated jet.

Despite calls for transparency, Meink declined to provide cost breakdowns or a precise timeline in the appropriations hearing, prompting further frustration from lawmakers overseeing defense budgets.

Meanwhile, the report generated backlash on social media.

Academic Robert McCollister wrote on the social platform X: "Guess where the money ($934 million) for Trump's used AF 1 came from? The Sentinel ICBM program which is already way behind and over budget!"

Economist Dean Baker wrote: "Pretty great how the government will spend $1 billion renovating Trump's 'free' Air Force One that was gifted to him by Qatar, which may never actually be used as a government plane -- goes straight to Trump's 'library' after he leaves office."

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an 725

Trump official bills CFPB $5 million for his security detail while gutting agency’s consumer work

A top Trump White House official who has incessantly bemoaned wasteful government spending has reportedly billed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau nearly $5 million for his security detail as he guts the agency's ability to fight for Americans scammed by predatory corporations.

Government Executive on Wednesday obtained a memo from the CFPB's deputy chief financial officer showing that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the consumer bureau "are entering into an interagency agreement to pay the costs" of Russell Vought's security.

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Vought currently serves as both OMB director and acting director of the CFPB—a longtime target of Trump, congressional Republicans, and corporate forces.

"The memo spelled out that the agreement was 'on a fast track,' despite the funding not being included in the bureau's fiscal 2025 budget," Government Executive noted. "The $4.7 million will cover Vought's security through December, meaning it will draw from both fiscal years 2025 and 2026."

Earlier this year, Vought described the consumer agency's budget—around $820 million for 2025—as "excessive in the current fiscal environment." An OMB spokesperson did not respond when Government Executive asked why CFPB is footing Vought's security bill.

David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, wrote sardonically that Vought—who has helped turn the consumer bureau into a shell of its former self—is "finally getting things done that matter at CFPB."

"And when I say that, I mean his security detail," Dayen added. "At heart, these guys are all kleptocrats."

Don Moynihan, a professor at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, wrote that Vought is "simultaneously stopping CFPB from protecting American consumers from scams, while also charging it $5 million for his security team."

While the Trump administration's effort to dismantle the bureau entirely has been held up in court, Vought and Republicans in Congress have succeeded at slashing the consumer agency's budget and grinding its enforcement work to a halt. A pair of advocacy groups noted in a memo released in late May that the Vought-led CFPB has quietly dismissed more than 20 public enforcement actions against corporate wrongdoers.

Supporters of the CFPB, which was established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, have described the agency as a "model of efficiency," touting the fact that it has returned tens of billions of dollars to consumers since its creation.

But that's done nothing to slow the Trump administration's assault on the bureau.

The Prospect's Maureen Tkacik and James Baratta wrote earlier this month that for close to half of 2025, the CFPB's roughly 1,500 staffers "have been locked out of their offices and agency computers, while attorneys and judges deliberate over the degree to which Trump's wrecking crew is legally allowed to assassinate the bureau."

"In the meantime, formal entries into the CFPB's consumer complaints database have soared, suggesting that the business of junk fees, predatory terms, and routine swindles is booming," the pair wrote. "All told, 2.5 million complaints have flooded into the CFPB over the past six months, roughly a quarter of the total complaints the agency has recorded since its inception in 2011, with reports of everything from being shut out of bank accounts after a hurricane to scammers impersonating ICE officials who convince consumers to buy them gift cards in order to help them avoid deportation."

"The ability to force financial scammers to return ill-gotten gains to millions of customers is an awesome authority in a political system that makes it so difficult to materially improve people's lives," they added, "so Vought has unsurprisingly dedicated special effort to destroying that power."

A report released earlier this week by the nonprofit Better Markets notes that the Trump administration's regulatory rollbacks at the CFPB have cost American consumers billions in savings and left them more vulnerable to corporate misconduct.

"The magnitude of the rollback and its costs for American consumers is staggering," said Brady Williams, legal counsel at Better Markets. "The Trump CFPB has aligned itself with industry interests, abandoning its mission to protect consumers."

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