FAIL 5
7 25 TRUMP 2ND TERM
SEE JRNL FAIL FOX GAZA 8 25
TRUMP FAIL IRAN WAR MOU REFLECT POOL
SEE COURTS DISTRICT RULE OF LAW
SEE DOJ 3 BONDI KASH PIRRO
CRYPTO DOWN 97%
SEE NOEM FEMA WILDFIRE
PANDEMIC: MEASLES WHOOP COUGH EBOLA SCREW WORM
anti woke mkt always fail glorifi?
see prophet predictions
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JUD COMM GRASSLEY? EPIC FAIL PERJURY TRAP JACK SMITH 9 26
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an 10 26? verify?
Trump’s Truth Social hits rock bottom as users flee and stock crashes
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Judge accuses Trump DOJ of hiding its 'true motives'
Trump faces legal blow as BBC asks judge to crash his delay tactics
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THOM 10 26
...Trump’s meme coin buyers have lost 97 percent of their “investments,” so naturally he’s throwing another dinner to sell more of them. As Lisa Needham lays out at Aaron Rupar’s Public Notice, the top 185 holders of $TRUMP will “win” seats at a November 22 gala at his Virginia golf club, complete with a swag bag of Trump cologne, and the four biggest buyers get an 18-karat gold Trump watch. The so-called coin peaked above $73 and now trades around $1.79. Trump is making billions off crypto while the suckers who bought his and Melania’s meme coins were out $3.81 billion by the end of June.
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rww
- Finally, "prophetess" Kat Kerr once again tried to "take authority" over a hurricane and steer it away from land, and once again she failed.
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rww grift? 10 26
Lance Wallnau's Prophetic Gold And Silver Promotion Didn't Pay Off
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AN 9 26
Food fight: 'Colossal' parasite outbreak is colliding with Trump’s promises
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CARRIER JUMP OFF BC OUR BASE BOMBED HEGS
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Christa Pike, the woman who survived two execution attempts in Tennessee earlier this week, remains hospitalized in critical condition, where presumably medical staff is at work trying to keep her alive.
If she wakes from the coma she had entered, Tennessee officials want to start anew to inject lethal drugs into her seemingly too-small veins to kill her and carry out the state death warrant. Pike also is being treated for “significant injuries to both arms” sustained when two lethal injections of pentobarbital failed to kill her. If she dies, there will be no need to try again.
As we know by now, Tennessee tried to put Pike to death Wednesday night by lethal injection for a murder she committed when she was 18. She would have been the first woman executed in the state in 200 years.
There is just a simple, if total disconnect in the actions. When the state missed – twice – with its lethal injections, at what point did Tennessee become subject of inflicting “cruel and unusual punishment,” as barred by the Constitution? If we don’t know how to carry out an effective lethal injection on a 32-year Death Row inmate, would a few days make a difference to figure out how to do the job right.
Is anyone bothered by the idea that millions protest in the street to protect the unborn, but no one in official circles even thinks there is a question about keeping Pike artificially alive so that we can kill her all over again?
Legal, Medical and Moral Issues
Sure, there are legal issues here. Pike’s lawyers have told the state to preserve all its records on the botched execution attempts. As the details emerge – Pike was known to have small veins that might not handle the injection, the state had no emergency oxygen nearby if the execution attempt went south, that Pike apparently lay in the death chamber whimpering – the story just gets worse.
The execution process lasted more than two hours, allowing her lawyers time to file emergency legal papers to stay the process to no avail. Even then, “attorneys for the State of Tennessee argued that (the Department of Corrections) had no obligation to render life-saving care to Ms. Pike,” argued the lawyers.
Doctors were telling news reporters – not the state or the courts – that Pike’s condition was such that the pentobarbital was flowing into her arm instead of straight into her veins, making for an unusually painful, if ineffective, process.
In May, Tennessee was forced to call off the planned execution of Tony Carruthers, who killed three people in 1994, after the medical team failed to find a vein to insert the pentobarbital used under the new execution protocol
Pike was convicted in 1995 murder case with two other teenagers.
Generally, execution misses have made finding the supply of legally acceptable death injections more difficult, and there are newer procedures in place in some states other than Tennessee to require practice injections.
What’s Happened
Frank Strada, the prisons chief, resigned on Saturday, and Gov. Bill Lee announced an independent investigation into what went wrong. Strada had been in the job since 2023, moving from a top prison job in Arizona, where had overseen three problem-plagued executions.
Nevertheless, Marsha Blackburn, who is favored to replace Lee as governor in November, said the state would seek to kill Pike anew. She said she would follow recommendations for process changes, but not for Pike.
Capital punishment in Tennessee has been criticized since 2022, when Gov. Lee was forced to cancel an execution because the drugs had not been properly tested.
This summer, The Gallup Poll found that a slight majority — 52% of U.S. adults — consider the death penalty morally acceptable, hovering near historic five-decade lows. The Pew Research Center says about two-thirds of Americans (66%) favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 32% oppose it, marking an uptick compared to prior recent years.
Support for the death penalty is much higher among Republicans than Democrats, the opposite of, say, abortion law. Younger adults show significantly lower support. Only about 41% of adults aged 18 to 34 favor the death penalty, compared to higher approval among older generations.
Botched executions are not going to help any moral debate here. As a society, we are confused about who should live and who should die, with all the legal – and now medical – complications to make it more difficult to decide what is “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The New York Times, Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times and leadership jobs at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team part of several Pulitzers in New York.
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9 26 MAIL IN VOTE DB FAIL SCOTUS
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On Thursday, September 10, attorney and veteran GOP operative Joseph diGenova abruptly resigned from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he had been focused on a conspiracy investigation targeting President Donald Trump's foes. And according to Salon's Heather Digby Parton, the fact that he left DOJ without getting a single indictment is a major blow for the Trump administration and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.
"The definition of a mafia made man is one who has Italian blood and is formally initiated into the 'family,' having sworn an oath of omerta and promising to put the crime family above all else," Parton explains in Salon. "Traitors take their lives in their own hands, and they often do not live to tell the tale, which means that it's rare for anyone to go against the family, especially in public. That's why it was so surprising to see longtime Republican operative Joe diGenova resign from his job as a top Trump consigliere — or, more formally, 'special counselor to the attorney general' — on Thursday. If there was ever a GOP-made man, it is him."
Parton emphasizes that "expectations in the MAGAsphere were high" when diGenova was appointed to DOJ.
"DiGenova was appointed in April to oversee the Justice Department's big inquisition in Florida after the career prosecutor who had been running it resigned over concerns that they did not have a prosecutable case against former CIA chief John Brennan," Parton notes. "DiGenova, who had not prosecuted a case since his stint in the Reagan Justice Department, was a trusted GOP loyalist. He was involved in many of Rudy Giuliani's crusades during Donald Trump's first term, including the Big Lie court cases that went nowhere."
Parton continues, "This made him widely seen as the kind of partisan stalwart the administration needed to kickstart the investigation … DiGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, have been fixtures in the Republican scandal-mongering business for decades, having first made their bones during the Clinton years."
But after his resignation, Parton observes, diGenova told the New York Post, "If you want indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem."
"What's clear from this episode is that Attorney General Todd Blanche — and, by extension, Trump — will take nothing less than indictments against his perceived enemies," the Salon journalist writes. "And if they don't materialize, he is ready to sacrifice even the mostly loyal MAGA foot soldiers. When I wrote about diGenova's appointment in April, I asked the question, 'Can the TV hit man do what none of the other Trump lawyers before him have been able to do: put the president's enemies behind bars?' Now, we know the answer is no, and it's not for lack of trying. It's for lack of evidence. Even a made man can't get that job done."
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John Solomon hyped Trump prosecutor Joe diGenova's work just days before diGenova resigned
Solomon a day before diGenova resigned: “Joe diGenova, the FBI, Kash Patel, Todd Blanche are getting their horses together now. For the first time, there is a buzzing accountability machine.”
Written by Sophie Lawton
Published 09/11/26
A day prior to Joe diGenova’s abrupt resignation from his position running Trump's “Grand Conspiracy” probe, diGenova ally and “special government employee” John Solomon — whose task force just declassified documents related to the probe, including notes from the FBI's interview of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn — was seemingly caught flat-footed, boasting of diGenova's role as part of a “buzzing accountability machine.”
On September 10, diGenova resigned from his Justice Department appointment running Trump’s “Grand Conspiracy” probe into Democratic political figures, law enforcement officials, and other perceived enemies of the Trump administration.
During the September 9 episode of his program Just the News No Noise, Solomon interviewed Flynn, who also praised diGenova, calling him “absolutely the right person” for the probe and a “pit bull-type prosecutor.” Solomon also claimed that the latest documents release was “about providing evidence to Joe diGenova and the prosecutors of the U.S. attorney's office in Miami and Fort Pierce.”
Solomon also appeared on Steve Bannon's War Room on September 8 ahead of the documents’ release, claiming that “there are some major cooperating witnesses that have now flipped to the state to working with Joe diGenova,” which will “accelerate the ability to bring accountability.”
Following diGenova's resignation, Solomon took to social media to reassure followers that the “Grand Conspiracy” investigation is still ongoing and that prosecutors are “continuing the work Joe started with a roadmap that includes subpoenas and some cooperating witnesses.” Meanwhile, Ryan Reilly reported for NBC that “a person familiar with the investigation” said that “Justice Department leaders had lost confidence in diGenova because they believed he was unfocused, moving too slowly and pursuing a path unlikely to succeed.”
Here is Solomon and Flynn's exchange on September 9:
Video
Citation
From the September 9, 2026, edition of Real America's Voice's Just the News No Noise
JOHN SOLOMON (HOST): It isn't just about clearing Mike Flynn's name, though that's very important. It's also about providing evidence to Joe diGenova and the prosecutors of the U.S. attorney's office in Miami and Fort Pierce. They are now beginning to bring grand jury witnesses to begin securing indictments against those who weaponized the government from the summer of 2016 to January of ’25. Everything from the FBI and Russia collusion all the way to Jack Smith.
In that process, they have secured cooperation for one or two really significant FBI personnel. That's a really important thing. When someone in the middle of the drama says, we lied, we made it up, we didn't do that, that wasn't the truth, we set it up, it changes the ability of prosecutors to make a case, particularly in a partisan divide like we are in America.
Joe diGenova, the FBI, Kash Patel, Todd Blanche are getting their horses together now. For the first time, there is a buzzing accountability machine. And this — these documents today are already in the hands of prosecutors. They have it down in Florida. It would be called an overt act. It happened eight, nine years ago, which means it can't charge it itself.
…
MICHAEL FLYNN (GUEST): I just want to say, I appreciate what the Government Transparency Task Force is doing. You are working to get to the bottom of it, and I think that there's going to be more to come. In fact, I know there's going to be more to come.
I think that Joe diGenova is absolutely the right person at Fort Pierce and with this grand jury. I mean, Joe — and for people to know, I mean, Joe was one of the lawyers that I was consulting after I had gotten rid of my original lawyers and working closely with Sidney [Powell] to help us out. So, Joe is the right man to take this on. He is a pit bull-type prosecutor anyway, and he has the big strategic picture that I think that the country needs to have in a prosecutor that's going to dig and expose the truth. And that's what you guys did with this Transparency Task Force breaking story that you broke.
...
We have to bring these people to account. We have to — and I do believe that Joe diGenova is the right guy to build these various conspiracy cases to show that these people were undermining, not only guys like me, but they were undermining a duly elected president of the United States. They were undermining the Constitution of our country, and they and they basically did it, you know, in a very, almost — I would just say a criminal fashion. I mean, it's beyond corruption. It's criminal. And people are going to have to be held accountable.
//
09/04/26 12:38 PM EDT
08/28/26 1:33 PM EDT
John Solomon is spreading another flimsy election fraud claim
08/07/26
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Federal judge issues huge slap to Trump’s domestic spying attempt
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President Donald Trump’s revenge scheme against various individuals he has publicly deemed political enemies is officially defunct -- at least according to several sources, in no small part because of his failure to successfully prosecute a man he wrongly accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. Indeed, that trend is even extending to cases that would normally be considered airtight.
The Daily Mail's Charlie Spiering reported on Thursday that the citizens of Washington DC are treating Trump’s Justice Department like an organization which deliberately targets innocent people rather than a good faith actor, and they are responding accordingly. When they targeted Olympic canoeist David Hearn by incorrectly saying he vandalized the Reflecting Pool, for example, the case was seemingly rejected for that reason.
“The bigger problem now is that [USAG Jeanine Pirro's] office has struggled to land seemingly airtight cases, with Washington's jury pool deeply skeptical of the administration's prosecutions, say sources,” Spiering wrote. “Juries have twice deadlocked over two suspected MS-13 ringleaders, sending both trials to mistrials this week. The deadlocked juries are a sign that there is deep skepticism surrounding Pirro and the Trump administration among DC citizens.”
Those defeats seem bound to continue unabated, sources tell the Daily Mail, despite Pirro's demonstrated willingness to take controversial or outright false cases to trial.
“Jury nullification is a serious problem in DC,' a legal source following proceedings in the city said,” Spiering observed. “Jury nullification is when jurors deliver a not guilty verdict even though they believe the defendant has broken the law.”
He added that this is indicative of a deeper systemic issue.
“The deadlocked juries are a sign that there is deep skepticism surrounding Pirro and the Trump administration among DC citizens,” Spiering said. “Those defeats will likely continue, sources tell the Daily Mail, despite her willingness to take cases to trial.”
He added, “'Jury nullification is a serious problem in DC,' a legal source following proceedings in the city said. Jury nullification is when jurors deliver a not guilty verdict even though they believe the defendant has broken the law.”
The Daily Mail explained that Pirro ultimately kept her job despite her recent failures by convincing Trump of the uphill battle involved in prosecuting these thin cases.
“During the closed-door Oval Office meeting, she personally detailed the Reflecting Pool case evidence to him,” Spiering stated. “The President was angry but understanding, a source familiar with the meeting previously told the Daily Mail.”
Apparently Trump has cooled off toward Pirro, perhaps recognizing on some level that the Justice Department has undermined its own credibility by pursuing weak and blatantly political cases.
“'I don't think that she's on thin ice now, I just think Trump was [furious] about the case,' another source told the Daily Mail. 'It was kind of a dumb case. It wasn't going to go anywhere and she was fully honest with the President about it,’” Spiering reported.
The Washington Examiner reported earlier this week that DC residents are so outraged at Trump’s political warfare that they are deliberately joining grand juries and receiving instructions on how to refuse to pursue cases the president is clearly trying to prosecute for political reasons. Similarly, people throughout America are joining forces to revolt against Trump’s attempts to rig the upcoming midterm elections.
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an 8 26
It’s a bad day for a marketplace backed by the Trump family, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Online marketplace PublicSquare, created as a MAGA-aligned alternative with Donald Trump Jr.’s backing, is now facing severe financial difficulties and a 99 percent collapse in its share price, according to BGNES.
“Despite initial expectations, the conservative marketplace failed to gain traction, resulting in cumulative losses of nearly $160 million from the start of its stock trading in 2023 through the end of July this year,” reports BGNES.
Trump Jr. lauded the company's debut on the New York Stock Exchange in 2023 as an “anti-woke marketplace” aimed at conservative, “patriotic and religious consumers.” But apparently the market and investors didn’t think much of politics. The business model soon unraveled, leaving the company at risk of being delisted.
This year, PublicSquare announced that it was abandoning e-commerce in favor of financial technology, including cutting 41 percent of its workforce and cancelling a streaming program.
And, typically, of many star-driven business, BGNES reports company's financial difficulties are linked to princely consultancy costs.
“Since 2024, shortly after Donald Trump won the presidential election, the West Palm Beach, Florida-based company had been paying Trump Jr. $42,000 a month in consultancy fees. Last year, the president’s son earned more than the company's then-chief executive, while in 2025 he received more than $500,000,” reports BGNES.
“Former Trump administration official Nick Ayers and a firm run by Trump Jr. ally Omeed Malik also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultancy fees.”
According to financial filings, the company’s net losses have “significantly exceeded revenue” — $57.6 million in 2024 and $36.6 million in 2025.
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Trump often attacks Democrats as being unsupportive of the military — a claim they aggressively push back against. But five and one-half months into the war with Iran, officers serving in the U.S. Navy are, according to i Paper reporter Simon Marks, feeling increasingly frustrated and feel like Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are turning their backs on them.
"Families say the mental health of sailors is now at immediate risk," Marks reports in the UK-based i Paper. "They reported at least one incident in which a crew member was prevented by his colleagues from jumping overboard."
Marks describes conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a warship where the crew is "plagued with a potentially deadly morale problem."
"Back in April, barely a month into Donald Trump's war with Iran, sailors serving on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier started grousing on social media about dwindling food supplies," Marks explains. "Images sent to spouses and parents were leaked to the media and appeared to support claims that the ship's supplies were coming under growing pressure. Some 'meals' consisted of little more than a handful of boiled carrots and two dried-out slices of unidentifiable meat. Sailors aboard the nearby USS Tripoli were also lodging similar complaints. At the time, Hegseth denied any problems existed, claiming that the vessels had more than 30 days of food supplies for their crews ... But four months later, the crisis has intensified."
Marks, noting recent reporting from the Stars and Stripes, points out that families of U.S. Navy members addressed their worries during a recent town hall event in San Diego.
"Families reportedly warned Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao that they were increasingly fearful of suicides among the men and women serving aboard the carrier, which has been at sea for more than 250 consecutive days, more than 40 of them engaged in combat with Iran," Marks writes. "Last month, the Lincoln set a new record, having spent longer continuously at sea without a port call than any U.S. aircraft carrier in history…. The 5000 men and women aboard the carrier say food and basic hygiene supplies are running low, physical and mental exhaustion is setting in, and letters and care packages sent from home have failed to reach the ship for months."
A U.S. Navy member quoted in the Stars and Stripes warned, "Our mental health and physical health is in danger. We need help."
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State Department takes 'full responsibility' after map mislabels every country in Africa
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The IRS is falling apart, a new report from Mother Jones said on Tuesday.
Reporter Stephanie Mencimer writes that she received a notice from the Internal Revenue Service claiming she underpaid her 2025 taxes, even though the agency had not credited payments she had already made. After two hours on hold, she gave up. A few days later, a recorded message about “high call volume” disconnected her. Her accountant said even dedicated lines for tax practitioners were not working, leaving serious issues unresolved with “no contact available at all.”
Mencimer said she “realized that the IRS was finally imploding.”
It's what everyone warned would happen when Elon Musk used his DOGE program to reduce the IRS by 25,000 people. It was about one-third of the entire IRS.
“When, literally overnight, you lose that many people, you’re losing leadership,” former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said when speaking to Mother Jones reporter Michael Mechanic in April 2025. “You really are disabling the IRS.”
Frank Bisignano, a former finance executive whom Trump named to a newly created “IRS CEO” role while also overseeing the Social Security Administration, had boasted in April that the cuts would not hurt operations. But Mencimer writes that her experience, along with IRS data and accounts from other taxpayers and professionals, suggests otherwise.
“You can’t get rid of 30 percent of your staff and expect to be functional,” said Traci DiMartini, a former IRS human capital officer who was laid off last year. “Things are starting to break.”
Members of Congress are now echoing those concerns. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement, “The Administration laid off close to a third of the IRS workforce, sabotaging its mission, and making it impossible to get someone on the phone to answer even the simplest of questions, let alone resolve issues. Yet this Administration refuses to acknowledge the predictable consequences of gutting an agency and keeps telling taxpayers not to believe what they are experiencing.”
The decline follows years of Republican efforts to shrink the IRS.
When the Biden administration took office, Democrats directed new funding to the agency to pursue wealthy tax dodgers and improve customer service. By the end of that term, the IRS had collected about $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes from high-income filers and had hired more customer-service staff — the very people Mencimer could not reach.
Under Biden, IRS call performance improved: in 2024, the agency answered more than 1 million additional calls during filing season than the year before and cut the average hold time from 28 minutes to 3 minutes, according to IRS data. Those gains have largely disappeared under Trump.
“It’s infinitely worse in 2026 than it was in 2025,” New Jersey tax attorney Richard Champion told Mother Jones. He represents low-income taxpayers in tax court and says he now has at least four or five cases where he is “just stymied” because he cannot get through by phone.
Experts across the board report the same problem: taxpayers cannot reach a live person, much less get help setting up payment plans. Wait times now average about 45 minutes, and many calls are disconnected.
The nonprofit Center for Taxpayer Rights (CTR) conducted its own testing this year and found that government measurements showed IRS phone wait times increased more than 70 percent in 2026, even though the agency received 50 percent fewer calls on its main 1040 help line than the previous year. CTR testers found that nearly 40 percent of calls to various IRS numbers were disconnected.
Online access has also deteriorated. When Mencimer logged into her IRS account, she repeatedly saw a message: “Account features limited due to partial outage. While you can still access your account, some features are unavailable, including account balance and payment history.” She checked for a month and never could view her details.
Biden’s administration had allocated funds to modernize IRS IT systems, but Trump cut the IT office by 40 percent. The Taxpayer Advocate Service, which helps people navigate the bureaucracy, was also reduced.
Mencimer’s next step was to contact her congresswoman, but as a D.C. resident without a voting member of Congress, she assumed no one would intervene. Her last resort was snail mail. But the IRS mailroom has been hit as hard as IT.
“According to a recent report by the Taxpayer Advocate, the number of unprocessed correspondence and amended returns languishing at the IRS jumped from 3.8 million in 2025 to 7 million this year,” Mencimer wrote. “And that was before all the people like you were sending in letters,” said CTR’s Nina Olson.
Despite the deteriorating service, the Treasury Department said about 8,000 new hires could be added through September — a small fraction of the tens of thousands of positions eliminated.
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Across the country, federal judges are calling out Department of Justice lawyers, questioning in unprecedented ways whether they can be trusted to tell the truth or uphold centuries-old legal norms.
From Washington, D.C., to Rhode Island to Oregon, federal judges nominated by presidents from both parties, including Donald Trump, have zeroed in on what’s called “the presumption of regularity.” It essentially means that judges must presume that the government — whether it be federal prosecutors, an IRS auditor or an FBI agent — did their jobs according to the rules and in good faith.
Until Trump’s second term, which has seen an exodus of veteran DOJ lawyers and a transformative shift in priorities from issues like enforcing civil rights to instead defending a mass deportation agenda, this foundational tenet had rarely been discussed in federal courtrooms, former judges, lawyers and scholars say. But as Trump’s DOJ exhibits behavior that judges have called “unlawful,” “unethical,” “unseemly” or otherwise dishonest, adherence to that bedrock standard is now being questioned.
ProPublica reviewed hundreds of cases since Trump retook the White House in which judges criticized the actions of DOJ lawyers and found more than 40 in which they explicitly referenced the presumption of regularity. In many cases, judges have expressed frustration that they can no longer take the government at its word.
“Judges simply don’t believe the representations that are being made by United States attorneys, assistant United States attorneys and the like,” said John E. Jones, a former federal judge for the District of Pennsylvania, appointed by President George W. Bush.
“I don’t think in the annals of the Department of Justice, in the history of jurisprudence in the United States, we’ve ever seen anything close to this.”
In Rhode Island in May, Trump-appointed federal Judge Mary McElroy rebuked federal prosecutors’ conduct — saying they withheld information and misrepresented facts — as she quashed their requests for a subpoena in their investigation into a hospital’s care of transgender children. The judge alleged the DOJ had inappropriately claimed its investigation was operating out of Texas to secure subpoenas targeting sensitive medical records of patients in another state and that it falsely claimed the Rhode Island hospital hadn’t communicated with the department.
“The discrepancy between the honorable conduct expected of federal prosecutors and DOJ’s tactics in this case is unsettling,” McElroy wrote. “The Court cannot help but share the sentiment that ‘[t]he presumption of regularity that has previously been extended to [DOJ] that it could be taken at its word — with little doubt about its intentions and stated purposes — no longer holds.’”
Judges have emitted a chorus of condemnations against the legal basis for some of Trump’s political agenda, including the mass firings of federal workers, an immigration dragnet that has imprisoned hundreds of U.S. citizens and retribution campaigns against the president’s political enemies.
In doing so, federal judges are imbuing forceful language into their orders in a way that scholars say signals to the Trump administration that the third branch of government is losing trust in the Justice Department.
“I don’t think in the annals of the Department of Justice, in the history of jurisprudence in the United States, we’ve ever seen anything close to this.”
Former federal Judge John E. Jones, a George W. Bush appointee
Federal judges rarely grant interviews, and none of the judges who criticized the Justice Department in their orders granted interviews to ProPublica.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the DOJ said its attorneys are “dedicated public servants who represent the United States with integrity, in accordance with their ethical obligations and the law.”
“The Department stands firmly behind the professionalism and good faith of its attorneys,” said spokesperson Kiersten Pels. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Federal judges have found that the government filed statements generated by artificial intelligence that referenced nonexistent case law, wrote briefs that ignored facts and filed declarations with inaccurate dates, the ProPublica review shows.
In one case, the government included documentation claiming a detainee had been convicted of marijuana possession in 2009. That detainee, the judge noted, citing what she called the government’s persistent “sloppiness,” would have been 4 years old.
“This Court will no longer blindly accept statements of fact from [the U.S. government] unless they are made under oath by an individual with personal knowledge,” Judge Christine O’Hearn, a President Joe Biden appointee, wrote in New Jersey while reviewing a writ of habeas corpus petition filed by a man who claimed he was unlawfully imprisoned by immigration officers. O’Hearn accused the government of defying her orders when, instead of releasing the man, Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred him to a different facility in New York.
In Minnesota, the state’s top political leaders had publicly clashed with the administration following the violent ICE raids that led to the deaths of two U.S. citizens. Then the administration filed a flurry of subpoenas against them.
Last month, Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, who was appointed by George W. Bush and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, slammed the government’s actions and “spurious claims,” saying the presumption of regularity was being abused.
“Initiating a criminal investigation in order to harass political opponents or to coerce them into taking official action — particularly official action that the federal government cannot directly require those political opponents to take — is a blatantly unlawful and unethical use [of] the grand-jury process,” the judge wrote.
“Breakdown” of a Presumption
The presumption of regularity creates a high bar for those suing the government or defending themselves against it in criminal cases. They often must provide evidence that the government willfully violated a policy or otherwise deviated from its charge — that is, did something irregular — to overcome the standard.
It’s a shield the government wields often, with little notice, and one that is almost always successful. But overcoming that presumption has become increasingly common under Trump’s second term, according to court watchers.
About half of the cases ProPublica identified as questioning the presumption come from districts, including D.C., Maryland and Virginia, where by proximity and jurisdiction many of Trump’s actions are challenged and often heard by Democratic-nominated judges. The Southern District of New York, which has issued repeated rebukes of Trump administration actions, and the Northern District of California, another Democratic stronghold, are other hotbeds of judicial scrutiny.
Last September, D.C. District Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui accused the administration of working around the federal grand jury process, getting an indictment from a state court after prosecutors had failed to get one in his court, which he called “unseemly,” if not “unlawful.” He fired off one of the earliest signs that the presumption itself could come into question.
“This only deepens the growing mistrust of the actions of prosecutors,” the judge wrote. “That is a sentiment that was once unthinkable, but the irregular is now the regular.” While the case was largely managed by assistant U.S. attorney Caelainn Carney, according to court transcripts, Faruqui was aiming his frustration at her bosses, including senior prosecutor Jonathan R. Hornok, and the leadership at DOJ. Neither attorney responded to requests for comment.
Pels, the DOJ spokesperson, told ProPublica that Faruqui “was wrong on the law” and noted that after the government appealed to the district’s chief judge, his order was overruled. “Judge Faruqui has a long-standing documented pattern of editorializing from the bench beyond the scope of the cases before him,” Pels added.
But in recent months, skepticism about the presumption has also come from judges appointed by Republicans, such as McElroy, or in GOP strongholds.
In Indiana, Trump-appointed federal Judge James Patrick Hanlon ordered the release of Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and a lawful U.S. resident, from ICE custody in March. Sarsour’s lawyers argued the government had targeted him to suppress his First Amendment right to free speech. The DOJ invoked the presumption of regularity and argued his arrest was part of an anti-terrorism dragnet, which the judge threw out.
In the Southern District of Ohio, Judge Michael R. Barrett, appointed by George W. Bush, ordered ICE to release a detainee after concluding the presumption had been overcome because the government hadn’t presented a reasonable argument that the man was a flight risk.
News outlets, including CNN, have documented federal judges’ ire with Trump’s DOJ, and some of the cases under question have been well-publicized, such as the government’s illegal deportation of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador. In that case, Judge Paula Xinis, a President Barack Obama appointee, criticized the government, saying, “You have taken the presumption of regularity, and you’ve destroyed it.”
Many of the rulings challenged one of Trump’s hallmark efforts: immigration enforcement and deportations.
“The presumption of regularity and integrity previously and routinely afforded to the Executive branch and the United States Attorney’s Office has been undeniably eroded in this jurisdiction and across the country,” O’Hearn wrote in February, noting that the federal government had repeatedly violated court orders in her district and others related to immigration operations.
In another immigration detention case, this one in Washington state, Biden-appointed Judge Lauren King said, “[t]he ‘presumption of regularity’ is dislodged here by the numerous factual errors in Respondents’ filings and by their conflicting representations.”
Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute and a former federal judge from California, said what’s happening in the courts feels more like a “political conflict” than the normal ebb and flow of the justice system.
“It’s really one branch that is really sort of questioning the legitimacy of the other one,” Fogel said. “I think the judges are trying to stand up for the legitimacy of their branch.”
Just Security, an online law and policy journal, has been tracking cases in which federal judges have admonished Trump’s prosecutors, including those involving the presumption.
“We’re witnessing a breakdown in the ways in which any administration ordinarily carries out its responsibilities, through the Justice Department in particular,” said Ryan Goodman, Just Security’s co-editor-in-chief.
Erosion of Trust, Ethics Inquiries
The erosion of trust from the federal bench comes as Trump has profoundly shifted priorities at the DOJ to align with his political platform: ending civil rights and diversity programs, deporting immigrants and stripping away environmental protections.
Those who deal with DOJ lawyers have noticed the difference in court.
Mitch Bernard, chief counsel at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, has faced off on environmental issues with the DOJ many times. Although they may disagree, he said, he always expected his opponents to be “fair and above board.”
That dynamic is gone, he said.
“I would call it a transformation of the role of the Justice Department,” he said. “There are many different judges in different jurisdictions not only ruling against the government but calling the government out for dishonesty and dissembling, and that’s an extraordinary thing.”
The result, Bernard said, is that “the government will lose more cases as a result of the way the Justice Department is behaving.”
“There are many different judges in different jurisdictions not only ruling against the government but calling the government out for dishonesty and dissembling, and that’s an extraordinary thing.”
Mitch Bernard, chief counsel at the Natural Resources Defense Council
Meanwhile, groups such as his are benefitting from the government brain drain. “We hired 10 litigating attorneys last year,” he said. Of those, eight came from the DOJ.
Judges aren’t just losing faith in the DOJ. Some are pushing to sanction Justice Department lawyers.
This month, Miami federal Judge Kathleen M. Williams ruled that Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS was an improper exercise in self-enrichment, citing the president’s lawyers for a series of misstatements in the case.
The Obama appointee referred the lawyer who brought the president’s case against the IRS, Alejandro Brito, to the Florida Bar for potential disciplinary proceedings. She also forwarded her ruling to disciplinary officials in New York, who had earlier received an ethics complaint about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
A DOJ spokesperson called the Blanche case “nothing more than a politically motivated bar complaint, filed by partisan activists who disagree with this Administration’s policies.” Brito did not respond to a request for comment.
In Rhode Island, McElroy referred DOJ lawyers to a review board for possible discipline for their handling of the hospital investigation.
“As citizens, we trust that federal prosecutors, when wielding this awesome power against a state, a company, or certainly against vulnerable children, will play fair and be honest with its counterparts and the judiciary,” McElroy wrote. “DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case.”
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AN 7 26
As algae blooms persist in the Reflecting Pool, the multi-tiered fountain at Meridian Hill Park, known to locals as Malcom X Park, has turned brown.
It has been less than a week since Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Todd Blanche and Trump staffer Stephen Miller dedicated the fountain, touting how the president had worked so hard to bring D.C. back to life. The fountains had previously stopped working during Trump's first administration.
It took a week, and now the water in the fountain has gone from clear to brown, observed Joe Flood, a D.C. resident, while walking by Tuesday.
"The Trump admin bragged about fixing the fountain in Meridian Hill Park. It turned brown," the writer and photographer noted.
Commentator and writer John Aravosis did his own stand-up at the fountains
"The water is now orange, and you can't see through it," assessed Aravosis. "It's not clear what the hell's going on. Like that's what the water is supposed to look like. See." He turned to show the small pool across from the fountain that remained clear.
"Now it's orange and gunky and disgusting and it's not clear what the hell's going on," Aravosis said.
He went on to question whether rust was coming from the pipes or something else was afoot.
At the very top, the water was outright green. So, it's either algae or — oh yeah," he stopped. "Look at the sides. Well, seems the algae is more prevalent than we thought."
The side fountains, which are also turned on, are orange in color.
City Cast DC reporter Tristan Espinoza wrote that he spotted a condom floating in the murky pool.
There continues to be a debate over whether the water is brown or orange.
"I headed to the park to see for myself and yes — the water, once a sparkling blue, had, in fact turned brown," said Espinoza.
The brown/orange water came after a series of storms moved through sending trash flying through the air with severe winds.
A National Park Service spokesperson told Espinoza in a statement that the brown water comes from sediment, “a result of the reopening of two water lines that had been out of service for some time.”
"The National Park Service continues to fine-tune the fountain’s operations,” the statement said.
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MMA
The right-wing media revolt against Trump’s proposed MOU with Iran | Media Matters for America
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EBOLA DRC 800 SICK 6 26
Tim Meisburger, a Trump administration appointee assigned to oversee USAID operations alongside Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team, explicitly called the Ebola outbreak a "scam." [1, 2]
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PERC
Former PERC executive director Terry Anderson was one of the State of Montana’s expert witnesses at the Held v. Montana trial and presented himself as the founder of “free market environmentalism.”
He presented data about greenhouse gas emissions that the judge in the case wrote “was not well-supported, contained errors, and was not given weight by the Court.”
In response to questions about some of those papers and stances from the past, Dwyer said many were more than 20 years old and written by people no longer affiliated with the organization.
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NC GOP ~ NEW GERRY MAP 5 27 26
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an 5 26
The Justice Department announced that it was a done deal that they are setting up a fund for President Donald Trump's allies who claim they have been "wronged" by former President Joe Biden's administration.
The decision was signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The Justice Department press release reads, "There is legal precedent for such a Fund..."
That excerpt prompted The Atlantic's legal analyst, Quinta Jurecic, to comment, "This press release reads a tad defensive to me."
National security expert Marcy Wheeler pointed out that Blanche is supposed to appear before lawmakers to answer questions this week.
Some legal analysts were skeptical, but others were downright disgusted.
"Acting AG Todd Blanche directly involved," said Lawfare's Roger Parloff.
Other legal and national security analysts questioned some specifics about the new DOJ "policy."
National security lawyer Bradley P. Moss questioned whether the judge would be willing to play ball with Trump after he asked to drop the case.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say the judge overseeing Trump's IRS case is not going to just let this slide the way he is hoping," Moss wrote on BlueSky.
He later added the fund mentioned in the DOJ release to claim "precedent" is vastly different from the one that Blanche and Trump have developed.
"That fund was crafted as part of a legal settlement that required court approval and directly responded to the legal claims for damages in the lawsuit itself. Trump's slush fund has none of this," Moss wrote.
Law school professor Jon Becker half-joked, "Tired: reparations for slavery Wired: reparations for being prosecuted for committing crimes."
"A slush fund for Trump’s goon squad. Paid for with American tax dollars," said veteran reporter Jim Acosta.
"How many different ways can one president try to spend unappropriated money?" asked lawyer Joe Dudek.
Media Matters for America fellow Matthew Gertz commented, "The president is stealing tax dollars from the public treasury to pay off his criminal cronies."
Lawyer Michael Salerno added, "One has to wonder how much of this the Proud Boys et al are going to receive."
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AN 5 26
According to new reporting from Politico, a federal appeals court is poised to quash Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s effort to punish Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who drew the ire of the White House by telling troops to reject illegal orders. This represents a major blow to the administration’s war of narratives as it has attempted to smear Navy veteran and former astronaut Kelly as a traitor while asserting its broad military powers.
The matter dates back to last November, when Kelly, along with five other Democratic lawmakers, filmed a video warning that President Donald Trump intended to use the military against American citizens, and reminding troops that they have the right to “refuse illegal orders.” Hegseth then formally censured Kelly, launching a review into whether his rank and retirement pay should be diminished as a consequence. A district judge ruled that Hegseth’s actions amounted to an attack on free speech, which he appealed.
But on Thursday, the three judges presiding over the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had some harsh questions for White House lawyers, pushing back against the administration’s rationale and suggesting that they would uphold the lower court’s decision to back Kelly’s free speech.
“The text of the video, which I take to be really the fulcrum of this entire case, advises that service members have no obligation to obey unlawful orders,” said Judge Cornelia Pillard. “Nobody in the video says service members have a duty to disobey lawful orders.”
With her fellow judges expressing similar sentiments, it appears likely that Hegseth’s appeal has failed. While the Justice Department is also pushing for a criminal indictment for Kelly and the other five lawmakers involved with the video — all of whom have served in military or national security — such efforts have been stymied.
This has resulted in more than a mere legal loss for the Trump administration, but the ascension of an electoral rival. While Kelly previously had garnered some recognition as an astronaut and senator, “The saga has turned the Arizona Democrat into a high-profile opponent of the administration — and elevated his national standing as he ‘seriously’ considers a White House bid.”
According to Politico, “Kelly has turned his fight with Trump into a fundraising windfall, raking in a staggering $25 million-plus over the last six months even though he’s not on the ballot this year. And he’s leveraged the media attention into a megaphone while growing his online following. Regardless of how the appeals court rules, the case is likely to end up before the Supreme Court either just before the congressional midterms or in the months after, as candidates sharpen their 2028 message over Trump’s improper and potentially illegal use of the military.”
Kelly, who was on the shortlist to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in 2024, isn’t the only Democrat from the video with presidential aspirations. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) is known to be considering a bid for the primary. A former CIA analyst and Pentagon official, she serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee alongside Kelly.
While in 2024, Kelly was registering at just .4 percent in polls for possible 2028 Democratic candidates, Trump’s November declaration that the Senator’s “seditious behavior” was “punishable by death” thrust him into the spotlight. This high-profile battle with an unpopular president, plus Kelly’s experience as an astronaut and marriage to Gabby Giffords — who famously survived an assassination attempt — has shaped him into a rising political star.
“He’s got the backstory. He’s a hot commodity right now,” said Democratic presidential campaign strategist Pete Giangreco. “He’s done it in a way that has excited the base of the party but is also a talking point that can win a general election because this is about courage and standing up for the Constitution and making sure we have a military that is not politicized.”
As Steven Smith, political scientist and expert in elections and public opinion at Arizona State University, declared, “Some candidates may pop up and be flashier speakers, but none of them will be as articulate. Kelly just commands your attention.”
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AN 5 26
Investigations in peril as Trump’s 'corrupt' DOJ credibility burns - Alternet.org
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an 5 26
Many of President Donald Trump's appointees received widespread opposition from Senate Democrats, but a major exception was Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Not a single Senate Democrat voted against confirming the former U.S. senator.
Trump made a point of filling his administration with ultra-MAGA loyalists, from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Rubio, however, is known for being a traditional conservative and an establishment Republican — and Democrats who voted to confirm Rubio hoped he would be a voice of reason as secretary of state.
But Salon's Chauncey DeVega, in a biting article published on May 5, argues that Rubio has seriously "sacrificed his values" in order to survive in the second Trump Administration.
"While also attending to Trump's needs," DeVega explains, "Rubio has been busy remaking the State Department in the MAGA image — an act that is undermining democracy at home and accelerating strategic failures abroad. What the administration calls 'America First' is, in practice, white racial authoritarianism and white Christian nationalism that governs who and what is deemed to be in America's vital interests."
DeVega notes that during the Cold War, the U.S. State Department "emphasized cultural pluralism" and "inclusiveness" with its "public messaging" — as officials realized that "American diplomacy takes place around the world."
"During the Cold War," the Salon journalist recalls, "America's elites understood that racism at home made America weak abroad…. Jim and Jane Crow were an international embarrassment, giving the Soviet Union a powerful counternarrative about American hypocrisy and the color line…. The State Department, meanwhile, deployed jazz diplomacy and other cultural outreach programs to project, in a carefully curated way, an image of American diversity as a weapon against communism and authoritarian regimes. These traditions have been largely abandoned under Rubio at the behest of Trump."
According to DeVega, Trump's "America First" purity tests for State Department employees are hurting the U.S. from a foreign policy standpoint.
"Limiting the number of Black and brown diplomatic corps members at a time when China is making great inroads in Africa and other parts of the non-white world through infrastructure development, securing rare earth and other vital resources, and building military bases is a strategic blunder," DeVega writes. "The (State) Department has also overseen the systematic dismantling of America's soft power. The gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and related programs that support public health have already contributed to an estimated 762,000 preventable deaths…. Since Trump's return to power, the United States has been repositioning itself as an explicitly Judeo-Christian nation — and government departments and agencies are following suit."
DeVega notes that Rubio "was a strong advocate for global democracy" during his years in the U.S. Senate but has "abandoned" that outlook to please Trump.
"He wanted America to be more confrontational with Russia and backed Ukraine in its freedom struggle," DeVega observes. "Now, while enduring the president's humiliation rituals — the public debasements Trump uses to test and bind the loyalty of those around him — Rubio has adopted his values…. Rubio sacrificed his values and the storied institutional legacy of the State Department itself to be in closer proximity to Donald Trump, a chaos agent — and America's reputation and power are collapsing."
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MEHTA J6 IMMUNITY?
AN 4 26
Trump DOJ official’s 'losing streak' isn’t letting up - Alternet.org
A major bombshell from the Donald Trump-era U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) came on Friday morning, April 24, when the news broke that federal prosecutor and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro was dropping the criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. MS NOW's Ken Dilanian, in response, described the news as a "180-degree surrender," telling his colleague Ana Cabrera, "What Jeanine Pirro is essentially conceding here is that there's no criminal case. There never was."
In an April 27 column, MS NOW's Steve Benen describes the Powell investigation's demise as a major humiliation for Pirro — whose "losing streak" at DOJ, he argues, is going from bad to worse.
"To be sure, the top federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C., didn't want to drop the case," Benen says of Pirro's decision. "Two weeks ago, two prosecutors from Pirro's office showed up without invitation or advance notice at Federal Reserve headquarters seeking a tour of the construction site. A week later, the former Fox News host said she would forge ahead with a case against Powell. Pirro was, however, quickly overwhelmed by reality."
The "Rachel Maddow Show" producer continues, "The politically motivated investigation obviously had no merit; a federal judge had already quashed the Justice Department's subpoenas, emphasizing the inconvenient fact that prosecutors 'produced essentially zero evidence' — and the longer the baseless case continued, the more it threatened to delay confirmation of Trump’s new Fed chair nominee."
Conservative Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), an outspoken critic of Pirro's Powell investigation, vowed to oppose the nomination of Kevin Warsh as a replacement for the Fed chair — whose term ends in mid-May — unless the probe ended.
"Short on options," Benen observes, "Pirro threw in the towel on Friday, and Kevin Warsh's odds of confirmation approached 100 percent soon after…. Pirro's failed effort against Powell was humiliating, but it coincided with a similarly humiliating effort to indict Democratic veterans in Congress who advised service members to follow the law, which coincided with a separate failed criminal investigation into (former President) Joe Biden. In fact, Pirro's office has lost so many closely watched cases, with such regularity, that it's been challenging to keep up. After the president fired (former U.S. Attorney General) Pam Bondi earlier this month, it sparked speculation as to whom Trump might choose as the next attorney general, and there was a round of chatter about whether Pirro would be among the top contenders."
Benen adds, "The odd thing is, it’s far from clear whether her repeated failures make her any less appealing to the White House — or more. On one hand, Trump rejects those seen as 'losers'; on the other, the hapless U.S. attorney keeps going after his perceived foes, indifferent to merit or propriety, which is exactly the kind of quality the president seems to be looking for at Main Justice."
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POLYCRISIS?
an 4 26
The Financial Times reported Friday morning that the big banks that Wall Street is betting on are failing in private credit markets. It's something that New Republic writer Logan McMillen is sounding the alarm about because it is the same thing that happened in the 2007 and 2008 global economic collapse.
This week, the Federal Reserve likely freaked out economic experts when it demanded the largest banks "detail their exposure to the opaque, multitrillion-dollar private credit market," said McMillen. "Then, almost simultaneously, word broke that some of those same banks are imminently launching a credit default swap index with S&P Global, targeting that same market."
McMillen cautioned that the U.S.'s macroeconomic program is quickly falling apart under the stress of President Donald Trump's war against Iran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the rise in inflation.
It comes as the "U.S. Treasury is now desperately trying to finance a $1.9 trillion deficit without a large pool of captive foreign buyers. Trump "failed to prepare" for the crisis. A former Trump strategist told CNN last month that the president thought Iran would be just as easy as Venezuela was.
Nate Swanson, a former Trump staffer and current senior fellow and director of the Iran Strategy Project at The Atlantic Council, assumes that Trump thought the whole operation would be easy and he'd be successful
Trump was coming off a "win" from his June strikes and from capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. In the past, Trump was able to kill Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani "with virtually no repercussions," said Swanson.
Trump has done nothing to prepare for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and worse, he's done nothing to protect the U.S. economy from the ensuing disaster after the bombing began.
"China is dumping U.S. Treasuries at a rate not seen since the Global Financial Crisis, while stalwart buyers like Japan are seeing their bond yield rates creep up to their highest levels in 27 years," said McMillen, explaining it isn't healthy for the macroeconomy.
What happens this weekend might mark a shift that will be felt for at least a year or more "in the form of a liquidity crisis."
"The Fed’s request that major banks detail their exposure to the private credit market should terrify risk assessors. When macroeconomists picked through the rubble of 2008, many landed on the conclusion that there had been a catastrophic mispricing of risk," McMillen said.
Credit rating agencies continued to claim that toxic subprime mortgages were somehow AAA-rated. Regulators in 2008 at the very least knew where the underlying assests were, McMillen explained. That isn't happening with the $2 trillion private credit market. It's a black box hidden in "regulatory shadows to facilitate high-risk corporate loans that traditional banks were forced to abandon after the passage of Dodd-Frank."
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an 4 26
President Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch and others has been thrown out of court.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida, an appointee from President Barack Obama, ruled that “Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that defendants published the article with actual malice, both Counts must be dismissed."
The judge also said that Trump could file a new amended lawsuit if he wishes, but he only has until April 27 to do so.
Last year, the WSJ reported that there was a book celebrating trafficking Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. In the book, Trump submitted a little skit of a conversation about "secrets" the two shared. It was within a drawing of a woman. Trump alleged it was false, but the page was revealed showing that the drawing did exist.
As an appellate lawyer, Gabriel Malor said, "Trump can replead."
Economist Teresa Fort commented, "There needs to be some penalty for bringing lawsuits that will be dismissed like this. There is a huge cost for defendants to deal with them."
A few people suggested that theWSJ sue Trump.
"Since most everything Trump does is illegal or a lie, fighting back pays off. He banks on the fact that his victims can’t afford to do so. Those who can, win," said Michael Curry.
"Stupid defamation lawsuits are a real threat to free speech. The story was true. It was well documented. And the President still managed to make a newspaper pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to report it," wrote lawyer Andrew Fleischman.
He explained that the WSJ was denied legal fees because Trump could still amend his complaint and suit.
"I am still surprised they did not raise the failure to give five days notice before suing, which has been successful in Florida federal district courts," said Fleischman.
He also recalled, "Republicans used to be all about tort reform. But many lack the stomach to support a federal anti-SLAPP to deter these stupid lawsuits until our litigant in chief shuffles off this mortal coil."
"In dismissing (without prejudice) Trump’s lawsuit vs WSJ over that Epstein birthday card, the judge shows why a reporter — asking someone for comment and quoting their response fully — is a smart legal, as well as ethical, thing to do," explained journalist Bill Grueskin.
"Yeah, tough to prove actual malice over a newspaper printing a real document you signed," quipped reporter David Weigel. "And lied about," added lawyer Scott Greenfield.
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an 4 26
President Donald Trump vowed that in his second term, he would go after the foes that he claimed "weaponized" the government against him. In a deep dive on the failed effort, New York Magazine writer Andrew Rice explained that little has come from it.
Writing Monday, Rice described the story of Jan. 6 attacker Jared Wise, the FBI agent who egged on pro-Trump rioters at the U.S. Capitol as they assaulted Capitol Police officers. While Wise recently resigned, he was a key player in the so-called "weaponization working group" within the Justice Department.
"The term weaponization was one of Trump’s rhetorical tricks, a fancy way of saying 'I know you are, but what am I?'" wrote Rice. "So what if prosecutors had indicted him on four occasions and convicted him of 34 state felony counts? That just meant the government was criminal. During his campaign, Trump had promised retribution. They had tried to get him, so he would get them back"
Wise was hired to join the "weaponization working group" along with other close Trump allies. Attorney General Pam Bondi created a target list in her memo: "Jack Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted him; Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who convicted him; and New York attorney general Letitia James, who had brought a civil fraud case against him and his family."
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who oversaw the effort officially, was a key Trump defense lawyer who purports to be dedicated to Trump's weaponization cause.
After it became clear that lawyer Ed Martin couldn't get confirmed to be a U.S. Attorney, he took over the day-to-day efforts of the "working group." Another on the team is Neil W. McCabe, a national personality for the Real America’s Voice channel, a pro-Trump political commentary channel.
The story said that Martin prepared for his role as the "captain" of the weaponization working group by reading books about the Italian Mafia. He then divided the DOJ leadership into “competent and incompetent villains," one ex-federal prosecutor told Rice.
Rice explained that during the first Trump administration, the DOJ was populated primarily by Federalist Society members who simply saw Trump as a means to achieve their political ends. "In Trump II, the conservative bar was no longer sending its best."
Blanche and Martin began to clash, however, as it became clear that the two were taking different approaches, creating a "source of tension," one department official involved in the operation described. Blanche wanted to hold people accountable for weaponization "without becoming the weaponizer yourself." Martin was an arrest-at-all-costs kind of ideologue.
The only thing the DOJ has been able to achieve is going after New York's James for stating on a mortgage application that the house would be her primary residence. Another targeted former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly lying under oath before Congress. The U.S. attorney appointed by Trump wouldn't put his name on the cases. He was ousted and they found someone who would. Judges found the appointment to be unlawful and contrary to the laws that set deadlines for appointing a U.S. attorney. Both cases have fallen through.
Another effort was to prosecute Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), but the prosecution couldn't move forward, and those in the U.S. attorneys' office fear it has stalled completely.
According to the report, Blanche has been furious about the failed attempts, saying this is what happens when they're not cautious in their approach.
Someone familiar with Blanche's thinking told Rice, “That’s how big wins end up as gigantic, embarrassing losses."
The weaponization working group under DOJ expanded. They began working with other Trump loyalists at the White House, IRS, Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and CIA. They were looking for anyone in President Joe Biden's administration they could find who broke the law.
Trump was furious. According to right-wing host Steve Bannon, the president wanted to see "perp walks." He hasn't and it has been over a year.
Wise, the FBI agent who participated in Jan. 6, was once a well-respected agent. One former colleague called him "smart" and "detail-oriented." Some had other opinions. One alleged that after Wise became a squad supervisor, “a number of things fell through the cracks." Wise grew irritated that he was taken off monitoring homegrown extremists to manage staff.
“This happens in the Bureau all the time,” the former colleague told Rice. “It’s called orders.”
Wise later said in court documents that it was Trump who inspired him to leave the FBI. He claimed he heard someone disparage Trump and was so furious he quit. He then took a job working for Project Veritas, a political organization that at the time was trying to shift into "something resembling a political-intelligence service," the report said.
Meanwhile, Martin has failed in his efforts to go after Comey and James. He appeared on Bannon's show and was pressed to work on the 2020 matters. Martin said he was on it. Since then, the DOJ has seized ballot documents and servers from the Fulton County Board of Elections, despite the judge expressly saying they could only take "copies." Officials complained that by taking everything, there was no longer a way to compare any discrepancies.
Behind the scenes, Blanche wasn't supportive of the cases.
"They tried to shut it down,” McCabe told Rice of the prosecutions.
Martin ended up ensnared in his own scandal, allegedly leaking grand jury information from their Schiff probe. He was stripped of all of his titles and would only be working on pardons from that point forward. Since then, Blanche has been hit by Martin's allies as having a "Democrat mentality."
The report noted that U.S. attorneys discovered that a way to make a name for themselves is by using their offices to go after Trump foes. So, subpoenas dropped for "John Brennan, the final CIA director under President Obama, who was one of at least 30 current and former intelligence officials who were served at that time."
“What they’re doing here is exactly what they accused the former administration of doing,” said one person the FBI contacted for information about the earlier Trump probes, Rice said. “Taking that tinge of what they want to believe and turning that into a criminal prosecution.”
The DOJ then began going after six lawmakers who worked in the military or intelligence. They have failed there too.
Overseeing all of this was Blanche. A "dismayed" former friend told Rice, “I keep waiting for there to be some red line that he won’t cross."
Over the recent CPAC event in Texas, Blanche told the crowd he's still pressing to be successful.
"Everybody’s afraid that in the next administration, if we don’t win, we’re going to all be investigated and indicted," Blanche said. "And why are they afraid? Because that’s exactly what happened during the last administration."
At each turn in every investigation where someone in the Trump orbit was prosecuted, it was approved by a grand jury and a judge. In the case of several who were convicted and later pardoned by Trump, juries found them guilty, or they entered a plea agreement, admitting their guilt. Thus far, the same has not been true of the targets of the "weaponization working group."
Rice noted that about a day after he sent fact-checking requests to the Justice Department, Wise announced his resignation. A few hours later, Bondi was fired by the president. He alleged on X that he could only “fully expose the abuses by the FBI and DOJ” if he were “outside of government.” Blanche now runs the DOJ.
“Americans are in the painful process, of realizing that our government isn’t so different than the evil ones they’ve told us about for many years," Wise wrote on X.
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AN 4 26
President Donald Trump’s media ecosystem for a long time depended on major online brands like The Daily Wire and Blaze Media, but as one of their fellow conservative publications pointed out, Trump’s coalition is dissolving — and with it, the base of support upon which many of these media outlets once stood firm.
“Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire is in trouble on YouTube, losing significant numbers of subscribers—with Shapiro himself down a whopping 80,000 in the first quarter of the year, according to a new survey of political channels by researcher Kyle Tharp,” wrote The Bulwark’s Will Sommer on Monday. “It’s more proof that dissident and increasingly anti-Trump voices like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson have the energy in right-wing media. Shapiro, by contrast, is stuck defending an unpopular war with Iran.”
Sommer noted that even Shapiro’s attempts to offset losses to his political brand by crafting mainstream motion pictures has failed.
“Deadline reports that the set of the Daily Wire’s upcoming film Run Hide Fight Infidels is in chaos, with black mold on the site, a tree branch hitting a crew member, and actor Jonathan Majors falling out of a window during a recent shoot,” Sommer wrote. “Undeterred by crew complaints, producers say they won’t negotiate on safety ‘with communists.’ By communist, they mean unionized crew members.”
Sommer also took shots at Blaze Media, an outlet owned by Glenn Beck, which is facing problems because of a journalist associated with them who spread an incorrect story about the January 6th coup attempt.
“Back in November, the conservative media outlet the Blaze claimed that reporter Steve Baker had the scoop of the century: compelling evidence that the pipe bombs planted outside Republican and Democratic headquarters on January 6th were laid by a Capitol Police officer,” Sommer wrote. “Blaze founder Glenn Beck declared it would be ‘the biggest scandal of my lifetime, maybe in the last hundred years.’ Republican members of Congress like Anna Paulina Luna and Thomas Massie championed the story, saying it was proof the deep state was behind January 6th.”
Yet the story proved not to be true, with Blaze Media retracting it in December, and Sommer wrote that Baker “was fired on Wednesday morning, as the publication faces the possibility of a massive libel judgment over the story.”
Beck has a long history of extravagant behavior, perhaps becoming most famous for dramatically crying during many of his speeches. Beck remains a stalwart in the conservative movement, although Shapiro has wavered somewhat at times. In a recent interview with the New Yorker, Shapiro admitted to David Remnick that he does not believe Trump is entirely honest and that he has concerns about the Trump family’s involvement in cryptocurrency schemes.
"I raised red flags on my show, consistently, about how I thought this was wrong. If the name were Biden instead of Trump, people would be screaming bloody murder," Shapiro told Remnick. "And this was not beneficial to President Trump’s agenda, either. So, sure, that concerns me."
Speaking with this journalist for Salon Magazine in 2019, Shapiro also admitted that he has been singled out for hate by some of his own far right supporters because of his Jewish background.
“I’ve gotten enormous amounts of hatred from the alt-right, and while folks on the far left try to lump me in with the alt-right, that is the height of absurdity on every possible level,” Shapiro said. “I mean, it’s honestly one of the most reprehensible things that I’ve experienced personally, people trying to lump me in with people who have legitimately threatened to kill my children … so that’s always a party.”
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THIS IS ACTUALLY FROM THE WHITE HOUSE?!
AN 4 26
Trump’s new app has no privacy policy and uses Russian software - Alternet.org
President Donald Trump has been promoting the White House’s new mobile app — pushing it to become the third-most downloaded item on Apple’s popular App Store. But the app reportedly has numerous cybersecurity vulnerabilities, does not properly disclose the data it shares, and uses software components from a Russia-founded company.
“Cybersecurity researchers warn that the White House’s new app regularly shares users’ IP addresses, time zones and other data to third-party services,” NOTUS reports. “But most of its users wouldn’t know that, because the app doesn’t disclose its data sharing the way most others do.”
Cybersecurity experts were shocked by the app’s “slipshod” approach to cybersecurity, especially as it is essentially a product of the White House, and especially since the U.S. is at war.
“The U.S. government’s infrastructure is being attacked from all sides right now, and having an amateur WordPress developer running the White House’s public presence puts everybody who visits it at risk,” Philip Fields, a cybersecurity researcher and former FBI intelligence analyst, told NOTUS. He explains that if this were just a small business’ “random app,” it would not be a story.
“But it’s not,” Fields added. “This is the White House.”
Additionally, the app reportedly has left users and some White House staffers vulnerable. One researcher showed NOTUS screenshots revealing that a Russia-founded software kit company that “provides premade widgets for the app makes public the personal information of some White House staffers through the app.” NOTUS chose to not disclose the staffers’ personal information.
Cybersecurity experts also told NOTUS that the data collected by the White House is not being properly disclosed.
“The White House, as of its latest version released on Friday, left that privacy manifest completely blank, suggesting it collects no data from users,” NOTUS reported.
“It seems to be sharing quite a lot of data about the users to these third parties,” a researcher told NOTUS. “The problem is that the privacy manifest says they do not share that information, but in fact they do. … That is a problem for end-user privacy because effectively, they’re misleading users about how their data is shared.”
A White House press release promoted the launch of its “powerful new official mobile app — delivering President Donald J. Trump and his Administration directly to the American people like never before.”
In his promotional video, Trump says, “Every American should expect their government to have transparency, and the Trump administration is the most transparent in history. That is for sure.”
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AN 4 26
The Trump administration is no stranger to the courts. Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, his actions have resulted in a reported 300 legal challenges, largely due to the issuance of executive orders later deemed "baseless." These repeat court appearances, says legal scholar Kimberly Wehle, are an intentional part of Trump’s mission to make “lawlessness seem normal.”
According to Wehle, a key part of a White House lawyer’s job is to advise the administration on the legality of its efforts and dissuade it from attempting to implement edicts that could be struck down as illegal. But in the case of Trump, the administration has “pumped out a tsunami of baseless, illegal, and even unconstitutional” orders, which have “forced judges to waste precious time stating the obvious — that there’s no justification for much of the legal garbage coming out of this administration.”
Wehle uses the recent example of the administration’s actions toward Anthropic. After the company refused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s demands to drop safety protocols from its Claude AI that prevent the mass surveillance of Americans and autonomous killing, it was designated a “supply chain risk” and banned from use by federal contractors. A judge, however, ruled that this was illegal.
But what was most incredible, says Wehle, was that “a government lawyer showed up in federal court to defend these indefensible policies” in the first place. The lawyer even went so far as to admit there was no statute to support the government’s actions, and that its proclamation regarding Anthropic had “absolutely no legal effect at all.”
In a functional administration, this would never have made it to court.
“From the standpoint of legal ethics and the rules governing civil proceedings in federal court, legally baseless representations to a court of law constitute grossly sanctionable misconduct,” writes Wehle. “This should raise questions about how any lawyer could enter a federal courtroom and try to defend something so indefensible.”
According to its own principles, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel is supposed to vet orders from the White House to provide “clear, accurate, thoroughly researched, and soundly reasoned” advice. Wehle asserts that it is “tragically evident” that government lawyers are failing to do so.
Instead, it seems that the mission of Trump’s lawyers is merely to “cast a false patina of legality upon his lawlessness.”
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OMG AN 3 26
The Department of Justice has awarded Michael Flynn, the retired three-star Army general who served as Trump's National Security Advisor for less than a month, a $1.25 million settlement—a decision that legal experts are comparing to outright theft of taxpayer funds.
Flynn's settlement, announced this week, compensates him for what the Trump administration is characterizing as wrongful prosecution. The irony is stark: Flynn pleaded guilty under oath in 2017 to intentionally making false statements to the FBI. He admitted to the crime in court with a lawyer present, with a judge confirming his understanding of what he was confessing to. Trump later pardoned him in 2020.
Now, with a new Trump administration in place, the Department of Justice under Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has agreed to hand over more than a million dollars in public money to a man who has already admitted guilt.
"I really do not understand how you justify this as anything but theft," said Andrew Weissmann, a former DOJ prosecutor who spent 20 years at the Department of Justice and served as general counsel at the FBI,during an appearance on "The Illegal News" podcast this week. "To make this a legitimate settlement, there would have to be a good faith belief that he has a meritorious argument and that there might be some downside in litigating this."
Weissmann's critique goes to the heart of how government settlements are supposed to work. When the DOJ settles a case, there must be a reasonable belief that the other side might actually win if the case went to trial—a genuine legal dispute, in other words. But in Flynn's case, Weissmann argues, there is no such ambiguity.
"I don't see the downside of having taken it to court," Weissmann said. "The issues here seem so completely one-sided that I really do not understand how you justify this as anything but theft."
The case against Flynn was straightforward. As National Security Advisor, Flynn had engaged in back-channel communications with Russian officials during the transition period. When FBI agents questioned him about these contacts, he lied. Vice President Mike Pence later went public saying he had repeated Flynn's denials on air, only to discover they were false—a betrayal that led directly to Flynn's firing after just 24 days in the job.
Flynn initially tried to withdraw his guilty plea, leading to years of litigation, but ultimately the legal process confirmed the guilty plea stood. There was no meritorious legal argument waiting to be discovered. There was no ambiguity about whether Flynn had committed the crime he admitted to committing.
Yet Bondi and Blanche signed off on the settlement anyway.
Weissmann raised additional concerns about the precedent this sets. "This is something that Michael Flynn admitted under oath he did, which was lied to the FBI. Now he then moved to withdraw his guilty plea. There was lots and lots of litigation back and forth, and that ultimately ended up with Donald Trump pardoning him," Weissmann explained.
The settlement also raises questions about potential conflicts of interest. Blanche was Trump's personal criminal defense attorney during his hush money trial and conviction. Now, as Deputy Attorney General, he's using government resources to benefit his former client.
"The next administration can look into this as an ethics issue," Weissmann said. "Remember, they represented Donald Trump individually. And they have to be looking out for the interests of the public, not for the interests of Donald Trump."
Perhaps most troubling to Weissmann is what this settlement signals about future Trump administration conduct. "This is the harbinger of more to come," he said, "because we know that Donald Trump wants to do this. And for all we know, this has been happening with other people doing this without bringing a lawsuit—just having a private agreement with the Department of Justice where they give out money and we just don't know."
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AN 3 26
On Friday, March 20, a woman identified as "Linda from Arizona" called into a, "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," with a suggestion: sending U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to airports. President Donald Trump later did exactly that, and his supporters praised the move as a way to help U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers who are feeling overwhelmed as a partial shutdown of the federal government drags on.
Linda's main concern, however, wasn't helping TSA employees, but upsetting liberals and progressives. Linda told the hosts, "I think it would set their hair on fire" — to which one of them responded, "Democrats would go absolutely insane."
In an article published on March 25, Salon's Amanda Marcotte notes that Trump's idea to send ICE agents to airports appeared to come from Linda — a move that, the journalist stresses, did nothing to ease the long lines at U.S. airports.
Marcotte explains, "Both Linda and the hosts were blunt that the goal was not actually helping the Transportation Security Administration run more efficient checkpoints, but to trigger the liberals…. Liberals hate ICE, the logic went, so why not inflict ICE on liberals and make them squeal? But the MAGA coalition has not been known for its logic, and it's clear from the conversation that no one involved was really thinking this through. Instead, the scheme was rooted in a childish — and sadistic — impulse to bully."
The headaches at U.S. airports are illustrated by passenger Will Frampton. During a March 24 appearance on MS NOW, Frampton told host Chris Jansing that he showed up at Atlanta's airport five hours early for a flight — but missed it because he spent nine hours waiting in a TSA security line.
According to Marcotte, the ICE-in-airports idea is hurting, not helping, Trump.
"After the idea percolated up from Linda to Clay-and-Buck and then to Fox News, Trump thought it was a stroke of genius," Marcotte writes. "Since he couldn't admit that he got the idea from a random woman in Green Valley, Arizona, he took credit for it on Monday, (March 23), comparing himself to the man who invented the paperclip in the process. What is remarkable is that everyone involved — all of them, from Linda to Trump himself — are so consumed with the desire to trigger the liberals that no one stopped to wonder if the plan to put ICE in airports would backfire, as it appears to be doing."
Marcotte continues, "Early reports show ICE is doing nothing to speed up security lines, many of which have hours-long waits due to Republicans' refusal to pass a Democratic proposal to fund the TSA directly while still withholding DHS funding. The presence of ICE is instead ratcheting up tensions at the already stress-laden airports. Federal immigration officers can't do the real work of screening passengers, but they can harass and manhandle people suspected of being immigrants. Despite credulous media reports perpetuating the belief that ICE has been deployed to help TSA agents, every indication is that Trump's goal is to make already-miserable traveling experiences even worse."
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SAME DAY 3 25 26
Trump admin begs judge's forgiveness after another flub - Alternet.org
Firestorm erupts as Trump admin ridiculed after admitting lack of evidence - Alternet.org
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an 3 26
The United States remains under a cloud of international criticism after it bombed a girls' school in Iran and tried to blame it on Iran itself. Now it's being revealed that the CIA gave President Donald Trump the false intelligence, but made it clear after 24 hours that it was a U.S. bomb. Still, Trump ran with the allegation that it was Iran that hit their own people.
According to *The Guardian*, the CIA believed that the missile may not have been from the U.S. because "the fins appeared to be positioned too low for it to be a Tomahawk cruise missile." But they quickly realized it was, in fact, a Tomahawk missile from the U.S., and the sources said they briefed the president on the reality.
The truth didn't matter to Trump, however, as he "had already settled on the explanation that Iran was responsible for the strike." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth refused to say one way or another so as not to contradict Trump. Instead, he told reporters that it was under investigation.
Trump's biggest problem with the lie is that he accepted the reality that it was a Tomahawk, and falsely said that Iran had such missiles when it is "used only by the US and a handful of allies, including the U.K., Japan and Australia," the report explained.
“Giving Trump preliminary information is dangerous because he can turn it into a total embarrassment,” a former CIA officer told The Guardian. “If the principal asks you a question, the best thing to say is you don’t know. Knowing how hard it is to go back later to correct the record.”
Former intelligence members blame the briefers and Trump for the public embarrassment.
The most recent numbers show that at least 175 people, mostly children, were killed in the blast at the school.
The report said that the updated numbers mean that the strike is "one of the deadliest targeting errors in recent decades."
The investigation Hegseth referenced is trying to uncover why the intelligence claimed that it was a military target when it was well-known that it was a school. The Australian version of ABC News reported that it was even clear on Google Maps that the IRGC naval base was separated from the colorfully painted school by a large wall. The wall has been there since 2013. The school was converted sometime between 2013 and 2016, The Guardian said.
The Pentagon investigation has been focused on why the intelligence was outdated and whether it was double-checked.
International humanitarian law (IHL) is a set of rules designed to protect those who are not directly involved in the conflict. It includes aid workers, medical professionals, the sick, injured and children. The U.S. has signed and ratified Geneva Conventions of 1949. Breaking those rules is considered a war crime.
The Guardian explained that the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency look at imagery to build a "target database" using a program called Maven Smart System.
A former senior defense official explained that there are years of analysis that go into the system and "layers of oversight." However, once "entered into the database as a possible target, it may not necessarily be reviewed again until a strike is considered." The target list is generated by the system using Maven and "artificial intelligence tools such as Claude, Anthropic’s large language model," the report explained.
In late February, around the time Trump decided to go to war, he instructed all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's AI technology. PBS News reported at the time that Anthropic has long demanded that the government not use its system for "fully autonomous weapons systems" and mass surveillance.
On Feb. 23, five days before the bombing, Axios reported that the Pentagon and Elon Musk's AI company, Grok, had reached an agreement under which his AI tools would be used instead. xAI agreed to allow its system to be used for everything, including military and warrantless surveillance. So, it's unclear which systems were responsible for putting the girls' school on the target list.
The head of Centcom, Adm. Brad Cooper, told reporters last Wednesday the United States is “leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools" for the attacks.
The Washington Post reported last week that two Israeli officials claimed the girls' school "was not cross-checked or discussed with the Israel Defense Forces before it took place."
Human Rights Watch has called for a war crime investigation.
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JUDGES NO LONGER ASSUME DOJ IS NOT LYING REGULAR ORDER //
an 2 26
'String of embarrassing defeats' for Trump DOJ as courts expose officers’ lies
Judge tears apart Trump prosecutors for omitting crucial info
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an 2 26
Donald Trump appears to have made a major mistake with his purge of top lawyers from the Department of Justice, as many of these "all-star" professionals are now joining the institutions fighting back against his presidency, in a turn of events one former attorney dubbed "idiocy."
On Tuesday, CBS News' top justice correspondent Scott MacFarlane shared a video to X and BlueSky detailing this trend, likening it to a sports team trading its best players to rival teams.
"It's hard enough to get by without your best players on the field, but you certainly don't want to play against them, and have huge adversaries when you play your opponents," MacFarlane explained.
The Trump administration, he argued, "has been getting rid of some of its all-stars" in the DOJ, and it is starting to become a huge "problem" as they join the efforts to "challenge the administration," essentially "joining the rival team." That is on top of the severe drain of professional experience and "institutional memory" that these hiring purges have cost the government across every department.
As MacFarlane laid out in the video, Trump's purge of these top lawyers was driven primarily by political motivations and a desire for personal retribution. Many of the attorneys who got the ax when Trump returned to the White House were the ones who had worked to convict Jan. 6 rioters, whom he gave a mass pardon early on in his term. He also cut many individuals who took part in the federal investigation of him during his time away from Washington, D.C.
"Some have been fired, some have been pushed out, some have said, 'You know what? I've had about enough of this politicized Department of Justice, I'm out of here,'" MacFarlane said. "I'm moving on to greener pastures."
MacFarlane gave the example of Mike Romano, a "storied, prolific" former DOJ lawyer known for his "incredible record" prosecuting Jan. 6 defendants. Since leaving the federal government in 2025, he has joined a firm handling "labor cases, among other things." He also recently testified before the Senate last week in a hearing where he "reinforced the truth about Jan. 6, that it was a righteous prosecution and an important prosecution, pushing back on the administration's false claims and lies."
He also highlighted the Washington Litigation Group, a nonprofit staffed with many individuals who previously worked with Jack Smithon the criminal cases against Trump. This group is now taking part in the fight against such things as Trump's effort to add his name to the Kennedy Center and the closure of a "key civil rights division" within the DOJ.
"These nonprofits and firms are capitalizing on the Department of Justice's idiocy," one anonymous former prosecutor told MacFarlane.
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Right-wing media miss the mark on explaining wildfire recovery in Los Angeles
The Trump administration has denied Los Angeles $34 billion in disaster relief
Special ProgramsClimate & Energy
Written by Ilana Berger
:{Published 02/11/26
- Right-wing media are echoing a recent executive order from President Donald Trump pinning the blame for Los Angeles’ delayed recovery from last year’s wildfires on the state and local government, specifically construction permitting holdups. But the order, which the White House says will speed up permitting processes, fails to address key factors, like unpaid insurance claims and insufficient funding. The coverage omits how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s mismanagement is hindering disaster response and recovery.
Experts are skeptical about whether federal agencies even have the authority to implement the executive order, and survivors say a lack of access to money to fund construction is more of a barrier to rebuilding than permitting. Meanwhile, DHS has reportedly created a “$17 billion bottleneck” that is impeding federal disaster response, and the administration denied Los Angeles $34 billion in disaster relief.
- ## Trump issued an executive order that cuts through permitting requirements, but he might not have the authority, and experts say it doesn’t address Los Angeles’ root problems
- Trump’s order directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration to find ways to “preempt State or local permitting processes, and other similar pre-approval requirements, that each agency has found to have unduly impeded the timely use of Federal emergency-relief funds.”The White House wrote that it would implement a system where builders would “self-certify to a Federal designee from each agency that they have complied with all applicable substantive State and local health and safety standards with respect to the structure proposed to be rebuilt using Federal emergency-relief funds.” Notably, LA County already launched a self-certification program back in May 2025 “to fast-track reconstruction in fire-scarred neighborhoods.” WhiteHouse.gov, [_{1/27/26}_; Pasadena Now, 5/8/25]
- Trump might not have the legal power to implement the order in the first place. “Legal experts and state officials have questioned whether federal agencies have the statutory authority to override local building codes or land-use laws,” reported FOX 11. Daniel Farber, the faculty director of the Center for Law Energy & Environment at University of California, Berkeley, told Politico “This is completely unprecedented in terms of the history of federal disaster aid,” adding, “They’re gonna have a hard time making this stand up in court.” The move may violate the 10th Amendment and legal precedents which have been used to “argue against the federal government wresting away control of regulations, such as land-use rules, that are traditionally held by state and local government.” FOX 11, [_{1/27/26}_; Politico, 1/27/26]
- Some survivors and city officials say more money is what’s needed most.Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, a Republican, responded to Trump’s executive order, saying that while she welcomes “any effort to responsibly accelerate rebuilding,” the county “already has a local self-certification process to help expedite rebuilding.” She continued, “The most urgent need in the Altadena region is financially driven. Families lack the capital to kick start or continue their rebuilding plans.” Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, said that “the number one barrier to Eaton and Palisades fire survivors right now is money.” LACounty.gov, [_{1/27/26}_; The Associated Press, 1/28/26]
- A McKinsey report recommending how LA could accelerate recovery is largely inconsistent with Trump’s new executive order, which focuses solely on permitting.The report recommended that local governments optimize their own systems based on previous successes, identifying “gaps between insurance payouts and rebuilding costs” as “significant challenges.” The firm also pointed out that “Los Angeles has built momentum in permitting,” has already adopted multiple processes to accelerate rebuilding, and in striving to “ensure long-term community health and resilience, speed must be balanced with safety, compliance, and sustainability.” McKinsey & Company, [_{1/22/26}_]
- :{:{## Right-wing media’s coverage of the fires in L.A. was misleading from the start.}:
Right-wing media insisted that climate change had nothing to do with the wildfires, despite the clear connection, and instead blamed forest mismanagement and water policies. In reality, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s water policies have no relationship to the LA fires or low water pressure in fire hydrants, debunking another popular narrative on the right, while the conditions driving the fires and their clear connections to climate change were dismissed. PBS News, [_{8/9/21;}_Media Matters, 1/10/25, 1/10/25, 1/15/25]
- As The New York Times correctly observed, “a megadrought” driven by climate change “has sapped water supplies, ravaged farms and ranches, and fueled wildfires across the American Southwest for going on 25 years.” The latest U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report found with “high confidence” that anthropogenic “warming over land drives an increase in … the severity of droughts.” The New York Times [_{7/16/25}_; United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 8/9/21]
- ## Right-wing media praised Trump for the new executive order and attacked California Democrats, assigning blame just like they did when the fires occurred
- The California Post, the Murdoch-owned sister tabloid to the New York Post, featured the executive order in an “exclusive” interview with Trump on January 27, the day after the paper launched.“I want to see if we can take over the city and state and just give the people their permits they want to build,” the president said. The article lauded Trump for allowing “the federal government to maneuver around the needless obstacles imposed by Democratic leaders” and blamed “thumb-twiddling California Democrats” for delays in rebuilding. California Post, [1/27/26; New York Post, 1/5/26]
- :{In an interview wit:{h Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Breitbart}: editor-in-chief Alex Marlow said that “only a fraction” of small business loans have been dispersed to victims in California, and blamed “city permitting backlogs,” calling them “a really supreme outrage.” During the interview, Loeffler said that the executive order is “not a performative half measure, which is what seems to be going on locally. This is full-on permitting and rebuilding right now.” :{Salem:(style="background-color:#ffff00ff"):}: News Channel, *The Alex Marlow Show*, [2/4/26]}:
- Fox News host Sean Hannity complained that a recent profile of Gavin Newsom in Vogue “left out a number of important topics” like the LA wildfires and “why people can’t get a building permit.” He added that Newsom is a “full-time Tweety bird podcaster” but a “never-time governor” who is “MIA always.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [2/3/26]
- Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo interviewed Loeffler, who said, “President Trump is saving Californians from failed local leadership — state leadership, Gavin Newsom — who have failed to help the residents rebuild.” Bartiromo said the executive order addresses “permitting delays which have stalled local rebuilding efforts in Los Angeles for over a year.” Loeffler credited Trump for having “sped disaster recovery, and then we sped disaster relief in the form of small business loans, 12,000 of them, $3.2 billion dollars. What we found out is they have delayed permitting, the stalling, the bureaucracy that has crowded out that ability to rebuild. So President Trump is again leading for California to rebuild.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [1/30/26]
- Fox host Jesse Watters said “Trump is doing what Newsom couldn’t” by signing the executive order targeted at LA because “Democrats let it burn and would not rebuild.”Watters said, “Trump is doing what Newsom couldn’t — grabbing a shovel. [President] 47 signed an executive order for the feds to fast-track rebuilding LA after Democrats let it burn and would not rebuild. If Newsom really wants the Oval, he might want to fireproof his excuses.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [1/28/26]
- Hannity said that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin would be in charge of implementing the order “as part of the administration's commitment to facilitating a swift recovery” and claimed that Newsom “can't get people their building permits and help them and assist them and have insurance companies pay homeowners.” Hannity called the 2025 wildfires “predictable” and blamed “empty hydrants, empty reservoirs.” [Fox News,
Hannity, 1/28/26]
- Fox Business host Stuart Varney asked real estate broker Josh Altman if Trump could “fix the problem in Los Angeles” — Altman replied “absolutely” because last year Trump “accomplished in six weeks what the state and local level says were going to take six months to the year.”Fox Business,*Varney & Co.*, [1/28/26]
- Newsmax anchors Bob Brooks and Katrina Szish spoke with former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, who blamed Newsom for slow wildfire recovery because his administration spent money on “homelessness,” which had “zero support,” and “unemployment fraud” instead. Maldonado said Newsom’s recovery efforts are “useless” and Trump is the one “trying to move this forward and help the people of California.” Newsmax, *American Agenda*, [1/28/26]
- In the same interview, former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told Newsmax viewers that California wants to take “that $34 billion prize coming from the feds, they want to feed it into their bureaucratic mess, and only a trickle of it, if ever, will get down to the survivors.”He added that Trump is “trying to bypass that whole mess.” Newsmax, *American Agenda*, [1/28/26]
- ## Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s mismanagement is slowing recovery from natural disasters and preventing communities from becoming more resilient in the future
- In the order, Trump requested an audit of a $3 billion grant program which, according to FEMA's website, “provides funding to state, local, tribal and territorial governments to develop hazard mitigation plans and rebuild in ways that reduce or mitigate future disaster losses in their communities.” The order directs FEMA head Karen Evans, the third acting administrator during Trump’s second term, to “make administrative determinations” with the possibility of “imposing future grant conditions” and even making communities return money they were previously awarded. No new funds for this Hazard Mitigation Grant Program have been awarded to any state since March 2025, according to PBS. Federal Emergency Management Agency, accessed [_{2/4/26}_; WhiteHouse.gov, 1/27/26; PBS News, 1/28/26; CNN, 11/24/25]
- According to The New York Times, Noem’s requirement for her office to personally review and approve all FEMA expenditures exceeding $100,000 has created “a $17 billion bottleneck.”This includes millions in delayed aid to one Iowa town where “huge floods damaged or destroyed 500 homes” in June 2024. The city administrator says its “annual budget is typically less than $10 million, so the city has had to borrow $19 million to make ends meet, at a cost of $1,800 in daily interest that is not eligible for FEMA reimbursement.” The New York Times, [_{1/27/25}_]
- This same review process reportedly delayed response to the catastrophic Texas flooding in July 2025. According to CNN: “Texas did request aerial imagery from FEMA to aid search and rescue operations, a source told CNN, but that was delayed as it awaited Noem’s approval for the necessary contract. FEMA staff have also been answering phones at a disaster call center, where, according to one agency official, callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem’s approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff.” CNN, [_{7/10/25}_]
- In 2025, FEMA cut approximately 20% of its staff, including “some of its most experienced and knowledgeable leaders” — this year the reductions could reportedly impact 50% of staff. On January 2, CNN reported: “The cuts target FEMA’s Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) teams, which form the backbone of the agency’s operations during and after a disaster, and could be just the beginning of a larger effort by Secretary Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security to shrink FEMA. … CORE employees make up about 40% of FEMA’s workforce — over 8,000 people — working full-time hours on temporary contracts. Several thousand of these workers will see their contracts end in 2026.” Additionally CNN reported that FEMA leaders were told that the goal is to cut staff by over 50% by the next fiscal year, which begins in October. AccuWeather, [_{4/24/25}_; CNN, 1/2/26, 1/5/26]
- Under Noem, the Trump administration has hurt national disaster preparedness by installing inexperienced leaders.Trump’s initial acting FEMA administrator was fired in May 2025 after testifying that the agency shouldn’t be abolished. He was replaced by David Richardson, who had no emergency management experience, according to CNBC. In early June, Reuters reported that Richardson had told staff he didn’t know that the United States had a hurricane season. Staff said they were unsure whether Richardson was joking, and he resigned in November. The New York Times, [_{6/12/25}_; CBS News, 6/13/25; Politico, 5/8/25, 11/17/25; CNBC, 6/2/25]
- Program and staff reductions along with public statements from Noem suggesting that FEMA would be eliminated have reportedly left the agency ill-prepared for extreme weather. In May 2025 — just weeks before the start of the Atlantic hurricane season and peak extreme weather — CNN obtained an internal memo warning that FEMA was “not ready” for hurricane season. According to the internal assessment, preparations for hurricane season have been “derailed” and issues abounded at the agency, “including a general uncertainty around its mission, lack of coordination with states and other federal agencies, low morale and new red tape that will likely slow responses.” CNN, [_{5/15/25}_]
- Further crippling the agency, the Department of Homeland Security has involuntarily reassigned dozens of FEMA staff to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation efforts.A letter to Congress arguing that FEMA’s leadership has hindered its ability to effectively manage emergencies signed by about 180 agency employees “points to the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, which states that transfers are prohibited ‘except for details or assignments that do not reduce the capability of the Agency to perform its missions.’ The reassignments to help ICE, employees say, do just that.” The Washington Post, [_{8/6/25}_, 8/25/25]
- Rollbacks on flood risk standards and canceled preparedness programs have put communities at greater risk.On his first day in office, Trump revoked federal flood protections which require federally funded infrastructure projects to comply with design requirements that harden them against flood risks. “The goal of the standards were not only to protect human lives and homes, but also to save taxpayer money, preventing a never-ending cycle of destroy-rebuild-repeat,” Truthout reported. In April 2025, Trump canceled a FEMA program started during his first term in 2018 that allocated billions of dollars in disaster preparedness grants to “help local, state and tribal governments protect residents from future disasters such as floods, wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes,” NPR explained. Even some Republicans have asked Trump to reconsider the cuts because, as Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said, the program providing the grants “protects families and saves taxpayer dollars in the long-run. That’s efficient in my book.” Truthout, [_{7/12/25}_; NPR, 5/1/25; Cassidy.Senate.gov, 4/10/25]
MMA //
:{10/10/25
:{02/07/25
01/24/2
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===}:
FAIL IN CT
AN 2 26
The New York Times reports a Washington D.C. grand jury has again refused to acquiesce to President Donald Trump’s quest to prosecute his political foes, with the paper calling the rejection “a remarkable rebuke” from ordinary citizens.
The Times reports: “Federal prosecutors in Washington sought and failed on Tuesday to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video last fall that enraged President Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, four people familiar with the matter said.”
The *Times* additionally reports it was already remarkable that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington — led by Trump ally Jeanine Pirro — even authorized prosecutors to approach a grand jury with an indictment of the six members of Congress, all of whom had served in the military or the nation’s spy agencies.
It is rare for grand jurors to snub prosecutors’ indictment requests, considering prosecutors get to dominate the jury with one-sided arguments leading up to their decision. However, the Times reports it has happened with increased frequency with Trump’s Justice Department “as his appointees push ahead with questionable cases.”
It is doubly surprising considering the president of the United States accused Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and the other legislators of seditious conspiracy and said they could potentially be put to death. The U.S. Department of Defense later announced that it was launching an investigation into Kelly for participating in the video warning active-duty troops to not follow illegal orders from Trump and also threatened to court martial the NASA astronaut.
But the jury apparently disagreed on all counts and refused to indict any of the legislators incriminated by Trump.
Trump’s targets also Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and four colleagues in the House: Jason Crow (D-Colo.) Maggie Goodlander, (D-N.H.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) and Chris Deluzio (D-Pa).
Kelly is already suing the Pentagon over its attempts to punish him.
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an 2 26
MAGA loses the culture war — and Trump loses the plot
//
On Sunday, February 8, Kid Rock headlined Turning Point USA's All-American Super Bowl Halftime Show — a MAGA alternative to the actual 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show, which featured Puerto Rican reggaetón star Bad Bunny. MAGA Republicans were furious because Bunny, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump's immigration policies, performed en español at the event. But Bunny attracted a lot more viewers: CBS News reported that 135 million people watched Bad Bunny, while the El Paso Times reported that that 6.1 million people watched Turning Point's event.
In other words, Bad Bunny attracted roughly 22 times as many viewers.
In a biting article published on February 9, Salon's Amanda Marcotte describes Kid Rock's Turning Point USA show as a sad example of MAGA's "bid for cultural relevance."
"Perhaps it's a sign that I am an empathy-poisoned liberal," Marcotte argues, "but it was hard to choke back the pity watching the alternative halftime show aired by Turning Point USA during Sunday's Super Bowl game. Despite having months to book and organize an event that was supposed to draw millions away from the real deal, TPUSA couldn't even pack the small space for audience members on the soundstage — not a stadium, arena, theater or even a club — they rented for the occasion. The promise of seeing the washed-up Kid Rock in an intimate setting appears to thrill no one."
Marcotte continues, "Organizers declared that huge numbers of Americans would prefer this to the actual halftime show, but the anemic audience present for the taping suggested they couldn't get anyone who isn't a paid TPUSA staff member…. Unfortunately for them, the live chat on YouTube suggested the fans weren't tuning in for the music, but out of a sense of duty to their MAGA tribe. Commenters referenced Jesus, TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, the American flag and hating Bad Bunny — but no one seemed to have much to say about the music or the performances."
The Salon journalist argues that while Rock's TPUSA performance was "boring," Bunny's "electric performance" was "sheer joy — a celebration of Latino culture and American values."
"TPUSA's night was doomed from the get-go," Marcotte writes. "Beyond snagging Kid Rock as a last-minute salvation, the show had no marketing aside from 'Watch this to trigger the liberals'…. In the end, Kid Rock wasn't really the star of the 'All-American Halftime Show.' No, it was the ghost of Charlie Kirk…. No doubt it was good at getting their aging audience to open up their wallets, after asking their grandkids how to use the 'superchat' donate function on YouTube. But as a bid for cultural relevance — well, let's just say Bad Bunny has nothing to worry about."
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AN 2 26
An Illinois judge has ordered that all text messages and videos about the shooting of Marimar Martinez be turned over.
Martinez, from Chicago, was shot five times by federal agents during the so-called "Operation Midway Blitz" in which the federal government deployed thousands of agents to find and arrest immigrants.
The Martinez story is unique in that, even after the videos were released, the Department of Homeland Security continued to deny what was happening in them.
Federal courts reporter Jon Seidel from the Chicago Sun Times was in court on Friday to hear the case about Martinez presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Georgia Alexakis.
Martinez and her attorney have argued that they need access to the text messages and videos from the federal agents in the case and the government is refusing to turn those over.
Alexakis asked about the text messages by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum: "Is the universe of text messages limited to the text messages that I reviewed in camera?"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron DeWald confirmed that they were.
As her lawyer told CNN, Homeland Security official Tricia McLaughlin continues to insist that the federal agents were "boxed in" by cars and couldn't get away. In fact, there was no one in front of them and Martinez's car went around them on the left to get past their vehicle. That's when the agent fired on her.
That "is in direct contrast to this DHS statement that she at the agent," said lawyer Christopher Parente. "And you know, DHS, even though you said the agent testified in court that there was no ramming. Tricia McLaughlin and DHS are still putting out press statements saying that she rammed them. They don't even seem to know what their own agents are saying in court."
One of the agents later took a "trophy" photo of Martinez after she was released from the hospital.
The judge specifically cited McLaughlin's comments as the basis for releasing the agent's text messages.
Judge Alexakis stated, "The Department of Homeland Security continues to allege that Ms. Martinez ambushed federal officers, rammed them with her vehicle, and while doing so was armed with a semiautomatic weapon."
"Agent Exum's text messages provide insight into his perspective of the shooting," she continued. "They bear on his credibility. They provide insight into how others within DHS leadership and within other government entities responded to the shooting."
She ultimately ruled that the Martinez team had shown "good cause" for releasing the text messages from the agent.
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an 2 26
Jeanine Pirro backs down from gun threat after 2nd Amendment backlash
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AN 2 26
'Mind-boggling': Expert says Epstein files release a 'perfect storm' of 'incompetency'
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AN 2 26
Within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Donald Trump loyalist Daren Margolin is serving as director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review — which oversees asylum claims and deportations in immigration cases. And he’s doing so as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol agents carry out militarized raids in Minneapolis and other American cities.
The Daily Beast, according to reporter Will Neal, discussed Margolin with four immigration officials who have worked with him. And they were highly critical of his performance.
Neal, in an article published on February 3, reports, "Donald Trump's gun-toting immigration courts chief is a 'total moron' ... who doesn't actually understand his job, according to multiple sources who've worked alongside him. ... They slammed him as 'lazy' and 'extremely dysfunctional,' with a 'fundamental lack of understanding' of both his administrative duties and the laws he oversees."
One of the four interviewees, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Beast, "Nobody ever had much confidence in him. I never got the impression he understood the law very well. He just wanted an easy job, where he didn't have to learn or do anything."
Another interviewee told the Beast, "He's a total moron. Such a 'f—— dope."
One of the interviewees alleges that Margolin was picked not despite his "incompetence," but "because of" it.
That interviewee told the Beast, "He's just going to be a mouthpiece, relaying orders and telling everybody else they have to follow them."
Another interviewee lamented, "I'm so worried about the agency. It really breaks my heart to see."
George Pappas, a former immigration judge in Georgia, argues that the United States' immigration system is in total disarray during Trump's second presidency.
Pappas told the Beast, "We're witnessing a complete dismantling of the immigration courts, which in substance are now dead."
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AN 1 26
Liz Oyer, a former Justice Department pardon attorney, told Jim Acosta that the DOJ is participating in a massive cover-up over the shooting of a Minneapolis woman in Minnesota.
Among the revelations reported this week, Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an ICE agent, still had a pulse when first responders arrived on scene. ICE denied a doctor access to Good who wanted to render her aid.
Oyer said that it may mean that there are other ICE officers who could be culpable in Good's death.
Both she and Acosta agreed that an investigation into the entire situation was warranted. However, the deputy attorney general already decided that there would not be an investigation into the shooting.
"I don't think I'm exaggerating, Jim, when I say that DOJ is effectively participating in a cover-up of any potential crime that may have occurred," said Oyer. "Now, it wouldn't be proper for the deputy attorney general to jump to the conclusion that this officer should be prosecuted. But it would be absolutely expected that the deputy attorney general would be calling for a thorough investigation, so that the Justice Department could determine whether a prosecution is warranted."
She added that the fact that that isn't happening in this case is alarming.
"The fact that prosecutors in the civil rights division have been told that they cannot go to the scene and participate in an investigation — it is really — I cannot overstate how absolutely how shocking and wrong that is to the degree that DOJ is really complicit," she said. "The leadership of DOJ is complicit in covering up what happened during this incident."
Acosta added he wouldn't be surprised if this matter went all the way up to Attorney General Pam Bondi if not Donald Trump himself.
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AN 1 26
Trump DOJ fires attorney who refused to prosecute James Comey - Alternet.org
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AN 12 25
Alina Habba steps down as US attorney
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TISH 2ND GRAND JURY FAIL? 12 25
AN 11 25
In the service of President Donald Trump, Lindsay Halligan, Trump’s second interim appointment as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, may lose her license to practice law.
Who is Halligan?
Competence is a key requirement for obtaining and retaining a law license. But nothing in Halligan’s education, experience, or training qualified her to prosecute federal crimes, much less lead a US Attorney’s office of more than 300 attorneys and staff in four divisions in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk, and Newport News. For starters, she has never tried a criminal case. But Trump always prefers loyalty over competence.
Halligan attended a private Catholic high school and a Jesuit university where she studied politics and broadcast journalism. She competed in the Miss Colorado USA pageant in 2009 and 2010 and received her law degree from the University of Miami School of Law. Upon graduation, she went to work in a Miami law firm, representing insurance companies against homeowners and businesses.
Even if Halligan manages to keep her law license, she will never recover her professional reputation. It’s the Trump effect.
Halligan met Trump in November 2021 at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. In early 2022, he made her part of his legal team on the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
After the election, she worked on Trump’s project to whitewash US history by cleansing the Smithsonian Institution of historically accurate but unpleasant facts. In August, she co-signed a letter instructing eight of the Smithsonian’s museums to replace exhibits that include “divisive or ideologically driven” material with “unifying, historically accurate” displays.
Answering Trump’s Call…
Based on the weakness of the cases against former FBI director James Comey and another Trump target, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump’s first interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Eric S. Siebert, refused his demand to indict them. Trump responded by declaring that he wanted Siebert “out.” Hours later, he resigned.
With the statute of limitations on charges against Comey expiring in days, Trump told Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint 36-year-old Halligan—a senior White House staff secretary and special assistant to the President—as Siebert’s replacement.
“Lindsay Halligan is a really good lawyer, and likes you a lot,” Trump posted in a public message to Bondi.
Two days later, Halligan was sworn in as the new interim US Attorney. Her singular mission was to secure indictments against Comey and James.
Two days after that, on September 24, she succeeded. Halligan presented the case against Comey personally to the grand jury. Federal judges are now exposing her incompetence.
November 17:A federal magistrate judge found that the government may have violated Comey’s constitutional rights and his attorney-client privilege. The court listed 11 bases upon which the government’s misconduct—including Halligan’s statements to and conduct before the grand jury—may have violated the Constitution and require dismissal of Comey’s indictment.
November 19:Halligan admitted to another federal judge that she never showed the final indictment to the entire grand jury after it had rejected her first submission – a remarkable prosecutorial failure.
November 24:In rulings that invalidated the Comey and James indictments based on Trump’s unlawful appointment of Halligan, a third court began its opinion with this shot:
On September 25, 2025, Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience, appeared before a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia. Having been appointed Interim U.S. Attorney by the Attorney General just days before, Ms. Halligan secured a two-count indictment charging former FBI Director James B. Comey, Jr….
…And Suffering the Consequences
Every attorney requires a license to practice law. The bar examiners who issue and renew those licenses promulgate rules of conduct that every lawyer must follow. Even before the latest judicial revelations, Halligan was defending complaints that she had violated those rules. But with the latest court rulings, she is in a whole new world of hurt. And Trump’s pardons won’t help her.
Here’s a partial list of the Model Rules that could pose problems for Halligan:
Rule 1.1: Competence
A lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.“
[Halligan has never tried a criminal case.]
Rule 3.1: Meritorious Claims and Contentions
A lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding, or assert or controvert an issue therein, unless there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous,….“
[Halligan’s predecessor found that the case against Comey was too weak to pursue.]
Rule 3.8: Special Responsibilities of a Prosecutor
The prosecutor in a criminal case shall:
(a)refrain from prosecuting a charge that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause;….“
[Here, again, her predecessor found that any case against Comey was a loser for the government.]
Rule 8.4: Misconduct
It is professional misconduct for a lawyer to:
(d) engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice;….“
[The circumstances surrounding Trump’s appointment of Halligan and her subsequent indictment of Comey suggest an abuse of power and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.]
Special rules for federal prosecutors echo and reinforce the Model Rules. They too require probable cause for charges, investigations and prosecutions that are conducted fairly and without vindictiveness, and a ban against politicized or partisan prosecutions.
In fact, the Justice Department has a “longstanding threshold requirement that a prosecutor may commence or recommend federal prosecution only if he/she believes that the person will more likely than not be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by an unbiased trier of fact and that the conviction will be upheld on appeal.”
Even if Halligan manages to keep her law license, she will never recover her professional reputation. It’s the Trump effect.
Maybe she can get Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s old job at Fox News.
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AN 11? 25
Kilmar Armando Ábrego García's ongoing case was back in court on Thursday as Judge Paula Xinis questioned U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
It was revealed that top immigration official John Cantú didn't draft the sworn statements submitted to the court for the case. The statement was previously sealed, Lawfare's Roger Parloff wrote in a BlueSky thread.
Ábrego was sent to an El Salvador prison, despite a judge's order not to send him to the country. Initially, the administration sought to deport him to various African countries such as Uganda, Eswatini and now, Liberia.
Ábrego sought to go to Costa Rica, but Cantú wrote, and the government has alleged, that the country would not accept him.
Legal analyst Adam Klasfeld, of "All Rise News," reported on X, "A senior ICE official just admitted in an evidentiary hearing in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case that someone else drafted his declaration in the case and he didn’t know what certain words meant."
Parloff, who was live-posting about the court hearing, cited Judge Xinis saying that the witness had zero information about the content of his declaration.
"No shade on you Mr. Cantú," Xinis said, according to Parloff. "You've been very candid with the court."
Ábrego's attorney, Sascha Rand, asked who might have more information "about the sum and substance of your declaration that we could go talk to?"
Cantú responded, saying, "No, sir. As far as I know, I'm the only one he talked to," Parloff relayed.
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rww
11/12/2025
by
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Liberty Counsel’s petition to overturn the court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling in Obergefell. Mat Staver, who heads the anti-LGBTQ group, insisted the next day that “it’s not if, but when, Obergefell will be overturned.”
While large majorities of Americans support marriage equality, religious-right groups are determined to destroy it. Staver has called the marriage equality ruling a “cancer” on the Constitution.
Liberty Counsel has spent the past decade representing Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk who refused to allow her office to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Supreme Court overturned state marriage bans.
The case that Liberty Counsel asked the Supreme Court to hear was about the specific question of whether Davis could be held personally liable for damages for denying a gay couple the license to which they were entitled. A federal judge ruled against Davis, awarding the couple damages and attorney fees, and an appeals court upheld that ruling.
Liberty Counsel appealed and asked the Supreme Court to go well beyond the legal question at hand and take the opportunity to overturn marriage equality altogether. The Court declined.
It’s good news that the Court rejected Liberty Counsel’s appeal. But Liberty Counsel and other religious-right groups are certainly not going to drop their efforts to overturn marriage equality.
“I have no doubt that Davis’ resolve will serve as a catalyst to raise up many more challenges to the wrongly decided Obergefellopinion,” Staver wrote. He vowed that his group “will continue working with state legislators and individuals to overturn Obergefell and to return the issue of marriage to the states.”
Liberty Counsel has powerful allies who want to see marriage equality eliminated.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, the anti-equality legal giant that led the legal effort to overturnRoe v. Wade,views reversing marriage equality as another of its “generational wins” goals. ADF drafted the state law that the Supreme Court used to overturn Roe, and it's nearly certain that ADF is working on a similar strategy to undo Obergefell. ADF was not involved in Kim Davis’s case, but it is active at the Supreme Court this term.
The Ethics and Public Policy Center is headed by Ryan Anderson, who published a road map for overturning marriage equality when he was still at the Heritage Foundation. EPPC fellow Nathanael Blake wrote earlier this year that same-sex couples' ability to get legally married reflects liberalism’s “hatred for human nature.” Another EPPC fellow, Andrew Walker, wrote that same-sex marriage reflects “moral lawlessness.” He mocked gay parents and their families, writing, “If you’re anything like me, the sight of gay and lesbian couples and small children cosplaying in idyllic family settings is proving to be too much.”
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RWW
Ryan J. Reilly @ NBC News: Jury acquits D.C. 'sandwich guy' charged with chucking a sub at a federal agent
Sean Dunn faced a single misdemeanor after federal grand jurors refused to indict him on the felony charge sought by prosecutors.
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FAIL ON PENTA PRESS 10 25
10/22/2025
by
- Matthew Chapman @ Raw Story: Trump's embattled watchdog nominee withdraws after pro-Nazi texts leaked
Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump's controversial pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel, has withdrawn from consideration after a series of bombshell scandals that rendered Republican senators unwilling to advance his nomination.
- Media Matters: Nick Fuentes: “If we can get very far-right people in the bureaucracy … eventually they will be the deep state”
Fuentes on Paul Ingrassia: “He seemed to me to be pretty far right. ... It says something about the face and the landscape of the Trump administration that a guy like that is tolerated.”
- Pema Levy @ Mother Jones: As Trump Plans to Steal $230 Million From Taxpayers, You Can Thank John Roberts
President Donald Trump is demanding that the Justice Department transfer $230 million in taxpayer dollars into his own personal bank account. He can do this, because thanks to the Supreme Court’s recent decisions, the executive branch could accurately be described by King Louis XIV—L’état, c’est Trump.
- Zachary Leeman @ Mediaite: Pentagon Announces ‘Next Generation’ Press Corps That Includes Gateway Pundit and LindellTV
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell introduced the “next generation of the Pentagon press corps” on Wednesday, referencing those media outlets that have accepted the Pentagon’s new controversial press policy.
- Gabe Ortiz @ Combating Nativist Narratives: Speaker Johnson Claims He Hasn’t Seen ICE ‘Cross The Line Yet.’ Maybe He Should Open His Eyes
The growing list of ICE violations against U.S. citizens wrongfully detained by ICE includes nearly 20 American children—including two with cancer.
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10 25 AN
GRAND JURY 3X NO BILL, MISDEMENOR TOSSED AFTER 2 HR DELIB
'Throw the book at people': Judges and lawyers say Jeanine Pirro has 'no credibility left'
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mma
Right-wing media touted Milei’s austerity schemes. Now Argentina might need a US bailout.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent floated a financial lifeline for the right-wing leader even as Trump cuts lifesaving foreign aid across the globe
Written by John Knefel
Published 09/26/25
Right-wing media figures have long embraced Argentina President Javier Milei and his extreme austerity and privatization measures, which have now plunged his country into chaos and even triggered the possibility of a bailout from President Donald Trump.
Conservative pundits have consistently celebrated Milei’s drastic cuts to pension programs and social services, sometimes offering them as a template for domestic policy. When Milei took office in late 2023, he implemented a suite of right-wing economic policies — deregulation, privatization, slashing public sector employment — and took steps to artificially bolster Argentina’s currency to bring down inflation. His government saw temporary success in taming inflation, but his policies created widespread misery and he’s now facing a political backlash that threatens to compound Argentina’s troubles.
With the Argentinian economy in free fall, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent assured global markets that the Trump administration would consider extending a series of extraordinary bailout measures to help Milei’s beleaguered government. On September 24, Bessent went as far as to admit the Trump administration’s goal was to provide Milei support to “bridge him to the election.”
For all the support Milei has gotten over the years from conservative media, Fox News and others in right-wing media have barely mentioned the potential bailout at all.
- ### Right-wing media praise Milei’s austerity program
Conservative pundits have embraced Milei — some even prior to his victory in November 2023 — and have repeatedly pointed to his social spending cuts as a model for Trump’s administration.
- A day after Milei was elected, conservative economist Art Laffer argued Milei was “not a kook” or “far-right-winger” and bet he would make Argentina “the outstanding, pro-growth economy of Central and South America” as president. Fox host Larry Kudlow concurred, adding that “the socialism they’ve been flirting with almost all over the continent hasn’t worked. … This guy might turn that around.” Fox Business, *Kudlow*, [11/20/23]
- In June 2024, Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt praised Milei over a chyron that read: “Argentina's Milei shows gov't reduction can be done.” Schmitt said: “When Milei came in to this government, and he’s just ripping up all these different agencies he wants to defund, cut government — cut, cut, cut, cut, cut — and now we see this week, the first time in 30 years they’ve had no inflation on food.” He added: “This is how it has to be done.” Former and current Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka, then out of government, concurred, arguing that Milei understands “the bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [6/26/24]
- That September, Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo said: “I love that guy, Javier Milei. He's done such a great job.” Bartiromo continued: “It's really amazing to see the kind of change that he has spurred in Argentina.” Earlier in the segment her guest praised Milei because he had “cut half the government.” Fox Business, *Mornings With Maria Bartiromo*, [9/23/24]
- On January 15, as Trump was preparing for his second term, a frequent guest on Steve Bannon’sWar Roompodcast said, “Look at what Milei has achieved in Argentina in such a short space of time.” The guest, Phillip Patrick, continued: “He cut government spending significantly, gutted useless government departments.” Patrick added: “The people are suffering shorter term, but longer term, the economy is looking much healthier. We need that same aggressive move today for the U.S. economy because we’re at the point of no return.” Patrick is a spokesperson for Birch Gold, which is a sponsor of War Room. Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [1/15/25; Fudgie, accessed 9/26/25; Birch Gold, accessed 9/26/25, 9/26/25]
- In February, Fox News host Will Cain discussed the Trump administration’s early efforts to gut the federal workforce and referred to Argentina as a “source of inspiration.” Milei “came in with meat cleaver, cutting away government waste and spending,” Cain said, later concluding: “The success for America could have been modeled in Argentina.” Fox News, *The Will Cain Show*, [2/18/25]
- Also in February, as the Trump administration was cutting hundreds of thousands of federal jobs, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade defended the administration’s actions by arguing, “Argentina is doing it.” ABC News, [2/24/25; Fox News, Fox & Friends, 2/25/25]
- In March, Schmitt again praised Milei, claiming he had “slashed a bloated government in a country that had terrible inflation and a cratering economy, and he's managing to turn his country around.” His guest, John Stossel, also celebrated Milei’s breakneck deregulation rate and said of the Trump administration: “If they do that, it would be great in America. But I doubt that will happen.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [3/11/25]
- In March, a Brazilian journalist on Bannon’sWar Roomsaid conservatives in the U.S. “are thrilled with Millei in Argentina — we all are. We love Argentina.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [3/31/25]
- As congressional Republicans advanced their One Big Beautiful Bill, Fox News host Will Cain presented a video of Milei promising to eliminate vast swaths of the Argentine government and suggested it was a template that the United States could follow. “It can be done,” Cain said, repeating Milei’s own phrasing. “It’s been done in Argentina. Can it be done here in the United States?” He added: “If you’re going to make government cuts like they did in Argentina, you would think you have to start with Medicaid.” Fox News, *The Will Cain Show*, [6/11/25]
- As recently as July, Bannon argued onWar Roomthat “Argentina is on a tear right now.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [7/22/25]
The promised lifeline to Milei comes amid Trump’s escalating military campaign against Venezuela, which has included extrajudicial strikes on several boats in the Caribbean, and what The Associated Press terms “a unilateral wave of attacks from the Trump administration against Brazil” after former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, was sent to prison for attempting a coup. Those attacks have included blistering, retaliatory tariffs on Brazil as punishment for Bolsonaro's prosecution. The bifurcated approach — a carrot for Trump’s allies, a stick for his enemies — illustrates MAGA’s broader goals in Latin America.
- ### MAGA-endorsed austerity has impoverished Argentina
Trump’s supposed beneficence to Argentina stands in stark contrast to his unprecedented cuts to foreign humanitarian aid and reveals his commitment to defending anti-left-wing politicians and market fundamentalism.
The move may have come as a surprise to some, given Trump's dismantling of the government’s foreign aid capacity, but what’s on offer to Argentina isn’t life-saving food and medicine to those in extreme poverty. Instead, it’s a lifeline to a far-right government hell-bent on eliminating social services and exposing its citizens to the discipline of the market. It’s a project shared by Trump, the Republican Party, and their right-wing media allies. In other words, Milei is too big to fail.
In December, The New York Times reported that Milei’s slash-and-burn approach has plunged more than 5 million people in the country into poverty. Although some financial elites praised his efforts to trim inflation, the effects for working class Argentines have been disastrous. Public sector wages cratered by 15 percent as Milei has forced workers into precarious gig and contract labor, part of his larger plan to privatize large sectors of the economy.
Unfortunately for Argentinians, Milei’s bloodletting has failed to cure the patient. Unemployment hit its highest level in four years in the first quarter of 2025, ticking down only slightly in the second quarter, largely due to jobs added in the informal economy. The economic downturn helped drive a loss by Milei’s party in recent local elections in Buenos Aires, which then spurred a run on the peso and a stock market collapse. Milei is facing legislative elections next month, further adding to the political crisis engulfing his administration.
Milei responded to his recent electoral loss by promising to “deepen and accelerate” his regulatory and privatization schemes. That level of commitment to right-wing economic orthodoxy may help explain why Trump recently Milei, at a bilateral meeting during the United Nations General Assembly, as having “done a fantastic job.”
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an aug 2025
In an article for Salon publishedSunday, writer Sophia Tesfaye argued that the appointment of Jeanine Pirro as U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., the "face of President Donald Trump’s new law‑and‑order regime," is backfiring.
The article noted that so far, her time in office has been marked by grandstanding and symbolic arrests — tactics that courts have repeatedly dismantled.
Tesfaye asserted that the federal takeover of D.C.’s law enforcement apparatus "is little more than theater with essentially no legal foundation." She added that Pirro, plucked from Fox News for her loyalty and ratings, has prioritized aggressive messaging over prosecutorial substance.
READ MORE:'Reveals everything': Trump ripped for 'meltdown' at White House worker
The article further highlighted that Pirro’s team “whiffed on three cases alleging defendants assaulted federal agents," and the New York Times has pointed to her office’s struggle to match her bombastic rhetoric given the exodus of career-level prosecutors and staff.
Tefaye also noted that Pirro resorted to enlisting military lawyers to backfill massive staffing shortages, with 90 prosecutors and 60 support staff reportedly missing. This has overwhelmed the D.C. federal courts, used to six new cases per week, now inundated with six or more per day, pushing trial dates into 2027 and forcing judges to hasten hearings under pressure.
Tesfaye also spotlighted the infamous “Subway sandwich slinger” case: Sean Charles Dunn, who threw a sandwich at an agent during a protest, became the target of a felony assault charge. Pirro’s office clearly aimed for dramatic impact—but the grand jury refused to indict not once, but four times in a single month, reducing the case to a misdemeanor.
"The sandwich case was meant to be a show of strength; instead, it is serving as a symbol of the administration’s superficial posturing," Tesfaye wrote.
READ MORE:Keeps getting worse: Timeline of Trump's futile Epstein diversions details his newest scam
She added: "With Trump’s installation of shock troops like Pirro to carry out his ideological retribution under the banner of justice, judges and juries are now functioning as the final guardrails in the near-total absence of resistance from the Republican-led legislative branch. Thankfully, over 200 court orders have blocked Trump’s policies, including at least 120 rulings within the first 100 days alone."
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AN 10 25
President Donald Trump is now withdrawing the nomination of the Heritage Foundation's E.J. Antoni to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
That's according to a Tuesday article in CNN, which reported that the White House has officially submitted its withdrawal paperwork to the U.S. Senate, where Antoni is awaiting formal confirmation. While the White House hasn't officially given a reason for its decision, CNN reported that it may be due to revelations that Antoni administered a secret social media account in which he repeatedly made derogatory remarks about top Democrats and minorities.
CNN reported earlier this month that Antoni was confirmed to be behind an account named "phdofbombsaway" that had been named "ErwinJohnAntoni" up until 2019. That account shared posts implying former Vice President Kamala Harris performed sexual favors to advance her political career, and that referred to Christine Blasey Ford — who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of assaulting her when he was in high school – as "Miss Piggy." At the time, the White House stood by Antoni.
"President Trump has nominated Dr. EJ Antoni to fix the issues at the BLS and restore trust in the jobs reports," White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said earlier this month. "Dr. Antoni has the experience and credentials needed to restore solution-oriented leadership at the BLS — solutions that will prioritize increasing survey response rates and modernizing data collection methods to improve the BLS’s accuracy."
Antoni was nominated to replace former BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer, who Trump fired after the August jobs report showed anemic job growth and issued revisions lowering job growth estimates from previous jobs reports (a common occurrence, as employer surveys tend to trickle in over time). The White House alleged without evidence that McEntarfer had been purposefully publishing weak jobs numbers in order to embarrass the administration.
As of Tuesday evening, Congress has been so far unable to pass a bill to keep government agencies funded beyond September 30, meaning a federal government shutdown is imminent. This means that the BLS will not be publishing an October jobs report next Friday. And even if Congress manages to pass a funding bill and end a shutdown by October 7 (when the House of Representatives is scheduled to return), a clean jobs report with a full month of data isn't likely until September.
Click here to read CNN's full report.
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fail an 8 25
Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host President Donald Trump chose as a U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, drew a great deal of criticism when she stridently vowed to make sure Charles Sean Dunn — a former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) paralegal — was aggressively prosecuted for throwing a Subway sandwich at a federal officer in Washington, D.C. "Assault a law enforcement officer, and you’ll be prosecuted," Pirro declared.
Pirro, critics argued, was being a hypocrite in light of the fact that Trump pardoned rioters who violently attacked police officers when they invaded the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
Pirro's critics also said that she didn't have a substantial case. And on Wednesday morning, August 27, the New York Times reported that DOJ prosecutors "were unable to secure a felony assault indictment against" Dunn.
READ MORE:'He's in there': MAGA congressman caught on hot mic saying Trump is in Epstein files
According to NY Times reporters y Alan Feuer, Devlin Barrett and William K. Rashbaum, "The rejection by grand jurors was particularly noteworthy given the attention paid to the case. Video of the episode went viral on social media, senior officials talked about the case, and the (Trump) Administration posted footage of a large group of heavily armed law enforcement officers going to the apartment of the man, Sean C. Dunn, to arrest him."
The news about Dunn, dubbed "Sandwich Guy" in media reports, is drawing a lot of discussion on X, formerly Twitter.
The Atlantic's Shane Harris tweeted, "Turns out you can't indict a ham sandwich."
Content creator Prabhas Sankar commented, "The unusual case, which initially drew attention for its almost comical circumstances,
highlights the challenges prosecutors face when trying to prove intent and threat in incidents that may appear more trivial than dangerous. While assaulting a federal officer is generally treated as a serious offense, the grand jury's apparent reluctance to indict suggests that the evidence did not rise to the level of a prosecutable crime in their view. Legal analysts note that such cases often hinge on context — whether the act was seen as a genuine threat to safety or simply a rash, impulsive gesture without harmful intent."
READ MORE: 'Corrupt and just wrong': Michael Steele erupts over 'dumbest' moment of Trump meeting
X user Sarah Majdov posted, "It sounds like straight from the Onion."
Another X user, Jason Frakk, wrote, "A federal agent, tactical gear, a sandwich, and a SUBWAY. The only thing indicted here is the absurdity of it all. Guess some D.C. cases just don't have the filling to stick."
X user Errol Meade posted video of Pirro and remarked, "Dumbest possible people running America."
Meanwhile, on Bluesky, writer Ian Boudreau said of Pirro, "The prosecutor who failed to get a grand jury to indict the sandwich guy has to be experiencing rock bottom right now
---
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SEE CRM3 ANNO
As experts warn of a famine unfolding in Gaza, here’s how right-wing media are reacting
Many are denying the existence of famine or blaming Hamas and the UN. But some acknowledge the reality.
Written by Chloe Simon & Gideon Taaffe
:{Published 08/06/25 MMA
As world health experts warn that Gaza is experiencing the “worst-case scenario of famine,” right-wing media figures’ reactions have fallen into three broad buckets: Deny the existence of a famine, pin the blame on Hamas and the United Nations in Israel’s defense, or — in a few cases — acknowledge the reality on ground.
Figures like right-wing podcaster Laura Loomer flat-out claimed there’s “no starvation in Gaza,” and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called images of malnourished children “propaganda,” saying it’s “emotional, visual, optical warfare.”
Others, like Fox News personalities Katie Pavlich and Mark Levin and Newsweek’s Josh Hammer have blamed the United Nations and Hamas for starvation in Gaza, claiming they’re “obstructing aid from entering” and “purposely starving the population as a PR strategy against Israel.”
There has also been a small group of right-wing media personalities who have acknowledged the unfolding famine in Gaza. However, some of them have strong antisemitic beliefs, such as white nationalist Nick Fuentes and far-right commentator Candace Owens.
Palestinians in Gaza are starving largely due to Israel’s restrictions on food entering the region — even Trump has acknowledged “real starvation”}:
- The Israeli military campaign in Gaza and its restrictions on the aid entering the enclave have created “mass starvation,” and the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” according to the World Health Organization and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health documented at least 101 hunger‑related deaths in the week leading up to July 22, including 80 children. “Nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of Gaza’s population is going days without eating,” PBS reported, attributing the information to a director at the U.N. World Food Program. The Guardian, [7/23/25, 7/29/25; The Washington Post, 7/24/25; United Nations, 7/22/25; PBS, 7/22/25]
- President Donald Trump publicly acknowledged that there's “real starvation” in Gaza, contradicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that “there is no starvation in Gaza.”During a visit to Scotland, Trump urged Israel to permit “every ounce of food” into Gaza and claimed that the U.S. is “going to set up food centers.” Reuters, [7/28/25; The Guardian, 7/28/25]
- ## Israel has accused the UN of failing to deliver food to Palestinians and Hamas of stealing aid, but reports contradict those accusations
- Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of stealing the aid provided by humanitarian agencies. According to The New York Times, “The government has used that claim as its main rationale for restricting food from entering Gaza. But the Israeli military never found proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations, the biggest supplier of emergency assistance to Gaza for most of the war, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved in the matter. In fact, the Israeli military officials said, the U.N. aid delivery system, which Israel derided and undermined, was largely effective in providing food to Gaza’s desperate and hungry population.” The New York Times, [7/26/25]
- An internal USAID analysis reviewed 156 reported cases of U.S.-funded humanitarian aid theft or loss in Gaza between October 2023 and May 2025 — and found “no reports” that Hamas benefited from U.S.-funded supplies. None of the incidents could be directly attributed to Hamas, and at least 44 incidents where aid was “reported stolen or lost” were linked, directly or indirectly, to Israeli military actions. According to Reuters, there was a “limitation” on the study because “Palestinians who receive aid cannot be vetted, [so] it was possible that U.S.-funded supplies went to administrative officials of Hamas.” Reuters also acknowledged that just because there were no reports of widespread aid diversion by Hamas, it “does not mean that diversion has not occurred.” But while the U.S. State Department continues to assert there is video evidence of Hamas looting aid, it has not released any footage supporting these claims. Reuters, [7/25/25]
- Israel has also blamed the U.N. for being uncooperative and refusing to deliver aid to Gaza, but “the U.N. says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting.” As The Associated Press reported, “Large crowds of desperate people, as well as criminal gangs, overwhelm trucks as they enter and strip off the supplies. Witnesses say Israeli troops regularly open fire on the crowds, causing deaths and injuries.” The report quoted a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who said, “Taken together, these factors have put people and humanitarian staff at grave risk and forced aid agencies on many occasions to pause the collection of cargo from crossings controlled by the Israeli authorities.” As the nonpartisan think tank the Atlantic Council noted, “Israel has systematically denied the entry of aid, created roadblocks to ensure that the little that does get in is not safely accessible, and perpetuated false narratives intended to discredit the humanitarian community and justify its blocking of aid.” The Associated Press, [7/25/25; ABC News, 7/28/25; The Atlantic Council, 7/29/25]
- ## Some reports about starvation in Gaza drew criticism because children in viral images had underlying health conditions — but they also suffered from malnutrition
- A New York Times article titled “Gazans Are Dying of Starvation” described the ongoing devastation in Gaza and the mounting hunger crisis.From the July 24 piece: “Hollow-eyed, skeletal children languish on hospital beds or are cared for by parents, who gaze helplessly at protruding ribs and shoulder blades, and emaciated limbs resembling brittle sticks.” The New York Times, [7/24/25]
- On July 29, the Times added an editor’s note to its July 24 article clarifying that one 18-month-old toddler featured in the piece also had underlying health conditions. A note posted on social media said that the paper had “learned new information, including from the hospital that treated him and his medical records.” However, the piece maintained that “his health deteriorated rapidly in recent months as it became increasingly difficult to find food and medical care, and the medical clinic that treated him said he suffers from severe malnutrition.” The New York Times, [7/24/25; Twitter/X, 7/29/25]
- Fox News criticized the Times, writing, “New York Times admits using misleading cover photo of emaciated Gaza child.” Fox News highlighted several examples of right-wing media figures attacking the Times for their correction. Fox News, [7/30/25]
- Earlier this year, reporting on the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza and its impact on children featured Osama al-Raqab, whose cystic fibrosis had worsened with malnutrition.As The Associated Press reported in early May, “Osama al-Raqab’s cystic fibrosis has worsened since the start of the war. Lack of meat, fish and enzyme tablets to help him digest food meant repeated hospital visits and long bouts of chest infections and acute diarrhea, says his mother, Mona. His bones poke through his skin. Osama, 5, weighs 20 pounds (9 kilos) and can hardly move or speak. Canned food offers him no nutrition.” The Jerusalem Post later reported that al-Raqab was flown to Italy in June and “is receiving care.” The Associated Press, [5/3/25, The Jerusalem Post, 7/28/25]
- ## Right-wing figures have claimed “no one is starving in Gaza,” calling images of hungry children “propaganda” and “emotional, visual, optical warfare”
Citation
Molly Butler / Media Matters
- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called pictures of starving children in Gaza “propaganda” and “emotional, visual, optical warfare” and claimed the “lies against Israel are relentless,” showing The New York Times’ picture of the 18-month-old suffering from malnutrition and emphasizing his “muscular disorder.”Kirk’s guest Rabbi Pesach Wolicki also claimed Palestinians in Gaza are “not emaciated. They're not starving. The people of Gaza are not starving. But Hamas needs to perpetuate this narrative.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [7/28/25]
- Right-wing podcaster and self-described “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer called claims of starvation in Gaza “insane Pallywood Propaganda,” adding, “There is no starvation in Gaza. It’s a big lie.”She posted: “When the leftists try to make you feel bad over fake starvation in Gaza, ask them if they also cry for the children of cops killed by free Palestine protestors. I’m kind of tired of seeing fake stories about starvation when my tax dollars are going toward feeding terrorists via the World Food Program which is managed by CINDY MCCAIN. … There is no starvation in Gaza. It’s a big lie. … This insane Pallywood Propaganda has to end. If it doesn’t end, Trump should shut down the World Food Program. Let’s see the audit. Penny for penny.” Twitter/X, [7/28/25; Media Matters, 7/29/25]
- Conservative personality Dinesh D’Souza commented, “Does this look like the behavior of people who are starving?” in response to a story about Palestinians speaking out about having to chase aid airdropped into Gaza. Twitter/X, [7/29/25]
- As a guest on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins*, Jewish News Syndicate’s Ruthie Blum said, “Let me just set the record straight — there is no famine in Gaza.”She continued, “The accusation that Israel is purposely starving people is absolutely outrageous. It's a lie. It's a blood libel, and Hamas spread it.” Twitter/X, [7/28/25]
- TheBlaze’s Glenn Beck asked, “Have you seen the pictures of mom or dad holding the babies that are supposedly starving and they seem perfectly healthy? Does that seem reasonable to you? There’s no critical thinking here at all.” Beck then went on to add, “I’m sure there’s hunger there, real hunger. … I’m not dismissing that there’s not real hunger there, and we should do everything that we can. But, you know, let’s put some of the onus on Hamas as well. And then, can we stop listening to the people of Hamas tell us by showing these babies, who now we know have problems from birth.” Twitter/X, [7/29/25]
- Right-wing podcaster Stephen L. Miller posted, “If Gaza wants to convince anyone other than Western media that we are truly at the brink of a genocidal famine, they should stop putting healthy well fed adults in front of cameras.”Twitter/X, [7/30/25]
- ## Many right-wing figures blamed Hamas or the UN, claiming they are “purposely starving the population as a PR strategy against Israel” and Hamas is “stealing the aid”
Citation
Molly Butler / Media Matters
- Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro claimed, “Hamas is stealing the aid.”He also attacked the United Nations, saying, “The UN literally refuses to ship food in if they are escorted by the IDF, because the U.N. wants to fund Hamas.” The Daily Wire, *The Ben Shapiro Show*, [7/28/25]
- National Review’s Rich Lowry wrote an article titled “Hamas Is to Blame for Gaza’s Woes,” which claimed that Hamas “considers the agony of Gazans a useful weapon in the narrative war. From this perverted point of view, a famine would be welcome news.”The piece concluded, “Hamas would rather see the population starve than give up on the war, or its grip on power.” National Review, [7/29/25]
- After playing a clip of Trump saying the U.S. will get food into Gaza, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner said, “Now if they could just stop the bloodthirsty savages of Hamas from shooting at their own people and taking supplies away from them, that would be a miracle.”Fox News, *The Faulkner Focus*, [7/28/25]
- Fox & Friendsco-host Brian Kilmeade claimed that “the problem is it’s Hamas. Hamas started it. They don’t care about their people. … They want to blame Israel for it.”Co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence Jones agreed, with Earhardt saying, “They steal the aid that Israel sends in, that America sends in.” Fox News,*Fox & Friends*, [7/29/25]
- Fox News senior strategic analyst Jack Keane claimed it is “Hamas that has stopped the aid from coming in by not making this deal.” Keane: “Are there some humanitarian starvation and serious gravity taking place among the people in Gaza? You betcha there are. But it's Hamas that has stopped the aid from coming in by not making this deal.” Fox Business,*Mornings with Maria*, [7/29/25]
- Newsweek’s Josh Hammer alleged that “anti-Israel forces have a new op: Israel-induced famine in Gaza. More lying. Hamas and the UN are obstructing aid from entering.”Twitter/X, [7/28/25]
- Stephen L. Miller claimed, “The famine in Gaza is because of Hamas.”Twitter/X, [7/23/25]
- OnOutnumbered, Fox host Mark Levin claimed, “Hamas is killing and starving its own people.” He added, “The U.N. is actually helping Hamas. The only people feeding the Palestinians there — the United States and the Israelis.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [7/28/25]
- Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen agreed with Netanyahu’s claim that there is “no policy of starvation in Gaza” and claimed the reason for famine in the region is “Hamas, not Netanyahu.” Thiessen: “What is important to remember here is the reason why there is starvation in Gaza — Netanyahu is right. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza. The reason is that Hamas has been defeated but they refuse to surrender. They have no chance of prevailing and in any normal situation like this, where they had suffered such military setbacks, the other side would surrender and end the fighting and allow humanitarian assistance to come in. And Hamas is refusing to do that. And that's the source of the problem in Gaza. It's Hamas, not Netanyahu.” Fox News, *Special Report*, [7/28/25]
- Townhall Editor Katie Pavlich posted: “Gaza is the only place where the UN and Hamas are purposely starving the population as a PR strategy against Israel.”Twitter/X, [7/26/25]
- Right-wing podcaster Ben Ferguson claimed starvation in Gaza was caused by “adults who decided to put killing Israelis ahead of making sure their own kids are safe.”Ferguson added, “This is not Israel's fault. This is Hamas' fault; this is terrorists’ fault. They are the ones starving these kids. So I’m sick of people saying somehow this is Israel's fault. They attacked Israel. Period.” Fox News, *The Faulkner Focus*, [7/28/25]
- Fox News contributor Guy Benson said Trump is “right” for saying the “fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!” Benson added, “He’s right & every good person who cares (or purports to care) about the suffering in Gaza should say this loudly and with one voice, every day. That so many do not is a grotesque tell.” Twitter/X, [7/31/25]
- Right-wing radio host Larry Elder claimed, “The food is being stolen by Hamas.”He also claimed that the New York Times article that featured the 18-month old toddler “was a complete and total lie, and so many members of the media … ran with it because it advanced the narrative: Gaza is suffering from mass starvation because of the dastardly Israelis.” The Salem Radio Network, *The Larry Elder Show*, [7/31/25]
- Fox News host Lawrence Jones said there’s “propaganda” regarding “the Gaza story,” that “people just believe everything that is put out there, the images,” and that Hamas is “taking some of the aid away.” Jones: “As it relates to the war propaganda, Israel is losing it, when it comes to the Gaza story right here. People just believe everything that is put out there, the images. They may put an editor's note on there [in the Times story], but the damage has already been done. I even talked with some of my friends — they don't know the full story about what Hamas is doing, taking some of the aid away.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [7/30/25]
- ## A small group of right-wing figures — some with ties to white nationalist or far-right politics — have acknowledged the situation in Gaza
Citation
Molly Butler / Media Matters
- A few right-wing media figures have acknowledged the ground reality in Gaza, including some in the alt-right or white nationalist communities who have weaponized pro-Palestinian rhetoric and activism in order to advance an antisemitic agenda. In an article addressing why some neo-Nazi groups have attended pro-Palestinian protests, lawyer Karen Dunn wrote, “For these groups, the large-scale protests across America present a golden opportunity to mainstream the same antisemitic tropes they have been pushing for years and, if they get their way, create new opportunities for extremist violence.”
- Conservative podcaster Tim Dillon: America is “funding a famine” in Gaza.Dillon: “We are now funding the starvation of a group of people halfway across the world or all the way across the world.” *The Tim Dillon Show*, [7/28/25]
- Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum acknowledged that there are cases of starvation in Gaza, while mentioning the New York Post’s reporting that one child who was starving “suffers from genetic disorders.” MacCallum: “Meanwhile, we have other sources in Israel saying it is being taken out of context and The New York Post reporting, quote, ‘viral images of starving Gaza boy don't tell the whole story. He suffers from genetic disorders, critics say.’” But there is no — it is quite clear that people are starving in Gaza and we see the numbers and we see the response and we see the food that has not gotten to them.” Fox News,*The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [7/28/25]
- :{:{On his podcast, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) said “starvation in Gaza” is hurting Israel’s image among “young people.”}: Paul said, “Young people, whether I think they’re in the United States or whether in Israel, they’re sick and tired of it. … I think this problem with Gaza and the starvation in Gaza is calling attention to this and as bad as it is, hopefully it will, some good things will come of that and more people will wake up.” :{Rumble, *The Ron Paul Liberty Report:(style="background-color:#ffbb16ff"):}:*, [7/30/25]}:
- While talking about Trump’s attempts to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Fox News’ Howard Kurtz acknowledged, “There is mass starvation in Gaza, and Trump has broken with Bibi Netanyahu on that mounting humanitarian crisis.” Fox News, *MediaBuzz*, [8/3/25]
- War Roomhost Steve Bannon responded to Trump’s comment about starvation, saying, “That’s cutting out – that’s really taking Bibi’s biggest tactic. Let’s be blunt and call it what it is.” His guest Jim Rickards responded, saying, “You're right. This is starvation — not just starvation, it's also the hospitals, medicine, medical treatment, etc.” Real America’s Voice,*War Room*, [7/29/25]
- Far-right commentator Candace Owens attacked “Zionists,” saying they are “pretending that people are not starving in Gaza.” Owens, who has also engaged in antisemetic rhetoric and conspiracy theories, added: “You are outright mocking, at points, … images of children that are starving, saying that they deserve that. And you can only behave like a sadistic, psychopathic, murderous individual for so long before the world takes notice.” YouTube, *Candace*, [7/28/25; Media Matters, 3/22/24; Rolling Stone, 3/22/24]
- MAGA media influencer Jack Posobiec discussed starvation in Gaza on his show, saying, “You don't have to be Pro-Israel or Pro-Hamas to be pro-humanity.” Posobiec — who, as per Southern Poverty Law Center, has “collaborated with white nationalists … and neo-Nazis” and has pushed antisemitic rhetoric — said: “It is these refugee conditions in these displacement camps that have come under fire and where starvation conditions now, as President Trump has said, are exhibited.” He continued, “Here’s what it all comes down to folks, you don't have to be pro-Israel or pro-Hamas to be pro-humanity, OK? You don’t have to come in and say all of this and all of that. But what you do want to be able to say is, it’s war. The war is what’s driving all of this.” Real America’s Voice,*Human Events*, [7/29/25; Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed, 8/1/25]
- White nationalist Nick Fuentes spoke about the “ongoing famine, forcible starvation of the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza by Israel.” Rumble, *America First*, [7/28/25]
- ## Tucker Carlson’s guests have been discussing starvation in Gaza
- Right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson has recently hosted multiple guests who have talked extensively about the realities on the ground in Gaza.
- U.S. Green Beret veteran Tony Aguilar discussed his deployment in Gaza on behalf of a security contractor and talked in detail about “mass starvation” in the Gaza strip.Aguilar continued, “The narrative of there's no starvation and there's no hunger going on in Gaza, that is negligent. That is shameful that anybody would say that.” YouTube, *The Tucker Carlson Show*, [7/31/25]
- Carlson also hosted political scientist John Mearsheimer, who labeled Israel’s actions a genocide and asked, “You're going to build a ghetto. You're going to put, you know, 2 million people in a ghetto and continue to starve them. Is this sustainable?”Mearsheimer also claimed, “The Israelis are executing a genocide in Gaza.” YouTube, *The Tucker Carlson Show*, [7/30/25, 7/30/25]
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[
MSNBC News
RFK Jr. is reshaping vaccine policy. Stuart Burns is helping him do it.
Stuart Burns, a senior advisor at Health and Human Services, appears to be leading a network of aligned staff advancing RFK Jr.'s...
.
2 days ago](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/analysis/robert-f-kennedy-jr-vaccines-stuart-burns-hhs-rcna220029)
brandy z
“Who is Stuart Burns?” a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention texted me from the organization’s all-hands meeting in June, attaching a photo of a man seated in front of his name card.
The 60-year-old conservative with a stout build and a boyish haircut was mostly unknown to the doctors, epidemiologists and officials who had gathered to ask questions about what many have described as the gutting of their agency and the threat many believe its new leaders pose to public health.
One former CDC staffer who interacted with Burns all those years ago described it as something like a “religious crusade.”
When asked about the researchers and doctors reportedly aligned with the anti-vaccine movement who had replaced the qualified experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a federal vaccine advisory committee, deputy director of public affairs Nina Witkofsky opened the floor to Burns, who was seated at a long table with other agency leaders.
“I’ll catch the football on that one,” said Burns, who had been recently appointed as senior adviser to the CDC director (a position that is still sitting vacant). “We’ve been working really hard over the past few days — over the weekend in particular — to bring on the new ACIP members,” he said with a smile.
Burns said he had been on calls with agency staff, working nights and weekends ahead of the July ACIP meeting, to ensure the replacements were in place — new panelists who, critics later said,would bring anti-vaccine views and conflicts of interest to a group once respected for its scientific rigor and independence. “We’re making good progress,” Burns said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by MSNBC. He added that several agenda items would be delayed while the new panel got up to speed.
Though not everyone in the room recognized him, Burns had been named in an April memo from Matt Buzzelli, the CDC’s newly politically appointed chief of staff, announcing interim leadership changes after mass terminations and resignations. But among the CDC’s longest-serving employees, especially those in offices related to vaccines, Burns was a known entity. He had been a staffer for congressional Republicans since the early ’90s — best known as a key operator for the anti-vaccine movement.
Kennedy and vaccines loom over Senate confirmation hearing for CDC director
08:06
Originally from Georgia, Burns spent the last three decades in Florida, Texas and Washington, D.C., with his longest tenure, from 1995 to 2008, as legislative director and deputy chief of staff to former Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had wanted Weldon as CDC director, but that nomination was pulled over his anti-vaccine views. But because an adviser position doesn’t require Senate confirmation, Kennedy got Weldon’s number two.
Burns is not a doctor or a scientist. An HHS spokesperson declined to be quoted on the record but defended Burns’ management of vaccine projects for the agency. The spokesperson said that Burns had worked on health policy as a legislative aide for congressional Republicans. Burns did not respond to MSNBC’s requests for comment.
:{:{Weldon’s office was central to the early-2000s push to link vaccines to autism, and Burns was a key operator within the effort, acting as a liaison among activists and researchers. His work as deputy chief of staff in the early 2000s, chronicled inbooks and news reports from the time, was also described to MSNBC by long-serving CDC employees and three former legislative staffers who served alongside Burns. He was interviewed several times for a sympathetic history of the period’s anti-vaccine activism, “Evidence of Harm.”}:
Burns facilitated dozens of meetings between anti-vaccine activists and government officials, and arranged access to CDC data for Mark and David Geier, father-son researchers who falsely linked autism to vaccines and served as experts in legal cases alleging vaccine injuries. He coordinated press and lobbying strategies with activists, pushed medical journals to publish anti-vaccine research that had been rejected, and asked anti-vaccine activists to advise on government-funded research. He also publicly discounted studies that debunked purported links between vaccines and autism, and was repeatedly described in books, news articles and autism forums as a tireless behind-the-scenes organizer.}:
One source with knowledge of calls between Weldon’s office, CDC staffers and anti-vaccine researchers described Burns as “explosive.” Burns, they said, organized meetings, brought anti-vaccine researchers like the Geiers onto calls without warning, and repeatedly demanded access to databases containing private patient information. They recalled Burns at times screaming and threatening agency funding, as Weldon sat on the House Appropriations Committee at the time.
Burns has stayed out of the public eye, as reflected in the absence of publicly available photographs. He does appear in a 2013 video from America’s Future Foundation in which he talks about his career:
It’s not clear what has motivated his passion over vaccines, but one former CDC staffer who interacted with Burns all those years ago described it as something like a “religious crusade.”
Burns is one of dozens of new political appointees across HHS agencies, some with minimal public health experience and others with clear ties to the anti-vaccine movement that Kennedy helped build.
In the last six months, Kennedy has dismantled and partly remade the country’s largest federal agency, overseeing the firings of thousands of employees and shuttering programs related to issues including mental health, senior care, cancer, and HIV and AIDS. The CDC has been without a director since March, when Trump withdrew Kennedy’s pick, Weldon, and nominated Susan Monarez. Leadership roles have been left vacant or filled with political appointees who lack public health experience. Kennedy has also placed anti-vaccine allies in roles that are reshaping vaccine policy — some subtly, others more overtly — both domestically and abroad. And it is Burns who appears to be leading this network of ideologically aligned staff embedded across HHS agencies.
According to meeting recordings, internal communications reviewed by MSNBC and three sources familiar with the situation, Burns has become a central figure in subverting vaccine policy under Kennedy. It’s unclear from his job title of “senior adviser” what Burns is officially tasked with, but officials with knowledge said Burns’ duties were, in part, specifically targeting vaccines.
RFK Jr.’s CDC plans study on long-debunked link between vaccines and autism
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In addition to organizing the destruction and rebirth of the ACIP panel, Burns personally ordered the removal of a webpage that hosted a scientific review on the safety of thimerosal, an ingredient falsely linked to autism by anti-vaccine activists. (The ACIP panel ultimately recommended removing the preservative from influenza vaccines.) The decision to remove the report from the website, made after communication with Kennedy’s office, broke from standard practice, which allows such panels to act independently of the agency. An HHS spokesperson defended the removal to MSNBC, saying the report had been posted without permission, but did not address Burns’ involvement.
Kennedy’s sweeping plans for vaccines include the re-examination of settled vaccine safety studies, particularly around autism. Kennedy has said that this fall he will announce preliminary findings from a reanalysis of health data — findings that critics, including those inside CDC, say are preordained and are likely to reignite disproven claims around autism and vaccines.
Kennedy’s overhaul of vaccine policy is also coming amid a growing number of public health emergencies. Measles outbreaks tore through the country this year, hospitalizing hundreds and killing two unvaccinated children. The country’s elimination status is under threat while vaccine hesitancy grows: a recent study found that only 40% of pregnant Americans and parents of young children said they plan to follow the recommended vaccine schedule.
Meanwhile, Burns appears to be benefitting from a power vacuum. Two Trump loyalists — Heather Flick Melanson, Kennedy’s chief of staff, and Hannah Anderson, a senior policy adviser — were fired this week. Key positions, including CDC director and several division heads, remain unfilled. Nearly a third of top HHS leadership positions currently sit vacant, according to the agency’s website. With few career leaders in place, political appointees have been operating with unusual authority. Burns has wielded his new power to realize an old dream.
“He’s a senior adviser to the director, but there is no director,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the agency. “And all that he does, all day long, is work in this covert vaccine space.”
Dr. Paul Offit, the inventor of a rotavirus vaccine and a longtime critic of Kennedy and the anti-vaccine movement, suggested that Kennedy’s actions are like the dinosaur in “Jurassic Park,” testing the fence before it breaks through.
“Activists have been shouting from the sidelines for decades,” Offit said. “Now they are making policy.”
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OMG
an 7 25
The Department of Justice’s (DoJ) civil rights chief is urging a federal judge to hand down just one day behind bars for the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officer convicted in Breonna Taylor’s 2020 death, the New York Times reported Thursday.
This is a surprising shift from the unit’s typical stance on combatting racial inequities in law enforcement.
Taylor was a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician from Louisville, Kentucky. In March 2020, LMPD officers executed a “no-knock” warrant at her apartment, linked to a drug investigation targeting someone else. During the raid, police fired multiple shots into her home.
READ MORE:'Sad Sunday': Christian power couple smacks down evangelical conservatives in rare public statement
In a Kentucky federal trial last year, Officer Brett Hankison was found guilty of violating Taylor’s civil rights. The jury determined he used excessive force by firing multiple shots through her window during a drug raid gone wrong.
On Wednesday, Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, urged Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings to impose “one day in prison” for Hankison — time he has essentially already served — and to sentence him to three years of supervised release.
Facing up to life in prison, Hankison’s fate hinges on a sentencing hearing scheduled for next week, during which the judge will weigh the government’s recommendation, per the report.
The DOJ's move generated backlash on social media.
READ MORE:'Didn’t you vote to pass this?' GOP rep stumps CNN host after blasting bill he voted for
Wisconsin state senator Chris Larson (D) wrote on the social platform X: "Just when you think this Administration can’t stoop any lower, they go and do something like this. I don’t ever want to hear anyone who supports this President talk about being 'tough on crime' ever again."
Author Devin Burghart wrote: "Trump's DOJ declares emphatically that Black lives don't matter. Justice Dept. Asks for 1-Day Sentence for Ex-Officer Convicted in Breonna Taylor Raid."
History professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries, the brother of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote: "Cop facing up to life in prison for his conviction for actions connected to the murder of #BreonnaTaylor, and this racist a-- regime's #JusticeDepartment asks the judge to sentence him to one. This is what white supremacy looks like."
Lawyer and civil rights activist Maya Wiley said: "#BreonnaTaylor should be alive & we can’t look away. Her life, Black lives, are worth more than a day. Trump Exec Order explicitly stated police should be 'unleashed.' Police must be accountable. This isn’t accountability!"
READ MORE: 'Who in the world would be stupid enough to believe that?' Morning Joe torches Trump
Journalist Brian Fydenborg wrote: "People can argue that MAGA isn't inherently racist. Those people would be f------ wrong. For how else can you explain that Breonna Taylor's life is worth 1 day? So blatant it's literally designed to spark riots, so Trump can send in troops. L.A. was warmup."
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AN 7 25
'Morale just really plummets': Air traffic controllers rail against Trump's new proposal
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AN 7 25
After just six months into his second term, President Donald Trump has already left a significant mark on American society and severely crippled the ability of institutions like Congress and the courts to check him. But some experts say democracy is still far from over and maintain that Trump is still vulnerable.
On Tuesday, New York Times columnist Thomas B. Edsall detailed the various ways Trump has eroded traditional democratic checks and balances, wielded the executive branch's power against his political opponents, fired government employees who aren't fully on board with his agenda and demoralized the opposition. University of Toronto political scientist Lucan Way — along with Harvard University political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt acknowledged that "the cost of opposing the government" has risen significantly under Trump, meaning that the United States may have very well "crossed the line into authoritarianism" under Trump.
However, one of the various academics and experts Edsall interviewed emphasized that Americans who believe in democracy still have many tools at its disposal.
READ MORE:(Opinion) Stick a fork in him: Trump finally faces the threat of retribution – from MAGA
Harvard professor of government and sociology Theda Skocpol told Edsall that Trump had created a new governing system called "competitive sycophancy," in which various interests attempt to curry favor with the administration through flattery and manipulation. He also described it using the phrase "patrimonial corruption."
"Thanks to the fawning of the GOP and of most elite-run U.S. institutions, he already basically has this system in place," Skocpol said. "One part of it that is a possible route to pure coercive authoritarianism is the new ICE-centered private army run without limits by Stephen Miller — and there will be constant efforts to push that into a centralizing and terrifying threat against all political opposition."
However, Skocpol noted that Trump critics have an adherent advantage due to the "sheer inefficiency and incompetence" of top administration officials. He also stressed that Trump's actions now are likely to harm both him and his party in the long run.
"Trump owns it all now; that is the silver lining in all of this," he said. "Let him get all the blame for the messes that will unfold, let his childish efforts to shift blame look more and more desperate, silly and weak. Weak is the key."
READ MORE:'Good evidence': New data shows the 'surest sign' Trump policies are making inflation rise
Click here to read Edsall's full column in the Times, or by clicking this link (subscription required).
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an 7 25
The Guardian reports even dedicated CIA critic Tim Weiner is sounding the alarm on the damage President Donald Trump is doing the agency.
Weiner — who wrote the CIA political take-down ‘Legacy of Ashes’ about decades of CIA mistakes and bad behavior — compares Trump’s second administration to watching the U.S. stand with Russia, Iran and North Korea by voting against a UN resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine.
“You come to the realization, if you hadn’t already: ‘My God, the president of the United States has gone over to the other side. He has joined the authoritarian axis,’” Weiner said.
READ MORE: Stick a fork in him: Trump finally faces the threat of retribution—from MAGA
A chapter of Weiner’s new book "The Mission" addresses how the CIA was blindsided by Russia’s influence operation on behalf of Trump’s 2016 campaign. This was when Russian intelligence began releasing hacked Democratic National Committee emails, dealing a devastating blow to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“The Russians stole our f—————— election. How do we make sure this never happens again?” Weiner recalls CIA head Tom Rakusan demanding of his staff.
Following two impeachments, an insurrection and a second election, Trump is back in the White House and bent on revenge against the CIA. He’s also hired, according to Weiner, “a coterie of dangerously incompetent and servile acolytes to the highest positions of national security”.
“What keeps me up at night,” he told The Guardian, “is the fact that Trump has put the instruments of American national security in the hands of crackpots and fools, and that their incompetence and ideological blinkers will blind them to a coming attack. If the United States gets hit again under Trump, he will destroy what is left of our democracy.”
READ MORE:'This is his king complex': Republicans split as Trump threatens to 'takeover' a 'pigsty'
Weiner describes new CIA director, John Ratcliffe — a former personal injury attorney — as “a spineless person who will do whatever Trump tells him to do.”
Ratcliffe immediately fired hundreds of recently hired staffers and then sent their names to Elon Musk in an unclassified email that Weiner said was probably intercepted by the Russians and Chinese, who are now presumably working to recruit them as spies.
“All they need to do is to find people who are either deeply resentful or who might have a financial or a drug problem to be exploited,” Weiner said.
Trump’s anti-diversity crusade was another foolish mistake because “if you want to spy in a nation like Somalia or Pakistan or China, it might be wise to have a workforce that is not made up exclusively of white guys, and who speak languages other than English,” Weiner said. “Diversity was one of the CIA’s few superpowers, and the mindless abolition of the effort to diversify the CIA’s officers and analysts was one of the most stupid self-inflicted wounds that Radcliffe could have delivered.”
READ MORE:'Blatantly political': Outrage grows as Americans receive misleading email from Trump admin
Sadly, Weiner says no “Robert Mueller” or “Barack Obama” is going to save the nation. What that takes is a massive upheaval from Americans.
“[T]he other day, several million Americans marched in the street to protest the Mad King. And just as only we can defeat ourselves, I think only we can save ourselves,” Weiner said.
Read the full Guardian report at this link.
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NOTE NOEM DUFFY BLAME BIDEN
As TX deaths rise, officials blast faulty forecast by DOGE-gutted National Weather Service
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AN 7 25
We all know and expect that a president’s top appointees are picked in large part because of their willingness to carry out a president’s agenda. But usually these are people with some experience in the areas that they are overseeing. Insofar as this is not the case, they can generally rely on the high-level career officials in the departments or agencies under their control to make sure that necessary tasks get accomplished.
Unfortunately, this is not the case now. The main and possibly only qualification for Trump’s top appointees is the ability to tell blatant lies with a straight face. He has picked people who not only have no background in the areas they oversee, they don’t even have the most basic understanding of their responsibilities. And in many cases they have fired or marginalized the career people with expertise.
Starting at the top, Trump picked a former Fox talk show host with a drinking problem, Pete Hegseth, to be his Secretary of Defense. Secretary Hegseth apparently didn’t know that he shouldn’t be making war plans on unsecured channels and without knowing who was included in the conversations. He apparently also didn’t know that his wife should not be included in the discussions.
Hundreds of people just died in Texas because of this failure, and we are virtually certain to see far worse in the future.
Trump has a Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, who claims he doesn’t know that tariffs (import taxes) are taxes. Since tariffs are among the oldest form of taxes, long predating the income tax, this is a pretty elementary point that a Treasury Secretary would be expected to know.
Kristi Noem, Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary, didn’t know what habeas corpus is. Since that is basic right guaranteed by the Constitution, it would be rather important for the person controlling the largest federal police force to be familiar with the concept.
While knowledge of their areas may not be a strong point for top Trump officials, lying in front of TV cameras is an area of real expertise. We see this constantly.
We just saw Attorney General Pam Bondi tell us that there is no Jeffrey Epstein client list. This was after telling us back in February that the list was sitting on her desk and promising that it was soon to be released.
After Trump released his “Liberation Day” tariffs, which included a steep tariff on the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick insisted this was not a mistake and an indication of a rushed job. Instead, he said the tariffs were necessary to prevent transshipment from other countries to escape the taxes Trump was imposing.
This is obviously an absurd claim since there were many uninhabited islands that escaped taxation. In addition, while the problem of transshipment to avoid tariffs is real, it is not one that can be solved by putting a tariff on imports from islands inhabited by penguins and seals.
China and other countries whose exports are subject to high tariffs can and will ship them through countries that face much lower import taxes. If our customs agents can’t recognize that we are not actually importing cars and television sets from uninhabited islands, they surely will not be able to detect that the goods coming from Thailand or Indonesia were actually manufactured in China.
Trump appointees do have a remarkable ability to lie. RFK Jr. can tell us that discouraging people from getting the measles vaccines has nothing to do with the largest measles outbreak in decades. They all tell us that we can reduce Medicaid spending by $800 billion over the decade (roughly 10 percent), without throwing anyone off the program. And former DOGE boss Elon Musk told us 20 million dead people were getting Social Security benefits.
But it seems that none of them can do their jobs, and since they have fired or sidelined most of the high- level civil servants with expertise, these jobs are not getting done. Hundreds of people just died in Texas because of this failure, and we are virtually certain to see far worse in the future. As much as Trump might insist otherwise, incompetence is not a virtue.
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