A group of retired federal judges is asking a U.S. district court judge to reopen a lawsuit President Trump and his family pursued against the IRS over leaked tax records, asking the court to investigate whether a deal to end the case was an act of fraud.

Ex-federal judges ask court to reopen Trump’s IRS lawsuit, probe payout fund
The 35 former judges want a court to investigate whether the unusual agreement to create the $1.8 billion fund was an act of fraud.

(washingtonpost.com)

New reporting reveals the Trump administration funneled a $620 million loan to Don Jr-linked startup Vulcan Elements:

“The call came from the White House: We have to get this done.“

“For the past year, FIFA has leased an office on the 17th floor of New York’s Trump Tower that has sat all but empty. The rent goes to President Trump’s family business, but soccer officials say the space sits largely idle.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/w...

A Yearslong Effort to Woo Trump Culminates With the World Cup

(nytimes.com)

This story is WILD. Juan Orlando Hernandez, the Honduran ex-president pardoned by Trump for narcotrafficking, seemingly caught on tape in dozens of conversations (if true), discussing plans with GOP and other figures to attack left-wing governments, and saying Israel paid for his pardon from Trump.

‘Hondurasgate,’ the alleged US and Israeli interference plot to destabilize Mexico and other progressive governments
A leaked audio recording points to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, Javier Milei, and Donald Trump as attempting to create a platform to spread fake news about the administrations of ...

(english.elpais.com)

FYI: It costs only about 3% of face value to buy a futures contract. That means that a $28 million investment paid over $125 million in profit in just 70 minutes. 500%+ in 70 minutes.

That`s why Trump makes he bogus announcements; so his buddies can reap illegal profits like that.

“Larry Ellison reportedly told Trump that he would `implement the CBS playbook` at CNN if the merger is approved, which would mean removing anchors and commentators at the network that Trump doesn’t like, the letter alleged.“

Press Freedom Groups Accuse Larry Ellison of Promising Trump Admin He’d Fire CNN Anchors if He Acquires Warner Bros
Two press freedom groups are accusing Larry Ellison of promising “favors“ to the Trump administration to win regulatory approval for a Warner Bros. merger.

(mediaite.com)

Sean Duffy’s reality series is getting slammed for all of the obvious reasons, but don’t look past the fact that his show is being sponsored by companies his department oversees and regulates.

In other words, it’s not just a political mess, it’s also an ethical one. (ms.now)

The largest ever settlement or jury award for government violations of constitutional rights to a single person is $100 million, or 1 percent of what Trump demanding for the leak of his tax returns.

That case -- a killing by police -- was reduced to $1 million on appeal.

Hillary Rodham Clinton(hillaryclinton.bsky.social): The president is negotiating against his own administration to shake down taxpayers for $10 billion.

The corruption meter is flashing red and sounding the alarm.

ca.news.yahoo.com/doj-consider.. (l)

Taxpayer-funded sexual harassment settlements involving lawmakers exceeded $550,000, newly released documents show (cnn.com)

America`s chief Middle East negotiator - Jared Kushner - is almost completely dependent on Middle East government investment in his chief business. It`s probably the biggest conflict of interest in American diplomatic history and we should be talking about this way more.

BREAKING:

Trump is essentially stealing money from the pockets of Americans to the tune of $1.7 billion.

He`s telling his DOJ to give away that money to his allies and supporters under the fake claim that the Biden DOJ was “weaponized.“

It reeks of corruption.
(abcnews.com)

“.. We spotted nine Polymarket accounts .. who made collectively $2.4 million betting almost exclusively on U.S. Military operations. ..

“.. Now, here is the crazy part. 98% win rates.”

@mediaite.com
www.mediaite.com/media/news/6...

1. On March 11, Trump toured a Thermo Fisher Scientific facility in Ohio and repeatedly praised the company.

On *the same day* Trump bought between $15,000 and $50,000 of Thermo Fisher stock.

The purchase was “UNSOLICITED,“ meaning it was requested by the customer, not recommended by an advisor.

Trump claimed that he consulted three monarchs, one of whom bribed him with a billion-dollar jet, on whether to escalate the war in Iran, but not Congress.

Another page from the Führer`s playbook.

Hitler had a fund as well, used to pay off party loyalist. Though, Hitler`s was contributed to by private industry “voluntarily“ at first, then explicitly mandated.
(en.wikipedia.org)

In 1952, Richard Nixon`s career was nearly derailed by revelations that he had access to a slush fund of $18,000 -- less than a quarter million today.“

People used to give a shit about that kind of thing, you see.

Howard Lutnick made this donation on April 1—four weeks after his Epstein testimony was on the books, but just a day after the quarterly filing deadline, ensuring the donation wouldn’t be disclosed before his testimony. (House GOP also said nothing about it fwiw) (nytimes.com)

Yes, Trump Was ‘Very Involved’ in His $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Deal

Read here, by @andrewperez.bsky.social and @swin24.bsky.social: zeteo.com/p/trump-invo...

We have THE BEST justice system that money can buy. 💰😾🦇

Not enough people are talking about this.

A Florida airport was renamed after Donald Trump. He walked away with the trademark, the licensing rights, and a deal that lets him profit off every piece of merchandise sold there. (theguardian.com)

Team Trump has spent the last year selling pardons (something that would get every other President unanimously impeached) and it’s probably not in their top 5 corrupt acts

NEW: Trump accepted $37m worth of donated steel for his WH ballroom project from the Luxembourg-based company ArcelorMittal.

Days later, the WH made adjustments to Trump`s tariffs that could benefit ArcelorMittal.

White House Secures Foreign Steel for Ballroom Project

(nytimes.com)

A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for these new customers.

Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump`s announcement
A group of new accounts on the prediction market Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for those users.

(bit.ly)

One of the most brazenly corrupt events in history will take place tomorrow when Jared Kushner represents the U.S. in critical negotiations with Iran to end the war while he accepts millions in fees (and billions in investments) from the Saudi gov’t which has been lobbying Trump to continue the war

that beep beep beep sound you hear is the president and his family backing a truck up to the US treasury...
(washingtonpost.com)

Trump is reported close to a “deal“ with himself under which US taxpayers would pay him $10 billion.

I served in multiple communist and authoritarian dictatorships, but I never witnessed corruption on this scale or this blatant.

Trump, IRS In Talks To Settle U.S. President`s $10 Billion Lawsuit
Trump`s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization are also plaintiffs.

(huffpost.com)

NYT INVESTIGATION: As the Trump administration & Congress last year moved to repeal sanctions on Syria, the Qatar-based family that most stood to benefit was privately negotiating a real-estate partnership with Jared Kushner and proposing a Trump golf course in Syria www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/u...

Syrian Billionaires Needed a Favor in Washington. They Invoked the Trump Name.

(nytimes.com)

SCOOP --> Paramount, Meta, and X are refusing to say what happened to their huge contributions to Trump`s presidential library after Sen Elizabeth Warren raised questions about its fund getting dissolved. Ds say tens of millions remain unaccounted for.

Details here: (newrepublic.com)

Newly revealed records show the Trump administration structured a White House ballroom fundraising deal to keep donor identities secret and bypass standard conflict-of-interest safeguards, raising ethics concerns about influence from corporations with federal ties.

Trump fought to keep the ballroom fundraising contract secret. Here’s what’s in it.
The agreement governing hundreds of millions in private donations was kept secret until a watchdog group sued and a judge ordered it disclosed.

(washingtonpost.com)

Eric Trump -- the president`s son -- is on Maria Bartiromo`s show bragging about one of his companies landing a $24 million Pentagon contract
()

🚨 “The US Air Force agreed to buy an undisclosed number of interceptor drones from a company backed by President Donald Trump’s sons“

Annie Massa for @bloomberg.com

Trump Family-Backed Drone Firm Signs Weapons Deal With US
The US Air Force agreed to buy an undisclosed number of interceptor drones from a company backed by President Donald Trump’s sons, according to the firm, deepening the military’s ties to defense contr...

(bloomberg.com)

Four-byline alert: 🚨

“.. A broker for Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, attempted to make a big investment in major defence companies in the weeks leading up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter.”
(ft.com)

New in PN: DOJ payout to Mike Flynn has J6-ers lining up at the trough

“Maybe the plan is to normalize theft, getting the public used to watching the president dole out taxpayer money to his supporters so that we’ll hardly notice when he hands himself almost a quarter billion dollars.“

DOJ payout to Mike Flynn has J6-ers lining up at the trough
The stage is set for the looting of federal coffers.

(publicnotice.co)

BREAKING: @democracydefendersfund.org just filed TWO lawsuits — against DOJ & DHS — for hiding records in the Tom Homan alleged bribe probe

$50K from undercover FBI agents, reported ... in exchange for government contracts

& the agencies won`t release the documents -TN

ABC reports that Mike Flynn’s reward for committing crimes for Trump will be $1.2M.
(abcnews.com)

Bogus claims of malicious prosecution could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions.

Donald Trump’s restitution scheme is among the greatest heists in US history
Bogus claims of malicious prosecution could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions.

(motherjones.com)

Just to be very clear: The Trump DOJ is stealing $1.2 million of your money to gift one of Trump’s cronies, who pled guilty to the crimes he was charged with, and whose suit against the government had already been tossed by a judge.

emptywheel(emptywheel.bsky.social): ABC reports that Mike Flynn’s reward for committing crimes for Trump will be $1.2M.

(abcnews.com)

WHOA. Lewandowski is accused of demanding fees from a private prison company to steer them ICE contracts, at a time when he was widely known to be running DHS on Kristi Noem`s behalf, then punishing them when they didn`t pay up.

Congress should conduct a full and bipartisan investigation into this.

Some DHS contractors told White House officials they were asked to pay Corey Lewandowski
Some companies complained to the Trump administration that Lewandowski has stood to personally profit from the DHS contracting process. Lewandowski denies the allegations.

(nbcnews.com)

20 White House cabinet members have directed at least $30 million in spending that benefitted President Trump since 2023.

Only three out of 23 members have not in some way helped pad Trump’s political coffers, pet projects or personal bottom line. 🧵

The top 297 holders of President Trump`s memecoin will be invited to an exclusive gala at Mar-a-Lago. One investor has already bought $7 million worth of $TRUMP for a seat at the table.

Just a reminder that this whole thing is corrupt.

Trump’s Meme Coin Rallies as Investors Chase Mar-a-Lago Invites
The price of President Trump’s meme coin surged more than 50% in 24 hours after its official website and X account said the coin’s top 297 holders would be [invited to an exclusive conference and gala...

(wsj.com)

The corruption of the Trump Administration remains so massive while also being so obvious that people just don’t know what to do. If Kushner was merely shaking someone down for $5,000 using his govt role, there’d be an outcry. But do it for $5,000,000,000 and mostly there’s 🤷‍♂️

#TrumpCorruptionWatch

Jared Kushner Solicits Funds for His Firm While Working as Mideast Envoy

(nytimes.com)

A Noem aide spent $3 million on pickup trucks emblazoned with the ICE name & logo, which ICE agents -- notoriously averse to advertising their presence -- will not drive, so they`re just sitting in a lot, useless. The contract went to a Trump donor who owns a regional Chevy dealership.

`Ridiculous`: Kristi Noem`s 28-year-old aide wasted millions on unusable ICE vehicles
A former deputy to outgoing Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem saddled the department with millions of dollars in wasted funding for vehicles that cannot be used.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcem...

(rawstory.com)

Big Tech and Big Media donated some $63 million to a Trump-aligned nonprofit that was set up to help finance Trump`s presidential library.

Now the nonprofit has disappeared and with it the money.

Three guesses on where it`s gone.
(washingtonpost.com)

The Founders were so concerned about bribery that the Constitution forbids it three separate times (the two emoluments clauses and as the only name impeachable offense besides treason).

Exactly for this reason. A US president pocketing funds from foreign govts leads to actions against US interests.

Chris Murphy(chrismurphyct.bsky.social): The UAE secretly paid Trump $187 million. Money in his pocket personally. And then Trump overrode decades of national security objections to selling Nvidia chips to UAE because we feared UAE would send the chips to China.

Corruption has consequences.

TikTok investor Jeff Yass avoided paying $1 billion in taxes while largely escaping public scrutiny.

He then poured that money into campaigns to cut taxes and support election deniers.

(Published 2022)

Meet the Billionaire and Rising GOP Mega-Donor Who’s Gaming the Tax System
Susquehanna founder and TikTok investor Jeff Yass has avoided $1 billion in taxes while largely escaping public scrutiny. He’s now pouring his money into campaigns to cut taxes and support election de...

(propublica.org)

Once again we are asking: Why was Kash Patel paid $25,000 by a company linked to the Russian government?

When a payment from a production company for $25,000 showed up on Kash Patel`s disclosures during his confirmation hearing, we did some digging. And soon, the story began to unravel.

Last week Donald Trump registered the trademark “Donald J. Trump International Airport.“ This week Florida Republicans voted to rename Palm Beach International Airport Donald J. Trump International Airport,“ putting taxpayers on the hook for licensing fees that go straight to him

State House votes to rename Florida airport to Donald J. Trump international
The Republican-controlled Florida House voted 81-30 in support of the name change to President Donald J. Trump International Airport

()

Since Trump was re-elected, Forbes estimates—

💰His net worth is up $2 billion, to $6.3 billion

💰Eric’s has increased tenfold, to $400 million

💰Don Jr.’s has increased sixfold, to $300 million

💰19-year-old Barron Trump is worth $150 million

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): Trump: “I get no credit. As president I make $2.5 million over four years. I waived it. I`m the only president that ever waived it.“

Q: A 49% stake of the World Liberty Corporation was sold to an Emirati royal family member after your father was elected president so they could get access to AI chips.

Don. Jr: We`ve been dealing with the conflict of interest stuff for years. Frankly, it`s gotten old.

In other news, Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts. The company is run by Tricia McLaughlin’s husband. www.propublica.org/article/kris...
(propublica.org)

There are ~90 million people alive today because of USAID. Russ Vought illegally shut it down and now is spending the money on himself. These are deeply evil people. www.reuters.com/world/us/whi...

Exclusive: White House uses USAID funds for budget director Vought`s security, documents show
The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump`s budget chief and an archit...

(reuters.com)

Trump on his multiple suits against the federal government: “I`m supposed to work out a settlement with myself ... We could make it a substantial amount, nobody would care, because it`s gonna go to numerous, very good charities.“

This is corruption on a breathtaking level. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal nicknamed the “spy sheikh“, pumped $187mn into Trump family businesses. A WSJ team has the whole story, reported here for the first time. Remember: Jimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm.
(wsj.com)

US Senator Ron Wyden asked for a detailed account of Trump’s acceptance of a Rolex table clock and gold bar from Swiss businessmen shortly before slashing tariffs he previously imposed on Switzerland
(bloom.bg)

President Trump took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he has used the presidency to enrich himself, the @nytimes.com editorial board writes.

This is how Trump has pocketed at least $1.4 billion
(nyti.ms)

Trump Pocketed ‘At Least $1.4 Billion’ in the Past Year — Shocking NY Times Editorial Reveals
(mediaite.com)

The Board of Peace comprises leaders from 18 of the world`s least democratic states (plus the US) and its charter pledges $1 billion from each of them to be used at the discretion of the board`s chairman (you already know who it is) www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-ch...
(timesofisrael.com)

Three Democratic senators are sounding the alarm about lucrative contracts and loans the Pentagon provided to companies linked to Donald Trump Jr. https://cnn.it/3NZKNAx
(cnn.it)

And here’s an Omni jet landing in Equatorial Guinea yesterday. This is very likely a third-country removal to a torture prison, the second in a week and the third there overall.

Marco Rubio paid off their dictator using humanitarian funds.

I genuinely don`t understood how America took the emoluments clause -- the common-sense bar on a president using his powers to line his own pockets, a law children can understand -- and just said, nah, that doesn`t apply for our Very Special Boy.

Ron Filipkowski(ronfilipkowski.bsky.social): He’s turned the presidency into the world’s largest ATM machine.

NEW w/ @kenvogel.bsky.social: Trump’s team raised more than $100 million for MAGA Inc. in the second half of 2025, with much of the money coming from wealthy people and corporations with issues before the administration. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/u...
(nytimes.com)

DHS gave a $1 billion contract to a politically-connected donor whose company had never received a federal contract before, in a process led by a political appointee to DHS who had held a senior position at a MAGA-linked org (the American First Policy Institute) which gave the guy an award in 2024.
(washingtonpost.com)

A fantastic NYT report: Donors to Trump get pardons, jobs, & access - and benefited from regulatory decisions the Trump admin has made.

SUPER timely as SCOTUS is about to kill agency independence & give POTUS more control over agencies (likely to donors` benefit)
(nytimes.com)

The New York Times investigated 346 people who donated at least $250,000 to Trump and found that more than half of them (197) have received pardons, jobs, government contracts, special treatment, or favors.
(nytimes.com)

DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats.

Trump, who didn’t spend a minute behind bars, is about to swindle about 50 percent more than the total amount of money paid to the 97 innocent people who were incarcerated for more than 1,200 years in Texas.
(motherjones.com)

Yes, it`s good that The Times collates Trump`s tangled grifts but, again, the #BrokenTimes fails to take the next step: Labeling it corruption to enable explanation of emoluments and illegality.
Trump’s Tangled Web of Deal-Making, Policy and Riches (nytimes.com)

Unbelievable - you literally wire money to some unspecified account. I assume this is so Trump can treat it as a slush fund he can deploy unconstrained by Congress (in violation of the Constitution).

Once again, it all should have ended when he started monetizing his own hotel in 2017, three blocks from the White House. The Constitution is more clear & specific about corruption & emoluments than about literally any other topic.

Don Moynihan(donmoyn.bsky.social): This shit is just cartoonishly corrupt.

Critical part of the President`s new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion.

Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

“The FCC under Brendan Carr uses mergers and business interests of media companies as leverage to extract concessions, extract bribes, and extract censorship.”
(wired.com)

“60 Minutes paid me a lot of money”

In an edited-out part of the Trump interview Trump brags about extorting CBS for millions for… editing out a part of Kamala’s interview.

(He also makes it clear new CBS chief Bari Weiss is in his pocket) #RIPCBS

The Trump administration State Department is taking money that`s supposed to be used for helping vulnerable refugees around the world and using it to bribe corrupt governments into taking people that ICE can`t deport to their home countries.

Yael Schacher(yaelschacher.bsky.social): Latest admin deportation deal and misuse of funds. Mind boggling

apnews.com/article/equa.. (8)

Once the precedent of not paying the troops according to the rules is created, bad things follow. $130 million is not a large portion of military salary, but sends the message to troops that Trump and his buddies are personally paying them. (donmoynihan.substack.com)

will there be any followup to this fascinating story by the president of the united states that a friend of his sent him a check for $130 million dollars and the president is going to give the money to the military because i for one am fascinated about the details tbh

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): Trump: “By the way, a friend of mine called us the other day and he said `I`d like to contribute any shortfall you have because of the Democrat shutdown. I`d like to contribute any shortfall you have with the military.` Today, he sent us a check for $130 million. It`s gonna go the military.“

The Kremlin disguised a nearly $100 mn payment to Trump in the form of a brokered real estate deal... and both Jeffrey Epstein and William Pulte were involved in the deal. That`s very interesting.

NEW: We’ve uncovered the first known example of taxpayer money flowing from DHS to businesses controlled by Kristi Noem’s allies and friends.

It’s part of a money trail that’s been shrouded in secrecy—and involves $220 million, a mysterious Delaware LLC & a horse named Gill.

“It was tough to beat Apple, but the Swiss did it.“ said one administration official.

How the Swiss convinced Trump to drop tariffs with gifts of a Rolex desk clock and a 1 kg gold bar.
(axios.com)

The Founders were so concerned about bribery that the Constitution forbids it three separate times. Two emoluments clauses ban officials—unambiguously including the president—from accepting things of value, plus bribery is the only named impeachable offense besides treason.

Unprecedentedly corrupt.

Anne Applebaum(anneapplebaum.bsky.social): To negot (www.axios.com)

The Trump Organization is reportedly in talks to bring a Trump-branded property to a development backed by the Saudi government. This is another glaring ethics issue and could become a serious conflict of interest for Trump.
(nytimes.com)

Coinbase donated to Trump`s $300 million White House ballroom project as an appeal to the administration, Emilie Choi, the cryptocurrency exchange`s president and COO, said at Axios` BFD event today.
(axios.com)

RFK Jr had committed to Bill Cassidy, as a condition to win his vote, that he would keep website language.

Cassidy in February: “If confirmed… CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”

Note the language in second photo.

Five-byline alert: 🚨

“.. the full scope of [Witkoff’s talks] went much further, according to people familiar .. They were privately charting a path to bring Russia’s $2 trillion economy in from the cold—with American businesses first in line .. to the dividends. 🇺🇦
(wsj.com)

Swiss politicians filed a criminal complaint with the country’s top prosecutor over a Rolex table clock and an engraved gold bar presented to US President Donald Trump by business executives shortly before he agreed to cut tariffs on the country’s exports. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
(bloomberg.com)

6 Countries That Wooed Trump With Lavish Gifts – And What They Got in Return
(zeteo.com)

Donald Trump said he’ll “be involved in” deciding if Netflix can buy Warner Bros.

Is that an open invite for CEOs to curry favor with Trump in exchange for merger approvals?

It should be an independent decision by the Department of Justice based on the law and facts.

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): Q: Should Netflix be allowed to buy Warner Brothers?

TRUMP: That`s a question. They have a very big market share. I`ll be involved in that decision

Had missed this detail: Paramount’s David Ellison talked to Trump at the Kennedy Center Awards on Sunday and sat next to FCC Chair Brendan Carr (bloomberg.com)

I need you to listen to and share this story - of how Trump is preparing to abandon Ukraine in exchange for Russian money for his billionaire friends.

It could be the greatest corruption of American foreign policy in our history. Russia gets Ukraine. Trump`s friends get rich.

New: “Eric Trump Has Gotten 10 Times Richer Since Dad’s Election”

@kylekhanmullins.bsky.social for @forbes.com
(forbes.com)

What happened today reeks of insider trading. Trump’s tweet wasn’t random—it was a signal. Someone cashed in, and the public deserves to know who and how much. Follow. The. Money.

“This entire White House is one giant grift.”
—Sen. @chrismurphyct.bsky.social shining a spotlight on it! 🔥

Now for the begging, and the bribes, to get favors from the personalist regime

Carl Quintanilla(carlquintanilla.bsky.social): And just like that. Leverage.

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

President Trump had sued over an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The company needs federal approval for a multibillion-dollar sale.

The deal is the clearest sign yet that Mr. Trump’s ability to intimidate major American institutions extends to the media industry.

Many lawyers had dismissed Mr. Trump’s lawsuit as baseless and believed that CBS would have ultimately prevailed in court, in part because the network did not report anything factually inaccurate, and the First Amendment gives publishers wide leeway to determine how to present information.

Some executives at the company viewed the president’s lawsuit as a potential hurdle to completing a multibillion-dollar sale of the company to the Hollywood studio Skydance, which requires the Trump administration’s approval.

The size of the settlement, $16 million, is the same sum that ABC News agreed to pay in December to settle a defamation case filed by Mr. Trump against the network and one of its anchors, George Stephanopoulos. Paramount’s board was concerned that paying a higher amount to settle the case could increase the company’s exposure to potential legal actions from shareholders accusing it of bribery.

The prospect of being accused of bribery, and perhaps facing legal action because of it, had vexed Paramount’s directors, who had to weigh the corporate benefits of a settlement against the perception that they were greenlighting a deal to secure an unrelated merger. (nytimes.com)

The firm, which posts content on TikTok, recorded no revenue last year, but it announced this week that a mysterious stock sale would allow it to invest heavily in the $TRUMP memecoin.

A struggling technology company that has ties to China and relies on TikTok made an unusual announcement this week. It had secured funding to buy as much as $300 million of $TRUMP, the so-called memecoin marketed by President Trump.

GD Culture Group, a publicly traded firm with a Chinese subsidiary, has only eight employees, its public filings show, and recorded zero revenue last year from an e-commerce business it operates on TikTok, the Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

But on Monday, GD Culture Group became the latest business with foreign ties to seize on Mr. Trump’s crypto venture, which channels profits directly to the Trump family and has generated conflicts of interest that have alarmed ethics experts. (Memecoins like $TRUMP are a type of cryptocurrency based on an online joke or celebrity mascot and have traditionally not had any utility beyond speculation.) (nytimes.com)

Mr. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Trump around Inauguration Day. The application focused not solely on Mr. Walczak’s offenses but also on the political activity of his mother, Elizabeth Fago.

Ms. Fago had raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s campaigns and those of other Republicans, the application said. It also highlighted her connections to an effort to sabotage Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 campaign by publicizing the addiction diary of his daughter Ashley Biden — an episode that drew law enforcement scrutiny.

Then, Ms. Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.

Less than three weeks after she attended the dinner, Mr. Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon.

Shipping company buys $20 million in Trump memecoin.

Tells the SEC is is "an effective way to advocate for fair, balanced and free trade between Mexico and the US."

Now you register your bribe with the Trump administration and get a receipt to collect your payoff later.
(richardhanania.com: How MAGA Enables Corruption)

An international trucking logistics firm is buying as much as $20 million worth of President Donald Trump’s crypto coins to influence the administration’s trade policy
(link)

The largest single donation to Trump’s inauguration fund came from Pilgrim’s Pride, a chicken processor. They ‘donated’ $5M.

FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA): The USDA will not require poultry companies to limit salmonella bacteria in their raw products, withdrawing a Biden-era proposal. Here's what to know. (foxla.com)

President Donald Trump will dine with the top 220 holders of his $TRUMP memecoin at an event billed as “the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World,” the cryptocurrency announced Wednesday.

“This isn’t Trump just being Trump,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) posted on social media. “The Trump coin scam is the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close.”

The billionaire Facebook co-founder had been developing closer ties to Trump—his company donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and settled a $25 million lawsuit—and had been pressing the president in recent weeks to intervene in the monopoly lawsuit.

Business leaders are paying as much as $5 million to meet one-on-one with the president at his Florida compound, sources tell WIRED, while others are paying $1 million apiece to dine with him in a group setting.

It’s unclear where the money is going and what it will be used for...

“I can’t recall a sitting president in the first weeks of his administration asking for millions of dollars in fundraising,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “The concern is less about fundraising and more about access and influence … People hoping to get favorable treatment view it in their interest to donate money to Trump.”

Trump's order pauses enforcement of the nearly half-century-old Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to review current and past actions related to the law and prepare new guidelines for enforcement.

The law, enacted in 1977, prohibits companies that operate in the United States from bribing foreign officials. Over time, it has become a guiding force for how American businesses operate overseas.

Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said FCPA made the United States a leader in addressing global corruption.

The White House, through an outside event production company, is soliciting corporate sponsors for this year’s annual Easter Egg Roll, prompting major concerns from ethics experts and shock from former White House officials from both parties: cnn.it/41OSwVD
(CNN.com)

Truly disturbing report in the WSJ: Lawyers at Twitter are threatening advertisers to spend more money on X "or else" X owner Elon Musk will leverage his close relationship with Trump to torpedo mergers. This goes beyond a conflict of interest. It's straight up extortion.

Let's call this what it is: A ransom payment. Pay to play. Corruption.

Nixon would be proud.

NEW: Meta to pay Trump $25 million settlement for shutting his accounts after Jan. 6
(link)

Vietnam paves way for Musk's Starlink, seen as "olive branch" amid US tariff threats

Wow. A group of former judges is calling on the court that oversaw Trump`s bullshit IRS lawsuit to examine whether the “settlement“ creating the slush fund and giving IRS immunity to Trump, his family, and his businesses constituted fraud on the court.

Trump gets the “FIFA Peace Prize.“

Months later his DOJ drops a bribery case involving FIFA officials.

FIFA “leases“ office space at Trump Tower NYC that reportedly sits empty.

Meanwhile, federal regulators look the other way as FIFA price gouges fans.

Where`s the red card when you need it?

Headlines today:

-Trump DOJ drops fraud case against a billionaire who pledged an investment in U.S. business, which the billionaire will profit from

-Trump drops lawsuit against his own executive branch in exchange for a $1.7B fund for his criminal allies

-Trump personally insider traded

At least 15 former elected officials and co-conspirators with corruption offenses have been pardoned by President Trump in the last year, undermining the fight against public corruption.

How the Trump administration has undermined the fight against public corruption
At least 15 former elected officials and co-conspirators with corruption offenses have been pardoned by President Trump in the last year, undermining the fight against public corruption.

(n.pr)

Boebert is straight up admitting that the commutation was extorted by withholding federal funding: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Lauren Boebert suggests Trump withheld funds to Colorado over prosecution of election denier
Republican said she hoped recent commutation of Tina Peters by governor would free up federal funding for clean drinking water

(theguardian.com)

I know it`s quaint to believe such things matter, but under 26 USC 7217 it`s a crime for POTUS “to request, directly or indirectly, any [IRS] officer . . . to conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer.“ (law.cornell.edu)

It bears reminding:

1) Donald Trump repeatedly ordered his top DOJ officials to pursue Hunter Biden.
2) Trump unlawfully withheld $$ from Ukraine to get help in Rudy AND BILL BARR investigating the Bidens.
3) Bill Barr set up a way to criminally frame Hunter and Joe Biden.

Judah Grunstein(judah-grunstein.bsky.social): Trump`s (www.nytimes.com)

BREAKING: Adam Hoffman has been released from jail for “good behavior.“

Hoffman is the Waco, TX attorney who faced life without parole for repeatedly raping a young boy, until Texas AG Ken Paxton offered him 1 day in jail and no need to register as a sex offender.

Trump’s DOJ claims it’s cracking down on fraud.

Meanwhile, Trump has pardoned 70+ allies, donors, and insiders convicted of fraud.

So what exactly is this “war on fraud”?

Katie Phang breaks down the hypocrisy.

Unfiltered.

Watch 👉 youtu.be/wvX7-oYs-cs?...
(youtu.be)

The agency released long-delayed data that confirmed a steep drop in prosecutions of financial misconduct.

Trump`s SEC is going after fewer Wall Street crimes

(motherjones.com)

when there are no longer cops on the beat, criminals no longer need lawyers to defend them www.ft.com/content/befa...

The white-collar defence lawyers with nothing to do
The Trump administration’s approach to justice has made life quieter for those who defend alleged financial criminals

(ft.com)

I’ve had time to study DOJ’s indictment of the SPLC now & it only gets more disturbing. A weak indictment, like the now-dismissed one against Comey & the one a grand jury declined to indict against members of Congress. I point out the likely ulterior motive: (joycevance.substack.com)

The Government Accountability Office will investigate whether Trump`s DOJ`s illegally covered up the Epstein Files, after a bipartisan group of senators alleged wrongdoing.

Whoa whoa whoa. WSJ reports that Trump *personally* pushed the Justice Department to settle its antitrust case with Live Nation.

Several sources for my NYT column speculated this was the case. The Journal says it`s a fact.
(wsj.com)

1. Robinhood donates $2 million to Trump`s inauguration

2. Robinhood lists $TRUMP memecoin on inauguration day

3. SEC drops Robinhood investigation

SCOOP. From my OUR LAND newsletter: Trump`s DOJ is helping to get a convicted FBI informant tied to Russian intelligence out of prison. The lie this guy told the FBI—Joe Biden took a $5m bribe from Burisma—was the main evidence for the GOP impeachment drive. 1/2
(link.motherjones.com)

Trump’s Justice Department has shown an unusual amount of consideration for Smirnov, a confessed criminal tied to Russian intelligence who betrayed the FBI and who perpetuated a fraud that roiled American politics.

Trump’s DOJ is helping a convicted FBI informant tied to Russian intelligence
Alexander Smirnov’s lies about Joe Biden were at the core of the GOP’s impeachment drive.

(motherjones.com)

So after Trump pardoned Honduras`s narco-president, the admin didn`t just let him out--they canceled an immigration hold and sent a specialized team to **chauffeur him to the $1k/night Waldorf Astoria.**

“It`s “absolutely fucking nuts,” said one official
(propublica.org)

Trump pardoned a billionaire who had pledged to illegally route foreign money into U.S. elections as part of a scheme to bribe Puerto Rico’s governor — after the billionaire`s daughter gave $3.5M to Trump`s super PAC.

But the facts point to another legal violation. campaignlegal.org/update/seeki...

Seeking Pardon, Foreign Billionaire Allegedly Funneled Millions to Trump Super PAC

(campaignlegal.org)

BREAKING: The DOJ just DELETED a document in the Epstein Files that contained allegations made against Donald Trump.

But we saved it. ????
(meidasplus.com)

The fugitive known as “Bitcoin Jesus” was indicted for tax evasion and facing prison.

Then he hired a “Friend of Trump.”

This is how it went down, from Avi Asher-Schapiro & @mtredden.bsky.social

www.propublica.org/article/bitc...

Very very sick

“After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation...“

President Trump quietly issued clemency grants this week, including to a California woman he had pardoned once before and a man whose daughter had donated millions to a Trump super PAC.
(nyti.ms)

NEW: After months of the government telling the court under penalty of perjury that the US Attorney alone made the decision to charge Kilmar Abrego with a crime, there is now EVIDENCE tying Todd Blanche to the decision. More to come on Substack... storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
(storage.courtlistener.com)

🚨 The DOJ appears to have redacted Donald Trump’s name from the allegations made in this exhibit in the Epstein files.

Trump’s name was in the original release. Now, it’s blacked out.

See for yourself.

Don’t forget. Biden’s DoJ was investigating uncharged third parties in the Epstein files up until the last minute. Trump shut down the investigation, sent the files to DC, & fired the prosecutors. They went through them, redacted Trump’s name, then elected not to release them and closed the matter.

SCOOP-2: Isabela Herrera donated $2.5m to MAGA Inc. on 12/31/2024.

At the time, her father, a Venezuelan-Italian banker, was being prosecuted for bribing Puerto Rico`s governor.

In July, Trump`s DOJ authorized a misdemeanor plea deal, overruling career prosecutors who had pushed a harsher sentence

New reporting says Don Jr. directly facilitated the pardon of a crypto whale who had promoted the Trump`s family crypto. Jr. brought the pardon lawyer to the White House, and introduced him directly to his Dad. Pardon occurred right after. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/pardon-the...
(donmoynihan.substack.com)

Tom Homan, who was later named President Trump’s border chief, was recorded in September 2024 accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash in an undercover FBI investigation, according to people familiar with the case, which was later closed by Trump administration officials.
(nyti.ms)

“President Donald Trump is expected to fire the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after his office was unable to find incriminating evidence of mortgage fraud against New York Attorney General Letitia James, according to sources.“
(abcnews.go.com)

The Trump DOJ’s bogus prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James just got a lot more difficult to pull off, with what appears to be a major administration coverup of the origins of the case against her. (talkingpointsmemo.com)

So old I remember when it was considered a political liability to hand out a presidential pardon to your son in law’s drug dealer buddy who went on to commit crimes of violence and sexual offenses. nypost.com/2025/11/11/u...
(nypost.com)

The most consistent theme of the Trump presidency is using the power of the state to reward allies and harm enemies.

-Pardons for allies
-DOJ drops charges against allies, brings charges against enemies
-Merger requests accepted for allies, denied for enemies
-Grants awarded for allies, denied and

Catherine Rampell(crampell.bsky.social): We`re no (www.politico.com)

Basically saying “if you do crime for me, I won`t only pardon you--I`ll give you millions of dollars of public money.“ Truly unprecedented level of corruption
(bloomberg.com)

NEW: When Andrew Tate landed in the US, Customs & Border Protection seized his electronic devices. But @propublica.org found that a White House official told DHS to return the devices, emphasizing that the request came from the White House.

By @robert-faturechi.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Schapiro
(propublica.org)

Interviews and records show the White House intervened on behalf of accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate during a federal investigation.

The incident is the latest in a string of matters where the Trump administration has inserted itself to help friends and target foes.
(propublica.org)

He was in prison for drug trafficking and Trump pardons him, while also blasting Venezuelan fishermen out of the water because he believes they`re drug traffickers.

This pardon was definitely bought and paid for.
(npr.org)

Trump has now pardoned a murderous drug lord who smuggled 400 tons of cocaine into the country, AND the guy who ran the Dark Web`s biggest drug marketplace.

Reuters(reuters.com): Former Honduran president released from US prison after Trump pardon reut.rs/3Y3ziK (g)

Days after FIFA awarded Trump a fake peace prize, DOJ moves to drop charges in FIFA corruption case www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/n...
(nytimes.com)

For the second time in less than a month, the Justice Department has dropped charges against a client represented by Brad Bondi, the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

As recently as three weeks ago, career prosecutors held that Chakraverty should face criminal penalties for his alleged scheme.
(abcnews.go.com)

LATEST: Justin Sun’s TRON to go public in US via reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed SRM Entertainment, as SEC pauses fraud probe.

The deal, backed by Trump-linked investment bank will form "Tron Inc." with Eric Trump expected to take a role.
(cnbc.com)

Two former Wells Fargo executives were fined $8.5M by the Biden administration for covering up the bank's infamous fake account scandal.

Trump just slashed those fines to a paltry $150,000 after Wells Fargo gave $1M to his inauguration.

See how this works? (levernews.com "How to get out of jail (almost) free")

NEW: 58 corporations facing federal investigations & enforcement lawsuits collectively gave $50 million to Trump's inaugural fund.

Cases against 11 of these corporations have already been dismissed or withdrawn, and 6 have been halted.

"newfound leverage" from the quid pro quo:

"With a newfound leverage over New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Trump border czar Tom Homan hosted the big-city Democrat on Thursday to discuss ramped-up immigration enforcement in the nation's largest city."
www.politico.com/news/2025/02...
(link)

Coinbase was being investigated by the SEC so they:

• gave $75M a to pro-Trump PAC


• gave $1M to Trump's inauguration


• sponsored an inaugural party


• listed Trump's meme coin

and now the investigation is closed. These are called bribes.

-Melanie
D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie

The SEC has just halted its fraud prosecution of Justin Sun, a Chinese national who has put more than $50 million in Trump's pocket since November through the purchase of crypto tokens from a Trump-backed company, World Liberty Financial.

!!! Trump appointees at Treasury push for $250 bill with his face on it. Director of Bureau of Printing & Engraving, who resisted the effort, said she was involuntarily reassigned last month. “The buck stopped here,” she wrote in her goodbye. wapo.st/4fM4Hei

Trump appointees push $250 banknote with his portrait
The director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing who resisted the effort was reassigned last month. “The buck stopped here,” she wrote in her goodbye email.

(wapo.st)

Fired FBI chief tells CNN that FBI director Kash Patel tied job security to purging agents linked to Trump probes. https://cnn.it/4eCinIm
(cnn.it)

The fund will be run by a committee of five members, one of whom “shall be chosen in consultation with congressional leadership.“ But all of them are removable by the President at will, so functionally they will all be Trump cronies.

Trump is so bent on loyalists—Bondi, Halligan, Pirro, Habba—who will implement his agenda, that he has undermined the department’s ability to function.

Pam Bondi traded her department’s independence for loyalty to Trump
The departing attorney general leaves a hallowed institution in ruins.

(motherjones.com)

I have certainly had my differences with previous Directors of the US Patent and Trademark Office, but never before have I had reason to doubt that the director was acting independently of the president. Until today.
(youtube.com)

Paolo Zampolli, a longtime friend of Donald and Melania Trump, asked a top ICE official to have the mother of his son detained, The New York Times found. Zampolli told the official that it would help him in a custody battle. The ICE official agreed to help. nyti.ms/4bzFOPk
(nyti.ms)

However much John Roberts cloaks him in unaccountability, doing this remains a very serious federal crime and stories about it should say so.

CNN(cnn.com): President Donald Trump is reshaping a Colorado Republican primary by offering one of the candidates a role in his administration and returning his endorsement to the incumbent, whom he called a “RINO” just last month. (q)

Not once does this story mention that offering a federal job in exchange for a political favor is a crime

CNN(cnn.com): President Donald Trump is reshaping a Colorado Republican primary by offering one of the candidates a role in his administration and returning his endorsement to the incumbent, whom he called a “RINO” just last month. (q)

Alexander Acosta
Howard Lutnick
Steve Bannon
Elon Musk
Kevin Warsh
Being implicated in the Epstein files seems to be a ticket to Trump`s inner circle. (en.wikipedia.org)

Holy cow, Trump appointed appellate judges voted for him 9 out of 10 times in the second term!! What a shocker! Alert the media! Oh, someone did. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/u...
(nytimes.com)

A top DoJ official trained Pam Bondi on ethics rules in the department. Then he was fired
(theguardian.com)

Once again raising the question -- why is the president`s son-in-law at this official event?

Seth Cotlar(sethcotlar.bsky.social): Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller with seats at the table at Mar-a-Lago meeting with Zelenskyy.

SCOOP: Donald Trump and DOJ ‘Special Attorney for Mortgage Fraud’ Ed Martin are speaking as often as four times per week as the GOP activist prepares to seek indictments against prominent Democrats
(independent.co.uk)

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn`t asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...
(telegraph.co.uk)

A federal appeals court judge`s attendance at a rally for U.S. President Donald Trump is drawing scrutiny from critics who say his presence violated judicial ethics rules @mikescarcella.bsky.social reut.rs/48xtO0C

Officials confirm that Lt. General Kruse, the head of the Pentagon's intelligence agency, has been removed. He is the latest senior military official to have been fired since U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took over the Pentagon.

Hegseth also fired the chief of U.S. Naval reserves and the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday placed 144 employees on administrative leave and opened an investigation into their decision to sign a letter accusing the Trump administration of politicizing the agency.

Current and former E.P.A. employees, lawyers and advocates expressed alarm at the development, saying the agency appeared to be ignoring the employees’ First Amendment rights.

Justin Chen, second vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, a union that represents more than 8,000 E.P.A. workers, said the agency’s moves were “clearly an act of retaliation.” He said the union would “protect our members to the full extent of the law.” (nytimes.com)

AP has reported that career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council have been questioned by senior Trump administration officials about which candidate they voted for in the election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts

Removals may be invalid for failing to comply with a 2022 law requiring a 30-day notification to Congress before removals.

"It risks changing forever what we have historically valued most about IGs – their independence, objectivity, and non-partisanship... Without it, the function would be gutted of its greatest value and the entire system will suffer."

Inspectors general are tasked with ridding the government of waste, fraud and abuse

Grassley told POLITICO in November that Trump shouldn't pursue a broad ouster of inspectors general. "I guess it's the case of whether he believes in congressional oversight"

Inside the Trump White House's intense screening of job-seekers
One federal employee said they briefly considered buying Trump's crypto meme coin in case the president's team asked about their voting record.

Trump's team cares more about loyalty than competence.

Screening teams deploy across federal agencies

Loyalty over reality. "Is the sky green, as Dear Leader says?" "It's complicated." These aren't matters of interpretation, where a party or cabinet member may defer his own ideas to the head of state as part of his job description. This is blatant lying as a loyalty test.

FOX: But fair to say Russia attacked unprovoked into Ukraine?

PETE HEGSETH: Fair to say it's a very complicated situation.

This CDC "survey" getting sent to grantees is wild yall.

This is some serious "Kiss my Ring" level bullshit.

Merit is when you hire don jr's buddy who has no experience whatsoever. Racism is when you hire a black person who is qualified for the job.

Katherine Eban (katherineeban.bsky.social): Scoop: As federal health agencies are gutted, Kyle Diamantas, a Florida attorney w/ a slim resume + no prior gov't experience, is the new head of food safety at @US_FDA. Turns out, he's Donald Trump Jr.'s hunting buddy, @vanityfair.com is reporting exclusively:
(link)

AP has reported that career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council have been questioned by senior Trump administration officials about which candidate they voted for in the election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts

Absolute banger from @davekarpf.bsky.social today.
Given the fines Musk would have been subject to, it was cheaper for him to buy the government (to the record-breaking tune of $290 million) than face the law. So much corruption. (davekarpf.beehiiv.com)

Tesla paid $1 billion in taxes to China & $0 in federal income taxes to the US. At least 88 highly profitable corporations paid $0 federal income tax last year while bringing in $ billions. Disney, CVS, Palantir, Taco Bell & others are making massive profits, paying executives enormous ⬇️

It`s not hyperbole in the least to say Musk purchased a six-month shadow presidency for $280 million and used the power of that shadow presidency to 1. Steal the government’s data, 2. Permanently damage the state’s ability to regulate his businesses, and 3, kill non-white people.

David Roberts(volts.wtf): Still fe (www.wired.com)

The story that Elon Musk committed voter fraud has gotten next to no coverage -- one of those things you can`t make come up on a Google search.

But I think it`s time for Dems to go on offensive abt right wing coddling of this immigrant interfering in our elections.
(newrepublic.com)

Holy shiitake! Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, the Director of the US Copyrights Office apparently because she refused to let Elon Musk raid the place to steal author’s intellectual property rights

“Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis. It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models.

“This action once again tramples on Congress’s Article One authority and throws a trillion-dollar industry into chaos. When will my Republican colleagues decide enough is enough?”

Shira Perlmutter – a legislative branch employee – was appointed to her key leadership role in October 2020. As a leader in the legislative branch, Perlmutter advised Congress and executive branch agencies on copyright policy and directed the administration of important provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act. Yesterday, the Office issued a report opining on the use of copyrighted material to train generative AI models.

(democrats-cha.house.gov)

NEW: We recently heard that the Trump administration was leaning on the government of Gambia to help Elon Musk. For weeks, we made phone calls, wrote letters and knocked on folks’ doors to try to confirm it. But we were stuck.

So @js_kaplan and I got on a plane to Banjul.

Here is what we confirmed: After Musk’s rise to power in the U.S. government, the State Department has repeatedly coaxed, lobbied and browbeat this tiny West African country into giving business to Musk’s satellite company Starlink.

From notes and firsthand sources, we also learned of a remarkable meeting: When the U.S. ambassador went to a Gambian minister’s office to push him to approve Starlink’s license, she also noted that U.S. foreign aid there was under review

The Gambians took it as a veiled threat.

It’s not just Gambia. We got internal cables, notes and other records that show how U.S. diplomats have intervened on behalf of Starlink in at least four other developing nations. All while the U.S. has withdrawn foreign aid from those same countries (propublica.org)

NEW: A Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations memo out this morning estimates that Elon Musk and his companies stand to avoid at least $2.37 BILLION in legal liability “through his efforts to gut the federal workforce and exert influence over federal agencies.” :
The report claims that the estimated $2.37B "drastically understates the true benefit" Musk may gain from his newfound influence in government, which could include billions through new contracts or the competitive advantage gained by collecting intelligence on competitors.

As of Jan 20, Musk and his companies "were subject to at least 65 actual or potential actions by 11 different federal agencies"—the subcommittee estimated financial liabilities for 40 of the 65 actions by 8 federal agencies, including:

"o Up to $1.59 million in civil and criminal penalties for Neuralink's alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act while performing experiments on monkeys and pigs;
o $1.19 billion in potential liability as a result of Tesla's allegedly false or misleading statements about its autopilot and full self-driving features;
o $633,009 in fines from SpaceX's multiple failures to follow rocket launch requirements in 2023;
o A total of $713,114 in fines from 29 citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) against SpaceX, Tesla, and The Boring Company;6
o $281 million in potential liability from Neuralink's alleged false or misleading statements about its product risks, and many more.

These findings do not include estimated liability for at least 25 other federal investigations or regulatory matters by three additional agencies that the Subcommittee was not able to quantify, including:
o Actions brought by the National Labor Relations Board for alleged unlawful retaliation by SpaceX and unlawful interference with a union organizing campaign by Tesla; and
o Multiple investigations with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ranging from unexpected braking or acceleration, to steering wheel detachment, to crash reports involving Tesla's autonomous driving technology."

The memo calls on Trump admin to:
-Respond info requests from Congress on Musk’s federal entanglements
-Review contracts, awards, etc. to Musk companies to determine whether measures were in place to prevent undue influence
-Initiate independent audits of those major contracts

The memo concludes: "No one individual, no matter how prominent or wealthy, is above the law. Anything less than decisive, immediate, and collective action risks America becoming a bystander to the surrender to modern oligarchy—public power in private hands."

On Sunday, Sen. Blumenthal also sent a letter with the memo's findings to each Musk company facing oversight action by the federal government—SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, xAI, and Neuralink—and requested more info by May 11.

(The Letter)

The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter): BREAKING: Commerce Secretary Lutnick says tariffs will apply to foreign car makers building cars in the US.

Only cars that are finished in the US with an 85%+ domestic content will have no tariffs.

Only one car company would be exempt from tariffs under this 85% rule: Tesla.

Elon Musk’s DOGE allies made FAA staff sign NDAs to keep a new communications project secret.

Sources say the project would be a great vehicle for Musk’s Starlink to embed itself into the FAA’s operations.
(rollingstone.com)

Musk’s DOGE has fired car safety experts in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration who directly regulated Tesla.
(link)

NASA Friday expands gov contract for Elon Musk SpaceX adding it's Starship rocket (which still has not successfully carried cargo to orbit and twice recently blew up)

Lutnick urges Fox News viewers to buy Tesla stock, raising ethics questions
The commerce secretary's promotion of Tesla was the latest move by a Trump administration official to bolster support for Elon Musk's car company.

Tthe State Department was taking steps to award Elon Musk's Tesla a $400 million government contract to buy armored electric vehicles to securely transport diplomats. The move to set in motion a lucrative contract to a company controlled by a high-profile ally of President Trump seemed so bold it surprised even longtime observers of the norm-busting president.

It's remarkable how much conflict of interest Elon Musk has with the federal government he now so strongly controls. A few examples:

"Citing the Washington Post, Bloomberg News, and Rolling Stone, the Democrats said: 'Reports indicate that some personnel of SpaceX, Starlink's parent company, have already begun working at the FAA..."

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
(link)

I'm demanding Sec. Duffy explain why his agency is suddenly selecting Musk's Starlink for FAA use after a contract was already signed with Verizon. This new deal reeks of corrupt, self-serving abuse of taxpayer dollars.

Musk's influence over the FAA's decision-making appear to point to one conclusion–that Musk is corruptly & unlawfully enriching himself by steering this multi-million-dollar FAA contract to his own business.
[Letter has 4 more pages]

Trump explains that he's empowered Elon Musk to police his own conflicts of interest and acknowledges that might work to his financial advantage


[Includes video]

Two weeks ago

Q: Will Elon Musk secure new government contracts while he is working on DOGE?

Trump: No... We won't let him
[includes video]

The FAA is awarding a new contract to Elon Musk's SpaceX to help manage US airspace.

This is on top of the tens of billions of dollars in federal government contracts that Musk's companies have already secured.

This database would give Musk detailed technical specifications of every system, detailed pricing and delivery schedules, and information on any confidential government investigations into every other U.S. defense firms. Conflict of interest does not get bigger than this.

@morgfair.bsky.social (morgfair.bsky.social): This database would give Musk detailed technical specifications of every system, detailed pricing and delivery schedules, and information on any confidential government investigations into every other U.S. defense firms. Conflict of interest does not get bigger than this. (link)

The FAA is close to canceling a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon and HANDING IT OVER TO STARLINK.

- Musk fires FAA employees
- Musk gets an inside look at Verizon's contract
- Musk gets inside look at the communication system being built by Verizon
- Musk cancels Verizon contract and gets it for himself

No conflict of interest there.

Doug Gladden (@DougtheLawyer) I'mma give you one guess which district SpaceX is in...
@DOGE has abruptly terminated the U.S. Attorney's Office lease in Corpus Christi, leaving federal prosecutors who handle drug and immigration cases in South Texas scrambling to find new office space.
@CBS4RGV
(link)

There's not a word in this story about the corrupt nature of this dismissal. Not a concern voiced, not a question raised, not even an acknowledgment that he's the president's biggest donor and he's acting as an unelected, unconfirmed tyro wielding unchecked power over spending and the civil service.

Eric Lipton NYT (ericlipton.nytimes.com): Justice Dept. to Drop Discrimination Case Against Elon Musk's SpaceX (link)

Elon Musk spent $290 MILLION to help elect Trump.

Now, he's shelling out another $100 MILLION directly to Trump's political operation.

Then Trump turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom.

How is this disgusting spectacle not blatant corruption?

BREAKING: Ethics complaint just filed against Pam Bondi — & it`s damning

She ran DOJ like a weapon — & now 100+ scholars, retired judges & retired FL Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince — joined by @democracydefendersfund.org @ldadorg.bsky.social & LFRL — are holding her accountable -TN

MacFarlane: A whopper of a court filing just now from about three dozen retired former federal judges asking a court to stop this slush fund from proceeding and calling into question whether Trump and his own Department of Justice and IRS colluded to deceive the court

Corruption in plain sight. It will take a decade to fix this debacle.

#TrumpCorruption

JUST IN: Judge Williams is pressing Trump`s lawyers to answer for allegations that they committed a fraud on the court and filed the president`s lawsuit against the IRS as a “collusive“ effort to create the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization“ fund.
(storage.courtlistener.com)

BREAKING: Judge McElroy quashes DOJ`s Rhode Island Hospital subpoena in full, calling out DOJ`s conduct as “misrepresent[ing] salient facts“ under oath.

“[T]he Court GRANTS both Motions to Quash and enjoins the DOJ from seeking or receiving any documents related to this now invalid subpoena.“

Manipulating the FBI’s Most Wanted list, padding numbers with ICE arrests… how Kash Patel reportedly has been cooking the books on crime stats www.ms.now/news/fbi-ins...

FBI insiders: Kash Patel is ‘padding the stats’ to boost his record of arrests
In a Senate hearing on Tuesday, the FBI director dodged questions about his behavior and leadership, instead pointing to arrest data that current and former agents say is manipulated.

(ms.now)

NEW: President Donald Trump bought and sold millions of dollars worth of stock in tech companies and government contractors including Nvidia and Palantir.

Some of those trades overlapped with regulatory decisions that were favorable to these companies. (notus.org)

Ari Melber Warns Trump’s Potential IRS ‘Slush Fund’ Could Bankroll New Insurrection
(mediaite.com)

Bill Clinton used to have to walk across the street to use a private telephone to make fundraising calls so as not to violate the Hatch Act by using public resources for partisan purposes. Trump makes campaign commercials from behind the Resolute desk.

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸(patriottakes.bsky.social): Trump released a last minute video against Thomas Massie.

He really wants to defeat the guy who forced him to begin releasing the Epstein files.

A true fact about Trump`s stock trading- I ran the numbers and Trump traded up to ~$700 million in stock in Q1 of 2026.

All 535 Members of Congress made a total of ~$635 million worth of trades in 2025.

So Trump bought and sold more stock in 3 months than all of Congress put together did last year

This juxtaposition of headlines perfectly captures how MAGA oligarchic fascism really works. Trump loots our country to enrich himself, while persuading his paramilitary street thug wing that his corruption and self-dealing are in their interests, because they get a cut of the spoils.

“A button gives the option to ‘text President Trump,’ which, when clicked, opens a text message to a pre-selected number with the default text ‘Greatest President Ever!’” www.govexec.com/management/2...

The White House is ordering agencies to place its new app on all employees’ government phones
The newly created, often overtly political app places the Trump administration into unprecedented and “dangerous” territory, IT experts say.

(govexec.com)

Exclusive: A Florida lawyer who briefly served as special envoy to Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, has no official job in the U.S. government.

But he was very involved in the administration`s plans to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump’s unofficial Venezuela viceroy shapes U.S. policy, raising oversight concerns
Mauricio Claver-Carone doesn’t work for the U.S. government but has an outsize role in determining the future of Venezuela.

(washingtonpost.com)

Cults vote for Paxton. He has been:
• Impeached over bribery allegations
• Indicted on felony fraud charges
• Trying to overturn elections
• Retaliating against whistleblowers
• Abusing public office for political theater
• Dodging subpoenas
• Embracing election denialism & extremism

Incredible. DOJ, in court, tells Judge Reyes “no closure notice has been issued“ for the East Potomac golf course. Moments later the judge is handed a note saying that closure signs are on parts of the golf course today.

There`s a reason the presumption of regularity is gone.

The FBI is famously aggressive in going after people for “unauthorized use“ of its seal (they threatened Wikipedia years ago!). Is Kash putting it on bourbon bottles allowed? (Also, freaking hilarious that The Atlantic bought one).

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): very normal behavior by KA$H here (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

“Again and again, just before Trump makes announcements that raise hopes about the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, one or more “whales,” very large traders, sell large quantities of oil futures, almost instantly reaping big profits as prices fall.“

Grand Theft Oil Futures
Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

(paulkrugman.substack.com)

Did Kushner communicate with MBS, his biggest client, while the negotiations with Iran were ongoing?

Unbelievable corruption right in front of our faces.

Trump’s Prescription Drug Website Exposed as a Big Fat Scam
TrumpRx is pretending like it’s helping consumers more than it is. (newrepublic.com)

At least they`re now directly saying they are putting a lot of energy into defrauding the American people...

Craig R. Brittain(craigbrittain.com): Jesse Watters: Where does the investigation of Tim Walz stand?

Todd Blanche, not answering the question: “We`re gonna pour our heart and soul into fraud cases all over this country.“

You can use our new database to explore the financial disclosures — and potential conflicts of interest — of President Donald Trump and more than 1,500 of his appointees.

Here`s what Trump budget chief Russell Vought has disclosed:

Russell Vought - Explore Financial Disclosures From President Trump and 1,500 of His Appointees - ProPublica
Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their…

(propub.li)

89% – percentage of disaster aid requests Trump has approved for states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators

23% – percentage of disaster aid requests Trump has approved for states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators
(politico.com)

Exactly 5 minutes BEFORE Trump announced a 5-day delay in bombing Iranian power plants, someone purchased $1.5 billion worth of S&P futures in a single trade. Someone also sold $192 million in oil futures.

Trump and/or his cronies are engaging in market manipulation and insider trading.

“People close to Trump are trading based on national secrets.“

Read @pkrugman.bsky.social on the latest incident of people making piles of cash using insider info about national security matters & how it could amount to treason.
(open.substack.com)

Here are federal employee responses, sorted by dept/agency, to the question about whether their organization`s political leaders “maintain high standards of integrity.“
Results are abysmal. In no agency do even 20% of respondents say their top leaders have integrity

Terrifying numbers in latest annual survey of federal workers from @ourpublicservice.bsky.social.
For example, DoD workers` trust in Hegseth is in the toilet.
Only 11.5% of Army employees say their dept`s political leaders “maintain high levels of integrity.“ Similar numbers for Navy, Air Force

The Justice Dept has taken down the “FOIA wizard” that it’s Office of Information Polocy built to make it easier for all Americans to exercise our right to know. It’s a symbol of this administration’s default to secrecy & opacity, versus its false claims of transparency. #SunshineWeek #SunshineFest

NEW: We submitted a statement for the record to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Trump admin`s attempt to dismantle offices designed to prevent corruption and root out waste, fraud and abuse.

Congress must conduct robust oversight and empower inspectors general.

The Trump administration has opened the door to waste, fraud and abuse and put national security at risk - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Trump’s second term is marked by conflicts of interest and corruption that puts U.S. national security at risk.

(citizensforethics.org)

“So damaged is the department’s reputation for truth telling at this point, one judge noted despairingly, that ‘the court is left with little confidence’ that government lawyers ‘can be trusted to tell the truth about anything.”’
(nytimes.com)

JUST IN: Judge Boasberg has rejected DOJ’s subpoenas for Jerome Powell, finding they were issued for an improper purpose — Trump’s bid to pressure him to lower interest rates storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
(storage.courtlistener.com)

BREAKING: Credible whistleblower discloses that FBI forensic experts were ordered to stand down from processing the scene where Renee Good was killed, because Kash Patel did not want Good referenced as a “victim” in the warrant.

WELCH: Mr. Yoho is also the husband of your former spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin?

NOEM: Yes

WELCH: So your former assistant and her husband are the ones that got the DHS no bid contract for $143m. Any dispute about that?

NOEM: No.

Here`s the letter that caused Thom Tillis to erupt at Kristi Noem. The DHS inspector general claims DHS leaders “systematically obstructed“ his inquiries, including in something related to a “specific pending criminal investigation.“

(confirming scoop from WSJ`s Tarini Parti and Josh Dawsey)

The White House is blatantly violating the law that prohibits the spending of tax dollars on lobbying -- with a new website urging people to call their senator to support the SAVE voter-suppression bill. And guess what? They don`t care.

Dems demand probe of Trump’s SAVE America Act website

“This webpage appears to be a prima facie violation of restrictions on the use of appropriations for explicit appeals to the public to contact Members of Congress to support pending legislation.“

(democracydocket.com)

MS NOW`s Ken Dilanian on Patel`s USA hockey trip: “Nobody believes that Kash Patel would have been in that locker room had Donald Trump not made him the FBI director. It’s not like Kash Patel is famous on his own, so he clearly used his office to get this access and the taxpayers paid for the trip.“

President Trump sued the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion—yes, that’s billion with a “B”—claiming that the agencies failed to protect his tax information.

Here’s what that actually means. 🧵

For the past 50 years, every *other* president has voluntarily disclosed their personal tax info to the public.

No past president has brought with them the number of clear financial conflicts Trump has. (We know because we've been tracking it!)


Now, Trump and his sons are suing for about two-thirds of the IRS’ total budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which is $15.2 billion.

That puts Trump on both sides of the lawsuit—risking the government’s agreement to an unprecedented, collusive settlement in Trump's favor.

If that were to happen, taxpayer funds would roughly double Trump’s net worth to compensate him for the leak of tax info that he should have released in the first place.🤔

For context: Trump’s net worth has recently been estimated to be between $7.3 billion and over $10 billion.

Forbes reported Trump's first year back in office as “the most lucrative year of his life.”

Don Jr. and Eric Trump have also seen their fortunes explode during Trump’s second term.

Demanding $10 billion in taxpayer money would not just double Trump’s current net worth, it would unlock a mountain of liquidity for the family and their company.

With this lawsuit, Trump’s demanding more from the American taxpayers than some government programs cost to run—including many that his administration tried to cut in the name of government efficiency.

$10 billion could cover a huge chunk of the roughly $12 billion in disaster relief FEMA grants every year, 20 years of the Peace Corps budget or nearly five years of the National Park Service’s budget.
(citizensforethics.org)

When the Trump administration awarded a $1.26 billion contract to operate a new detention center in Texas, it made headlines. Why?

Because the company that won the job was so small, it operated out of a single-family home in Richmond, Virginia.

How a tiny, inexperienced firm landed a $1.3 billion detention deal
To hold 5,000 human beings.

(motherjones.com)

CORRUPTION WATCH: The family of Commerce Secy Lutnick now gets pay outs of tens of billions or more in tariff refunds.

The Fix Is In: Lutnick Family To Make Killing On Tariff Demise
(talkingpointsmemo.com)

President Trump is asking the federal government for billions of dollars in damages, putting his own Justice Department on the spot and creating an unprecedented ethical morass.

Trump would like the government he leads to pay him billions
President Trump is asking the federal government for billions of dollars in damages, putting his own Justice Department on the spot and creating an unprecedented ethical morass.

(n.pr)

Trump plans to send $10 billion in funds that Congress hasn’t appropriated from the US Treasury to an organization that he will continue to chair personally even after he is out of office.

This is looting.

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): Trump: “I want to let you know that United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace.“ (Congress has not appropriated this money!)

Hmm. The US is giving $10 billion in taxpayer dollars, not appropriated by Congress, to a fake board set up by the President and which he put himself in charge of *for life*... seems very, very illegal.

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): Trump: “I want to let you know that United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace.“ (Congress has not appropriated this money!)

The Department of Justice called for a breakup of Live Nation’s business lines, so it couldn’t leverage them to get better deals at the expense of promoters, venues, artists, and fans. But MAGA’s lobbying machine was already on its way to another win.

Trump Justice Department Poised to Preserve Ticketmaster Monopoly - The American Prospect
Settlement talks on a monopolization case against Live Nation are under way, with Kellyanne Conway and other MAGA lobbyists seeking a sweetheart deal.

(buff.ly)

A Justice Department review found that Ed Martin improperly handled grand jury materials that were part of an investigation targeting Donald Trump`s political enemies, at least two sources familiar with the review told CNN. https://cnn.it/4auafXQ
(cnn.it)

Trump`s lawyers submitted false information about a “Law and Order” plot to the Supreme Court
(motherjones.com)

Stoughton: “We`ve seen senior officials issue definitive, exonerating conclusions within hours of an incident—far sooner than would be possible with any careful inquiry...These statements signal that any oversight is purely performative, that accountability and outcomes are preordained.“

Each of these 7 items would easily be the biggest scandal for like 45 Presidents.

Carl Quintanilla(carlquintanilla.bsky.social):

Important update: a federal judge has ruled that Russ Vought & OMB were breaking the law & must tell the public exactly how they are spending (or not spending) funds appropriated by Congress.

I wrote this law years ago to ensure transparency and accountability.

CREW(citizensforethics.org): BREAKING (www.citizensforethics.org)

SCOOP: The Trump DOJ is preparing to eliminate the ability of U.S. Attorneys to recuse themselves from cases due to conflicts of interest.

A new rule expected to be filed this week will put that power in the hands of Pam Bondi.
(meidasnews.com)

NEWS: The Social Security Administration has referred two DOGE employees for Hatch Act violations after discovering contacts with a political group seeking SSA data to overturn election results. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
(politico.com)

Trump corruption just made it harder to switch phones between wireless carriers, a huge gift to shitty, predatory telecoms that hate competition.

Enjoy the populism everyone!
(arstechnica.com)

New: an FBI agent who took the routine step of investigating the ICE officer who shot Renee Good has resigned after FBI leadership discouraged the investigation (nytimes.com)

The main bank account holding revenue from the Venezuelan oil sales is located in Qatar.

“There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore account that he controls so that he can sell assets seized by the American military,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
(semafor.com)

Hundreds of millions of dollars that the United States is raising from the sale of Venezuelan oil it now controls is being sequestered in a bank account thousands of miles from either country – in Qatar. https://cnn.it/4qVENqU
(cnn.it)

Jared Kushner has somehow found a place at Coalition of the Willing press conference with Scholz, Zelensky, Macron, Starmer and Witkoff.

Kushner has no official position in the US government.

What a f-ing second - the President will use money extorted from a foreign government to fund spending without any congressional approval? Forget the impact on Venezuela, this is full-blown dictatorship in the USA.

Shipwreck(shipwreck75.bsky.social): Trump on Venezuela oil:

Worth remembering, as Trump tries to brutalize blue states over alleged TANF fraud: Mississippi`s former welfare director ran TANF as a private slush fund, routing tens of millions to churches, wrestlers, and celebrity pet projects (including Brett Favre`s)—while rejecting over 90% of poor families.

Ashton Pittman(ashtonpittman.bsky.social): NEW: Tex (www.mississippifreepress.org)

It should be bigger news that masked agents were filmed hours ago removing potentially inculpatory evidence from the ICE shooter`s house, clearly lacking evidence tags or chain of custody stickers.

Before we have word on whether he underwent a toxicology screen at the hospital following the killing

The stuff in blue states wasn’t executed by the state.

This much much larger fraud was done by Republicans at the state!

Brian Goldstone(brian-goldstone.bsky.social): Worth remembering, as Trump tries to brutalize blue states over alleged TANF fraud: Mississippi`s former welfare director ran TANF as a private slush fund, routing tens of millions to churches, wrestlers, and celebrity pet projects (including Brett Favre`s)—while rejecting over 90% of poor families.

Hard to overstate what a remarkable statement this is from a Republican senator — even a retiring one — accusing thte Trump White House of weaponizing DOJ to control the Fed:

“It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.“

Chris Murphy: “Clearly this is wildly illegal. This is a president who has been operating illegally since he was sworn in -- stealing from the American people, seizing spending power, now dragging America into a war overseas ... Donald Trump`s entire foreign policy is corrupt.“

Oof.

@governor.ca.gov`s press office has a website dedicated to Trump and all his criminals.

www.gov.ca.gov/2025/12/16/t...

I`ve been saying for a long, long time that Trump holdovers at the FBI WFO hamstrung the DOJ`s investigations into Donald Trump. These new Grassley emails prove it. Example: Garland green-lit the search of Mar-a-Lago over multiple attempts to stonewall, and found evidence of multiple crimes.

Just remembered the James OKeefe sting video with a DOJ official from early September: “They’ll redact every Republican or conservative person in those files [and] leave all the liberal, Democratic people”

The Trump business empire’s expansion into nuclear fusion is alarming ethics experts, who warn it poses glaring conflicts of interest and risks the federal government playing favorites in what could be the holy grail of clean energy https://cnn.it/497rlJ6
(cnn.it)

NEW: Sources and internal emails confirm the Epstein files review inMarch (where they spent $1M in overtime & had 1000+ agents working 24-hour shifts) was a review of the NY files. There`s no way they “lost“ a million more. I`m gong live to discuss in 30 minutes: www.youtube.com/live/rx7Tyhz...
(youtube.com)

President-elect Trump reportedly balked at submitting names of likely nominees to the FBI for background checks.

That`s a basic step intended to flag possible financial conflicts or ethical problems, like Tom Homan`s bribery probe.
(ms.now)

This latest reporting shows Bondi, Blanche, and others at the DOJ have been lying to the American people about the Epstein files since day one.

The less than 40,000 pages that have been released represent less than 0.01% of all the total documents.

They are hiding something.

Association Plans are basically garbage with a long history of fraud & abuse...which puts them right up Trump`s alley:
(nytimes.com)

NEW: We just released our report breaking down the conflicts of interest President Trump has racked up during his second term so far.

Over the last 6 months, Trump`s corruption has outpaced his last term on almost every measure.
(citizensforethics.org)

Three times in the past two weeks, editorials at the `Washington Post` failed to disclose that they focused on matters in which owner Jeff Bezos had a material interest.
(n.pr)

I mean this is viscerally upsetting because it`s really genuinely him treating the white house like it`s his own personal property; he`s the king and it`s his palace. No other president ever thought like this, even if they were a fucking horrible person, because it goes against our founding creed

Tim Onion(bencollins.bsky.social): I`m not a West Wing obsessed lib or anything but the more I see pictures of this the more fucked up I think it is. It`s like he cut off one of the hands of the Lincoln memorial with an angle grinder so he could add a big gun to it.

Q: “Why are White House officials…meeting with Rep. Boebert in an effort to try to get her to not sign this petition calling for the release of the [Epstein] files?“

Leavitt: “I`m not going to detail conversations that took place in the situation room.“

President Trump was just caught on a hot mic talking with the president of Indonesia.

He may have been talking about his business interests in the country–which would be exactly the kind of conflict of interest we’ve been warning about for years. 🧵

Aaron Rupar(atrupar.com): Trump`s conversation with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is caught on a hot mic. Hard to tell exactly what they are talking about, but Subianto asks Trump about meeting Eric Trump and Don Jr, who supposedly have nothing to do with government while they run the family business.

Just in: “Secret Service has spent nearly $100k at Trump properties”

Rebecca Jacobs for @citizensforethics.org
(citizensforethics.org)

Get ready to hear this spiel from Trump`s circle as commonly as we used to hear “of course Trump will be happy to release his taxes, just as soon as the IRS completes its audit.“

Tony(tiletony.bsky.social): Everyone does know what`s going on here, right? Should the Epstein evidence bill pass both the House and Senate, these criminals will say it can`t be released because there is an active investigation. Never mind that a thorough investigation was completed, and the DOJ was prepared to try Epstein.

Saudi officials used President Trump’s state visit in May to pique his interest in a major real estate development, the latest example of Trump blending governance and family business, particularly in Persian Gulf countries. nyti.ms/4r7mboU
(nyti.ms)

A point of this reporting is to underscore how not just wildly scandalous Trump’s wide ranging coverup of the Epstein files is right now, but that his coverup has hit a new level of blatant political corruption and abuse of power.

Genuinely, historically atrocious in ways too many get numb to

Asawin Suebsaeng(swin24.bsky.social): NEW this morning, from @premthakker.bsky.social and me for @zeteo.com

zeteo.com/p/trump-epst.. (n)

My prediction: the Epstein files will be just as released as Trump`s tax returns (“after the audit“).

THREAD: Judge Ellis is the first federal judge to review extensive body cam video of DHS`s actions in Chicago. She finds that DHS *repeatedly* misled the public and made claims that were disproven by agents` own videos.

I`ll go through some of the most egregious ones here.

NEWS --> BBC confirms to me that they did edit a line out of historian @rutgerbregman.com`s speech. It called Trump “the most openly corrupt president in US history.“

BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump`s threats worked.

New piece: (newrepublic.com)

“I’d have no problem releasing the video”

“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”

5 days apart 😬

(From @therecount.com )

New WSJ reporting: “During a December visit to Washington, David Ellison offered assurances to Trump administration officials that if he bought Warner, he`d make sweeping changes to CNN, a common target of President Trump`s ire, people familiar with the matter said...“
(wsj.com)

The shifting responses of Hegseth, Trump and others on the lethal boat strikes

In other words, they keep changing their story
COVER UP (washingtonpost.com)

NEW: DOGE is trying to gift itself a building worth $500 million, court filings show. It`s the culmination of a dramatic battle between DOGE and the United States Institute of Peace, a Congressionally funded think tank. www.wired.com/story/doge-t...
(wired.com)

President Trump’s attack on yet another Black woman in public office gives away the game — if you were still harboring any doubt — about his corrupt use of mortgage fraud allegations to target Democrats.

The origins of the bogus mortgage fraud allegations against New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), Sen. Adam Schiff (D), and now Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee who is the first Black woman on the Fed, have a patina of legitimacy. They have come from the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency in the form of criminal referrals, but don’t be fooled by that origin.

The official in question is Bill Pulte. And the way he trumpeted the Cook allegations yesterday tells you all you need to know about the bad faith origins of the allegations in all three cases.

Pulte is a 37-year-old MAGA influencer with 3 million followers on X. Before he was confirmed by the Senate to the FHFA position in March, he had had his own investment firm and served on the board of one of the country’s largest home construction companies, founded by his grandfather.

The bad faith origins of the mortgage fraud allegations give Trump a cudgel — criminal investigations of his Democratic foes — that he can keep looming over their heads for as long as he needs. In this instance, it also gives him an additional chance to target a Black woman in public office and needle Fed Chair Powell, whose independence Trump has perceived as a threat all along. It’s a trifecta of bad acts and abuse of office. (talkingpointsmemo.com)

August 7, 2025: Trump calls for the resignation of Intel's CEO ("no other solution"), calls him "highly conflicted"

15 days later: Intel CEO agrees to give Trump and the US government 10% of the company, Trump calls him "highly respected"

Totally normal stuff

Axios reports that the West Wing has developed an internal loyalty “scorecard” that rates 553 companies and trade groups on how visibly and vocally they supported President Trump, specifically his massive legislative package dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill (or “OB3” internally).

The goal is apparently to reward public displays of allegiance to the administration and freeze out companies deemed unsupportive of the president’s agenda. Among other things, the ratings are said to take into account: social media posts, press releases and public endorsements, video testimonials and paid ads, attendance at White House events, and presumably any other gestures of loyalty the administration can log.

I know folks are nervous about the word “authoritarian.”

But a “loyalty scorecard” sounds pretty damn authoritarian to me.
(axios.com)

"Unlike his predecessors, Trump didn’t divest or move his assets into a blind trust with an independent overseer. His sprawling business empire is managed by two of his sons and operates in several areas that intersect with presidential policy."

President Donald Trump has bought hundreds of bonds since he returned to office, including those sold by US companies affected by the sweeping changes to federal policies he's championed.
The 690 transactions, the first of which was made the day after his inauguration, total at least $103.7 million, according to a document released by the White House on Tuesday that disclosed the billionaire's investing activity this year through early August.

(bloomberg.com)

NEW: We just released our report breaking down the conflicts of interest President Trump has racked up during his second term so far.

Over the last 6 months, Trump's corruption has outpaced his last term on almost every measure.

In the first 6 months of Trump’s second term:

-He made 99 visits to his properties (62 being at his golf courses).
-Foreign officials from 10 countries made 19 visits to his properties.
-He promoted his properties 57 times.

Read our full report for more: (citizensforethics.org)

FCC chair suggesting here, in response to a clip of Joy Behar calling Trump fat, that ABC News will now be targeted by the administration

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar)" FOX: Is The View now in the crosshairs of this administration?

FCC CHAIR BRENDAN CARR: It's entirely possible there are issues over there ... the consequences aren't quite finished [has video]

Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel spent $15 million helping JD Vance win a U.S. Senate seat.

That investment is clearly continuing to pay off.

Big money corrupts our politics and erodes our democracy — creating a vicious cycle that funnels more wealth and power to the top.

More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS): The Pentagon just announced a no-bid contract that will be awarded to Palantir for "the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the field of geospatial intelligence."

This means Palantir will have unprecedented access to maps, satellite imagery, GPS data, and more.

“At the same time Maryland’s request was denied, Trump approved disaster relief for Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and West Virginia.

the state met the federal thresholds that typically trigger FEMA assistance.

The letter that denied the state’s request... did not explain the decision-making process for denying the aid.

Trump has had the perceived tendency to deny federal assistance to states led by those he sees as his political enemies. ”
(washingtonexaminer.com)

It's bad that the White House is banning WSJ from the trip -- but I think the bigger scandal is that the president of the United States and his entourage are flying to Scotland on the public's dime so he can "open a new 18-hole golf course at his resort."
(theguardian.com)

1. CBS sells itself to Trump's billionaire allies for $8 billion.

2. Trump manages to exort CBS for $16 million just for fun, leveraging some fake investigations at the FCC.

3. CBS fuses with Bari Weiss' bullshit machine to create another massive new right wing propaganda outlet.

Easy peasy.

To be clear Larry Ellison, a billionaire Trump donor who believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, used his own money to buy CBS and install his son as the boss.

They'll then convert CBS into another right wing propaganda mill like Fox News. It's not really subtle!
(finance.yahoo.com)

NIH has fired its new chief operating officer — who had been helping lead Trump-era crackdowns on NIH workers — amid a probe into whether he tried to steer a contract to get his wife a job.

with @hannahnatanson.bsky.social @carolynyjohnson.bsky.social(and me pitching in from paternity leave)
(washingtonpost.com)

News: Paramount Global says it has settled the "60 Minutes" lawsuit with Donald Trump for $16 million. The money will cover Trump's legal fees and the rest will be given to his future presidential library.

More: As part of the settlement, Paramount will not issue a statement of apology or regret, but the company has agreed that in the future, "60 Minutes" will release transcripts of interviews with presidential candidates

Actions mean more than words.

And the fact that the new COI rules are not being applied to the new hand-picked Advisory Council on Immunization Practices, speaks volumes. (statnews.com)

Somebody front ran the Brazil tariff news.

Somebody bought a HUGE amount of USD and shorted BRL (Brazil’s currency) at 1:32 PM.

The 50% tariff announcement came at 4:19 PM, at which point, it looks like the big trader exited his trade instantly.

Making 2.5% on a currency trade (which are usually 10-20x leveraged) so really 25% to 50% in less than 3hours.

The most openly corrupt administration of all time.

Don't look away. Trump's memecoin dinner, where the top 220 buyers of $TRUMP memecoin will get dinner with the president, is one of the most clear and outrageous examples of buying access yet. (reuters.com)

Trump’s brazen use of the White House to advance his family businesses should be one of the biggest scandals in the country’s history.

But Trump isn’t visiting the Middle East to push for peace or really to do much diplomacy at all. Instead, his visit to the Persian Gulf is, one Arab official told Axios, all about “business, business and business.” Yes, Trump is seeking investment in America: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who ordered the murder of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi during the president’s first term, has already pledged $600 billion. But one increasingly gets the sense that it’s not America’s business that Trump is really there for: It’s his family businesses. This swing through three Gulf states, which kicked off on Monday, is the clearest and most damning instance yet of his approach to governance in his second term, where official business and personal business are fully intertwined. (newrepublic.com)

3 headlines of Trump’s brazen, unprecedented corruption that would end any other presidency, all just from today. (Imagine what we don’t even know about)

If you don’t see what he’s doing it’s because you don’t want to.

Trump's first-term corruption seemed huge, but it's already been dwarfed by the ongoing, unchecked festival of domestic and foreign corruption four months into in his second term. Blame the Supreme Court and the Republican Congress. My latest at @thebulwark.com:

President Trump's plan to accept a $400 million Boeing 747 from Qatar to use as Air Force One is a completely unprecedented ethics emergency.

Let’s break it down. 🧵🧵

Though the plans for the plane after Trump’s presidency are not clear, it raises serious questions about whether accepting it could violate the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which bars the president from accepting gifts from foreign governments.(NYTimes.com)

What we do know is that the plane would likely be the biggest gift from a foreign government ever accepted by an American president. This scheme may well violate the spirit (if not the letter) of the anti-corruption provisions America's founders included in the Constitution. Nevertheless, Attorney General Pam Bondi signed off on the plan.

It’s worth noting that during the first Trump administration, Bondi was registered as a foreign agent of the Qatari government—which raises its own set of ethics concerns.(washingtonpost.com)

This plan is just the latest development in what appears to be a deepening relationship between the Trump family and Qatar, coming two weeks after the Trump Organization announced a new golf development in the country, built in partnership with its sovereign wealth fund. That is a serious ethics issue in and of itself, and a violation of the Trump Organization’s own (very weak) ethics agreement.(apnews.com)

The plan was announced as Trump heads to Qatar on his first international trip of his second term, which just so happens to take him to three countries where he has properties or developments.(citizensforethics.org)

By the way, Jared Kushner has been working as an informal advisor to the administration in advance of the trip. His firm also happens to have a significant investment from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.(CNN.com)

On his trip this week, Trump will meet with foreign officials who have the ability to make decisions affecting his and his family’s finances. This all deserves serious scrutiny and public pushback. It’s hard to imagine a country giving a $400 million jet out of the kindness of its heart.

So what does Qatar hope to get out of this? What would Trump be willing to give them? Again and again, we have to question whether Trump will put his own interests first, or those of the American people. We can't just move on from this. We're calling on Congress to hold a hearing on the Qatari jet scheme(citizensforethics.org):

And we're requesting DOJ records on the memo AG Bondi signed on the gift and any ethics guidance she received, given her past lobbying for Qatar: (citizensforethics.org)

So what's changed? Part of it is the simple brazenness of Donald Trump, who's proved willing to flout norms and break laws here. And part of the blame lies with his enablers in the Republican-led Congress and Republican-led Supreme Court, which have both encouraged his grifting and greed and so much more.

But ultimately the blame lies with us. Our political system, however flawed, is a reflection of our will. The collective shrug that the American people gave to Trump maintaining his grubby little "empire" of crappy properties and crappier products during his first term set the stage for the brazen bribery of his second term.

We have to demand better. From our president, from our congresspeople, and from ourselves. And at moments like this – when even voices on the far right are raising objections – it's our duty.
(campaign-trails.ghost.io)

A well-crafted and pretty comprehensive look at Trump Corruption Tour 2025 from Senator Murphy.
(youtube.com)

Mr. Trump announced last month that leading buyers of a digital coin his family is marketing would be rewarded with a private dinner with him at one of his golf courses and that the very top bidders would win a tour of the White House.

The auction, which ends Monday, has set off a spectacle that has drawn bipartisan criticism, triggered a suspicious trading pattern, and left a sitting United States president wide open to attempts to corruptly influence him. (nytimes.com)

It’s especially galling that AG Pam Bondi personally wrote the memo approving the gift of the Qatari airplane. Her last job was as a lobbyist for Qatar! efile.fara.gov/docs/6415-Ex...
(efile.fara.gov)

Trump’s “very public and transparent transaction” on the Qatar jet grift only came to light after confidential sources told ABC about it.

I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him. But, I have to call a spade a spade.

We cannot accept a $400 million “gift” from jihadists in suits. The Qataris fund the same Iranian proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah who have murdered US Service Members. The same proxies that have worked with the Mexican cartels to get jihadists across our border. This is really going to be such a stain on the admin if this is true. And I say that as someone who would take a bullet for Trump. I’m so disappointed.

How are we supposed to ever see the US under the Trump admin designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization if the US is now going to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar to fly the US President and his staff around on? This is something we were promised would happen during the first admin, but it never happened.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, and this week, @POTUS will be having meetings with Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Qatar funds HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s going to be hard for the admin to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and obliterate Iranian proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah when Qatar funds the Muslim Brotherhood, harbors HAMAS, and the US just accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar. It’s very disappointing.

It’s also worth noting that President Trump just signed an executive order on April 23, 2025 requiring US educational institutions to disclose the source of their funding. Guess where most of that foreign funding is coming from? Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The biggest lobby in DC in the Qatar lobby. We are watching an Islamic takeover of our country in real time.

“According to aviation industry experts, the estimated value of the aircraft Trump will inherit is about $400 million, and that's without the additional communications security equipment the Air Force will need to add…”

Michael Derby (michaelsderby.bsky.social): ABC reports Trump to take “flying palace” from Qatar and use it as temporary Air Force 1 before converting it to a personal possession.

(abcnews.go.com)

Leavitt: "I think it's frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit. He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service."
(cbsnews.com)

Several federal prosecutors — including the chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section — have submitted their resignations following a plea deal offered by the new U.S. attorney in Los Angeles to a sheriff’s deputy who had already been found guilty of using excessive force.
Kirk, who has been “relieved of duty” by the Sheriff’s Department, was found guilty in February of one felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law and faced up to 10 years in prison. Under the plea deal filed Thursday, which still requires approval from a judge, he would serve a maximum of one year in prison. The government agreed to recommend a year of probation. (latimes.com)

This is psychotic. Scott Jenkins took $75K in bribes—in wads of cash—from rich businessmen who wanted fake police badges so they could flash them, carry guns, and dodge the rules. Can MAGA please stop pretending to care about law and order?

This is a man who sold police powers like they were VIP tickets to a concert. One of the deputies Jenkins “appointed”—in exchange for cash—was a convicted felon. It allowed people to flash their badges to do things like get out of traffic stops. And he got a pardon. For that.

When the value of a corporation can fall $100 billion -- around 400x what Elon invested in Trump's election -- based on interpersonal relations between a CEO and the President, it does rather suggest that policy isn't really based on the best interests of the American people.

Listen to Don Jr. explain that the real reason the Trumps had to sell memecoins was because no actual banker would lend them money. He says it was because of their politics—but anybody who knows anything about bankers (who definitely skew conservative) knows that if you’ve got good credit and you’ve got a good business, they want to be in on the action.

So? The Trumps turned to sketchy unregulated capital raises with memecoins that bilk retail investors without any liability under the securities laws.

If you don’t see this as the obvious scam that it is, you deserve to lose your money.

The president and his family have monetized the White House more than any other occupant, normalizing activities that once would have provoked heavy blowback and official investigations.

The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking. The Trump family and its business partners have collected $320 million in fees from a new cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars and are opening an exclusive club in Washington called the Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone.

And Mr. Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January. Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in — not to a campaign account but to a business that benefits Mr. Trump personally.

Yet a mark of how much Mr. Trump has transformed Washington since his return to power is the normalization of moneymaking schemes that once would have generated endless political blowback, televised hearings, official investigations and damage control. The death of outrage in the Trump era, or at least the dearth of outrage, exemplifies how far the president has moved the lines of accepted behavior in Washington.

Mr. Trump, the first convicted felon elected president, has erased ethical boundaries and dismantled the instruments of accountability that constrained his predecessors. There will be no official investigations because Mr. Trump has made sure of it. He has fired government inspectors general and ethics watchdogs, installed partisan loyalists to run the Justice Department, F.B.I. and regulatory agencies and dominated a Republican-controlled Congress unwilling to hold hearings.

Forbes estimated Mr. Trump’s net worth at $5.1 billion in March, a full $1.2 billion higher than the year before and the highest it has ever been in the magazine’s rankings.

One guest at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., that night was Justin Sun, a Chinese billionaire who became one of the largest holders of the $TRUMP memecoin after buying more than $40 million, earning him a spot in an even more exclusive private VIP reception with the president before the dinner. The Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023 accused Mr. Sun of fraud, but after Mr. Trump took over the agency put its lawsuit on hold even as it dropped other crypto investigations. (nytimes.com)

As President Trump blurs the lines between politics and business — and threatens steep tariffs on trade partners — governments feel compelled to favor Trump-related projects.

“Trump says it’s separate — the presidency and his business,” Mr. Truong said. “But he has the power to do whatever he wants.”

To fast-track the Trump development, Vietnam has ignored its own laws, legal experts said, granting concessions more generous than what even the most connected locals receive. Vietnamese officials, in a letter obtained by The New York Times, explicitly stated that the project required special support from the top ranks of the Vietnamese government because it was “receiving special attention from the Trump administration and President Donald Trump personally.”

President Trump’s financial disclosure report, however, shows that he still personally benefits financially from most of these ventures [Trump-branded properties].

With trade negotiations intensifying, Vietnamese officials have allowed the Trump project to break ground without completing at least a half-dozen legally required steps, from securing all the land and financing to conducting environmental reviews. The process usually takes two to four years.

Vietnam’s government sees Mr. Trump’s administration and the Trump Organization as one.

The groundbreaking occurred just a few days after the Trump administration’s trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, met with Vietnam’s trade minister, Nguyen Hong Dien, in South Korea. (nytimes.com)

A deal for a state-backed Emirati firm to use a Trump-affiliated digital coin was announced in a panel that included the president’s son and his business partner, who promised, “This is only the beginning.”

A fund backed by Abu Dhabi, he said, would be making a $2 billion business deal using the Trump firm’s digital coins.

That transaction would be a major contribution by a foreign government to President Trump’s private venture — one that stands to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trump family. And it is a public and vivid illustration of the ethical conflicts swirling around Mr. Trump’s crypto firm, which has blurred the boundary between business and government. (nytimes.com)

Last month when word broke that the Trumps might be going into business with Binance, I pointed out it would bring them into a close business relationship with the abi Dhabi royal family - but I didn’t realize it would be this close www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
(motherjones.com)

Without Congress's consent, our Constitution says, no federal officeholder can accept “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” These deals seem to put Trump in direct violation of that clause. Via @popular.info, @juddlegum.bsky.social
(motherjones.com)

The grift never ends

Trump has set up a new club where CEOs, tech bros, and foreign oligarchs can pay $500,000 to join in order to get access to the Trump Cabinet who will all be there regularly.

Just because the grift is all public doesn’t mean this isn’t the most corrupt White House in history.
(Politico.com)

The same people who complained about Hunter Biden’s paintings are now selling $500k memberships for their own account into a “club” named the Executive Branch that openly sells access to and influence over our government’s leaders.

If this isn’t illegal, it should be.

Donald Trump's first 100 days have been characterized by the most flagrant corruption imaginable. Here are 10 of the absolute worst examples.

#10 - The Tesla Ad: During a Tesla stock crash and days after Elon Musk infused $100m into Trump's political operation, the two stood on the South Lawn of the White House, posing for the cameras while the President purchased a Tesla. Pay to play and product placement on the White House lawn.

#9 - Gutting the Watchdogs: Trump has acted to dismantle or manipulate regulatory agencies, like the NLRB and CFPB, that are, in many cases, investigating companies owned by Musk and Trump's other billionaire buddies. With no watchdogs, corruption becomes policy.

#8 - Quid Pro Quo …Again: Indicted NYC Mayor Eric Adams got his charges dropped in what appeared to be a quid pro quo for pledging to do Trump’s dirty work on unrelated immigration policy. Numerous DOJ officials resigned in protest, and justice was never served.

#7 - Anti-Bribery Laws Out The Window: Trump ordered the DOJ to pause enforcement of anti-bribery laws, making it easier for U.S. companies to bribe foreign officials. Not just turning a blind eye to corruption. Tacitly authorizing it.

#6 - Musk's Insider Info: Elon Musk and his DOGE bros gained access to enforcement data at OSHA, and the private information of millions of Americans held by the IRS and other agencies. He now holds the data to power his AI, or to weaponize against his competitors. Under Trump, access to your data is a perk of friendship.

#5 - Billionaire Favoritism: Trump’s FAA threatened to cancel a long-standing contract with Verizon in hopes of replacing it with a contract with Elon Musk-owned Starlink. No open bidding. No oversight. Just blatant favoritism for a billionaire donor and buddy.

#4 - Spending Tax Dollars at His Own Properties: So far, Trump has made 63 visits to his own properties costing taxpayers millions of dollars that go directly into his pocket. At least half of those were golf visits, including while he sent the stock market tumbling. I guess that's par for the course.

#3 - Picking Apart the Law Firms: Trump publicly threatened law firms which employed lawyers or represented clients he didn’t like, chilled legal opposition to his policies, and extorted hundreds of millions in free legal work for his pet causes. A literal racket.

#2 - The DOJ as Personal Attorneys: He hired his top criminal lawyers to lead the department. The result? Cases against Trump allies dropped. Investigations into critics launched.

The DOJ under Trump hasn't just been politicized — it has been weaponized to reward loyalty and punish dissent.

#1 - The Memecoin: Effectively posting his Venmo for the entire world to buy favor, Trump's memecoin is the most egregious, and most lucrative example of political corruption in modern history. In fees alone, Trump has seen hundreds of millions of dollars flow into his personal bank account and that of his kids, including money from foreign interests looking to buy influence. This Trump Corruption List is nowhere near comprehensive. That's exactly the problem.

I'm going to continue doing everything I can, every single day to rein in this corrupt president. And dangerous Administration.
I know you will, too.

Trump has just hung the "now open for business sign", saying he'll do specific (tariff) favors for specific companies.

CEOs will see massive gains from lobbying, and huge costs from criticizing the White House.

It's an effective way to suppress criticism.
(NYTimes.com)

NYMAG: A Warner Bros. rep “recently reached out to the Trump orbit seeking advice about how the company might advantageously interact with the White House.. The reported message was .. Don Jr. might like a hunting and fishing show on the Discovery Channel ..”

(nymag.com)

The party was on at a Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament at the president’s Doral resort in Florida and a fund-raiser at Mar-a-Lago, even as markets tumbled.

"Few billionaires have had a better year than Donald Trump... Before moving back into the White House, he padded his cash pile with a very lucrative move into crypto. Between that and his Trump Media & Technology Group going public just after Forbes locked in its 2024 rankings, the president’s net worth has more than doubled, from an estimated $2.3 billion to an estimated $5.1 billion."

Not to mention the $100 million he was on the hook for in back taxes. That's no longer happening.

The U.S. Justice Department is disbanding its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and ordering prosecutors to narrow crypto investigations

Crypto is a sector in which Trump and his family now have a stake. Reuters previously reported that the Trump family has a claim on 75% of net revenues from token sales by World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture.

Ahead of his inauguration, Trump also launched a crypto token.

The insiders seem to have had a 20min warning before the public

The Justice Department has directed prosecutors to stop pursuing litigation against people committing fraud with digital currency, the latest example of the Trump administration easing up on white-collar crime enforcement.

(wapo.st)

“He made 2.5 million today and he made $900 million. That’s not bad.”

Sounds like market manipulation to me. That’s bad.
[Has video]

This is so surreally corrupt it’s hard to even grasp. US media is incapable of processing it - directly using the White House to promote a meme coin with hidden ownership structure.

The procedure typically involves extensive interviews as well as a review of financial records, foreign contacts, past employment, and any potential security risks.
Historically, administrations have relied on the FBI background check process to ensure that the personnel they are hiring meet stringent ethical standards and don't risk compromising national security.

"Background investigations for national security positions are conducted to gather information to determine whether you are reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and loyal to the U.S.," states the SF-86 form filled out by federal employees seeking security clearances and used for background investigations.

Disturbing ties between Kash Patel and SHEIN – a PRC company implicated in forced labor in Xinjiang. He has millions in shares and won't divest.

Especially concerning amid reports that DOJ/FBI is going to reduce focus on PRC influence efforts in the US.

TLDR: Patel is reportedly (1) on SHEIN's payroll, (2) appears to have concealed or understated these relationships, (3) *won't divest while being FBI director* and (4) supports cutting efforts to counter PRC influence.

Full detail [in link]

Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr is leveraging approval for Verizon's $9.6 billion merger with Frontier to bully the company into buckling on it's already pretty thin civil rights support
(link)

Jaw-dropping corruption in the US:

Trump's billionaire crypto czar is heavily invested in a fund whose top 5 holdings are the 5 in the US government Crypto Strategic Reserve.

Mere hours before Trump announced it, someone bought $200 million in Ethereum & Bitcoin on 50X LEVERAGE

I know it's pointless to say this, but the Beneficial Ownership reporting is really simple to do. The only way it's an "absolute disaster" or "economic menace" is if you are fully aware that writing down your owners will produce criminal liability.

Eliot Higgins (eliothiggins.bsky.social): Great news for money launderers!

Across the federal government, Trump, Musk, and their allies are trying to snuff out a geyser of press leaks with bullying and snitch networks