Howard
Lutnick comes to mind. Stupid enough to think he can pull one over on
the American people with Jamwa Gomer Pyle running interference for him
on Epstein. And, of course, Pete Hegseth is the idiot that never
stops. Above both is Donald Chump who had a lousy week as the whole
world saw how stupid and ineffectual Chump is. He really is losing the
war he chose to start.
But I guess the extreme stupid person, the Idiot of the Week, has to be acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Donald
Trump's acting U.S. attorney general is reversing course on comments he
made on a major case that has been plagued with obvious lies from the
start, an expert claimed.
"Todd Blanche is
already backpedaling significantly," said journalist Adam Klasfeld about
Blanche and his case against the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"When
he unsealed the indictment and went in a press conference, he had
claimed to reporters that the SPLC's informant program was manufacturing
racism," Klasfeld explained. "He went even further a little bit
later...He told Laura Ingraham that there was no information that the
SLPC informants program gathered that the SPLC shared with law
enforcement."
However, Blanche and the
Department of Justice have since been "forced to concede that wasn't
true, that was a lie," Klasfeld said.
"What he's
admitting is that when he claimed the SPLC wasn't sharing information
with law enforcement, that wasn't true," Klasfeld explained. "They were,
and we just learned very recently what some of that information sharing
accomplished."
What an idiot. It's an ongoing case and he lied. And he got caught lying.
At
the Border Security Expo, President Trump’s acting Attorney General
Todd Blanche was asked about his past support for sending armed federal
officers (Border Patrol and/or ICE) to voting locations. He was asked,
“How do you reconcile that with obviously the federal law that prohibits
federal law enforcement to be armed at these locations?”
Blanche
denied that he expressed such support and said, “That’s not true, I
have not said that. What we’ve talked about is a need to make sure that
our elections are fair. That only people who are supposed to be voting
are voting.”
[NOTE: President Trump and members
of his administration have repeatedly suggested that noncitizens are
trying to vote in federal elections, which is against federal law.]
Blanche
added, “I’m not sure of the uproar, or the risk of having a Border
Patrol or an ICE agent at a polling location or looking into if somebody
is voting who shouldn’t be.” He repeated, “If you are here illegally,
you cannot vote. And so what’s the risk? Why wouldn’t everyone in
Washington, everyone in the United States be supportive of that?”
Critics
of the Trump administration, including political pundit John Collins,
are berating Blanche with comments including, “Uhm, maybe because it's
illegal? Federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 592 prohibits deploying ‘troops or
armed men’ to locations where elections are held, to prevent
interference or intimidation. You'd think an acting Attorney General
would know this.”
You'd think that they would. But some people are so stupid that they don't know the jobs that they are supposed to be doing.
Friday, May 8, 2026. Chump's dementia receives more attention, Chump
and Pete Hegseth continue to persecute Senator Mark Kelly, an Epstein
and Chump exhibit goes up in NYC, and much more.
Massachusetts
Rep. Seth Moulton, appearing on The Daily Beast Podcast, said the
79-year-old president seems to be “more senile” now than he was during
his first term.
“I’m no doctor. I’m
no psychologist. I’m no child psychologist, which might be more
appropriate for the president,“ Moulton told host Joanna Coles. ”But he
definitely seems to be getting worse. He really seems to be getting
worse. He seems to be getting more senile. I mean, you don’t talk about
cognitive tests a lot if you’re not taking cognitive tests, and you only
take cognitive tests if your doctors are concerned about your cognitive
abilities.”
“Everyone declines, whether we
like it or not, at that age... I think it’s just that much more
dangerous,” Moulton explained. “Most people can see that Donald Trump is
dangerous—that he’s dangerous for our troops, for our country, for our
economy, for our national security. I mean, there’s a long list. But he
definitely seems more dangerous now than he was even in his first term.”
California
Governor Gavin Newsom has issued a unique challenge to Donald Trump
after the president went on a bizarre tangent in public once again.
Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Trump interrupted his address to explain the difference between “sea” and “see.”
“Drug
traffic coming into our country is way down,” he said. “By sea, by
ocean, by water. A lot of people say, ‘What do you mean by sea? Is it
see, like vision?’ No, it’s sea, S-E-A,” he continued, spelling the word
out loud.
Responding to the odd interlude in an X post, Newsom expressed concern that “Little D’s” brain was in decline.
“‘LITTLE D’S’ BRAIN IS DECLINING RAPIDLY IN REAL TIME,” Newsom wrote in Trump’s own all-caps style.
“TODAY HE WAS CONFUSED BY THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘SEE’ AND ‘SEA.’ VERY SAD!”
“HIS
HANDLERS ARE TERRIFIED AND DESPERATELY TRYING TO HIDE IT FROM THE
PUBLIC. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESERVE THE TRUTH,” he wrote, before issuing
a challenge for the president to agree to a live cognitive test on
national television.
“FOX NEWS CAN HOST,”
Newsom suggested. “SEAN ‘SLUMPY RATINGS’ HANNITY WOULD BE PERFECT. I’LL
EVEN LET HIM GIVE ‘LITTLE D’ THREE LIFELINES!”
Outlining
the parameters for the test, Newsom said that it would take place
during primetime, and that no teleprompters or notes would be allowed.
“‘PERSON, MAN, CAMERA, TV, SQUIRREL, ELEPHANT, GIRAFFE,’” he added. “LET’S SEE WHO PASSES!!!”
It's
scary to realize how far gone his brain is and how close he is to the
nuclear codes. It's scary to grasp how far gone he is and that he's
made the decision to start the war with Iran and made the decision to
continue the war. Max Burns (THE HILL) offers:
Does anyone in America know what President Trump is doing in the Strait of Hormuz? Does Trump himself know?
On
Sunday, he boldly announced “Project Freedom,” his scheme to escort
commercial ships through the shuttered strait. He then swiftly reversed course
just two days later, declaring that the strait would remain closed,
even as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was selling Project Freedom to
the press. As Hegseth touted a plan that no longer existed, Trump again changed his timeline for ending his increasingly unpopular war in Iran.
Trump’s
impulsive and contradictory actions in Iran have confounded his
generals, his Cabinet and the public since the war began 10 weeks ago.
Trump is now so bogged down that he is confounding himself, too. It is
time for Congress to exert some constitutional authority and wrap this
debacle up before regular Americans endure even more financial
suffering.
He
doesn't know what he's doing. That's why he's offered so many
differing reasons for the war. It's why he blows hot and cold on it,
why he says it's too hard and he needs a break. He's not up to the job
because he doesn't have the mind for it. He gets louder and he bellows
but that's all that happens. TACO. NACHO. He doesn't have the mind
anymore. It's gone.
Senator
Mark Kelly continues to be persecuted by Chump and Secretary of Defense
Pete Hegseth. Kelly, along with other members of Congress, taped a
PSA explaining that those enlisted did not have to follow an illegal
order. This is a part of training. But it upset Chump and Hegseth
(Hegseth had made similar statements when he was on FOX "NEWS" about how
troops did not have to obey illeal orders). For a number of reasons,
the court system sided with Kelly; however, Hegseth and Chump refuse to
let it go.
A
U.S. federal appeals court at a hearing on Thursday appeared skeptical
that the Trump administration’s could legally punish Democratic U.S.
Senator Mark Kelly over public remarks he made urging service members to
refuse unlawful orders.
Members
of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit expressed criticism of the government’s efforts to
censure Kelly, a retired Navy captain and Arizona Democrat, over more
than an hour of questioning.
"These are people
who serve their country. Many of them put their lives on the line,"
Circuit Judge Florence Pan told a Justice Department lawyer. "You're
saying that they have to give up their retired status in order to say
something that is a textbook example — taught at West Point and the
Naval Academy — that you can disobey illegal orders?"
U.S. Circuit
Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Florence Pan, and Cornelia Pillard,
respectively appointed by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Joe Biden, and
Barack Obama, formed the panel, a fact that Law&Crime pointed out
after Hegseth finally filed the promised appeal of his loss.
Despite technical difficulties with the court's publicly posted audio
stream, Pillard and Pan's grilling of a DOJ attorney was enough to glean
which way the wind is blowing.
"I
mean, this is really basic," Pillard told the government. "You are not
disagreeing that the video at issue that is the fulcrum of this case,
Senator Kelly never says the words disobey lawful orders, right? I mean,
that's uncontroversial. I understand you have a whole theory, but he
doesn't say that, right?"
"Not in isolation, expressing —" the DOJ lawyer began to answer, before agreeing the judge was "correct."
In
the lead-up to oral arguments, Kelly filed a brief recounting how
President Donald Trump accused him and five other Democrats — Rep. Jason
Crow, D-Colo., Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., Reps. Chris Deluzio and
Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. — of engaging
in "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" when they appeared in a
video in November, condemned lethal military strikes on alleged drug
smugglers' boats in international waters, and stated, "you can refuse
illegal orders."
[. . .]
All
along, Kelly said "you can refuse illegal orders" referred to the
Uniform Code of Military Justice, and Pillard picked up on it.
"He
says you have a duty to disobey unlawful orders, right? That is
something that is taught at Annapolis to every cadet, right?" the judge
asked.
The DOJ shot back that the "only reason"
Kelly said what he did was because the sitting senator and astronaut
had a "specific intent to influence active duty service members" and
that "Captain Kelly was not purporting to give a speech in Annapolis on
military law."
"How do we know that?" Pillard followed up.
Because Hegseth said so, the DOJ replied.
Because crazy Hegseth with his multiple marriages and screwed up view of Christianity said so?
Hegseth
is crazed and insane. A FOX "NEWS" weekend host who found a fool in
Chump who would support him. Hegseth's in over his head. He was the
one who should have been fired for Signal-gate. Every week since then,
he's made one blunder after another. Sometimes he's made them daily.
Going
after Mark Kelly was a huge mistake. Kelly doesn't back down. And now
that's something the entire nation understands, that Kelly's a
fighter. It's raised his political profile and might even land him in
the White House. Leo Shane III, Connor O'Brien and Lisa Kashinsky (POLITICO) report:
On
the campaign trail, Kelly has amassed a war chest that has fueled talk
of a presidential bid. He kicked off the year by hauling in roughly $13
million in the first quarter of 2026.
Kelly has said he’ll “seriously consider” mounting a candidacy in 2028.
He was on the short list of running mates for Vice President Kamala
Harris’ unsuccessful run against Trump in 2024. She eventually chose
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“He’s got the
backstory. He’s a hot commodity right now,” said Pete Giangreco, a
longtime Democratic strategist who has worked on multiple presidential
campaigns. “He’s done it in a way that has excited the base of the party
but is also a talking point that can win a general election because
this is about courage and standing up for the Constitution and making
sure we have a military that is not politicized.”
Another
Democrat in the video, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, is also
weighing a run for the party’s presidential nomination. Slotkin serves
with Kelly on the Senate Armed Services Committee and is a former CIA
analyst and Pentagon official.
For
decades, sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was best buds with Donald
Chump. Epstein is dead now but his connection to Chump remains stronger
than ever. While the American people have demanded the Justice Dept
release The Epstein Files, while Congress passed an act requiring the
documents be released in full, Chump has refused to release them all.
Former US House Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene was told by Chump that she
had to back off the call to release the files because, if they were
released, people he knows would be hurt.
On a quiet block in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, an
Epstein-focused “reading room” is set to open to the public on May 8.
Part public art exhibit, part “library,” it houses more than 3,400
physical volumes that together contain every document published by the
Justice Department in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The sheer immensity of the release is evident as soon as you walk in;
it’s a powerful visual that is all but lost by virtue of the fact that
the millions of documents were released online and mostly live there. It
is not known if there is any other public place where every page of the
release has been compiled.
The space also features a symbolic tribute to survivors and detailed timelines that cover an entire wall.
A reading room containing all 3.5 million pages of records related to
Jeffrey Epstein that were released by the Department of Justice opens Friday
in a Tribeca gallery. (You have to RSVP for the address, it seems.) The
by-appointment-only pop-up is being put on by a nonprofit called the
Institute for Primary Facts and will also include a timeline of Epstein
and Donald Trump’s relationship. Thusly named the Donald J. Trump and
Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room, the project is part art
installation, part museum exhibit, and part cursed archive where the
only reading materials are emails to and from Jeffrey Epstein.
Clio notes that the museum exhibit will be open until May 21st. MILITARY.COM notes:
The title itself is deliberately provocative. The Donald J. Trump and
Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room places Trump’s name alongside
Epstein’s, reflecting the exhibit’s focus on their documented social
relationship and the public records associated with it.
[Spokesperson David] Garrett
said the Institute expected the exhibit to raise larger questions about
power, accountability and whether the law applies equally.
"We
hope and believe that the Epstein case is unique," he said. "The ages
of the victims and the unbelievable number of crimes is hard to imagine.
We hope and believe that the public will demand transparency and
accountability.
"If achieved, we think this moment can provide hope to future
generations that the rule of law still exists in America, and that it is
applied equally, even to the rich and powerful."
This
week also saw Epstein's colleague, friend and business partner Howard
Lutnick be interviewed by the House Oversight Committee. He was not put
under oath despite the fact that it's the lie the Secretary of Commerce
told last fall that necessitated him appearing before the Committee.
Media reports yesterday quoted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
stating, "Look how
they are dodging and avoiding and refusing to really investigate Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein." Trina pointed out last night:
Hillary
is 100% correct. She is not someone who met with Epstein but she was
forced to testify. Under oath. And she was filmed. Melania Chump
knows Epstein. Hillary, if she did meet him, met him at a White House
event where he was one of many people present. This was known. Bill
Clinton knew Jeffrey Epstein. Hillary Clinton did not. Our current
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick knew Epstein and visited Epstein
island. But he wasn't video taped and he wasn't put under oath. And he
had lied to the American people claiming that he and his wife, in 2005,
went to Epstein's NYC home and left so creeped out that they decided
never to have anything to do with him. And that was that. Until a few
months later when some of The Epstein Files came out and we learned that
Lutnick lied. Six or so years after that tour of the home, And they'd
talked and e-mailed since that home tour as well. He's a liar. And he
went before them a liar but James Comer -- Gomer Pyle -- refused to put
him under oath or to video tape.
Another
Epstein story gaining traction this week has been the relese of a note
said to have been written by Jeffrey Epstein shortly before he died. Kevin Reed (WSWS) reports:
A purported suicide note written by Jeffrey Epstein was released
Wednesday by US District Judge Kenneth Karas in connection with the
separate case of Nicholas Tartaglione, Epstein’s former cellmate, after a
request from The New York Times.
The note remains
unauthenticated with multiple outlets reporting that neither the Justice
Department nor the court has verified that Epstein wrote it, and the
BBC noted it has not been verified. The note is also not clearly a
“suicide note” in any conventional sense—it is a scrawled, hard-to-read
hand-written message on lined paper, without a signature, and its
meaning is uncertain.
The text appears to read, in substance:
“They investigated me for month— found nothing!!! So 15 year old charges
resulted. time to say goodbye. No fun—not worth it!!” Other fragments
from the same document include awkward, partially illegible phrases such
as “It a treat be able one’s to say” and “Watch me to—Bust cryin.”
This
language leads to the first obvious question: if the note is real, why
was it never formally authenticated, and if it is not authenticated, why
should it be treated as proof of Epstein’s state of mind just before
his death on August 10, 2019?
Tartaglione claims he found the note
after Epstein’s first alleged suicide attempt in July 2019, when the
two were sharing a cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in
Manhattan. According to reports, Tartaglione later said he discovered
it tucked into a book, and his attorneys told the court they believed
Epstein wrote it based on Tartaglione’s account and other writings found
later in the cell.
But that explanation raises another obvious
question: Why would an alleged suicide note be left in a book in a cell
shared by a man then facing murder charges, and why did it not surface
publicly until Tartaglione talked about it years later?
Lawyers for Leon Black, the billionaire investor who has been accused in a civil lawsuit of raping a teenage girl inside Jeffrey Epstein’s
New York townhouse in 2002, reached out to a powerful federal judge in
2024 to raise doubts about the alleged victim’s claims, a Guardian
investigation has found.
The move set off a
months-long court proceeding, which was conducted outside public view
and led the US district judge Jed Rakoff to reverse a $2.5m award that
had been granted to the alleged victim in a separate Epstein-related
class action lawsuit, according to court records. She was later given a
much smaller settlement in the class action case.
Jane Doe, as she is known in court filings, has claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and raped by Black when she was a teenager more than two decades ago.
The Guardian’s investigation is revealing new
details about the private communications in Black’s legal campaign,
which undermined Doe in her civil lawsuit against the Wall Street
billionaire.
In a recent court order, Doe
faced a significant setback when Jessica Clarke – the federal judge
presiding over her civil lawsuit against Black – sanctioned Doe and her former lawyer for “serious, sanctionable misconduct in this case”. Judge Clarke said Doe’s former lawyer
had “repeatedly lied to the court and opposing counsel”, and directed
her client to destroy a social media account. Doe was sanctioned for
having “falsified” some sonogram images that appeared in personal
journals, which were submitted to the court as evidence of her abuse by
Epstein.
However, it was not a complete victory for Black, as the judge also ruled that the high-stakes lawsuit could proceed.
The Epstein scandal has prompted
questions about why the accused sex trafficker’s elite circle of friends
and associates has not faced greater scrutiny. That may change. Black
is due to testify before the House oversight committee on 26 June,
according to a person familiar with the matter, as part of the
committee’s investigation into, among other things, Epstein’s sex-trafficking rings. He is also facing questions from the Democratic senator Ron Wyden, who claimed in a recent letter to Black
that the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice “remove
any lingering doubt” as to whether Black was “connected to women in
Epstein’s network” and alleged that “powerful associates in the US and
abroad were surveilling and paying off women on [Black’s] behalf”.
In
an evening of solidarity, Hollywood leaders will come together on
Sunday, June 14, in New York City for Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for
the First Amendment.
Jane Fonda, Bette Midler,
Joy Reid, Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Sasha Allen, and Broadway
Inspirational Voices are set to appear and perform at the event, which
will span 90-minutes and be available to stream online for free.
National partner organizations and local civic groups will also host
watch parties across the country. All proceeds from the event will go
toward the work of the Committee for the First Amendment, which was
revived in 2025 by Fonda and other members in the entertainment industry
during the first year of the second Trump administration.
"Music
has long been a tool to stand up to authoritarianism, and I am honored
to spend the evening with these fiercely committed, talented, and
brilliant people to celebrate our First Amendment rights," Fonda said in
a statement. "As we continue to watch bad faith leaders take more and
more power, it is critical that we gather together, raise our voices
collectively, and stand united against this administration - and have
some fun while doing it."
On
June 14th, I'm joining Jane Fonda and a number of incredible artists at
Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment to Town Hall in
New York City and I need you there.
The First
Amendment is not a given. It has to be defended, again and again. I am
so proud to share the stage with Bette Midler, Patti Smith, Joy Reid,
Sasha Allen, and more extraordinary artists who believe that free speech
is worth fighting for.
Music has always led
the way when freedom is on the line. Come be part of that tradition on
June 14th. And if you can't make it to New York, gather your friends and
host a watch party.
All proceeds from this
concert go directly to support the work of the Committee for the First
Amendment. Get your tickets now at www.riseupsingout.com. Let's fill
that room together.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
Last year Trump
fought to defund the Legal Services Corporation entirely, House
Republicans fought to cut the program nearly by half; Murray protected
nearly all of the funding in the bills she negotiated that Trump signed
into law
Just last week, House Republicans passed a bill out of committee to cut funding for LSC by more than half and President Trump’s budget once
again calls to defund the program entirely; As Murray gears up to once
again protect LSC funding she will hear from Northwest Justice Project
clients and lawyers about the important nonpartisan work this funding
supports
Civil legal aid also has a dramatic return on investment; every dollar spent on legal aid generates an average of seven dollars in economic benefits.
ICYMI: Murray Secures $540 million for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC)
Seattle, WA — Today, U.S. Senator
Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee,
held a roundtable discussion with lawyers whose work is supported by
Legal Services Corporation (LSC) grants and client storytellers who have
benefitted from that work.
Senator Murray was joined by Abigail Daquiz, Executive Director,
Northwest Justice Project (NJP); Karla Carlisle, Managing Attorney, NJP
Tri-Cities and Walla Walla Offices; Christy, Client; Jennifer Budinick,
NJP Attorney, Veterans Unit; Alan Myers, Client; David Tarshes, former
NJP Attorney; Anita Belcher, Client; and Will Gunn; Vice President for
Legal Affairs and General Counsel for LSC.
“In this country—our courts and laws are meant to be a great
equalizer, but we can only live up to that promise of equality when cost
is not a barrier to justice,” said Senator Murray. “The
funding from the Legal Services Corporation helps organizations like
Northwest Justice Project keep that promise and live up to the values
that make America great, helping tens of thousands of people every year.
The Northwest Justice Project is a lifeline for farmworkers being
denied fair pay, domestic violence victims trying to protect themselves
and their families, seniors facing an unfair eviction, and so much more.
President Trump already tried to completely defund federal legal aid
last year—I stopped him. Trump wants to defund legal aid again and House
Republicans are pushing to cut existing funding by more than
half—that’s simply not going to happen on my watch. I’ll be ripping up
Trump’s budget and writing a new one, one that invests in legal aid and
protects this absolutely essential lifeline for working people.”
In FY26, Senator Murray protected $540 million for LSC and rejected President Trump’s proposal to
completely defund the largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income
Americans. Murray also beat back efforts by House Republicans to cut LSC
funding by nearly half and made sure the FY26 appropriations bill
included a provision to permit LSC recipients to operate with boards of
directors that include more fiscal experts and community
representatives—something Senator Murray has long advocated for. This
change allowed LSC grantees to diversify their boards to include those
with accounting, fundraising, and other kinds of expertise.
Just last week, House Republicans passed a bill out
of committee that would cut LSC funding by more than half. LSC provides
funding and support to legal aid organizations across the country to
ensure Americans have the critical legal support they need to protect
their families, advocate for veterans, prevent homelessness, and access
their benefits. The primary responsibility of LSC is to manage and
oversee the congressionally appropriated federal funds that it
distributes in the form of grants to local legal services providers,
which in turn give legal assistance to low-income clients in all 50
states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. LSC grantees
have served over 6.4 million people, including 1.9 million who resolved
housing, family, or other life-changing legal problems, and more than
30 million individuals used grantees’ online legal tools, websites, and
self-help resources to navigate legal issues. Civil legal aid also has a
dramatic return on investment; every dollar spent on legal aid generates an average of seven dollars in economic benefits.
“Federal funding for civil legal aid is the foundation for
our ability to serve our communities—to ensure that a mom facing
eviction has someone in their corner, that veterans who have served in
this country can access the benefits they have earned, and ensures that
safety is possible for survivors of domestic violence. Northwest Justice
Project is the LSC grantee in Washington State and we take that
responsibility very seriously, making sure that this investment is
effectively used to serve our community. Thank you, Sen. Murray for
being a champion for civil legal aid funding—so we can continue to show
up for our clients,” said Abigail Daquiz, Executive Director, Northwest Justice Project.
“My attorney managed the chaos of my divorce, the connection
for legal help with the protection order, and navigated the hurdles of
coerced debt and terrible credit that my marriage had left me with,
causing housing burdens… I am here today to say thank you. Thank you for
giving me my life back. Because of NJP, I am not just a survivor; I am a
mother with a home, a future, and a fresh start,” said Christy, a NJP
client who with her two young children had fled an abusive partner.
“After more than a year of diligent work, NJP did what I
couldn’t do alone. I was awarded a 50% disability rating. These weren’t
‘handouts’—they were the benefits I had earned over decades of service,”
said Alan Myers, a NJP client, and a veteran who had served for 25
years and sustained service-related disabilities, including partial
blindness, hearing loss, and spinal fracture. Yet he was told by the
Veterans Administration that he would not qualify for benefits.
“If NJP needs anything, I will be there to help. It still
blows my mind that I was able to be represented by great attorneys and
actually get a favorable outcome. It was amazing. Truly amazing,” said
Anita Belcher, a NJP client whose paycheck was suddenly garnished by 50%
without notice.
NJP is Washington’s largest publicly funded legal aid program and
provides legal representation to tens of thousands of low-income
Washingtonians each year for critical legal matters including family
safety, housing rights, wage theft, access to healthcare, education, and
more. NJP is the sole LSC grantee in Washington state. LSC provided
about $11 million to NJP in FY25, which was 18% of their total annual
budget. They also received about $2 million in other federal funding,
meaning 21% of their total budget in 2025 was from the federal
government. Over one million people visit their website, washingtonlawhelp.org,
to access free legal resources annually. Across Washington state, they
have 20 physical offices and about 340 staff, including nearly 200
attorneys. In 2025, NJP direct legal services benefited 31,206
Washington residents, including more than 800 veterans, 2,929 older
Americans, and thousands of domestic violence survivors. However, in
Washington close to one million residents qualified for assistance.
Services provided include a toll-free referral and intake hotline
called CLEAR (Coordinated Legal Education Advice and Referral) that lets
clients ask questions and get advice over the phone, the Washington Law
Help public website that hosts free legal resources and self-help
materials, and they coordinate volunteer attorney programs to ensure
equal justice for people unable to afford an attorney. In addition to 20
offices statewide, specialized units serve farmworkers, Native
Americans, veterans, and provide eviction and foreclosure defense.
###
And let's close with this from THE BLACK COMMENTATOR:
The
suits allege the agents were wrongfully terminated based solely on
their assignment to Smith’s team — work that one of the suits argues the
FBI now sees as “somehow hostile partisan acts.”
The
litigation also raises questions about the Senate Judiciary Committee’s
sprawling investigation into Smith’s Arctic Frost probe, as well as
Grassley’s role in a conservative ecosystem focused on addressing what
Republicans have branded as “rot” at the FBI.
Grassley’s
disclosures include the unredacted names of agents, something their
attorney argues sparks not only online vitriol but backlash from the
bureau as it culls employees.
“It is appalling
to me that lawmakers would so carelessly mischaracterize these
unredacted disclosures, knowing that the direct result of their actions
is to cause an ill-informed online mob to go after honest, hardworking
federal law enforcement officers,” said Margaret Donovan, a former
federal prosecutor now representing two agents suing the FBI.
“The
best-case scenario is that Grassley is so far past his prime, he is
clueless as to what he’s doing. The worst-case scenario is that Grassley
and others are intentionally trying to harm federal agents who dared to
investigate criminal activity, which happened to implicate a political
ally,” she added, nodding to Grassley’s status as the oldest sitting
senator at age 92.
As part of his
investigation, Grassley has released reams of documents from Smith’s
probe, including subpoenas sent to conservative activists as well as the
phone records of senators believed to have spoken with Trump on Jan.
6.
Some of the released documents were grand
jury materials not typically shared with the public. The Department of
Justice (DOJ) is largely prohibited from sharing those types of
materials with Congress, raising questions about the identities of the
whistleblowers who shared them with Grassley.
Grassley?
He turns 93 this year. It's time for him to step aside. Does he even
know what's going on? I doubt it. And now his fog may have resulted in
FBI agents being fired. It's just time for him to go. He's as bad as
soon to be 80-year-old Chump. Thomas Kika reports:
President Donald Trump is "painfully, obviously baffled," according to a scathing new takedown from the New York Times, as he runs headlong into his "true weakness": people who cannot be bought or threatened into compliance.
On
Thursday, prominent conservative Trump critic David French published
the piece, writing that the Iran war has revealed "a kind of person who
truly flummoxes Trump, the person he just can’t understand — the true
believer." His inability to handle collisions with these sorts of
people, he explained, is one of the major reasons why he is flailing so badly as he attempts to bring the disastrous conflict to a swift conclusion.
"From
pardons to prediction markets, the transactional nature of the Trump
administration is perhaps its most obvious characteristic," French
wrote. "And transactional people often soothe their own consciences with
the belief that everyone else is ultimately transactional as well — the
only question is their price. But that’s wrong. Not everyone is
transactional. Some people — for better and for worse — actually have
beliefs that they’re willing to die for, and Trump is painfully,
obviously baffled when he encounters belief like that."
In approaching Iran,
Trump seemed to think he would get another Venezuela: a brief excursion
where he easily topples an existing leader and is able to "more or less
bend the remaining regime elements to his will, at least for now." In
reality, however, the destruction of almost all of the country's
existing leadership has left the remaining officials "more intransigent
and less willing to negotiate," and "enabled the most fanatical elements
of the regime — the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — rather than the
slightly more moderate clerics."
In
the face of such an element, fanatically devoted to a cause and
unswayed by threats of violence or transactional offers, which, French
argued, are the only dynamics that Trump truly understands.
"In
response, Trump plays the only cards he knows how to play — alternating
between threatening death and destruction and proposing business
deals," French continued. "Remember when he considered a 'joint venture'
to control the Strait of Hormuz with Iran?"
He's
so limited -- in thought, in pattern. He wasn't qualified to be
president and that comes through every day as we watch situations
overwhelm him and watch him open his big fat mouth to speak on something
he should have just kept his mouth shut on. He doesn't realize how
stupid he is but every time he weighs in on every topic under the sun,
we all realize how stupid he is. He can't keep his nose out of
everything. He can't pick and choose. He's such a dumb ass. And it
only gets worse each passing day as he grows a little more senile.
Betrayal
and buyer's remorse are becoming increasingly common feelings between
the Trump administration and its voters, and now, a member of the
president's team has twisted the knife more, per CNN, calling one group key to his reelection a "paper tiger" and "overrated" as they appear poised to abandon him.
Among
the numerous factors that contributed to President Donald Trump's
reelection in 2024, much credit has been given to the boost he received
from supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped his independent
campaign and endorsed the Republican ticket, allegedly in exchange for
his current role as HHS Secretary. These supporters, now dubbed "Make
America Healthy Again, or, "MAHA," largely broke for Trump over Kamala
Harris, but have since expressed deep disappointment over his health
agenda so far, including moves that seem entirely antithetical to their
views.
Now, the "MAHA-MAGA rift" is growing,
more according to a Thursday report from CNN, after Trump's RFK-backed
surgeon general nominee, Casey Means, flamed out in the confirmation
process, now being replaced by someone the health secretary reportedly
had no input on.
"It’s the latest sign that, after a year of letting Kennedy 'go wild' on health care, as Trump promised ahead of the election,
the president and his top aides are shortening the leash in the run-up
to the midterms — and imposing tighter political constraints on the HHS
secretary even at the risk of alienating the legion of followers he
brought into the Republican Party," CNN explained.
Two
con artists, two constituencies. Who would've seen that 'coalition'
there falling apart? Anyone with a brain. Junior's a Chump wanna be
and Chump's a fading original. They're going to tear each other apart.
Both have preening egos.
They'll destroy each other and blame one another.
That's what they're like and that's what they're all about.
Thursday, May 7, 2026. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait tell Chump "NO!" forcing
him to shut down Project Freedom, his war of choice continues to
destroy the US economy, James Comer makes nice with liar Howard Lutnick,
Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer respond to Chump, Time Square sees a
new billboard of Chump and Epstein with the tagline “What are these two
hiding?" and much more.
Yesterday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued the following:
Washington,
D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee
on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., Ranking
Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rep. Angie Craig,
Ranking Member of the House Committee on Agriculture, Rep. Jared
Huffman, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, and
Rep. Don Beyer Jr., Senior House Democrat on the Joint Economic
Committee, sent a letter to President Trump demanding answers
on how his illegal war with Iran is driving up the cost of living for
everyday Americans. Consumer prices have reached their fastest growth in
almost two years as a spike in oil costs feeds into our economy, and
the war has already cost taxpayers approximately $2 billion per day
during the initial phase of attacks.
In the
letter to President Trump, the Members wrote, “As your illegal war with
Iran continues into its third month with on and off again negotiations
and naval blockade, you have unleashed chaos, undermined our national
security, and escalated the conflict by threatening war crimes including
wiping out an entire civilization and destroying civilian
infrastructure. It is clear that you chose to start your war without
coherent or realistic strategic objectives, and with no plan to prevent
Iran from expanding its strategic control over the Strait of Hormuz. The
impacts of your war will be felt for years, and the consequences of
your reckless decision to drag America into war are increasingly falling
on the American public.”
America is not starving. There’s plenty of beef, wheat and eggs.
At the moment, food inflation is lower than core inflation, but
Americans are still living with higher prices, up around 20% since 2022.
President
Donald Trump is right when he says the U.S. doesn’t rely on the Strait
of Hormuz for its agriculture needs. But Europe and Asia do — and so
they will outbid American farmers for fuel and fertilizer, forcing food
prices higher for everyone, including Americans.
Anyone
who knows a farmer has heard stories of the “worst year ever” — but now
American farmers are facing their most serious crisis since the 1980s.
Production costs
were already rising before the Iran war and the closure of the Strait
of Hormuz. Many farmers are still waiting on loans, unable to lock in
fertilizer prices before they spiked.
A newly released Farm Bureau survey
of 5,700 U.S. farmers said 70% of farmers won’t be able to afford all
the fertilizer they need this year. Many are reducing planted acres.
This potentially means less food moving through the supply chain — and
higher prices for what does make it to market.
While
U.S. consumers are already navigating the household budget impacts of
the Iran war at the gas pumps, they could also be facing a year or more
of steadily increasing grocery costs if the Middle East conflict drags
on.
That was among the findings of a Purdue
University analysis that predicts the broad energy shock precipitated by
a sustained war could add three to six percentage points to grocery
inflation over the coming 12-18 months.
Cathy Bussewitz (INDEPENDENT) notes, "The
price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. climbed 31 cents in
the past week, spiking to an average of $4.54 per gallon Wednesday, a
price 52% higher than before the war with Iran began, according to AAA
data. The main reason drivers are paying more at the pump is because the
war has stranded oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow
passage through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil normally
passes." And Leroy Marion (AUTOBLOG) explains, "The
Iran conflict is now hitting the auto industry far beyond fuel prices.
According to a report from Nikkei Asia, aluminum prices in Japan have
jumped more than 20 percent since late February amid major disruptions
to supply chains across the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz remains
heavily affected, making exports difficult, while some regional smelters
have reportedly suffered damage during attacks."
The gas situation? Joe Perticone (THE BULWARK) has noticed a curious situation wherein rising gas prcies are causing smaller responses from certain politicians:
Rising
gas prices often provide a convenient index for dissatisfaction with
the current president, even if the increases have little to do with the
administration’s policies.1 When a war breaks out in major oil- and
gas-producing regions, prices go up. When gas prices rise, so do the
anxieties of political candidates who belong to the party in power. And
this year, that includes many Republicans whose campaigns are crucial to
maintaining a GOP Senate majority.
At
the onset of the Trump administration’s unilateral military action
(war) against Iran, gas prices in the United States skyrocketed, which
immediately spooked Republicans concerned with holding on to their
Senate majority. In the two months since the opening of hostilities,
prices have fluctuated in some states while continuing to climb in
others, with those around the Great Lakes seeing particularly
challenging increases.
“We’re gonna be fine, we
got plenty of oil,” Mike Rogers, a Republican candidate for Senate in
Michigan, said in March. “You’ll get your oil, because we’re going to
pump our oil right here in America, and we got plenty.”
Six
weeks later, though, GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan reported gas prices
leaping upward in several middle-American states. In Rogers’s Michigan,
they went up 88 cents. In Ohio, they climbed 94 cents. In Wisconsin, 33
cents. And in Indiana, prices grew by a calamitous dollar and nine
cents.2
On Thursday, Rogers addressed the issue
once again. When Newsmax host Ed Henry asked the candidate, “Are you
nervous . . . about these stubbornly high gas prices?” Rogers finally
acknowledged the reality of higher costs at the pump:
Listen,
high prices of anything hurt people in Michigan. . . . Iran is about
stopping their nuclear program, stopping their ballistic missile program
so they can’t hurt others. I think most Americans are there. We all
want this to come to a quick end—I think including the president of the
United States. The president’s also taking really direct actions to try
to bring those prices down and I support those actions to bring those
prices down. I’ll tell you this, Ed. I get around and talk to voters all
around this state. The main thing about affordability is they do not
trust Democrats.
Well,
Rogers sure doesn’t trust Democrats on affordability, at least. That
might be why he framed the situation so differently when gas prices
surged to four dollars per gallon during the Joe Biden administration.
“I’m
not sure we can survive $3.99 a gallon going forward,” Rogers said in a
2024 video campaigning against Democrat Elissa Slotkin. “Listen, the
[Democratic] agenda moving forward on gas prices is only gonna make that
worse. We must get America back on track.”
Along with rising prices, another thing Americans are agreeing on with regards to Chump's war of choice is rhetoric. Conor Murray (FORBES) notes:
Most
Americans disapprove of an image President Donald Trump posted that
appeared to depict himself as Jesus, while many more had a favorable
view of Pope Leo XIV’s calls for peace amid the Iran war, a Washington
Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found, as Washington and the Vatican continue
to fracture over the conflict.
The
poll found 87% of Americans disapproved of the post Trump made on Truth
Social last month that appeared to depict himself as Jesus, which
sparked criticism and allegations of blasphemy, even from some on the
right, though Trump said he thought the picture depicted him as a
doctor.
Eighty percent of Trump
2024 voters and 79% of Republicans surveyed had a negative reaction to
Trump’s Jesus post, the poll found.
Sixty-nine
percent of Americans disapproved of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
praying for U.S. troops to inflict “overwhelming violence of action
against those who deserve no mercy.”
But Pope
Leo’s call for Americans to contact their representatives and urge them
to find a peaceful solution to the war in Iran earned a more positive
reception, with 66% of poll respondents having a positive reaction.
87%
disproved? Yeah and that number may climb higher. I said when the
post was in the news that this was one of those things that people think
about and in a week or two get angry about. You're just not used to
seeing that kind of blasphemy and certainly from a president of the
United States.
In
the latest saga between the president and the pontiff, Trump baselessly
accused Leo of “endangering Catholics” by supporting Iran’s nuclear
weapons program.
“I think he’s endangering a
lot of Catholics and a lot of people, but I guess, if it’s up to the
Pope,” Trump said Sunday. “He thinks it's just fine for Iran to have a
nuclear weapon.”
The Pope hit back at the
claim Wednesday without directly referencing the president. “The mission
of the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace,” he said. “If
someone wants to criticise me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do
so truthfully. For years, the Church has spoken out against all nuclear
weapons, so there is no doubt on that point.”
Pope
Leo XIV said Tuesday that people are free to criticise him but the flak
should be based on the truth after President Donald Trump launched a
new attack on him, saying his opposition to the United States and
Israel's war against Iran was putting Catholics in danger. Trump, who
last month said the pope "weak on crime" and "terrible for foreign
policy" following his criticism of the war, said at the weekend that Leo
was "endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people" because "he
thinks it's just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon". The American
pontiff, on the other hand, said the Catholic Church has been opposed to
nuclear weapons under his leadership and long before. "The mission of
the Church is to proclaim the Gospel, to preach peace," Leo said outside
the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo. "If someone wants to criticize
me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so truthfully.
Not for nothing is Donald Trump known as the “TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out)
President”. He announces major decisions and issues dire threats on
impulse or whim – and occasionally out of pure spite – and then scraps
them.
But even by this own shameless standards Trump’s abandonment of his so-called Project Freedom to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is the granddaddy of all TACO somersaults.
The
official White House version is that Project Freedom is being “paused”
for “a short period of time” to see if a peace deal with Iran can be
reached. “Great progress” has been made towards that end, claimed Trump,
without a shred of evidence.
The president has performed so many U-turns and flip-flops he makes Sir Keir Starmer, criticised for more than a dozen policy climb downs, look like a model of constancy and resolution by comparison.
A
more likely explanation is that he was told that Project Freedom never
had a hope of working and was almost guaranteed to make the war much
worse not end it. Experts were near unanimous in warning that it was
likely to end the fragile ceasefire between the US and America and renew
the ‘hot war’ between them.
Ben
(MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) explained this morning that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
responded to Chump's Project Freedom by announcing that the US could no
longer use their airspace or airbases.
Unfortunately for Trump, it’s easier for the Iranians to keep the choke
point closed than it is for the Americans to force it open. This is not
because the Iranian navy is stronger or more capable than what the U.S.
can field, or that Tehran’s coastal defenses are indefatigable, but
rather because corporations tend to be risk-averse
creatures that are sensitive to the threat environment. Most shipping
companies are not going to risk their reputations, their very expensive
wares and the lives of their employees if there is a decent possibility
of getting hit by a missile or stopped by the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps. The numbers bear this out — weekly passages through the
strait reportedly dropped 11% over the past week, and only two U.S. merchant ships transited the area in the 24 hours Project Freedom was in effect.
Every
week brings fresh disaster for the Tr*mp administration, but this week
is already off to a galloping start in that area. We dealt with Pentagon Pete’s fury at being next on the chopping block, unless fellow screw-up Kash Patel beats him to the punch, and that’s to say nothing of RFK Jr.’s imminent departure from Tr*mpland, along with his MAHA base.
But
that’s nothing compared to what just happened in Tr*mp’s home turf,
where a massive billboard was just erected to once again draw attention
to Tr*mp’s Epstein ties. The people haven’t forgotten, and Tr*mp’s
Epstein problem is not going away despite his constant distractions,
from Greenland to Venezuela to Iran.
The
billboard features images of Tr*mp and Epstein appearing to look at each
other with shifty eyes, accompanied by the text “What are these two
hiding? Eyes on Epstein.”
But the real kicker?
The ad is placed smack in the middle of Times Square.
For
all to see. Just like the friendship between Donald Chump and the late
Jeffrey Epstein was out there for all to see for decades and decades.
Going back to the 80s, the two were roll dogs, partners in crime, thick
as thieves. And then they had a falling out. For years, Jeffrey
Epstein abused and assaulted and trafficked people of age and underage.
And it is people. Girls, women, boys, men. New Mexico findings in the
last months have made that clear. Though some of the names of Epstein
Island visitors made that clear before hand and there were at least four
adult males who had stated that they were survivors. One of those, of
course, has stated Chump assaulting him when he was a child.
Yesterday,
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick appeared before the House
Oversight Committee. How well Lutnick knew Epstein has been in dispute
because of the cute and self-serving narrative Lutnick told Miranda Devine
last fall was contradicted by the release of some documents in The
Epstein Files. Joe Sommerlad (INDEPENDENT) explains:
The
secretary told Pod Force One presenter Miranda Devine in October last
year that he had been a neighbor of Epstein’s in New York and once
visited his Upper East Side brownstone in 2005 but was appalled when his
host made a creepy comment about receiving “the right kind of massages”
during a tour of the property.
“In the six to
eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I
decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person
ever again,” Lutnick said.
However, the release
of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice in late December and
January revealed that the men had remained in contact and appeared to
have been in communication until at least 2018. Inclusion in the files
is not an indication of wrongdoing.
Lutnick
subsequently told the Senate Appropriations Committee on February 10
that he and his family had had lunch with the billionaire on Little St
James, his private Caribbean island, in December 2012.
The
government’s January release of the Epstein files intensified scrutiny
on Lutnick and led to some calls for him to resign, as documents showed
communications and business deals between the two continuing as late as
2018—long after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution in
2008, and one year before his indictment and subsequent death in
prison.
Those documents contradicted previous
claims Lutnick had made, as the Commerce secretary said in October 2025
that after touring Epstein’s penthouse in 2005, he “decided that I will
never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.”
Prominent
people who were close to Mr. Epstein have been scrutinized in recent
years for their visits to Little St. James, but Mr. Lutnick’s planned
visit had not been previously disclosed. Reached by phone on Friday, Mr.
Lutnick said he could not comment about the island visit because he had
not seen the latest Epstein documents.
“I spent zero time with him,” Mr. Lutnick said. He then hung up.
The documents suggest the visit did occur.
On February 10th, Lutnick would admit before the Senate Appropriations Committee that he had stayed on the island with Epstein.
Despite that history of lying, he was treated like a Queen by the Committee Chair James Comer. For example, Stephen Groves (INDEPENDENT) reveals,
"The interview was not being recorded on video, as the committee has
done with depositions for others, including former President Bill
Clinton and Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state. Comer said the
decision not to video the interview, for which Lutnick volunteered, was
keeping with the committee's practice." Per David Edwards (RAW STORY), it's worse:
House
Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) was peppered with questions about
why he let a member of President Donald Trump's cabinet give a
deposition on Jeffrey Epstein without video recording it, while refusing
the same opportunity to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
former President Bill Clinton.
Comer Pyle refused to allow Bill and Hillary to appear without being recorded. Edwards report continues:
"Why just a transcript?" Pergram demanded to know.
"Do
you have any concerns about the secretary's conflicting statements and
why not do this as a videotape?" a second reporter pressed.
"Well,
this is, you know, with this transcript, he's coming in voluntarily,
first of all," Comer said in defense of the process. "So we didn't
video, we don't video people that come in to volunteer."
In addition, he was not under oath and he was not deposed, he was interviewed.
According
to two people familiar with his testimony, Mr. Lutnick said in his
opening statement that he had met Mr. Epstein only three times: once for
coffee and a tour of Mr. Epstein’s home in New York after they became
neighbors, once when Mr. Lutnick and his family were invited to Mr.
Epstein’s island and once to discuss a construction project on Epstein’s
home in New York that might have had an impact on Mr. Lutnick’s
residence.
After hours of questioning,
Democrats told reporters that Mr. Lutnick did not admit to misleading
Americans about his ties to Mr. Epstein, including when he said on a
podcast last year that he was never in the room with Mr. Epstein again
after their first meeting.
Speaking with
reporters in the hallway outside the closed session, Representative
Yassamin Ansari, Democrat of Arizona, said that Mr. Lutnick repeatedly
characterized their interactions as “meaningless and inconsequential.”
But, she added, she was not satisfied with his explanation as to why he
visited Mr. Epstein’s island, particularly years after their first
interaction, which Mr. Lutnick said made him and his wife uncomfortable.
[. . .]
The
documents released by the Justice Department suggest Mr. Lutnick had
another encounter with Mr. Epstein at his house in 2011, years after Mr.
Lutnick claimed to have cut ties with him. The records also indicated
that the men invested in the same privately held company together and
dealt with each other on neighborhood and philanthropic issues.
Following closed-door testimony from Howard Lutnick before the House oversight committee on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Democrats called the commerce secretary’s performance “embarrassing”.
“If Donald Trump
had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick,”
said congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California.
[. . .]
According to Suhas Subramanyam, a Democratic representative of Virginia, the commerce secretary said “he
could remember nothing about the visit to the island. Couldn’t remember
why he was there. Couldn’t remember anything he saw.”
Oversight
Democrats also said that Lutnick did not answer their questions about
whether he spoke with Donald Trump ahead of giving testimony before the
panel today.
“I feel very comfortable
saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the
most egregious cover-up in American history,”
congresswoman Yassamin Ansari told reporters, while noting that the
commerce secretary told lawmakers it was “inexplicable” that he visited
Epstein’s private island. Lutnick described his encounters with Epstein
as “meaningless and inconsequential,” Ansari added.
May
29th, Pam da Bimbo Bondi is scheduled to appear before the House
Oversight Committee after blowing them off in April. Monday, Democrats
on the Committee issued the following statement:
Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, wrote
to Chairman James Comer after Oversight Republicans finally announced
that Pam Bondi would testify in a transcribed interview before the
Oversight Committee, just minutes after Oversight Democrats took action
to hold Bondi in contempt. The letter raises concerns to Comer that
Bondi’s testimony must be filmed and made available to the American
people in the interest of transparency, that Oversight Republicans must
enforce the Committee’s subpoena if Bondi refuses to fully cooperate,
and raises concerns about the participation of Assistant Attorney
General Harmeet Dhillon as Bondi’s attorney. In March, the Oversight
Committee secured a bipartisan subpoena forcing Bondi to sit for a
deposition, which she skipped on April 14, 2026.
“Oversight
Democrats kept the pressure on Oversight Republicans, and now we
finally have a date for Pam Bondi to testify in front of the Committee.
Republicans must make sure Bondi’s testimony is transparent and
videotaped with a timely public release of the video, and we must
enforce the subpoena if Bondi does not fully cooperate. Oversight
Democrats refuse to let Bondi off the hook,” said Ranking Member Robert
Garcia.
In the letter to Chairman James Comer,
Ranking Member Garcia wrote, “We understand that you have agreed to hold
this as a transcribed interview, rather than a deposition. While we
believe a deposition is the best available forum, as Chairman, this is
your decision. However, if you choose to move forward with a transcribed
interview, I am concerned with three aspects:
1. The videotaping of Ms. Bondi’s testimony. Ms. Bondi’s testimony must be filmed and made available to the American people.
2.
Ms. Bondi’s willingness to provide substantive and complete testimony.
If Ms. Bondi refuses to answer questions, we must compel her testimony.
Ms. Bondi has been subpoenaed, and all questions posed by Members must
be answered.
3. Harmeet Dhillon’s participation
as Ms. Bondi’s attorney. Ms. Dhillon is a current DOJ employee, and her
representation raises serious ethical concerns and conflicts of
interest.”
On April 29, 2026, Rep. Robert
Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform,
and all Democratic Members of the Committee filed a resolution
to hold former Attorney General Pam Bondi in civil contempt of Congress
after she failed to appear for her legally-binding, bipartisan subpoena
to be deposed on the Epstein investigation and the White House’s
cover-up of the Epstein files. The resolution instructs the chairman of
the Oversight Committee to file a lawsuit to compel Bondi’s testimony.
In
March, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform secured a
bipartisan subpoena for then-Attorney General Pam Bondi following a
motion by Congresswoman Nancy Mace supported by all Committee Democrats,
joined by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, Rep. Lauren Boebert, Rep. Michael
Cloud, Rep. Scott Perry, and Rep. Tim Burchett. The bipartisan subpoena
passed the House Oversight Committee 24 to 19. On April 14, 2026, Pam
Bondi refused to appear for her deposition before the Oversight
Committee, despite the lawful bipartisan subpoena the Committee issued.
The subpoena remains legally binding, even after Bondi was fired. The
subpoena followed the Department of Justice’s botched release of the
Epstein files and the continued White House cover-up.
Senator
Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries have
responded to another AI image shared by President Donald Trump's White
House.
On Tuesday, May 5, the official White
House X account shared an AI photo featuring Schumer, 75, and Jeffries,
55, wearing sombreros and drinking margaritas near the United
States–Mexico border. As part of the AI image, fake Schumer and Jeffries
were seen smiling in front of a faux sign that said, "I love illegal
immigrants."
"Happy Cinco de Mayo to all who celebrate!" the White House wrote via X on Tuesday.
Schumer
responded with his own image of Trump, 79, posing next to convicted sex
offender Jeffrey Epstein. While the OG image is real, it was doctored
to show both men wearing sombreros.
"Happy Cinco de
Mayo, @WhiteHouse!" Schumer captioned the X post. House Minority Leader
Jeffreies seemingly approved of the message when he shared his
colleague's photo on his own profile.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Questions come as Trump sons’ drone company Powerus receives new Air Force contract
Washington, D.C. — In new Questions for the Record
following last week’s Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing, U.S.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), pressed Secretary of Defense Pete
Hegseth about President Trump’s sons’ ties to defense contractors and
how the DoD is handling these financial conflicts of interest. The
questions come as a follow-up to last week’s hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and days after reports indicated that Powerus, a drone company backed by the Trump sons, had recently obtained a new Air Force contract.
Shortly after President Trump was elected to his second term, his
son, Donald Trump Jr., announced he was joining venture capital firm
1789 Capital. After Trump Jr. joined the firm, the firm’s portfolio
companies reportedly won more than $70 million worth of contracts from
the Trump Administration, including:
$45 million awarded to Cerebras Systems in April 2025 to improve artificial intelligence chip connections;
$10.8 million awarded to PsiQuantum in April 2025 for quantum chips;
$4.9 million awarded to Firehawk Aerospace in August 2025 to develop rocket engines; and
$10 million to Vulcan Elements for magnets in 2025.
Several of the Trump Jr.-connected companies had never received such large DoD contracts prior to 2025. In early March, reports revealed
that the Trump brothers are also investing in drone company Powerus,
which is “vying to meet fresh demand from the Pentagon and fill a hole
left by the administration’s ban on new Chinese drones in the U.S.”
In March, Senators Warren and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) released answers
from the Defense Department revealing that the Department seems to have
no effective process in place to prevent conflicts of interest and
corruption involving President Trump’s family and the Pentagon’s
awarding of defense contracts. To date, Hegseth has not detailed any
plan to protect the military’s contracting process against conflicts of
interest.
These instances highlight Secretary Hegseth’s unwillingness to
protect the military’s budget and contracting process from potential
corruption. Senator Warren’s new Questions for the Record will require
Secretary Hegseth to address these failures in writing.
Senator Warren’s questions for Secretary Hegseth include:
Justifications for loans and contracts offered to several companies in which the Trump family is financially invested;
Whether Donald Trump Jr. has held any role in vetting candidates for top Pentagon positions; and
Details of any conversations Secretary Hegseth had with the Trump
family or their representatives regarding military contracts leading up
to his confirmation.
Senator Warren has led the fight to root out corruption at the Defense Department:
In April 2026, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Secretary Hegseth
on allegations that Trump administration officials are engaging in
possible insider trading by placing bets on the Iran War through
prediction markets.
In April 2026, Senator Warren questioned Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg
on his conflicts of interest, which may be enabling him, his immediate
family, and his network of associates to benefit from secretive DoD
contracting decisions related to its Golden Dome missile defense
program. Senator Warren urged Feinberg to take immediate action to
mitigate the conflicts.
In March 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) released a new response
from DoD indicating that there are no effective processes in place to
prevent possible conflicts of interest and corruption involving
President Donald Trump’s family and the Department’s awarding of defense
contracts. In a new letter, Senators Warren and Richard Blumenthal
(D-Conn.) pressed Secretary Hegseth on this failure and pushed for
answers regarding Trump’s sons’ latest investment in Powerus, a drone
company.
In January 2026, Senators Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
on potential conflicts of interest surrounding the awarding of multiple
lucrative Department of Defense (DoD) contracts and loans to companies
associated with President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
In July 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), wrote to former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin seeking an explanation and further information
on his recent decision to start a strategic advisory firm. Austin had
publicly promised Senator Warren during his 2021 confirmation process
that he would not become a lobbyist after his government service ended.
In July 2023, Senator Warren (D-Mass) wrote to then-Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Heidi Shyu,
following reporting that DoD’s new Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) is
relying on consultants who will continue to work for private defense
consultants and defense investment companies. Senator Warren raised
concerns that DoD lacked the necessary safeguards to prevent conflicts
of interest in the OSC.
In December 2020, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) reintroduced the Anti-Corruption & Public Integrity Act, to strengthen ethics laws and crack down on government officials’ conflicts of interest across the government.
