Trump Corruption

Politico reports: FBI agents who worked on cases stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — or the criminal investigations of President Donald Trump — have filed a class action lawsuit to block Justice Department leadership from assembling lists of agents they say will be used as part of a retaliation campaign. The agents, who brought the federal …

NewsNation reports: The Trump administration on Tuesday began flying immigrants who entered the country illegally to Guantanamo Bay amid plans to use the facility in Cuba to house thousands of migrants. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the first flights from the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay carrying “illegal migrants” were underway. “President Trump is not messing around, and …

The Washington Post reports: The assistant commissioner of a division of the General Services Administration told staff early this week that layoffs across the federal government are “likely” after the deferred resignation offer expires Thursday, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post — the sharpest move yet toward forcibly removing many of the 2.3 million civilian federal employees. …

Talking Points Memo reports: Overnight, Wired reported that, contrary to published reports that DOGE operatives at the Treasury Department are limited to “read only” access to department payment systems, this is not true. A 25-year-old DOGE operative named Marko Elez in fact has admin privileges on these critical systems, which directly control and pay out roughly 95% of payments made …

The Huffington Post reports: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Monday appeared to strike a nerve with the Trump White House over his criticism of newly-titled “special government employee” Elon Musk, aka the richest man in the world. Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, wrote on X that the social media platform’s billionaire owner “is a terrible president.” White …

NPR reports: A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has issued a temporary restraining order against a Trump administration effort to freeze funding for federal grants and other programs. Monday’s order by U.S. Judge Loren AliKhan comes in response to a memo released by the Office of Management and Budget last week directing the funding pause. The memo spurred a legal …

The New York Post reports: President Trump may use his executive powers to gut the Department of Education and then push for legislation to abolish it as part of his administration’s efforts to shrink the size of government, according to a report. Trump administration officials are reportedly in talks about using an executive order to shut down nearly all of …

Raw Story reports: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo issued a “read-out” of her call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday — but her list of what the two leaders agreed to is different from his in one major respect: guns. Washington Post staff writer Meryl Kornfield pointed out on X that in Sheinbaum’s list of things the U.S. had …

“Elon’s got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good — if we agree with him, and it’s only if we agree with him. He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs, and we put him in charge of seeing what he can do with certain groups and certain numbers.” “The numbers, …

It just gets more and more stupid by the minute: Elon Musk has accused an X user of committing a crime for listing the names of alleged DOGE employees who helped Musk access the US Treasury payment system. News of Musk’s access to the closely-guarded Treasury data system—which controls and distributes trillions of dollars a year—raised alarm over the weekend. …

The Washington Post reports: President Donald Trump on Monday appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a powerful watchdog agency whose oversight and enforcement actions Bessent immediately halted in a move that delighted big banks and enraged public-interest groups. In an email to agency staff, Bessent ordered the bureau to cease all …

The Associated Press reports: Elon Musk is working for President Donald Trump as a “special government employee,” according to a White House official, solidifying his controversial role in the administration but sidestepping some disclosure rules that are typical of federal workers. The official, speaking Monday on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said that Musk has a government …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ordering the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments to create a sovereign wealth fund and said it may purchase TikTok. “We’re going to stand this thing up within the next 12 months. We’re going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people,” he told …

From the new Substack site Musk Watch: Several of Elon Musk’s associates installed at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have received unprecedented access to federal human resources databases containing sensitive personal information for millions of federal employees. According to two members of OPM staff with direct knowledge, the Musk team running OPM has the ability to extract information from …

First, a reminder about this guy: Interim D.C. U.S. attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., on Friday dismissed about 30 federal prosecutors who have worked on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot cases over the past four years, undertaking a housecleaning of the top prosecutor’s office in Washington, while preparing to extend the office’s scrutiny to top Democratic leaders and former Justice …

NPR reports: Elon Musk’s X broadened an existing lawsuit on Saturday to include several major brands — accusing more companies of illegally boycotting the social media platform in 2022 following Musk’s acquisition. The suit, which was filed last year in a federal court in Texas, initially targeted the boycott organizer, the World Federation of Advertisers, along with companies including CVS …

Bloomberg News reports: Elon Musk said his “DOGE team” of government efficiency enforcers is shutting down payments to federal contractors, suggesting that the world’s richest man may have access to sensitive systems used at the U.S. Treasury Department. “The corruption and waste is being rooted out in real-time,” Musk posted on X on Sunday, saying officials reporting to his so-called …

“Secretary of State Rubio is in Panama — Panama right now. And we’re talking about the Panama Canal. What they’ve done is terrible. They violated the agreement. They are not allowed to violate the agreement. China is running the Panama Canal. That was not given to China. That was given to Panama, foolishly. But they violated the agreement. And we’re …

The Associated Press reports: Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters on Monday, according to a notice distributed to them, after billionaire Elon Musk announced President Donald Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency. USAID staffers said they tracked 600 employees who reported being locked out of …

CNN reports: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa responded on Monday to US President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off aid over the alleged mistreatment of White farmers, denying Trump’s claim that authorities were “confiscating land.” “South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality. The South African government has not confiscated …