#President Trump Appoints Kash Patel as NEW FBI Director!

[truth4ourfreedom]

THE NEW FBI DIRECTOR - WILL HE SHAKE UP THIS CORRUPT AGENCY?

BREAKING NEWS: TRUMP APPOINTS KASH PATEL AS FBI DIRECTOR! EPSTEIN BLACKBOOK FBI EVIDENCE EXPOSED, DEEP STATE IN PANIC!

President Donald J. Trump has officially appointed Kash Patel as the new FBI Director, and the deep state is in a full-blown meltdown. This isn’t just another leadership change—it’s a full-scale assault on the corruption that has gripped America for decades. Justice delayed will no longer be justice denied!

EPSTEIN BLACKBOOK: THE ELITE’S WORST NIGHTMARE Kash Patel has already confirmed the FBI possesses Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous blackbook—a directory of global elites alleged to be involved in heinous crimes. Past FBI leadership buried it. Patel? He’s promising full exposure. No more elite protection. It’s time for accountability, and the names in that book are about to be dragged into the light.

THE NASHVILLE SHOOTER MANIFESTO: TRUTH FINALLY COMING OUT Why has the FBI refused to release the manifesto of the Nashville shooter? What are they hiding? Patel has vowed to make it public. America will finally learn the motives behind this tragedy, exposing what political forces have desperately tried to bury.

COUP TEXTS AND J6 PIPE BOMBER: THE COVER-UPS ARE OVER Deleted coup-related texts? Patel says nothing is truly deleted. The texts exposing government corruption and treason will come to light. And the January 6th pipe bomber? Patel is demanding the release of withheld footage, promising to reveal what the FBI has hidden for years.

RUSSIAGATE FULL REPORT: TREASON EXPOSED The greatest hoax in modern history is about to be unmasked. Patel’s unredacted RussiaGate report will name names and expose the deep state operatives who weaponized lies to undermine President Trump. This isn’t just corruption—it’s treason, and justice is coming.

TRUMP AND PATEL: A REVOLUTION IN JUSTICE President Trump’s appointment of Patel signals the start of a new era—one where the corrupt elites no longer call the shots. Together, they’re dismantling the deep state and restoring America’s faith in justice.

THIS IS IT, AMERICA! The revolution has begun. The Epstein blackbook, the Nashville manifesto, the coup texts, the RussiaGate report—it’s all coming out. Buckle up, patriots. Justice is here, and the deep state is DONE!

Join and share my channel immediately: https://t.me/JulianAssangeWiki

It's official, JD Vance is here and already posting: https://t.me/JDVance✅

[mariacallous]

WASHINGTON – Four weeks before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes power, all his rhetoric and appointments are indicating that his campaign's vow to crack down on pro-Palestinian sentiment in America will be a defining factor of his administration's early days.

Throughout the campaign, both Trump and the Republican Party insisted that such a clampdown would be quick and complete. After Trump's speedy cabinet appointments and ahead of a Congress ruled by a GOP majority, the fight against the pro-Palestinian movement might be one of the only things that has a clear path across the government.

Once Trump's picks for the top diplomatic positions are in place, such as Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador, the harshest step – the deporting of pro-Palestinian protesters who have student visas – could be the first move. Both Rubio and Stefanik are well-known proponents of such a step, one of Trump and the GOP's few solid policy commitments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the campaign.

In October, Rubio wrote to the current secretary of state, Antony Blinken, urging him to "immediately perform a full review and coordination effort to revoke the visas of those who have endorsed or espoused Hamas' terrorist activity."

Stefanik, meanwhile, has doubled down on her star-making turn as university-president interrogator by calling for students' deportation. She told Fox News in May that these students "are pro-Hamas members of a mob who are calling for the eradication of Israel. They are calling for genocide against Jews around the world and in America. It is unthinkable that we are allowing this to happen at U.S. universities."

The blueprint is there

Other nominees more focused on domestic matters have also suggested that the pro-Palestinian protest movement will be a key issue. Among them is Pam Bondi, Trump's second attempt at a nominee for attorney general. The former Florida attorney general has called for a revocation of visas and condemned the campus protests.

The thing that's really the most troubling to me [are] these students in universities in our country, whether they're here as Americans or if they're here on student visas, and they're out there saying 'I support Hamas,'" she told Newsmax last year.

Bondi added: "Frankly they need to be taken out of our country or the FBI needs to be interviewing them right away."

Trump's choice to lead the FBI is controversial loyalist Kash Patel. While the former federal prosecutor doesn't have much of a record on campus protests, he is most notorious for his desire to remove any of Trump's critics and doubters from the national security apparatus.

Further, Patel's experience as the National Security Council's senior director of counterterrorism during Trump's first term positions him to crack down on pro-Palestinian sympathizers. A blueprint for this is detailed in Project Esther, a plan to combat antisemitism unveiled by the Heritage Foundation, which is behind Project 2025, the 922-page paper outlining conservatives' plans to fundamentally alter the government.

The underlying thesis of Project Esther – a more tractable 33 pages – is that "America's virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American 'pro-Palestinian movement' is part of a global Hamas Support Network (HSN)."

The task force's mission statement calls for a coalition to "dismantle the infrastructure" that purportedly sustains the alleged network. This would take one to two years. "Supported by activists and funders dedicated to destroying capitalism and democracy, the HSN benefits from the support and training of America's overseas enemies," the document states.

It adds that this network "seeks to achieve its goals by taking advantage of our open society, corrupting our education system, leveraging the American media, coopting the federal government, and relying on the American Jewish community's complacency."

The document suggests how a potential Trump administration would crack down on protesters, something he has promised. It also calls for the deporting of protesters in the United States on student visas and the targeting of universities' tax-exempt status. It notes laws that might "exploit [the network's] vulnerabilities," require representatives of foreign entities to disclose their connections, and target organized crime and racketeering.

Hardliner Harmeet Dhillon

One bill that will not be in the law books anytime soon is the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which is aimed at combating campus antisemitism. It also requires the Education Department to take the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism into account when determining if an action or practice that violates Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was motivated by antisemitism.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the act earlier this year, despite concerns on the left that criticism of Israel would be conflated with antisemitism and on the right that the bill had dramatic implications on freedom of speech. There were also tropes from far-right Republicans that the bill would state that Jews killed Jesus.

Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has kept the bill off the Senate floor for a vote by attaching it to various other packages that he hopes to push through.

Amid this stalemate, another notable opponent has emerged: Harmeet Dhillon, Trump's choice to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which will play a major role in enforcing federal action combating antisemitism.

Dhillon, one of Trump's top legal minds behind his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, slammed the Antisemitism Awareness Act upon its House passage. "I have been a First Amendment and religious liberties lawyer for minority and majority faith communities for decades and this bill is knee-jerk anti-constitutional dreck," she wrote on X.

She added: "Do better, think harder, and be smarter, Congress. 'Hate speech' laws are a liberal concept." But Dhillon has joined her new colleagues in being a vocal advocate for cracking down on the campus protest movement.

"Sue Yale," she wrote on X in April. "Sue every university that refuses to keep students safe based on their religion. Make them regret their choices. Deplete their endowments. Sue each and every violent protester and organizers. Drain their bank accounts. Sow salt in their career plans."

Dhillon followed that post by laying into a protest at UCLA: "I defend the right of these jackass terrorist apologists to protest, but they do NOT have the right to block access to other students or prevent them from going to class. My tax dollars are subsidizing UCLA and the Regents need to get their act together ASAP or be sued!"

Linda McMahon, Trump's education secretary nominee, has also publicly committed to prioritizing the issue, even if the incoming president has vowed to dismantle her department.

"Certainly. I don't think we should have any kind of discrimination anywhere, and I absolutely abhor any kind of violence that we have seen on campus. It should not be allowed," she told Jewish Insider without specifying what plan she supports. "We have lots of priorities that I'm going to be dealing with, and certainly anything that is against the safety and welfare of any of our students will be a priority."

The proposed defunding of the Education Department is perhaps the plank in Project 2025 that most concerns the American-Jewish community. The Office of Civil Rights, which is responsible for investigating and adjudicating allegations of antisemitism, is part of this department and has opened at least 145 investigations into such complaints.

Hardliner Brian Mast

This past summer, a rare coalition of nearly two dozen Jewish organizations across the political and denominational spectrum urged Congress to "provide the highest possible funding" for the Office of Civil Rights, despite the deep disagreements regarding antisemitism on Capitol Hill and in the Jewish world.

House Republicans, though they deemed the office's funding insufficient, voted to cut $10 million more after accusing it of failing to prioritize antisemitism. Several Trump-allied Republicans have also highlighted the office's role in culture war issues like Title IX and what they call "forcing women to compete against males in sports."

Holding a razor-thin majority and already plagued by infighting, the House GOP might find that advancing legislation relating to the Palestinians is the only influential work it can get done in the next session of Congress.

In a surprise development, Rep. Brian Mast has been slated to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee after Trump advocated on his behalf. The Florida congressman has long been considered the U.S. lawmaker most hostile to the Palestinians. He has decried efforts to bolster humanitarian aid for Gaza and dismissed the notion of innocent Palestinian civilians.

"I don't think we would so lightly throw around the term 'innocent Nazi civilians' during World War II. It is not a far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians," he said in remarks that led to an unsuccessful effort in the House to formally rebuke him.

Mast, an evangelical Christian, once volunteered with the Israeli military, and he wore his uniform in Congress in the days after the October 7 attack. That was a way to protest Rep. Rashida Tlaib's placing of a Palestinian flag outside her office.

Mast has also condemned the concept of a two-state solution while spearheading legislation to permanently cut U.S. funding for the UNRWA refugee agency, among other hostile bills. He has also slammed U.S. efforts to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and advocated for expedited and expanded weapons sales to Israel.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Rob Rogers, TinyView.com

* * * *

High road? What fucking high road.

When they go low, we use every bloody weapon in our arsenal

Lucian K. Truscott IV

Dec 03, 2024

President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter, explaining in a letter that “raw politics” had influenced his son’s prosecution and led to a “miscarriage of justice.”

The raw politics of Washington D.C. as we head into another four years of rule by Donald Trump involves pre-planned miscarriage of justice. The Project 2025 plan that Trump claimed he had nothing to do with – before appointing four of its authors to his Cabinet – has an entire section devoted to exacting revenge on political opponents of Trump.

It is a cliché to say that the gloves are off, but that is the situation Donald Trump has purposefully created. He has threatened to investigate and prosecute anyone who was ever involved in investigating and prosecuting him. That would include Robert Mueller and his entire team of investigators and federal prosecutors. Of course, special counsel Jack Smith and his entire office, which includes FBI investigators and federal prosecutors, some of whom came out of retirement to work on the Trump investigation, are on Trump’s list for retribution. Kash Patel, Trump’s prospective FBI Director, has given several interviews about his plans to investigate anyone who has ever so much as picked up a pencil to bother his master.

Joe Biden has his work cut out for him. He should empower an entire staff in the White House to begin working on blanket pardons for all the people mentioned above, plus members of the House of Representatives and the Senate who were involved in the two Trump impeachments and the House January 6 Committee.

The Biden pardon team should also take a serious look at the many reporters, columnists, and television news hosts who have stood up to Trump over the last eight years. That is another long list of people that Donald Trump has threatened to prosecute for simply doing their jobs as reporters, commentators, and cable news hosts.

That old aphorism “when they go low, we go high” was bullshit when it entered the political lexicon, and it’s a guarantee of a prison sentence at this point. There is no high road in the age of Donald Trump and his MAGA team of toadies and lackeys who are sworn to carry out the campaign of retribution Trump demands.

The Democratic Party isn’t just a political party anymore. It is an association of Americans who are under attack merely for their political beliefs. Loyalty to the Constitution and swearing to uphold its rights and guarantees of freedom has been turned into a crime by Donald Trump. People like Elon Musk and Leonard Leo are probably adding names to the list of enemies they would like to see behind bars for committing various “crimes” that aren’t crimes at all.

Nobody is safe. Trump has promised to build internment camps for undocumented immigrants he has declared war against. You won’t have to lack an American passport or work permit to be ushered into the walls of those camps once they’re built.

Trump has gone to war against the America we have known. We don’t need to ask ourselves what this country has done to deserve the war Trump has planned against us. Biden needs to deploy his pardon power as a weapon in that war, and the Democratic Party needs to start recruiting not only followers but fighters. This is going to be an ugly four years, and it is way past time to prepare ourselves.

[darkmaga-returns]

More USAID Fraud? Zelensky is ready to resign. Conservatives win German elections. US looking to extend hostage deal’s current phase. Trump calls Trudeau ‘a loser’. NEW: RFK Plans at HHS

Lioness of Judah Ministry

Feb 24, 2025

More USAID Fraud? Billions Of US Tax Dollars Are Missing From Haiti Relief Projects

If only 2% of the $4.4 billion allotted for Haitian relief was actually used in Haiti, where did the rest of the money go...?

There are those that say all government aid is a scam in one way or another, and so far the revelations surrounding USAID are proving those people right daily. Democrats and the establishment media, in a bid to muddy the waters and save face, continue to claim that there was never any fraud at USAID and that the Trump Administration is simply labeling projects they "disagree with" as suspect. Of course, spending American tax dollars on projects the public never asked for and were never told about is the epitome of fraud, and waste is never a good thing. Beyond that, the question of billions in missing funds certainly falls into the category of criminality.

USAID’s role uncovered in ‘regime change’ in South Asian nation

$21 million allotted for Indian elections recently cited by Donald Trump was actually meant for Bangladesh, new report claims

The $21 million in American taxpayer money earmarked for “voter turnout in India,” which was recently canceled by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was actually allocated to Bangladesh, according to an investigative report published by The Indian Express on Friday. The media outlet claimed it had gained access to the funding records and learned that the allocation had been made by USAID in 2022, with $13.4 million already disbursed for “political and civic engagement” among students before the January 2024 elections in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign in August following massive student-led protests that left hundreds dead.

WATCH: Shocking Video Captures American Airlines Flight AA292 Escorted by Fighter Jets to Rome Amid Security Threat

A transatlantic American Airlines flight with 199 passengers aboard was forced to divert to Rome on Sunday following a “possible security issue,” leading to a dramatic military escort by fighter jets, as captured in shocking video footage circulating online.

American Airlines Flight 292, which departed from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York, was originally bound for Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, according to Time of India. However, in mid-flight, the aircraft was suddenly rerouted to Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome. American Airlines said in a statement to ABC News that the flight was diverted due to a “possible security issue.” Multiple news media reported that there was a bomb threat.

BREAKING: Trump Names Dan Bongino as Deputy FBI Director

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Dan Bongino has been tapped as the next Deputy Director of the FBI under Kash Patel, whom Trump has called the “best ever” pick for Director.

Bongino, a former NYPD officer and Secret Service agent, holds a master’s degree in psychology from CUNY and an MBA from Penn State. He later became a prominent conservative commentator and one of the country’s most successful podcasters—a role he’s willing to forgo to take on the position. Trump emphasized that Bongino, Patel, and newly appointed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi will work to restore “Fairness, Justice, Law and Order” in America. The move signals a dramatic shift for the FBI, which has faced mounting criticism for political bias in recent years.

FBI Director Kash Patel Will Also be Named as Acting Head of the ATF

FBI Director Kash Patel has reportedly been chosen by President Donald Trump to also serve as the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Unnamed sources confirmed the pick to both NewsNation and Fox News on Saturday evening. The news that Patel had been chosen to run the ATF came just one day after he had been sworn in to run the FBI. Fox News reports, “Former FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned at the end of former President Biden’s term, and Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the ATF general counsel, Pamela Hicks, on Thursday.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

The selection of right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino for a senior FBI role hammers home that President Donald Trump is eliminating the guardrails that prevented right-wing conspiracy theories becoming criminal prosecutions during his first term. It also shovels more dirt on the farcical idea that Trump and his allies want depoliticized law enforcement. A regular pattern played out over Trump’s first term as the president sought to wield federal law enforcement as an extension of his will. Right-wing conspiracy theorists, typically led by Trump adviser and Fox News host Sean Hannity, would offer bogus claims that Trump’s foes had committed crimes. Then Trump, an inveterate Fox viewer, would publicly or privately demand investigations and often get them. But the probes would ultimately fall apart without significant charges after Trump’s own appointees — Republicans who nonetheless evinced some semblance of independence and professionalism — figured out there was nothing to them.

Trump’s second-term selections are intended to eliminate the disruptions caused by appointees with a higher priority than carrying out the president’s whims. They are sycophants who are zealously loyal to the president and some either previously worked as his personal lawyers or have long public records of calling for criminal investigations of his foes.  Trump said on Sunday that Bongino, who embarked on a career as a right-wing media commentator after serving in the New York Police Department and U.S. Secret Service and losing several congressional campaigns, will serve as deputy director of the FBI. Bongino worked as a Fox contributor and host before leaving in 2023 to focus on his eponymous podcast, which streams on Rumble and airs on Westwood One radio stations. 

In announcing Bongino’s new role, Trump said the podcaster would help restore “Fairness” to the justice system. But Bongino is one of the last people you’d select for such a role if your intention was really to run a nonpartisan bureau: He is an inflammatory partisan who has declared that “owning the libs” is “my entire life right now” because they are “pure unadulterated evil" and has fawned over Trump as “an apex predator” and “the lion king.” Bongino gained influence and an audience during Trump’s first term specifically because of his willingness to issue florid denunciations of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. On his NRATV show and in frequent guest appearances on Fox (particularly on Trump’s beloved Fox & Friends and on Hannity’s show), Bongino described Mueller’s probe as “an obvious frame job and set-up” that is “designed to cover up for the misdeeds of the Obama administration” and called for the special counsel’s firing. 

[...] It’s unlikely Bongino will be hindered by the higher-ups Trump has installed. Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed FBI director, said in a 2023 interview that a second Trump term would target “the conspirators, not just in government but in the media” who had “lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” The appendix of Patel’s 2023 book “names more than 50 current or former US officials that he claims are ‘members of the Executive Branch deep state,’ which he describes as a ‘dangerous threat to democracy,’” in what has been frequently referred to as an “enemies list.” At the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi previously parlayed frequent Fox appearances defending Trump into a post on his first impeachment legal defense team. Her acting deputy, Emil Bove, previously represented Trump in state and federal prosecutions.   Meanwhile, Ed Martin, who will oversee major cases in the District of Columbia as its acting U.S. attorney, “was an organizer in the ‘Stop The Steal’ movement that falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Trump” and then “worked as a defense attorney for some people charged in the January 6 riot.” 

Donald Trump taps far-right podcast host and 3x-failed Congressional candidate Dan Bongino to serve as deputy director for the FBI that is headed up by fellow far-right hack Kash Patel. The pick of Bongino for this role reinforces the politicization of the agency to serve its MAGA agenda.

[misfitwashere]

Pardon me

President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter is understandable, but it inadvertently gives Trump ammunition

ROBERT REICH

DEC 3

Friends,

My first reaction to the Sunday news that President Biden was pardoning his son Hunter was sadness. 

Biden has a constitutional right to pardon his son, and I can understand his concern that Trump’s overt aim to use the Justice Department and FBI to pursue “retribution” against political enemies might subject Hunter to further charges and harassment. 

House Republicans have claimed Hunter is guilty of more than the felonies he was charged with: lying on a firearms application form about his drug addiction and failing to pay taxes that he later did pay.

My sadness comes from President Biden’s suggestion that the charges against his son were influenced by Republican politicians. “It is clear that Hunter was treated differently,” he wrote. “The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.” Biden continued: “There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

I can understand President Biden’s frustration, but his claim that Republican politicians were responsible for Hunter’s legal problems lends credence to Trump’s long-term claim that the justice system was “weaponized” against him and that he was the victim of selective prosecution, as Biden says his son was.

Biden’s claim also makes it more difficult for Democrats to stand against Trump’s plans to use the Justice Department for political purposes as Trump seeks to install as director of the FBI the cringeworthy sycophant Kash Patel, who has vowed to “come after” Trump’s enemies.

Of course, we know that the prosecution of Hunter Biden was completely different from the prosecutions of Trump. Many legal experts agree with President Biden’s contention that his son’s offenses wouldn’t normally have resulted in felony charges. 

Trump, on the other hand, was charged with near treasonous actions — illegally seeking to overturn the results of an election he lost in order to hold on to power, and endangering national security and trying to obstruct justice by taking classified documents when he left office and refusing to return them. These cases are being dropped because of his election. 

But in suggesting that the charges against his son were politically motivated, President Biden has handed Trump something of a Trump card for arguing that of course the Justice Department is used for political ends, so watch me do the same. 

Biden’s pardon also makes it more difficult for Democrats to criticize Trump for his use of the pardoning power to immunize friends and allies, at least one of whom he’s now appointing to an important diplomatic role. 

Almost immediately after the news broke of President Biden’s pardon for Hunter, Trump used it to justify his planned pardon of the January 6 rioters. “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” he wrote on social media. “Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”

Among the people Trump pardoned in his final weeks in office was Charles Kushner, the father of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who spent two years in prison on tax evasion and other charges. Over the weekend, Trump announced he would nominate the pardoned Kushner to be ambassador to France.

**

There’s a larger issue here. The pardoning power was never supposed to be a means for presidents to put themselves, their families, members of their administration, and campaign staff above the law. Yet that’s precisely what it has become. 

Bill Clinton pardoned his brother, Roger, on old drug charges. George H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and others in his administration on charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair. 

As the framers of the Constitution saw it, the pardoning power was supposed to be a safety valve against injustice. The origins of the power in the United States Constitution are found in the “prerogative of mercy” that originally appeared during the reign of King Ine of Wessex in the seventh century. 

George Washington first exercised the power in 1795, granting amnesty to those engaged in Pennsylvania’s Whiskey Rebellion. Thomas Jefferson granted amnesty to any citizen convicted of a crime under the Alien and Sedition Acts. Lincoln used clemency to encourage desertions from the Confederate Army. In 1868, President Andrew Jackson pardoned Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy. 

In another act of mercy, President Warren G. Harding commuted the sentences of 24 political prisoners, including socialist leader Eugene Debs. 

But in what was clearly a political use of the pardon rather than a use for humanitarian reasons, Nixon commuted the sentence of James Hoffa, former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and a Nixon ally who was convicted for pension fund fraud and jury tampering. 

Gerald Ford’s 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon was arguably the most famous exercise of executive clemency in American history. Ford explained that he granted the pardon as an act of mercy to Nixon and for the broader purpose of restoring domestic tranquility in the nation after Watergate.

We need a constitutional amendment to prevent the continuing misuse of the pardoning power. 

Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee’s 9th District, has repeatedly introduced just such an amendment, which would prohibit a self-pardon and pardons of family members, administration officials, and campaign employees. It would also bar the president from issuing pardons to those whose crimes were committed to further a direct and significant personal interest of the president or others close to him or her, and those whose crimes were committed at the direction of, or in coordination with, the president. 

Cohen’s proposed amendment deserves widespread support. 

What do you think?

[firstoccupier]

New Leadership at the FBI: Trump Allies Kash Patel and Dan Bongino Take Key Roles

In a striking shift in leadership at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), President Donald Trump has appointed two of his staunch allies to top positions within the agency as part of an agenda to reshape its direction. Kash Patel, sworn in as FBI director on February 22, 2025, and Dan Bongino, named deputy director shortly thereafter, are both prominent figures in the pro-Trump…

[marta-bee]

News of the Day 2/26/25: Trump's Attacks on Military, JAG, and FBI Culture

Last weekend Trump fired several generals from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sec. Defense Hegseth also dismissed several senior JAG officers, military lawyer who work the military's court systems (that I knew from the TV show) but also apparently offer legal opinions to the president. You're talking the most five-starsiest of the Five Star Generals, people highly steeped in military culture. You'd expect their loyalty to be to their institutions first.

President Trump fired several leading generals (12ft.io), including the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a black general Trump had criticized as too focused on diversity. His dismissal may have been tied to his response to the George Floyd murder. (RP)

Hegseth also dismissed the top JAG attorneys for the Army, Navy, and Air Force (RP), after speaking to the troops on the need to restore a "warrior ethos" and criticizing the military for being too bureaucratic last week.

Rachel Maddow had a sobering but important interview with former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, about how the JAG firings in particular threaten the military's apolitical culture. If you listen to one thing on this topic, let it be this. (VIDEO)

Just Security.org, an online forum for security personnel and academics to discuss foreign policy, gave a deeper background into why these firings are so unusual and dangerous. (12ft.io)

How the JAG firings "raises legal, ethical fears" of those left behind. (12ft.io)

The dismissal is largely considered legal but dangerous. (12ft.io) Democratic Sens. Corey Booker (12ft.io) and Jack Reed (RP) both warn that it's a big step toward politicizing the military.

Kash Patel is now confirmed as FBI director, and more recently, Trump's appointed a far-right podcaster as the FBI's second in command. Again, the FBI has a strong institutional culture and you'd expect a lot of its agents to be loyal to the institution before any president. So appointing two loyalists suggests Trump is trying to change that in a big way.

Kash Patel passed his committee hearing (RP) and was confirmed by the full Senate.

A whistleblower accused Patel of orchestrating a purge of bureau employees, which would mean he perjured himself at his hearing. (12ft.io)

Critics were concerned Patel would purge the FBI. Rolling Stone asks if he would even need to. (12ft.io)

The SF Chronicle argues the FBI would be uniquely dangerous in the wrong hand. (12ft.io)

He's also being appointed head of ATF, a DOJ agency that monitors the sale and use of guns. (12ft.io) It's a politically contentious agency since conservatives think its Biden-era policies on gun control infringed on the 2nd Amendment, and his appointment will probably affect how Trump changes those policies.

Former Secret Service agent and far-right podcaster Dan Bongino was named as 2nd in command at FBI.

The AP on his past criticisms of the FBI.

Wired on his background with Infowars.com and other conspiracy theory-rich environments. (12ft.io)

And if you've made it this far, you deserve a little treat. How about a little M*A*S*H?

[stir-daily]

Dan Bongino Appointed by President Trump as New Deputy Director of the FBI

Dan Bonjino. (Flickr) Dan Bongino has been appointed by President Donald Trump as the new deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a position that does not require Senate confirmation. He will work under Kash Patel. On Sunday evening February 23rd, Trump shared the announcement through his Truth Social account, declaring, “Great news for Law Enforcement and American…

[usanewscorner]

Who is Dan Bongino? Trump announces podcaster as FBI deputy director

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that Dan Bongino, a conservative talk show host, will be the next deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Bongino will join Kash Patel, who was confirmed by the Senate last week as the new director of the FBI. Trump said Patel would appoint Bongino to the role, which does not require Senate confirmation.

In a social media post on Monday, Bongino praised FBI staff members as “dedicated people” who “deserve leadership that will back them up, protect their mission and ensure they can do their jobs.”

Read More...

[usasnews]

Trump names right-wing commentator Dan Bongino as deputy FBI director

US President Donald Trump has appointed podcaster and commentator Dan Bongino as deputy director of the FBI.

Trump posted on social media that Bongino was "a man of incredible love and passion for our Country" and would serve under newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel.

Bongino, 50, who has worked for the New York police department and the Secret Service, is a staunch Trump ally who has pushed false claims about the 2020 election and other stories.read more

[mariacallous]

President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has cut through the federal government aggressively, firing employees across agencies while testing legal boundaries. The speed of the cuts raises questions about how well DOGE teams understand the roles and responsibilities of those affected. Unsurprisingly, as key political appointees are confirmed by the Senate and take office—and as Republican lawmakers gain points of contact—some early, hasty decisions are being reversed. Here are some examples so far.

The most significant reversal came on Feb. 24, when the White House, through the Office of Personnel Management, announced that Elon Musk’s directive for all federal employees to email him a summary of their work for the week was voluntary only and that noncompliance would not result in termination. Some MAGA leaders, including newly appointed FBI Director Kash Patel, instructed their employees not to comply. Similar orders came from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, Health and Human Services, Energy, and the State Department.

The reversal came not only due to legal concerns but also because the order was impractical for large parts of the government. For instance, the Secret Service agents protecting President Trump probably carried out numerous tasks in preparation for his upcoming trips—should that be reported? What about undercover agents abroad? Should they document efforts to recruit assets or spies? And FBI agents working to infiltrate the infamous Sinaloa drug cartel—should they be required to write memos that could compromise their operations?

Earlier DOGE reversals include the dismissal of more than 300 employees from the National Nuclear Safety Administration on Feb. 13. By Feb. 18, however, the vast majority of them were in the process of being rehired. The agency, part of the Department of Energy, oversees the safety and security of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

On Feb. 18, the Trump administration temporarily paused layoffs of nearly 1,000 probationary civil servants at various NASA facilities. These layoffs were later postponed. This follows at least 750 NASA employees who voluntarily accepted the deferred resignation offered by the federal government. Many affected employees are in their probationary period—young scientists and engineers who could play a role in NASA’s efforts to reach Mars, a key goal of President Trump.

At the Department of Agriculture, 58 facilities responsible for responding to the bird flu were notified that 25% of their staff were being laid off, but they were quickly rehired. With the price of eggs already high, delaying bird flu research could keep costs elevated and undermine one of the key issues that helped elect Trump.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. verbally rescinded the layoffs of about 950 Indian Health Service (IHS) employees just hours after they received layoff notices. OPM had originally planned to lay off 2,200 probationary employees at IHS, a move that would have significantly affected the 214 tribal nations relying on IHS for health care.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth halted the planned firing of 55,000 Pentagon officials in order to comply with a law requiring the defense secretary to review any firings for their impact on military “lethality and readiness.” He is now reviewing the cuts and determining which employees the Pentagon will fire.

Russell Vought, the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, quietly reinstated the workers responsible for calculating the APOR (Average Prime Offer Rate) each week. This data is critical for maintaining stability in the mortgage market. Without APOR tables, home values could be distorted, and borrowers could face restricted credit access. The APOR was housed in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a frequent target of conservative criticism. A stop-work order had been in place until Vought, a staunch Trump ally, recognized the necessity of publishing the APOR.

Why are these reversals coming now?

Trump’s political appointees are gradually taking office, while Republican members of Congress—many of whom are experienced in government—are recognizing the risks the DOGE approach poses to both the nation and their own careers. Over the past month, DOGE teams operated unchecked in federal agencies due to a lack of leadership.

It took “multiple members of Congress” petitioning newly installed Energy Secretary Chris Wright and highlighting the national security risks of firing personnel responsible for overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal before the decision to fire them was reversed. Similarly, Republican lawmakers on the House Agriculture Committee and researchers criticized USDA-related layoffs for potentially weakening the bird flu response. The reversal came just days after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins assumed office. Meanwhile, several senators have introduced a bill to reinstate the Food for Peace Program—formerly housed at USAID—and transfer it to the Agriculture Department. 

DOGE has an enormous opportunity to improve the federal government—especially in the area of information technology. However, blanket firings and poorly planned demands for employees to justify their work week are undermining its credibility and authority. As court cases continue, expect more quiet reversals. No one wants to be blamed for rising egg prices or the next terrorist attack.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Drew Sheneman, Newark Star-Ledger

* * * *

Lucian Truscott Newsletter

The limitations of loyalty

Lucian K. Truscott IV

Dec 01, 2024

What is Donald Trump so afraid of? I ask the question because in the military, it has long been known that only frightened, little men – it has always been men – appoint toadying loyalists to positions under their command. If a frightened little man wants his orders carried out, even when his orders are likely to cause deaths of his compatriots by their idiocy and cravenness, then he must appoint people who will follow his orders unquestioningly. Fellow frightened little men fit that requirement to a T.

All the news stories last night and commentators today on the appointment by Trump of Kash Patel to head the FBI have started out with the proposition that he is a “dangerous” and “shocking” appointment. He is neither. He’s not shocking, because Trump has made it clear over the last two years that he was going to put someone like Patel in the job of FBI Director. He’s not dangerous, because you’ve got to be effective to be dangerous, and Patel hasn’t been effective at anything he’s ever done.

Patel got his start as an aide to Devin Nunes when he was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in 2017. Nunes, with the able help of Patel, fucked up that job by the numbers. He claimed he received classified documents from unnamed sources that would prove that President Obama had “tapped my wires,” as Trump had claimed, and he would show them to the White House. The documents came from two National Security aides in the White House, with whom Nunes met secretly one night in early March of 2017. Nunes and Patel took the documents, which turned out not to be secret at all, back to the Capitol, where Nunes shared them with the press, and then made a show of taking them to the White House to show them to Trump, whose aides had had them all along. Even Trump toady Lindsey Graham compared Nunes to the fictional and incompetent “Inspector Clouseau.”

Patel stayed with Nunes throughout his comical attempts to prove anything Trump said about “Russia Russia Russia” was true. The problem was, they kept running up against uncomfortable facts. Trump’s campaign aide George Papadopoulos had, in fact, met with Russian agents of the GRU who offered “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. When Nunes traveled to London to meet with MI5, MI6, and GCHQ, the British office of government communications, no one would meet with him. Patel was his aide on all this.

Patel got a job as a counterterrorism specialist on the Trump National Security Council and promptly inserted himself right in the middle of Trump’s botched attempts to use Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas – remember him? – to pressure Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to open a fake investigation of Joe Biden that Trump could use against him in the presidential campaign. Patel’s many laughable maneuvers in that clusterfuck are too numerous to go into here, but suffice to say that Patel’s frequent contacts with Giuliani tell you pretty much all you need to know about how effective and successful that scam was.

Patel next popped into public view when Trump appointed him as Chief of Staff to Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who replaced Mark Esper in the job after Patel accused him of being disloyal to Trump by refusing to deploy active-duty soldiers to put down George Floyd protests. During Patel’s three months in the Pentagon, he served alongside Ezra Cohen-Watnick, one of the sources who provided Nunes with the fake documents that “proved” Obama had tapped Trump’s “wires.”

While Trump was out of office, Patel was given a job with Trump’s social media company and with one of his superpacs, where he was paid several hundred thousand dollars for what amounted to no-show jobs. Patel also earned money hawking pro-Trump T-shirts and other cheap trash under the company name “K$H.” He also sold pills he claimed would reverse the effects of the COVID vaccine and wrote a series of children’s books that featured the character of “King Donald.”

Okay, Patel is one more grifter in the great panoply of Trump loyalists who have made careers out of their closeness and loyalty to the Great Man, for which he was promoted ever-upward. Every person who has ever had a government job at any level – county, city, state, federal – or in a corporation, has known a Kash Patel, a creepy little briefcase-carrier who’s always currying favor with the boss, and despite any evidence of having skills other than self-promotion and ass-kissing, just keeps getting promoted or shifted job titles that keep him or her employed and in a position where they can serve the interests of the boss.

That’s the point, how common the Kash Patels of the world are, how well known they are to anyone who has a job where they are actually required to produce stuff, whether it’s studies, or plans, or construct roads, or build cars, or come up with ideas for products that will produce income or in government, programs that are successful in what they are intended to do. Sniveling little suck ups like Patel are so prevalent in American life that everyone has had to suffer under them during their professional lives. So, if you know anything you say to a certain co-worker is going straight into the ear of the boss, you tend to keep your mouth shut about things you don’t want the boss to hear about. If one of these Patel-like suck ups is known for taking credit for ideas he or she didn’t come up with, then ideas of those down in the trenches of the government agency or corporation aren’t shared with that person. If a suck up is known for stabbing others in the back to get his or her way, then people learn not to present their backs in such a way that they will be easily accessed by a knife.

Here is how Patel described in a recent right-wing podcast interview what he would do if he was appointed FBI Director: “I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I’d take the seven thousand employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You’re cops, go be cops. Go chase down murderers and rapists and drug dealers. What do you need seven thousand people there for? Same thing with DOJ. What are all these people doing here? Looking for the next government promotion.”

There are about 35,000 people who work for the FBI in all kinds of capacities, from field agents to office staff to evidence analysis to legal advisors to certified public accountants involved in investigating financial crimes. It’s a long list of people, many of whom have had long careers in the FBI doing the work of law enforcement, some of it drudge work that isn’t fun to do, but must be done if crimes are to be investigated and criminals are to be caught and put in prison. Many of these people in the FBI are very smart. Some FBI agents have law degrees. The minimum requirement is a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, accounting, forensic science, and other professional fields. They must have at least two years work experience in some form of law enforcement. Employment in the FBI is highly competitive. Only 20 percent of those seeking jobs with the FBI are accepted to begin the process of meeting employment qualifications. Many are eliminated by failing writing tests, interviews, medical and physical fitness exams, background checks, or field training schooling at the FBI Academy. As few as two to three percent of applicants meet all the requirements and become FBI agents.

My point is, the FBI isn’t a number like Patel’s 7,000. It’s people. They know stuff. They read the newspapers. They watch the news on TV. They are well-informed. When Kash Patel describes them as people who are just “looking for the next government promotion,” they know he is describing himself, not them.

The FBI is full of expert bureaucratic in-fighters. The people who reach positions of leadership are in charge of hundreds of employees under them and budgets in the millions that they have to fight for. Some fight for the FBI budget in Congress, some fight for departmental budgets inside the FBI. They’re not just sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

They see Kash Patel coming, and they’re not going to lie down and take it from this sniveling little fool.

Bureaucrats are experts at delay, obfuscation, dodging orders, putting things off for another day, flooding the zone with paperwork, overloading the system with unmanageable data, creating streams of seemingly important but useless data. You name it, they can do it. Kash Patel will land at the FBI, and he won’t know whether he’s coming or going. His instinct will be to hire and surround himself with other Trump toadies like Cohen-Watnick and Michael Ellis, the other Trump national security council official who provided Nunes and Patel with the fake secret documents that failed to prove Obama tapped anybody’s “wires,” least of all Donald Trump’s.

The problem with loyalists is their predictability. Patel will lash out without thinking, make assertions that cannot be proven, flaunt conspiracy theories that are dead letters on arrival. The problem is, he will be at the head of an agency that is evidence-based by its very nature, employing thousands of people who have spent their lives being tested in courts of law, where telling a lie can get you put in prison.

Loyalty is not a measure of a person’s worth unless that loyalty is to something greater than oneself. Patel will imitate the man who put him in power. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it’s a piss-poor way to run a railroad, or the FBI, as the saying goes.

[Lucian Truscott on Substack]

[darkmaga-returns]

Kash Patel, a staunch ally of President Trump, was confirmed as the new FBI director by a Senate vote of 51-47.

Patel issued a warning to "enemies of the American people," vowing to hunt them down and eliminate the "two-tiered justice system" within the FBI.

Patel's confirmation marks a victory for the second Trump administration in its efforts to reform federal agencies and restore faith in federal institutions.

The confirmation was met with sharp criticism from Democrats and some moderate Republicans, who view Patel's appointment as a threat to the independence of the FBI.

Patel's supporters believe he will bring transparency, accountability, and a return to impartial law enforcement, while critics argue he lacks qualifications and is overly loyal to the Trump administration.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Robert Tait at The Guardian:

The director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, announced he was stepping down on Wednesday, after Donald Trump said he would fire him and install the firebrand loyalist Kash Patel in his place. Wray, who Trump himself appointed as director during his first presidency after firing Wray’s predecessor James Comey in 2017, announced his decision to staff at the bureau’s Washington headquarters. “I’ve decided the right thing for the bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down,” he said. “This is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.”

In the emotional remarks, Wray added: “This is not easy for me. I love this place, I love our mission and I love our people.” The news was greeted with elation by Trump, who called it “a great day for America” and said Wray’s departure would end what he has characterised as the “weaponisation” of the US justice system. Trump used a post on his Truth Social network to celebrate Wray’s demise while elaborating on his grievances against a public official he had once extolled. “It will end the Weaponization of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice,” Trump wrote. “I just don’t know what happened to him. We will now restore the Rule of Law for all Americans.” He added that, under Wray’s leadership, “the FBI illegally raided my home, without cause, and worked diligently on illegally impeaching and indicting me”.

“They have used their vast powers to threaten and destroy many innocent Americans, some of which will never be able to recover from what has been done to them.” Wray’s decision means he will depart more than two and a half years before the end of the 10-year term that directors of the bureau are customarily appointed to. By leaving early, Wray may reduce the chances of his name being dragged into what are likely to be highly contentious Senate confirmation hearings surrounding the nomination of Patel. Patel has branded the FBI as part of a “deep state” and pledged to shut its Washington headquarters, dispersing its agents across the US. Wray originally fell foul of Trump and his supporters after declining to investigate the then president’s baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election – won by Joe Biden – had been stolen and riddled with voter fraud. He further earned Trump’s ire after, as previously mentioned by Trump himself in an aforementioned post, FBI agents raided his home in Mar-a-Lago in 2022 to retrieve classified documents that he had retained from his time in the White House.

FBI Director Christopher Wray will resign rather than get fired by Donald Trump (the man who hired him in 2017).

See Also:

NewsNation: FBI Director Christopher Wray to step down

Daily Kos: Trump bullies FBI Director Chris Wray into stepping down