America's Biggest Fraudsters Are Lining Up for Trump Pardons

Michael Flynn has registered as a foreign agent, a missing GOP rep. is running unopposed in tonight's primary, and Oklahomans got oil in their bathtubs after asking for less regulation

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

High-profile fraudsters are lining up for pardons as part of Trump’s rumored plan to free 250 convicts for the country’s 250th birthday. Michael Flynn has registered as a foreign agent collecting $100,000 a month from a Putin-allied entity in Bosnia. GOP Rep. Tom Kean has been missing from Washington since March 5 while running unopposed in today’s primary. And oil field wastewater is bubbling up through Oklahomans’ bathtub drains, with half the state living within a mile of a drilling operation.

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America’s Most Famous Convicts Are Lining Up for Pardons

Most countries mark a semiquincentennial with fireworks. We’re going with felons.

Trump’s White House plans to set 250 fraudsters loose to celebrate the occasion, first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The White House won’t confirm it exists. The murmur alone was enough to wake up the country’s most recognizable convicts.

Martin Shkreli, the man who raised the price of a $13.50 pill to $750, says his pardon application is in. He told the Washington Examiner the 250-by-250 idea was “one of the catalysts that brought me to just finally file.” He insists he won’t pay a facilitator a dollar.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, eleven years into her sentence for defrauding investors, has gotten suddenly active online. She posted a photo of herself “locked in,” captioned “literally and figuratively.” She filed in January and commented on Shkreli’s post with a line from the Hunger Games: “May the odds be ever in your favor.”

Clemency petitions jumped from roughly 5,100 in 2024 to more than 16,000 in 2025. Lobbyists are now charging six and seven figures to promise access. Trump has already pardoned the Silk Road founder, the Binance founder, and roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants.

The only people not filing are the ones who haven’t been caught yet.

Michael Flynn Registered as a Foreign Agent for Russia

Michael Flynn spent years warning America about foreign influence. He’s now on the payroll of one.

A Foreign Agents Registration Act form dated October 2025, posted Monday by far-right blogger Scott McMahan, shows Flynn earning $100,000 per month from the Republic of Srpska. That’s the confederated entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina run by Milorad Dodik, a key ally of Vladimir Putin.

The reaction was swift. Catturd, the right-wing troll, posted “$100,000 per month?” in apparent disbelief. Sebastian Gorka, currently angling to run the National Counterterrorism Center, suggested Flynn may have broken the law. He noted he had signed documents promising never to work for another government, and presumed Flynn signed similar ones.

This is the same Flynn who claims he was wrongfully prosecuted for lying to federal agents, a charge he pleaded guilty to. Twice.

MAGA is furious that one of their own is working for a Russian ally. Yet the man at the top of the ticket has been doing favors for Putin for years, and he hasn’t charged a dime.

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Missing GOP Rep. Is Running Unopposed in Tonight’s Primary

Tom Kean is running for a third term. He just isn’t showing up for the second one.

GOP Rep. Tom Kean of New Jersey is running unopposed in tonight’s primary. His last vote on Capitol Hill was March 5. House Speaker Mike Johnson and his team have been navigating their reed-thin margins without him since early March, and Kean has yet to give them a date for his return.

In late April he cited a “personal medical issue,” without specifying what it is, and said he’d be back “very soon.” Late last month he told The New Jersey Globe he’d return in the “next couple of weeks.”

His colleagues are worried about his health — and about holding a critical swing seat in a brutal midterm cycle. Some are quietly asking what happens if he drops out after the primary. Under New Jersey law, a post-primary vacancy gets filled by GOP county committee leaders.

Kean’s staff are attending the high school graduations and ribbon cuttings in his place. His last public events appear to have been in early March. He has, however, continued posting regularly on social media, and has earned a formal Trump endorsement ahead of the primary.

The frontrunner among four Democrats, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett, has raised nearly $3 million. She’s also left her house since March.

Oklahoma’s Oil Wastewater Is Coming Up Through the Bathtub Drain

Oklahoma has spent decades voting to keep the government out of the oil business. The oil business, in turn, has been getting into everything else.

Most families remember a milestone date because of a birth or a wedding. Kara Meredith remembers Aug. 23, 2025, because that’s the day oil started bubbling up around the base of her bathtub.

She was caring for her 5-week-old son in Fort Gibson when a daughter ran in to report water all over the bathroom floor. Her husband, Mitch, and his relatives spent all night trying to contain the dark liquid. Near dawn, his uncle finally said the word: “This is oil.”

The United States is the largest oil and gas producer in the world, and all that drilling generates hundreds of billions of gallons of toxic wastewater each year. For decades, companies have shot the briny fluid back underground through high-pressure injection wells. In Oklahoma, it’s no longer staying put.

The fluid is spreading uncontrollably belowground and blasting out of old, unplugged wells. It pollutes land and contaminates drinking water. About half of Oklahomans live within a mile of an oil and gas operation.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the agency tasked with regulating the industry, said it is committed to “holding operators accountable” and “protecting Oklahoma and its resources.” Oklahomans voted for exactly this much accountability.

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