FBI Director Has Personal Slush Fund For Loyalist Agents
The DOJ charged 15 people with conspiring to impede ICE, a Trump-endorsed “family values” candidate admitted to cheating on his wife, and taxpayers are forking over $300 million for Trump's ballroom
Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.
The DOJ charged 15 people in Minnesota with conspiring to impede ICE. House Democrats say FBI Director Kash Patel has handed out more than $1 million in “bonus” payments to loyalist agents. Trump-endorsed “family values” pastor Jackson Lahmeyer admitted to “crossing a boundary line” by texting a beauty queen who was not his wife. And Trump promised donors would cover the East Wing ballroom “taxpayer-free,” but contractor records show taxpayers were always on the hook for hundreds of millions.
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Now, let’s dive in.
The DOJ Charged 15 People for Watching ICE
Apparently the most dangerous thing you can do in Minneapolis is hold a whistle and a clipboard.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice charged 15 people in Minnesota with conspiracy to impede federal officers, alleging they are members of “antifa groups” who resisted ICE during a winter enforcement blitz. Thirteen of the 15 are already in custody, U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said.
The charges came out of Joint Taskforce Vanguard, a Trump administration program billed as an effort to tackle political violence. The alleged tactics include blocking roads, tracking ICE vehicles, and following officers — also known as being a legal observer.
The DOJ paints all 15 as a single coordinated group, originally Twin Cities Direct Action, later renamed Direct Action Minnesota. Michael McCarthy of Homeland Security Investigations insisted this was not about suppressing protest.
Antifa isn’t a formal organization. There’s no membership or leadership. It’s instead a loosely shared political label that unconnected groups and individuals across different cities adopt, with no coordination between them.
ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good on January 7. On January 24, a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti. Fifteen people are facing federal charges for blowing whistles, while the agents who killed two people have not been charged with anything.
Kash Patel Has a Personal Slush Fund to Pay Loyalist Agents
Most people who blow through a personal slush fund at least spend it on something fun. Kash Patel spent it on “loyalty bonuses.”
According to a letter from Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Patel may be using the FBI’s budget as a “personal slush fund” to make “bonus” payments to loyalists. Committee Democrats say the total exceeds $1 million.
The money allegedly went to agents on Patel’s security detail and agents on his Director’s Advisory Team. Raskin describes the team as “a curated group of agents who are willing to carry out your unlawful partisan and personal orders.”
Nearly $8,000 payments, every two-week pay period, to people who had already maxed out their federal salaries. Raskin says this circumvents the mandatory pay caps set by statute, which is to say it may be against the law.
Some loyalist agents received at least five consecutive payments, adding up to roughly $40,000 each.
Then there’s the detail that makes this even more absurd. Raskin writes that Patel “depleted this reserve at such a frenzied rate that some of the payments have bounced back from exhausted accounts.” The director of the FBI may have written rubber checks.
We’re not using our donations to pay people for their loyalty. We have no slush fund, no mystery bonuses — just a newsletter that runs on subscriptions instead of whatever trick the FBI’s Director’s Advisory Team is pulling. If you’d like to keep it that way, become a paid subscriber today.
Family Values Candidate Cheated on His Wife With a Beauty Queen
The founder of Pastors for Trump has apparently forgotten the seventh commandment.
The Rev. Jackson Lahmeyer, an Oklahoma pastor running for Congress in the 1st District, admitted in a Facebook statement late Sunday that he had sent text messages to a woman who is not his wife. He called it “crossing a boundary line.”
The admission came less than two days before the primary and hours after the Daily Mail published text threads alleged to be between Lahmeyer and Caitlin Key, Miss Oklahoma USA 2007. The outlet reported Key had worked as a fundraiser for his campaign.
In one thread, Lahmeyer reportedly calls Key “very cute.” When she asked why he was texting her from a fancy party at Mar-a-Lago, he replied, “I like texting you lol.” When she raised his marital status, he answered, “Not right now tho lol.”
Lahmeyer, pastor of Sheridan Church in Tulsa, called the story “distorted” and “cherry-picked,” and noted the convenient timing days before the vote. Trump reaffirmed his endorsement on Truth Social.
The Lord giveth, the Daily Mail taketh away, and Trump endorseth anyway.
Trump’s Ballroom Puts Taxpayers on the Hook for $300 Million
Math is hard, but somehow Trump’s team still managed to make $300 million disappear into “zero.”
On March 31, Trump told reporters the East Wing ballroom and bunker would cost up to $400 million, all of it covered by private donors. “We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents,” he said.
A project summary prepared for the White House by contractor Clark Construction more than three weeks earlier put the total at $600 million, with more than half coming from taxpayers, according to records obtained by The Washington Post.
By the time Trump made those remarks, the federal government had already approved more than a dozen payments to Clark, totaling tens of millions in public funds. The March 5 estimate listed $155 million from the Secret Service, $149 million from the White House Military Office, and $3 million from the Executive Residence.
The figure kept climbing. A $200 million ballroom in July became $270 million, then $478 million, then $600 million, with the public share rising alongside it.
The president called the ballroom “a gift to the United States of America.” Usually you don’t pay for your own gift.
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