ICE Hides Warrant, Tricks Judge Into Freeing Murder Suspect
Kash Patel is handing out autographed bottles of bourbon, Republicans have failed to pass their voter ID bill, and the Trump admin. is making malaria patients foot the bill for shutting down USAID
Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.
The FBI director is handing out autographed bottles of bourbon on government planes. ICE let a judge to release a murder suspect, then smeared her for it. Senate Republicans have now failed to pass their voter ID bill through the front door, the back door, and a window they invented. And the Trump administration is making malaria patients foot the bill for shutting down USAID.
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FBI Director Denies Drinking Problem While Giving Out Bottles of Bourbon
Kash Patel runs the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. He is also apparently running a merch table.
The FBI director has been distributing personalized bottles of Woodford Reserve bourbon engraved with his name, an FBI logo, and his preferred spelling of his first name: Ka$h. Some bottles include his autograph, along with the notation “#9,” presumably a reference to his directorship, though it does not accurately reflect the actual number of FBI directors.
Eight sources, including current and former FBI and DOJ employees, told The Atlantic that Patel handed these bottles to both FBI staff and civilians, sometimes while on official business, with his team transporting cases of bourbon aboard DOJ aircraft. One bottle turned up at an online auction.
This would be awkward enough on its own. It is considerably more awkward given that Patel is already facing documented allegations of a drinking problem. The Atlantic reported last month, relying on more than two dozen sources, that FBI personnel have expressed concerns about the director’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking.
Patel denied the allegations, accused The Atlantic of being part of an elaborate journalistic conspiracy he compared to organized crime, and filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the magazine. Then he went back to handing out personalized bourbon on a government jet.
ICE Let a Judge Release a Murder Suspect, Then Slammed Her For It
Here is a sequence of events that actually happened in a federal courthouse.
The Department of Homeland Security posted a press release with a large, bold headline: “Activist Biden Judge Releases Violent Criminal Illegal Alien Wanted for Murder.” The release named federal judge Melissa DuBose and accused her of knowingly freeing a murder suspect because she was “bent on undermining the president’s deportation agenda.”
There was one glaring problem. The judge had no idea about the murder case. That’s because the Justice Department lawyer had failed to include that detail in arguing against release — because ICE had instructed him to withhold it from her.
ICE told its own lawyer to hide the information from the judge. Then ICE issued a press release accusing the judge of ignoring the information.
When DuBose found out she had been sandbagged, she issued a show-cause order demanding an explanation for why the government should not be held in contempt. At the hearing that followed, the government’s lawyer apologized without reservation and told the court that ICE had instructed him to withhold the warrant.
The administration’s response to all of this was to call the judge an activist. They did not address the part where they manufactured the situation they were blaming her for. Presumably that part is also her fault.
The SAVE Act Is Dead, And Senate Republicans Pulled the Trigger
The SAVE Act is dead. Senate Republicans killed it. They have asked that flowers be sent, condolences be kept brief, and nobody mention it in November.
Senate Republican leaders have sidelined the SAVE America Act as they shifted gears to pass the budget resolution, effectively benching the bill. The relief among Republicans was audible. Members privately acknowledged that the weeks-long pressure campaign had not gained them a single vote and may have cost them a few.
When it became clear the bill couldn’t clear the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, Republicans tried to thread it through budget reconciliation instead. Voting laws are not budget-related. The Senate parliamentarian was going to say so. Republicans knew the parliamentarian was going to say so. They tried anyway.
The last-ditch attempt failed 48-50 during a late-night vote-a-rama, with Senators Tillis, Murkowski, Collins, and McConnell crossing the aisle to join every Democrat in voting no.
Senate Republican leaders are now unlikely to hold additional votes on the bill. Trump called it his top legislative priority. His own Senate ran out of doors to try and quietly went home. The SAVE Act, it turns out, could not save itself.
The Administration Is Raiding Malaria Funds to Pay for Closing USAID
Shutting down USAID wasn’t free. Guess whose budget is covering the bill.
If you guessed global health programs, congratulations – you’re not new here. The Trump administration plans to redirect $2 billion in funding intended for programs tackling malaria, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, nutrition, global health security, HIV/AIDS, and more to cover the cost of closing the US Agency for International Development.
The money that was supposed to keep people from dying of preventable diseases will now be used to pay the legal bills from shutting down the agency that was keeping people from dying of preventable diseases. Let that sink in.
A $2 billion reduction could lead to an estimated 121,000 preventable deaths from tuberculosis and at least 47,600 preventable deaths from malaria, according to analysis by the Health Security Policy Academy. The effective cut to nutrition programs could also mean the loss of lifesaving care for 22.9 million children under the age of five.
Meanwhile, the administration is also underspending roughly $1.7 billion in HIV funding that Congress already approved. The number of HIV tests funded by PEPFAR dropped 17% last year. An administration official said that the results were “very, very good.” We are not paraphrasing.
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