Megadonor Received Trump Pardon Three Days After Donation

A judge tossed Kash Patel's lawsuit against a blogger who called him a "googly-eyed Kremlin bitch," Fauci pled the Fifth at a Senate hearing, and a MAGA charity paid mostly its founder

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

A convicted fraudster gave Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s PAC $2,600 on June 30 and walked away with a presidential pardon three days later. A federal judge tossed FBI Director Kash Patel’s $10 million lawsuit against a blogger who called him a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch.” Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment before Rand Paul’s committee, which promptly moved to hold him in contempt. And a MAGA influencer’s civics charity paid him and his mother $587,279 in a single year while showing no evidence it visited a single school.

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Megadonor Received Trump Pardon Three Days After Donation

It cost Adam Kidan less than $3,000 to make $217 million in debt disappear. Somewhere, a college student is taking notes.

Kidan, a key figure in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, donated $2,600 to Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s leadership PAC on June 30, according to FEC records. Three days later, the president pardoned him.

Kidan served about two-and-a-half years in prison in 2006 after pleading guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud. He and Abramoff were ordered to pay a total of $217 million in restitution, though it’s unclear whether Kidan ever paid the full amount. Trump’s pardon likely wipes out whatever was left.

Kidan is a prolific Republican donor, giving roughly $270,000 to Trump-affiliated committees in the 2024 cycle and hosting fundraisers at Mar-a-Lago. Mackenzie’s office says the congressman never spoke with the White House about the pardon and never advocated for one on anyone’s behalf.

The White House said Trump “finds it detestable that anyone would even attempt to profit off pardons.”

Kash Patel Loses Lawsuit Against Man Who Called Him ‘Googly-Eyed’ Chud

If Kash Patel spent as much time running the FBI as he does suing bloggers, he’d still be bad at it, but at least he’d be busy.

On Tuesday, Nevada Chief District Judge Andrew Gordon dismissed Kash Patel’s lawsuit against blogger Jim Stewartson, finding he lacked personal jurisdiction over the internet commentator.

The saga began in June 2023, before Patel ran the FBI, when he sued Stewartson for calling him a “blatantly incompetent chud” and a “Kremlin asset.”

Stewartson initially ignored the case, which let Patel win a $250,000 default judgment in August 2025. Then Stewartson challenged it, arguing he had no meaningful ties to Nevada, and for good measure declared Patel a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch” and, again, a “chud.”

The judge sided with Stewartson. Stewartson celebrated by thanking the court for including the phrase in the ruling and posting a public service announcement that everyone was now free to call the FBI Director a chud without fear of legal repercussions.

Patel has filed six defamation lawsuits against journalists in seven years. His most recent is a $250 million suit against The Atlantic for reporting on his alleged drinking at work.

Kash Patel has filed six defamation lawsuits against journalists in seven years. We are journalists who write about Kash Patel. Your paid subscription is the reason we can keep doing it without blinking. If you’ve been reading for free, today’s a good day to change that.

Fauci Hearing Goes Off the Rails After He Stonewalls Senators

Rand Paul has been rehearsing this moment for six years and got outperformed by a man who said nothing.

Paul believes the NIH, under Fauci’s leadership, funded dangerous virus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that may have led to the COVID-19 pandemic — and that Fauci lied to Congress about it. After trying to prove it for six years, he finally got Fauci in the chair.

Fauci declined to speak.

Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, citing Chairman Paul’s “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.” This angered Paul, who announced the committee had scheduled a vote next week on a resolution certifying Fauci’s contempt, warning there would be “repercussions.”

Then the hearing unraveled.

Paul had one of Fauci’s attorneys removed after the lawyer tried to sit next to him at the witness table. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio angrily asked Fauci “who the fuck” he thought he was, called him a “megalomania,” and demanded an apology. Fauci refused to answer, but was required to sit until dismissed.

The hearing accomplished nothing, which is to say it accomplished exactly what Fauci wanted.

MAGA Influencer Behind Kids’ Charity Uses Most Funds on Himself

Nick Adams taught 2 million children the most important civics lesson of all: how a scam works.

The Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness, founded by the Australian-born MAGA influencer, claims it has reached 2 million children with civics education. But a ProPublica review found almost no evidence FLAG spends money on its stated mission. No line item in its tax filings identifies a payment to a school, a teacher, or an educational distributor.

What the filings do document is the payroll. In 2024, Adams and his mother, Angelika Adamopoulos, collected a combined $587,279 in compensation and benefits — 53% of the organization’s revenue that year.

Adams started with no salary for three years, took $20,400 in 2019, then climbed to $411,209 by 2023. His mother, paid $201,861 as secretary, was the first employee besides Adams to earn a significant salary. On the same form, FLAG told the IRS that no officers shared a family relationship.

Most of the money came through sweepstakes promising donors a chance to win $1,000,000. FLAG’s records show no evidence it ever paid the prize.

Trump appointed Adams special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism, and values, a position created for him. Trump has called him one of his favorite authors and wrote the foreword to his book Alpha Kings. The man grifted his way from fake charity to fake job title.

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