Good morning. I’m Corrine Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump is suing the IRS for $10 billion and is discussing a settlement. The FBI has assembled a dedicated “revenge squad.” Tennessee Republicans have decided that the punishment for protesting racism is more racism. And the Trump administration is now suing the Catholic Church to bulldoze a pilgrimage site for a border wall.
AlterNet America is our people-powered response to the billionaire capture of America’s media. Corporate media won’t tell these stories the way they need to be told. That’s why independent media matters now more than ever. If holding power accountable is important to you, please subscribe to AlterNet America and become a member. Support the work that keeps democracy alive. Because without independent voices willing to speak truth to power, the billionaires win.
Now, let’s dive in.
Trump Is Suing Himself for $10 Billion and Expects to Win
The president of the United States has sued the federal government for $10 billion, and the person who will decide whether to pay out that lawsuit is, without any irony whatsoever, also the president of the United States.
Trump filed the lawsuit alongside his sons in January, arguing that the wrongful release of his confidential tax returns caused significant and irreparable harm. He is seeking $10 billion in damages, paid by taxpayers. His legal team has said they are in “discussions” with the IRS to avoid protracted litigation.
The Justice Department is holding its own internal discussions about settling in the coming days, and one option on the table is simply having the IRS drop any audits of Trump, his family members, and his businesses entirely.
Trump himself, with a candor that borders on performance art, has acknowledged the conflict: “I’m supposed to work out a settlement with myself.”
The $10 billion figure represents about two-thirds of the IRS’s entire annual budget. To put that in perspective: it’s ten times what the administration has proposed cutting from the National Park Service, and enough to fund the Peace Corps for two decades.
Meanwhile, the IRS is simultaneously dealing with a reduction of 27% of its workforce, leadership turnover, and sweeping new tax law changes all courtesy of the same administration. Nothing says “I was harmed by this agency” like spending a year making sure it can’t function.
The FBI Has a ‘Payback Squad,’ and It’s Exactly What It Sounds Like
Kash Patel once called the FBI a “diseased temple.” Apparently the cure is a dedicated unit for hunting political enemies.
The FBI now has a team of special agents being internally referred to as the “payback squad,” specifically assembled to handle politically sensitive cases, according to four sources briefed on the matter. The team is made up of agents willing to pursue political targets set by the Trump administration.
The squad’s current model for success is the recent criminal prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey. That case was indicted, dismissed by a federal judge who ruled the prosecutor had been unlawfully appointed, re-indicted, and is currently tied up in appeals.
Next on the list is former CIA Director John Brennan. The Director’s Advisory Team is building a criminal case that seeks to charge Brennan with a “grand conspiracy” against Trump, with an indictment expected in the coming weeks, likely in South Florida, in front of Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed jurist who dismissed the classified documents case.
The career prosecutor handling the Brennan case was recently removed after raising concerns, and replaced with Joe DiGenova, a Trump loyalist who previously represented his campaign in its failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Patel has called this “justice, not revenge.” Patel also sued a magazine for $250 million for implying he goes to nightclubs.
Kash Patel has said he will “go after” the media. The “payback squad” is not just for political enemies. It is for anyone paying attention. Independent journalism is one of the few things standing between that squad and total impunity. Please consider becoming a paying subscriber today.
Tennessee Republicans Punish Democrats for Protesting Gerrymandering
Tennessee Republicans spent last week eliminating the state’s only majority-Black congressional district, and this week eliminated every Black lawmaker from the committee process. The theme is not hard to identify.
Republicans called a special session, repealed a decades-old state ban on mid-decade redistricting, and rammed through a new congressional map designed to give the GOP a 9-0 congressional delegation, eliminating the state’s only majority-Black district in the process.
Democrats protested. They linked arms and walked out of the chamber as the vote was called. House Speaker Cameron Sexton took issue with this and stripped every Democrat of their committee assignments.
Representative Justin Jones, who is Black and represents Nashville, noted that by removing all Democrats from committees, Sexton had effectively removed every Black elected official in the Tennessee legislature from the committee process.
The Republicans’ defense for limiting debate time during the special session, in case you were wondering: they wanted to cap debate at 47 minutes, a deliberate nod to America’s 47th president, Trump, who personally called on lawmakers to pass the new maps.
Forty-seven minutes to dismantle decades of voting rights progress. They didn’t even need the whole hour.
Trump Is Suing the Catholic Church to Build a Border Wall Through a Holy Mountain
The administration that spent two years telling Christians they were under attack has filed suit against an actual Catholic diocese to bulldoze a mountain with a giant Jesus on it. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Trump is harder to explain.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin initiated a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces to seize about 14 acres of church land in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, at the base of Mount Cristo Rey, a holy site the administration wants to use for border wall construction. The government estimates the land’s value at $183,071.
The land sits at the base of a mountain topped by a 29-foot limestone statue of Jesus Christ that dates to 1940. Up to 40,000 faithful climb the mountain and participate in Mass every autumn for the feast of Christ the King. Some pilgrims make the journey barefoot. A few ascend on their knees. The government’s offer works out to roughly $4.50 per pilgrim.
The church is fighting back using the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the same Religious Freedom Restoration Act that conservative Christians spent decades championing as a shield against government overreach.
It turns out religious freedom is for exempting Christian bakers from making wedding cakes, not for preventing the federal government from dynamiting a mountain with a giant Jesus on top of it.
The Billionaires Are Counting on Your Silence
AlterNet America is our response to the takeover of CBS and The Washington Post. We don’t have a hedge fund, a billionaire with an agenda, or a corporate parent deciding which stories are too risky to run.
What we have is readers. AlterNet America is purely subscriber-led. People who looked at the current media landscape and decided that independent journalism was worth paying for.
This coverage doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because someone is paying attention and someone else is paying the bills. We’d love for that someone to be you. Join our people-powered movement. Please consider upgrading your subscription to paying today.
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tonight.
POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
South Carolina Senate rejects effort to tackle redistricting despite pressure from Trump. Trump demanded South Carolina Republicans eliminate James Clyburn’s majority-Black congressional district before the June 9 primaries. To do that, they needed to extend their legislative session past its Thursday deadline, which required a two-thirds vote. Five Republican senators voted against the extension, meaning South Carolina has now done something Indiana, Tennessee, and most of the United States Congress have been unable to do: say no.
$1.5b Trump Tower on Gold Coast scrapped less than three months after deal struck. Plans to build Australia’s first Trump Tower, a 91-story luxury hotel and apartment complex on the Gold Coast, were scrapped just three months after being announced. The Australian developer told CNN that the Trump brand had become “toxic.” The Trump Organization blamed the developer for failing to meet its obligations, which is one way to explain why nobody in Australia wants your name on their building anymore.
Spanberger signs bills to ban firearms at Virginia’s public colleges, universities. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed legislation banning firearms on public college campuses, a measure spurred by the 2022 shooting at UVA that killed three football players. The law now restricts firearms on campus to law enforcement, ROTC cadets, and military personnel. It took four legislative sessions to pass, which means Virginia spent four years workshopping the answer to “should 19-year-olds carry guns to calculus.”
AOC Surges to Lead in 2028 Primary for First Time. A new poll from AtlasIntel, ranked the most accurate pollster of the 2024 election, shows Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez leading the 2028 Democratic primary field for the first time with 26 percent. She’s ahead of Pete Buttigieg at 22 percent, Gavin Newsom at 21 percent, and Kamala Harris at 13 percent. AOC has not announced a run and has said her ambitions are “way bigger” than the presidency, which is the 2026 version of “I’m just focused on my current job.”
