Trump's DOJ Is Sitting on 120,000 Ghislaine Maxwell Files
Trump left a secret letter in his desk in case he dies, Nebraska’s GOP nominated someone who doesn’t believe in elections to be in charge of elections, and ICE is officially coming to the World Cup
Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump left a secret letter in his desk in case he dies, which he’s increasingly convinced is going to happen. The federal government is stonewalling every request to explain why a convicted sex trafficker got a prison upgrade right after meeting with a top DOJ official. Nebraska’s GOP just nominated someone who doesn’t believe in elections to be in charge of elections. And ICE is officially coming to the World Cup.
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Trump Stashed an “If I Die” Letter in the Resolute Desk
Sebastian Gorka, the White House counterterrorism official you forgot existed, went on a podcast this week and revealed that the president has hidden a letter in the drawer of the Resolute Desk addressed to Vice President Vance, to be opened in the event of Trump’s death.
The letter is currently sitting in the drawer of the Resolute Desk. It contains, in Gorka’s words, “very firm instructions.” What those instructions say, Gorka did not share. That the instructions exist, Gorka shared immediately and without apparent hesitation, on a podcast, to the general public.
Gorka framed this as a geopolitical deterrent, claiming it sends a message of strength to nations like China, Iran, and Russia. “We have protocols, trust me,” he added, declining to elaborate.
The disclosure comes as Trump has grown increasingly preoccupied with his own mortality and legacy, including publicly admitting that he probably isn’t going to heaven. “I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to get me in heaven,” he said earlier this year. “I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound.”
He has since fundraised off this admission. A super PAC sent an email with the subject line “Friend, I want to try and get to Heaven.” Martin Luther would like a word.
The Government Is Sitting on 120,000 Pages About Ghislaine Maxwell’s Prison Transfer
Here is what we know. Ghislaine Maxwell was quietly transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Bryan, Texas. The transfer happened shortly after she met with Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney and current second-in-command at the Department of Justice.
After the meeting, Maxwell reportedly told Blanche what he wanted to hear: that she never saw Trump do anything inappropriate with Epstein. She then received a nicer prison.
The Bureau of Prisons has refused to explain the transfer. Mother Jones filed a FOIA request. So did Democratic Senators Whitehouse, Blumenthal, and Schiff. After a months-long delay, the BOP said it would take up to nine months to fulfill the request. So Mother Jones sued.
Here is what the BOP disclosed in response to that lawsuit: the agency has completed its initial search and identified 15.8 gigabytes of potentially responsive records, so many that the system crashed during the download process several times. The bureau estimates there may be approximately 120,000 pages of material to review.
For context, the entire works of Shakespeare is about 5 megabytes.
Nebraska Republicans Just Nominated an Election Denier to Run Their Elections
The man Nebraska Republicans just picked to oversee their elections does not believe the 2020 election was conducted legitimately. The fox has applied to manage the henhouse and the hens voted yes.
Scott Petersen, an Omaha businessman, defeated incumbent Secretary of State Bob Evnen in a primary election Tuesday by more than 16,000 votes. Should he win the general election in November, which is likely, he would be one of the most extreme chief election officials in the country.
Petersen amplified conspiracies about voting machines being hackable, argued that mail voting should be restricted to special circumstances, and promised to conduct full hand-counts of races. He also posted support for the January 6th rally at the White House, writing “What an amazing number of flags and unbelievable support for President Trump!”
The incumbent, Evnen, had spent months traveling the state conducting what he called a transparency tour, explaining how ballot-counting machines work and why Nebraska’s elections deserve their reputation as a gold standard. He lost by fifteen points.
Evnen had endorsements from sitting senators, congressmen, and eight years of a spotless record. Petersen had Facebook posts and a theory about the machines. Nebraska Republicans looked at both options and chose the Facebook posts.
Come for the Soccer, Stay Because ICE Won’t Let You Leave
Forty-eight countries are sending their best soccer players to the United States this summer. The United States is sending ICE.
DHS confirmed that ICE officers will be present at some matches to help “secure” the events. “International visitors who legally come to the United States for the World Cup have nothing to worry about,” a spokesperson told The Hill.
ICE officers have not been told to stay away from stadiums. They have not been told they cannot make arrests.
ICE is offering its personnel to local police departments and federal agencies to provide extra security around the perimeters of games, similar to Homeland Security’s role at the Super Bowl and the Kentucky Derby. No one has confirmed whether anyone is actually taking ICE up on the offer, which means the answer could be all of them or none of them.
Earlier this year, ICE was deployed to airport security lines during a TSA shortage. At a Marine Corps graduation ceremony in South Carolina, ICE agents stationed outside the event caused a number of recruits to walk across the stage without their families, as parents stayed home out of fear of being arrested.
The AFL-CIO has asked FIFA to keep ICE out of host cities entirely. FIFA, which has never met a political controversy it couldn’t ignore, has not responded.
Independent Media Dies Without You
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