Tag: justice department
Sycophant's Reward: Bondi Dumped As Attorney General With Zeldin In Wings

Sycophant's Reward: Bondi Dumped As Attorney General With Zeldin In Wings

President Donald Trump has fired Attorney General Pam Bondi after he was apparently displeased with her performance in using the Department of Justice to pursue his personal vendettas.

Trump is reportedly planning to replace her with current Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, a Trump loyalist known for pursuing a pro-pollution agenda.

Bondi wasn’t Trump’s first pick to serve as attorney general. The original plan was to install former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, but a sex-trafficking scandal pushed him out, forcing Trump to pivot to Bondi.

Under Bondi, attempts have been made to pervert the criminal justice system to go after Trump’s ideological enemies. Charges were filed against figures like New York Attorney General Leticia James—who successfully prosecuted Trump—and former FBI Director James Comey—who exposed Trump’s role in the pressure campaign that led to his first impeachment.

But those cases have faced roadblocks from skeptical judges and grand juries who stand in the way of Trump using the court system as his plaything.

Bondi has also been a disaster while serving as the most public face attached to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. She touted Trump’s line early on, hinting that disclosures about the accused sex trafficker and his reported client list would be exposed. But Bondi quickly became the leader of Trump’s refusal to come clean about the lurid details of Epstein’s operation and his victims. Testifying before Congress, she was repeatedly defiant about the administration’s efforts to hide the Epstein files from the public.

The suddenly dumped attorney general has operated as a loyal foot soldier for Trump, pushing to silence his critics and rushing to defend his allies like racist billionaire Elon Musk. But like ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem—another woman in Trump’s Cabinet who has been pushed out—Bondi has apparently outlived her usefulness.

House Oversight Committee Democrats issued a warning to Bondi after news of her firing broke.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi has been leading a White House cover-up of the Epstein files,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee, said in a statement.

Garcia said that Bondi weaponized the DOJ to protect Trump in the Epstein case, accusing her and Trump of putting survivors in harm’s way by exposing their identities.

“She must answer for her mishandling of the Epstein files and the special treatment she has given [Epstein accomplice] Ghislaine Maxwell,” he added.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was also Trump’s personal lawyer, will operate as interim attorney general. Blanche has demonstrated his willingness to use the publicly funded DOJ as a tool of Trump’s personal interests.

Meanwhile, during his time in Congress, Zeldin was a zealous defender of Trump. And after a failed bid for New York governor, Zeldin was appointed to the EPA, where he has pushed for relaxing rules meant to keep environmental resources clean—endangering the lives of millions of Americans.

But whether he chooses Blanche, Zeldin, or another sycophant, Trump has made it clear that his priority is to bend the justice system to his will to continue his cover-ups and corruption.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was also Trump’s personal lawyer, will operate as interim attorney general. Blanche has demonstrated his willingness to use the publicly funded DOJ as a tool of Trump’s personal interests.

Meanwhile, during his time in Congress, Zeldin was a zealous defender of Trump. And after a failed bid for New York governor, Zeldin was appointed to the EPA, where he has pushed for relaxing rules meant to keep environmental resources clean—endangering the lives of millions of Americans.

But whether he chooses Blanche, Zeldin, or another sycophant, Trump has made it clear that his priority is to bend the justice system to his will to continue his cover-ups and corruption.

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CathyMApr 02, 2026 at 02:20:28 PM

YES!! 😄😄😄😄

Now — some lawsuit to PRESERVE THE EVIDENCE against her so we can prosecute when sanity returns!! THANKS for the good news!

tmseattleCathyMApr 02, 2026 at 02:30:11 PM

It won’t make a bit of difference. She did exactly what Trump wanted, and was fired because she got backlash for following his orders. He’ll just find another sycophant to replace him, unless the Senate blocks him.

ktoztmseattleApr 02, 2026 at 02:32:18 PM
unless the Senate blocks him

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Like that’s going to happen.

AstronutktozApr 02, 2026 at 02:50:31 PM

The Senate Guardians Of Pedophiles are probably already shivering with delight at the prospect of handing Dear Leader what he wants.

alterego55AstronutApr 02, 2026 at 04:05:57 PM

It’s Trump’s fault because he never told Blondi that releasing the Epstein files was nothing more than a campaign lie. She thought she had the holy grail in her and Trump would appreciate her initiative. He’d shower praise all over her. But now he blames her.

That’s how Trump operates.

Noodlesalterego55Apr 02, 2026 at 06:09:22 PM

She made him look bad. “Sorry, now you have to go, that's the ultimate crime”. Also she probably complained. Trump doesn't need any nattering like that.

SpancosktozApr 02, 2026 at 03:04:13 PM

Otherwise, let the cavalcade of 120-day rotating, interim, acting AGs commence!
Nothing good can come of the good that’s just occurred.
Zeldin, a practicing lawyer for THREE years before entering politics.
Truly a shitshow in a rolling dumpster fire in a fourteen-ring circus.

SimnsaysSpancosApr 02, 2026 at 04:44:06 PM

...with a demented Ring Leader!

niemanntmseattleApr 02, 2026 at 02:56:58 PM

That seems to be the pattern:

Sell your soul to Donald Trump for power and money.

He throws you under the bus anyway.

They never learn that, for Trump, loyalty is a one-way thing.

RenderBotniemannApr 02, 2026 at 03:08:58 PM

In announcer her kick to the curb, Trump said she will be going to “the private sector”, which suggests his friends may have set up a sweet, golden job for her so she doesn’t … talk.

Should we expect anything less here?

PissedGruntyRenderBotApr 02, 2026 at 03:16:47 PM

Or that he’s just making up shit. He does frequently.

TRsCousinPissedGruntyApr 02, 2026 at 03:34:04 PM

Apparently Bondi will start at the important new job in “two to three weeks.” We know what “in two weeks” usually means.

PissedGruntyTRsCousinApr 02, 2026 at 03:47:55 PM

What is “never”?

RenderBotPissedGruntyApr 02, 2026 at 03:58:38 PM

As many other comments in this post have said, Trump or his handlers would want Pambi to go quietly and obediently. She knows some things about him, going way back and Epstein-deep. What better way than to prearrange a cushy landing for her? I am just speculating, no inside knowledge of how this exit was structured.

PissedGruntyRenderBotApr 02, 2026 at 04:01:03 PM

I’m not saying its impossible. I’m just conditioned to assume with a 90% confidence that anything he says is a lie, unless he’s promising to hurt innocent people.

FiresidemanPissedGruntyApr 02, 2026 at 08:24:07 PM

What is: “A good bet?”

for 💯

RepublicanAirPollutionRenderBotApr 02, 2026 at 05:50:43 PM

"She knows some things about him"

Yeah and now watch her get her revenge!

ILoveBatsRepublicanAirPollutionApr 02, 2026 at 06:38:31 PM

Another one who needs a secret safe-deposit box to be opened in the event of her death.

MadLibrarian9RepublicanAirPollutionApr 03, 2026 at 12:38:29 AM

Awaiting the race. Who gets ahold of Bondi first, Faux Newz or Mother Jones? You can guess which I’d prefer.

Too ShyRenderBotApr 02, 2026 at 11:11:27 PM

Does anyone else think that she’s made copies of every single epstein file, but she never told tfg?

walkshillsRenderBotApr 03, 2026 at 12:05:00 AM

As a former Florida AG, I bet she know a lot of shit about a lot of people aside from Trump and his gang. Florida is rather notorious for its range of crimes.

RepublicanAirPollutionRenderBotApr 02, 2026 at 05:48:49 PM

Everyone in Trump's orbit goes down to the private sector.
Trump's "private sector” that is (meaning kissing his ass)😘

Desert ScientistniemannApr 02, 2026 at 04:27:13 PM

Bingo! And some of his MAGA buddies are starting to realize that! One reason his polls are going into the toilet. He should have stayed out of the 2024 race, if he wanted ti actually not get caught in his own lies!

Too ShyDesert ScientistApr 02, 2026 at 11:12:57 PM

He ran in the 2024 race in the first place so that he wouldn’t go to prison.

Blue Choir SingerniemannApr 02, 2026 at 04:28:44 PM

I Guess She Failed to Indict Senator Schiff,

I guess super-loyalist Bondi “failed” to appease “Dear Leader” because she failed to indict Senator Adam Schiff my fine junior Senator. I’m sure anyone else who takes her place will be just as wacko. But again, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

SimnsaysniemannApr 02, 2026 at 04:49:33 PM

I keep trying and trying and trying to figure out why these folks who are willing to debase themselves on international TV, never think he will throw them under his bus. It’s like the women who think the married men who cheated on their wives with them won’t cheat on them too. It’s seems like a type of arrogance where they think they are some kind of special so the same thing won’t happen to them.

poalcat51niemannApr 02, 2026 at 07:18:22 PM

Yep. The scuttle is that Bondi and Trump got into a heated argument last week and despite her begging him to keep her job, she was out the door and on her way back to Florida by the time he stood in front of the TV cameras last night.

These folks just don’t seem to grasp the fact that if you agree to go to work for DJT you had better be good at knowing how to cover up for him and make him look good, because he sure as hell isn’t going to take the blame if anything goes wrong (which it usually does).

They just don’t get it.

Desert ScientisttmseattleApr 02, 2026 at 04:23:59 PM

Exactly! Siding with T***p doesn’t keep you safe. He demands loyalty, but never gives it. He sees the world like most extreme narcissists, as composed of enemies and fools.

NickyZCathyMApr 02, 2026 at 03:07:48 PMgiphy-Snoopyhappydance.gifskippppppApr 02, 2026 at 02:21:48 PM

So Trump is mad at her for releasing too much from the Epstein files?

abydenusskippppppApr 02, 2026 at 02:29:26 PM

It is hard to say. From what I heard Trump wanted to his please his Qanon base by releasing even more of the Epstein files. At the same time the Epstein files made Trump look bad and so he wanted Bondi to release less of them. It was basically a Schrodinger’s Epstein Files. Bondi was given an impossible task, obviously failed, and was canned for not being able to complete a contradictory and impossible mission.

Kevo2007abydenusApr 02, 2026 at 02:52:38 PM

How to please Trump enough in this job to not get fired:

Good: Redacting Trump from files and releasing them. This one is risky because sleuths could determine the subject to be Trump.

Better: Selectively releasing the files that Trump is not in and releasing all the files where he does not appear.

Best: Rewrite the files and make up fake files using AI to incriminate Democratic policitians and anyone that Trump considers an enemy.

Because Bondi was unable to perform to Trump’s demands (best), she is gone. It didn’t help that she said “Fifty thousand DOLLARS”.

abydenusKevo2007Apr 02, 2026 at 03:03:22 PM

The problem is that Trump’s supporters are morons (that is why they are Trump supporters). They were convinced that the unedited Epstein Files would vindicate Trump and convict the “perverted Dummicrats”:

The fact that Bondi did not release all the Epstein files made them conclude that she was too stupid to realize this or worse was evil and had been corrupted by the Dummicrats:

Basically good tsar, bad boyars:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_tsar,_bad_boyars

In other words, Trump is wonderful and everything that goes wrong is because of his bad Cabinet. The doublethink is mind-boggling...2nd balconyabydenusApr 02, 2026 at 03:46:33 PM

yeah, bad boyars…whatcha gonna do? anyway, although you invoke uncertainty, or indeterminancy, you also intimate that the maga version of the copenhagen interpretation is to just put a pinch between the cheeck and gum. j’approuve.

LeftleanerabydenusApr 02, 2026 at 02:55:26 PM

What she was probably supposed to do was to replace the idiot with Clinton, or better yet Obama, and then release them.

niemannabydenusApr 02, 2026 at 03:03:16 PM

She didn’t know that Trump is the only person who is allowed (for some reason) to get away with brazenly lying and claiming two completely contradictory things at the same time.

MammadiquattroniemannApr 02, 2026 at 06:06:26 PM

You forgot machine gun lips who can lie with impunity even better than her felon boss!

skippppppabydenusApr 02, 2026 at 05:01:08 PM

That sounds about right.

Sort of like how we’ve already won the war, yet we still have to get the job done.

And shame on NATO allies for not helping us win a war that we don’t need their help winning.

mungleyskippppppApr 02, 2026 at 02:30:53 PM

I read on RawStory that it was over Bondi telling Congressperson Swalwell that they are reopening an investigation about his fundraising.

(An alleged Chinese spy helped him raise funds. Orig investigation was dropped because there was no “there” there.)

CathyMmungleyApr 02, 2026 at 02:44:44 PM

I doubt that was the real reason; either she said something he took wrong, or some other toady (Blanche?) convinced him to replace her, or his dementia just took hold and he’s lashing out randomly.

I want to know what bribe (job) she got — is it big enough to keep her quiet? She’s got a lot on him… does he have enough on her to keep her from monetizing her knowledge? Stay tuned.

TKO333CathyMApr 02, 2026 at 02:59:29 PM

She took the bribe for the Trump University thing in Florida, but I heard she may have been involved with Trump and Epstein before that. I always figured the bribe in Florida was her primary qualification for this job, but I do not know if there is more in her history.

AstronutCathyMApr 02, 2026 at 03:01:08 PM

Or is he just getting rid of women? I heard that Tulsi Gabbard may be next. Or not; she’s as clearly a puppet for Putin as T**** and he’d need Pooty’s permission.

mungleyCathyMApr 02, 2026 at 03:10:47 PM

As with Noem there is no traditional TACO “I’ve never met the woman/she’s dead to me” bluster.

He said “transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector.”

Bondi has to have enough dirt on TACO to bury him. He’ll have to keep her happy.

A Noah CountmungleyApr 02, 2026 at 06:13:07 PM

“Bondi has to have enough dirt on TACO to bury him. He’ll have to keep her happy.”

On the other hand, he sees himself as being just like a mafia Don. He may well have “made her an offer she couldn't refuse”, if she has any ideas about getting even with him, if you know what I mean.

Too ShyA Noah CountApr 02, 2026 at 11:29:33 PM

I’m sure she has a HUGE insurance policy set up so that doesn’t happen. Just like Ghislane Maxwell.

A Noah CountToo ShyApr 03, 2026 at 08:35:09 AM

I’d love it if she not only showed up for her appearance before Congress on the 14th, but she also “spills ALL the beans” on the Pumpkin Pinochet when she’s there.

That would be SOOOO sweet!

NYVeganmungleyApr 02, 2026 at 03:04:37 PM

Meidas just published this:

Attorneys for Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., sent a formal cease and desist letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on Sunday, demanding he immediately halt any effort to publicly release a decade-old investigative file related to the congressman — and threatening to haul him into federal court if he refuses.
... It was copied to Attorney General Pamela Bondi and FBI General Counsel Sam Ramer — a deliberate, public paper trail that signals Swalwell’s legal team is prepared to escalate fast.
The three-page letter alleges Patel directed the FBI to dig up and release the file on Swalwell, who is currently a leading candidate in California’s June 2 gubernatorial primary. Swalwell’s lawyers say the file relates to a counterintelligence matter in which the congressman cooperated with and assisted the FBI — and that he was never accused of any wrongdoing.
skippppppmungleyApr 02, 2026 at 05:00:15 PM

Why would Trump fire her over that?

I would bet he directed her to open the investigation.

mungleyskippppppApr 03, 2026 at 12:55:39 AM

She allegedly tipped Swalwell off. TACO wouldn’t like that.

Too ShymungleyApr 02, 2026 at 11:20:06 PM

They just wanted to dirty him up, because he spoke out against the kleptocrats.

nilaskippppppApr 02, 2026 at 02:50:31 PM

Donny fired her because she’s weakening the brand...but Pam did her best with the hair...he should use it, Bondi’s hair is better than his at half the cost

Roger MexiconilaApr 02, 2026 at 03:15:46 PM

No, no, no — She needed long extensions, draped down the bosom, and “work” on her lips, eyebrows, and face in general. Plus higher heels. So she just didn’t fit in with Drumpf’s ideas about “beautiful.” Failure.

Brian3nilaApr 03, 2026 at 08:21:25 AM

Should have used a better dye.

gfpskippppppApr 02, 2026 at 03:19:27 PM

Did he consult with Laura Loomer before making this decision?

Methinks They LieApr 02, 2026 at 02:22:10 PM

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Oh no! Does this mean she has to go back to chasing ambulances???????

CathyMMethinks They LieApr 02, 2026 at 02:45:24 PM

No — he’s set her up in a “private sector job” — paying her off somehow. Media needs to get on this and find the job…

MemoryCellsMethinks They LieApr 02, 2026 at 02:50:41 PM

She got paid big money by Qatar to be a lobbyist. Maybe Iran might need to hire someone connected to Trump to hash out the bribes?

eyesoarsMemoryCellsApr 02, 2026 at 05:40:27 PM

I gather they’re trying to get their beautiful 747 back. Maybe they can pay her to do that, but it might not sit well with Hair Furor.

RenderBotMethinks They LieApr 02, 2026 at 03:12:39 PM

She still has a Congressional subpoena to answer to, that should be fun.

A Noah CountRenderBotApr 02, 2026 at 04:31:01 PM

Even if she complies with the subpoena, she’ll just do her Junior High School mean girl shit.

Roger MexicoMethinks They LieApr 02, 2026 at 03:18:04 PM

Huh? I thought only excitable pooches do that.

exlrrpApr 02, 2026 at 02:23:06 PM

The only bad thing about Bondi getting the boot is her replacement (Lee Zeldin? Todd Blanche??) will be worse. Trump's giving her the boot because--unbelievably-- she wasn't fascist enough.

TomPaineEsqexlrrpApr 02, 2026 at 02:25:37 PM

It’s Blanche, at least temporarily.

NepentheRisingTomPaineEsqApr 02, 2026 at 02:58:09 PM

Get him to testify under oath!!!

tightlikethatexlrrpApr 02, 2026 at 02:27:10 PM

Or at least she was not effective enough at imposing fascism...

exlrrptightlikethatApr 02, 2026 at 02:29:11 PM

Maybe wouldn't let him grab her whatever

SpaceElevatorexlrrpApr 02, 2026 at 02:37:54 PM

She has been at tRump’s side for a long time; odds are pretty good they have ‘bumped uglies’ in the past. She adores Fat Donnie.

barneydoggSpaceElevatorApr 02, 2026 at 02:47:19 PM

Just lost my lunch.

Will Smirk 4 FoodSpaceElevatorApr 02, 2026 at 03:30:18 PM

Jesus did you have to say that?? I was reading this while eating. Now I have to scrape chip dip off my computer screen!!!

A Noah CountWill Smirk 4 FoodApr 02, 2026 at 04:33:59 PM

You’ve been here long enough that I would think that you’d know by now this can be a “dangerous” place.

; ]

Too ShyA Noah CountApr 02, 2026 at 11:41:32 PM

LOL

tmseattleexlrrpApr 02, 2026 at 02:32:24 PM

She was plenty fascist. She was just unable to make the Epstein files go away and get retribution on Trump’s enemies, thanks to the remaining ethical judges in the justice system.

KarmalaexlrrpApr 02, 2026 at 02:34:06 PM

Plus that upcoming April 14 Oversight Committee deposition, though I didn’t really think she’d appear. There are plenty of law firms that will hire her at a much higher salary.

CathyMKarmalaApr 02, 2026 at 02:58:11 PMwww.theguardian.com/…1h ago13.33 EDT

Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democratic representative from Florida, released a statement noting that Bondi is still expected to testify before the House oversight committee, noting that her ouster “does not get her out of that bipartisan, lawful subpoena. We will see her soon.”

CathyMCathyMApr 02, 2026 at 02:59:17 PMsame post: 2h ago13.27 EDT

...Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, welcomed Bondi’s ouster and said that she led “a White House cover-up of the Epstein files”.

..Today, Garcia said that he still expects the ousted attorney general to testify.

“She will not escape accountability,” he said. “She must answer for her mishandling of the Epstein files and the special treatment she has given Ghislaine Maxwell.”

...“If they think we are moving on because they were fired, they are gravely mistaken,” Garcia said of the Democrats’ ongoing investigations into the former officials.

KarmalaCathyMApr 02, 2026 at 03:04:41 PM

I’m skeptical that she will show.

Saint StephenKarmalaApr 02, 2026 at 04:03:39 PM

As well all know, rules and laws don’t apply to Republicans.

quiet thoughtCathyMApr 02, 2026 at 03:09:31 PM

She should show up to the hearing and throw Trump under the bus. He’s earned it.

RenderBotquiet thoughtApr 02, 2026 at 03:14:52 PM

Then goodbye cushy job “in the private sector” for Pam.

CathyMRenderBotApr 02, 2026 at 07:55:35 PM

Sadly… as long as they think they are safer together, no one will rat on the other…

DartagnanApr 02, 2026 at 02:23:09 PM

Nancy Mace is a lickspittle idiot.

“Bondi handled the Epstein Files in a terrible manner and made this situation far worse than it had to be for President Trump,” Mace said.

“Far worse than it had to be?” Exactly how much worse should it have been?

PissedGruntyDartagnanApr 02, 2026 at 02:37:11 PM

“Life in prison” worse, though I doubt Mace agrees with me.

gfpDartagnanApr 02, 2026 at 03:27:30 PM

Because the most important consideration is not justice or closure for the survivors or accountability among the guilty, but whether it makes things better or worse for Trump.

They aren't even trying to pretend to care any more.

A Noah CountgfpApr 02, 2026 at 04:37:45 PM

When she flat out refused to acknowledge the Epstein victims seated right behind her showed she didn’t care one bit.

ClytemnestraApr 02, 2026 at 02:24:20 PM

What position in the “Shield of the Americas” will she now inhabit?

DurabilityClytemnestraApr 02, 2026 at 02:26:19 PM

Car Shield

Roger MexicoDurabilityApr 02, 2026 at 02:37:41 PM

I hear that car shields can be easily replaced, eh? Says so on TV.

Don DumitruClytemnestraApr 02, 2026 at 02:26:37 PM

The bleet had her being dumped into the private sector.

Olds88Don DumitruApr 02, 2026 at 02:31:11 PM

A “much needed” private sector job.

She must be hard up. Guess she didn’t charge enough to her brother’s pardon clients.

Roger MexicoOlds88Apr 02, 2026 at 02:38:50 PM

Floor mop girl at a Taco Bell. It’s a sort of living.

shabbedolleRoger MexicoApr 02, 2026 at 06:47:14 PM

“Floor mop girl at a Taco Bell” — its a honest job (that I’ve done — my roommates made me change out of the uniform on the porch tho). Much more honest and less “ewww” than covering for Trumpstein, i.e., changing his diapers.

BobRROlds88Apr 02, 2026 at 02:40:18 PM
A “much needed” private sector job.
She must be hard up. Guess she didn’t charge enough to her brother’s pardon clients.

My local Wal Mart is hiring. $20 an hour to start, $23 an hour for the optical department, no experience necessary.

Too ShyBobRRApr 02, 2026 at 11:46:38 PM

Where is your Walmart? My husband has been there for 15 yrs, and he’s making less than that.

BobRRToo ShyApr 03, 2026 at 01:32:35 AM
Where is your Walmart? My husband has been there for 15 yrs, and he’s making less than that.

It’s in Kona, Hawaii. Of course, the cost of living is higher here. Hawaii’s minimum wage is $16 an hour, and will be $18 an hour in 2028.

I’m sure the pay is also higher because the available work force is smaller.

Too ShyBobRRApr 03, 2026 at 02:24:33 AM

Probably. We live in the eastern part of the state, and the town is all about the service industry. Snowing in the winter (when we get snow) and the snooty rich valley people come up here during the summer to escape the heat.

Too ShyToo ShyApr 03, 2026 at 02:52:09 AM

btw. the minimum wage is $15.50 in arizona. Years ago, when I worked at Walmart, arizona raised its minimum wage to $9/hr. I had been at Walmart for about 10 years, and I was really aggravated that the new cashiers were making 50cents/hr less than me. You would think that if they were going to follow the new minimum wage policy of the state that they would adjust other people’s wages. Walmart is way too cheap to do that. It might hurt the corporate profits.

CathyMDon DumitruApr 02, 2026 at 02:47:19 PM

Some kind of bribe job… or maybe somewhere she’ll be watched closely. I shudder to think of the treachery involved in working anywhere near Rump…

tightlikethatApr 02, 2026 at 02:25:43 PM

Can't wait to see which ghoulish MAGA Monstrosity is appointed to replace her...

ontheleftcoasttightlikethatApr 02, 2026 at 02:31:10 PM

^^ THIS ^^

Every time, every damn time, Shitler replaces someone they turn out to be some new form of horrible.

Baby SealtightlikethatApr 02, 2026 at 02:31:31 PM

Word is that it will be Lee Zeldin.

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'Damning' Prosecution Memo Suggests Trump Sought Profit From Classified Papers

New revelations have emerged in President Donald Trump's classified documents case, per a "damning" memo obtained by MS NOW, showing that he seemingly intended to profit from illegally retaining the sensitive materials.

According to the report published Friday, special counsel Jack Smith determined that Trump had retained "secret documents that related to his worldwide business interests," revealing a key potential motive for his dogged efforts to hang onto them.

Trump held the documents, often in questionable places, at his Mar-a-Lago resort, after departing the White House in 2021, later insisting that he had the right to retain them and that he had declassified them with his mind before leaving office. He was indicted on 32 felony counts related to his retention of the materials, and an additional eight charges for conspiracy to obstruct justice, but the case was halted after his reelection.

The revelations about Trump's business motive originate from a January 2023 progress memo produced by Smith's office, though the specific businesses and how they relate to the classified information were not disclosed.

“Trump possessed classified documents pertinent to his business interests — establishing a motive for retaining them,” the memo explained. “We must have those documents.”

As MS NOW's report explained, Trump's motive for retaining the materials had, up until now, been largely uncertain. Trump himself has long insisted that he had every right to retain the documents, likening them to the materials kept on hand by his predecessors for their presidential libraries. Some reports indicated that Trump seemed to show off the documents to impress people who visited Mar-a-Lago, while other critics warned that he may have been attempting to sell the sensitive information.

"Trump’s reason for taking hundreds of pages of classified documents when he left office in January 2021 — and then concealing them when the Justice Department subpoenaed him for their return in May 2022 — has been one of the larger mysteries of the case," MS NOW explained. "FBI agents conducting an unannounced search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022 discovered hundreds more pages of top-secret records that Trump and his lawyers had failed to return to the government after claiming they had fully returned all classified materials."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) cited this memo in a scathing letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday, accusing the agency of covering up Trump's misdeeds while scrambling to find incriminating evidence against Smith.

“These new disclosures suggest that Donald Trump stole documents so sensitive that only six people in the entire U.S. government had access to them, that the documents President Trump stole pertained to his business interests,” Raskin wrote “This glimpse into the trove of evidence behind the coverup reveals a President of the United States who may have sold out our national security to enrich himself.”

The congressman added: "Apparently blinded by the frenzied search to find any scrap of evidence that could be twisted and distorted to level an attack against Special Counsel Smith (despite constantly coming up empty-handed), you have, quite amazingly, missed the fact that some of the documents you provided include damning evidence about your boss’s conduct and may well violate the gag order your DOJ and Donald Trump demanded from Judge Aileen Cannon."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet


Pardons, Sopranos Style: Indictment Of MAGA Lobbyist Exposes Systemic Rot

Pardons, Sopranos Style: Indictment Of MAGA Lobbyist Exposes Systemic Rot

A fixer is owed money. The client won’t pay. So the fixer turns to an enforcer: How far should I go? Do you want him hurt? A broken jaw? A missing finger?

The fixer’s answer: do “anything and everything” to collect.

It has the makings of a mob drama. Except it’s all true. And this isn’t North Jersey. It’s Washington, D.C. And the product isn’t illicit goods—at least not in the traditional sense.

It’s presidential pardons.

Josh Nass is a Washington lawyer who recently helped secure a presidential pardon. He now faces criminal charges for extortion.

Nass’s story illustrates a larger point. When a president turns the pardon power into a favor-trading racket, the corruption radiates outward—into the lawyers, fixers, and enforcers who operate in its shadow.

Nass is a conservative lawyer and lobbyist who circulates in MAGA circles and reportedly purchased property in Trump Tower, an immediate credential for proximity to the boss. He is one of a growing number of figures operating in the shadows of Trump’s pardon bazaar, advertising access and charging would-be recipients six- and seven-figure fees.

Figures from Rudy Giuliani to Corey Lewandowski have been drawn into this orbit. Giuliani reportedly sought as much as $2 million from a client for a potential pardon in 2020.

Nass worked the system successfully. That almost certainly means he traded not in the traditional currency of clemency—rehabilitation, remorse, equity—but in something else: proximity, flattery, politics.

But the client couldn’t pay the $500,000 contingency fee.

That happens to lawyers. When it does, they turn to the legal system—negotiate, restructure the debt, write it off, or, if all else fails, file suit.

But Nass had no interest in operating within the legal system. Instead, according to prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, in filings seeking his pretrial detention, he hired someone he believed to be a thug enforcer to “persuade” the client to pay up, using the traditional tools of the trade: terror and violence.

That person turned out to be a confidential informant. The result was a series of recorded conversations and, now, an extortion charge. In the taped conversations, Nass and the informant discuss how far to take the intimidation.

Cut off a finger? Put a gun to his head?

Nass’s answer: do “anything and everything.”

And then, according to prosecutors, Nass offers a justification:

“You came to him as a human being… and he told you to go f*** yourself. So you can’t be a human being with him.”

It’s not hard to hear Paulie making the same argument to Tony.

The point is not simply that Nass allegedly crossed a criminal line.

It’s that someone like Nass exists at all, part of an ecosystem that has grown up around Trump’s transformation of the pardon power.

I’ve argued before that Trump’s use of clemency is among the most corrupt features of his presidency, not because of any single decision, but because the entire process has been reoriented away from law and toward personal and political advantage.

Nothing surpasses the pardons he issued on his first day in office to the January 6 marauders; they are a lasting stain on our history. But that was only the most visible example. He has since doled out a long string of pardons to flagrantly undeserving individuals for illegitimate reasons.

In some cases, the surrounding circumstances—for example, clemency for relatives of major political donors—have such a stench that they ordinarily would trigger oversight in Congress or criminal investigation. In Trump 2.0, fuggedaboutit.

The institutions that would ordinarily check the outrages have stepped back, stood down, or been sidelined. The Department of Justice sees no difference between Trump’s political maneuvers, however unsavory, and the letter of the law. Congress’s oversight is toothless. And the Supreme Court’s infamous immunity decision has removed criminal accountability from the field.

When pardons become a political commodity, a market grows around them. A December Wall Street Journal report suggests that the going rate for a Trump pardon clocks in at around $1 million.

Nass is illustrative of the seamy courtiers that pop up wherever influence is currency: lawyers and lobbyists charging enormous fees to people who would have no plausible chance at clemency in a system governed by principle.

They are not selling legal analysis or advocacy in any meaningful sense. They are selling access. And in the pardon racket Trump presides over, access is everything.

Deals like that don’t stay clean.

It’s not just that the pardon system has become transactional and unmoored from any legitimate consideration. It’s that everyone operating within it understands that, at the top, the usual legal constraints no longer apply.

If a president were trading pardons for money in an ordinary administration, that would trigger a criminal investigation. It would dominate the Justice Department. It would end presidencies.

Here, it barely registers. The reaction is muted, episodic, quickly overtaken by the next outrage. What would once have been disqualifying has become background noise under a president who makes corruption a feature rather than a bug of his administration.

And the signal from the top is unmistakable. The Supreme Court’s immunity decision does more than shield past conduct. It communicates that certain exercises of presidential power operate beyond the reach of ordinary law.

The actors in the president’s orbit respond accordingly. The boss makes the big money, and the capos exploit the system for a cut of the illicit proceeds.

Nass’s conduct isn’t an aberration. It’s the logic of the market.

When the product is illicit—whether drugs, stolen goods, or pardons—transactions don’t end in courtrooms. They end in leverage, and sometimes in violence.

The system has adapted to the premise that the president can do no wrong. Everything else follows.

The scandal is not the extortion charge.

The scandal is the system that made it entirely predictable.

Ed Martin, Weaponized Prosecutor For Trump Justice, May Soon Face Disbarment

Ed Martin, Weaponized Prosecutor For Trump Justice, May Soon Face Disbarment

Ed Martin, former interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, had to look hard, but somehow managed to find the “dumbest possible rake” to step on, as Mark Joseph Stern tells Slate. Now the former Trump appointee is in even more trouble than he was.

“On Tuesday, the disciplinary counsel for the D.C. bar announced a formal complaint against Martin for professional misconduct,” said Stern. “The charges accuse him of violating his oath to the Constitution, then interfering with the investigation into his alleged malfeasance. If found culpable, he could be suspended from the practice of law or disbarred in D.C.”

Martin’s alleged unconstitutional behavior is already a matter of public record, said Stern. But it’s what he did after receiving notice of the complaint that sets Martin’s arrogance apart from all others. Upon receiving the initial complaint, Stern said Martin “launched a pressure campaign against the D.C. Court of Appeals … to suspend the lead investigator on his case.”

This, it turns out, was a much more egregious violation of court process than what the D.C. bar was initially investigating him for. The initial complaint was all about Martin’s harassment of Georgetown University Law Center, when he sent a letter to then-Dean William Treanor warning the school to remove all traces of DEI or the Trump administration would not hire Georgetown Law grads. He even threatened that the school might lose federal funding.

But while Martin’s letter was “absurd and malicious,” Stern said it might not constitute a violation of his oath. There was even a chance that the Board on Professional Responsibility or the D.C. Court of Appeals would agree.

But instead of contesting the claim against him through the proper legal channels, Martin allegedly tried to quash the complaint by committing “a far more clear-cut ethical breach,” said Stern. “According to the charges, Martin refused to respond to the complaint, and instead wrote directly to the chief judge and senior judges of the D.C. Court of Appeals. In his letter, he requested a “face-to-face meeting with all of you to discuss this matter and find a way forward.”

The chief judge, Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, told Martin to go pound sand and follow standard procedure. But rather than take her advice, Martin reportedly told the disciplinary counsel that he was essentially “calling their manager” — and he copied Blackburne-Rigsby on the email.

Furious, the disciplinary counsel demanded Martin turn over his letter to the judges. But rather than comply, he wrote to the chief judge again, insisting “that you not only suspend Mr. Fox immediately to investigate his conduct, but also to dismiss the case against me because of his prejudicial conduct.”

“Unfortunately for Martin, the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct expressly forbid lawyers from communicating with a judge ‘unless authorized to do so by law or court order,’ which he was not,” said Stern. “There appears to be no serious dispute that Martin communicated with Blackburne-Rigsby ex parte not once, not twice, but three separate times, all in an effort to evade discipline against him.”

If proven, Stern said this behavior “is a textbook example of misconduct sanctionable by the bar. So, of course the D.C. bar’s disciplinary counsel charged Martin with violating that rule, as well as another prohibiting conduct that ‘seriously interferes with the administration of justice.’”

“The erstwhile interim U.S. attorney, then, is in a pickle of his own making,” said Stern. “Had he simply fought Fox’s complaint the right way, he may well have defeated the charges in short order. But because he allegedly tried to obstruct the investigation, he faces a separate set of charges on much firmer legal ground.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

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