If the laws requiring such agencies to be independent are unconstitutional, it may be that very existence of those agencies is also now illegal.
The Supreme Court agreed with Vice President Vance that federal limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with their candidates violate his First Amendment rights, siding with Republicans on Tuesday in a campaign finance battle that became a tug-of-war between the major political parties. The 6-3 majority ruled the limits violate Vance’s…
President Donald Trump shared what appeared to be an AI-generated image Monday night of a golden eagle statue affixed to the White House facade, and while the post was ridiculed by critics, one former GOP staffer flagged what they believed was a hidden message.The image in question shows a golden eagle statue attached to the front facade of the White House holding a red, white and gold shield surrounded by 11 stars. Trump described it as a “golden gift to the White House for its 250th birthday year,” suggesting there may be plans to bring the image to life.However, Steve Schmidt, the former GOP strategist and co-founder of the conservative anti-Trump organization the Lincoln Project, zeroed in on the number of stars featured on the statue, which differed from the typical 13 to represent the original 13 colonies.“This is grotesque and un-American,” Schmidt wrote Tuesday in a social media post on X to his more than 1.4 million followers. “11 stars represent the Confederate States of America, not the United States of America.”Schmidt was making reference to the 11 states that seceded from the United States between 1861 and 1865 to form the Confederate States of America, largely out of a desire to preserve their right to enslave African Americans.Trump has sparked controversy throughout his two terms regarding the Confederacy. In 2020, Trump ruled out renaming U.S. military bases named after Confederate officers, going as far as to restore the name of a base that was stripped of its reference to a Confederate officer during the Biden administration.Trump also attacked NASCAR over its Confederate flag ban and has called Confederate monuments "beautiful" and criticized efforts to see them removed.This is grotesque and un-American. 11 stars represents the Confederate States of America, not the United States of America. pic.twitter.com/YqCMYHQSMp— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 30, 2026
A legal battle over one Jeffrey Epstein accuser's unreleased FBI interview notes has emerged as a flashpoint threatening to complicate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's path to confirmation, as a federal judge presses the Justice Department for answers it has so far declined to give.The woman, known in court filings as Jane Doe 4, alleged in four 2019 FBI interviews that she was abused by Epstein in the 1980s and separately assaulted by Donald Trump when she was between 13 and 15 years old, and a federal judge has asked the Justice Department for answers about her case that have so far not been provided, reported The Guardian.The White House has dismissed the claims as "completely baseless," but the case has taken on outsized significance because Jane Doe 4 is among the only alleged Epstein victims to have directly accused the president — and because the Justice Department's handling of her file has become emblematic of broader concerns about its compliance with the Epstein Transparency Act.Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan last week ordered Blanche to produce unredacted versions of already-released files by July 2 or explain why he cannot, and he separately ordered the release of handwritten interview notes from Jane Doe 4's FBI sessions that have never been made public. The order came in a civil case brought by journalist Katie Phang, and late Friday the DOJ's third-ranking official, Stanley Woodward, gave notice he would join the case, a move one attorney involved called a sign that officials "really, really don't want these documents released."The case has drawn particular scrutiny because Blanche, Trump's former personal attorney, personally oversaw the document-review process, directing a team of 500 reviewers through several chaotic release waves that exposed victims' names and compromising photographs while quietly retracting other records without explanation.Critics argue that roughly 2.5 million additional documents deemed "duplicative" or legally protected were withheld without sufficient justification, despite a law that explicitly bars withholding records over embarrassment or political sensitivity.Only one outlet, South Carolina's Post and Courier, has reviewed the still-unreleased interview notes, reporting that they reference high school friends who might corroborate parts of Jane Doe 4's account but do not address her alleged encounter with Trump.A Jane Doe joined a lawsuit against Epstein’s estate in 2020 with allegations and biographical details that line up with the FBI interviews, but she later dropped her claims.The Guardian spoke to a family member who said Jane Doe 4 is “staying off the grid” and lives in fear of retaliation from the Trump administration, adding that she's "coping" with "chronic trauma" related to the Epstein saga "the best she can," and an attorney who represented her during the two FBI interviews said he never received follow-up calls from the agents or copies of their reports that are usually provided to defense counsel.That attorney asked the publication not to report his name or location to protect the alleged victim's identity.
President Trump on Monday blasted gasoline retailers and the State of California over high fuel costs, demanding lower prices for Americans as oil hovers around $70 per barrel amid de-escalation with Iran. Last week, Trump announced that he had "instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into" price gouging by big oil companies. The post “There Will Be No Gouging, Which is Totally Illegal” – Trump Calls on Gas Retailers to Drop Prices to $2.50, Demands California Cut Gas Tax After Ordering DOJ Probe appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Tens of thousands of people still haven’t been found after a pair of devastating earthquakes in Venezuela last week—including some Venezuelans who had just been deported from the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push and were being held in a hotel when the temblors hit, The Associated Press revealed Monday.There were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, on a deportation flight that arrived just hours before the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes, the AP reported, citing a Human Rights First initiative that has tracked thousands of such flights under Trump. They were brought to Hotel Santuario La Llanada in La Guaira, which collapsed because of the quakes.“Lisbeth Portillo, 58, said she escaped the rubble from the hotel with about 20 other deportees who walked the streets looking for help. They saw people running, some naked and others barefoot as they emerged from the rubble of the building,” according to the outlet.Another deportee who survived, 24-year-old Jenny Rodriguez, told Telemundo: “I was trapped under the rubble. A colleague who had been on the same flight came by; I managed to free my hand from the debris, grabbed him by the trousers, and begged for help... Thanks to God—and to him—I was able to get out of there.”Oswadeliz Núñez Ramírez is still “frantically searching for her son,” 28-year-old Daniel Alejandro Núñez Ramírez, who was also on the deportation flight and at the hotel, the Miami Herald reported Monday. A member of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service who called himself “Jonathan” told her that he had pulled her son from the rubble, but, “skeptical of the official account, his mother has searched every hospital, clinic, and sector of La Guaira and Caracas without success.”While US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to the AP’s request for comment, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, told the Herald: “This flight safely reached Venezuela, and all illegal aliens on board were returned home. When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them.”Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said Monday that the earthquake has left at least 1,719 dead, 5,034 injured, and 15,866 displaced from their homes.UN News noted Monday that the ongoing search and rescue effort involves more than 2,000 workers from over two dozen countries, plus over 160 dogs, and Gianluca Rampolla, the United Nations resident coordinator in Venezuela, “reported that the UN and Venezuelan authorities had agreed to procure 10,000 body bags in anticipation of the death toll rising further.”Rampolla said that “together with the search and rescue operations, we are focusing, together with the government, on providing emergency healthcare, shelter, food assistance, water and sanitation, and logistical support to ensure not only the storage but also the distribution of all the supplies arriving in the country, as well as protection.”As of Monday evening, more than 44,000 people remained missing, according to a reunion website for families. As NBC News detailed Monday:Even as the chances of finding survivors diminished with every passing hour, Venezuelans continued using shovels, ropes, and their bare hands as they dug through mountains of collapsed concrete.They were joined by a growing number of international rescue teams, who pulled multiple survivors from the wreckage, offering desperate families a rare glimmer of hope.Among the rescues, teams from the United States, France, and Venezuela pulled a man and his son from the ruins Sunday morning after they had spent four days trapped beneath the rubble.Organizations including US-based peace group CodePink and the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington, DC-based think tank, have called on the US and allied countries to lift all sanctions against Venezuela in the wake of the earthquakes.Trump earlier this year directed an illegal invasion of Venezuela, during which US forces killed scores of people and abducted President Nicolás Maduro, then seized control of the South American country’s nationalized oil industry.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday said President Trump will not veto the bipartisan housing bill after cancelling plans to sign the legislation last week. Johnson met with the president at the White House for two hours on Monday, urging him to sign the measure that aims to ensure more access to affordable housing nationwide. …
Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.
The Supreme Court has finally brought the administrative state back under elected control.