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‘Brazen Criminality’: Allegations of ‘Quid Pro Quo’ Fly After Border Czar’s Admission

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President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, appeared on Fox News with Eric Adams on Friday morning in a lighthearted yet pointed exchange. As the pair and the hosts laughed, Homan made it clear that the deal struck with the New York City mayor comes with specific obligations for Adams. After Homan’s remarks aired, some critics argued that his comments suggest an explicit — and potentially unlawful — quid pro quo.

“If he doesn’t come through,” Homan chortled — but in what some viewed as a clear on-camera warning — “I’ll be back in New York City. And we won’t just be sitting on the couch. I’ll be in his office, up his butt, demanding, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we made?’”

Many across the nation were stunned this week when a senior U.S. Department of Justice official ordered the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, to drop all federal corruption charges against Mayor Adams. The shock continued when an eight-page letter that Sassoon — a Trump appointee — had written, was released. It explained in detail what appears to be a rock-solid case against Adams, how it would be a violation of her oath not to continue the prosecution, and that the government “does not have a valid basis to seek dismissal.” It  also exposed a possibly unlawful deal the feds made with the mayor.

READ MORE: Trump Admin Orders Immediate Mass Firing of Some Federal Workers — 200,000 Possibly at Risk

Sassoon alleged a “quid pro quo” in her letter, addressed to newly sworn-in Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“Rather than be rewarded, Adams’s advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case. Although Mr. Bove disclaimed any intention to exchange leniency in this case for Adams’s assistance in enforcing federal law, that is the nature of the bargain laid bare in Mr. Bove’s memo. That is especially so given Mr. Bove’s comparison to the Bout prisoner exchange, which was quite expressly a quid pro quo, but one carried out by the White House, and not the prosecutors in charge of Bout’s case.

Sassoon resigned rather than drop the charges, CNN reported, and five other top officials quickly followed her, resigning in protest.

Some have called it the “Thursday Night Massacre,” a reference to the Watergate-era when, in 1973, President Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. In what was called the “Saturday Night Massacre,” Richardson resigned rather than fire Cox. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. He also refused, and resigned.

But in this “Thursday Night Massacre,” three times as many top officials resigned, exposing the deep distaste for what some deem corruption.

READ MORE: ‘Corruption’ Claims Fly Over Musk’s Modi Meeting as Trump Shrugs: ‘I Don’t Know’

Acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove “directed prosecutors to drop the case ‘as soon as is practicable’ in a two-page memo Monday,” CNN reported. “His memo cited the fact that the prosecution ‘unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime’ – making clear the political motivations behind the decision.”

Homan’s and Adams’ appearance on Fox News’ usually upbeat “Fox & Friends” show Friday morning did not appear to help the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice, Homan, or Adams.

“This is just sheer brazen criminality by DOJ,” declared former federal and state prosecutor Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch News. “Adams gets federal corruption charges dropped not because there isn’t overwhelming evidence, but because he agrees to help Homan round up migrants. And Homan says the charges will be refiled if Adams doesn’t ‘come through.'”

Politico’s Emily Ngo, who posted video of the exchange between Homan and Adams (below,) wrote, “Thinly veiled Homan warning to Adams.” Veteran journalist John Harwood responded, “not veiled at all.”

“Nice of Trump’s border czar to confirm on TV the quid-pro-quo that Trump’s DOJ said this week did not exist,” noted HuffPost reporter Arthur Delaney.

“This is insane,” declared journalist Séamus Malekafzali. “They’re just out in the open saying this was a quid pro quo where the Mayor of New York has to do everything Trump says on immigration or he is going to jail.”

“Nothing like a quasi-hostage video on live television,” noted politics reporter Jake Lahut, a contributor to Wired and The Columbia Journalism Review.

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Palpable Harm’: Hegseth Slammed for ‘Screwup’ of ‘Biggest Foreign Policy Issue’

 

 

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‘Buffoonery’: New Senate GOP Budget Slashes Medicaid Even Deeper Than House Bill

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House Republicans have come under sustained fire for their budget bill, which would deliver sweeping cuts to the social safety net—slashing hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and Medicare. While many expected Senate Republicans to soften those reductions, the Senate’s version—released late Monday afternoon—goes even further, deepening the House’s Medicaid cuts and raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, rather than the $4 trillion proposed in the House bill.

Politico reports that the decision to squeeze Medicaid for even more money, to help pay for President Donald Trump’s tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy, is “already setting off shockwaves through Capitol Hill,” and would be “a huge departure from the House-passed bill.”

The budget legislation, officially President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” also makes permanent his tax cuts from his first term, effectively representing a multi-trillion-dollar expense.

READ MORE: ‘Spending Like Drunken Sailors’: ICE $1B Over Budget Ahead of New Trump Deportation Surge

The Hill reports that the bill also includes Trump’s campaign promise of “no tax on tips.” That is a controversial proposition among critics who say it could open the floodgates for high-wage earners as it could exclude bonuses from taxation.

The GOP Senate’s version also includes provisions that would make it more difficult for Medicaid users to access benefits, by imposing stricter work and reporting requirements, while reducing the amounts the federal government gives to the states for its share of Medicaid payments.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the House’s version of the bill would increase the number of uninsured people by an additional 10.9 million people.

Polls have shown Americans oppose the House version by about a 2-1 margin, largely because of the hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) on Monday called portions of the Senate bill “meanspirited,” and “political buffoonery,” according to CNN’s Sarah Ferris.

Michael Linden, a former executive associate director at the Biden White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) summed up the bill: “Huge cuts to health care so that rich people can get another tax cut.”

READ MORE: ‘Gas on the Fire’: Trump Blasted for Targeting Blue Cities and ‘Radical’ Dem Politicians

 

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‘Spending Like Drunken Sailors’: ICE $1B Over Budget Ahead of New Trump Deportation Surge

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Although President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is deporting people at a slower pace than President Joe Biden did last year, ICE, under the direction of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, is reportedly $1 billion over budget—even as Trump on Sunday issued a new order directing the agency to carry out “the largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”

Even before that order, Trump’s “immigration crackdown” has been “burning through cash so quickly that the agency charged with arresting, detaining and removing unauthorized immigrants could run out of money next month,” Axios reported on Monday. ICE “is already $1 billion over budget by one estimate, with more than three months left in the fiscal year.”

“Trump’s DHS is spending like drunken sailors,” U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) told the news outlet. “They are spending likely in the neighborhood of a billion dollars more at ICE than we authorized, and that’s patently illegal.”

READ MORE: ‘Coup’: What DHS Secretary’s ‘Liberate’ Comment Means, According to Experts

But one former federal budget official told Axios, “I have a feeling they’re going to grant themselves an exception apportionment, use the life and safety exception, and just keep burning money.”

Trump could make emergency declarations to get around the law, sources told Axios.

“You could imagine a new emergency declaration that pertains to interior enforcement that would trigger the same kind of emergency personnel mobilization statutes,” former Defense Department lawyer Chris Marisola told Axios.

“These statutory authorities authorizing the president to declare emergencies,” Marisola told Axios, unlock “a whole host of other authorities for these departments and agencies [that] are often written incredibly broadly and invest a lot of discretion in the president.”

Calling out what he claimed are “threats from Radical Democrat Politicians.” on Sunday night, President Trump declared that “ICE Officers are herewith ordered…to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”

But the President also declared that program was to be conducted only in Democratic-led cities.

RELATED: ‘Gas on the Fire’: Trump Blasted for Targeting Blue Cities and ‘Radical’ Dem Politicians

“In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” Trump continued. “These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.”

The President went on to claim that “Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports.”

Trump reiterated and expanded on his largely false claims on Monday, attacking “Democrat-run cities” and his predecessor, while speaking at the G7 in Canada.

Watch the video below or at this link.

RELATED: In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand

 

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‘Kremlin Owned Puppet’ Trump Jets Off to Canada to Defend Vladimir Putin at G7: Critics

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President Donald Trump arrived in Alberta, Canada, just before midnight on Sunday, to attend the Group of 7 (G7) industrialized nations meeting. By Monday morning he was publicly denouncing the intergovernmental economic group’s decision (as the G8) in 2014 to oust Russia after President Vladimir Putin invaded and annexed Crimea.

“Russia was thrown out of G8 as punishment for annexing Crimea – the first step toward invading Ukraine in 2014,” wrote Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin. “The annexation was deemed a violation of international law and the principles upon which the G8 (now G7) is founded. The move was a response to Russia’s aggressive actions and a show of unity by the other G7 nations.”

Standing next to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump declared on Monday, “The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that there was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.”

READ MORE: ‘Coup’: What DHS Secretary’s ‘Liberate’ Comment Means, According to Experts

Stephen Harper, not Justin Trudeau, was Prime Minister of Canada in 2014 when Russia was suspended from the group, because Putin started the war against Ukraine in 2014.

“But it didn’t work out that way,” Trump continued, “but it used to be the G8, and now it’s, I guess, what’s that, nine years ago? Eight years ago, it switched over. They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake, even though I wasn’t in politics then.”

“I was very loud about it. It was a mistake in that you spend so much time talking about Russia, he’s no longer at the table. So it makes life, more complicated, but you wouldn’t have had to work. And other than that, I think we’re gonna accomplish a lot together.”

He continued to defend the Russian president, telling reporters, “Putin speaks to me, he doesn’t speak to anybody else. He doesn’t want to talk—because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G8. As I would be, as you would be, as anybody would be. He was very insulted.”

“And, I mean, he was thrown out by Trudeau,” Trump again wrongly insisted, “who convinced one or two people along with Obama, he was thrown out, and he’s not a happy person about it, I can tell you that. Basically he doesn’t even speak to the people that threw him out, and I agree with him.”

Trump also appeared to recite some of the talking points from his Sunday night screed, in which he vowed to attack “radical Democratic politicians” and use ICE to target undocumented immigrants in just blue cities, but Prime Minister Carney stepped in to stop him from continuing.

RELATED: ‘Gas on the Fire’: Trump Blasted for Targeting Blue Cities and ‘Radical’ Dem Politicians

Critics slammed the American President.

“Trump thinks if Russia wouldn’t have been thrown out of the G8 there wouldn’t be a war,” noted Olga Lautman, a Kremlin expert and Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). “Russia was thrown out because they illegally invaded Ukraine in 2014.”

“What humiliation for the United States to have this kremlin owned puppet representing her on the world stage,” she noted.

The Daily Beast’s Julia Davis, a Russia expert, added, “Trump remains Russia’s biggest advocate, lobbying for its re-admission to G7 (G8).”

Former Tea Party Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, now a Democrat and political commentator, responded to the American president’s remarks, writing: “Trump works for Putin. He really does.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

RELATED: In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand

 

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