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‘Political Protection Racket’: Bondi Blasted for Shrugging Off Security Breach Investigation
Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing sharp criticism after strongly suggesting she will not authorize a criminal investigation into a major national security breach involving 18 top national security and defense officials from the Trump administration. Critics have pointed to her recent confirmation hearing, during which she vowed to keep the U.S. Department of Justice free from political influence.
Asked whether the Justice Department is investigating the Signalgate scandal, and if not, why not, the Attorney General claimed the information shared was “not classified”—in direct contradiction to the judgment of numerous national security and military experts.
‘Well, first, um, it was sensitive information, not classified, and inadvertently released and what we should be talking about is it was a very successful mission, she said, attempting to move the focus to the Yemen bombing. “Our world is now safer because of that mission. We’re not gonna comment any further on that.”
But Bondi then moved to attack top Democrats.
READ MORE: ‘No Adult Supervision’: Concern Escalates as Trump Increasingly Appears Out of Touch
“If you want to talk about classified information, talk about what was at Hillary Clinton’s home that she was trying to bleach bit, talk about the, that classified documents in Joe Biden’s garage that Hunter Biden had access to, she said, perpetrating right-wing misinformation about the former U.S. Secretary of State and presidential nominee, and re-introducing the Biden classified document issue, which was fully investigated by the Department of Justice.
“This was not classified information, and we are very pleased with the results of that operation and that the entire world is safer because of it,” Bondi re-iterated.
The New York Times, reporting on the Attorney General’s remarks, noted that the Justice Department “opened investigations into Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Biden in those instances, but neither ultimately faced criminal charges. She did not mention the prosecution of Mr. Trump over his handling of classified documents after his first term in office — a case which was ultimately abandoned when he won a second term.”
But the Times also noted that “Dating back to at least the Reagan administration, the government has considered the details of ‘military plans, weapons, or operations’ to be classified.”
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) is calling for a special counsel to investigate.
After noting that DOJ investigated Clinton and Biden, he added:
“Bondi sees the Justice Department as a political arm of Trump’s White House, she won’t do her job. That’s why we need a special counsel,” he wrote, adding, “Defense officials say Hegseth likely shared classified info on Signal. DOJ has to investigate this too.”
“Bringing up Hillary Clinton is not the own you think it is,” Congressman Beyer continued. “Republicans made her testify for 11 hours on her handling of classified information. I was there. Now the same Republicans are bending themselves into pretzels to justify what Hegseth did. They think you are stupid.”
Investigative journalist Roger Sollenberger remarked, “For what it’s worth, Joe Biden’s administration directed a Trump-appointed Republican to independently investigate Joe Biden for potentially mishandling classified information.”
READ MORE: Passwords, Contact Info for Top Trump NatSec Officials ‘Publicly’ Available: Report
Sollenberger also chastised Bondi: “Openly political attorney general running an openly political protection racket in an openly politicized Justice Department after sworn Senate confirmation testimony that she would keep politics out of it.”
Calling Bondi’s remarks “Pathetic,” Political Science professor William Muck noted: “This is why a wall between the Attorney General and the president is so fundamental. Bondi most certainly knows the information was classified and warrants an investigation, but is unwilling to do her job because she fears it will upset the president.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
REPORTER: The Signal chat controversy — is DOJ involved? If so, why? If not, why not?
AG PAM BONDI: It was sensitive info, not classified. What we should be talking about is it was a very successful mission … if you want to talk about classified information, talk about what… pic.twitter.com/QVbE5C8mG4
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 27, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Liar’ Hegseth Faces ‘Immediate’ Resignation Demand From Growing List of Democrats
Image via Reuters
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
