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Kelly Trout, 202-222-0722, ktrout@foe.org
Nick Berning, 202-222-0748, nberning@foe.org
WASHINGTON - Documents made public this morning by Friends of the Earth provide definitive evidence that the State Department's review of a controversial proposed oil pipeline has been irreparably tainted by department employees' pro-pipeline bias and complicit relationships with industry executives, including an oil lobbyist who was once a top Hillary Clinton campaign aide.
The internal State Department documents, which pertain to the review of TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, show that a State Department official cheered "Go Paul!" after TransCanada lobbyist Paul Elliott announced his firm had obtained new support for the pipeline. They reveal multiple department officials' understanding that TransCanada planned to reapply to pipe oil at potentially dangerous pressures after the Keystone XL was approved (TransCanada announced in August 2010 that it was withdrawing its application for a permit to use high pressures). And they provide further evidence of inappropriately cozy relationships between multiple department employees and lobbyist Elliott, who was lobbying illegallyfor as long as two years due to his failure to disclose his lobbying as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
An overview of key contents of the newly released documents, as well as links to pdfs of the documents themselves, can be found at https://www.foe.org/new-foia-docs-reveal-smoking-gun-regarding-state-department-bias.
"The contents of these newly released documents are shocking. They expose a rigged State Department process conducted in close coordination with oil firm TransCanada," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. "These revelations should disqualify the State Department from playing any further role in the pipeline review. If President Obama is true to his campaign pledge to end the days of lobbyists setting the agenda in Washington, he must revoke the State Department's authority to approve this pipeline."
"If President Obama removes the State Department from the process, a fair-minded reading of the evidence will force him to reject this dirty and dangerous pipeline, and that is exactly what he should do," Pica said.
The documents made public today were obtained by Friends of the Earth, the Center for International Environmental Law and Corporate Ethics International via the Freedom of Information Act. The State Department initially refused to release the documents, so the groups, represented by Earthjustice, filed suitin May to force their release. The batch of documents made public today is the second round of documents released by the State Department. More documents are expected to be forthcoming.
On Thursday, September 22, the Washington Post reportedon the first round of documents. Those documents indicate that State Department officials provided inside information and coaching to TransCanada.
The additional evidence of State Department bias and an irreparably flawed process is substantial. For example:
* Last fall Secretary of State Clinton said she was "inclined" to approve the pipeline even though an analysis of the pipeline's potential environmental impacts was not finished.
* A Wikileaked document reported on by theLos Angeles Timesindicates that State Department officials "alleviated" Canadian officials' concerns about whether the pipeline might be approved and provided them with "messaging" advice.
* The firm hired by the State Department to prepare the environmental impact statement and hold public hearings -- Cardno Entrix-- recently listed TransCanada as one of its "major clients."
* The environmental impact statement released by the State Department in August included an appendix written by two TransCanada employeesand a TransCanada consultant(pdf)but did not identify TransCanada as the author. The appendix was a response to an independent report by University of Nebraska professor John Stansbury, Ph.D., about what the worst Keystone XL spills could look like. Though the TransCanada-authored response was included in the environmental impact statement, Stansbury's report itself was not.
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400The Democratic senators pushed Skydance CEO David Ellison for answers on reports suggesting the existence of a side deal with the president that includes advertising for right-wing causes.
A trio of Democratic U.S. senators on Monday launched a probe into reports that President Donald Trump's legal team struck a secretive side deal with Skydance—the prospective owner of CBS—that includes millions of dollars worth of "broadcast transmissions" supporting right-wing causes.
In a letter to Skydance CEO David Ellison, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote that Trump himself appeared to confirm the existence of the side deal in comments to reporters about his $16 million settlement with Paramount, the current owner of CBS that is seeking federal approval for its pending merger with Skydance.
Trump suggested the settlement was worth twice as much as the publicly reported figure, saying, "We did a deal for about $16 million plus $16 million—or maybe more than that in advertising... So it's like $32 to maybe $35 million. I think that's what they did."
The senators described the alleged side deal as a "potential secret Trump payoff."
"This admission appears to corroborate reporting that claims you reached a 'side deal' with the president, the terms of
which involve CBS airing public service announcements 'and other broadcast transmissions' worth between $15 million and $20 million that 'support conservative causes supported by President Trump.' The nature and existence of this arrangement are uncertain, with at least one anonymous source calling the reports 'false.'"
The president's comments aligned with a New York Post story published earlier this month alleging that Ellison vowed to "run between $15 million and $20 million of public service ads to promote causes supported by the president" once the Skydance CEO takes over CBS.
Paramount denied having any knowledge of a side deal.
Did Skydance make a secret side deal with Donald Trump so he’d approve its $8 BILLION merger with Paramount?
This could be bribery in plain sight. I'm pushing for answers NOW. https://t.co/UMSf84Cx7h
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 21, 2025
The Democratic senators wrote in their letter to Ellison that the president's comments and related reporting "raise fresh questions about corruption in the Trump administration and President Trump's willingness to accept payments from entities with significant policy interests before agencies he controls."
The senators demanded that Ellison provide answers to seven questions, including whether there is "currently any arrangement under which you or Skydance will provide compensation, advertising, or promotional activities that in any way assist President Trump, his family, his presidential library, or other administration officials" and whether Ellison has "personally discussed with President Trump, any of his family members, any Trump administration officials, or presidential library fund personnel any matters related to the Paramount-Skydance transaction."
The letter was sent days after Ellison met with Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr—a Trump loyalist—to discuss the pending merger with Paramount.
The meeting, according to Skydance's counsel, included a discussion of "Skydance's commitment to unbiased journalism and its
embrace of diverse viewpoints, principles that will ensure CBS' editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers."
As Variety noted, "That's significant because Carr, appointed by Trump, had reopened an agency probe into a 'news distortion' complaint against CBS over the allegedly deceptive editing of a '60 Minutes' interview with Kamala Harris segment—the same interview that Trump sued Paramount and CBS over."
"The application of the FCC's 'news distortion' policy in this way was highly unusual, according to former agency officials," Variety reported.
One critic called the move "a desperate attempt to distract from the Trump administration's decision to block the release of the Epstein files."
As U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans stonewall efforts to keep the full files on deceased financier and convicted child sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein under wraps, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Monday released a long-anticipated massive trove of documents related to the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., despite opposition from his family.
"Today, after nearly 60 years of questions surrounding the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we are releasing 230,000 MLK assassination files, available now at http://archives.gov/mlk," Gabbard said on the social media site X. "The documents include details about the FBI's investigation into the assassination of MLK, discussion of potential leads, internal FBI memos detailing the progress of the case, information about James Earl Ray's former cellmate who stated he discussed with Ray an alleged assassination plot, and more."
"Thanks to President Donald Trump's leadership, Executive Order 14176 resulted in three, unprecedented interagency efforts to identify, digitize, declassify, and release files related to the federal government's investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. King," Gabbard added.
However, many of the MLK documents remain heavily redacted.
Responding to the MLK files' publication, the King family said in a statement: "As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief—a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met—an absence our family has endured for over 57 years. We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief."
Statement from the King Family on the Release of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Assassination Files:
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— Martin Luther King III (@officialmlk3.bsky.social) July 21, 2025 at 1:00 PM
The King family reiterated their belief that "someone other than James Earl Ray was the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame."
"As we review these newly released files, we will assess whether they offer additional insights beyond the findings our family has already accepted," their statement said.
As his relatives noted, the FBI infamously surveilled King—America's most hated man, according to a 1968 Harris poll that showed the civil rights icon with a 75% negative approval rating—under the notorious COINTELPRO program, especially after his civil rights activism evolved into staunch critiques of U.S. militarism during the escalating Vietnam War and capitalism-driven economic inequality.
Then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy authorized the wiretapping of King's phone, with the head agent in charge of COINTELPRO, William Sullivan, warning that "we must mark [King]... as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation." This, just before King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for helping to lead the struggle against Jim Crow segregation and disenfranchisement.
The FBI systematically bugged King's home and hotel rooms, mailed an anonymous letter urging him to kill himself, and even sent a tape of what it claimed was King having one of his numerous alleged affairs to his wife. When King criticized the FBI for ignoring the heinous and often murderous crimes of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists who were still lynching Black people with alarming regularity and impunity, an infuriated Hoover publicly called him the "most notorious liar" in America.
People from across the political spectrum took to social media to slam the MLK document dump as "a desperate attempt to distract from the Trump administration's decision to block the release of the Epstein files (despite earlier promises)," as the X account Republicans Against Trump portrayed the move.
Prominent attorney and Democratic strategist Aaron Parnas wrote on the social media site Bluesky, "Whether through releasing the MLK files or trying to prosecute President [Barack] Obama, Donald Trump is flooding the zone with information to distract you from the Epstein files."
Bernice King—MLK's granddaughter and CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change—wrote on X: "Now, do the Epstein files."
"The 'Big Beautiful Bill' will cost more than it saves, and working families stand to lose the most," said one union.
A nonpartisan federal agency estimated Monday that the Republican megabill signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump on July 4 will add $3.4 trillion to the national deficit and cause at least 10 million people to lose health insurance over the next decade.
Warnings about the law's impact on the national debt and the healthcare of millions—particularly Americans on Medicaid—were prominent during the GOP effort to pass the budget reconciliation package by Trump's Independence Day deadline, but they did not stop Republicans in Congress from sending the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act to the president's desk.
When asked about the new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the package was "a great bill for the American people," and "a fiscally responsible bill."
Meanwhile, critics of the law used the CBO release as an opportunity to call out the GOP. In a Monday floor speech, U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) highlighted that "the number of people who will lose health insurance could be higher—as many as 15 million," when accounting for other attacks, including on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare.
"It betrays every family worried about paying for groceries, the mortgage, the rent, prescription drugs—all going up because of Donald Trump and his administration."
"This finalized independent analysis from the CBO confirms it: Republicans' signature bill is the ultimate betrayal of the American people," Schumer declared. "It betrays every single family who will lose health insurance. It betrays our financial future. It betrays our children and grandchildren who will pay for these billionaire tax breaks, as the debt rises and rises."
"It betrays every family worried about paying for groceries, the mortgage, the rent, prescription drugs—all going up because of Donald Trump and his administration. And it betrays every rural community that benefits from good-paying energy jobs," he continued. "Republicans' supposed signature bill betrays everyone outside of the billionaire class and the special interests."
Sarah Lueck, vice president for health policy at the progressive think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said on social media that "the latest CBO estimates make clear that the so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' is anything but—it would cause widespread harm with more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and ACA marketplaces and higher costs for families trying to afford healthcare and groceries."
Lueck explained that the 15 million estimate factors in the 10 million due to health cuts in the package, 4.2 million because the legislation didn't extend expiring ACA tax credits, and more marketplace losses under Trump administration rule changes.
"The new law will take Medicaid away from people enrolled via the expansion if they don't meet a work requirement, harming parents, people with disabilities, and those with chronic illnesses. Protected groups and working people will lose coverage due to red tape," she warned. Due to the ACA expirations, Lueck added, "self-employed people, gig workers, early retirees, and low-wage workers are among those who will face steep hikes; some will end up uninsured."
The GOP package contains the biggest-ever cuts to not only Medicaid but also the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), noted Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at another think tank, the Center for American Progress. He stressed that it will lead to "untold amounts of human suffering among the poorest people in the country."
U.S. House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said in a statement that "President Trump and his Republican lapdogs can't hide from the truth. This final nonpartisan CBO estimate confirms their Big Ugly Law adds $3.4 trillion to the deficit to fund tax breaks for billionaires."
"It's one of the most expensive bills ever passed," he said. It's also one of the cruelest. More than 15 million Americans will lose their healthcare because of the law's assault on Medicaid and Republican plans to dismantle the ACA. I was proud to lead the fight against this disastrous law and will continue working to remind the American people who sold them out, and who's still fighting for them."
Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal responded to the CBO's findings by pointing to recent CNN polling that shows roughly 6 in 10 Americans oppose the new Republican law.
"It's easy to see why the vast majority of Americans oppose this pro-billionaire agenda," said Tal. "Republicans in Congress just jeopardized health coverage for millions of Americans, SNAP benefits for millions of children and families, and the existence of hundreds of rural hospitals across the country—all so they could give another tax break to the richest of the rich. We will continue to hold Republicans' feet to the fire for voting for this massive betrayal of American families."