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'The Call Came From the White House': Trump Aide Secured $620 Million Pentagon Loan for Firm Tied to Don Jr.
The president's eldest son had taken a stake in the rare-earth magnet firm three months before the loan was announced.
May 28, 2026
Three months after Donald Trump Jr.'s venture capital firm took a stake in a small North Carolina rare-earth magnet firm, a Pentagon department tasked with boosting rare-earth manufacturing for national defense purposes expedited a request for a loan worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the company—a transaction that one government ethics expert said at the time gave the appearance of "conflicts of interest."
On Thursday, new details of how the $620 million loan was secured were reported by ProPublica—and only added to concerns that the money was given to Vulcan Elements last year to benefit its new investor, President Donald Trump's eldest son.
According to ProPublica, although Trump Jr., the Pentagon, and Vulcan Elements said Trump Jr. was not involved in the loan deal and the company did not benefit from political favoritism, his close friend—White House trade and manufacturing counselor Peter Navarro—personally made the call to the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital last fall, asking them to quickly approve the loan.
The message to staffers in the office at the time was: "The call came from the White House: We have to get this done," one Pentagon employee told ProPublica.
Vetting of companies that the department is considering for funding usually takes months, but the staff "worked late nights and with little sleep to get the loan through in a matter of weeks," the investigative outlet reported.
The $620 million loan dramatically increased Vulcan's valuation, which was estimated to be about $200 million around the time that 1789 Capital, Trump Jr.'s venture capital firm, invested.
Three months after the company took a stake, Vulcan was valued at an estimated $2 billion.
"While your family pays higher prices, companies connected to the Trump family get giant government contracts," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in response to the new reporting. "Congress must investigate: Is this corruption at the highest level? We need answers NOW."
ProPublica also reported that a week before the Vulcan loan was made public, Trump Jr. had Navarro as a guest on his streaming show, "Triggered with Don Jr.," and urged his nearly 2 million subscribers to purchase Navarro's book.
The outlet noted that Trump and his family have been accused of corruption and self-dealing numerous times; a drone parts manufacturer that Trump Jr. owns a stake in is also being considered for a Pentagon loan, and the family has added billions of dollars to their fortunes through World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm founded by the president's two eldest sons.
"The Vulcan loan represents the first time the awarding of a contract from a federal agency has been directly linked to White House intervention," reported ProPublica.
A Pentagon spokesperson maintained in a statement to the outlet that "no company receives preferential treatment" and that "outside affiliations, investors, or political connections play absolutely no role in the department’s funding decisions.”
But progressive advocate Melanie D'Arrigo said the numerous financial benefits enjoyed by Trump's family during his presidency are not the result of "coincidence."
"It's all corruption," she said.
Democratic lawmakers earlier this year pushed to subpoena Trump Jr., seeking answers about how the company he was tied to secured its funding, but Republicans in the US House blocked the effort.
“If there is nothing to hide,” said Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) in March, “then why won’t Donald Trump Jr. explain to this committee why, just months after becoming a partner, his firm’s financial stake grew substantially following the single largest loan ever issued by the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital? This is the oligarchy on full display."
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FBI Purge Includes Official Who Tried to Protect Jan. 6 Investigators
"These firings are part of a broader campaign to weaponize federal law enforcement and replace highly experienced public servants with political hacks eager to carry out Trump's retribution agenda," said one coalition.
Aug 07, 2025
This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates...
Amid accusations that U.S. President Donald Trump is turning the Department of Justice into his "personal weapon," multiple media outlets reported Thursday that his administration is ousting at least three top officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI purge includes Brian Driscoll, who served as acting director earlier this year; Walter Giardina, a special agent involved in the investigation of Trump's ex-trade adviser, Peter Navarro; and Steven Jensen, acting director in charge of the Washington Field Office, unnamed sources told outlets including The Associated Press, The New York Times, and Fox News.
Jensen was involved in investigating the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Driscoll—as head of the FBI before Trump's appointee, Kash Patel, was confirmed—resisted the adminsitration's demand that he turn over a list of agents who worked on probes of the insurrectionists, who were promptly pardoned when Trump returned to power.
Highlighting that battle over the list of agents, the AP detailed:
Emil Bove, the then-senior Justice Department official who made the request and was last week confirmed for a seat on a federal appeals court, wrote a memo accusing the FBI's top leaders of "insubordination."
Responding to Bove's request, the FBI ultimately provided personnel details about several thousand employees, identifying them by unique employee numbers rather than by names.
The three men were reportedly told to leave the FBI by Friday. According to Fox, one source described the removals as "retribution," and multiple people told the outlet that "more ousters are expected at the bureau by the end of the week, though the exact number of personnel included, or their roles at the bureau, are unclear."
The Times noted that "the fresh ousters reflect, in part, a long-running effort by senior Trump administration officials to dismiss agents and prosecutors who worked on cases related to the president. Those have included the investigation into his 2016 campaign's ties to Russia during his first term, the investigation into his handling of classified documents after he left office, the investigation into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and the investigations of rioters at the Capitol."
The Not Above the Law coalition's co-chairs—Brett Edkins of Stand Up AmericaPraveen Fernandes of the Constitutional Accountability Center, Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen, and Kelsey Herbert of MoveOn—issued a statement blasting Trump and Patel.
The reported ouster "shows just how far they are willing to go to punish anyone who they deem disloyal," the coalition leaders said. "The end result will be an FBI that puts settling political scores ahead of combating crime and protecting our rights."
"These firings are part of a broader campaign to weaponize federal law enforcement and replace highly experienced public servants with political hacks eager to carry out Trump's retribution agenda," they added. "The message to remaining FBI personnel is chilling: Bend the knee to Trump, or you're next."
The reporting came on the same day that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) announced that Patel approved his "request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating" Democratic state legislators who fled Texas to block the approval of a gerrymandered map for the 2026 cycle sought by Trump.
Earlier this week, The Guardian spoke with scholars and former prosecutors who sounded the alarm about the president and Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom legal experts have accused of "serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice."
The Department of Justice, which includes the FBI, "is now being used as a personal weapon on behalf of Trump to a degree that is without precedent," said Peter Shane, who teaches constitutional law at New York University. "Trump has a team of sycophants and enablers at DOJ. They're not behaving the way office holders sworn to uphold the Constitution are expected to behave."
Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor now at George Washington University, similarly told the newspaper that "Trump is using the Justice Department to target his perceived enemies and pursue his political goals."
"The guiding principle for any DOJ prosecutor has always been loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law," Eliason added. "Under this administration, it appears that the primary job requirement for any DOJ prosecutor, up to and including the attorney general, is loyalty to Donald Trump."
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'Welcome Accountability': Steve Bannon Ordered to Prison
"No one is above the law: not the rich, not the powerful, and not Steve Bannon," said one congressman.
Jun 06, 2024
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's ex-chief strategist Steve Bannon on Thursday was ordered to report to federal prison by July 1 as he continues to challenge his conviction for defying a subpoena from the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
A federal jury found Bannon guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress in July 2022 and that October he was sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay a $6,500 fine. However, he has remained free during the appeals process, thanks to a pause imposed by Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Trump.
Nichols has now lifted that stay, after a three-member panel from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. upheld the conviction last month. The judge said that "I do not believe that the original basis for my stay of Mr. Bannon's sentence exists anymore."
At the courthouse in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, "Bannon was flanked by his lawyers David Schoen—who once represented Trump in his impeachment proceedings after January 6—and Evan Corcoran, who is a key witness in the criminal case against Trump in Florida, where Trump is accused of hoarding classified documents after he left the White House," according to Politico.
Glenn Kirschner, an NBC News legal analyst, called Nichols' decision to lift the stay "welcome accountability."
Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said that "in America, no one is above the law: not the rich, not the powerful, and not Steve Bannon."
Bannon is expected to continue appealing his conviction to the full bench of the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a right-wing supermajority that includes three justices appointed by Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
If he heads to prison next month, Bannon will become the second top Trump ally behind bars. In March, Peter Navarro, who advised the ex-president on trade, reported to a federal prison in Florida after also being convicted of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the panel that probed the insurrection.
A New York jury last month found Trump guilty of 34 felony charges that stem from falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election. The GOP presidential candidate also faces three more cases—two related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss and one regarding his handling of classified materials.
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'Lawless Con Man' Leonard Leo Defies Senate Subpoena Over Supreme Court Gifts
"This subpoena is a direct result of Mr. Leo's own actions and choices," said Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin.
Apr 12, 2024
"Incredible," said one journalist on Friday of right-wing legal activist Leonard Leo's reasons for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the Senate Judiciary Committee as the panel investigates conservative Supreme Court justices' relationships with Leo and other Republican operatives and donors.
The Federalist Society co-chairman told The Washington Post that the subpoena was "politically motivated."
"I am not capitulating to [committee Chair Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.)] lawless support of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and the left's dark money effort to silence and cancel political opposition," said Leo, who has lobbied for the appointments of far-right judges to federal benches, in a statement.
The subpoena came over four months after the committee voted along party lines to subpoena Leo and billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow following numerous reports about luxury travel and gifts they and others bestowed on Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
ProPublica revealed last June that Leo organized a luxury fishing trip to Alaska for Alito, with lodging and private jet travel paid for, in 2008. The trip was not included on Alito's federally required financial disclosure forms, continuing a pattern that ProPublica first reported on last April with several luxury vacations, real estate transactions, and other financial gifts to Thomas that were paid for by Crow.
Durbin said Thursday that the subpoena was issued because of the "blanket refusal to cooperate" with the investigation that Leo has displayed since last July.
"His outright defiance left the committee with no other choice but to move forward with compulsory process. For that reason, I have issued a subpoena to Mr. Leo," said Durbin. "Mr. Leo has played a central role in the ethics crisis plaguing the Supreme Court and, unlike the other recipients of information requests in this matter, he has done nothing but stonewall the committee. This subpoena is a direct result of Mr. Leo's own actions and choices."
The ethics violations revealed by ProPublica's reporting forced the Supreme Court last fall to adopt a code of conduct for the first time, modeled on the rules followed by judges on lower federal courts.
But ethics watchdogs labeled the code a "toothless PR stunt" and a "cover-up for Clarence Thomas," as it did not include an enforcement mechanism and provided the justices with discretion over recusal decisions.
Debt relief advocates called on Alito to recuse himself last year from two cases pertaining to Biden's student debt cancellation program, citing the reporting on Leo's gifts to the justice. The plane Alito took to Alaska was owned by billionaire investor Paul Singer, who has financially backed groups that lobbied the court to overturn Biden's plan.
The court struck down the debt relief program last June.
Like former President Donald Trump, said Alex Aronson, former chief counsel for Judiciary Committee senior member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), "the other man most responsible for shaping our Supreme Court's runaway majority is a lawless con man and crook."
Caroline Ciccone, president of government watchdog Accountable.US, said Friday that "Supreme Court billionaire matchmaker Leonard Leo" is the force behind "a full-blown corruption crisis has plagued the high court for over a year, undermining its credibility and plummeting public trust in the court to record lows."
"Today's subpoena is a critical step toward accountability, and toward ensuring that our high court adheres to the highest possible ethics standards," said Ciccone. "As a result of the strong leadership of Chairman Durbin and the Judiciary Committee, we can now begin to get to the bottom of the corruption crisis pervading the Supreme Court."
With Leo refusing to comply with the subpoena, Democrats would need to hold a vote in the closely divided Senate to seek enforcement.
Former Trump aide Peter Navarro was found guilty of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 insurrection, and reported to a federal prison last month to serve his four-month sentence.
"Leonard Leo thinks he's above the law just like Navarro did," said one attorney. "We'll see if he's right."
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Ex-Trump Aide Peter Navarro Ordered to Prison for Defying Jan. 6 Probe
"May this represent the beginning of real accountability for the orchestrators, the organizers, the funders, and the inciters of the attack on our democracy," said one legal analyst.
Mar 11, 2024
Peter Navarro could soon become the first former aide of ex-President Donald Trump to serve time behind bars related to GOP attempts to reverse the 2020 election results, according to a Sunday court filing by the American economist's legal team.
Navarro, who advised the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential candidate on trade, has been ordered to report to a low-security federal prison in Florida on March 19, his legal team told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The filing comes after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, last month denied Navarro's request to remain free while appealing his September conviction. A jury found the 74-year-old guilty of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
Mehta in January sentenced Navarro to four months in prison and a $9,500 fine. At the time, the judge contested his claims that the prosecution was politically motivated, saying: "You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution."
Referencing Navarro's term for his scheme to overturn Trump's 2020 loss, NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said Monday: "Look who's getting Green Bay-swept into prison. May this represent the beginning of real accountability for the orchestrators, the organizers, the funders, and the inciters of the attack on our democracy."
Navarro's conviction and sentencing came after Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, was convicted in July 2022 and sentenced to four months in prison for ignoring a subpoena from the panel. Bannon remains free during the appeals process.
Politico noted Monday that "Navarro is also fighting a civil lawsuit brought by the Justice Department demanding he return hundreds of records the government claims he improperly declined to deliver to the National Archives after leaving office. Some of those records pertain to the 2020 election."
Trump faces four ongoing criminal cases—including two related to his 2020 election interference efforts. However, it is not clear whether either will go to trial before the November election, in which he is expected to face Democratic President Joe Biden.
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Trump Ally Peter Navarro Gets Four-Month Sentence for Defying Jan. 6 Panel
The congressional committee's chair said the guilty verdict and sentence "are the consequence of Mr. Navarro's stubborn insistence that his short stint in the executive branch somehow put him above the law."
Jan 25, 2024
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Peter Navarro, an ex-adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump, to four months in prison for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the congressional panel that investigated the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
The prison sentence and $9,500 fine come after a jury in September convicted Navarro for refusing to show up for a deposition or turn over documents to the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
"In all of this, even today, there is little acknowledgment of what your obligation is as an American to cooperate with Congress, to provide them with information they are seeking," U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta told Navarro on Thursday, according to Politico. "They had a job to do. And you made it harder. It's really that simple."
The judge, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by former President Barack Obama, also pushed back against claims from Navarro that his prosecution was politically motivated—a tactic Trump has also employed regarding his various civil and criminal cases while campaigning for the GOP's 2024 nomination.
"You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution," Mehta told Navarro. "These are circumstances of your own making."
"Nancy Pelosi's not responsible for your prosecution. Joe Biden's not responsible for your prosecution," he said, referring to the Democratic former House speaker and president. "It's those kinds of statements from somebody who knows better... that contributes to why our politics are so corrosive."
Speaking to reporters outside the D.C. courthouse on Thursday, Navarro made clear that he is appealing and expects his case to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court—which has a right-wing supermajority that includes three Trump appointees. Mehta put off a decision on whether he will remain free during the appeals process.
Navarro is the second Trump ally to be convicted for defying a subpoena from the panel, joining Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, who was convicted in July 2022 and also sentenced to four months behind bars. Bannon hasn't yet served any time. A three-judge panel heard his appeal in November but has not issued a decision.
While other Trump allies—including Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)—blasted Navarro's sentence on Thursday, it was welcomed by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chaired the bipartisan House select committee.
"Peter Navarro abandoned his oath to the Constitution and abused the public trust while he worked as a trade adviser to former President Trump when, in the days leading up to January 6th, he worked to keep a defeated incumbent in the White House," said Thompson. "He abused it again when he willfully defied a lawful subpoena from the January 6th select committee to answer questions about the leadup to that deadly day."
"Last summer's guilty verdict and today's sentence," he added, "are the consequence of Mr. Navarro's stubborn insistence that his short stint in the executive branch somehow put him above the law."
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Ex-Trump Adviser Peter Navarro Guilty of Contempt of Congress for Defying Jan. 6 Panel
"In an administration defined by lawlessness, Peter Navarro was one of the most lawless," said one ethics expert. "It is positive that he was convicted."
Sep 07, 2023
A federal jury on Thursday found Peter Navarro, who served as a trade adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump, guilty of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the congressional panel that probed the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
Despite a February 2022 subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Navarro declined to turn over documents or show up for a deposition, resulting in the two contempt convictions.
Each count carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. Navarro intends to appeal the unanimous verdict—which came after a two-day trial with testimony from three committee staffers and four hours of deliberation, according to Politico.
"Open and shut case really. And a righteous one. He just completely thumbed his nose at the committee and his legal obligations."
Advocacy groups and legal experts welcomed the development on social media, with the pro-democracy organization Common Cause saying, "Hold everyone accountable."
Los Angeles Times senior legal affairs columnist Harry Litman said: "Open and shut case really. And a righteous one. He just completely thumbed his nose at the committee and his legal obligations."
Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), declared that "in an administration defined by lawlessness, Peter Navarro was one of the most lawless—routinely violating the Hatch Act and pushing bogus claims that the 2020 election was stolen. It is positive that he was convicted of contempt of Congress."
As The Hill reported:
Just after the verdict was read, Navarro attorney Stan Woodward called for a mistrial, claiming the jurors [who] went outside during their break were exposed to protestors toting January 6-related signs. Government prosecutors said they did not see any protestors outside the exit the jurors purportedly used.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said he would not rule on the mistrial request until the defense provided him video or photo evidence of such a situation, which they said they were collecting.
Mehta has scheduled Navarro's sentencing for January 12, 2024.
Navarro is the second aide of Trump—who is the front-runner for the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination, despite his various legal issues—to be convicted of contempt of Congress, after Steve Bannon.
Last year, Bannon was also found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the January 6 panel. The ex-president's former chief strategist was sentenced to four months in prison but remains free during the appeals process.
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Final House Covid Panel Report Exposes 'Reckless' Trump Pandemic Response
The publication accuses top Trump officials of "failed stewardship" and a "persistent pattern of political interference" that undermined the nation's response to a pandemic that has killed more than a million people in the United States.
Dec 09, 2022
A congressional panel on Friday published its final report on the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the Trump administration's "failed stewardship" and detailing how a "persistent pattern of political interference undermined the nation's ability to respond" to a crisis that has claimed more than a million lives in the United States.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis report notes that "the United States was underprepared for a major public health crisis for years before the coronavirus pandemic," and that "chronic underfunding and long-standing health disparities put many Americans at heightened risk of becoming infected and developing severe illness as a result of the coronavirus."
"The Trump administration's reckless pandemic response resulted in devastating and lasting harm," the Democrat-controlled subcommittee contended. "The toll of the coronavirus fell hardest on those who were already most vulnerable. Communities of color suffered disproportionally high rates of coronavirus infection, hospitalization, and death. Nursing home residents suffered high levels of infections and deaths, exacerbated by understaffing and meager wages and benefits for their workers."
The publication continues:
The United States had long failed to invest in measures necessary to prepare for a global pandemic, including failing to maintain the Strategic National Stockpile and to adapt to indications that federal agencies were likely to be stymied by a lack of cooperation and communication failures in the event of a major public health calamity. These factors were exacerbated by the Trump administration's disastrous initial response in 2020. The Trump administration failed to recognize the looming threat as reports of a novel pathogen emerged in early January and failed to take sufficient measures to prepare the country by developing adequate testing or acquiring sufficient personal protective equipment and other critical supplies.
The paper accuses high-ranking members of the Trump administration, including advisers Peter Navarro and Dr. Steven Hatfill, of waging a "knife fight" with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the immunosuppressive Covid-19 treatment hydroxychloroquine. According to the report, Navarro and Hatfill relied upon advice from "known extremists and prolific conspiracists like former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Dr. Jerome Corsi, and the Association of 40 American Physicians and Surgeons, which, among other radical conspiracies, propagated the theory that [former] President Barack Obama used a covert form of hypnosis to win the 2008 presidential election."
In contrast, the report notes the "historic" vaccination campaign launched during the tenure of President Joe Biden, an effort resulting in 200 million vaccine doses administered in 100 days.
However, "the rampant spread of misinformation has led to damaging distrust in public health expertise," while contributing "to harassment, threats, and attacks on public health officials working on the coronavirus response," the document adds. This misinformation "convinced far too many Americans to decline lifesaving coronavirus vaccines--resulting in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths."
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, more than 99 million people have contracted Covid-19 in the United States, and over 1,084,000 have died--more than the population of San Jose, the nation's 10th-largest city.
The report also highlights the pandemic's economic toll, including "20 million Americans losing their jobs in April 2020 alone, pushing the unemployment rate from 2.5% to 14.7% in just two months."
"This devastation fell hardest on low-income workers and their families, who were disproportionately women and people of color and were more likely to work in hard-hit sectors that experienced closures and disruptions," the paper states.
Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who chairs the subcommittee, said in a statement that "as this final report shows, in many instances, the Trump administration's poor management of relief programs left them particularly vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse. The report also lays out in detail how the previous administration prioritized politics over public health in its pandemic response, engaging in an unprecedented campaign to undermine federal agencies responsible for protecting Americans' health and lives."
"I have emphasized during the select subcommittee's tenure that our oversight work must ultimately be forward-looking; the coronavirus crisis will not be the last public health emergency or economic crisis that we confront," Clyburn added. "The report's recommendations, informed by 42 hearings and member briefings and 37 staff analyses, will ensure the nation is better suited to face future threats while also enacting public health and economic policies that will serve us well in good times as well as bad."
The report comes a few weeks before the GOP is set to take control of the House and potentially end the subcommittee. According to Politico, "Republicans are planning to spread their Covid-19 investigations across multiple committees--largely focusing on the virus' origins and misspent pandemic funds."
In response, Jeremy Funk, a spokesperson for the watchdog group Accountable.US, warned that "when House Republicans wax indignant about Covid aid abuse next year, it will be many days late and dollars short--and a likely effort to deflect blame from the Trump administration where it belongs."
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What Did William Barr Know and When Did He Know It?
For two years, Barr developed false narratives that protected then-President Donald Trump from incriminating facts.
Mar 07, 2022
"We live in the age of narrative, not facts," former Attorney General William Barr told NBC News in an interview that aired on March 6, 2022.
He should know. For two years, Barr developed false narratives that protected then-President Donald Trump from incriminating facts, starting with a "distorted" and "misleading" summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's report. Barr diverted the public from Mueller's conclusions that Russia committed crimes to help Trump win the 2016 election, Trump's campaign had embraced the assistance, and Trump himself had obstructed justice during the ensuing investigation.
But now that Trump is at the center of a potential criminal conspiracy to remain in office after losing the election, Barr is promoting his new book and launching a new narrative.
And this time, he's trying to protect himself.
I have a few questions.
Why Did Barr Stop Pushing Trump's Big Lie?
Prior to the election, Barr repeatedly pushed Trump's lie that fraud could infect the outcome. He was still at it on November 9, 2020, when he reversed the Justice Department's longstanding hands-off policy surrounding elections and ordered an investigation into allegations of voting irregularities that, "if true, could potentially impact the outcome a federal election in an individual State."
According to former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen's August 7, 2021 interview with the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, Barr "had been considering it earlier." But for some reason, he decided to announce the policy change two days after every news organization had confirmed Trump's defeat. The head of the Justice Department's Election Crimes Branch resigned from that position in protest.
On the same day and in a seemingly unrelated development, Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and appointed Christopher C. Miller as acting secretary. Immediately, Miller replaced three top department officials and named three Trump loyalists to replace them:
- New chief of staff to the secretary of defense: Kash Patel, former aide to former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
- New acting undersecretary of defense for policy: Retired army Gen. Anthony Tata, a pro-Trump Fox News pundit.
- And, perhaps most significantly, new acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security: Ezra Cohen-Watnick, former assistant to Trump's first national security adviser, confessed felon, and election-conspiracy promoter, Mike Flynn.
Then in a recently revealed mid- to late-November meeting, Trump told Barr that his lawyers said the Justice Department could seize voting machines. Barr rejected the idea. But did he hear that Trump kept exploring the possibility with other federal agencies, including the Defense Department?
Shortly thereafter, Barr abruptly turned on Trump and renounced the Big Lie publicly. On December 1, he told the Associated Press that there was no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to change the election outcome.
Nine days later, Trump signed an executive order revising the Defense Department's line of succession. He moved up his newest departmental loyalists--Tata and Cohen-Watnick--and put them directly behind the deputy secretary and the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. It meant that if Trump issued an order that the Pentagon's top four leaders refused to obey, the resulting departmental massacre would leave friendly faces in their stead.
What Did Barr Know about Trump's Phony Electors?
Trump tried to reverse his defeat in key states by litigating popular vote totals and contacting election officials. Many of those efforts were in plain sight at the time, and all of them failed. But recently we learned that Trump's allies were working secretly on another ploy.
On December 9, Boston attorney Kenneth Chesebro--whom the House's January committee subpoenaed on March 1, 2022--outlined a plan to press ahead with Trump's potential electors in six states that he had lost. Their combined electoral votes would swing the Electoral College outcome to Trump.
In accordance with the U.S. Constitution and federal law, the Electoral College voted on December 14 in state capitals throughout the country. Previously chosen electors for each state's winning candidate cast their ballots accordingly and transmitted them to federal officials, including the National Archives.
But in seven states that Biden won--the six states in Chesebro's memo plus New Mexico--Trump's potential electors pretended that Trump had won. They signed phony voting certificates that are now the subject of criminal investigations. Identically prepared as to font and format, the certificates falsely declared Trump the official winner in those states. One of Trump's illegitimate electors from Michigan later said that the request for the false certificates had come from the Trump campaign.
What Did Barr Know about the Defense Department's Involvement?
December 14 was an eventful day:
- The Electoral College voted to confirm Biden's victory.
- Barr resigned effective December 23.
- Trump named Jeffrey Rosen as acting Attorney General.
- And Trump's White House assistant sent Rosen an email ("From: POTUS") that pushed repeatedly debunked claims about voting machines in Antrim County, Michigan.
The following day, Rosen and others met in the Oval Office and told Trump that the Antrim County claims were false. Immediately afterward, Rosen briefed Barr on the session.
"Thanks for the update," Barr responded.
A recently revealed draft executive order dated December 16, 2020, ties together various election-subversion strands. Based on the lies about Antrim County, the order empowered the newly reworked Defense Department to seize voting machines, federalize the National Guard, and prepare an assessment of the situation within 60 days--nearly a month past the January 20 Inauguration Day set forth in the Constitution. The order also appointed a special counsel to investigate voter fraud.
On December 17, Secretary Miller ordered a cessation of transition team meetings between the Defense Department and President-elect Biden's team.
On December 18, an aide to Trump adviser Peter Navarro escorted Mike Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell into the Oval Office where they urged Trump to sign the draft executive order. Other advisers, including Rudy Giuliani, pushed back. So Trump told Giuliani to ask acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II if his agency could seize voting machines. Cuccinelli said no.
Still, early on December 21, Navarro appeared on Fox News, proposing that the federal government "seize a lot of those voting machines" and appoint a special counsel before Inauguration Day to investigate. Shortly thereafter, Barr responded to a reporter's question, saying that he saw no basis for either step.
On December 23, Barr left office.
Less than three weeks later, a remarkable bipartisan op-ed appeared in the Washington Post. Evidently inspired by former Vice President Dick Cheney, who had served as secretary of defense for President George H.W. Bush when Barr was attorney general the first time, it issued a stark warning from all 10 living former secretaries of defense to leaders of the armed forces:
"Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or a party...
"Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic."
The following day, Trump moved forcefully in a different direction. Along with Chapman University law professor John Eastman, he urged Pence to proceed with the final phase of the phony-electors plot. They wanted Pence to use the false certifications as a pretext to ignore the electoral votes that Biden had won in those seven states.
On the morning of January 6, Pence rejected the plan. The insurrection followed.
William Barr was the nation's top law enforcement officer--twice. He too had sworn an oath to support and defend the Constitution. We now know that after the election and before Barr left office, nefarious plots to undermine democracy swirled throughout the Trump administration. He quashed at least one himself.
What did Barr know and when did he know it?
Before he answers, put him under oath.
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'Completely Out of Control': China Says 'US Epidemic' Threat to Rest of the World
'In the coming fall and winter, the US epidemic will likely run rampant, and more countries and regions will be forced to suffer because of the US.'
Jul 05, 2020
A Chinese state-controlled newspaper has blamed the Trump administration's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic to cause the spread of the virus to go "completely out of control."
Describing the disease as a "U.S. epidemic", the paper warned that the administration's failure poses a threat to the rest of the world. "Lies are dominating US society's recognition of the epidemic," the Global Times wrote.
The dramatic spike in the numbers of US COVID-19 infections continues this weekend. New coronavirus cases in Florida on Sunday exceeded 10,000 in a day for the third time in the past week, after the state posted a record high of 11,458 the previous day. And Texas on Saturday reported 5,815 more coronavirus cases, the state's sixth straight day above 5,000
In a Friday, July 3, 2020, editorial titled, "Rampant US epidemic to hurt the world" China's Global Times wrote:
The US set another record for novel coronavirus cases on Thursday. Reuters reported that the country confirmed more than 55,000 new COVID-19 cases that day, which is "a new daily global record" for the pandemic.
Earlier this week, US epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the US may soon see as many as 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day if the current trajectory of the outbreak is not changed.
Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner for the US Food and Drug Administration, even suggested the true number of US daily infections is between 400,000 and 500,000, though there is not enough testing to find them all.
The current epidemic in the US is completely out of control. However, the US federal government still insists that the rapid increase in infection figures is due to more testing. Data released by the US Labor Department on Thursday showed the country added 4.8 million jobs in June. The White House soon boasted about its economic achievements. But people doubt whether the US government is making utmost efforts to rein in the virus and save more American lives.
Lies are dominating US society's recognition of the epidemic. Political parties have put their interests in campaigning in the first place, which has distorted the society's attention and allocation of resources. The US fight against the virus is paralyzed. There is no national strategy to alleviate the epidemic. Political calculations have stunted the battle against COVID-19.
Americans are not willing to temporarily sacrifice their freedom for the fight against the virus. The federal government has not corrected the attitude. Worse, it used the sentiment to promote the resumption of economic activities in a risky manner. It is making ordinary people responsible for the out-of-control epidemic.
The US economy has slightly recovered, yet the price it is paying is too high. It will surely become a burden for the US' future economic development. The US government's approach seems to be shaping US society's greater tolerance toward the virus, making people less afraid of being infected.
As the only superpower, the US can shape global public opinion as it wishes. The country has manipulated the understanding over the novel coronavirus in many societies worldwide. It has not contributed to the global fight against the crisis. On the contrary, it is setting a terrible example.
No matter how the virus surfaced, the US plays the most negative role in making sure the novel coronavirus spreads fast across the globe, and we are far from ending it.
Can anyone in the world recall of outstanding contributions the US has made to the global efforts against COVID-19? The only thing people can remember is the US' repeated accusations against China, apart from its astonishingly large number of infections and deaths. Washington has distracted the world's attention.
The US is supposed to lead the world in establishing a global anti-pandemic front. But it continued to criticize the World Health Organization (WHO), and announced it would sever ties with the body.
As long as its epidemic continues to spread, the global anti-virus fight can hardly take a fundamental turn for the better.
In the coming fall and winter, the US epidemic will likely run rampant, and more countries and regions will be forced to suffer because of the US.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump's top trade adviser Peter Navarro pushed several COVID-19 conspiracy theories on MSNBC Friday. Navarro said China deliberately allowed hundreds of thousands of people infected with coronavirus to leave the country "to seed and spread the virus" abroad.
At one point in the interview, MSNBC's Ali Velshi had to ask, "What are you talking about?"
"They spawned the virus, they hid virus, they sent hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationalists over here to seed and spread the virus before we knew," Navarro said. He claimed the virus "probably" came from a Chinese lab and argued, "this looks like a weaponized virus" and that the "Chinese communist party" is responsible for forcing Americans to "stay locked in our homes and lose our jobs."
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