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us department of justice
'All You Had to Do Was Pay Us Enough to Live,' Said Alleged California Warehouse Arsonist
"Expect to see more of this as people struggle to survive under our decaying capitalist system," warned one observer.
Apr 11, 2026
The 29-year-old employee accused of burning down a paper products warehouse in southern California was allegedly furious over pay and working conditions at the facility and compared himself Luigi Mangione, the anti-capitalist folk hero to many Americans who allegedly assassinated a health insurance CEO.
Chamel Abdulkarim is facing federal and state felony charges in connection with a blaze that tore through the 1.2 million square-foot Kimberly-Clark warehouse in Ontario, San Bernardino County, shortly after 12:30 am on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Times reported that 20 other people were working in the facility, which is roughly the size of 11 city blocks, at the time. There are no reports of any injuries.
According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Abdulkarim uploaded videos to Facebook showing him setting fires in the warehouse and saying, “If you’re not going to pay us enough to fucking live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this shit."
Abdulkarim allegedly said in texts and phone calls that he cost Kimberly-Clark "billions," adding, "All you had to do was pay us enough to live."
"All you had to do was pay us enough to live".On April 7, 2026, a 29-year-old worker named Chamel Abdulkarim was arrested on arson-related charges after a massive, six-alarm fire destroyed a 1.2-million-square-foot Kimberly-Clark warehouse in Ontario, California.
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— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) April 8, 2026 at 6:33 PM
The DOJ said the blaze caused "approximately $500 million in damage."
Prosecutors said that after starting the fires, Abdulkarim called a friend and said that “a lot of people are going to understand” what he did, just like when “Luigi popped that mutherfucker,” a reference to Mangione's alleged murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York in 2024.
Shareholders of Kimberly-Clark—which makes products including Kleenex tissues, Scott and Cottonelle toilet paper, Huggies diapers, and Kotex feminine care products—enjoyed profits topping $2.0 billion last year. Company chairman and CEO Michael Hsu made about $15.3 in compensation. That's more than 300 times as much as the average Kimberly-Clark employee earned, according to the AFL-CIO.
Critics of capitalism have long argued that the yawning chasm between rich and poor in the United States is a recipe for disaster that could far exceed individual acts of resistance, if the crisis is not soon addressed. However, under President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, wealth inequality continues to increase at what many experts argue is an unsustainable rate.
Many leftists took to social media to praise the blaze, with some, like the Rev. Oliver Dean Snow of Mothman Ministries, comparing the arson attack to historical acts of radical resistance like the 1884 New Straitsville Mine Fire, in which striking union miners in Ohio pushed burning coal cars deep into a mine, causing an underground inferno that not only permanently shut down operations, but is believed to still be burning to this day, 141 years later.
Idk why Chamel Abdulkarim isn’t being hailed the same way Luigi Mangione was. Especially by Appalachians. Bro did something based and literally hurt NO ONE. Only thing that got hurt was same toilet paper. Some of yalls ancestors would be ashamed of you.ohiomemory.ohiohistory.org/archives/216
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— Preacher from the Black Lagoon (@revpoppop.bsky.social) April 10, 2026 at 12:46 PM
"Expect to see more of this as people struggle to survive under our decaying capitalist system," said one popular socialist account on X.
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'The Cover-Up Continues': Fury as DOJ Says Pam Bondi Won't Testify at Epstein Hearing
"She must come in to testify immediately, and if she defies the subpoena, we will begin contempt charges in the Congress," said Rep. Robert Garcia.
Apr 08, 2026
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers reacted with outage on Wednesday after the US Department of Justice said former Attorney General Pam Bondi would no longer be required to testify before the House Oversight Committee next week.
Bondi had been subpoenaed to testify on April 14 about her handling of criminal case files related to late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
However, the DOJ said in a letter sent to the committee on Wednesday that she didn't have to comply with its congressional subpoena because she is no longer attorney general, having been fired by President Donald Trump earlier this month.
This prompted an angry response from Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Oversight Committee, who said that Bondi didn't get out of her obligation to testify just because she had been ousted from her position by the president.
"Our bipartisan subpoena is to Pam Bondi, whether she is the attorney general or not," Garcia emphasized. "She must come in to testify immediately, and if she defies the subpoena, we will begin contempt charges in the Congress. The survivors deserve justice."
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who along with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) led the congressional effort to force the DOJ to release the Epstein files, also refused to accept the justification for canceling Bondi's testimony.
"The cover-up continues," Khanna wrote in a social media post, "but we will fight for accountability."
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) reminded the former AG that complying with congressional subpoenas was not optional.
"Just because Pam Bondi got fired, doesn't mean that she's no longer accountable for her role in the White House cover-up of the Epstein files," she wrote. "She MUST come to testify before the Oversight Committee or be held in contempt of Congress. This is far from over."
Democrats weren't the only ones fuming over the DOJ's letter, as Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) also refused to back down on compelling Bondi to testify.
"Pam Bondi cannot escape accountability simply because she no longer holds the office of attorney general," Mace wrote. "Our motion to subpoena Pam Bondi, which was passed by the Oversight Committee, was for Bondi by name, not by title. She will still have to appear before the Oversight Committee for a sworn deposition. The American people deserve answers, and we expect her to appear as soon as a new date is set."
Bondi has come under fire in recent months for not only her handling of the Epstein files, but her compliance with Trump’s demands to file criminal charges against political enemies including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Leticia James.
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'Epically Corrupt': Raskin Demands Answers for $1.25 Million Taxpayer Payout to Trump Crony
"The American people are watching this department squander their tax dollars, handing over giant sums to the president’s friends for claims that multiple federal judges have rejected as having no legal merit."
Apr 06, 2026
Rep. Jamie Raskin is demanding answers in the US Department of Justice's decision to fork over more than $1 million to Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump's disgraced former national security adviser.
As CNN reported last month, the DOJ agreed to pay Flynn $1.25 million to settle a malicious prosecution lawsuit related to his 2017 guilty plea for lying to the FBI during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
A DOJ spokesperson told CNN that the Flynn settlement was "an important step in redressing that historic injustice," which began when Trump-appointed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein selected Robert Mueller, a longtime Republican who was chosen as FBI director by former President George W. Bush, to serve as special counsel in the Russia probe.
In a letter sent to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday, Raskin (D-Md.) demanded documents and information related to the DOJ's decision to give Flynn a payout.
"The American people are watching this department squander their tax dollars, handing over giant sums to the president's friends for claims that multiple federal judges have rejected as having no legal merit," Raskin wrote. "The American people deserve a full accounting of why our tax dollars are being used that way."
Raskin noted that Flynn had affirmed his guilty plea multiple times under oath, and that Flynn's effort to sue the DOJ for $50 million was shot down by a federal judge, who dismissed the case completely. The judge found Flynn had "completely failed to establish the elements of such a claim and stopp[ed] just short of sanctioning him for bringing frivolous arguments before the court."
Raskin said that Flynn rushed to refile his complaint against the DOJ after Trump's victory in the 2024 election, at which point the DOJ "entirely reversed its position" by agreeing to pay the former national security adviser $1.25 million in a case that had already been dismissed.
The Maryland Democrat then warned that Flynn's case could be just the first in a long number of efforts by Trump allies to bilk US taxpayers.
"The Flynn settlement is an ominous test case," he wrote, "as the president and his political allies are all lining up for their free-government-money payouts. The president himself has demanded $230 million from this department... and has sued the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for a staggering $10 billion—a figure around two-thirds the size of the IRS’s total annual budget."
Raskin also pointed to lawsuits filed by multiple Trump supporters who violently stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, including five leaders of the Proud Boys who were convicted on seditious conspiracy charges and are now demanding $100 million.
"The Flynn settlement," Raskin contended, "offers a road map for this epically corrupt President to keep paying out his political underlings and private militiamen with taxpayer money."
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