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Top Dem Senator Under Federal Investigation Over Campaign Spending

Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is under federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for suspected campaign finance violations, according to.

The probe originated from a whistleblower complaint filed from Southern California, the outlet reported.

The investigation centers on the use of funds from Gallego’s political action committee for family travel and related expenses. Specific examples cited in connection with the allegations include trips to Miami, Chicago, Disneyland, and Disney World.

These matters were previously examined as part of a separate congressional ethics process.

A review of federal campaign finance records from Politico detailed additional spending by Gallego’s campaign committee and his leadership PAC, Juntos PAC. The records show more than $18,000 in reimbursements for child care since 2019, including payments to an au pair company and a $400 payment to Gallego’s mother-in-law for babysitting during a campaign fundraiser.

The leadership PAC covered costs for family travel to locations including a Miami Beach hotel stay exceeding $9,000 for a birthday celebration that also involved political events, a Chicago trip with nearly $1,500 in lodging that included a fundraiser, and meals and hotels at Disneyland and Disney World totaling nearly $1,500 (excluding flights).

Family members, including Gallego’s wife Sydney, their children, and an au pair, joined multiple trips. A joint fundraising committee with former Rep. Eric Swalwell also covered expenses related to the 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona, including event tickets and a pre-game brunch.

Gallego has stated that the expenditures comply with Federal Election Commission rules. In response to the Politico reporting, he wrote that such travel with family members for campaign and fundraising purposes is permitted and occurs regularly among members of Congress from both parties, noting the rising costs of child care.

A spokesperson for Gallego described the Miami trip as part of a multi-stop political and fundraising swing and the Chicago trip as including a fundraiser and attendance at political events.

Juntos PAC, established in February 2024, has raised nearly $1.5 million, with more than half of the funds coming from corporate PACs. Leadership PACs are subject to different rules than principal campaign committees and allow greater flexibility for expenditures tied to fundraising activities.

Gallego’s office has noted that the senator proactively established a legal defense fund in the preceding month.

The investigation follows the closure of an inquiry by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. In a letter dated June 26, 2026, the committee informed Gallego that it “did not find evidence that your actions violated Federal law, Senate Rules or related standards of conduct.” The ethics inquiry stemmed from a complaint filed in April by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), which alleged campaign finance violations and inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature.

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Sen. Rand Paul Slams Supreme Court’s Ruling Upholding Birthright Citizenship, Introduces Constitutional Amendment to End It for Children of Illegal Aliens

Senator Rand Paul expressed his strong disappointment Tuesday after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold birthright citizenship and strike down President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are illegal aliens or temporarily in the country.

Instead of sitting on his hands, the Kentucky senator said that he has already filed an amendment to fully end birthright citizenship for those in the country illegally.

In a post on X, Paul stated, “The Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship is disappointing. That’s why I’ve already filed an amendment to end birthright citizenship for those here illegally. I’ll keep fighting to protect the integrity of American citizenship.”

The ruling addressed Executive Order 14160, which President Trump signed on his first day back in office.

The order directed that beginning 30 days later, children born in the United States to mothers who were either unlawfully present or lawfully present on a temporary basis, and to fathers who were not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents at the time of the child’s birth, would not be recognized as U.S. citizens and would not receive federal documentation such as passports or Social Security numbers.

The executive order never took effect because lower courts had blocked it with nationwide injunctions, and the Supreme Court’s decision invalidated it entirely.

Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, which was joined in the core holding by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

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Blackstone Sells Stake In Three Virginia Data Centers Amid Grassroot Outrage

Up until now, when it comes to real estate, Blackstone was best known in recent years for dumping many of its trophy office properties – which in the aftermath of work from home never recovered their projected cash flow potential – at a huge discount. Now, it may be pulling a page from its old, pre-Lehman playbook  by calling the top in yet another commercial real estate segment: data centers. 

According to Bloomberg, Blackstone is selling its stakes in a trio of data centers across Northern Virginia for $3.5 billion, cashing out of part of a bet it made less than three years ago.

Digital Realty Trust will pay $1.2 billion of cash and offer $2.3 billion of its shares to Blackstone funds, the firms said in a statement Monday. In exchange, the data center company will acquire Blackstone’s 80% interest in two 96-megawatt data centers in Manassas, Virginia, and a 50% interest in a 96-megawatt center in nearby Sterling.

The assets involved in this week’s sale were part of a joint venture that Blackstone announced it would set up with Digital Realty in 2023 as it sought to get ahead in the AI arms race that has engulfed Wall Street in recent years. Blackstone and Digital Realty will continue to work together on their remaining data center investments located elsewhere in Northern Virginia as well as in Paris and Frankfurt. 

“We have developed a strong partnership with Blackstone,” Greg Wright, Digital Realty CEO, said in the statement. “This transaction reflects the next phase of that relationship, allowing us to increase our ownership in a portfolio of fully leased, high-quality hyperscale assets.”

It does. The question is why did Blackstone decide to pull the cord now, just as fresh doubts are creeping whether the Mag 7s will continue funding the AI expansion with virtually unlimited capex.

As part of Wall Street’s broader push into data centers, investment has poured into Northern Virginia, which is considered the country’s largest data center market, and is better known as “Data Center Alley“.


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Tennessee Taxpayers to Pay $1.9 Million Settlement to Fired Professor Who Celebrated Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

The University of Tennessee has agreed to pay former assistant professor Tamar Shirinian $1.9 million to settle a lawsuit after she was fired over a social media post celebrating the death of Turning Point CEO and conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Under the settlement, approved by the University of Tennessee System Board of Trustees, Shirinian will not return to her teaching position.

The agreement still requires approval from Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Gov. Bill Lee.

“My client is pleased that the parties reached a resolution,” Shirinian’s attorney, Robb Bigelow, said.

“We believe the resolution reflects the seriousness of the issues while allowing everyone to move forward.”

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FIGHT THE OLIGARCHY? Rep. Ro Khanna Reportedly Lives in a Luxury Home With a Four-Story Elevator, Owns Three Private Golf Courses

Rep. Ro Khanna of California is part of the leftist coalition that is supposedly all about fighting the oligarchy. He’s just doing it from the comfort of a luxury home with a multi-floor elevator, while driving an SUV that cost about $200,000.

This is no different than Bernie Sanders flying private jets all over the country as he demands that we ‘tax the rich’ more than we already are. Of AOC driving a Tesla, as she complains about Elon Musk.

They all love to complain about the evils of wealth. Except their own, naturally.

Check out this eye-popping report from the Washington Free Beacon:

‘Ro’ Me the Money! How Progressive Class Warrior Ro Khanna Lives Like the Oligarchs He ‘Fights,’ With In-Home Elevator, $190K Range Rover, and Family-Owned Golf Courses.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) has emerged as a potential contender for the Democratic presidential nomination while denouncing the ultra-rich who “hoard wealth and engage in financial speculation.” But the progressive, Silicon Valley congressman and his family live a life of staggering luxury, fueled by dynastic wealth they did not earn and protected by the same thicket of trusts, anonymous corporations, and foundations that Khanna condemns.

Khanna lives in a $6 million, 8,000-square-foot luxury home with a four-story elevator and so much premium marble that even the two laundry rooms have marble counters. The Northwest Washington, D.C., home is now for sale, as the Khanna family prepares to move to an even larger, more expensive house a few miles away in the Northern Virginia suburbs.

Khanna’s two children, who are minors, have large ownership shares in three private golf clubs, a significant stake in a $65 billion wealth management firm, and investments in hedge funds that focus on distressed debt, of which Khanna has been critical. Khanna’s wife drives a $190,000 Range Rover she was so displeased with that she sued the dealer.

A Washington Free Beacon investigation into Khanna’s finances finds that the progressive truthteller’s lifestyle is funded by his wife, Ritu Ahuja Khanna, an heiress to her father’s Cleveland auto parts fortune.

Anyone surprised?

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Congress Confronts MKULTRA: Testimony Warns Of Ongoing CIA Mind Control Capabilities

The deep state’s favorite tools of control just got dragged back into the light. Today, the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets held the first congressional hearing on the CIA’s MKULTRA program since 1977.

What could have been a dusty historical review turned into a direct warning that the same machinery of mind control, memory manipulation, and behavioral experimentation may never have shut down – and could now run on far more powerful modern engines.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and her colleagues are doing what previous Congresses largely refused to do: forcing sunlight on one of the intelligence community’s darkest chapters.

The testimony made one thing unmistakable. The CIA lied to lawmakers decades ago about the program’s success. Advances in neuroscience, cyber tools, and artificial intelligence have handed covert operators capabilities Sidney Gottlieb could only dream of. And American citizens remain potential targets.

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Trump made $1 billion from crypto, financial disclosure shows

President Donald Trump earned more than $1 billion from his cryptocurrency ventures, according to his personal financial disclosure released on Tuesday.

The personal financial disclosure showed that the president earned at least $524 million from the sale of cryptocurrency tokens through the Trump-connected World Liberty Financial.

The president’s disclosure also listed earnings of an additional $636 million from CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of the Trump Organization — the majority of which came from a $635 million licensing agreement with Celebration Coin for the sale of the president’s $TRUMP meme coin.

The more than 900-page document lists several of the president’s assets and sources of income.

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Empire At 250: Can The Principles Of 1776 Survive The American Police State?

“The people are the only legitimate fountain of power.”

– James Madison

This is a year of strange anniversaries.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, a band of revolutionaries declared their independence from a king.

America’s founders rejected concentrated power. They denounced standing armies. They distrusted government secrecy. They risked their lives to escape a ruler who could tax without consent, wage war without accountability, and govern without meaningful restraint.

Twenty-five years ago, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, America embarked on a very different journey.

The federal government claimed extraordinary emergency powers. Surveillance expanded. Wars multiplied. Executive authority grew. Constitutional safeguards were weakened in the name of security.

One anniversary marked a revolt against empire. The other marked the normalization of it.

Now, as America prepares to celebrate 250 years of independence, we are confronted with a bitter irony: the republic born in rebellion against empire has become an empire in everything but name.

Worse, the U.S. government is violating the very principles that justified the American Revolution.

Graft, grift and corruption. Endless wars. Profiteering. Trillions squandered abroad while the nation sinks deeper into debt at home.

A government that governs increasingly by executive order and emergency decree. A government that wastes taxpayer money with impunity, rewards political loyalty over constitutional fidelity, installs loyalists in positions meant to serve the public, dismantles safeguards against corruption, shields insiders from scrutiny, and treats accountability as an inconvenience.

National states of emergency that never seem to end. Efforts to nullify constitutional guarantees such as birthright citizenship. Expanded death penalty powers. A growing willingness to bypass Congress, sidestep constitutional restraints and rule by fiat.

Surveillance programs that track where we go, what we buy, who we know, what we say and what we believe. Fusion centers, facial recognition, license plate readers, AI-assisted monitoring, financial tracking, intelligence-sharing agreements and a sprawling security apparatus that treats privacy as a loophole and dissent as a threat.

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Americans Want Peace, Israel Wants War

America wants peace. Israel wants war. The great majority of Americans want an end to the war against Iran. The great majority in Congress just want more contributions from the Israel Lobby and its supporters.

Now, most members of Congress are really squirming. They know that most of their constituents are fed up with foreign wars and want this stupid war in Iran over, the sooner the better.

But they are afraid to criticize Israel’s war for fear of the Israel Lobby steering big campaign contributions against them. Their silence is deafening.

Most members are trying to keep quiet. Almost no one other than Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro, and the Israel First crowd are enthusiastic about this war.

The only ones speaking out strongly in favor of it are members who have received and/or who hope to receive millions in campaign contributions from the Lobby like Senators Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, Tom Cotton and others.

They didn’t even criticize Israel when it was starving and killing more than 20,000 children in Gaza. Congress would have rushed to pass a resolution of condemnation if it had been done in any other country than Israel.

But the killing goes on, even during so-called ceasefires. Thousands have been killed over this past year by Israeli forces in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran.

We don’t hear and see as much about all this killing because Israel was losing the public relations battle, and pro-Israel billionaires bought up significant parts of the national media that they did not already own.  Lesser-known conservative “influencers” and podcasters were given money, and 1,000 ministers were given free trips to Israel. Even TikTok was bought because its coverage was supposedly causing too many teenagers to have anti-Israel opinions.

However, all the pro-Israel propaganda has not worked so far. Even President Trump has apparently gotten angry at times with Netanyahu, telling him at one point that he shouldn’t blow up an entire apartment building to get at one person.

And Vice President Vance told the world in a press conference that Israel’s cabinet should realize that President Trump was the only world leader still supporting  Netanyahu and that two-thirds of all the military equipment and ammunition used by the IDF in these latest wars had been paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

The very few members of Congress and commentators who are criticizing President Trump for giving into Iran in the Memorandum he signed need to be asked what their alternative is.

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Here’s How Devastating the Birthright Citizenship Ruling Is

The Supreme Court handed down some good rulings on Tuesday, but one of them, Trump v. Barbara, was truly stinking hot garbage, to put it as nicely as possible. It was one of the most consequential rulings in a generation, and if you’re not furious about it, you haven’t been paying attention.

As my PJ Media colleague Athena Thorne put it, the Supreme Court ruled that “any basic skank who can sneak onto American terra firma and give birth is automatically the parent of a U.S. citizen, with all the rights and benefits that implies.”

On The Five on Tuesday, Jesse Watters didn’t hold back in his reaction to the ruling.

“I’m angry,” he said. “Are you?”

And that set the tone for everything that followed.

He focused on Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent, which Watters described as a genuine alarm bell. Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, he noted, saw this for what it was — a case with enormous implications that the court essentially fumbled. “He said in his dissent, this was one of the most important cases the court’s ever seen, and we blew it,” Watters said. “He and Thomas were basically like, ‘Yeah, this devalues and degrades U.S. citizenship because it opens it up for anchor babies and for birth tourists.’”

The example Watters used was, honestly, terrifying.

Under birthright citizenship as it currently stands, a Chinese Communist Party official could bring his pregnant wife to Guam, deliver the baby on American soil, then fly that infant back to Beijing, complete with a U.S. passport in hand. That child could grow up in China, get funneled through whatever the CCP wants him for, and then, at 18, have access to American welfare programs. He could vote. And theoretically, at 35, he could become eligible to run for president.

It’s a scary thought, because yes, that’s what the decision would enable.

“That’s the stupidest thing anyone ever thought of,” Watters said. “Literally.”

The historical context makes the ruling even harder to swallow.

Watters noted that the senator who authored the relevant language in the 19th century made it clear that it was never intended to cover foreign nationals or the families of foreign diplomats. The amendment’s architect agreed. So did the president at the time, Ulysses S. Grant. “The guy that sponsored it,  the guy that initiated, the architect of, this 14th amendment, the AG, the president at the time, Grant, all said, yeah, no foreigners, no visitors,” Watters said.

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