Tag: corruption

‘Smoking Gun’ Emails Show New York City Officials Played Role in Firing Unvaccinated Workers

Unredacted internal emails obtained after a three-year legal battle may reshape ongoing lawsuits over New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, according to attorneys who spoke on “Good Morning, CHD” this week.

The records, obtained through New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), show top city officials and government lawyers working together behind the scenes to push back on religious exemption requests, privately dismissing workers’ beliefs while building arguments to help arbitrators deny them.

Attorney Jimmy Wagner, who led the records fight, said the documents expose a “smoking gun.”

In the lawsuits over the documents, the unredacted versions were visible to everyone in the courtroom except the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Wagner said. City lawyers knew exactly what the emails contained while making arguments that directly contradicted them.

“They’re literally arguing out of both sides of their mouth,” Wagner said.

The government attorneys claimed they were acting with integrity and protecting religious rights. Yet “in the same breath, they have this … smoking gun piece of evidence that shows the city from the beginning … believed that anyone making a religious accommodation request, especially as it was associated to abortion, it was BS. That’s their language — ‘BS,’ in capital letters,” he said.

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Minnesota Audit: State Agency ‘Accidentally’ Blocked Kickback Investigation Into Autism Services

A state agency erred when it blocked autism-services kickbacks from being investigated—a decision based on the agency’s flawed, decades-old definition of “fraud,” according to a Minnesota audit released March 17.

That was the key finding of the state’s Office of Legislative Auditor, a state watchdog that conducted a two-year special review. The autism-services program that auditors examined is among many health and welfare benefits that Minnesota’s Department of Human Services runs or oversees.

For months, Minnesota has been a focal point for government-program fraud that could total billions of dollars, with dozens of people, mostly Somalis, having been charged and convicted since 2022. Additional schemes emerged late last year and remain under investigation, with more charges expected, prosecutors have said.

Concerns about fraud have recently expanded nationwide. On March 16, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating an anti-fraud task force. Saying that other states such as California and New York may have fraud problems that are worse than Minnesota’s, the president directed Vice President JD Vance and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson to root out fraud in federally funded social services and welfare programs.

During the Minnesota audit, investigators told auditors that they believed they lacked “authority to investigate allegations of kickbacks” in the autism program without additional claims of “fraud, theft, abuse, or error.”

The department’s fraud definition, set in 1995, failed to specifically include “kickbacks.” Those are payments or “anything of value” to induce referrals to providers of federally funded health care—a practice that is illegal under federal law, the report noted.

Auditors opined that the department had misapplied or misinterpreted a rule that includes that fraud definition. The agency had the power to amend the rule and correct an erroneous federal-law citation “without any legislative action,” the report stated.

“Had [the department] done so at any point since 1995, it would have had clear authority to suspend payments” to providers who were strongly suspected in kickback schemes, according to the report.

Auditors recommended that the agency amend its fraud definition “to clearly include kickbacks”—or lawmakers should do so, the report says.

James Clark, inspector general for the state Department of Human Services, said the department agrees with that recommendation.

However, in his written response appended to the report, Clark said the standard rulemaking process could take a year or two to complete, unless officials or lawmakers agree to fast-track it.

The autism-services program, which has operated in Minnesota since 2013, aims to provide “early intervention” for autism-diagnosed patients who are under age 21.

Under the program, providers receive reimbursement for services rendered.

Federal prosecutors have brought charges against at least two people for alleged autism-services fraud in Minnesota.

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CBS News Investigation Uncovers Massive Medicare Hospice Fraud In L.A. County

An investigation by CBS News has discovered massive Medicare fraud at more than 700 out of 1,800 licensed hospice providers in Los Angeles County

The scam utilizes stolen Medicare numbers to fraudulently enroll healthy seniors in hospice with fake terminal diagnoses, billing Medicare an average of $29,000 per patient without delivering care, to the tune of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

About 31 percent of hospice and home health companies in the U.S. are registered in L.A. County but when investigators visited the addresses listed, they found no clinics, patients or healthcare workers.

Instead they found multiple red flags, including multiple hospices in one building, high rates of terminally ill patients later discharged alive, excessive billing, and staff shared across multiple companies.

The California state auditor had sounded the alarm three years ago, saying that Los Angeles County had seen the number of hospice companies increase more than six times the national average, relative to its elderly population.

Let’s put this in perspective.

The population of residents age 65 or over in California is estimated at 6.3 million while Florida estimates its population of 65+ residents at 4.9 million.

Public records show 2,279 Medicare-certified hospice organizations in California with just 208 such Medicare-certified organizations in Florida.

This raises serious questions as to why California would have more than 10 times the number of Medicare-certified hospice organizations than Florida when it has less than twice the population of 65+ residents.

According to CBS, in just one year, L.A. County hospices overbilled Medicare by $105 million, prompting the state to investigate and revoke the licenses of 280 hospices.

This latest revelation of potential Medicare fraud shows that the problem of scammers enriching themselves at taxpayer expense extends far beyond Minnesota, which has been under scrutiny for the past few months over the alleged theft of billions of taxpayer dollars via social services.

It also reveals the silver lining that a mainstream news organization is finally willing to do investigative reporting on suspected fraud rather than leaving the heavy lifting to citizen journalists like Nick Shirley, who blew the lid off taxpayer fraud in Minnesota and then turned his sights on California.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Responds to Claims that His Nation Dragged President Trump into War with Iran 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has broken his silence regarding unfounded allegations that the Jewish State strong-armed President Trump into going to war with Iran.

As TGP readers know, the ongoing war with Iran has divided big-name conservative influencers (though ordinary GOPers remain solidly behind Trump). Some have claimed that Netanyahu is controlling Trump and actually calling the shots when it comes to American foreign policy.

Disgraced former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, who quit on Wednesday, piled on as well.

He stated in his resignation letter that Iran posed no imminent threat to America and asserted we started the war because of “pressure from Israel” and its “powerful American lobby.”

Netanyahu decided to respond to these allegations during a press conference on Thursday. He called any claim that Israel forced America to go to war with Iran just another piece of fake news.

The Israeli Prime Minister then posed a question that almost everyone would say no to: Does anyone think Trump takes orders from other human beings?

Netanyahu closed by praising Trump for always putting America first.

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CDC Buried COVID Vaccine Death Data In Lancet Study, Internal Documents Reveal

Researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) altered their own study on COVID-19 vaccine adverse events to downplay deaths linked to the shots, according to documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense (CHD).

CHD sued the CDC in 2023 to obtain the documents after the agency failed to respond to CHD’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The 100-page document tranche included an earlier draft of the CDC study that differed significantly from the version the authors published in June 2022 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., CHD senior research scientist, who analyzed the FOIA documents, said the CDC “severely edited” the study “to promote safety and to de-emphasize death.”

The first four words of the draft’s title were “Reactogenicity and Adverse Events.” However, the published version’s title began with “Safety of mRNA vaccines.”

Reactogenicity refers to the side effects or adverse events someone experiences after taking a vaccine or medication.

The study authors, members of the CDC’s COVID-19 Response Team, analyzed reports of adverse events following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination during the first 6 months of the vaccine rollout in the U.S.

The researchers pulled the reports from two federal vaccine safety monitoring systems — the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and V-safe.

Although there were 4,496 deaths reported to VAERS during that time frame, the study authors stripped details about the deaths from the article’s abstract.

The lead study author, Dr. Hannah Rosenblum, wrote in a comment on the draft, “Note all death results/interpretation has been removed from abstract.”

That’s a big deal, Jablonowski said — because the abstract, which appears at the top of a study and summarizes it, is typically read much more than the full body of an article.

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Outrage as Texas town official spends $5,000 of taxpayers’ cash on OZEMPIC

A tiny Texas town has been rocked by a bizarre spending scandal after thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds were used to purchase weight-loss drugs and items from TikTok Shop.

Mayor Ken Padilla of Campbell, a small city in Hunt County with fewer than 1,000 residents, confirmed that roughly 150 unauthorized credit card charges were made between 2024 and 2025 that totaled more than $28,000.

Eyebrow-raising purchases include over $5,000 spent on GLP-1 weight-loss medications such as Ozempic, along with another $5,000 on items from TikTok Shop, Fox 4 reports.

The spending spree amounts to about 3.5 percent of the city’s annual budget, raising serious concerns about oversight and accountability in the tight-knit community.

City Secretary Trisha Lowery, who was hired after the transactions occurred, told a tense city council meeting on Monday that officials still cannot determine who made the charges.

‘I cannot tell you one way or the other who made these transactions. Obviously, we all have our own opinion on who did them and how they transpired,’ Lowery said. 

‘There has to be some sort of individual identifying information that says this person used this card.’

Padilla refused to comment further due to the pending investigation. 

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As Washington Succeeds in Wrecking Cuba’s Economy, US Media Blame the Victim

The US government’s decades-long economic blockade against Cuba is in many ways not a complicated issue. The policy of restricting trade with the country’s Communist government was put into full force under the Kennedy administration, with the explicit goal of causing enough economic hardship, hunger and desperation to spur regime change.

The UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly and consistently voted to end the embargo since a resolution to that effect was first introduced in 1992. Member countries argue that the embargo violates international law. It has cost the country anywhere between $130–170 billion since its inception, and has restricted the Cuban people’s access to food and medicine. And it has not accomplished its primary goal of overthrowing the Cuban government.

These are key points that should be included in any article reporting on Cuba’s economic struggles. However, US journalists have consistently leaned into the US government’s framing of the issue: that the country’s Communist government is largely or exclusively to blame for its financial woes (FAIR.org, 11/4/24).

As the Trump regime tightens the screws of the embargo by further restricting oil access to the country, a move that has been condemned by UN human rights experts as a further violation of international law (New York Times, 2/13/26), legacy media continue to toe the government’s line on the issue, with coverage that is either low on context or outright stenography.

President Donald Trump has tried to justify his administration’s significant escalation in tactics on the basis that Cuba represents an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the security of the United States, primarily by supporting US geopolitical enemies. This accusation is not new: The country has previously been accused of hosting both Russian and Chinese spy bases. Despite neither claim being backed by evidence (Belly of the Beast, 2/6/26, 8/1/24), the Trump administration doubled down on them when rolling out its new and harsher set of policies.

But the administration also unveiled a new claim that upped the ante: Cuba has apparently been harboring Hamas and Hezbollah forces, not 90 miles off of our shores! “Cuba welcomes transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas,” reads an executive order from January 29,

creating a safe environment for these malign groups so that these transnational terrorist groups can build economic, cultural and security ties throughout the region, and attempt to destabilize the Western Hemisphere, including the United States.

The administration did not provide evidence to support this claim, and none has surfaced, despite local journalists’ investigative efforts (Belly of the Beast, 2/2/26).

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Newsom Implies Investigative Journalist Nick Shirley is a Pedophile for Exposing Daycare Fraud

California’s Democrat Governor is attacking a journalist for exposing daycare fraud.

Governor Gavin Newsom implied investigative journalist Nick Shirley is a pedophile for exposing rampant daycare fraud in California and Minnesota.

On Monday evening, Nick Shirley released his latest video uncovering $170 million in fraud in California.

“We uncovered over $170,000,000 in fraud as these fraudsters live in luxury with no consequences,” Nick Shirley said.

“California’s version of Medicaid called ‘Medi-Cal’ has more than doubled since 2022 from $108 billion to a proposed $222 billion in 2026. Their population, however, has not grown exponentially. However, their spending has,” Nick Shirley said.

“There has been a 1,000 percent increase in hospice care in Los Angeles County,” Nick Shirley said. It’s estimated that the fraud in California could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Nick Shirley visited ‘hospices’ in Los Angeles and ‘daycares’ in San Diego.

The Somali ‘daycare’ owner/operator screamed at Nick Shirley and called the police after he asked her why there weren’t any children in the facility.

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Democrat Senator Alex Padilla Scurries Away as Reporter Questions Him About O’Keefe’s Undercover Cash For Ballots Video on Skid Row

Democrat Senator Alex Padilla (CA) walked away as a reporter questioned him about the O’Keefe Media Group’s undercover cash for ballots video on Skid Row.

The O’Keefe Media Group on Tuesday released part one of its investigation into a California elections fraud cash for ballots scheme.

James O’Keefe and his team of journalists went undercover on Skid Row in Los Angeles, posing as homeless people.

‘Petitioners’ told the undercover journalists that they are paid between $7-$10 per signature. Some of them earn up to $1,000 per day.

“California NGOs Encourage Fake Addresses To Homeless People To Sign Petitions & Register Voters, A State & Federal Felony. Footage Shows 28 Instances Of Cash Changing Hands For Ballot Signatures & Voter Registration Forms,” they said.

“Many of the petitioners had no understanding of the petitions’ purpose they were advertising. Circulators also instructed individuals to use fake addresses. “Oh, you can just fake an address.”” OMG reported.

“Weingart Center, which received hundreds of millions in public funding, is on tape directing people to where the fraudulent petitioners are located, and directing homeless individuals to petitioners & coaching plausible deniability,” OMG said.

One petitioner impersonated a police officer and appeared to threaten James O’Keefe.

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Former Hegseth Advisor Ousted in Leak Investigation Finds New Home in Gabbard’s DNI Office: Report

The former top senior advisor to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has reportedly been hired by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Fox News reported Tuesday that Dan Caldwell, ousted from the Pentagon last April amid a high-profile purge, is now onboarding at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

A source familiar with the move told Fox News that Caldwell has already passed a polygraph, sailed through background checks, and is stepping into an administrative coordination role, one that still feeds directly into shaping the President’s daily intelligence briefing across all 18 intel agencies.

More from the news outlet:

A former top advisor to War Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was ousted amid a high-profile leak investigation, has been hired to work under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, according to a source familiar with the move.

[…]

Earlier Tuesday, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned, citing opposition to the Iran war and arguing Tehran, Iran, did not pose an imminent threat to the United States, a rare public break from within the administration.

A source familiar with the move described Caldwell’s new position as an “administrative role” focused on internal management and coordination rather than directly shaping intelligence assessments or national security policy. However, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) plays a central role in coordinating intelligence across 18 agencies and shaping the president’s daily intelligence briefing.

The source said Caldwell has completed a polygraph test and passed a series of background and security checks and is in the onboarding process.

[…]

The Pentagon declined to comment on Caldwell’s hiring and the status of the investigation. The Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations did not respond to a request for comment.

Caldwell’s firing in April 2025 was part of a sweeping Pentagon purge ordered during a leak crackdown that the Trump administration said was necessary to root out bad actors undermining national security, along with two other senior aides, Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll.

Dan Caldwell was escorted out of the Pentagon for “an unauthorized disclosure,” according to Reuters.

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