Tag: corruption

Jailed Fraud Queen Drops Bombshell: Walz, Ellison Knew About the $250M Heist All Along

A Minnesota woman convicted in one of the largest welfare fraud schemes in state history is alleging that Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of widespread fraud long before federal prosecutors intervened, adding new scrutiny to state leadership already facing a Department of Justice investigation.

Aimee Bock, the former head of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, made the allegations during a jailhouse interview with Fox News from Sherburne County Jail in Minnesota.

Bock has been convicted of welfare fraud tied to the misuse of federal funds intended for child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Ex-DEA agent gets 5 years in prison for using badge to protect drug trafficking friends: “Little dark secret”

In two decades of kicking in doors for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Joseph Bongiovanni often took on the risks of being the “lead breacher,” meaning he was the first person into the room.

On Wednesday, he felt a familiar uncertainty awaiting sentencing for using his DEA badge to protect childhood friends who became prolific drug traffickers in Buffalo, New York.

“I never knew what was on the other side of that door — that fear is what I feel today,” Bongiovanni, 61, told a federal judge, pounding the defense table as his face reddened with emotion. “I’ve always been innocent. I loved that job.”

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo sentenced the disgraced lawman to five years in federal prison on a string of corruption counts. The punishment was significantly less than the 15 years prosecutors sought even after a jury acquitted Bongiovanni of the most serious charges he faced, including an allegation he pocketed $250,000 in bribes from the Mafia.

The judge said the sentence reflected the complexity of the mixed verdicts following two lengthy trials and the almost Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of Bongiovanni’s career, in which the lawman racked up enough front-page accolades to fill a trophy case.

Bongiovanni once hurtled into a burning apartment building to evacuate residents through billowing smoke. He locked up drug dealers, including the first ever prosecuted in the region for causing a fatal overdose.

“There are two completely polar opposite versions of the facts and polar opposite versions of the defendant,” Vilardo said, assuring prosecutors five years behind bars would pose a considerable hardship to someone who has never been to prison.

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Email Shows Top Fulton County Election Officials KNEW About Election Count Discrepancies in November 2020

On Wednesday, the Georgia State Election Board held a hearing during which Joe Rossi, co-author of the now-famous SEB Complaint 2023-025, was afforded the opportunity to finally present a rebuttal to a previously-heard report from the Secretary of State’s office in May 2024.  During that May hearing, neither Rossi nor co-author Kevin Moncla were afforded an opportunity to rebut the report to the SEB.

Among other severe issues, one of 2023-025’s claims was that 3,125 ballots were actually duplicate ballots added to the final machine count on December 4, 2020.  According to Rossi’s testimony, that number is now up to 3,900, allegedly found by the Department of Justice in its investigation, which Rossi disclosed has already begun.

Rossi showed an example of how the duplicated ballots were scanned in a way that makes it highly unlikely that it was a “human error” or mistake, and also difficult to discover. 

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Legislation Proposed To Make It Easier To Denaturalize Somali Fraudsters

In the wake of the massive Somali-fraud scandal out of Minnesota and other states, President Donald Trump wants to denaturalize American immigrants convicted of crimes and deport them, but the current legal framework and federal bureaucracy make such sweeping denaturalization efforts difficult to achieve quickly. 

“I would do it in a heartbeat if they were dishonest,” Trump told the New York Times earlier this month. “I think that many of the people that came in from Somalia, they hate our country.”

Existing federal law provides limited pathways for revoking the citizenship of naturalized citizens. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act the government can denaturalize individuals who obtained citizenship through fraud, misrepresentation, or the concealment of material facts during the naturalization process. The law does not allow automatic revocation based solely on crimes committed after naturalization. Current denaturalization proceedings require civil lawsuits filed by the Department of Justice in federal court or criminal prosecutions for naturalization fraud, both demanding individualized evidence, extensive litigation, and meeting high burdens of proof. Civil cases require “clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence,” while criminal prosecutions demand proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) has proposed a solution to this problem. He’s introduced the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act in the Senate to expand federal denaturalization authority. The legislation creates a 10-year window after naturalization during which citizens who commit specified crimes could face citizenship revocation and deportation. Among those offenses are welfare fraud exceeding $10,000, aggravated felonies, espionage, and joining terrorist organizations, a category the bill explicitly extends to gangs and drug cartels. The measure also lowers the threshold for federal authorities to begin denaturalization proceedings by broadening the legal grounds beyond fraud committed during the citizenship application process.

The bill even includes a fallback provision that automatically reduces the revocation window from ten years to five years if courts strike down the longer period as unconstitutional.

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WHAT A COINCIDENCE: While Serving in Congress, Keith Ellison Sponsored Legislation That Made it Easier to Transfer Funds to Somalia

Before becoming the attorney general of Minnesota, Keith Ellison served in the House of Representatives, for the state’s 5th District, which includes the city of Minneapolis.

During his time in congress, Ellison only sponsored one bill, the Money Remittances Improvement Act of 2014. This bill made it easier to transfer funds to places overseas, like Somalia. Isn’t that fascinating?

You could not make this up.

Couple this with the fact that Ellison was caught on tape basically promising favors to fraudsters, and things are not looking good for him.

Hot Air has more on this:

It turns out that this bill was the Money Remittances Improvement Act, which created the conditions through which those hundreds of millions or likely billions of dollars were fraudulently acquired and sent off to fund the Somali civil war and to enrich members of Somali clans associated with those who settled here in Minnesota.

Any financial bill is complicated, but the most relevant portion of the bill in this case is to transfer the authority to monitor money transfers to foreign countries to the states, which are in turn supposed to ensure that federal regulations are strictly adhered to…

It’s almost as if the system were intentionally designed not to aid in the small remittances of people working in menial jobs as refugees to send money to their families back home, but rather to enable the shipment of hundreds of millions or billions of ill-gotten gains abroad.

Naah. Couldn’t be.

Such corruption is impossible in America, right? A no man with the patriotism and integrity that would vault him to the exalted heights of Congressman, Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee, and then Attorney General would ever participate in a scheme to defraud the state and federal governments, right?

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Lawmakers Advance Potential Criminal Charges Against Clintons

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday voted to advance two resolutions affirming that former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should be held in contempt of Congress.

The resolutions in question stem from subpoenas approved unanimously by the Oversight Committee’s Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee on July 23, 2025. These subpoenas required testimony from several individuals, including the Clintons, as part of a probe examining the crimes of notorious sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial, had documented associations with Bill Clinton, including multiple flights on Epstein’s private jet. The committee sought depositions to gather information on the Clinton’s ties to Epstein, though no criminal allegations have been alleged.

The subpoenas were reissued after initial delays, with Bill Clinton scheduled for a deposition on January 13 and Hillary for the following day. Both failed to appear, prompting immediate backlash from committee Republicans.

In a letter addressed to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), the Clintons’ attorneys described the subpoenas as “invalid” and lacking a legitimate legislative purpose. They further accused Republicans of weaponizing the committee for political gain, which was echoed in a statement from the Clintons themselves.

“Despite everything that needs to be done to help our country, you are on the cusp of bringing Congress to a halt to pursue a rarely used process literally designed to result in our imprisonment. This is not the way out of America’s ills, and we will forcefully defend ourselves,” the Clintons said in a public statement.

On Wednesday, January 21, the committee voted to advance the resolutions by a wide margin. The final vote on the resolution for Bill Clinton was 34-8, with two members voting present. Nine Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the measure.

The vote for Hillary Clinton was 28-15, with one member voting present. Three Democrats voted in favor alongside Republicans, Politico reported.

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NYPD Detectives Denied Treatment At Hospital After Being ‘Mistaken For ICE’

NYPD detectives say they were treated with disrespect at a Brooklyn hospital after going to the emergency room for medical care following an on-the-job incident.

Police officials said the detectives arrived at NYU Langone Health in Cobble Hill but were confronted by security guards who questioned their identities and why they were there.

Sources told Eyewitness News the detectives were in plainclothes and explained that one of them needed treatment for a minor injury sustained during a scuffle with a suspect. Despite that explanation, they were allegedly detained, and one detective was initially refused entry because he was carrying his service weapon.

The encounter quickly angered union leaders.

“No individual-especially NYPD Detectives injured in the line of duty-should ever be subjected to such treatment,” the detectives’ union said in a statement.

The detectives, who were not identified, believe hospital staff may have mistaken them for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and initially tried to turn them away.

ICE agents often wear tactical gear marked “Police” but do not always display badges or other identification. NYPD detectives, even when in plainclothes, carry gold shields.

The incident comes amid heightened political tensions surrounding ICE enforcement in New York City.

Appearing on “The View” on Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said ICE should be abolished.

“We’re seeing a government agency that is supposed to be enforcing some kind of immigration law, but instead what it’s doing is terrorizing people no matter their immigration status, no matter the facts of the law, no matter the facts of the case,” he said.

The mayor said Wednesday that he had not been aware of the hospital incident until asked about it by a reporter.

“That’s the first I’m hearing about it but it’s something I’ll follow up on,” he said.

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Virginia Democrat Moves to Squash Oversight of Nonprofits After Somali Fraud Scandal

A Virginia state Democrat introduced a bill that would bar the state from verifying eligibility to receive federal taxpayer benefits.

“No state agency responsible for the administration of federal funds shall impose a requirement on a nonprofit charitable organization providing a federal public benefit to determine, verify, or otherwise require proof of eligibility of any applicant for such benefits,” the one-page bill stated, which was proposed by state Delegate Jessica Anderson.

The Dominion State Democrat’s bill was introduced as the nation has increasingly scrutinized the misuse of taxpayer funds. The Trump administration has moved to clamp down on fraud across many federal benefit programs.

Billions of dollars of taxpayer funds have been lost due to fraud related to Minnesota’s Somali community.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged at least 78 people as part of the “Feeding our Future” scandal, named for a Somali-linked nonprofit that bilked taxpayers of $250 million.

Those accused reportedly faked invoices, attendance records, and the distribution of meals in low-income and other areas in Minnesota.

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A Stuttering Jack Smith Says He Can’t Remember Who Swore Him In as Special Counsel

Former special counsel Jack Smith appeared for a testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday as GOP lawmakers probed his efforts to interfere with President Trump’s 2024 election.

Merrick Garland, US Attorney General under Biden, appointed Jack Smith to investigate Trump in November 2022, just one day after Trump announced a 2024 White House bid.

In June 2023, Smith indicted Trump on 37 federal counts in Miami for lawfully storing presidential records at his Mar-a-Lago estate, which was protected by Secret Service agents.

In a separate case in Washington DC, Jack Smith indicted Trump on four counts: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

During Thursday’s hearing, Jack Smith said he could not remember who swore him in as special counsel.

It is required by law to be sworn in and take an oath of office.

GOP Rep. Lance Gooden grilled Jack Smith about this and suggested he was an illegitimate prosecutor.

In November 2022, Jack Smith was supposedly sworn in as special counsel.

However, 11 months later, Merrick Garland curiously administered a second oath.

Jack Smith repeatedly claimed he ‘couldn’t recall’ or ‘couldn’t remember’ executing an oath of office.

At one point, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan interjected, asking Jack Smith which oath of office counted.

Jack Smith did not give Chairman Jordan a straight answer.

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Texas AG Starts Investigation Into Vaccine-Related Financial Incentives

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Jan. 21 said he’s investigating incentives related to vaccinating children.

Paxton’s office said in a statement that the probe will cover pediatricians, insurers, vaccine companies, and other entities “engaged in deceptive or unlawful conduct by failing to disclose financial incentives connected to their administration of childhood vaccines.”

It noted that some pediatricians kick out families that refuse to adhere to a vaccine schedule and that doctors can receive bonuses for vaccinating.

An Epoch Times investigation found that insurers have offered bonuses as high as $400 per child as an incentive to vaccinate patients.

Paxton is issuing civil investigative demands for information to companies, including UnitedHealthcare and Pfizer.

“I will ensure that Big Pharma and Big Insurance don’t bribe medical providers to pressure parents to jab their kids with vaccines they feel aren’t safe or necessary,” Paxton said in a statement.

He said that Texans “deserve to have full faith in the recommendations of their medical providers—particularly when it involves the health of their children” and that “any provider or entity whose medical guidance is fueled by financial incentives from an insurance company, Big Pharma, or otherwise will be exposed.”

Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for more information.

UnitedHealthcare had said in a document, which was taken down after The Epoch Times’ story was published, that doctors were eligible for bonuses for patients who received vaccines against tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, and human papillomavirus.

The Epoch Times reached out to UnitedHealthcare and Pfizer for comment, but they did not respond by publication time.

Studies have found that vaccinations can be profitable, including a 2020 paper. Some doctors have said in surveys that they can lose money on vaccines due to certain factors, such as low reimbursements.

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