Tag: corruption

‘Flashing Red Warning Sign’ for Lawmakers: Poll Shows Voters Reject US-Israel Military Integration

A new poll of US voters published on Tuesday offers a warning for congressional lawmakers backing a plan to deepen military ties between the United States and Israel, finding that a clear majority of voters oppose the proposal – which some critics have called “treasonous.”

The Data for Progress survey of 1,217 likely US voters – conducted August 3–7 for Demand Progress and the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project – revealed that 61% of respondents oppose legislation in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2027 that would integrate Israeli weapons companies into the Pentagon at a level exceeding that of any other country. That figure rose to 78% among Democrats and 73% among independents.

“This poll is a flashing red warning sign for any member of Congress who supports the defense authorization bill,” Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian said in a statement. “A clear majority of voters do not support further integrating the Israeli military and Israeli military companies into the Pentagon, which the NDAA is set to do.”

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted last month 216-212, mostly along party lines, in favor of a record $1.15 trillion NDAA. The military spending bill contains Section 219, a provision that would create a US–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, accelerating joint defense research, development, testing, and integration of technologies including artificial intelligence, missile defense, and counter-drone systems.

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) submitted an amendment to strip Section 219 from the NDAA. The measure failed to pass.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who voted against the NDAA, described Section 219 as “an outrageous threat to our country’s security and autonomy.”

The Senate version of the military spending authorization bill has a related provision – Section 1217, the United States-Israel FUTURES Act – and the two chambers will need to reconcile their NDAA legislation before the final language is decided. Reconciliation is not expected to occur before November at the earliest.

“It’s time for Congress to listen to the American people for once, and not the same voices who always want to cut Israel a blank check,” Kharrazian said. That “blank check” has totaled more than $174 billion in non-inflation-adjusted aid since the modern state of Israel was founded in 1948.

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Fauci’s Former Advisor David Morens Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Defraud the United States by Hiding COVID Origin Records and Evading FOIA

David Morens, the longtime senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States.

Morens, 78, entered the plea in federal court in Maryland under an agreement with prosecutors.

The charges stem from Morens’ role in a scheme to evade Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Department of Justice, Morens and his co-conspirators used his personal Gmail account to hide communications about restoring NIH funding to EcoHealth Alliance’s controversial bat coronavirus grant, the same grant tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology that was terminated over lab-leak concerns.

Additionally, Morens co-authored papers that dismissed the lab-leak theory as “thoroughly discredited” and promoted the natural-origin narrative while protecting EcoHealth Alliance and its Chinese partners.

According to the DOJ announcement of the guilty plea:

“Morens is facing up to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit offenses and to defraud the United States. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district judge determines sentencing after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.”

As The Gateway Pundit has previously reported, Morens worked to undermine Trump’s 2020 ban on gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called it “a profound abuse of trust” at the height of the pandemic.

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Polling Firm Showing Karen Bass, Francesca Hong in Lead Admits Fake Polls: ‘Short-Term Social Experiment’

A fake polling firm projecting Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Wisconsin Democrat socialist gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong with leads over their opponents admits these were fake polls as part of a “short-term social experiment.”

In a statement posted to the website for Median Strategies, the fake polling firm explained it “has concluded its polling project and will not publish additional polls.”

The statement from Median Strategies goes on to say, “All previously published polling releases have been withdrawn and should not be cited or treated as genuine polling data.”

“Median Strategies was created as a short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification,” the statement continued.

The statement from Median Strategies comes as the firm released a fake poll which showed Karen Bass with a 12-point lead over her opponent Nithya Raman prior to the Los Angeles mayoral runoff race in November, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Median Strategies explained that the “results were based on a survey of 560 Los Angeles voters between July 30 and Aug. 5. It said it had a 4.1 percent margin of error,” according to the outlet.

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Democratic Congressman Under Ethics Committee Investigation for Alleged ‘Inappropriate Sexual Contact’

A California Democratic congressman who is the chairman of the Congressional Dads Caucus is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

On Monday, the Ethics Committee said it is “reviewing allegations that Representative Jimmy Gomez may have engaged in sexual misconduct in violation of the Code of Official Conduct or any other applicable standard of conduct, including engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer in violation of clause 18(b) of the Code.”

“The Committee notes that the mere fact that it is investigating these allegations, and publicly disclosing its review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred,” its statement said.

Gomez admitted having extramarital relations but said it was all legal, according to Politico.

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Mark Walter Probe Puts Wall Street’s Insurance-Private Credit Machine Under DoJ Scrutiny

An ongoing federal investigation into billionaire Mark Walter’s business empire is raising alarm bells about Wall Street’s use of insurance capital to finance private credit and other illiquid investments. 

Bloomberg reported that Walter’s TWG Global holding company said in a filing that it will wind down its exposure to affiliated businesses by up to $6.5 billion after the transactions drew scrutiny from federal investigators. This comes after the Department of Justice homed in on loans that should’ve been marked as affiliated transactions. 

Walter’s TWG Global holding company will buy up to $6.5 billion of affiliated assets from Delaware Life Insurance Co. in exchange for an equal amount of unaffiliated investments. Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co., another TWG-controlled insurer, separately reduced related-party transactions by $90 million.

The moves begin unwinding more than $20 billion of loans and investments that the insurers acknowledged should have been classified as affiliated transactions. 

“Tripping over these requirements can constitute fraud,” said Derek Reisfield, co-founder and former chairman of MarketWatch, as well as a former McKinsey consultant, who was quoted by The New York Post. 

Reisfield said that heavy exposure to businesses connected to an insurer’s owner poses a very high risk. 

“The risk is that concentrated loans to related parties go south, and the insurance companies and their policyholders can’t be made whole,” Reisfield said, adding, “It’s bad risk management and leaves the companies vulnerable.”

Last week, Walter agreed to sell the Los Angeles Lakers to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger at a record $12.5 billion valuation, and earlier this week, a report stated that he is mulling over selling his stake in Chelsea Football Club to the majority owner, Clearlake Capital. 

Insurance companies are allowed to do business with related parties, but such dealings must be disclosed and properly labeled to ensure that owners do not put their interests ahead of those of policyholders. 

The investigation into Walter’s empire is a major wake-up call about Wall Street’s use of insurance capital to finance private credit and other illiquid investments. 

Walter was one of the earliest adopters of the strategy of acquiring insurers and investing their long-term policyholder capital in higher-yielding private assets. A number of other asset managers, including Apollo, KKR, and Brookfield, have followed suit by building out insurance operations. Private-capital firms now manage more than $1 trillion of insurance assets.

“We have always acted in good faith, and insinuations that we have in any way attempted to circumvent our obligations are simply false,” a TWG spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. 

More problems: Walter, CEO of Guggenheim Partners, saw a financing entity tied to the investment firm report a sharp decline in second-quarter earnings, driven by the delayed recognition of advisory fees. The disclosure sent the entity’s term loan tumbling below 80 cents on the dollar.

To sum up, the affiliated transactions were not inherently illegal, provided they had regulatory approval. That appears to be where the process broke down in Walter’s case.

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Terror-Linked CAIR Urges Officials to Arrest James O’Keefe and Cam Higby For “Using Fake Muslim Identities, Accents and Religious Stereotypes” in Undercover Voter Sting

Terror-linked Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is now calling for a criminal investigation into James O’Keefe and Cam Higby for dressing up as Muslims and using fake Middle Eastern accents during an undercover sting.

James O’Keefe and Cam Higby went undercover in Muslim garb to expose Minnesota’s insane ‘voter vouching’ system.

O’Keefe and Higby used hilarious fake Arab accents during their undercover sting.

The election worker told James, “You’re the ID,” when he asked if he could vouch for other people.

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Cam Higby’s TikTok Account Permanently Banned After He Posted Clips Exposing Minnesota’s Insane ‘Voter Vouching’ System

TikTok permanently banned journalist Cam Higby’s account after he posted two video clips from his undercover report inside Minnesota polling stations.

James O’Keefe and Cam Higby went undercover in Muslim garb to expose Minnesota’s insane ‘voter vouching’ system.

“Under Minnesota’s Statutes § 201.061, a registered voter can sign an affidavit affirming that they know another individual resides in the same precinct, allowing that person to register at the polls without presenting standard proof of residence. One registered voter can vouch for up to eight people,” O’Keefe said.

“We wanted to find out what this actually looks like inside a polling place and how far election workers would let us take it,” he said.

O’Keefe was dressed in a ‘thobe’ and Cam Higby wore a black burka as they entered polling stations across Minneapolis.

“I have a question about the vouching program, yeah? Vouching? I can vouch for them but they are not registered,” O’Keefe asked the poll workers.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” the poll workers said.

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BOMBSHELL: Abdul El-Sayed’s Mother Worked for Terror-Linked Group That Funded Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and Hamas

The mother of Democrat Michigan candidate for U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, worked for a terrorism linked group that funded Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and Hamas, according to a new bombshell report.

Just yesterday, the Gateway Pundit reported that El-Sayed’s half sister is a radical leftist professor at the University of Chicago who allegedly assaulted a police officer at an anti-ICE protest and now this. What’s next?

This family clearly has some serious issues.

From the Midwesterner:

Docs: Abdul El-Sayed’s mother worked for designated terror group IARA that ‘provided direct financial support’ to Osama bin Laden, Taliban, Hamas

Jacqueline El-Sayed married El-Sayed’s father, Mohamed El-Sayed, not long after he immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1980s with Fatten Fathy Elkomy, the U.S. Senate candidate’s birth mother.

“They ended up getting divorced,” El-Sayed said of his birth parents during a 2017 speech before the Islamic Foundation. “And my mother, she remarried a gentleman who was working as a translator in the Middle East and moved back to the Middle East.”

From 1999 through at least 2004, Elkomy worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, also known as the Islamic African Relief Agency, which operated over 40 offices throughout the world ostensibly focused on health care, orphans, and disadvantaged people in areas of conflict.

In October 2004, the U.S. Department of Treasury designated the worldwide network, along with five senior officials, as an organization supporting terrorism, including support for Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

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Pay The Money Back: Ford cabinet ministers’ riding associations spent $356,000 on meetings, restaurants and events

Five riding associations represented by Ontario Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers spent more than $356,000 over two years on expenses categorized as “meetings hosted,” according to an analysis first reported by the Toronto Star.

The expenses were paid from political donations, which qualify donors for provincial tax credits. Elections Ontario records do not identify who was reimbursed for the meetings or, in many cases, who attended.

The biggest spender was Associate Solicitor General Michael Tibollo’s Vaughan—Woodbridge PC riding association, which reported $47,200 in meeting expenses in both 2024 and 2025, for a two-year total of $94,400. The money went to Venu Event Space for Tibollo’s annual “Chestnut Roast” fundraiser.

Energy Minister Stephen Lecce’s King—Vaughan association came next at $79,647 over two years. Its expenses included nearly $15,000 for Beretta Farms beef at a 2024 community barbecue, $1,850 at Mr. Congee Chinese Cuisine and $900 at Eagles Nest Golf Club.

Former tourism minister Stan Cho’s Willowdale association spent $68,646 over two years. In 2024 alone, it reported $54,000 in meeting expenses, including $4,333 in meals at the Niagara Marriott on the Falls, $3,409 at Japanese restaurant and oyster bar Nome Izakaya, $6,970 listed as “Rogers Blue Jays” and $9,708 at Sher-E-Punjab.

Labour Minister David Piccini’s Northumberland—Peterborough South association spent $57,325 over the two years. Expenses previously reported by the Star included sushi-rolling classes and restaurant meals in Toronto and Fort Lauderdale. In 2025, the association also spent $1,533 at BATL Grounds, an axe- and knife-throwing venue.

Solicitor General Michael Kerzner’s York Centre association rounded out the top five with $40,472 over two years. Its 2024 expenses included $17,374 in hospitality catering, plus $831 at Chicken’s Nest Kosher Restaurant and another $5,642 in catering from the restaurant.

The five associations spent $356,312 combined. By comparison, riding associations representing the other 32 cabinet and associate ministers spent a combined $325,720 over the same period. Premier Doug Ford’s Etobicoke North association reported just $2,548 in “meetings hosted” expenses.

The Ontario PC Party said riding association budgets can be used for fundraising, volunteer appreciation, stakeholder outreach and community events. The spending complied with Ontario election financing rules.

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WSJ Hid Reporter’s Soros-Funded Ties in Kushner Albania Hit Piece

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a report this month on the Albanian corruption case entangling Jared Kushner’s resort project that was co-written by an editor at a newsroom funded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, a tie the paper did not disclose to readers.

The August 8 report, “The Suspected Gangster Causing Headaches for Kushner’s Albania Deal,” carried the byline of WSJ staff reporter Eliot Brown and Vladimir Karaj. The story detailed prosecutors’ allegations against Artur Shehu, a landowner who sold property to the Kushner-backed development group before Albanian authorities sought his arrest in a cocaine trafficking and money laundering case.

Karaj is an editor at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network’s (BIRN) Albania office, which runs the outlet Reporter.al. BIRN’s own donor page states that the Open Society Foundation Albania funds the network’s anti-corruption program “through investigative reporting and closer cooperation between journalists and civil society organizations.” Reporter.al is grant-funded by the same Soros foundation.

The prosecutors’ office driving the case, known as SPAK, traces directly to the same donor network. SPAK was created under Albania’s 2016 justice reform, an overhaul the U.S. backed with roughly $270 million in USAID spending routed through organizations tied to Soros over fifteen years.

Andi Dobrushi, the executive director of OSF Albania, described his foundation’s role plainly.

“OSF Albania has been the main funder of the entire reform process,” Dobrushi said.

Six Republican senators, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), pressed the State Department in 2017 to examine the relationship between USAID and the Soros foundations in Albania. Judicial Watch later obtained embassy records through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation showing the U.S. mission in Tirana gave the Soros organization input into its own program funding reviews.

Open Society has rejected characterizations linking its work to U.S. government money. The foundation called claims that it receives USAID funding or directs the agency’s spending “manifestly false,” saying it sets its own priorities and uses its own funds.

Kushner’s $1.4 billion Sazan Island project faces daily protests in Tirana. Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has been described as Soros-linked and calls Alex Soros his “brother in Tirana,” has vowed the development will proceed.

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