Tag: transparency

Newsom’s Release of Tax Returns Called ‘an Insult to Transparency’

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California released four years of federal tax returns this week to carefully selected news outlets — a disclosure which one news outlet slammed as “sneaky” and an “insult to transparency.”

The release was prompted “in part by a federal investigation into the finances of his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom,” aides told the New York Times, one of the few publications tapped to view and report on the returns.

That’s the rub, critics said.

The California Post reported Saturday that the governor “only permitted a small group of favored media outlets to pore over 718 pages of documents while forbidding them from making copies,” a move it headlined as “sneaky” and the process an “insult to transparency.”

The Post, which had lobbied for their release, was not one of the chosen few.

In 2024, the most recent year released, the Newsoms reported a taxable income of about $1.39 million, $1 million of that from investments, according to the Times’ reporting on Friday.

The governor’s taxable wages from his salary as governor were about $192,000. According to that report “his wife’s wages were about $148,000.”

Until this week, Newsom and his wife have not released returns since he ran for reelection in 2022, though when he was first elected governor he promised to release them annually–but failed to do so, the Times noted.

His office told the newspaper that the new release was in response to “right-wing claims” that the couple enriched themselves during his time in office.

The Post and others, however, took umbrage at the methodology of the disclosure. The paper reported the release was made at a “carefully managed private media event Thursday in Sacramento.”

“Media outlets including the New York Times and Politico, whose reporters were ordered to use only a pen and paper to take notes on the documents, agreed to publish their findings Friday morning,” the Post wrote in its Saturday edition.

The Times confirmed that restricted note-taking scenario as well.

The Post published comments from two critical congressmen from the Golden State.

“If the governor is truly committed to transparency, it makes little sense to pick and choose who that transparency extends to,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), a former state legislator, told the tabloid. “This appears to be another Newsom story where the factual details are very different from the self-proclaimed headline.”

Rep. James Gallagher (R-CA) also weighed in, saying, “Newsom’s transparency is a lot like his homelessness policy — it leaves a lot to be desired.”

He continued, “He talks big about things but never actually delivers. This is another instance of that — only allowing select people and only pen and paper. This isn’t real transparency. There are still a lot of questions where Gavin’s money comes from.”

According to the Times:

The returns, which were released for 2021 through 2024, show that Mr. Newsom’s finances have been fairly stable over the years, except in 2021, when the family’s income received a $1 million boost after they sold a multimillion-dollar home. Mr. Newsom has filed for an extension to file his 2025 return, which is due in October.

Tax returns often do not indicate how much a person’s wealth has grown through investments and business holdings. Many asset classes grew substantially in value between 2021 and 2024, yet the Newsoms’ income remained roughly the same. The governor and his wife both have significant investments in blind trusts, and only the income from those investments was reflected in the tax returns.

The couple, the Times reported, earned the bulk of their joint income from the governor’s investment in the wine and hospitality industry, held in a blind trust. His wife’s income stemmed from nonprofits with which she is associated.

The governor, who published his memoir Young Man in a Hurry, also earned $70,000 as an author in 2023 and $75,000 in $2024, presumably as advances for that book or royalties for a children’s book he also wrote.

Over the period released, the couple’s donations to charity ranged from a low of $40,000 in 2021 to a high of $67,000 in 2023. The names of organizations receiving cash were withheld, according to the Times, while recipients of non-cash donations were included.

One such donation was “Armani business wear” to a justice nonprofit in Oakland, the clothing costing them $45,000 but listed at a “thrift shop value” of only $4900. Other donations like toys and furniture went to Goodwill Industries.

The couple also paid additional taxes for domestic staff members and babysitters, reportedly paying nearly $200,000 in wages for household employees in 2024.

The returns came especially into focus after the governor disclosed recently that he and his wife are subjects of a federal investigation, which he claims is politically motivated.

Newsom in the past has accused the administration of weaponizing the Justice Department against him because he is a likely contender in the 2028 presidential election.

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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear Requests Update on Mitch McConnell’s Health After Rumors He Is ‘Brain Dead’

Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) requested that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “fully update” Kentucky residents on his health status as rumors surfaced that he may be “brain dead.”

In a letter addressed to McConnell, Beshear said that Kentuckians have been concerned about McConnell’s health and his ability to continue to hold his position in the United States Senate. The senator is reported to have been hospitalized since he was admitted on June 14.

“Over the last several weeks, Kentuckians have grown increasingly concerned about the current state of your health and wellbeing, and ability to hold office in the United States Senate,” Beshear wrote. “As Governor, I request that you fully update Kentuckians regarding the current status of your health.”

Beshear’s letter comes after conservative activist Laura Loomer and journalist Desiree Townsend claimed that unnamed sources alleged that “McConnell is officially brain dead.”

“High level source close to the White House tells me Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead,” Loomer wrote in a post on X. “He’s not coming back.”

However, a spokesperson for McConnell told Breitbart News that the senator “appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital.”

“The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session,” the spokesperson added.

After the rumor surfaced that McConnell was “brain dead,” several people, including CNN’s Scott Jennings,  said they had spoken to him. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Thune had also spoken to McConnell.

“I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky,” Jennings wrote in a post on X. “He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history.”

Beshear continued in his letter: “As public officeholders, we have made a commitment to our constituents to do our best to represent them and to always be transparent. I believe this requires clear communication about one’s ability to serve.”

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Judge Rules New Evidence in Charlie Kirk Assassination to be Made Public Next Month

A judge ruled that new evidence in the Charlie Kirk assassination case will be made public during next month’s hearing.

Judge Tony Graf on Monday ruled that the media is allowed in the courtroom for the July hearing.

Fox News reported:

Judge Tony Graf has denied Tyler Robinson’s efforts to have portions of his upcoming preliminary hearing held behind closed doors and to keep some evidence exhibits hidden from public view.

The preliminary hearing is a routine step where prosecutors will attempt to convince they court they have enough probable cause to bring the case to trial, and they are expected to succeed.

In response to a separate motion to sanction prosecutors for allegedly speaking about the case improperly outside of court, Graf ordered a hearing for both sides to present arguments regarding the defense allegation.

Both sides will have 90 minutes to speak at a June 12 hearing.

That motion stemmed from prosecutors’ attempt to “set the record straight” after an allegedly misleading claim in defense court filings went viral after suggesting ballistics investigators could not match the bullet that killed Charlie Kirk to the suspected murder weapon.

Last month, Judge Tony Graf rejected a request from Tyler Robinson to ban cameras in the courtroom during the duration of the trial.

Robinson fatally shot TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025 during an event at Utah Valley University.

Tyler Robinson allegedly used a Mauser 98 .30-06 rifle to kill Charlie Kirk.

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Judge Orders Administration to Obey Presidential Records Act

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to follow a post-Watergate law governing presidential records, rejecting the Justice Department’s argument that the statute violates the Constitution. US District Judge John Bates ruled Wednesday that the Presidential Records Act likely is constitutional and that a group of historians showed there is a “substantial risk” the White House is not complying with it, ABC News reports. The law, in place for nearly a half-century, requires that presidential records be preserved and transferred to the National Archives so they can eventually be made public.

In a 54-page opinion that cited George Orwell, William Shakespeare, and the inscription on the National Archives building—”What is past is prologue”—Bates concluded that Congress has authority under the Constitution’s Property Clause to regulate presidential records. “Almost 50 years of practice” and Supreme Court precedent, he wrote, support Congress’ power to set the rules for presidential documents. The order directs the White House Office, the National Security Council, the US DOGE Service, and President Trump’s advisers to fully comply with the act, per the Washington Post. Bates set May 26 as the date for it to take effect.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller are named in the order as being required to follow it. Trump and Vice President JD Vance are excluded, per CBS News. The records act has been invoked in debate since Trump was accused of taking sensitive presidential records to his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office. He was later indicted on charges of retaining classified information and obstruction of justice, a case that was dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon, who maintained special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was improper.

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Eight chilling never-before-seen UFO videos at center of explosive disclosure battle detailed by insider

A battle over UFO transparency has erupted in Washington as ‘certain intelligence agencies’ have been accused of withholding evidence from the American public. 

Investigative journalist Jeremy Corbell told the Daily Mail there is a ‘bottleneck’ inside US Central Command where footage of unidentified flying objects is being blocked from reaching officials seeking access to it.

Corbell said some members of Congress are now ‘dead set’ on forcing the release of the material ‘come hell or high water,’ with some lawmakers prepared to escalate the fight if agencies continue withholding records.

The growing disclosure battle has now centered on 46 classified military UFO videos that lawmakers recently demanded from the Department of War last month, which have yet to be released.

Eight of those highly anticipated clips appear in Corbell’s documentary Sleeping Dog, where viewers are shown brief glimpses of what he described as unresolved UFO encounters collected by the US military.

Corbell stressed the footage shown in the film represents only ‘tiny glimpses’ of a much larger archive of sensitive material tied to sensitive defense operations and unexplained aerial incidents.

Among the footage referenced by Corbell is what he described as full-color ‘satellite footage’ and ‘full motion video’ of mysterious flying objects that he believes Americans ‘need to be able to assess’ for themselves.

Corbell said the documentary was created not only to reveal pieces of the evidence, but to expose what he called the broader resistance against journalists, whistleblowers and transparency efforts surrounding UFO disclosure.

But whistleblower David Grusch claimed the disclosure effort is already facing resistance from within the intelligence community.

Speaking to FOX News on May 8, Grusch said: ‘It has come to my attention, actually, recently as of today, there are some actors within certain intelligence agencies, to include DIA and CIA specifically, that are actually blocking some of the president’s, a Presidentially appointed team in getting access and getting control of some of these historical records.’

The allegations fueled outrage among disclosure advocates, including Missouri Congressman Eric Burlison, who warned Wednesday on X: ‘More is still classified, and I’ve seen some of it. If the administration doesn’t release it, I will, under Speech or Debate.’

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Trump admin releases highly anticipated files documenting UFOs, ‘extraterrestrial life’

The Trump administration on Friday released a batch of “never-before-seen” files and videos on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP) as part of an effort to increase transparency on government knowledge of extraterrestrial phenomena.

“The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place – no clearance required. While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files,” the White House said in a statement to Fox News.

The release is a function of President Donald Trump’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) program.

Photos from the initial disclosure, which a White House official told Fox News is the first of a series of releases, show strangely shaped objects captured on film during the Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 space missions.

One photo taken from the surface of the moon appears to show a cluster of three tiny dots in the sky.

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Can We Ever Trust the Government To Be Honest About War?

For decades, the U.S. government has been willing to start wars but not strategically and transparently manage them, consistently misleading its citizenry to justify adventurism abroad. The conduct of the Trump administration in the current war with Iran is no exception. 

President Donald Trump’s claims of “victory” as the war persists through a blockade and multiple troop surges without a clear win-case highlights how optics designed to mislead dictate Washington’s approach to war today. This war could mark a crucial lesson and potential turning point, however, forcing the nation to come to grips with the real costs of violent conflict.

Narrative Wars at the Expense of Transparency

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 attacks in New York City produced an initial outpouring of support. While commenters often blame President George W. Bush and his administration for ill-conceived “adventurism,” a lack of honesty with the American people regarding that adventurism played an equally damaging role. Just as officials lied about a range of issues—including Baghdad’s possession of weapons of mass destruction—to justify their invasion of Iraq, the Trump administration has adopted similar thinking.

Consider Trump’s claims to have already achieved “regime change” in Iran; his constant declarations that the United States has achieved “victory” in the war; Hegseth’s ongoing press restrictions at the Pentagon to avoid hard questions; the administration’s refusal to hold public oversight hearings with the U.S. Congress; and the Department of Defense’s reported slow rolling of U.S. casualty numbers. Each of these claims has proven to be an exaggeration or an outright lie.

Consider the U.S. operation to rescue two airmen shot down deep within Iranian territory in early April. Before the mission, Trump and his team had built a narrative of total air dominance over Iran, meant to assuage the public’s deep skepticism of the war and substantial concern for the safety of U.S. military members across the Middle East.

Then Iran shot down an F-15E Strike Eagle, stranding two of its crew. For days, the world waited, fearing an incident reminiscent of the 1979 hostage crisis and the certain escalation that would follow. Ultimately, the United States rescued the airmen, but at the expense of additional aircraft and a public relations disaster. 

The Trump administration needed to shift the narrative. On April 6, Trump, Hegseth, and other senior U.S. officials held a press conference to tout the success of the rescue. They bragged about the infallibility of the U.S. military and the righteousness of American resolve. They did not explain just how an advanced U.S. aircraft was shot down over supposedly dominated Iranian skies by a supposedly destroyed Iranian military, nor how additional aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars met a similar fate during the rescue.

Instead of leveling with Americans, the White House leaned further into their would-be success. In the same press conference, Trump threatened to jail a journalist who leaked information about the incident in the first place, claiming an unspecified “leaker” had put U.S. national security at risk by sharing information about a second pilot who was still lost in Iran. “We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security, give it up or go to jail,'” he proclaimed.

In another instance earlier in the war, Iran killed six U.S. service members in Kuwait who were operating a mobile command center with little to no real protection from missile and drone strikes. It took days for the government to confirm the deaths and weeks to obtain the details surrounding the incident. While the Trump administration repeatedly stressed that all American service members and citizens were safe, the reality was already known: Far too many U.S. installations across the Middle East have long been exposed to such attacks, serving as easy targets for Iran in any such conflict. Soldiers who survived the strike refuted the official explanation from Washington. 

The primary concern of the U.S. public is the well-being of Americans abroad. Fears over the safety of American troops and civilians damaged domestic support for previous wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. To avoid reporting on such casualties while simultaneously rejecting congressional oversight over a war that it did not authorize is to recognize the war’s limited legitimacy. 

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PA Supreme Court Ruling – Election Cast Vote Records (CVR) Must Be Made Public – VerityVote & Plaintiffs Win

In 2021, Heather Honey from VerityVote asked Lycoming County, PA, for their 2020 election Cast Vote Records. She was denied. Over five years, they have battled with the county Office of Open Records and three different court jurisdictions. Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that CVR files must be made publicly available. The CVR file is essentially a receipt of everything the tabulator machine scanned. The full opinion is here.

A short recap: Each election ballot is fed into a tabulator machine, which counts the voter’s intent by scanning. Election jurisdictions have several tabulators at counting locations. Each tabulator keeps an internal record of how many ballots it processed and other key data.  This includes timestamps, precinct info, and other data like the number of bubbles it counted for President DEM, President REP, Senate1 DEM, Senate1 REP, Senate2 DEM, and so on. The CVR record serves a similar purpose to cash register close-out slips used by stores.

Typically, data from the tabulators flows to the county’s EMS server (Election Management System). From there, it goes to the State system and then onto Edison Research, which merges all the U.S data. Edison then provides it to the National Election Pool of news organizations. This group broadcasts the election results we see on TV. CVR files are the farthest upstream source of voting data. They can prove spikes in voting for a specific candidate, when they happened, and from which tabulators. They can prove if results were manipulated downstream, in the systems mentioned above.

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Trump Promises Major UFO File Releases ‘Very, Very Soon’ After Finding ‘Many Interesting Documents’

President Donald Trump teased the imminent release of government documents on UFOs and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) during a speech on Friday at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix, Arizona.

Trump said he recently directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to begin declassifying the files.

“I recently directed the Secretary of War … to begin releasing government files relating to UFOs and unexplained aerial phenomena,” Trump told the crowd. “And I figured this was a good crowd because I know you people–– you’re really into that, I don’t know if I am.”

The president added that the review process is already well underway and has uncovered notable material.

“This process was well underway, and we’ve found many interesting documents, I must say, and the first releases will begin very, very soon,” the president stated.

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Pentagon’s UFO Office to Be Eliminated Under New Bill

Representative Tim Burchett moved to dismantle the Pentagon office that investigates UFOs under legislation introduced this week.

The bill written by the Tennessee Republican would eliminate the Defense Department’s All‑domain Anomaly Resolution Office and redistribute its responsibilities across the Pentagon, while also prohibiting the creation of any future office that holds centralized authority over investigations into unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), often referred to as UFOs.

Newsweek reached out to Burchett’s office and the Pentagon for comment via email on Wednesday afternoon.

Why It Matters

Burchett has been a long-time advocate for transparency around the U.S. government’s investigations into UFOs, and has claimed that a multi-decade cover-up has been perpetrated by federal agencies. A recent spate of disappearances of people linked to UFO research has heightened scrutiny around the topic.

Burchett’s bill aims to terminate the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which sits within the Department of Defense, currently styled as the Department of War by the Trump administration.

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