Bill Gates 'voluntarily' explains his Epstein ties to Congress
Bill Gates knew Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender. He met with him anyway — for years. On Wednesday, he had to explain that to Congress.
The 70-year-old Microsoft co-founder appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for a closed-door, transcribed interview. The session lasted nearly six hours.
'I guess if you're a big deal, you can do more than the rest of us.'
On his way in, Gates told reporters he was "glad to be here voluntarily." He retained Jake Greenberg, who until December was the Oversight Committee's chief investigations counsel. Mid-session, Greenberg reportedly said Gates would not answer questions about his affairs unless directly tied to Epstein.
The paper trail complicates the "voluntary" part.
In February, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) formally asked Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to subpoena Gates and compel him to testify under oath.
Comer sent Gates a formal written request in March stating the committee believed he had "information that will assist in its investigation." Before the session on Wednesday, Comer told reporters, "No one's accusing Bill Gates of any wrongdoing."
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In his prepared opening statement, Gates expressed regret but denied having extensive knowledge about Epstein's criminal behavior.
"I recall being aware that Epstein had faced prior legal issues, but I did not fully understand the extent of the crimes he committed,” he admitted. “I accepted the introduction without applying the scrutiny I should have."
He also denied ever visiting Epstein's island, ranch, or Florida home.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor and served jail time as a registered sex offender. Gates claimed he began meeting with Epstein in 2011 over a pitch to unlock billions in global health donations.
By December 2014, Gates said he had cut off contact, concluding Epstein "would never deliver on his promises."
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) said she directly asked Gates why he continued to associate with a registered sex offender. Gates told her that "getting billions of dollars for global health was worth it,” she said.
After Gates allegedly cut ties in 2014, a departing employee engaged Epstein to negotiate the "separation" — Epstein, Gates claimed, used that channel to learn of his infidelities and pressure him to re-engage.
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Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) called the questioning "intense" but said Gates was "well coached" and that he didn't expect much new information to surface.
Burchett also broke with GOP leadership over the closed-door format: "I'm big about transparency. ... Let it be wide open." He added, "I guess if you're a big deal, you can do more than the rest of us."
Gates closed his opening statement to Congress with a conditional apology: "If the time I spent with Epstein lent him any credibility, I am deeply sorry."
He left without answering a single question from reporters.
Democrats have repeatedly called for Trump to testify — a push Republicans have so far blocked. But the White House may not be able to stay out of it much longer.
Per Stansbury, Republicans have agreed to call acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump's former lawyer — to testify about White House Epstein strategy sessions.
Comer also announced plans for a transcribed interview with Alan Dershowitz, who negotiated Epstein's 2008 plea deal.
A full transcript is expected in the coming days.
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Flashback: Kamala's GOP opponent in 2010 explains how his victory was snatched at the last minute by 'harvested' ballots
Nobody understands the frustration of "harvested" ballots and seemingly endless vote-counting in California better than Steve Cooley.
Cooley's name resurfaced on social media this week in an old news clip about Kamala Harris' come-from-behind victory in the California attorney general race back in 2010. Cooley, the Republican candidate as well as the district attorney of L.A. County at the time, declared victory on November 2 of that year after initial results showed him with a lead that at one point grew as large as 8%.
'This is a f**king mess, and there's no will in California to clean it up.'
Cooley told Blaze News that he felt a growing sense of confidence as he watched the returns come in. "Those numbers are pretty good," he recalled thinking.
"The night of the election, when they counted all the ballots cast that day, and they included all of the absentees, I was ahead," he said.
However, he quickly noted that the race was still "within 1%."
That narrow lead prompted an automatic count of all ballots cast, including provisional ballots. In general, provisional ballots are "harvested," Cooley said, and Harris "slaughtered" him once the provisional ballots were included.
"She beat me in all 58 counties — and it wasn't even close."
By November 25, three weeks after Cooley's victory appeared to be sealed, Harris had been declared the winner.
At the time, Cooley declined to request a recount since he would have been stuck with the bill if the recount failed to change the result. "It would have cost millions of dollars," he claimed.
"So it's a great incentive to not ask for a recount."
Still, Cooley believes that Democrat operatives played a pivotal role in handing the race to Harris. He claimed that "mostly Democrats ... do ballot-harvesting" and that "Kamala Harris was the default choice on a high percentage of the provisional ballots."
Kamala Harris' office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
Cooley indicated the electoral process in California has not improved in the last 16 years. Though he stopped short of calling it "rigged," as President Donald Trump has done, Cooley believes the system is vulnerable to fraud, especially since every active registered voter in the state receives a live ballot and the voter rolls may yet still include individuals who have died, left the state, or are otherwise ineligible to vote.
"Those ballots are out there, ready to be picked up, harvested, whatever. And that's where the fraud comes in," he explained.
The Trump DOJ has pledged to audit the voter rolls in California, but Cooley notes such an audit will not affect the 2026 primary, even after Spencer Pratt was boxed out of the general election for L.A. mayor despite a 40,000-vote edge over far-left City Councilwoman Nithya Raman on Election Night, June 2. Raman will advance to face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in November.
"Those questionable ballots have already been harvested and dropped off or sent in or mailed in by individuals who are essentially taking a mailed-out ballot and returning it on behalf of someone else."
"And there's no undoing that without a massive commitment of resources, and the registrar recorders are not going to do it. ... They don't want to spend the time, money, and energy in doing it, because all it does is point out how incompetent they are. They're not going to make any effort to prove their own incompetence and failures," Cooley said.
"This is a f**king mess, and there's no will in California to clean it up. No will."
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Trump DOJ files to strip Jamaican fraudster, Indian H-1B scammer, Haitian pervert, and 14 others of US citizenship
Federal officials filed a total of 305 denaturalization cases between 1990 and 2017 — an average of 11 per year. Like the first, the second Trump administration appears keen to make those previous numbers look like child's play.
The Trump Justice Department announced on Monday that it filed denaturalization actions in a handful of federal courts against 17 individuals accused of various crimes including child sex abuse and fraud.
'American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly.'
Those now facing the possibility of having their U.S. citizenship revoked hail from various nations including China, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Haiti, India, Jamaica, and Somalia.
"When criminal aliens exploit the naturalization process by breaking the law, there are consequences," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement obtained by Blaze News.
"Criminal aliens are lying about their past crimes, including drug dealers, sexual predators, and fraudsters," continued Blanche. "Gaining U.S. citizenship is a privilege, and under the steadfast leadership of President Trump, this Department of Justice maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process."
Among those targeted under this leg of the administration's denaturalization campaign is 50-year-old Neeraj Sharma, a native of India who ran a staffing company in New Jersey, where he filed 11fraudulent H-1B visa petitions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Sharma, who became a U.S. citizen in late 2017, has been convicted of fraud and misuse of visas. The DOJ seeks to strip him of his citizenship for having allegedly "procured his naturalization by: (1) failing to disclose unlawful acts; (2) providing false testimony; and (3) concealment of a material fact and willful misrepresentation."
RELATED: The case for denaturalization
Foreigners who manage to naturalize can have their citizenship revoked in civil proceedings under Section 1451(a) of Title 8 of the U.S. Code if a court finds that the certificate of naturalization and citizenship order were either "illegally procured or were procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation."
To establish that an individual illegally procured citizenship, the government must show that "the naturalized citizen must have misrepresented or concealed some fact, the misrepresentation or concealment must have been willful, the fact must have been material, and the naturalized citizen must have procured citizenship as a result of the misrepresentation or concealment," according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
There are other grounds for denaturalization, including affiliation with an organization that is opposed to organized government or favors totalitarian forms of government; conviction of criminal contempt for refusing to testify before Congress on alleged "subversive activities"; and dishonorable discharge from the military, if naturalization was conditional on service in the military, reported the Congressional Research Service.
Jamaican native Talman Harris is also facing possible denaturalization. Harris was found guilty in 2016 of wire fraud and conspiring to commit securities fraud and wire fraud and sentenced to prison the following year for his role in a penny-stock fraud scheme that resulted in a $39 million loss to investors. This scheme took place over an eight-year period, including during Harris' naturalization proceedings.
The DOJ alleges that during the period in which Harris was pursuing naturalization, "he was statutorily required to demonstrate good moral character, he committed a crime involving moral turpitude, committed unlawful acts that adversely reflected on his moral character, and falsely testified about his crime."
Armando Medoza, a 39-year-old originally from Mexico, might also be sent packing for claiming during his naturalization application and interview that he had never committed a crime or offense for which he hadn't been arrested when in fact he had been receiving sexually explicit images of children for years — a crime to which he pleaded guilty years later.
Another pair of depraved individuals on the DOJ's denaturalization list are Jean Claude Alfred, a 68-year-old Haitian native convicted in 1996 of sexually abusing his minor daughter at the same time that he was pursuing naturalization, and Tahir Lekaj, a 43-year-old from Yugoslavia who was convicted of sexually abusing a young child the year before he applied to naturalize.
Abdikadir Ali Kadiye's days as an American citizen may also be numbered. The Somali native admitted to a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent that he had used two identities for admission to the country, according to the DOJ. After he was unable to secure immigration benefits under one name, Kadiye tried again, this time with some success.
"American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly. If you come here, break our laws, and lie in your immigration proceedings, you forfeit that privilege," said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. "DHS will not stand idly by while Americans are harmed by criminals including sex offenders, perpetrators of fraud, and drug traffickers who have exploited our generosity and gamed our immigration system."
There have been signals in recent months that the Trump administration intends to file far more denaturalization actions in the coming months.
For instance, internal guidance reportedly issued to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices obtained by the New York Times in December asked that they "supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month" throughout the remainder of fiscal year 2026.
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Democrat governor files 'frivolous' lawsuit to shut down ICE facility
Protesters have spent nearly two weeks outside a federal detention facility in Newark — forming human chains, blocking vehicle exits, and clashing with officers in riot gear. A U.S. senator got caught in a cloud of pepper spray, and New Jersey's sitting governor, Democrat Mikie Sherrill, was turned away at the gate.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called those incidents "nothing more than a political stunt … for fundraising clips."
Now the state has turned to the courts.
'A better gym than the one I go to.''
New Jersey Democrat Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced Tuesday that she had filed suit against GEO Group Inc., the private company operating Delaney Hall under a $1 billion federal contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The suit seeks to compel GEO Group to grant state health inspectors full access to the facility.
The suit alleges that on Thursday, inspectors were permitted to examine only the food-service area and were blocked from the medical unit, sleeping quarters, and bathing and toileting facilities.
The broader allegations — worms in food, no toilet paper, inadequate medical care — are sourced to detainee accounts relayed through lawyers, family members, and advocacy groups. A University Hospital doctor also reported a confirmed tuberculosis case, the lawsuit claimed.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) separately announced that the city was filing its own suit to close the facility, citing an unverified report that a detainee suffered a miscarriage without proper care.
The DHS wasted no time dismissing the litigation as "frivolous."
"This is a frivolous lawsuit," the department posted on X. "ICE is committed to transparency, and Delaney Hall complies with all required state and local laws."
"Just last week on May 28, four representatives of the New Jersey State Health Department arrived at approximately 11:00 AM. They entered the facility and inspected the foodservice department. The inspection of the kitchen was completed and they departed around 12:30 PM."
The DHS has also flatly disputed the hunger strike claim: "FACT CHECK: there is NO HUNGER STRIKE at Delaney Hall."
One Republican member of Congress, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), toured the facility and pushed back on the narrative, describing a library, an outdoor soccer field, and what he called "a better gym than the one I go to."
RELATED: 'Violent agitator' savagely bit ICE agent during riots in New Jersey, says DHS
Movimiento Cosecha's New Jersey chapter, Cosecha New Jersey, has been present at the protests — a group that has called for an end to the entire immigration detention system — alongside ICE Out of New Jersey, Eyes on ICE New Jersey, and other radical groups.
The DHS said protesters arrived "carrying anti-ICE signs and Antifa flags" and physically blocked federal vehicles.
Security expert Lora Ries told NTD the protesters were "organized, funded, and trained" — a characterization that echoed New Jersey's own attorney general, who noted that some demonstrators arrived "armed with helmets, shields, or gas masks" and deliberately refused to leave.
Critics have also pointed to the closure last month of the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, the primary federal watchdog for immigration detention. The DHS said, "Congress did" it, not the department.
Newark lifted its nightly curfew Tuesday evening, and family visitation was restored. The state and city lawsuits are pending.
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Trump names his pick for attorney general — but Democrats vow to thwart confirmation
President Donald Trump ousted Pam Bondi from the attorney general role on April 2, then announced that "very talented and respected Legal Mind" Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal attorney, would be stepping in to serve as acting attorney general.
In the months since, several names have been floated as possible long-term picks for the position, including EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), and Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas.
The president announced his choice of nominee at a private White House Rose Garden dinner on Wednesday: acting AG Blanche.
In a video shared to social media by deputy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, Trump said, "Tomorrow I’m instructing Dan and everybody else that’s involved in that very complicated process, which is gonna go, I think, very quickly, that we are going to make him permanent attorney general."
Democrats wasted no time condemning Trump's choice of candidate and vowing to block Blanche's confirmation.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told CNN's Laura Coates on Wednesday evening that Blanche doesn't have enough votes in the Senate to be confirmed, then characterized the acting AG as inexperienced.
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"This is a man that has been involved in investigating the chairman of the Fed, investigating former people that the president has perceived as his enemies. And they're weaponizing that agency. They've even gone after United States senators," said Booker.
"His only qualification, which seems to be all that President Trump wants from people, is that they are willing to do his bidding and they will act like his own personal attorneys, which he was, and not like somebody upholding the highest law enforcement office in the land," continued Booker.
So far under the leadership of acting AG Blanche, the Justice Department has made progress on several fronts, securing, for instance, indictments against disgraced former FBI Director James Comey, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and former Cuban President Raul Castro; creating the National Fraud Enforcement Division; and addressing the fallout of the Biden administration's government weaponization efforts.
After Coates pointed out that Blanche "does have legal experience, obviously" — noting that he has been a prosecutor, has worked in a law firm, and has already been tested as acting AG — Booker insinuated that some of his Republican colleagues are similarly uncertain about Trump's pick, adding, "This is not a serious person."
Having ironed out his talking points on CNN, Booker later said more of the same on MS NOW.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) melted down over the announcement, stating, "Corrupt & compromised by feckless Trump fealty, Blanche is a nonstarter as AG."
"There's no way we should confirm an AG who will continue as Trump's personal lawyer, not the people's," added Blumenthal.
While Democrats have cast doubt on whether the Senate will confirm Blanche, it confirmed him as deputy attorney general last year in 52-46 vote.
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