Ukrainian officials plotted to direct massive sums of US taxpayer aid to Biden's campaign: Intel report
Ukrainian government communications discussed a scheme to direct American taxpayer dollars to then-President Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee to boost Biden’s 2024 re-election bid against President Donald Trump, according to an intelligence report obtained by Just the News.
The newly unclassified documents summarize raw intercepts from U.S. spy agencies in late 2022. Officials who reviewed the files stated that there was a lack of curiosity to investigate the allegations under the Biden administration, the news outlet reported.
'In this manner, most of the US funding would be diverted to Joe Biden’s election campaign without the ability to track where exactly the funds came from.'
The American tax dollars were intended to fund a clean energy project in Ukraine amid the ongoing war with Russia.
“The Ukrainian Government and unspecified U.S. Government personnel, through USAID in Kyiv, reportedly developed a plan that would provide hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund an infrastructure project for Ukraine that would be used as a cover to send approximately 90% of funds allocated to the DNC to fund Joe Biden’s re-election campaign,” the report read, according to Just the News.
“They were confident the project would be funded initially, even though at some time in the future the project would be disapproved as unnecessary. At this time, the money would already be allocated and impossible to return or use for a different purpose,” it added.
The report named two American subcontractors that could potentially receive the funds, officials told Just the News. However, those names were redacted in the report obtained by the news outlet.
“The plan included details of how subcontractors would be funded through U.S. companies so that how the funds were spent and allocated would be difficult to track,” the report continued. “Additionally, contracts would be executed that would be difficult to verify. In this manner, most of the U.S. funding would be diverted to Joe Biden’s election campaign without the ability to track where exactly the funds came from.”
Just the News reported that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently learned about the intelligence intercepts. She reportedly asked USAID officials to review their records to ascertain whether the alleged scheme was executed and whether a criminal referral should be made to the FBI.
RELATED: Tulsi Gabbard warns: Powerful foreign allies eager to pull US into war with Russia
An official told the news outlet that Gabbard’s team has not found substantive evidence indicating that the allegations were thoroughly investigated under Biden’s leadership. The official noted that the communications are not believed to be linked to Russian disinformation efforts.
Trump shared the Just the News article in a post on social media.
In a statement to Blaze News, a spokesperson for Gabbard confirmed the existence of related intelligence, adding that the director’s team is “working to review USAID holdings.”
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Chicago Democrat torches his own party, Gov. Pritzker — reveals why Democrats block Trump's immigration enforcement
A Chicago Democratic leader is slamming his own party, including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, for ignoring the Biden-Harris administration’s role in the nation’s immigration crisis.
During a Fox News interview shared on Wednesday, Alderman Raymond Lopez reacted to the recent murder of 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, who was fatally shot while out on a walk with friends in Chicago.
'We will not allow the Trump administration to remove them simply because we don't want to look as though we're capitulating to him.'
The suspect in the attack, Jose Medina-Medina, is an illegal alien from Venezuela who was captured by U.S. Border Patrol agents in May 2023 and released into the country under the leadership of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris. One month after his release, he was arrested in Chicago for allegedly shoplifting, but he was released from custody once again.
"Her death was 100% avoidable. And the culmination of the choices made here, in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois, to protect noncitizens even when they choose to engage in dangerous criminal behavior — that mindset has to change," Lopez told Fox News.
Lopez accused Pritzker of wrongly blaming President Donald Trump for Gorman's death. The alderman made this comment in response to a clip of Pritzker from earlier in the week, where the governor attributed Gorman's killing to "national failures."
Pritzker claimed that Trump failed to "follow his own edict to go after the worst of the worst" criminals unlawfully present in the U.S.
"If you're going to blame the federal government, then blame it where this problem began, which was under the Biden-Harris administration that allowed 15 million people from South America, Central America, and across the oceans to come through our southern borders, manipulate asylum, be poorly vetted, and then scattered to the seven winds of the United States," Lopez told Fox News.
"I have yet to hear a single Democrat hold Biden and Harris accountable for what has happened," he added.
RELATED: Chicago residents won’t get to vote on city’s sanctuary status after lawmakers block referendum
Lopez explained that there are currently 2,000 high-priority targets in Chicago who are known dangers to the community, but noted that Democratic leaders "refuse to work" with Trump to remove them.
"We will not allow the Trump administration to remove them simply because we don't want to look as though we're capitulating to him," Lopez stated.
Lopez has previously fought to roll back the city's sanctuary laws to allow the Chicago Police Department to cooperate with federal immigration agents when illegal alien suspects have been arrested or convicted of certain crimes. He stated that his amendment to Chicago's Welcoming City Ordinance "would NOT have protected" Medina-Medina from federal immigration enforcement.
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Biden’s COVID censorship machine takes a hit: Missouri wins landmark ban on federal threats to Big Tech
A landmark settlement delivered a blow to the censorship industrial complex that silenced Americans during the COVID era.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) announced Tuesday that Missouri had reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. government in its Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, which accused the Biden administration of violating Americans' First Amendment rights by directing social media companies to censor speech challenging the government's COVID messaging.
'For every working Missouri family tired of being silenced by their own government: this victory is yours.'
Schmitt filed the lawsuit against the Biden administration while serving as Missouri attorney general, before securing his Senate seat.
The agreement included a 10-year Consent Decree that enforces a narrow permanent injunction on the surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The injunction prevents them from threatening social media companies with any form of punishment if those companies fail to remove or suppress content that contains protected speech.
However, this ban applies only to posts made on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube by the specific plaintiffs in the case, including Missouri and Louisiana government officials and agencies acting in their official capacity. It does not extend to other social media networks or content posted by the general public.
"The Parties also agree that government, politicians, media, academics, or anyone else applying labels such as 'misinformation,' 'disinformation,' or 'malinformation' to speech does not render it constitutionally unprotected," the agreement reads.
The court must first approve this settlement agreement.
"We just won Missouri v. Biden," Schmitt wrote in a post on X. "As Missouri's Attorney General, I sued the Biden regime for brazenly colluding with Big Tech to silence Missouri families — censoring the truth about COVID, the Hunter Biden laptop, the open border, and the 2020 election. They tried to turn Facebook, X, YouTube, and the rest into their private speech police, labeling dissent 'misinformation' while they pushed their narrative on the American people."
Schmitt called the Consent Decree the "first real, operational restraint on the federal censorship machine."
He explained that it "directly binds the Surgeon General, the CDC, and CISA: no more threats of legal, regulatory, or economic punishment. No more coercion. No more unilateral direction or veto of platform decisions to remove, suppress, deplatform, or algorithmically bury protected speech."
"For every working Missouri family tired of being silenced by their own government: this victory is yours. The heartland fought back, and the heartland delivered," Schmitt concluded.
RELATED: 'Karma is a b***h': Trump taps epidemiologist targeted by Biden admin and censored online to run NIH
Benjamin Weingarten, a senior contributor at the Federalist, addressed the victory's narrow application.
"This decree is limited to the plaintiffs, but as precedent, and practically, its impact may prove orders of magnitude more powerful in protecting disfavored speech," Weingarten wrote, calling it "a momentous blow for the First Amendment."
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, who had to withdraw as a plaintiff in the case after being appointed by the Trump administration, called the settlement "a huge win for all Americans."
"Huzzah! The consent decree in Missouri v. Biden is a historic victory for free speech in the US. Though I had to switch to the government side in the case after I became NIH director, I've never been more pleased by 'losing' in my life," he wrote.
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Ohio GOP Supreme Court candidate claims she was ‘never’ appointed by any Democrat — but official record says otherwise
An Ohio Republican Supreme Court candidate is facing scrutiny after claiming on the campaign trail that she was never nominated by a Democrat, despite evidence to the contrary.
Former Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Colleen O'Donnell's comments have raised questions about her transparency and credibility in a crowded May primary. The upcoming race offers Republicans the chance to unseat the state's last Democratic justice, Jennifer Brunner, and secure a 7-0 conservative majority on the court.
'Ohio voters deserve clear, factual information about the record of anyone seeking a seat on the Supreme Court of Ohio.'
Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who refused to vote for either presidential candidate in the 2016 election and announced his endorsement of Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, appointed O'Donnell in May 2013 to fill a vacancy on the Franklin County Common Pleas Court. She lost her re-election bid to a Democrat in 2022. In August 2023, the Biden administration appointed O’Donnell as a U.S. immigration judge in Laredo, Texas.
"In Laredo, I faced the worst of the worst — drug traffickers, human smugglers, and violent gang members," O'Donnell stated when announcing her Ohio Supreme Court run in October. "I was proud to protect our communities from dangerous individuals, but I was also frustrated by how broken the system was. Too often, laws weren't enforced. That lawlessness still echoes across our courts today."
During a January interview, O'Donnell stated that she was "assigned to serve" in Laredo, which she noted was "about 1,500 miles from my home and my family here in Columbus."
"I was presiding over asylum cases day after day after day. And I honored my oath and obligation to interpret the immigration law with impartiality and with integrity and resolve those asylum cases as efficiently as I could," she said.
O'Donnell explained that she left the Laredo position "after six or eight months," adding that the travel and time away from family were "pretty difficult."
Her campaign website describes her as "a constitutional conservative with extensive judicial experience at every level of government." It notes that as a U.S. immigration judge, she "handled illegal entry and asylum cases during the height of the border crisis."
O'Donnell's website claims that she "enforced the law as written," "never once granted asylum," and "consistently ordered the removal of illegal aliens from our country."
RELATED: Chris Christie absolutely trashes John Kasich after former Ohio GOP governor speaks at DNC
In early March, the Ohio Conservatives PAC accused O'Donnell of lying to voters about her immigration judge appointment.
The PAC shared an audio clip of O'Donnell's speech from a March 2 lunch with legislators event for the Greene County Republican Party, during which she accused her opponents of "mischaracterizing" her background and qualifications.
"Because I value transparency and the truth, I want to be crystal clear: I was never appointed by Joe Biden, or any other Democrat, to serve as an immigration judge, or in any other role I've ever had in my career," O'Donnell stated in the clip.
Two event attendees confirmed the authenticity of the audio to Blaze News.
One of those individuals, Setys Kelly, who is running for State Central Committee, told Blaze News, "I’m thankful that the Republican Club of Greene County has these meetings that give you a chance to ask these questions of the candidates. And more people should take advantage of that because that’s how you find out the things that you want to know, instead of somebody repeating it on Facebook or social media — you never really know if it’s true. But you can ask the question here and hope to get a final answer.”
A Department of Justice notice from August 2023 confirmed that the Democratic administration of then-President Joe Biden appointed O'Donnell.
"Today, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland officially appointed the following individuals as immigration judges," the DOJ notice reads, listing 38 names, including "Colleen O'Donnell."
The PAC further highlighted O'Donnell's claim that she never granted asylum.
"O'Donnell claims she never granted asylum one time. Well, that could be because she only served for a handful of months and quit before she completed her entire training program and probationary period," the PAC stated, contending that it was unlikely she oversaw any case from start to finish.
"For the last eight months Colleen O'Donnell has lied to Republicans about her appointment to the Biden Department of Justice," Cameron Brady, a spokesman for Ohio Conservatives PAC, told Blaze News. "The record shows that during her very brief stint for the Biden administration, she wasn't a tough on the border judge, but rather just another Biden flunky taking marching orders to catch and release dozens of illegal immigrants into the interior of our country. O'Donnell's forced to lean on her four-month stint as an immigration judge because unlike her three opponents who are actually judges, O'Donnell has been unemployed for going on three years."
Immigration judge record
A Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review dataset of O'Donnell's decisions as an immigration judge shows that in roughly 25% of the hearings in which the person appeared, O'Donnell ruled in their favor, allowing them to remain in the country rather than be deported.
In two of the 14 credible fear review cases she ruled on, O'Donnell overturned immigration officers' decisions that the individuals lacked credible fear. Doing so allows individuals to pursue asylum or other forms of deportation protections.
In nine cases, she granted relief from removal, enabling those individuals to remain in the U.S. through some form of approved protection or status change. The available judicial datasets do not specify the exact type of relief granted; however, they may include options such as asylum, cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, or other forms of relief.
In one case, where the individual may not have been eligible for full asylum, O'Donnell ruled that deportation to his or her home country would pose a danger, thereby permitting the individual to stay in the U.S.
Two other cases were terminated without a deportation order, which can occur when the government withdraws charges, the charges are defective, or the individual qualifies for legal status through an alternative pathway.
O'Donnell's campaign declined requests to clarify these rulings, only insisting that she never granted asylum.
"Colleen O'Donnell had a distinguished career as a Common Pleas Court judge and federal immigration judge, where she never once granted asylum. Our campaign team will not dignify these kinds of allegations. We have no further comment on this matter," Amy Natoce, O'Donnell's campaign adviser, told Blaze News.
Ohio Republicans react
In the Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court, O'Donnell is running against three other candidates: Andrew King, Jill Flagg Lanzinger, and Ronald Lewis. The election is scheduled for May 5. The winner will face off on November 3 against Brunner, who currently holds the seat.
Lewis, a judge on Ohio's Second District Court of Appeals, told Blaze News, "Although I am not in a position to make a judgment on the truthfulness of this particular statement from Ms. O'Donnell, I do believe it would be valuable for Republican primary voters to receive a thorough explanation from O'Donnell on how she was appointed to the position, how her tenure as an immigration judge went, and how she arrived at the decisions she made while serving in that role."
"The enforcement and application of immigration law was certainly different in 2023 than it has been since the inauguration of President Trump, and voters deserve to know O'Donnell's role in immigration enforcement during her time as an appointee in the Department of Justice during Merrick Garland's tenure as director," Lewis added.
King, a judge for the Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals, said in a statement to Blaze News, "The next justice needs to be rock solid in their judicial background and philosophy. I am the type of constitutional conservative judge Trump would appoint. We need a judge who the Trump administration would appoint, not a judge that the Biden administration did appoint."
State Rep. Meredith Craig (R), who has endorsed King, told Blaze News, "Ohio voters deserve clear, factual information about the record of anyone seeking a seat on the Supreme Court of Ohio. It's a matter of public record that Merrick Garland, serving as Attorney General under Joe Biden, appointed Colleen O'Donnell."
"And the facts don't stop there. According to available case data, Colleen O'Donnell presided over 110 immigration cases, transferring 35 into the interior of the United States. Of those, 28 involved individuals who were never detained or were released. This aligns with what has commonly been described as 'catch-and-release' policies during the Biden administration," Craig continued. "These are facts voters can and should consider as they evaluate candidates for one of the highest courts in our state."
Flagg Lanzinger and the Ohio Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.
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‘Prioritize Americans’: SBA shuts door on foreign national borrowers
The Small Business Administration has announced a policy change that many are surprised even needed to happen — and others are already calling for more action.
On Monday, the SBA, headed by Administrator Kelly Loeffler, announced a new policy that will ban foreign nationals and all noncitizens from accessing SBA-backed small business loans.
‘The Trump SBA is committed to driving economic growth and job creation for American citizens.’
The policy change is a continuation of another change implemented on March 1, which made small businesses owned or co-owned by a foreign national ineligible for two of the main SBA loan programs.
“The Trump SBA is committed to driving economic growth and job creation for American citizens,” Loeffler said.
“Last month, we made it clear that SBA would not allow foreign nationals to access our core small business loan programs — and today, we are expanding that policy to include all SBA-guaranteed loans. With our lending authority capped annually by Congress and amid record demand for access to capital, our responsibility is clear: The limited resource of SBA financing must prioritize American citizens who are building businesses and creating jobs here at home.”
These changes affect the Surety Bond and Microloan programs, which were revised earlier in the month.
Citing data from the SBA, Fox News reported that the agency has 3,300 loans for small businesses partially owned by lawful permanent residents, largely under the Biden administration. That number represents 4% of the agency’s total loans, currently at 85,000.
These changes revealed a system arguably more broken than many people would guess possible. Some X users expressed their surprise at the announcement: “Why this wasn’t already policy is mind boggling.”
Others, however, saw much more room for improvement.
“Retroactively make all loans issued to foreign nationals due immediately and in full,” Andrew Beck demanded.
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Government-paid traffickers? Noem testifies Biden administration funded abuse of migrant kids
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Biden administration paid child traffickers to sponsor unaccompanied minors.
Moments after Noem was sworn in to testify, a masked protester against immigration enforcement interrupted the hearing by shouting for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The hearing was interrupted a second time by another protester, who yelled out claims that ICE had killed Americans, shouting, “Black lives matter!”
'We’re not going to stop until we find every single one.'
During Noem’s opening statement, she accused Democrats of holding the DHS hostage by leading a government shutdown of the agency, which she called “reckless” and “unnecessary.”
“As a result, critical national security missions, including border security, immigration enforcement, aviation security, disaster response, cybersecurity, and the protection of critical infrastructure, are all being strained. Our ability to provide for a safe and successful World Cup is being hindered as well,” Noem explained.
She noted that over 100,000 DHS employees are “again being asked to work without pay for the third time in just five months.”
Noem explained that during the Biden administration’s open-border crisis, unaccompanied minors were "lost" and "not tracked."
She said that it has been “challenging” because the Department of Health and Human Services, under the Biden administration’s leadership, paid sponsors to host the unaccompanied minors.
“And those sponsors, many times, we found instances where they trafficked these children themselves,” Noem continued. “So under that administration, we not only had children that were in this country as a part of a program, the government was paying individuals that were knowingly trafficking them and abusing them.”
She declared that under the Trump administration, these practices have ended, and federal law enforcement agents have found many of these children and attempted to reunite them with their families.
Noem reported that the current administration has located 145,000 of the 450,000 children whom the previous White House was not tracking.
“We’re not going to stop until we find every single one,” Noem declared.
RELATED: ICE exposes Biden's biggest border failure: Kids handed to sex abusers and criminals
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) addressed the rise in child abuse material online, noting that in 2023, there were an estimated 104 million images and videos of suspected child sexual abuse reported in the United States.
“With all of these images of kids online, I was shocked to learn recently that hundreds of thousands of children in these images are unidentified,” Hawley told Noem. “The Interpol database alone, 90,000 kids are completely unidentified. In the U.K.’s database, it’s over 200,000.”
“Would it be helpful to you if Congress said, ‘You know what, we’re going to create more analysts, more child abuse expert positions, more forensic analysts, and more prosecutors to give to you to look at these images, figure out who these kids are, and go after their abusers?'” Hawley asked.
“Yes, it’d be incredibly helpful," Noem responded, adding that providing more resources to Homeland Security Investigations would allow the agency to "free more kids from that life of victimhood."
Hawley pledged to introduce legislation to provide the DHS with additional funding to rescue children from trafficking.
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District Judge Cannon issues ruling on fate of Trump adversary's Biden-era special report
In a case that has stretched over several years, a federal judge has seemingly put a nail in the coffin of a major report, the release of which President Donald Trump has consistently opposed.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who has served the Southern District of Florida since 2020, permanently barred the Department of Justice from releasing former special counsel Jack Smith's final report regarding Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Politico reported.
'Special Counsel Smith and his team went ahead for months, undeterred, preparing Volume II using discovery collected in connection with this proceeding and expending government funds in the process.'
Trump's motion to bar the release of the special counsel's report — which Cannon previously determined Smith and his office had unlawfully prepared during the Biden administration — was granted in full on Monday.
"The Court has reviewed the Motions and the full record pertinent to the Motions, including the United States' position that 'Volume II should not be released outside of the Department of Justice' due to the unlawful appointment of Special Counsel Smith and Attorney General Bondi's deliberative-process determination. Fully advised in the premises, Trump's Unopposed Motion is GRANTED," the Trump appointee wrote in the ruling.
RELATED: 'Flagrant violation': GOP lawmaker grills Jack Smith for 'spying' on former House speaker
Cannon's ruling on the "complex" case, which she said "generated close to 800 docket entries since the filing of the initial indictment in June 2023," will ostensibly put to rest the impending release of Volume II of Smith's report.
Following the order, the current Department of Justice and its successors are "enjoined from (a) releasing, sharing, or transmitting Volume II of the Final Report or any drafts of Volume II outside the Department of Justice, or (b) otherwise releasing, distributing, conveying, or sharing with anyone outside the Department of Justice any information or conclusions in Volume II or in drafts thereof."
However, a second motion filed by two co-defendants alongside Trump was rejected in part. This separate motion requested that Volume II be destroyed, but this request was denied.
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