Watchdog: From Fake Students To Disney Cruises, K-12 Fraudsters Stole $225 Million From Taxpayers Over 7 Years
'When school administrators with access to funds go unchecked, embezzling and misusing public money, it’s a loss for the students.'Former officials in the Biden administration have been credibly accused of letting a tech giant slide on preventable cybersecurity breaches only to later secure lucrative arrangements with or cushy jobs at the same corporation.
The American Accountability Foundation, a nonprofit government oversight and research organization, asked the Justice Department in a lengthy letter on Tuesday to open a formal investigation into Microsoft and several Biden officials.
'We will act where the facts and the law support it.'
Among the Biden cronies singled out in the letter is Lisa Monaco, the former deputy attorney general whose post-government career move captured President Donald Trump's attention in September 2025.
Trump wrote that "Corrupt and Totally Trump Deranged Lisa Monaco (A purported pawn of Legal Lightweight Andrew Weissmann)" had "been shockingly hired as the President of Global Affairs for Microsoft, in a very senior role with access to Highly Sensitive Information. Monaco's having that kind of access is unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to stand. She is a menace to U.S. National Security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government."
Monaco's employment at Microsoft apparently also struck the team at AAF as potentially problematic.
The watchdog noted that Monaco — who had announced a cyber fraud initiative in 2021 aimed at using the False Claims Act against contractors who intentionally misrepresent cybersecurity risks — proved eager to bring actions against numerous companies and institutions, but never against Microsoft.
Monaco and the rest of the Biden administration's inaction against Microsoft is especially strange because the company suffered five massive cyber intrusions by foreign criminal and state-sponsored hacker groups between 2019 and 2023 that directly and adversely impacted the U.S. government.
The AAF emphasized that these intrusions "penetrated the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Departments of Treasury, State, Commerce, and Justice, as well as the National Security Council and numerous other federal agencies" and "resulted in the theft of tens of thousands of government emails, including correspondence from the U.S. Ambassador to China, the Secretary of Commerce," and other bigwigs.

One of these cyber attacks, SolarWinds, reportedly relied on the exploitation of a flaw in Microsoft's Active Directory Federation Services. The company was allegedly aware of the flaw for years but avoided patching it for fear of jeopardizing a multibillion-dollar federal cloud contract.
Former Microsoft President Brad Smith told Congress in 2021 that "there was no vulnerability in any Microsoft product or service that was exploited" in the SolarWinds attack.
While some Biden officials proved willing to assign Microsoft some blame, it was never too much or pursued as grounds for punitive action.
The Cyber Safety Review Board, an outfit established by former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, concluded that Storm-0558, a separate cyber attack executed by Beijing-linked hackers in May 2023, was enabled by a "cascade of Microsoft's avoidable errors."
Despite such recognition that it had dropped the ball, Microsoft managed to evade any meaningful reckoning.
"These facts, in our view, present squarely the kind of conduct that the Biden administration's Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative was created to address: knowing or reckless misrepresentations by a federal contractor regarding the cybersecurity of products sold to the government," the American Accountability Foundation said in its letter. "Yet to our knowledge, no False Claims Act investigation of Microsoft's conduct has ever been opened, while other contractors whose conduct appears materially less egregious have been pursued under the same initiative."
Besides Monaco, the watchdog made a point of mentioning several other Biden administration officials, including:
The AAF stressed that "federal ethics rules prohibit government officials from participating in matters in which they have a financial interest, and require cooling-off periods before certain officials may represent private parties before their former agencies."
While the AAF did not "allege that any individual violated any specific law or regulation," the watchdog noted that an investigation into the matter is warranted.
A Justice Department spokesperson told Breitbart, "The Department of Justice is committed to aggressively fighting fraud and protecting taxpayer dollars. We welcome referrals from anyone with credible information about fraud, and we will act where the facts and the law support it."
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A federal judge minced no words in his dissenting opinion regarding the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' refusal on Thursday to rehear the case of a Christian-owned women's spa forced by Washington state into admitting men.
Judge Lawrence VanDyke, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote, "This is a case about swinging d**ks."
''Sometimes, it feels like the supposed adults in the room have collectively lost their minds.'
"The Christian owners of Olympus Spa — a traditional Korean, women-only, nude spa — understandably don't want them in their spa," VanDyke continued. "Their female employees and female clients don't want them in their spa either. But Washington State insists on them. And now so does the Ninth Circuit."
The family-owned spa was accused of discrimination in 2020 for refusing access to a trans-identifying male whose penis was intact, and has been fighting an uphill legal battle ever since. In May, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel ruled against the spa, holding that the First Amendment rights of its owners had not been violated by the state.
The spa subsequently petitioned the Ninth Circuit for a panel rehearing and/or a full-court rehearing of the case. Those were denied, prompting VanDyke to go nuclear:
Sometimes, it feels like the supposed adults in the room have collectively lost their minds. Woke regulators and complicit judges seem entirely willing, even eager, to ignore the consequences that their Frankenstein social experiments impose on real women and young girls. Yet if harmful and unfortunate consequences were all this case was about, we’d have to shrug and say: "That’s what comes with living in a democracy." Unless the Constitution is implicated, we get what we voted for “good and hard."
But some fundamental rights, like the right to the free exercise of religion, are constitutionally protected precisely to avoid majoritarian infringement. Unfortunately, in this case the panel majority has allowed Washington State bureaucrats to trample on such rights long secured by the Constitution.
VanDyke tore apart his colleagues' reasoning, stating that:
Some of the Trump judge's colleagues couldn't handle his criticism and frank language.
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Mary Margaret McKeown, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton who previously ruled against the spa, said in a statement that was joined by over 25 other Ninth Circuit judges that the American legal system is "not a place for vulgar barroom talk" or a "place to suggest that fellow judges have 'collectively lost their minds,' or that they are 'woke judges' 'complicit' in a scheme to harm ordinary Americans."
McKeown claimed that VanDyke's language — not her decisions — "undermines public trust in the courts."
VanDyke said in response to his colleagues' pearl-clutching:
My distressed colleagues appear to have the fastidious sensibilities of a Victorian nun when it comes to mere unpleasant words in my opinion, yet exhibit the scruples of our dearly departed colleague Judge Reinhardt when it comes to the government trampling on religious liberties and exposing women and girls to male genitalia. That kind of selective outrage speaks for itself. The public deserves a court that is actually trustworthy. We should be earning that trust, not demanding it like petty tyrants.
"Sometimes 'dignified and civil' words are employed to mask a legal abomination. ... Sometimes coarse and ugly words bear the truth," VanDyke added.
The spa, owned by a theologically conservative Christian family, is modeled on jjimjilbang, sex-segregated bathhouses in Korea, and requires that guests be nude inside the pool area.
Court documents state the spa required that entrants "physically present in the nude as ... female," further noting, "Biological women are welcome." Under the rules, female-identifying males were welcome just so long as they had "gone through post-operative sex confirmation surgery." In other words, penises weren't permitted.
In 2020, Caleb Richmond — a trans-identifying male who was once married to a woman and now goes by Haven Wilvich — attempted to use the Washington Law Against Discrimination to gain access to the spa. The spa reportedly denied the man access, prompting him to file a complaint with the Washington State Human Rights Commission.
When the WSHRC notified the spa that it had received a discrimination complaint, the spa asserted that its "biological women"-only policy was in keeping with state law and "essential for the safety, legal protection, and well-being of our customers and employees," court documents said.
'Washington has perversely distorted a law that was enacted to safeguard women's rights to strip women of protections.'
Although initially defiant, the spa signed a pre-finding settlement agreement requiring compliance with WLAD while reserving the right to mount a constitutional challenge.
Richmond reportedly boasted online that he had successfully found a way to legally invade the women's sanctuary. He wrote, "I did it," adding he got "the main naked lady spa in the area to change their policies and allow all self-identified women access regardless of surgery and genitals."
Richmond further suggested that he was "more woman" than any of his female critics because he is "an intentional woman whereas they are only incidental."
Myoon Woon Lee, the owner of the spa, sued the WSHRC, claiming that the WLAD, as enforced, impinged upon his "traditional, theologically conservative" Christian values and put his female clientele at risk.
A Washington District Court judge dismissed the case with prejudice in 2023, but Lee appealed to the Ninth Circuit.
A three-judge panel ruled in May 2025 that the spa cannot sue the WSHRC on First Amendment grounds. The majority held that the enforcement of WLAD "did not impermissibly burden the Spa's free speech," that the spa is "not an expressive association," and that "eliminating discrimination on the basis of sex and transgender status is a legitimate government purpose."
Judge McKeown stated in her May opinion for the majority, "The HRC's enforcement action against Olympus Spa was a straightforward application of Washington's statutory scheme."
Judge Kenneth Lee, a Trump appointee, said in his dissenting opinion, "Washington has perversely distorted a law that was enacted to safeguard women's rights to strip women of protections. The women and girls of Washington state deserve better."
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The Los Angeles Police Department says it will not enforce a new California law that restricts federal immigration agents from wearing face coverings, pushing back against a measure backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and aimed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the department will not stop or cite federal agents for violating the state’s mask ban, citing safety concerns and the risk of escalating confrontations between law enforcement agencies.
'It's not a safe way to do business.'
“The reality of one armed agency approaching another armed agency to create conflict over something that would be a misdemeanor at best or an infraction — it doesn’t make any sense.”
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The No Secret Police Act, signed by Newsom in September, prohibits most law enforcement officers, including federal agents, from wearing masks or facial coverings while carrying out official duties, with limited exceptions for undercover work or protective equipment. Supporters say the measure increases transparency and prevents the use of “secret police” tactics during immigration operations.
Federal officials and Republican leaders have sharply criticized the law, arguing it endangers agents by exposing their identities and unlawfully interferes with federal authority. The U.S. Department of Justice has challenged the law in court, saying it violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

McDonnell said the LAPD’s role is to maintain public safety, not to police federal officers engaged in immigration enforcement.
"You have the ICE agents who are doing their job. And for us to come in then and try and create an enforcement action for wearing a mask, it's not a safe way to do business," McDonnell said.
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Larry Krasner, the Philadelphia district attorney who was impeached in 2022 for "dereliction of duty and refusal to enforce the law upon assuming office," was among the leftists who condemned the fatal Jan. 7 shooting of anti-ICE activist Renee Nicole Macklin Good.
Multiple videos of the incident, including cellphone footage from the agent's perspective, show the 37-year-old Colorado native drive into a federal law enforcement officer after disobeying repeated orders to exit her vehicle. As Good accelerated into the ICE agent — who had been dragged hundreds of yards by a fleeing suspect during a previous ICE operation — the agent opened fire in self-defense.
During a press conference on Jan. 8, where officials held a moment of silence for Good, then engaged in a cultish chant of her name, Krasner claimed the ICE agent's actions were not only "unlawful" but amounted to a "criminal homicide" executed by a member of an agency that has supposedly taken a "Nazified approach to mass deportation."
'Do you hear me, ICE agents? Do you hear me, National Guard?'
Krasner — flanked by fellow anti-ICE radicals Aniqa Raihan of the group No ICE Philly and Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, the latter of whom claimed that ICE was "fake" law enforcement — not only complained about the ICE officer's decision to fire multiple shots but his location at the time of the vehicular attack.
According to Krasner, who referred to the incident in passing as a "murder," the officer's positioning in front of Good's speeding SUV was a "violation of police directives in almost every jurisdiction."
"Self-defense? So that is one layer of criminality," said Krasner.

After characterizing the agent's act of self-defense as a crime, Krasner — who has spent years championing dangerous criminals — stated, "If any law enforcement agent, any ICE agent, is going to come to Philly to commit crimes, then you can get the eff out of here because if you do that here, I will charge you with those crimes. You will be arrested. You will stand trial. You will be convicted, whether it's in state or federal court."
"Donald Trump cannot pardon you for a state court conviction," continued Krasner. "Do you hear me, ICE agents? Do you hear me, National Guard? Do you hear me, military?"
Sheriff Bilal attempted to outdo Krasner's expression of contempt for federal law enforcement officers, stating, "If any [ICE agents] want to come in this city and commit a crime, you will not be able to hide, nobody will whisk you off."
"You don't want this smoke, 'cause we will bring it to you," threatened the sheriff whose crime-ridden city had 826 shootings in 2025.
Over the weekend, Krasner posted a picture of himself on social media with the acronym "FAFO," which stands for "f**k around, find out." The post was captioned, "To ICE and the National Guard: If you commit crimes in Philadelphia, we will charge you and hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law."
The post was quickly ratioed on X.
"Unlike criminals in Philadelphia who get their charges dropped by the DA," replied the National Police Association.
Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, noted, "The fullest extent of the state law would be nothing since they're Federal officials. Don't lose your bar license dude."
The Department of Homeland Security responded with multiple dismissive posts, noting, "Oh no! Anyway."
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President Donald Trump returned to the office on Jan. 20 and made immediately clear that he expected federal bureaucrats to follow suit.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office indicated in a recent study that as of June 2024, over 200,000 federal employees — 9% of the federal workforce — worked remotely. Gallup survey data indicates that in the fourth quarter of last year, 61% of federal employees were working in a flexible hybrid work model.
'That's what we've been looking to do for many, many decades, frankly.'
Trump noted in a day-one memo to the heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch that "as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis."
"We think a very substantial number of people will not show up to work, and therefore our government will get smaller and more efficient," the president later told reporters. "And that's what we've been looking to do for many, many decades, frankly."
Despite naysaying by academics, bureaucrats, and the liberal media, Trump's effort to get workers back has yielded serious results besides the voluntary exit of tens of thousands of bureaucrats.
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According to a new Gallup survey of 542 federal employees in "remote-capable" jobs, 46% of federal employees are now working in the office — up from 17% in the fourth quarter of 2024 and double the national average.
The percentage of federal employees engaged in hybrid work arrangements is now 28%, down 33 points since Q4 2024. Twenty-six percent of federal employees are reportedly engaged in fully remote capacities, said the survey published on Tuesday.
"In Washington, the hybrid era is over," said Gallup's Ryan Pendell.
Blaze News has reached out to the Office of Personnel Management for comment.
The survey further indicated that unlike the federal government sector, across the board, on-site work has not rebounded among full-time, remote-capable American employees. In 2019, over 60% of workers were in the office full-time. Now, 21% of employees are working on-site full-time. Fifty-one percent are engaged in hybrid work.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration — placing the D.C. police under federal control — cited a now-famous stat: Washington, D.C., has higher violent crime, murder, and robbery rates than all 50 states.
Yes, even higher than my home city of Los Angeles.
DC is bigger than the Mall, and outside the quaint Capitol Hill and Eastern Market townhouses, the city sings a much different tune.
The order also noted that the city’s homicide rate — 27.54 per 100,000 residents — surpasses that of Havana, Cuba, and Islamabad, Pakistan.
Left-wing media immediately scoffed. They downplayed the numbers, pointing to D.C.’s “declining violent crime” stats — conveniently reported right after city leaders reclassified crimes like felony assault and carjacking as non-violent offenses.
It’s a neat trick to save face at the expense of victims.
In Georgetown, Woodley Park, and Chevy Chase, the chaos hides well. But walk through Columbia Heights or Dupont Circle and men strung out on drugs sprawl across the sidewalks. At Union Station, homeless people bathe in the historic site’s iconic fountains, just a few blocks from the Capitol.
“All cities have a homeless problem,” they say. Sure. But not all cities are the capital of the free world.
D.C. is bigger than the Mall, and outside the quaint Capitol Hill and Eastern Market townhouses, the city sings a much different tune.
Take Anacostia.
This historically black neighborhood in Southeast D.C. has been ravaged by decades of violent crime and neglect in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. Today, it holds an “F” public safety grade and ranks in the seventh percentile for safety nationwide. The neighborhood sees 12.3 violent crimes per 1,000 residents annually, with assault topping the list, followed by robbery, rape, and murder.
As D.C.'s cost of living explodes, many young residents — like my friends — are pushed into cheaper, more dangerous areas. They often choose Anacostia.
I’ve stayed with them several times. It’s the kind of place where you don’t stop at a red light. Homeless men stagger toward your car. Groups of young men tail you from stop sign to stop sign. If you're catching an early flight, you’ll see prostitutes walking home from the night before.
Residents of this once-vibrant neighborhood mourn what it has become. Times were never easy, but now crime has made it unlivable.
Anacostia isn’t an outlier. It’s the blueprint.
It’s the story of every community that doesn’t fit the left’s narrative and so gets ignored. As more staffers and young professionals move into these neighborhoods, perhaps they’ll finally draw some media coverage. But reform shouldn’t wait until political aides feel unsafe.
D.C. was meant to be the crown jewel of American cities. In many ways, it still is. But beauty doesn’t excuse such damning crime statistics.
Unchecked crime in forgotten neighborhoods is spilling into tourist hot spots and government grounds. Elites can’t ignore it any more.
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President Trump’s order is delivering what Anacostia residents — and so many others — should have received years ago: law, order, and the simple freedom to walk outside without fear.
That’s not too much to ask. That’s the bare minimum.
It’s a promise every American deserves.
So thank you, President Trump, for doing what should have been done long ago. I hope D.C. is just the beginning. Do L.A. next.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of the law. Dugan — who could land up to six years in prison if convicted for allegedly helping Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an illegal alien charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery, get away from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — pleaded not guilty during her arraignment in federal court on Thursday.
Dugan's attorneys appear to think that the U.S. Supreme Court has provided her with the means to dodge accountability.
They noted in a Wednesday motion to dismiss the indictment obtained by Axios that "the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts. Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset."
Here, attorneys cited the Supreme Court's July 1, 2024, ruling in Trump v. United States, where a 6-3 majority determined that the president "may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts."
This is the ruling that prompted apoplexy among Democrats, demands for conservative justices to be impeached, and accusations that the high court was "consumed by a corruption crisis beyond its control."

Dugan's attorneys noted that even if "Judge Dugan took the actions the complaint alleges, these plainly were judicial acts for which she has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution," adding that "judges are empowered to maintain control over their courtrooms specifically and the courthouse generally."
'Unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional.'
The apparent suggestion is that the following actions, which the indictment accuses her of taking, were official acts:
In Trump v. United States, the high court wrote:
In dividing official from unofficial conduct, courts may not inquire into the President’s motives. Such a "highly intrusive" inquiry would risk exposing even the most obvious instances of official conduct to judicial examination on the mere allegation of improper purpose.
Dugan's attorneys further argued on the basis of this specific assertion by the high court that the Wisconsin judge's "subjective motivations are irrelevant to immunity."

"The government's prosecution of Judge Dugan is virtually unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional," wrote the attorneys. "Judge Dugan reserves her right to seek other relief, including by other motions before and at trial. But the immunity and federalism issues must be resolved swiftly because the government has no basis in law to prosecute her."
When asked about the use of the Supreme Court's ruling in this case, Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told Blaze News, "I don't think the analogy is appropriate in this case," adding, "the dispute is going to be whether she acted in her capacity as a judge."
"The government's response is going to be, 'What you did has nothing to do with judicial decision-making, the management of your court room. You went out; you interfered with federal law enforcement; you came back in, and ushered people out of the courtroom in a way to obstruct justice that had nothing to do with your so-called management in the courtroom,'" continued Fitton. "'This was a crime that was being committed in a courtroom, not by a judge, but by ... a person acting as a citizen, not as a judge.'"
Fitton suggested further that the Trump DOJ would likely appeal a ruling in Dugan's favor, in part due to the administration's "seriousness about protecting their agents and the public from these illegal alien criminals" and the possible emboldening impact such a ruling might have on other activist judges.
"It doesn't matter what line of work you are in. If you break the law, we will follow the facts, and we will prosecute you," Attorney General Pam Bondi said of the case last month.
Dugan, relieved of her duties as a judge last month by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, is next expected in court on July 9. Her trial is reportedly set for July 21.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman will preside over Dugan's case. That's likely good news for Dugan, as the Democratic lawmaker turned Clinton appointee has made no secret of his animus toward President Donald Trump and Republicans.
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