A payout scheme for senators deepens the gap between DC and the rest of us



During the final hours of the shutdown fight earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) slipped a toxic provision into the continuing resolution that reopened the government. The clause created a special pathway for select senators to sue the federal government, bypass its usual legal defenses, and claim large payouts if their records were subpoenaed during the Arctic Frost investigation.

The result? About eight senators could demand $500,000 for every “instance” of seized data. Those instances could stack, pushing potential payouts into the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. That is not an exaggeration. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has all but celebrated the prospect.

Graham said he wanted ‘tens of millions of dollars’ for seized records while victims of weaponization still face shattered lives.

No one else would qualify for compensation. Only senators. Anyone who spent years helping victims of political weaponization — often pro bono, while prestige law firms chased billable hours — can see the corruption in plain view. The message this provision sends on the central Trump-era promise of accountability could not be weaker: screw the people, pay the pols.

The surveillance of senators was wrong. It should never have happened. But senators did not face what ordinary Americans endured. Senators maintain large campaign accounts to hire top lawyers. They operate out of official offices, armed with constitutional protections such as the Speech and Debate Clause. They do not lose their homes, jobs, savings, or businesses. Thousands of Americans did. Many still face legal bills, ruined livelihoods, and ongoing cases. They deserve restitution — not the politicians who failed them.

Graham helped push this provision forward. As public criticism grew, he defended it. On Sean Hannity’s show the other day, he said: “My phone records were seized. I’m not going to put up with this crap. I’m going to sue.” Hannity asked how much. Graham replied: “Tens of millions of dollars.”

Democrats will replay that clip across every battleground in the country going into an uphill midterm battle in 2026.

Graham embodies the worst messenger for this fight. He helped fuel weaponization long before he claimed victimhood. He urged the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to pass the Steele dossier to the FBI. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he did nothing to slow the Justice Department and FBI as they pursued political targets. He even supported many of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees who later embraced aggressive lawfare tactics. If anyone owed restitution to victims, Graham sits high on the list.

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Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Fortunately, enough Republicans recognize the political and moral disaster of funneling taxpayer funds to senators while real victims remain abandoned. The House advanced a measure today to repeal the provision. Led by Reps. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas), the House forced the Senate to address in public what it attempted to smuggle through in private.

Thune defended the measure in comments to Axios. He argued that only senators suffered statutory violations and said the provision was crafted to avoid covering House members. He did not explain why any House member who was illegally surveilled should receive no remedy.

The Senate leader also claimed the financial penalty would deter a future Justice Department from targeting lawmakers, citing the actions of special counsel Jack Smith. His emphasis on “future” misconduct glossed over a critical fact: The provision is retroactive and would cover past abuses.

That defense cannot survive daylight. Repeal requires 60 Senate votes, and not a single Democrat will fight to preserve a payout for Graham. Republicans should not try either. Efforts to strike the measure need to begin immediately. Senators — especially Thune — should commit to an up-or-down vote. If they want to send tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to Graham, they should do it in public, with the country watching.

Washington already reeks of grift and self-dealing this year. If senators protect this provision, that smell will spread nationwide.

Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who still owes over $1.5 million in restitution, caught crowdsourcing for a luxury condo: Report



Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick may be out of federal prison, but that doesn't mean his dealings with the federal government have come to an end. A federal judge has just ordered authorities to seize the money Kilpatrick and his new wife have amassed on a crowdfunding account that they recently created.

According to Fox 2, Kilpatrick's new wife, Leticia, opened an account at crowdsourcing site Plumfund.com to help them raise funds for their new son, Kyng. The page also supposedly listed a second line of funding intended to go toward a luxury condo in Orlando, Florida. Though the account is no longer accessible, as of late last month, the account was active and open to the public and had garnered $1,670 of its $800,000 goal. The account page allegedly requested prospective donors to consider making a contribution of $8,000.

Once reports of the account became public, federal investigators began looking into the fund since Kilpatrick still owes over $1.5 million in restitution to the city of Detroit and the IRS. On Tuesday afternoon, WDIV confirmed that a federal judge had demanded that all funds from the account be seized.

In a recent radio interview with Lloyd Jackson on 760 WJR-AM, Kilpatrick vehemently denied any wrongdoing with the Plumfund account.

"We’re not buying a house, we’re not trying to raise $800,000, we don't want anybody to give $8,000," Kilpatrick told Jackson on air.

"That was a fund that was set up strictly for baby shower gifts. That's all it was," he said. "And there is no site, there is no effort, there's no movement, there's no campaign to raise money for a house."

Whatever the motivation for the account, criminal defense attorney and federal prosecutor Anjali Prashad told Fox 2 that any funds that the Kilpatricks raise would be considered a "substantial resource" that the federal government could then seize to address his government debts.

"The federal government will treat this as something known as substantial resources," she said. "A substantial resource is basically, you win the lotto, you get an inheritance, you get an $800,000 donation, for whatever reason. This is a substantial resource, which the United States of America can then lay claim to."

"There is not a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Michigan and possibly in the United States of America, who doesn't believe that the good city of Detroit is owed restitution by Mr. Kwame Kilpatrick," she added.

"I think it's great. I think it's great he solicits the donations because then, maybe finally the good people of Detroit can get the restitution that has been ordered."

Shortly before he left office, former President Donald Trump granted Kilpatrick clemency for his federal crimes. However, clemency merely adjusted Kilpatrick's prison sentence to time served. It did not remove his local or federal debt obligations.

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Court rules black man enslaved by South Carolina restaurant manager is owed more than $500K



A federal court has ruled that a South Carolina restaurant manager who forced a black man with intellectual disabilities to work in excess of 100 hours a week without pay owes more than $500,000 to the man he effectively enslaved.

The Post and Courier reported last week that the defendant, Bobby Paul Edwards, has been ordered to pay John Christopher Smith, a 43-year-old black man, $546,000 in restitution.

Edwards is currently serving a 10-year sentence on one count of forced labor for coercing Smith to work extensive hours for no pay at J&J Cafeteria in Conway, South Carolina, between 2009 and 2014, according to a Department of Justice press release.

In his original sentencing in November 2019, Edwards was ordered to pay Smith $273,000 in restitution, a figure that covered the minimum wages and overtime pay he had been previously denied. But after federal prosecutors appealed citing the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Fourth Circuit ruled that Smith is entitled to more money since there was considerable delay in his being paid.

"When an employer fails to pay those amounts, the employee suffers losses, which includes the loss of the use of that money during the period of delay. So fully compensating the employee requires accounting for losses from the delay," the court wrote in its decision, adding, "These additional losses could, in part, be compensated by interest."

"We therefore vacate the award of restitution and remand for its recalculation," the court stated.

After the case was sent back to district court for a decision on how much more Smith would be owed, the court decided to double the amount.

Edwards' enslavement of Smith began when Edwards took on management responsibilities at the restaurant where Smith served as a buffet cook, according to court documents. Smith had worked at the restaurant since 1990, when at 12 years of age he started washing dishes and busing tables.

"Edwards effected this forced labor by taking advantage of Jack's intellectual disability and keeping Jack isolated from his family, threatening to have him arrested, and verbally abusing him," the court stated.

"His control over Jack also involved physical abuse," the court added, recalling incidents in which Edwards "dipped metal tongs into hot grease and pressed them to Jack's neck" and "whipped him with his belt, beat him with kitchen pans, and punched him with his fists."

The abusive treatment finally came to an end in 2014, when a relative of an employee alerted authorities to the situation and the South Carolina Department of Social Services intervened.

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