Kayla e-mailed to note Taste of Home's Italian Sausage Veggie Skillet:
Ingredients
4 cups uncooked whole wheat spiral pasta
1 pound Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 medium zucchini, chopped
1 large sweet red pepper, chopped
1 large sweet yellow pepper, chopped
1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions
1 Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.
2
Meanwhile, in large skillet, cook sausage and onion over medium-high
heat until sausage is no longer pink, 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1
minute longer. Add zucchini and peppers; cook until crisp-tender, 3-5
minutes. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook and stir until vegetables
are tender and begin to release their juices, 5-7 minutes. Serve with
pasta.
A
Trump-appointed federal appeals judge spent months running a Washington
public affairs firm after being appointed to the bench last year, an
arrangement that contributed to an exodus among the firm’s staff and
clients and only ended when the firm went out of business at the end of
June.
Jennifer Mascott, a
former conservative law professor who sits on the 3rd Circuit Court of
Appeals, was deeply involved in daily operations at the firm, Adfero,
for at least six months after she was confirmed as a judge in October
2025, according to 14 former employees and clients granted anonymity to
discuss internal details of the firm’s final months.
Nine
of the former employees said Mascott, who inherited her ownership stake
in the firm from her late husband in 2023, worked at least once a week
out of Adfero’s office in Washington and oversaw the firm’s staffing,
business development efforts and client relations in between her
full-time judicial duties in Wilmington and Philadelphia.
The
firm was historically a nonpartisan business that did public relations
and marketing work for companies and trade associations such as PhRMA
and the National Retail Federation. In the final months of the business,
Mascott brought on consultants with strong MAGA credentials, according
to eight of the former employees and clients. Her leadership of the firm
involved operational and strategic decisions: She required her signoff
on marketing materials and suggested staff pitch the firm’s services to
health insurers after the loss of crucial clients like PhRMA.
The
details of Mascott’s involvement with the firm, which have not been
previously reported, come amid a yearslong push by members of Congress
and others in the legal community for stricter ethical requirements for
judges. While judges are barred from engaging in business activities
that could call their impartiality into question, they may maintain
ownership of family businesses as long as they are not using the
prestige of their judgeship to further the business or taking
significant time away from their judicial duties.
Mascott
said she adhered to legal and ethical requirements and ensured she was
fully transparent with relevant authorities during her stewardship of
Adfero. But her former employees and some of the firm’s clients said the
arrangement made them uncomfortable. And ultimately, the resulting loss
of staff and clients led to the demise of the company after two decades
in operation.
I'd say her actions were unethical and I'd argue it goes to the need for judicial reform.
This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Thursday:
Thursday, August 6, 2026. New Mexico is being stalled and ignored in
their request to the US Justice Dept for information regarding Jeffrey
Epstein, non-journalism major Bari Weiss continues to show off her lack
of journalistic training and knowledge, Hegseth face multiple scandals,
and much more.
Again,
were a real journalist overseeing this -- not columnist Bari Weiss who
holds a history degree and has no real training in journalism --
it would have been grasped that a news segment would be more than just
an interview with one person. Sharyn Alfonsi is an investigative
journalist and she interviewed Wyden at the end of March and worked on
the segment beyond the interview with Wyden.
It
is tasked with advising the commander-in-chief on critical
quality-of-life issues impacting military families, including employment
stability for military spouses facing high unemployment rates,
healthcare access and child care availability, housing security and
education during frequent relocations.
[. . .]
These are among 10 separate cases the Guardian found,
since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, in which
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has attempted to subject
detained hunger strikers to involuntary medical procedures, including
force-feeding. Of those, ICE subjected at least three – but probably
five – who were protesting against the conditions of their confinement,
to the procedures. Human rights organizations have widely condemned
force-feeding as torture.
Chump's a mess, as Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) notes in the video above. And not very in touch with reality. Iraq? AL JAZEERA reports:
Iraqi
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is facing a mounting political and security
crisis as a September 30 deadline to restrict all weapons to state
control approaches.
While a number of armed
groups, such as Saraya al-Salam, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib al-Imam
Ali, have agreed to integrate into the state’s armed forces, the defiant
stance of some powerful Shia paramilitaries threatens to derail the
initiative.
Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned Iraqi
paramilitary group and one of the country’s most heavily armed
factions, has explicitly rejected the government’s mandate, pledging
instead to retain what it calls “resistance weapons” and further develop
its arsenal.
Similarly, the influential
Harakat al-Nujaba has said the government’s push to confiscate arms
should target illegal weapons causing chaos, not those held by fighters
who “defended Iraq, its holy sites, and its people during the most
difficult circumstances”.
The
militias are not going to be turned out by Ali al-Zaidi. Before the US
troops left, the Shi'ite militias were already present and were already
disobeying the rules and laws (you couldn't, for example, be a militia
with a military wing and also be a political party elected to
Parliament). A few prime minister candidates did make claims to the
effect that they would end the militias but none of them did. The
militias are too much a part of Iraq now. They were folded into the
government forces many, many years ago.
If
Chump and his administration thought Ali would be able to address this
-- and apparently they did think that -- then they know nothing of
Iraq's recent history.
Yesterday's snapshot noted:
Let's move over to the US miliary and the fact that they killed some people. No, not over in Iran, here in the United States. Joe Wilkins (FUTURISM) notes:
New bombshell reporting by Wired reveals
an incident in which the testing of an experimental GPS jammer resulted
in a medical plane crashing into the side of a mountain.
The
horrifying incident happened in May, the publication reports, when a
small twin-engine medevac aircraft carrying two pilots and two medical
workers departed from Roswell, New Mexico. Heading West for the small
mountain village of Ruidoso, the crew became the victim of an electronic
warfare exercise being conducted at the nearby White Sands Missile
Range, a test which rendered their navigational system inoperable.
Due
to a combination of low visibility and an air-traffic control that was
stretched far beyond capacity — at least three other planes reported
navigation disruptions due to the GPS jamming — the pilots failed to
register a mountainous formation between their plane and the landing
strip.
As airline pilot and aviation crash
analyst Juan Browne told Wired, the visual effect of that approach would
have been stupefying. “When those lights go out, man, you know you are
in big trouble,” Browne explained.
Unfortunately,
the disoriented crew ran straight into the side of a mountain they
likely never saw, resulting in the loss of every life on board. It’s the
first known instance where military GPS jamming played a role in
downing a civilian plane in US airspace. Reported incidents of GPS
jamming within the continental US have skyrocketed in recent years.
According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the number of
GPS interference events went from four in 2020 to 50 in 2024, and 40
across 2025.
Jeff Wise reported on this at WIRED July 30th.
Pete Hegseth is the Secretary of Defense. This is on him. And he
should have announced it when it happened Instead, he thought he could
lie and not say anything. He thought he could lie to the American
people. He thought he could cover this up. Hegseth is not fit to be
Secretary of Defense. This was clear when JD Vance had to provide the
tie splitting vote to get him confirmed. He wasn't qualified for the
post in any manner, shape or form. He'd never run a big agency or
organization. His money problems as the head of DoD? Reflect his mad
spending as the head of two different charity organizations. And his
non-stop lies? That's what the country has learned to expect from FOX
"NEWS" TV personalities.
There should be a Congressional investigation into this.
And,
it goes without saying, apologies to the family members of the
deceased. But Hegseth will probably attempt to play this off as not his
fault and not anything that the country needs to be concerned about.
Alexander Willis (RAW STORY) reports on some reactions to WIRED's story:
Outraged
is mounting over a new report revealing U.S. military testing in New
Mexico may have played a role in a fatal plane crash.
“Defund
them,” wrote attorney and political consultant Briahna Joy Gray Tuesday
in a social media post on X, referring to the U.S. military.
The
fatal flight ended on May 14 when a civilian plane on a medical
transport mission crashed into the side of a mountain after the pilots
became "disoriented," Wired reported last week.
While
the cause of the crash has yet to be officially determined, Wired's
aviation reporter Jeff Wise noted testing at the White Sands Missile
Range may have played a role in the incident.
“While
the crash was the first fatal accident in the US known to be linked to
electronic warfare, there’s no reason to think it will be the last,"
Wise wrote.
Christopher Hale, a Democratic
political operative and former congressional candidate, laid the blame
for the accident squarely on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing
him of being responsible for “killing everyone on board” the aircraft.
Moving
over to the late Jeffrey Estein whose decades long friendship with
Donald Chump has earned him protection even in death. Alexandra Miller (SCRIPP NEWS) reports:
Scripps
News has learned the New Mexico Department of Justice has filed a
40-page lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice, accusing the
agency of failing to comply with repeated records requests related to
convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The
state is seeking documents tied to investigations into Epstein, his
associate Ghislaine Maxwell, his Zorro Ranch in New Mexico and any
alleged co-conspirators.
New
Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said he has made repeated requests
for the records since taking over the investigation earlier this year.
The
U.S. Department of Justice has argued Torrez's requests are overly
broad and has cited privacy concerns and ongoing investigations as
reasons for withholding the records. The New Mexico Department of
Justice disputes those claims, arguing Deputy Attorney General Todd
Blanche has made clear the department is not conducting any active
investigations into the matter.
So
grasp that Todd Blanche thinks he deserves to be confirmed as Attorney
General yet as acting Attorney General, he's unwilling to comply with
requests from the New Mexico Dept of Justice. Grasp that the message
New Mexico is being given includes that they can't honor the requests
because of "ongoing investigations." Ongoing investigations? Blanche
and Ka$h Patel have both claimed that there is nothing more that the
Justice Dept can do. But they're denying records to New Mexico on the
grounds of "ongoing investigations."
Todd
Blanche, when making an effort (what he considers an effort) to garner
support for becoming AG, will not supply New Mexico with the needed
documents.
Staying with the topic of Chump's friend Jeffrey Epstein, Alyssa Ray (THE WRAP) reports
CBS
News pushed back after Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released a report
suggesting the network "suppressed" a "60 Minutes" segment about Jeffrey
Epstein, calling the claim "categorically false."
"We
are proud of our aggressive and extensive reporting on the Epstein
scandal," a spokesperson for CBS said in a statement to media. "That
reporting continues. We air pieces when they are ready, and suggesting
that an interview is being 'suppressed' for any reason is categorically
false."
Bari Weiss. Stupid,
transphobic Bari Weiss. Stupid, transphobic, opinion columnist Bari
Weiss. No one's suggesting "an interview" has been suppressed. We're
suggesting an investigative report has been suppressed. Because it has
been.
From page 61 of Ron Wyden's report "Looking The Other Way: How Wall Street Banks Enabled Jeffrey Epstein's Sex Trafficking:"
On March 26, 2026, Senator Wyden sat for a taped interview at a Senate Finance
Committee hearing room with former 60 minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. The interview
was part of a broader segment being prepared by 60 minutes regarding the conduct of Wall Street
banks and the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands with regard to Jeffrey Epstein and his
associates. Over the course of the interview Senator Wyden answered questions related to his
multi-year investigation into transactions financing Epstein’s sex trafficking operation and
potential consequences for banks over potentially willful violations of federal anti-money
laundering laws.
However, shortly after the taping of the interview with Senator Wyden, CBS News
Leadership led by Bari Weiss made the decision to fire Sharyn Alfonsi.218 As a result, the
interview with Senator Wyden will not be aired and it is unclear whether Bari Weiss and CBS
News Leadership will allow the broader segment to ever be aired.
Bari
is an untrained idiot. It's not as if she went to journalism school
and then attempted to be that (bad) columnist for THE NEW YORK TIMES.
She didn't study journalism. She studied history. She doesn't know
what she's doing and that's why the ratings have tanked for CBS NEWS
since she took over. She's uneducated and she's unqualified.
Wyden, a ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, released the report on August 4.
The
committee said it concerned “years of complicity by top officials at
multiple Wall Street Banks” and alleged that Epstein was able to move
large sums of money while banks delayed reporting suspicious activity.
Newsweek could not independently verify the claims made in the report.
“I
said from the start that if you want to get to the bottom of the
Jeffrey Epstein cover-up, you had to follow the money,” Wyden said in a
statement after the report’s release.
“My
small team of investigators did what Trump’s attorney general and
Treasury secretary said was impossible: they connected the dots and
found evidence of multiple crimes related to Epstein’s associates.”
He
wrote in the report: “Wall Street banks looked the other way as Epstein
withdrew millions of dollars in cash with no clear business purpose and
was party to thousands of suspicious wire transfers worth more than $1
billion.”
One of the most striking claims involves Deutsche Bank.
Wyden’s
Senate report alleged that the bank failed to promptly report more than
$250 million in suspicious Epstein-related transactions.
Bank
of America was also cited with over roughly $170 million in alleged
transactions linked to another billionaire, while JPMorgan Chase was
also mentioned in the report.
The
transactions in question reportedly total more than $420 million and
involve exchanges with disgraced investor Leon Black, as well as
payments to individuals in Russia and Eastern Europe. While
representatives for the banks and Black have maintained that they did
not facilitate wrongdoing or were engaged in legitimate business, the
Senate report argues that these institutions effectively turned a blind
eye to obvious warning signs.
The fallout from
the report extends beyond Wall Street, raising questions about
transparency at the highest levels of government and media. Wyden has
pointed to roadblocks in obtaining Treasury files and alleged that a
recent media merger played a role in suppressing a broadcast interview
about his findings.
By the way, Chris Wallace weighed
in on the proposed PARAMOUNT and WARNER BROS merger and, no surprise,
he's for it. (No surprise because he's a ghoul and because he works for
PARAMOUNT.) He writes:
Over
my 55 years in the news business, I have built a reputation for being
fair, for playing it straight. Here's some straight talk. I have
problems with some of the journalism at CBS News. Just as I had problems
with some of the journalism at Fox and CNN when I worked at both of
those news operations. But I don't believe government - either at the
federal or state level, whether it is controlled by Republicans or
Democrats - should use its powers to determine who owns a news platform
or to control how that outlet reports the news.
No
one with true news knowledge has ever seen you as fair or as someone
who played it straight. Nor did anyone see your father as such and
you're worse than your sexist father was -- and I'm not just referring
to his Barbra Streisand interview, we can go back, we can all the way
back to when he was forced to work with Jacqueline Susann and his
snippy nonsense that he pulled then. It's amazing, however, that he
wants to write about TV news while noting (a) that the lawsuits he's
addressing don't bring up the issue of TV news and insisting that thanks
to YOUTUBE, et al, TV news doesn't matter anymore. No, Chris Wallace,
you're what no longer matters. And people reading headlines on YOUTUBE
or anywhere and yacking about the news aren't doing news.
I've never mistaken what I do here as news unless I'm covering a Congressional hearing I attended.
Amy
Goodman does not do a news program. She does a public affairs
program. And that's what most of the YOUTUBE videos qualify as. So,
no, it's not news.
(B)
WARNER BROS shouldn't be sold off right now. That's because it was
purchased in 2022. And a few of us were loudly opposed to that takeover
merger (in Congress, Joaquin Castro was the loudest voice and the
sanest). But the Chris Wallaces of the world were all for it. And
what happened? The sleaze bags who took over shelved three films
because they figured that could get more money ripping off the insurance
companies. They cancelled a ton of shows. They took their cheap ass
'reality' and 'lifestyle' programs and tried to pimp them and multiply
them. We don't need another merger.
And
we certainly don't need PARAMOUNT's just greenlit again CLUELESS TV
show where non-actress Alicia Silverstone will return as Cher 30 years
later with her life turned into a tizzy when her own daughter -- should
be granddaughter, it's 30 years later -- enters high school. That's the
kind of 'brave' and 'new' and 'innovative' programming that we can
expect from PARAMOUNT and they'll quickly move that same brave and
innovative programming to WARNER BROS if they get approval for the
merger.
Let's turn to Prissy Hegseth, our Secretary of Defense. Joe Sommerlad (INDEPENDENT) reports:
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nominee for Army chief of staff could struggle
to win confirmation because Republicans on the Senate Armed Services
Committee oppose his candidacy, according to a report.
Gen.
Christopher LaNeve, who commanded the famed 82nd Airborne Division, has
served in the role in an acting capacity since Hegseth controversially
fired the popular Gen. Randy George in April.
Hegseth
had wanted to nominate LaNeve in May, The Wall Street Journal reports,
but was informed at the time by the committee’s chairman, Mississippi
Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, that his man did not have the votes to win
out.
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and her GOP
colleagues are reportedly concerned that LaNeve has only been a
four-star general for six months, whereas most chiefs of staff have
typically served at least 18 months at that rank before assuming the top
role, the WSJ said.
The
Republican Party’s confidence in United States Defense Secretary Pete
Hegseth appears to be waning, amid growing frustrations over the war
with Iran dragging on with no end in sight.
“I
don’t have any confidence in him anymore. I think he’s all over the
place,” Senator Thom Tillis said of Hegseth in an interview with US
newspaper The Hill last week. “I think he’s got a massive insecurity
complex, he has a lack of experience in large organisations, he m
icromanages too much.”
Tillis
spoke of a growing crisis of confidence in Hegseth’s leadership within
the Senate, as the US and Iran appear no closer to a lasting peace deal
despite the soaring costs of the war that the US and Israel launched on
Iran on February 28.
“I have heard out of the
Pentagon that there’s a loss of confidence – within the Pentagon,” the
senator said. “And of course then everyone here on [Capitol Hill] hears
those same concerns.”
That's far from Hegseth's only problem. Will Neal (DAILY BEAST) notes:
Sailors
fighting President Donald Trump’s war with Iran are washing in moldy
showers and rationing meals in the ninth month of a mission that shows
zero signs of ending.
The USS Abraham Lincoln
sailed out of San Diego in November on a deployment supposed to last
seven months. Trump, 80, launched his air campaign against Iran in
February. The carrier has been in the fight ever since, and its
5,000-plus sailors and Marines still have no homecoming date. The
president said the conflict would last a “few weeks.” It’s been five
months.
Bonnie York, whose stepson is aboard the Lincoln, told MS NOW
she had been told a doctor or therapist on the ship warned the crew
needed to reach port before people started “losing their minds.” She
voted for Trump—and partly because he promised not to start any new
wars. She no longer believes the country is safer for it. “You’ve
essentially stranded them out there,” she said of the crew.
Relatives
of the crew told the network they fear the exhaustion on board will get
someone killed. A dozen spoke to the outlet about the conditions, and
most asked not to be named, fearing retaliation against their relatives
on the vessel.
Brett Snow, a Navy veteran with a son on the
ship, said the grind has produced a situation “ripe for accidents.” Even
in peacetime, he said, a carrier is one of the most hazardous places to
work.
Apparently Hegseth has not
only never been stationed on a naval carrier, he also doesn't have a
mind capable of learning what it entails.
Then there's wife number three, his current wife. Lesley Abravanel (OK) notes:
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing sharp public backlash after President
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday, August 3, appointing
Hegseth's third wife, Jennifer Rauchet, as the chairwoman of the newly
created Presidential Military Spouse Commission.
Critics
have labeled the appointment a "scam" and an act of favoritism, citing
Rauchet's lack of formal government credentials and her history of
controversial involvement in Pentagon operations.
The Presidential Military Spouse Commission is a newly formed White House panel consisting of more than 20 military spouses.
Critics argue that appointing the Defense Secretary's spouse
to lead an advisory council on military affairs bypasses highly
qualified, independent advocates with deeper backgrounds in the military
community.
The
Trump administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of
active-duty U.S. troops, an Associated Press investigation has revealed,
as it rolls back immigration protections for military families in
pursuit of its mass deportation agenda.
This marks a significant departure from decades of bipartisan consensus that shielded such individuals from deportation.
More
than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been
detained since Trump took office, with at least six already deported,
according to the AP’s first accounting of these cases, which the
government does not track.
Currently, at least eight immediate family members of U.S. service members remain in federal immigration custody.
Experts warn that this reversal could undermine military preparedness, even as the U.S. is engaged in conflict abroad.
The
policy has left military personnel without crucial emotional support
and caretakers for their children, delayed deployments, and forced some
to take leave.
"How can I even focus on my
military career because I have to worry about how my wife is doing?"
said Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, whose wife was detained in
front of their 6-year-old daughter in July while he was stationed at
Fort Bliss, Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) states it does not compile data on these cases.
[. . .]
Experts
in military immigration law, including Dan Gividen, who served as ICE’s
deputy chief counsel from 2016 to 2019 under Trump, describe this as a
stark shift.
Gividen
stated that during his tenure, immigration authorities rarely detained
service members' immediate family members unless they had committed
violent crimes.
"We would not place them into removal proceedings, period. That’s insane," Gividen said.
"The
fact that they’re doing it now is just outrageous." Margaret Stock, an
immigration attorney and retired lieutenant colonel, noted that previous
administrations typically canceled past removal orders to ensure troops
could focus on their duties. "If soldiers are preoccupied with detained
or deported family, they're not concentrating on their job anymore,"
she explained.
Jack Brook, Safiyah Riddle and Aaron Kessler wrote the AP investigative report:
President
Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and
spouses of active-duty U.S. troops as it rolls back immigration
protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, an Associated Press investigation found.
More
than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been
detained since Trump took office for a second term, and at least six have been deported and one self-deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions,
which the government does not track. At least eight immediate family
members of U.S. service members remain in federal immigration custody.
The
Department of Homeland Security has said it does not compile data on
these cases. The AP obtained information by analyzing thousands of
federal court records compiled by Habeas Dockets,
a project run by the Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative; by
reviewing existing media coverage; and by verifying information with
family members and attorneys. The actual number is likely much higher
than the 52 cases AP found.
And
yet as this goes public, silence from Hegseth who, as the Secretary of
Defense, should have been raising this issue all along. But the troops
are just props to him.
Staying with the topic of Chump's war on immigrants, José Olivares (GUARDIAN) reports:
One hunger striker in an immigration detention center was force-fed for almost six months.
One
detained immigrant with mental health problems was about to be
force-fed, until his attorney intervened and stopped the process.
And another hunger striker was almost force-fed, but gave in and broke her hunger strike as coercive procedures loomed.
Now, as ICE detains more
immigrants nationwide, immigrant rights organizations and medical
experts worry more people will be subjected to involuntary medical
procedures.
Among the 10 cases, the Guardian
can exclusively reveal, are an Afghan man who was force-fed for months
in Texas, a Ukrainian man with mental health problems in detention whose
looming force-feeding in Florida was stopped by his attorney, and a
Saudi Arabian woman who ended up in hospital while on hunger strike in
Louisiana and eventually broke her strike in Texas before she was
subjected to the procedure.
ICE
has targeted immigrants -- and those they suspect of being immigrants
-- from the start. Even those immigrants who went through all the hoops
to come into this country have been targeted. Billal Rahman (NEWSWEEK) notes:
A
federal judge has ordered the release of a 20-year-old Tongan man who
was legally admitted to the United States and found that Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents “coerced” him into signing a document
that the government later claimed waived his rights to challenge
deportation.
In a 3-page
order issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Noël Wise of the Northern
District of California ruled that ICE coerced Cornelius Kaihau Holani, a
20-year-old citizen of New Zealand of Tongan ethnicity with no criminal
record or prior immigration enforcement history, into signing a
document after detaining him at Oakland International Airport and
transporting him to an ICE office in San Francisco.
The ruling is a blow to the Trump administration’s deportation system, with the court finding that federal immigration officials likely violated basic due process protections.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Reports raise corruption concerns, question whether administration officials and their families may be exerting improper influence over DoD awards
“Our service members in harm’s way and the taxpayers footing the bill deserve to know that those dollars are being spent through a competitive process, not funneled into the bank accounts of administration cronies.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Representative Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee; Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI); and Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), in writing to the Inspector General of the Department of Defense (DoD), asking for an investigation of recent reports of $3.2 billion in government awards flowing to over a dozen companies with ties to President Trump’s sons.
“We are concerned about a growing cloud of corruption amid questions about whether the President’s family and administration officials may be abusing their positions to influence DoD awards, and the extent to which this is undermining the competitive, apolitical contracting process used to ensure that service members have the best equipment and most effective technologies and weapons systems on the market,” wrote the lawmakers.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are affiliated with two investment companies, 1789 Capital and American Ventures, which have reportedly poured money into at least 15 companies in the defense sector. New reports revealed that, after the Trump-tied firms became involved, these companies received $3.2 billion in federal awards and an additional $3.1 billion in future contract options.
“The potential for corruption is obvious,” wrote the lawmakers.
The lawmakers requested the Inspector General determine which Pentagon awards under the Trump administration have involved companies with ties to the Trump family and other administration officials, and asked for a review of the decision-making process to determine whether DoD officials or outside entities complied with ethical guidelines.
“Your determination of whether any Trump-affiliated company may have obtained financial benefits from DoD contracts or awards is particularly important in light of President Trump’s admission that his children “have inside information” in “almost anything they do” with regard to their investment portfolios,” wrote the lawmakers.
The lawmakers also asked the DoD IG to examine the Pentagon’s existing framework for award-making to determine whether it is sufficient to prevent conflicts of interest, and whether it should be strengthened. Specifically, they requested an evaluation of several proposals in the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) meant to strengthen ethics requirements for Pentagon awards, including a provision that requires a new code of conduct for employees of the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) and other investment arms of the Pentagon.
“Our service members in harm’s way and the taxpayers footing the bill deserve to know that those dollars are being spent through a competitive process, not funneled into the bank accounts of administration cronies,” concluded the lawmakers.
The lawmakers are escalating their oversight as reports of Trump-affiliated entities gaining huge DoD contracts grow, and the administration refuses to address concerns about self-enrichment and influence peddling at the Pentagon.
“[Previous] unsatisfactory response[s] left us with more concerns that OSC is unaware of or willfully ignoring the potential for corruption in the awards process at the expense of U.S. national security,” wrote the lawmakers.
Senator Warren has had longstanding concerns over potential conflicts of interest, revolving door abuse, and national security concerns in DoD’s acquisition process:
- In July 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) grilled Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg and Director of OSC David Lorch on the DoD’s new initiatives to populate a new contracting office with finance, tech, and defense industry insiders — and offering them government paychecks of up to $438,000 annually.
- In July 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg about conflicts of interest in his overseeing Golden Dome contracts going to companies tied to the private equity firm he founded, Cerberus.
- In June 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed DoD on the potential conflicts of interest surrounding lucrative DoD loans and deals following reporting that the White House allegedly intervened to secure an OSC loan to a Trump Jr.-backed company.
- In June 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pushed for a provision in the fiscal year 2027 NDAA prohibiting OSC from making equity investments in companies where the President, Vice President, Cabinet members, other executive officers with a role in investment decisions, and their families hold a stake.
- In March 2026, after DoD failed to provide answers to the vast majority of questions in her January letter, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed DoD and OSC on the processes in place to ensure that DoD contracts and loans are being fairly awarded to companies.
- In January 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised concerns about DoD and OSC handing out loans and contracts to companies with ties to the Trump family.
- In September 2023, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at DoD, reiterating her request for increased transparency from OSC and seeking clarification on how DoD is interpreting ethics restrictions.
- In July 2023, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised concerns that DoD’s OSC hired private sector individuals who appeared to have direct financial conflicts of interest with defense consultants and defense contractors.
- In June 2023, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reintroduced the Department of Defense Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act to strengthen ethics laws in DoD contracts.
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