Trevrizent

The DOL Office of the Inspector General (“DOL OIG”) does critical work related to unemployment insurance fraud. To take just one example, during the pandemic, federal and state governments distributed over $888 billion in unemployment benefits to support Americans in crisis. However, my office uncovered that an estimated $191 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits may have been improperly paid—with a substantial portion of that money attributable to fraud.

5. A week before my purported termination at DOL IG, the Wall Street Journal ran an article commending my team and me on the great work we were combatting unemployment insurance fraud. It also mentioned the need to extend the statute of limitations. The article highlighted a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, estimating that $135 billion in funds had been stolen from the unemployment insurance program in a two-year span. Time is Running Out to Recover Up to $135 Billion in Pilfered Jobless Benefits, Wall St. J. (Jan. 16, 2025).

Fired Department of Labor IG Larry Turner found $191B in improper COVID unemployment payments, much of it fraud, and was hunting down $135B more when he was fired.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

John Barrasso Declares Programs Protecting Christian Minorities and Combatting Migration "Wrong" - emptywheel Because John Barrasso has unquestionably parrotted already discredited propaganda, he unwittingly went on Fox News and cheered the shutdown of programs protecting Christian minorities around the world...

"Rather than doing the least due diligence to learn about the damage that Trump’s shutdowns have caused, Barrasso instead went on TV &...cheered the shutdown of programs protecting Christian minorities around the world." @emptywheel.bsky.social www.emptywheel.net/2025/02/17/j...

I wrote in January that "Donald Trump will insist on using the powers of the state to attack his political opponents." It has already begun.
www.democracydocket.com/opinion/ther...

Tom Homan asks “where is that line,” as if it is mysterious or unknowable. It’s not. Tom’s saying it that way because he’s too much of a coward just to say “she should be arrested for telling people their rights.” Also, to be fair, he may be too dim to understand the line.

During my time as Inspector General, I have returned over $40 billion to the U.S. Treasury in fraudulent loans issued under pandemic relief programs, including the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. More broadly, I uncovered over $200 billion in potential fraud within these pandemic relief programs, which could lead to billions more cost savings for the U.S. government. I have also helped pass measures that made it easier for the government to tackle fraud in the future. That vitally important work is ongoing, and my unlawful termination has prevented me from continuing to supervise it during my lawful term of office.

Again, Trump fired SBA Inspector General Mike Ware after he found $200 billion in fraud in Trump's COVID programs and returned $40B to the US Treasury.

Instead, Trump brought in a bunch of fascist boys who know nothing about accounting.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

4 Top Officials Expected to Resign Over Adams’s Cooperation with Trump Four deputy mayors to Eric Adams are planning to leave in coming days after Eric Adams embraced President Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Breaking: Four top NYC officials to resign www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/n...

Republican lawyers and judges are rapidly moving this idea from “off the wall” to “on the wall.” We ignore or dismiss this at our own peril.

I just want to point out that selling a company's real estate, then renting it back to them, is a common tactic of private equity.

Just extraordinarily vile and dangerous bigotry. Shame on Brandon Gill and shame on every Republican who can't bring themselves to condemn this disgusting act.

If the Feds just filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a New York statute ….. well, that’s kind of how you’d want these disputes to work. But because the Trump administration is pathologically insecure Bondi has to dress it up as WE ARE CHARGING LETITIA JAMES

Our New Pandemic: Moral Cowardice It's contagious as hell, and spreading fast; plus, a word on what courage looks like from Alexei Navalny

"Recently, I've been reading the posthumous memoir of Alexei Navalny, the Russian dissident, called, simply, 'Patriot.'" That is indeed a bracing experience. A column by Matt Labash. mattlabash.substack.com/p/our-new-pa...

TaxProf Blog: Leiter: Law Prof Citation Rings Are Scholarly Malpractice Brian Leiter (Chicago; Google Scholar),

This made me wonder about the most cited scholars and the degree to which they cite each other. Just because.

taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog...

As a result of these targeted attacks, the State Departed ordered departure (an evacuation) of staff from Embassy Kinshasa. Given the potential for additional, targeted violence, my family of five - wife, and three children all below the age of 10, were escorted in a convoy at 3:00AM to a staging residence and crossed via boat to Brazzaville, arriving there on January 29. We spent one night in Brazzaville before boarding a charter plane coordinated by the department of state, arriving nearly 24 hours later in DC on Friday, January 31. We were able to flee with only four backpacks - leaving behind our dog, and every household possession we own

A lot of your have read declaration in USAID case from Marcus Doe, which described being evacuated from Kinshasa.

Doc 24-2 here.

www.courtlistener.com/docket/69619...

A bunch of the other declarations are ALSO people who evacuated (including 24-4 a person w/3 under 10 kids who had to leave dog).

this is so fucking embarrassing, man, people got mad about burrito taxis and accidentally elected a guy whose favorite star trek character is boba fett

Always nice when your employee bribes you with $10 million.

2018 tweet by Tulsi Gabbard: Hey @realdonaldtrump: being Saudi Arabia’s bitch is not “America First.”

Wild times we live in.

Tweet via 2018.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: an administration (and its supporters) who believe that they are not limited by the rule of law have no moral or philosophical claim to the protection of the rule of law. “The law is whatever we say it is” warrants the same in response.

The first ever Biden vs. Trump PRICE CHECK! President Donald J. Trump promised he would start to get prices down on day one of his presidency. This is a quick list of some common grocery items.

You’re being conned, America

There is literally HIV being transmitted from mom to baby because of the illegal shutdown of US AID and now Trump’s State Department wants to spend 400 million dollars on Tesla cyber trucks. This is not about efficiency. It’s a smash and grab.

i do not understand what elon and trump would be doing differently if there weren’t themselves actual agents of beijing and moscow

“If the majority wants to vote now without looking into this matter, that’s fine…But if it doesn’t get aired now in the Senate, this question will get aired later in the courts. There is no way the genie of Patel’s candor is going back in the bottle.”

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

Conflict of interest? The State Department’s procurement forecast lists Tesla as the recipient of the largest expected contract, with Marco Rubio’s department planning to purchase $400 million worth of “Armored Tesla” vehicles.

Interesting: the State Department’s procurement forecast detailing a $400 million order for "armored Tesla" has now been edited to "armored electric vehicles." The document shows the edit was made tonight at 9:12 p.m. -- after it was highlighted in reports

charliesykes.substack.com/p/making-ame...

The White House is teeing this all up to go to SCOTUS to overturn a century’s’ worth of precedent and eliminate any due process protections afforded by Congress to Executive Branch officials.

This, exactly.

"Oh, it's just a little thing, we can do that. ... Well, this is a bit worse, but I guess we can go along with that too. .... Huh, this seems a lot but what choice do we have now?"

5 C.F.R. § 2638.305 requires that government employees be trained on the laws governing conflicts of interest.

Trump DOJ confirms they will ask SCOTUS to overrule Humphrey’s Executor rather than defend independent agencies / multi member commissions like the FTC, etc.

(So they’re arguing Trump can fire the boards and commissioners that lead these agencies)