Robert Faturechi

The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation Federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother, and told to return them, records and interviews show. Experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate.

NEW: The White House intervened on behalf of accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate during a federal investigation.

“It was so offensive to what we’re all here to do, to uphold the law and protect the American people,” one official involved said.

www.propublica.org/article/andr...

Trump Is Accusing Foes With Multiple Mortgages of Fraud. Records Show 3 of His Cabinet Members Have Them. The White House has targeted opponents, including a Fed governor, for having more than one primary residence on their loan papers. ProPublica found that, in one case, a Trump cabinet secretary got two...

New: Trump Is Accusing Foes With Multiple Mortgages of Fraud.

Records Show 3 of His Cabinet Members Have Them.

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

DOGE Targeted Him on Social Media. Then the Taliban Took His Family. Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi, who fled the Taliban in 2021, had worked to help U.S. diplomats understand his homeland. Then DOGE put his family’s lives at risk by exposing his sensitive work for a U...

Horryifying.

DOGE made false allegations against an Afghan man who had helped the U.S.

Then the Taliban captured, blindfolded and beat his family.

www.propublica.org/article/doge...

U.S. AG Pam Bondi Sold More than $1 Million in Trump Media Stock the Day Trump Announced Sweeping Tariffs Disclosure forms show that Bondi sold between $1 million and $5 million worth of shares on April 2. That day, after the market closed, Trump’s “Liberation Day” press conference sent the market tumblin...

Records show Attorney General Pam Bondi sold between $1 and $5 million worth of Trump Media shares on April 2.

That same day, after the market closed, Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs, sending the stock market plunging.

www.propublica.org/article/pam-...

When a participant in the meeting asked him why he wouldn’t more forcefully call out Trump’s false claims about Social Security fraud, Dudek answered, “This is dealing with — have you ever worked with someone who’s manic-depressive?”

Secretive D.C. Influence Project Appears to Be Running a Group House for Right-Wing Lawmakers Evangelical pastor Steve Berger’s political influence campaign operates out of his D.C. townhouse. In addition to House Speaker Mike Johnson living there, a prominent Trump ally, Rep. Andy Ogles, has ...

New:

The evangelical pastor running a secretive influence project appears to be running a group house for lawmakers in D.C.

In addition to Mike Johnson living there, Trump ally Andy Ogles has the keys.

www.propublica.org/article/room...

w/ @josh-kaplan.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social

Ethical Concerns Surround Sen. Joni Ernst’s Relationships With Top Military Officials Who Lobbied Her Committee Ernst, an Iowa Republican, is one of the most influential voices in Congress on military topics. Ethics and military experts say her relationships with top Air Force and Navy officials created potenti...

NEW: Sen. Joni Ernst had relationships with two military officials who lobby her committee, according to sources.

“From an ethics standpoint, it’s severely problematic,” one former legislative affairs official said.

www.propublica.org/article/joni...

Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Expected to Examine Another Treasury System Next Week The new target, sources said, is a sensitive database that tracks the flow of money across the government.

New: DOGE is expected to examine another sensitive system at Treasury next week
www.propublica.org/article/elon...

@propublica.org revealed the details of those tax breaks in 2021

www.propublica.org/article/the-...

SEC's Republican-led commission tightens oversight of probes, sources say Lawyers at the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) have been told they need to seek permission from the politically appointed leadership before formally launching probes, two sources briefed on ...

This is significant:

Lawyers at the SEC have been told they need to seek permission from the politically appointed leadership before formally launching probes.

finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusi...

FCC demands CBS News turn over '60 Minutes' interview amid Trump lawsuit The latest development comes as Paramount Global lawyers engaged in preliminary talks to settle the lawsuit Trump filed in October over his objection to edits to the '60 Minutes' interview with Harris...

Donald Trump sued CBS over its editing of a Kamala Harris interview.

Now Trump's new FCC chairman demanded CBS turn over the full, unedited transcript of the Harris interview, including footage from different camera angles.

www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

NEW: The Trump admin told a US-funded aid group that gives food & medicine to starving children in Sudan to shut down.

Children would die.

They’re defying the order.

But the aid world is in chaos.

Brett Murphy & Anna Barry-Jester:

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Donald Trump Controls a Publicly Traded Company. Now He Will Pick Its Regulator. There have been internal concerns that Trump Media could be misleading investors, a source said. But with its largest shareholder about to be president, experts doubt the SEC is up to the job of inves...

NEW: There have been internal concerns that Trump Media has misled investors about Truth Social's performance, a source said.

But with Donald Trump, $DJT's largest shareholder, about to be president, will the SEC be up to the job of investigating?

www.propublica.org/article/dona...

Help us continue to expose abuses of power.

Bondi was a central player in
@ericliptonnyt.bsky.social's Pulitzer Prize-winning series about state AGs accepting travel/ gifts/campaign $$ from corporate interests trying to avoid scrutiny and get investigations dropped.
nytimes.com/2014/10/29/u...

12/ Trump’s company has defended their actions as proper, and threatened to sue us more than once for our reporting.

Trump Media Outsourced Jobs to Mexico Even as Trump Pushes “America First” On the campaign trail, Donald Trump threatened businesses that send jobs south of the border, while his own company that runs the Truth Social platform outsourced coding jobs to workers in Mexico, out...

11/ Part of the anger from Trump Media’s staff came from management outsourcing jobs to Mexico and elsewhere.

How will the company’s actions square with Trump’s promise to punish companies that outsource abroad during a second term?
www.propublica.org/article/dona...

Top Execs Exit Trump Media Amid Allegations of CEO’s Mismanagement and Retaliation Several people involved with the former president’s company, operator of Truth Social, believe the departures were retaliation following internal complaints about CEO Devin Nunes to the company board.

10/ We revealed that the company is currently in turmoil. An internal whistleblower complaint alleging mismanagement went to the board. A group of executives and high-level employees were forced out - a move viewed internally as retaliation.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...

9/ It was the first known instance of Trump's company dealing directly with a foreign gov't — in this case one eager for a future Trump administration’s help.

Will this impact U.S. foreign policy under a second Trump administration? Will other foreign governments follow suit?

Trump Company CEO’s Unexplained Meeting With Balkans Leader Raises Specter of New Conflict Devin Nunes, the former congressman who runs the company behind Truth Social, traveled to North Macedonia as former President Trump vies to once again shape U.S. foreign policy.

8/ We reported that Trump Media’s CEO, former congressman Devin Nunes held an unexplained business meeting with the prime minister of North Macedonia.

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

7/ A former aide for the lawmaker told us she thought the request from Trump’s company was improper, but the congressman “suggested I needed to deal with it.”
(The congressman’s office denied that Trump's company was given special treatment.)

Exec at Trump Media Jumped the Line for U.S. Visa After Company Lobbied GOP Lawmaker A former aide to Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, said she intervened on the company’s behalf even though she thought it was inappropriate. “It was specifically the congressman that suggested I ...

6/ Will GOP lawmakers and federal agencies feel pressure to grant Trump Media special favors?

We obtained emails that showed Trump Media leaned on a Republican member of the House to help one of its executives jump the line for a foreign visa.

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

5/ He had already successfully used his connections to secure federal $$ during the first Trump admin. Moving into a 2nd term, he’s in an even better position to gain influence.

(Reached by ProPublica, the donor denied he personally played a role in the deal before hanging up)

Trump Media Quietly Enters Deal With a Republican Donor Who Could Benefit From a Second Trump Administration The deal with energy magnate James E. Davison illustrates how Trump’s stake in the Truth Social company, which makes up a majority of his net worth, presents conflicts of interest.

4/ Trump’s company quietly entered into a business deal with a major GOP (and Trump) donor - an energy magnate who has vast lobbying interests.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...

3/ We’ve already found multiple instances of Trump’s for-profit business and his political agenda overlapping in ways ethics experts have been alarmed by:

2/ His stake could create conflicts of interest that eclipse the concerns during his first term about his hotel biz.
Wealthy individuals looking to curry favor can invest driving the share price up, buy ads, enter into vendor contracts with the company, etc.

Now that we’re headed into a second Trump presidency, Truth Social/Trump Media has become incredibly important.

$DJT’s value is in the billions - arguably Trump’s most important asset moving forward.
We have been covering the company in depth. Here’s what we’ve found so far:

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