Russell Vought raided USAID budgets he helped gut to pay for his own security

NEW: A federal tool meant to find noncitizens on voter rolls is consistently marking citizens as noncitizens, especially if they were born outside the U.S., causing chaos as election clerks try not to disenfranchise voters, @zachdespart.bsky.social and I found. 🧵 www.propublica.org/article/save...

Wow: Meta has been working on plans to add facial recognition technology to its AI smart glasses. nyti.ms/3Os1oxf And this was the company’s cynical view on when, and how, to do it:

SEN. KAINE: “You said American whites are victims of a cultural genocide… are they represented in the senate? House? Presidency? CEO’s?” Trump’s white nationalist pick for a top state department spot Jeremy Carl skewered by @kaine.senate.gov

"Meta, Facebook’s parent company, plans to add the feature to its smart glasses, which it makes with the owner of Ray-Ban and Oakley, as soon as this year, according to four people involved with the plans who were not authorized to speak publicly about confidential discussions."

The Golden Age.

This ad should concern Susan Collins.

🚨In December 2016, Epstein invited Bill Gates to his island and informed him that “new administration people” were visiting. This was sent exactly one month before Trump was inaugurated for his first term.

Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

GIFT LINK: www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

When the Attorney General treats ethics as optional, the damage doesn’t end in a hearing room. It corrodes the rule of law itself. My latest ➡️

NEWS: Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler has RESIGNED after newly released emails exposed a years-long personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein — including advising him on handling sex crime accusations, media scrutiny, and accusers.

Here's Ehud Barack on an Epstein flight from West Palm Beach. ✈️ #doj #epstein #files www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

Incredibly powerful opinion chronicling the awfulness in Whipple and the ways it interfered with the right to counsel. One key part of the ruling (that ICE will likely appeal ASAP); Judge Brasel bars ICE from transferring anyone out of Minnesota within 72 hours of arrest.

BREAKING: The Trump administraiton has committed a mass violation of ICE detainees' constitutional rights in MN, effectively blocking their acess to attorneys in the Whipple building, a judge ruled tonight. The judge: Trump appointeee Nancy Brasel storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Here's a flight record that has Epstein on a plane with Walter Cronkite to the Virgin Islands. #doj #epstein #files 👀 www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

Here's Woody Allen and family on an Epstein plane to Paris. www.justice.gov/epstein/file... ✈️

Here's businessmen Joi Ito & Reid Hoffman on an Epstein flight to the Virgin Islands. #doj #epstein #files @reidhoffman ✈️

👀 👀

Whether this is true or not, we do not know BUT we do know that ODNI continues to block our client's lawful right to brief Congress abt content of whistleblower complaint & surrounding process. That matters. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/u...

FORTUITOUS TIMING: In bid to block Minnesota from obtaining records about immigration enforcement in state, Trump admin lawyers cite Homan announcement this morning that Operation Metro Surge is ending. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26... Earlier: www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

🚨BREAKING: An election-denying former Donald Trump campaign staffer who was subpoenaed by the FBI over his role in the attempt to steal the 2020 election is now taking credit for writing the sweeping voter suppression bill passed by the House Wednesday that could disenfranchise millions.

Trump nominated a legit white nationalist to a top post at the State Department. I asked him some basic questions about his belief in the “erasure of white culture”. Watch this embarrassing, fumbling answer. Like he has never before been asked to explain his views.

Yikes — Epstein showing appreciation for @GovBillLee pal Betsy Devos making it harder to report sexual abuse on campuses

Trump's financial regulators can't even say insider trading is bad. Most corrupt Administration in history.

NEWS: Trump just ousted the top official that protects you from illegal monopolies. Every merger in front of the admin now reeks of double-dealing—Ticketmaster’s stock is already surging. Congress has must unearth what happened and hold Trump accountable.

This shameful abdication—an economic, moral, and political failure—will harm Americans’ health, homes, and economic well-being. It ignores scientific fact and common-sense observations to serve big political donors.

Matthew Moroun, owner of the Ambassador Bridge, met Lutnick. He called Trump. Hours later, Trump threatened to block the Gordie Howe Bridge, fully funded by Canada. US steel and workers built the American side. The Morouns keep at least $60M a year. Canada will split revenue with US, after costs.

This weekend the world's leaders will gather together for the Munich Security Conference. I am calling on them to hold the Epstein Class accountable, including those in their own governments.

If Pam Bondi was a waitress.

"Flint Development is involved in another property deal with ICE, in El Paso... Flint Development recently stripped information about its executive team from its website; those details were available as recently as December, before its dealings with DHS became public..." jacobin.com/2026/02/ware...

here's video of the Keith Ellison smirk that triggered Ron Johnson

Hard to describe the depth of outrage and feeling this story has generated across in Ukraine - remarkable and sad. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/w...

Heraskevych’s choice to forfeit the medal chance instead of give up the memorial helmet is the biggest story in Ukraine today. Everyone is heartbroken but there is a unanimous consensus that this was what had to happen rather than to give up.

In a normal government, this results in the resignation of multiple cabinet officials (Transportation, Defense, and Homeland Security), and the closure or (at least!) radical reorg of the cartoonishly incompetent agency at the center of it: CBP. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/u...

"One thing [Democrats] still don’t do well is play offense—create preemptive lines of attack against Trump and the Republicans that put them on the defensive." Great @mjtoma.bsky.social dive into intra-party debates over tactics and ideology, covering lots of ground: newrepublic.com/article/2058...

I don't talk to anyone this much www.economist.com/interactive/...

With a tone and flourish that suggested he was auditioning for “The Apprentice,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche immediately fired yesterday an interim U.S. attorney who had just been appointed by the federal judges in the Northern District of New York. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Gov. Tim Walz: "They left us with deep damage. Generational trauma. Economic ruin in some cases. The left us with many unanswered questions. Where are our children? Where and what is the process of the investigation into those that were responsible for the deaths of Renee and Alex?"

At 1:15 Keith said "pull up then"

The Dow just dipped below 50k so could someone let Bondi know she should care about child traffickers and rapists now?

BREAKING Judge Boasberg ORDERS the Trump admin to facilitate the return of the more than 100 men spirited out of the country last year without notice or a hearing. Plaintiffs may also submit habeas petitions from abroad, he says. Doc buff.ly/rccakD7

Walz: "The federal government needs to pay for what they broke here. There's going to be accountability on things that happened, but one of them is the incredible and immense cost borne by the people of this state. The federal government needs to be responsible."

House Judiciary Cmte Democrats "Not only has Atty General Bondi failed to bring a single indictment against a single co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. But now Bondi and her team are spying on Members of Congress conducting oversight"

> @alivitali.bsky.social

The U.S. government and Europe provided illegal thermal weapons to Israel that *evaporated* nearly 3,000 Palestinians according to an Al Jazeera investigation. www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

The DOJ appears to have surveilled members of Congress who were looking through unredacted pages in the Epstein files and provided that information to Pam Bondi for her hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

Way-hey! After concerted local pushback, New Jersey company decides not to contract with ICE: "The contract with ICE will not move forward, a Holman spokesperson told Patch. "I have been informed that we declined that particular body of work," the spokesperson said... patch.com/new-jersey/c...