My friend Jamie Raskin is one of the most careful and principled people in Congress. So when he says the director of the FBI may be running a taxpayer funded slush fund, I pay attention.
Here is what he found.
Kash Patel directed more than $1 million in bonus payments to a small circle of agents in his inner circle and on his security detail.
Some were getting nearly $8,000 every two weeks on top of salaries that were already maxed out at the federal ceiling. A number of them collected close to $40,000 over consecutive pay periods.
The payments came so fast that the FBI’s bonus reserve accounts ran dry and some checks bounced.
So who got the money?
Agents on Patel’s so-called "director’s advisory team."
That is the unit created in 2025 and described internally as a payback squad, built to dig up dirt on the law enforcement officials who investigated Trump and his allies.
Raskin has given Patel until June 29 to account for every payment, every recipient, and any internal review of whether this was even legal.
Patel should answer for all of it.
https://t.co/HZPeRJ2Kqg
There is no world in which this is okay.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito did not recuse himself from cases involving Trump’s Treasury Department while his own son was secretly working there as a political appointee and attorney.
His son's employment was hidden so thoroughly that his name appears nowhere on the Treasury Department website, he has no public resume, and his bar listings are outdated.
If Alito had recused himself, the secret would have come out. He didn’t recuse himself.
This is a clear conflict of interest, and the American people deserved to know about it.
The federal recusal standard is clear: a justice must step aside in any case where there is a reasonable basis to question whether he or she can be impartial. A justice ruling on cases involving the department where his son works fails that test. The Treasury Department sits at the center of some of the biggest legal fights of this administration, and challenges to Trump’s $1.776 billion January 6 slush fund could be headed to the Court next.
The Supreme Court is the only court in America with no binding code of conduct. That is completely unacceptable, and it has to change NOW.
Congress controls the Power of the Purse, and therefore the Court’s funding. If the Court will not adopt a binding code of conduct with real recusal review on their own, I support withholding their funding until they do.
https://t.co/FV2Tkpz7Dk
I’m begging @RepThomasMassie to go on the House floor asap & read all of the names in the #EpsteinFiles - you were a hero for survivors - you believed them & fought for them. Your actions were brave & heroic. Now pls blow the whole thing wide open. Thank you.
Pro-Trump media bias remains strong as ever: “Other major media outlets have not only failed to report on the damning timing of Trump’s stock trades, but have failed to mention Trump’s May 14 financial disclosure at all. Media outlets who have ignored the story completely include Business Insider, CBS, CNN, Fox News, NPR, PBS, Politico, and Semafor.”
https://t.co/8wjN1KEGqa
@andy_lion007 Stupid question. He's a comedian and has done nothing wrong. On the other hand, those who he makes fun of are thin skinned whiney babies and need to figure out how to be adults.