"It is never a good idea to send the message, as the political class now does consistently, that there are no democratic means by which the people can restrain their rulers."
Pat Caddell
I'm sickened by this news that my journalistic communications were obtained as part of Jack Smith's egregious misconduct.
Proud to have been one of the only journalists who debunked his agency's role in perpetrating the Russia collusion lie against the American people.
No amount of censorship or spying will prevent @FDRLST from continuing our fearless investigative journalism.
BREAKING: Statement From Sean Davis, CEO and Co-Founder of The Federalist:
Corrupt cop Jack Smith spied on The Federalist and accessed our communications during his lawless anti-Trump witch hunt. We are still working to determine which of our reporters were targeted by Jack Smith and which journalistic communications he and his thugs seized.
The latest facts about Jack Smith’s illegal jihad were released by Sen. Charles Grassley during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Tuesday.
The Federalist’s team of investigative reporters exposed the Russian collusion hoax. We exposed the Kavanaugh hoax. We exposed the Ukraine impeachment hoax. And The Federalist’s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway wrote the definitive account of how Democrats seized control of election infrastructure and destroyed the integrity of American elections in 2020.
For over a decade, The Federalist has fearlessly exposed Deep State corruption and DOJ lies and lawfare. Spying on us was apparently part of Jack Smith’s plot to get revenge against us.
The First Amendment is the bedrock of the American Constitution. A free press is integral to the American republic and our entire way of life. And Jack Smith fed the whole thing through a shredder in his insane and illegal attempt to rig the 2024 elections through lawfare, intimidation, and unconstitutional attacks on free speech and the First Amendment.
As shocking as this news may be to some, I am not surprised to learn of this behavior by Jack Smith and the Biden administration. At the direction of the Biden administration, the federal government illegally censored The Federalist, tried to bankrupt us, and was eventually forced to admit it had zero legal authority to do any of it.
We took these thugs to court and won when we learned of their illegal censorship efforts, and we will explore all legal options going forward to deal with Jack Smith’s lawless and un-American attempts to silence us by spying on us.
Nobody in corporate media said a word in our defense when we were illegally censored. Outlets like CNN and the New York Times, which posture as First Amendment purists, had nothing to say about the Biden administration’s illegal attempts to punish us for our rigorous and accurate journalism.
I have zero doubt that they will be similarly silent today, because they are partisan hacks who supported Jack Smith’s egregious lawfare every step of the way.
Unlike corrupt corporate media, The Federalist will always fearlessly and accurately report the news, even in the face of never-ending Democrat assaults on the First Amendment, free speech, and freedom of the press.
We will never back down, and we will never stop reporting the facts and defending the greatest nation and greatest people on earth. Hillary Clinton couldn’t stop us, Joe Biden couldn’t stop us, and Jack Smith’s corrupt thuggery won’t stop us.
A couple years ago, Mikala Sposito applied for a work ethic scholarship from my foundation. She asked for $2,700.00 to help realize her dream of becoming a welder. (Actually, her first dream was to become an Olympian. As a kid, she excelled at horseback riding, dance, soccer, and track, but not quite at the Olympic level. So, Mikala adjusted her dream and focused on something within her reach. Precisely the kind of commonsense approach to making a living we try to encourage.) Toward that end, Mikala filled out the application, jumped through all the necessary hoops, and signed the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, as all applicants must.
According to our internal ranking system, which is inherently subjective and relative to each batch of new applicants, Mikala scored a 94, and was awarded $2,100.00, or roughly 80% of what she asked for. This is typical of the average percentage awarded to an excellent applicant. As a rule, we almost never award the entire amount requested. We want our recipients to have some skin in the game, and we encourage all applicants to apply for additional scholarship funds elsewhere, which Mikala did. But in this case, if I had it to do over again, I think I’d have awarded Mikala the full $2,700.00. Why? Because this woman is precisely why I award work ethic scholarships in the first place, as recent headlines prove. Headlines all over the country that identify Mikala Sposito as the sole welder to represent Team USA in the upcoming @WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai.
This is a very big deal. The World Skills competition is often referred to as the Olympics of the skilled trades, so it looks like Mikala’s dream is coming true after all. And it seems to me her journey is worth a brief encapsulation. Before she applied for a scholarship from mikeroweWORKS, Mikala demonstrated an affinity for welding in SkillsUSA. As a senior at Dexter High School, she won 1st Place at the SkillsUSA Michigan high school competition and went on to place 14th nationally. Then, as a freshman at Washtenaw Community College, she repeated her success by taking 1st Place in the Michigan college division. She then advanced to nationals, where she finished 8th in the country. That earned her an invitation to the Team USA pre-trials, which whittled the nation's top 16 young welders down to three. At the final USA Weld Trials at the Robotics Technology Park in Huntsville, Alabama, each competitor was evaluated on precision, safety, technical execution, craftsmanship, and multi-process capabilities under extreme time constraints. Mikala Sposito took the Gold, officially becoming the first woman to represent the United States in welding at WorldSkills. Next week, she’ll face off against the absolute best of the best from all over the world.
I should point out that Mikala would prefer it if the press didn’t make a big deal of her gender, and I completely understand. (She’s a welder – not a “weld-her.”) But today, the industry is in desperate need of proof that women can and do excel in the trades. Nationally, just 4.3% of tradespeople are female. At mikeroweWORKS, our female applicants are closer to 20%, but I assure you that percentage could be much higher. Companies are anxious to recruit talented welders of any gender, and women need to understand and believe the opportunities are real. Mikala prove that in spades, and I want to offer her my sincere congratulations, and invite all of you to do the same. Because Mikala Sposito is exactly what our country needs a lot more of. People who understand that talent is never enough to compensate for laziness.
In her application, she wrote, “Hard work beats talent any day of the week, and nobody is going to outwork me. Period.”
She also connected with every point of the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge but said the final tenet resonated with her the most. “Some people choose to be lazy. Some people choose to sleep in. I choose to work my butt off.”
My favorite quote, however, is Mikala’s response to seasoned professionals who see her wield a torch and call her a “natural.”
“I’m not a natural,” she says. Far from it. And none of this came easy. I worked and trained 60-80 hours a week for two years to get here.”
Regardless of what happens in Shanghai, the job offers are already piling up, including the most recent from SpaceX. She hasn’t graduated yet, but the future looks bright, and I for one would not bet against her.
PS. I never do this, but since my name is in the title of the foundation, I suppose I can. Mikala – please accept the additional $600 you requested from mikeroweWORKS two years ago. Shanghai is expensive, and since you’re representing all of us, we’d like to provide you with a little walking around money. The check is in the mail.
Now…go get the gold!