#oversight
4 entries with this tag
House Democrats Opened an Investigation Into Donald Trump Jr.'s Venture Capital Firm, 1789 Capital — Which Ballooned From a Few Million Dollars to Roughly $3 Billion After He Joined It Just as His Father Retook the White House — Because Its Bets on Startups That Then Won Federal Loans, Contracts, and Favorable Rulings Were Timed, in Rep. Raskin's Words, With "Almost Clairvoyant Accuracy"
In a story first reported by MS NOW, House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin has opened an investigation into Donald Trump Jr. and 1789 Capital, the venture capital firm he joined shortly after his father returned to the White House in January 2025. The question Raskin is pressing is straightforward: has the firm's remarkable success been powered by access to the Trump administration? The numbers are eye-catching. 1789 Capital was reportedly worth only a few million dollars when Trump Jr. came aboard; it is now valued at roughly $3 billion. Raskin's letter points to a run of investments timed with "almost clairvoyant accuracy" — portfolio companies including Vulcan Elements, Anduril, Juul Labs, and Polymarket that subsequently benefited from federal funding, contracts, or regulatory decisions. The starkest example: 1789 took an undisclosed stake in the rare-earth startup Vulcan Elements in 2025 — when it was valued around $200 million — roughly three months before the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan to the company. Two crucial caveats: no wrongdoing has been proven, and 1789's counsel dismisses the allegations as "unsubstantiated talking points" and "repackaging press clippings on congressional letterhead." And because Democrats are in the House minority, Raskin cannot compel a single document or witness — Republicans already blocked a related subpoena in March. This is a demand letter and a preview of the oversight Democrats promise if they win the House in November, not an empowered probe. But the pattern it lays out — the president's son growing a fortune a thousandfold on bets that keep coinciding with his father's government writing checks — is the kind of thing that, in a normal administration, would not need a minority letter to trigger scrutiny.
Trump's Own Justice Department Issued a Memo Declaring He Can Hide His Conversations With Private, Outside Advisers — Billionaires, Fixers, Private Lawyers, Even State Officials — Under "Executive Privilege," Stretching a Doctrine the Supreme Court Already Ruled Isn't Absolute, to Wall Off His Shadow Advisers From Congress Right Before the Midterms
On August 11, 2026, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel published a 21-page opinion, signed by Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, declaring that executive privilege can shield the president's communications with "private advisers" — a category the memo defines to include essentially anyone Trump consults outside the executive branch, "whether they be members of the public, state officials, or employees of other branches of the federal government." It is the first time the Justice Department has explicitly extended executive privilege beyond the president and his immediate White House staff to private citizens. Historically the privilege reached only official advisers, and the Supreme Court held in United States v. Nixon (1974) that it is not absolute and yields in criminal cases. The immediate beneficiary is Boris Epshteyn — the outside Trump adviser and "fixer" whom the American Bar Association subpoenaed, and who coordinated the campaign of pressure that produced nearly $1 billion in pledged free legal work from law firms, and who helped steer the lawyers in Trump's sham IRS-immunity litigation. The memo would let all of that stay hidden. OLC opinions are not binding on courts, but they govern how the executive branch behaves, and this one is transparently timed: issued months before the midterms, it is pre-emptive armor to defeat the wave of congressional investigations the White House expects if Democrats retake the House. It converts a narrow, court-limited doctrine into a blanket secrecy cloak for government-by-crony — a way to keep the public from ever learning which unelected billionaires and operatives are shaping official decisions, and what they said.
Immigration Detention Deaths Hit 20-Year High
32 people died in ICE detention in 2025 — matching the 20-year record and exceeding the entire Biden term (26 deaths in 4 years). ICE now holds 65,000 people. Oversight staff was gutted by 80-96%.
Mass Firing of Inspectors General
Trump fired at least 17 inspectors general in a late-night mass dismissal via two-sentence emails. A federal judge ruled the firings unlawful — Trump had violated statutory requirements to notify Congress 30 days in advance.