Corruption Watch: Fired FBI Agents, Indictments as Revenge, Black Hawk Helicopters in Chicago

Democratic Senators grilled Attorney General Bondi on what she plans to do about “border czar” Tom Homan allegedly accepting a $50,000 bride from undercover agents

More retribution. New York Attorney General Leticia James has sued President Trump dozens of times, including accusing him of defrauding banks by dramatically overstating the value of his real estate holdings. For months, Trump has been threatening to go after James. Yesterday, the Trump administration indicted James, claiming that she committed mortgage fraud. New York Senator Chuck Schumer told The New York Times, “This is what tyranny looks like. This isn’t justice. It’s revenge. And it should horrify every American who believes no one is above the law.”

The FBI belongs to the GOP now. Kash Patel is shutting down an FBI group that investigates public corruption and is firing its agents, according to Axios. Fox News had reported that the FBI agents had investigated several Republican senators, including Senators Josh Hawley and Ron Johnson, and tracked their phone calls while investigating the Jan 6th riots at the Capitol. Patel announced on X that the FBI had fired the officers who’d looked into whether those senators were potentially involved in the riots. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that nearly a quarter of FBI agents are currently assigned to immigration enforcement.

In Chicago: The Trump administration sent a Black Hawk military helicopter to fly over an apartment building. Overnight, roughly 300 military agents then stormed the building, after some of them rappelled from the helicopters. They arrested dozens of people and separated children from their parents. “I’ve been on military bases for a good portion of my life,” Darrell Ballard, a neighbor, told CNN. “And the activity I saw – it was an invasion.” Some of the people who were detained were U.S. citizens. Neighbors told AB7 Chicago that military agents zip-tied people, including children. This comes as the Trump administration has launched an immigration raid operation focused on Chicago, arrested at least 1,000 people there, and has deployed the National Guard. The government is pushing its anti-immigration police state under the guidance of “border czar” Tom Homan, who bathes in corruption.

Democrats push back on Homan’s corruption. During a tense hearing, Democrats, among them Vermont Senator Peter Welch, asked Attorney General Pam Bondi what she’s planning to do about Homan’s alleged corruption, including how he apparently accepted $50,000 in cash from undercover agents. “I do want to go back to Tom Homan. There’s a tape, right, with Mr. Homan? I mean, first of all: is there a tape that has audio and video of the transfer of the $50,000?” Welch asked, according to WCAV3. If you need the morale boost of watching Democrats holding a line, you can see that here.

Then they came for the activists. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced that the state will be running undercover operations investigating leftists, which his office claims are associated with violent terrorists. The Texas Tribune puts the new operation in context: “This comes after The Department of Homeland Security cut $18.5 million in funding and laid off 20% of the staff at The Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, a DHS program aimed at preventing violence and terrorism.” The Tribune also points out that rightwing, not leftwing, violence has been the more prevalent form of domestic terrorism for thirty years.

A greenlight for corrupt politicians. The Federal Election Commission is down another commissioner, meaning it is even further from having the necessary quorum to fulfill its mandate to oversee campaign finance spending, during an era of American politics defined by rampant corruption. Ellen Weintraub, the former FEC chair that Trump fired within days of taking office early this year, told NPR that the FEC “really cannot do its job” given the lack of quorum. “There’s no cop on the beat,” said Weintraub, now a fellow at End Citizens United. “And we will once again see billions of dollars raised and spent in the upcoming elections. And at the moment, there is no cop on the beat to make sure that it’s all being done in a lawful and transparent way.”

The government is still shut down. Democrats aren’t letting Republicans move forward with their plan to make healthcare plans dramatically more expensive for at least 22 million Americans so billionaires can get tax breaks. In case you missed it, read journalist Sarah Jones on how our healthcare system renders people disposable and what we can do about it.

Obstruction upon obstruction. Republicans are blocking Congressmember-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ 7) from being sworn into office. Speaker Mike Johnson claims the government shutdown prevents them from going through the motions of a pro-forma signing- in ceremony. Everyone else notices that Grijalva would be the tie-breaking signature that would mean the release of the Epstein files.

But they can’t take our joy. The one and only Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, will perform at the Super Bowl Halftime Show in February. As longtime organizer Ludovic Blain reminded us last week, “We need to lean into our joy, because without joy, you cannot sustain the struggle. Our joy helps us who we’re fighting for, and the folks that we’re fighting for are ourselves.” So, this weekend, please listen to whatever music sustains you.