Linda Sun, former deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Sun’s husband, Chris Hu, are facing additional charges in a case that allegesthey acted as agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Sun and Hu were arrested and charged in September 2024 in a case that is part of the Department of Justice’s broader effort to root out communist China’s secret agents, who U.S. officials say are covertly advancing the CCP’s interests and targeting Chinese dissidents on U.S. soil in an effort known as transnational repression.
On Feb. 11, Sun and Hu pleaded not guilty at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court, prosecutors said, adding that the money laundering charge against the two had been amended to include additional legal statutes.
Hu also pleaded not guilty to three additional money laundering counts, according to prosecutors.
A superseding indictment filed on Feb. 4 didn’t provide more details other than saying that Hu’s charges were connected to three separate financial transactions totaling $1.5 million in 2020.
A spokesperson for federal prosecutors declined to comment beyond what was stated in the superseding indictment.
Jarrod Schaeffer, one of Sun’s attorneys, said the revised indictment also does not “remedy critical errors identified in the prior indictment.”
Sun and Hu remain free on bond and are scheduled to return to court on April 23.
Last year, Sun was charged with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy. Hu was charged with money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and misuse of means of identification.
Sun, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, worked for the New York state government under Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for about 15 years. During her political career, she held various posts, including deputy superintendent for intergovernmental affairs, chief diversity officer at the state’s Department of Financial Services, deputy chief diversity officer and director of Asian American Affairs for the state’s Executive Chamber, and director of external affairs for Global NY at Empire State Development.
Prosecutors alleged that Sun engaged in “numerous political activities in the interests of the PRC and the CCP,” such as preventing representatives of Taiwan’s government from having access to high-level state officials and changing the governors’ messaging to remove references to Taiwan and human rights abuses in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang.
In return, Hu received assistance for his various business activities in China, according to prosecutors.
Additionally, prosecutors said the financial arrangement with CCP officials helped Sun and Hu buy a $3.6 million home on Long Island, a $1.9 million condominium in Hawaii, and luxury automobiles, including a 2024 Ferrari.
In November 2024, Sun’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the charges, arguing that their client had been unfairly targeted.
“In the government’s view, Ms. Sun and her family simply have too much and so there must be a nefarious reason,” the filing reads.
“Sputtering about state ethics rules and undisclosed gifts, the government eventually reached the conclusion that when a woman of Chinese heritage allegedly receives unreported gifts from other Chinese individuals, she must be bought and paid for by China.”
Prosecutors, in their written response in December 2024, called the motion to dismiss the charges premature, saying that the initial indictment provides “ample factual details” to support their claims.
Prosecutors dismissed Sun’s argument that the FARA charge should be dismissed.
“Sun argues that unless the Indictment cites verbatim taskings from the PRC government or the CCP, pretrial dismissal of the FARA charges is appropriate. Sun is mistaken,” the filing reads.
“A rational juror could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Sun acted to advance the interests of the PRC government and CCP and that her acts were taken at the behest of one or more foreign principals. Thus, the factual allegations of the Indictment are sufficient to support the government’s charge that Sun acted on behalf of the PRC government or the CCP.”
In his first major speech on the international stage, Vice President JD Vance criticized European leaders for allowing mass migration and extreme laws censoring speech, remarking that he worries more about Europe’s “threats from within” than from external threats like Russia and China.
“While the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine … the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” said Vance.
“What I worry about is the threat from within – the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”
Vice President JD Vance says there is “no room for firewalls” in Munich ahead of German elections where political parties have vowed to not work with AfD even though millions will vote for the anti-immigration party.pic.twitter.com/tJ44bTyaCz
The vice president’s confrontational remarks at the Munich Security Conference apparently surprised many officials who were expecting him to focus his remarks on Ukraine and Russia.
Instead, Vance called them out for embracing authoritarian policies and using “ugly Soviet era words like misinformation and disinformation” to enact laws marginalizing populist voters.
As an example of Europe’s draconian attacks on on free speech, the veep cited a recent egregious case in Great Britain: “A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith Conner, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own,” Vance recounted. “After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son.”
Vance said the man was “found guilty of breaking the government’s new buffer zone law which criminalizes silent prayer and other actions” that could influence a woman’s decision to have an abortion within 200 yards of an abortion clinic. The man ended up having to “pay thousands of pounds to the prosecution” for praying.
In an even more extreme example of government overreach, Vance noted that Scottish officials recently distributed letters to citizens who reside within so-called safe access zones, “warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.”
Vance noted with disgust that the Scottish officials even encouraged citizens to report on anyone guilty of committing “thought crimes.”
“In Britain, and across Europe, I fear free speech is in retreat,” the vice president lamented.
JD Vance warns Europe against censorship during Munich Security Conference
“I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warned citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be ‘hateful content.’
Vance also denounced Romania’s recent cancellation of presidential election results over accusations of Russian disinformation. “If your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with,” he said. “I’d ask my European friends to have some perspective.”
“Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There’s no room for firewalls,” he added.
Vance also touched on pressing issue of mass migration in Europe, which has dramatically changed demographics in European cities and led to increases in both crime and terrorism.
“We know this situation didn’t materialize in a vacuum, it’s the result of a series of conscious decisions made by politicians all over the continent and others across the world over the span of a decade,” he said.
The vice president highlighted the Thursday attack in Munich where an Afghan national drove a car into a crowd, injuring at least 30 people, and yelled “Allahu Akbar” when he was detained.
“We saw the horrors wrought by these decisions yesterday in this very city,” Vance said, offering his condolences to the victims.
“It’s a terrible story but it’s one we’ve heard way too many times in Europe and unfortunately way too many times in the United States, as well, he said. “An asylum seeker, often a young man in his mid twenties, already known to police, rams a car into a crowd and shatters a community.”
“How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take our shared civilization in a new direction?” Vance asked. “No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants,” he added, pointing out that voters in Great Britain did vote for Brexit and have repeatedly voted against “out of control migration.”
According to the Financial Times, “European officials in Munich were horrified at what they saw as Vance’s unfair and untrue claims.”
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius furiously objected to Vance’s characterization of European policies, the far-left paper reported.
“I had a speech I prepared today,” Pistorius said. “It was supposed to be about security in Europe. But I cannot start in the way I originally intended . . . This democracy was called into question by the US vice-president.”
JUST IN: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius starts whining about JD Vance’s speech, says it was “not acceptable.”
Looks like Vance’s speech was a success.
The whining came after Vance ripped European nations for criminalizing free speech and acting like tyrants.
The German defense minister added: “He compares the condition of Europe with what is happening in autocracies. This is not acceptable.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s chief diplomat, characterized Vance’s remarks as “lecturing”.
“I think we can deal with our own domestic issues,” Kallas told the FT.
“It was mad, totally mad,” a senior European diplomat fumed. “And very dangerous.”
Another senior EU diplomat complained that the vice president “lectured us, he humiliated us.”
“Some officials compared the speech with Vladimir Putin’s address at the same event in 2007, where the Russian president warned that Nato expansion risked conflict with Moscow,” FT reported.
“The mood in the room was exactly like the Putin 2007 speech,” the diplomat told FT. “It was outrageous.”
First Photo Of USS Truman Carrier Shows Extensive Damage After Collision With Tanker
How is that two massive ships, one a US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, crash into each other on the open waters of the Mediterranean? That’s what Pentagon investigators will be looking at in the wake of Wednesday’s incident off Egypt.
The USS Harry S. Truman and the Panamanian-flagged merchant vessel Besiktas-M collided at around noon local time on Wednesday. On Friday the first photo emerged of damage to the US carrier, and it looks extensive.
Update: Damage to the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier involved in a collision with a merchant ship off the coast of Egypt less than two weeks after launching airstrikes against ISIS in Somalia https://t.co/hlvoJ1DKn2pic.twitter.com/ZiR219Zek6
The vessels collided near Port Said, but there were no injuries reported on either ship. No injuries or flooding on the aircraft carrier were reported, and its propulsion plants “are unaffected and in a safe and stable condition,” the Navy’s 6th Fleet said.
However, the Truman did clearly sustain severe damage, statements indicated:
The Truman was approaching the Suez Canal to go from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, a Navy official told CBS News. There’s no assessment at this time which vessel was at fault, the official said.
The Truman sustained some damage above the waterline, the official said. It wasn’t clear if it will be going in for repairs. The ship remained in the Mediterranean.
Naval News provides some new details Friday as follows, based also on analysis of the photograph:
The incident occurred at 11:46 p.m. local time on February 12th near Port Said, Egypt, at the northern end of the Suez Canal. The bulk of visible damage occurred on the starboard side aft of elevator 3, damaging the underside of a sponson with a .50 caliber machine gun.
The aircraft elevator adjacent to the damaged portion appears undamaged. According to the U.S. Navy, the incident did not cause any flooding or injuries onboard the Truman.
Location of the damage:
The carrier deployed to the Mediterranean and Mideast region starting in September and has reportedly been conducting ‘counter-ISIS’ missions, including Trump-ordered strikes on Somalia on Feb.1st. As of late last week it was in a Greek port.
By all accounts this is pretty embarrassing for the US Navy, also given that the merchant bulk carrier is a huge ship. Again, how does this happen?
Elon Musk reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spent $59 million last week alone – all on immigrants in New York City. Part of that was for housing, including luxury properties like The Row and The Watson, meant for tourists headed to see the marquees of Broadway. (Later the feds clawed back $80M from the city).
Open the Books previously reported that FEMA had an enormous $8 billion shortfall in its Disaster Relief Fund following the catastrophic damage of Hurricane Helene.
Well, FEMA is not the only agency that’s been spending gobs of taxpayer dollars on the immigration crisis. Programs span various agencies.
Included is the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), housed inside the Department of Health and Human Services subagency called the Administration for Children and Families.
ORR has spent over $22.6 BILLION since 2020 on grants to nonprofits providing everything from help accessing Medicaid to help building credit, help with home and auto loans, and cash assistance. Yes, cold hard cash!
WHAT IS ORR?
While Department of Homeland Security is often thought of as the main agency in charge of migration policy and spending in the United States, ORR spends tens of billions a year setting up refugees in the United States. Programmatic activities had a focus on, but were not exclusive to, unaccompanied children.
As Open the Books previously reported, one ORR program helped participants save for car and home purchases, another gave out business and personal loans to help them build credit. Another program helped with “legal assistance,” “cultural orientation,” and “emergency housing support.”
These acted as giant magnets for those seeking to cross the border and claim asylum.
As spending from ORR exploded, Open the Books also identified instances where the agency was expanding the scope of criteria for individuals eligible for its funding. For example, in its 2023 Congressional Budget Justification, the agency suggested the following changes to expand its mandate:
Advocating that “Special Immigrant Juvenile Minors” within the “Unaccompanied Refugee Minor” (URM) program access the same benefits as refugees, which include access to Medicaid and the same foster care services as American children.
Expanding legal assistance to Ukrainian and Afghan children and other URM-designated youth to legal assistance ensuring permanent residency.
Giving cash assistance to full-time college or technical school student refugees.
Removing the need for refugees to obtain economic self-sufficiency “as quickly as possible.”
Total amount of new grants awarded by ORR, from FY 2020-2024
ORR came under increased scrutiny in 2023 after the New York Times reported 85,000 unaccompanied children lost after being sent to agency-approved “sponsors.” Then-ORR Director Robin Dunn Marcos said in a related Congressional hearing that she did not believe the vetting system was inadequate and would not affirm if the 85,000 figure is accurate.
Tom Homan, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the first Trump administration, and now President Trump’s “Border Czar,” estimates the number of missing unaccompanied children to be around 300,000. One of his mandates is finding these children and ensuring their safety.
CLOSE TIES WITH TOP GRANTEE
Notably, two of ORR’s top grantees were also the former employers of Dunn Marcos: The International Rescue Committee (IRC), where Dunn Marcos spent 23 years, including eight as Senior Director for Resettlement, Asylum, and Integration; and Church World Service, where she spent four years.
Given the astounding increase in funding both nonprofits received from ORR, Open the Books asked the agency if Dunn Marcos was involved in decisions regarding her former employers, particularly IRC.
We were told by an ACF spokesperson: “Consistent with the Ethics Pledge, Robin Dunn Marcos is recused from participating in particular matters involving specific parties in which IRC is or represents a party. That recusal obligation lasts for two years from her date of appointment, which was September 11, 2022.”
IRC was awarded grants worth $598 million since 2020, over half of which ($336,915,216) came between 2023 and 2024. $112 million of it was discretionary grants, making IRC the top awardee during that period.
Church World Services was awarded grants worth $355 million in that same time since 2020.
SIDENOTE: In 2023, IRC received funding for the first time from ORR’s Unaccompanied Children program: $13,005,424 for “home studies and post-release services”
But even before then, the nonprofit worked in some capacity with unaccompanied children.
According to one article “IRC Los Angeles…[provides] assistance with school enrollment, acquiring state medical insurance, and obtaining pro bono legal services from local partner organizations.”
As spending at ORR swelled to new heights, IRC benefitted handsomely. The organization received over $235 million in spending in FY 2023 compared to $22 million in FY 2021.
FAILURE OF TRANSPARENCY
While it would be nice if taxpayers could take ORR at their word that Dunn Marcos was recused, Open the Books filed a Freedom of Information Act request for any emails she exchanged with anyone working IRC. This request was made in May 2023. We still have not received a response.
According to the most recently available FOIA Report from HHS (2023), ORR’s parent agency, the Administration for Children and Families, has a median wait time of 1,065 days for pending simple requests. For comparison, the Centers for Disease Control wait time is 22 days. Both agencies have roughly the same number of full-time FOIA staff (ACF has 21 compared to CDC’s 25). At the end of the 2023 fiscal year, ACF had 913 backlogged requests compared to CDC’s 186.
We reached out to ACF as to why this agency has unique issues filling FOIA requests, and what reforms could make it more effective. We did not receive a response.
LEADERSHIP CHANGE
As of February 2025, it may be little surprise that Robin Dunn Marcos’ email now returns an automated response indicating she is no longer at the agency. Colleagues are instructed to contact Marcela Ruiz, the ORR “Principal Deputy Director.” Ruiz did respond to an email but indicated questions should be directed to the ACF media team.
Very little can be learned about Ruiz from the ACF and ORR websites, but her posture towards her work can be approximated by her background. Ruiz’s previous work is in immigration policy and advocacy; before joining ORR in March 2024, she was Director of the Office of Equity at California’s Department of Social Services. In one of her presentations from 2021 she advocates for “implicit bias training,” a “racial equity working group,” and “listening sessions and affinity groups” for her department. Yes, this is more of the DEI worldview that has taken root in every nook and cranny of government over the past decade.
News reports indicate veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Mellissa Harper has been tapped to lead the Office of Refugee Resettlement, on detail from her position at ICE. Reports indicate Harper may be the first director of ORR to come from ICE. It is unclear if Ruiz is still serving as the ORR director’s deputy.
We reached out to the ACF media team with questions about Ruiz’s current work and have not received a response.
CONCLUSION
While Dunn Marcos may have disappeared from ORR, our questions remain over whether certain nonprofit organizations received special treatment amid the billions in grants furnished by the government office. What’s clear is that ORR has funded a constellation of NGO’s deployed in border states and nationwide, who give out aid designed to attract even more migrants.
Like FEMA, DOGE ought to take an exhaustive look at the Office of Refugee Resettlement and determine what is life-saving aid, and what funding simply prolongs the border crisis by attracting more migrants.
And like too many agencies across the federal government, ORR’s parent agency needs to live up to the transparency moment and give taxpayers answers – way sooner than a thousand days.
Chicago Mayor’s “Gift Room” Stocked With Jewelry, AirPods, Designer Handbags, And Luxury Shoes
Chicago released a video of its “gift room” and announced new protocols for receiving gifts after a watchdog group accused Mayor Brandon Johnson of improperly accepting and failing to report valuable items.
Mayor Brandon Johnson dismissed the watchdog’s findings as a “mischaracterization”, insisting he never personally benefited from any gifts. The move aims to increase transparency following an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), according to Fox News.
Unreported gifts allegedly included jewelry, alcohol, AirPods, designer handbags, and size 14 men’s shoes, raising ethical concerns. Under new protocols effective Tuesday, officials must report gifts within 10 days, store them in a publicly viewable area, and donate excess items.
The Fox News report says that on Wednesday, the city released its first video log, showing artwork, clothing, hats, and shoes, aiming to counter OIG claims that Mayor Johnson previously denied investigators access to the gift room during a November inspection.
“A written log contains 18 pages of items, along with their location and the organization that donated the gifts,” Fox reported.
A statement from the Mayor’s office said: “These procedures reaffirm the Mayor’s commitment to ethical governance and transparency and ensure prompt disclosure of all gifts received on behalf of the City.”
The OIG report documented luxury items received between Feb. 2, 2022, and March 20, 2024, including Hugo Boss cuff links, a personalized Montblanc pen, a U.S. National Soccer Team jersey, a Gucci tote bag, a Kate Spade purse, and Carrucci size 14 shoes.
All of which are totally necessary to be a Mayor…
Meanwhile some items appeared in the Feb. 11 video log, but the tote bag, purse, and shoes were missing from the online log as of Wednesday. Other gifts, such as the cuff links and pen, lacked donor details.
Inspector General Deborah Witzburg criticized the 22-second video, calling it insufficient for transparency and presenting “practical challenges.”
“There are some things visible in the video which are maybe recognizable, but I don’t know that anybody is in a position to look at that video and find the pair of Hugo Boss cuff links or the personalized Montblanc pen,” Witzburg told Fox News Digital. “I don’t know that it lends itself to that. I’m not sure whether it’s intended to.”
She emphasized that the video does not replace public access and voiced concerns that even recently logged gifts lack information about their donors.
Democrats have cast the Trump administration’s ouster of eight senior FBI leaders as a “purge” and act of “retribution” from a weaponized Justice Department, some likening it to President Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre.”
But former colleagues of the terminated “G-men” say this narrative is backward. FBI officials, past and present, have marshaled significant evidence via whistleblower complaints and testimony indicating that several terminated leaders routinely used their offices for partisan purposes.
These include allegations that at least two of the fired officials, Jeffrey Veltri and Dena Perkins, manipulated the security clearance review process to personally and professionally punish conservatives, COVID-19 vaccine skeptics, and Jan. 6 whistleblowers who reported suspected bureau malfeasance, and retaliated against those who came to the whistleblowers’ defense.
A third, Timothy Dunham, is also alleged to have improperly suspended security clearances.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) read numerous accounts of alleged misconduct perpetrated by these and other officials into the record this morning as the committee considered the nomination of Kash Patel for FBI Director.
One subordinate of the three terminated individuals, a former supervisory special agent in the Security Division, “SecD,” from which Veltri and Perkins hailed, and whom Dunham oversaw, told the committee:
I witnessed abuses committed against multiple employees by FBI senior leaders, particularly by Jeff Veltri and Dena Perkins. I also saw SecD retaliate against five of its own employees for protesting these unlawful practices. Because I spoke out against these abuses, Perkins and Timothy Dunham suspended my security clearance, costing me my job and continuing employment, totaling approximately $700,000 in lost wages and retirement benefits.
Another former FBI official, Marcus Allen, told the committee that Veltri and Perkins “caused the suspension of my security clearance because I questioned whether the FBI Director was truthful to Congress and whether the FBI was obeying the law and Constitution in the January 6, 2021 investigations.” What followed left “financial and emotional damage to me and my family will never be completely restored.”
A third, Special Agent Garret O’Boyle, who has been indefinitely suspended without pay for well over two years in alleged retaliation for whistleblowing, told the committee that Veltri, Perkins, Dunham, “and other leadership up to Christopher Wray, are responsible for what happened to me and my family.”
“Ensuring that they no longer work at the FBI is not retribution; it’s responsible leadership.”
Patel has been nominated to replace Wray, who came under fire from Republicans who believed the bureau targeted Trump supporters, parents, pro-life activists, and others. The Republican allegations informed President Trump’s first-day executive order, “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” and his Jan. 31 directive terminating eight high-level figures – including those overseeing branches from counterterrorism to criminal investigations and the heads of the bureau’s Miami and Washington field offices. The memo also called for a review of the work of all FBI personnel pertaining to Jan. 6, numbering 5,000 in all, for misconduct.
While no findings have been issued regarding that larger probe, the Jan. 31 memo, drafted by Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Emil Bove, suggests a legitimate rationale for terminating the FBI leaders. It notes that the bureau and they themselves were complicit in malfeasance pertaining to the Jan. 6 investigation, the weaponization of security clearances, and resisting Justice Department directives. Consequently, Bove wrote, the DOJ did not trust them “to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.”
The Justice Department did not respond to RealClearInvestigations’ inquiries in connection with this story, and RCI was unable to reach Veltri, Perkins, Dunham, or the five other terminated officials.
Democrats have assailed the firings.A letter signed by all 10 Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats stated, “Our alarm has only grown in the past two weeks as this purge of experienced career prosecutors and agents has expanded … We can only assume these decisions are intended to prevent the Department from investigating national security and public corruption, while also serving as political retribution against the President’s perceived enemies and stoking fear among the dedicated and talented workforce in our nation’s premier law enforcement agency.”
Sen. Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, added: “These are people who have served our country, protected Americans and put criminals behind bars. Now they have been pushed out simply for doing their jobs.”
A central complaint of the whistleblowers is that, consistent with the Bove memo, FBI officials weaponized security clearances. Specifically, they allege that the bureau’s Security Division has baselessly suspended and/or revoked security clearances in retaliation against those who have made protected disclosures. As maintaining a security clearance is an essential condition of employment, the suspension of one’s clearance typically triggers an indefinite employment suspension without pay. The suspended are also barred from seeking outside employment or accepting gifts. The associated probes can last months and even years, with the targeted waiting first for their cases to be fully investigated and adjudicated, and then sometimes waiting still longer during an appeals process.
The process can be so onerous that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has noted that it can be leveraged to encourage disfavored employees to resign rather than fight a lengthy and costly battle.
While the FBI has denied claims that the Security Division has abused this power in recent years, Horowitz detailed misconduct in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last September. His team had seen evidence indicating that the division had used the investigation and adjudication process to punish whistleblowers.
One whose case Horowitz highlighted involved Marcus Allen, a decorated Marine Corps veteran and award-winning FBI Staff Operations Specialist. Veltri and Perkins allegedly played an integral role in targeting him.
Allen’s duties included supporting the Charlotte, N.C. field office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in ongoing investigations and intelligence requests pertaining to Jan. 6. This included gathering and sharing relevant open-source information. In September 2021, Allen reported to his supervisors that various news outlets, including RealClearInvestigations, RealClearPolitics, and the New York Times, had reported that confidential FBI informants were present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and a “significant counter-story” had formed.
Allen told his colleagues, “There is a good possibility the DC elements of our organization are not being forthright about the events of the day or the influence of government assets.” Minutes later, he forwarded his colleagues an email with a link to a video contrasting the Times’ report with then-FBI Director Wray’s testimony in March 2021 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggesting Wray may not have provided the whole truth about the FBI’s links to Jan. 6.
Suspended Without Pay 27 Months
This would set off a chain of events that would leave Allen suspended and without pay for 27 months – forced, along with his wife, to take early withdrawals from their retirement accounts to make ends meet.
Charlotte field office personnel forwarded Allen’s emails to the FBI’s Office of General Counsel, which passed them to Veltri – then-head of the Security Division section responsible for all personnel investigations.
Rather than first passing concerns to the division’s referral evaluation unit, as is customary, Veltri instigated an immediate investigation on the grounds of Allen’s potential lack of allegiance to the U.S. A successor would call this an “abortion of the process.”
Days later, Veltri received an email from the Charlotte field office, which expressed “added concerns” regarding Allen. Delivered on behalf of that office’s head, then-Special Agent in Charge Robert Wells, one of the eight FBI officials the Trump administration would terminate, it noted that Allen was one of two employees not to attest to his COVID-19 vaccination status, even though President Biden had made vaccination mandatory for all federal employees.
Veltri’s then-Assistant Section Chief Perkins used the email as justification to instruct the FBI’s Insider Threat Office to open an assessment into Allen.
That office would review Allen’s communications and conclude he harbored “hostile views towards the FBI and current administration.” To justify this characterization, it stated that Allen had sent “links from questionable sources,” including RealClearPolitics. It surmised Allen was trafficking in “extremist propaganda” and that he “may pose an insider threat to the FBI.”
Yet a subsequent probe of Allen’s communications by the FBI would find “no information validating” the basis for an investigation into Allen. Interviews with four Charlotte field office officials indicated they lacked evidence that he was disloyal, sympathized with Jan. 6 rioters, or was otherwise ill-equipped to handle his duties.
Despite the misgivings of the investigator and his supervisors on the case, IG Horowitz found that security division management – which included Veltri and Perkins – insisted that Allen’s security clearance be suspended pending investigation.
A January 2022 memorandum did just that, claiming on the basis of his emails and refusal to comply with the vaccine mandate that Allen “promoted unreliable information which indicates support for the events of January 6th” and “espoused conspiratorial views.”
According to the D.C.-based watchdog group that helped represent Allen, Empower Oversight, the agent was in limbo for 27 months while his case was investigated, adjudicated, and appealed.
When interviewed by the security division in connection with his case – some four months after his clearance and pay had been suspended – Allen, a self-described “faithful Catholic,” indicated that “the Holy Spirit compelled him” to make the disclosure that would land him in hot water.
Veltri would allegedly deride Allen for that remark, suggesting, according to another division official represented by Empower Oversight, that he “was delusional for referring to his religious belief … for disclosing wrongdoing.”
Even though, as his counsel has detailed, all line-level employees who reviewed the Allen case believed he should retain his clearance, the bureau revoked his clearance under pressure from management, purportedly including Veltri.
Three individuals within the division responsible for processing Allen’s case would be reassigned in retaliation for disclosing misconduct in the division’s targeting of him.
It was not until May 2024 – after Horowitz’s office had initiated a reprisal investigation – that Allen reached a settlement with the Justice Department, agreeing to resign in exchange for full back pay and reinstatement of his security clearance.
Horowitz’s office would issue a May 2024 memorandum providing employees claiming reprisal additional means to defend themselves against indefinite unpaid suspension in light of Allen’s tribulations.
The Case of Garret O’Boyle
In emotional testimony before Congress last fall, Allen lamented that Special Agent Garret O’Boyle was being subjected to a similarly tortuous process.
O’Boyle, a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, alleges that he was targeted by Perkins on baseless grounds – and has been suspended without pay for nearly two-and-a-half years.
Empower Oversight, which also serves as his counsel alongside several Security Division whistleblowers, has detailed that in late 2021 and early 2022, O’Boyle began making a series of protected disclosures, first internally regarding FBI COVID-19 policies that he believed were unconstitutional and unlawful, and then to Congress concerning the politicization of the FBI.
Among the congressional disclosures was his view that the bureau may have opened a politically motivated criminal investigation into conservative muckraker Project Veritas – about which the Justice Department had made false claims in court.
In May 2022, Project Veritas published an interview with a masked FBI official making similar claims.
After applying for and being accepted to a new assignment with a start date of September 2022, in August, O’Boyle sold his Kansas home and prepared to move to Virginia with his three children and his wife, who was eight months pregnant. On the first day, upon arriving at his new post, O’Boyle was accused of leaking information to the press and had his security clearance suspended. He and his family were effectively rendered homeless, since he had not closed on his new home, and was left without an income.
The Security Division investigator on O’Boyle’s case had previously told the then-Acting Section Chief Perkins that there was no evidence O’Boyle had leaked anything to the media. Rather, he had disclosed to his superiors that he believed O’Boyle may have made protected disclosures to Congress. Yet, as Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt told the House Judiciary Committee last fall, Perkins “responded that she had already briefed the FBI’s 7th floor that SA O’Boyle was a media leaker, and did not want to correct this misunderstanding.”
Evidence suggests that Veltri and Perkins discussed O’Boyle’s transfer in advance of his move, with whistleblowers inferring that a scheme was hatched to ensnare him.
Shortly after the suspension, Veltri would be made head of the FBI’s Miami field office, its fifth-largest. He would lead the investigation into the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. At the time, earlier reports resurfaced that Veltri had demonstrated an anti-Trump bias, claims the FBI batted down.
The bureau revoked O’Boyle’s security clearance in July 2024 after it became aware he had made protected disclosures to the DOJ inspector general and in advance of coming hearings where O’Boyle’s plight was likely to be exposed.
That month, O’Boyle’s legal team, which also includes the American Center for Law & Justice and Binnall Law Group, filed a “request for reconsideration” of the revocation. That entitles O’Boyle to review the evidence used to justify the revocation. O’Boyle’s team did not receive such information until six months later, on Jan. 30, 2025. The receipt of that information triggers a 30-day period with which to prepare and submit his appeal.
“The crazy Kafkaesque system puts deadlines on the employee, but the FBI has an infinity whenever it wants – zero deadlines on its responses,” Jason Foster, Empower Oversight’s Founder and Chairman, told RCI.
Perkins reportedly pushed an unnamed adjudicator who had recommended ending O’Boyle’s suspension out of his job .
According to this adjudicator’s disclosure to Congress, “Perkins has moved several other employees who report to her for recommending decisions contrary to her interests [and] bases many of her decisions on favoritism.”
She “is considered corrupt and dishonest by FBI employees,” he said.
These claims dovetail with those of a former supervisory special agent at the Security Division — the supervisor whose testimony Chairman Grassley read into the record this morning. The agent, a Democrat, is also represented by Empower Oversight.
In a July 2024 letter summarizing some of the unnamed whistleblower’s claims, Leavitt said his client had observed that:
The outcomes of clearance investigations and adjudications were often pre-determined by the Division’s acting Deputy Assistant Director [Veltri] and the acting Section Chief [Perkins] responsible for security clearance investigations and adjudications, who often overruled line staff and even dictated the wording of documents in the clearance process.
In a related letter to Horowitz and the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the FBI official of nearly 20 years disclosed, through Empower, that during his time as a Security Division investigator under the leadership of Veltri and Perkins, it was common for investigators to ask “whether employees under investigation had vocalized support for former President Donald Trump or whether they had vocalized objection to the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Veltri and Perkins allegedly would “ask in staff meetings whether employees whose clearances were under investigation had received the vaccine.”
The supervisory special agent asserted that the duo’s perspective “was that if an FBI employee fit a certain profile as a political conservative, they were viewed as security concerns and unworthy to work at the FBI.”
In April 2022, investigators overseen by Veltri and Perkins issued a questionnaire reflecting this view in connecting with a probe of a 12-year FBI veteran whose security clearance had been suspended one month prior.
Under penalty of potential disciplinary action, investigators asked co-workers of the suspended employee whether he had vocalized “support for President Trump,” “objection to COVID-19 vaccination,” or “intent to attend 01/06/2021” – a reference to the Capitol riot.
The suspension came some 15 months after the agent had self-reported, following the events of Jan. 6, that while on personal leave, he had peacefully observed activities among crowds near the Capitol. After making disclosures to Congress regarding alleged politicization and security clearance process abuses in his case and others, he would have his security clearance revoked. After appealing, with the process dragging on, the agent retired.
As for the longtime supervisory special agent who had reported on Veltri and Perkins’ misconduct, he too had his security clearance suspended. Foster told RCI that the individual who signed off on the agent’s suspension was Timothy Dunham.
Another unnamed Empower client, Foster told RCI, claims that Dunham threatened to suspend the individual’s security clearance as a means of retaliation and delayed reinstating the security clearance of another employee for over a year.
Dunham served as the executive assistant director of the FBI’s human resources branch – under which the Security Division sits – from the summer of 2023 until his termination, pursuant to the Bove memorandum.
These terminations may be only the beginning of efforts to remedy alleged malfeasance pertaining to whistleblowers. Attorney General Pam Bondi, in establishing the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group shortly after her confirmation, indicated that one of its focuses will be examining “the retaliatory targeting, and in some instances criminal prosecution, of legitimate whistleblowers.”
Musk’s xAI Reportedly In Talks For $10B Raise At $75B Valuation As Grok 3 Launch Nears
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is reportedly seeking to raise more than $10 billion in new funding, which would value the startup at $75 billion. The latest fundraising round comes amid reports that Dell is finalizing a major deal with xAI to supply advanced AI servers. Additionally, earlier this week, Musk and a group of investors made an offer to acquire Microsoft-backed OpenAI.
Bloomberg cited folks familiar with the fundraising talks and noted that Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Valor Equity Partners will be existing investors in the deal. They said that xAI is canvassing potential investors, adding that the terms of the new funding round have yet to be finalized and could still change.
Data compiled by PitchBook shows that xAI has raised billions at a breakneck pace, with its most recent valuation at $51 billion. More recently, The New York Post reported that the AI startup could be valued at upwards of $75 billion. The company secured $6 billion in funding during a Series C round in December, following another $6 billion raise in May.
The Series C round included Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity Investments, BlackRock, Kingdom Holdings, Lightspeed Venture Partners, MGX, Morgan Stanley, Oman Investment Authority, the Qatar Investment Authority, Sequoia, Valor, and Vy Capital, among others.
Earlier Friday, Bloomberg reported that xAI was preparing to lock in a deal with Dell for $5 billion worth of Nvidia GB200 AI servers to power its chatbot Grok and other AI services. Much of xAI’s computing is located at the 271-acre site in southwest Memphis, which the startup considers the world’s largest supercomputer.
On Monday, Musk and a group of investors made a $97.4 billion offer to purchase the nonprofit that controls OpenAI.
Sources familiar with discussions surrounding xAI’s latest fundraising round did not specify how the funds would be allocated.
Separately, Musk’s X recently wrapped up a sale of debt that had “upsized” demand from large, high-yield fund managers. Musk indicated that the social media platform’s multi-year advertising boycott by corrupt Deep State-controlled NGOs has wound down.
“Revenue should improve rapidly this year, as the advertising boycott winds down,” Musk wrote on X last week.
Talks of a potential fundraising round at xAI come as Musk revealed at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Thursday that “Grok 3 has very powerful reasoning capabilities, so in the tests that we’ve done thus far, Grok 3 is outperforming anything that’s been released that we’re aware of, so that’s a good sign,” adding that the new chatbot would be released in a week or two.
Per NYT:
The sky is the limit for xAI’s valuation if Musk streamlines the government with AI.
Orange futures in New York are on track for the sharpest weekly drop in 57 years. Over the past several weeks, the market has been engulfed in a downright panic, with prices sliding for ten consecutive sessions. The catalyst behind the sharp selloff remains unclear.
By Friday afternoon, the weekly percentage change for orange juice futures in New York was 22.5%, marking the worst weekly decline since the first week of November 1968.
The futures spread between the March and May orange juice contracts has shifted from backwardation to contango, signaling a drastic change in market dynamics and potential easing of near-term supply constraints.
No single factor is driving the sharp decline in orange juice contracts – that we can see. There’s no word on whether drivers include improved weather conditions in Florida and Brazil or a liquidity crunch forced long positions to unwind in panic. Whatever the catalyst, the selloff was swift and severe.
The OJ crash brings to mind the movie “Trading Places,” starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, in which the duo profits from a collapse in frozen concentrated orange juice futures contracts.
The iconic line from the movie: “Sell, Mortimer! Sell!”
Taiwan Semi Weighs Buying Controlling Stake In Intel’s Factories
Earlier today we noted that one-time chip giant Intel, which has devolved to a shadow of its former self after years of catastrophic management decisions which cost former CEO Pat Gelsinger his job, just had its best week in history…
… after VP Vance, speaking at an AI summit in Paris on Tuesday, noted the Trump administration would boost domestic chip production. Momentum continued on Wednesday after a report from Robert W. Baird analysts suggested that the Trump team is working to broker a joint venture between Intel and TSMC, one which would focus on something we said last August has excess value at the Intel enterprise, namely its fabs.
Intel has 15 fabs; the fabs alone are worth $10bn/each in liquidation value.
Then moments ago, Bloomberg confirmed just that when it reported that Taiwan’s chip giant, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, or TSMC, is considering taking a controlling stake in Intel Corp.’s factories to increase US chip production, at the request of Trump administration officials as the president looks to boost American manufacturing and maintain US leadership in critical technologies.
Trump’s team raised the idea of a deal between the two companies in recent meetings with officials from the Taiwanese chipmaker, a source told Bloomberg, and TSMC was receptive. It’s unclear whether Intel is open to a transaction, although at the right price, it will be.
Bloomberg notes that the talks are in very early stages, and the exact structure of a potential partnership hasn’t been established, although – again – with the stock plumbing the lowest level in decades, even a modest takeout premium would likely be considered by the board.
The intended result of the deal would see the world’s largest made-to-order chipmaker fully operating Intel’s US semiconductor factories. It also would address concerns about Intel’s deteriorating financial state, which has forced the company to slash jobs and curb its global expansion plans.
In short, this would be a takeover, although the deal remains fluid. The arrangement may involve having major American chip designers take equity stakes, according to the person, along with support from the US government. That means the venture wouldn’t solely be owned by a foreign company. TSMC is the go-to chipmaker for Apple, Nvidia and other companies developing semiconductors that power AI algorithms.
Under former CEO Pat Gelsinger, Intel embarked on an ambitious and expensive plan to restore its chipmaking lead, and the company won $7.9 billion in US government funding to support projects in four states. It’s also secured $3 billion to produce chips for the US military, all of which will be paid out over time as Intel’s plants hit key milestones. The company has received $2.2 billion as of January.
But that effort has so far failed to attract enough outside customers to make the investments worthwhile, particularly at a new site in Ohio. Intel’s own products also are losing market share, adding to the overall squeeze on its finances — just when it needs spend heavily. Gelsinger was forced out in December after the board lost confidence in his turnaround plans.
* * *
Intel shares are on track for their strongest weekly gain on record, based on Bloomberg trading data dating back to 1982. Investor enthusiasm surged after Vice President JD Vance, speaking at an AI summit in Paris on Tuesday, noted the Trump administration would boost domestic chip production. Momentum continued on Wednesday after a report from Robert W. Baird analysts suggested that the Trump team is working to broker a joint venture between Intel and TSMC.
On Tuesday, at the AI summit in Paris, VP Vance told the audience: “The Trump administration will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the U.S. with American-designed and manufactured chips.”
One day later, that was followed by a note via Robert W. Baird analysts claiming that the Trump team was pushing Intel and TSMC to form a joint chip production venture.
“There are discussions from the Asia supply chain that the U.S. government will get involved in potentially the following: TSMC would send engineers to Intel’s 3nm/2nm fab, applying the company’s know-how to ensure that the fab and subsequent manufacturing projects from Intel become viable,” Baird’s Tristan Gerra told clients.
Gerra said, “The fab could be spun off into a new entity jointly owned by TSMC and Intel, and run by TSMC. The new entity would receive U.S. Chip Act funding.”
“While there is no confirmation and potential completion of this project could be lengthy, we think this move makes sense,” she noted.
On a separate note, Goldman’s Bruce Lu, Toshiya Hari, and others provided clients on Friday with a closer look at the JV rumors involving Intel and TSMC:
Media has speculated that TSMC and Intel (covered by Toshiya Hari) may be forming a joint venture to enhance U.S. chip manufacturing capabilities or that Intel may be considering spinning off its semiconductor fabrication unit to create a collaborative venture with TSMC with TSMC providing technical expertise and engineers to support advanced chip production at Intel’s fabs.
At a glance: Fundamentally, the strategic merit for a potential JV seems unclear as TSMC and Intel operate under different business models and different tool sets which would likely require extra investment e.g. for purchasing/retiring equipment. For Intel and TSMC, even when looking at comparable technology nodes, some processes and equipment used are different. Also, Intel’s equipment is generally for older process nodes, which is not the primary area of focus for capacity expansion for TSMC (i.e. TSMC’s spending currently is mostly for its N2 expansion).
Additionally, TSMC’s business strategy has been to remain independent and avoid entering into JVs that could compromise its neutral status with other clients. More importantly, TSMC’s advanced nodes technology is its own property with proprietary processes, and is a key competitive advantage. Sharing this technology with a direct competitor like Intel could undermine its market position. Additionally, TSMC has historically been very cautious about sharing its intellectual property with other companies, especially with those in direct competition within the semiconductor space. Therefore, a technology transfer agreement between TSMC and Intel would seem uncharacteristic of TSMC’s strategy.
Another outstanding issue is potential anti-trust implications of any TSMC/Intel partnership/JV given the dominant market positions of the two companies. However, to note, Intel and UMC announced a foundry collaboration in January 2024, the two companies will jointly develop a 12nm process platform. UMC will be leveraging Intel’s existing equipment in Intel’s existing fabs, with mass production timeline expected to begin in 2027 (see also: Intel/UMC new foundry collaboration; we view it as a positive strategic move for both companies, 26 January 2024).
The JV rumors have been more than enough to spark buying panic in beaten-down Intel shares.
Ongoing geopolitical turmoil, coupled with Intel’s financial and execution struggles, have generated various rumors surrounding the blue giant. In this case, significant technological and business hurdles — ranging from differences in tooling process recipes at Intel and TSMC to TSMC’s lack of incentive to aid a competitor — cast doubt on the feasibility of such a partnership.
High-Explosive Drone Pierces Shell Of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant At Very Moment Trump Pushes Ukraine Toward Peace
On Friday just prior to high-level meetings among Western security officials and Ukrainian leadership commencing in Munich, including US Vice President J.D. Vance and Zelensky, there was a dangerous incident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine’s Kyiv oblast.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky accused Russia of launching a drone equipped with a high-explosive warhead at the historic, defunct power plant, site of the April 1986 nuclear disaster and meltdown. The drone reportedly hit the protective containment shell of the Chernobyl plant.
Zelensky’s office released footage showing an impact to the giant concrete and steel shield protecting the remains of the nuclear reactor. BBC writes that “The shield is designed to prevent further radioactive material leaking out over the next century. It measures 275m (900ft) wide and 108m (354ft) tall and cost $1.6bn (£1.3bn) to construct.”
And WaPo details further of the looming potential dangers:
In 2019, construction was completed on the New Safe Confinement — a $1.7 billion arch-shaped steel structure, which would contain the destroyed reactor. The site still contained some “200 tons of highly radioactive material,” according to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, which helped finance the project.
Thus the situation is deeply alarming given the potential for a new radiation leak at the site which could impact the region, or even Europe. An IAEA team on the ground said it heard an explosion at around 01:50 local time coming from the New Safe Confinement (NSC) shelter. Photos showed flames at the top of the huge structure.
The UN agency is on high alert, but issued a statement saying the drone strike did not breach the plant’s inner containment shell. The IAEA also did not attribute blame, not identifying who sent the drone.
The Kremlin strongly rejected that it was behind the incident:
“There is no talk about strikes on nuclear infrastructure, nuclear energy facilities, any such claim isn’t true, our military doesn’t do that,” Peskov told reporters in a call.
Russian state media has meanwhile been warning of efforts by bad actors to sabotage Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine, after he held a 90-minute phone call with President Vladimir Putin this week.
Serious damage to the protective shield remains, which could present an ongoing serious safety issue at the site:
Simon Evans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was head of the Chernobyl Shelter Fund, which oversaw the construction of the protective dome in the 2010s.
He described the apparent strike as “an incredibly reckless attack on a vulnerable nuclear facility”.
The shield “was never built to withstand external drone attack”, he told the BBC.
Given this, why would Russia at this very moment while Trump and Putin are trying to line up peace talks launch a high-explosive drone at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant?
Cui bono?…
Raise your hand if Zelensky is desperate enough to fake a Russian attack on Chernobyl to keep the US from attempting peace talks? Is he that stupid? pic.twitter.com/cQ1dJknhrX
Zelensky has asserted that Putin is not actually ready for or seeking legitimate negotiations, contradicting recent statements coming from the Trump White House.
On Friday, he claimed: “The only country in the world that attacks such sites, occupies nuclear power plants, and wages war without any regard for the consequences is today’s Russia.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate has in a fresh statement said that while the drone damaged “the external integrity” of the New Safe Confinement “and equipment in the crane maintenance garage” – it remains that there are no observable radiation spikes. “Firefighting efforts and damage assessment are ongoing,” it added.
Was this a desperate CHERNOBYL 2.0 ATTEMPT? Whodunnit?
Given that Chernobyl is a name that has captured popular imagination for decades since the apocalyptic historic disaster left the vicinity basically a radiation death zone, it could present the perfect false flag opportunity for anyone wishing to prolong and escalate the war.
