Good evening, I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America.
Tonight, four stories that reveal just how far the powerful will go to protect themselves and punish everyone else. A judge finds the IRS broke the law nearly 43,000 times. The Washington Post hemorrhages over $100 million while Jeff Bezos dismantles the newsroom he neglected. Children at a Texas detention facility have their crayons and drawings confiscated. And Hillary Clinton testifies before Congress, calling for Trump to answer under oath about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
But before we get into it, please consider updating your subscription to a paying one. Raw America exists because billionaire-owned corporate media is not going to tell you these stories straight. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. The Ellison family is circling CNN. Rupert Murdoch built an empire on disinformation. A robust, independent media is the last remaining check on all of that concentrated power. If you believe journalism should answer to the people and not to the oligarchs, become a paid subscriber today.
Trump’s IRS Broke the Law 42,695 Times
Let’s start with a ruling that should be front page news across every outlet in America, but probably won’t be.
A judge has found that the Internal Revenue Service violated federal law more than 42,000 times when it handed over confidential taxpayer addresses to ICE last summer.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued that ruling Thursday as part of ongoing litigation over a data-sharing arrangement between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security.
Federal law is clear: Before the IRS can hand over a taxpayer’s address, the requesting agency must first provide the name and address of the person it’s looking for. The requirement exists to make sure the government can only access confidential tax records for people it has already specifically identified.
DHS didn’t do that. Not even close.
The judge found that the vast majority of the nearly 47,300 taxpayer addresses the IRS shared with ICE in August were handed over without any confirmation that ICE had provided a valid address. The judge put it bluntly: under the government’s own standard, ICE could have submitted an address like “Don’t Care 12345” and still received someone’s home address from the IRS.
This is the American government treating its own tax agency like an immigration surveillance tool, shredding legal protections for tens of thousands of people along the way.
The Washington Post Is Bleeding Out
Next, a story about what happens when a billionaire buys a newspaper and then slowly destroys it.
The Washington Post lost more than $100 million last year. It reportedly lost $77 million in 2023. And earlier this month, a source told TheWrap the losses reached as high as $125 million in 2025. The Post has already laid off more than 300 journalists, retreating from local coverage, sports, and foreign reporting in the process.
At a media event this week, executive editor Matt Murray defended the layoffs, saying standing still wasn’t an option, and that the Bezos-owned paper’s goal is only to break even.
A significant part of this collapse is Bezos’ own doing. More than 250,000 subscribers reportedly walked out the door after Bezos killed a Kamala Harris endorsement in late 2024, ending the paper’s tradition of endorsing presidential candidates. Another 75,000 reportedly canceled after he pivoted the opinion section toward “personal liberties and free markets.”
The man who owns Amazon, one of the most powerful corporations on earth, has managed to run one of America’s most storied newspapers into the ground, and he’s doing it while dismissing the editorial independence that made the Post worth owning in the first place.
When billionaires buy the press, the press suffers. And when the press suffers, democracy does too. This is why we built Raw America: We don’t answer to a billionaire owner, only to you. Become a paying member today.
Children’s Drawings Confiscated at a Texas Detention Center
Now to a story that’s difficult to hear, but essential to understand.
Inside the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, the only detention facility in the United States for immigrant families, children have been having their crayons, colored pencils, and drawings confiscated by guards.
Former detainees, lawyers, and advocates describe a pattern of escalating restrictions that began in late January, after children inside Dilley started writing letters and drawing pictures about their experiences.
The crackdown intensified. Former detainees describe room searches carried out by eight to ten guards at a time. Drawings were taken off walls. Art supplies were placed in plastic bags and removed. One mother described watching through a window as guards swept her children’s room, taking colored pencils the family had purchased themselves at the commissary.
After the search, she said, the children just “cried and cried and cried.”
Among the letters that made it out: “I’m writing this letter so that you can hear my story. I need you to help us. I cry a lot. I want to get out of here and go back to my school.” That was written by a 7-year-old.
One woman, detained for four months with her 13-year-old son, smuggled the letters out by hiding them inside her jacket on cool days. She walked out of Dilley carrying 34 pages of drawings and letters. Stick figures behind wire fences. A pet cat named Willi. Faces, mostly frowning.
Clinton Testifies: Put Trump Under Oath
Finally, to Capitol Hill, where Hillary Clinton delivered opening testimony before the House Oversight Committee as part of its probe into Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking network.
Clinton told the committee she had no knowledge of Epstein’s or Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal activities, and said she did not recall ever encountering Epstein. Her testimony opens two days of depositions that will also include former President Bill Clinton.
But the sharpest moment came when Clinton turned the spotlight on Donald Trump.
Clinton called for Trump to be questioned under oath. She cited what she described as tens of thousands of references to Trump in the Epstein files and called for him to answer for them directly, under oath.
Republicans on the committee have said Trump cannot be deposed because he’s a sitting president. Democrats have pushed back, arguing that Bill Clinton’s appearance sets a precedent that should apply to the current occupant of the White House as well.
The committee runs two more days of depositions. Whether it ever gets to the sitting president is another matter entirely.
Why Raw America Exists
These four stories are not accidents. They are a portrait of a system that protects power and punishes everyone else.
The IRS handed over tens of thousands of addresses without following the law. A billionaire gutted one of America’s great newspapers. Children in a detention facility had their crayons taken away to keep them quiet. And a former first lady had to come to Congress to ask that the sitting president be held to the same standard as everyone else.
Corporate media won’t connect those dots for you. Billionaire-owned outlets have no incentive to. That is precisely what Raw America was built for.
Share this video. Become a paying subscriber. The oligarchs have their endless billions. We have you.
I’m British Chris for Raw America. Thanks for watching.
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