There’s a lot happening in Washington right now, and it’s moving fast. The FBI’s buying your location data without a warrant. The incoming DHS secretary won’t rule out sending ICE to the polls. The Justice Department’s blocking an unredacted
Epstein document that fingers him in drug trafficking. And the FBI and IRS are quietly setting up a joint task force to go after nonprofits they don’t like.
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Tomorrow, we’re hosting two exciting live interviews on Substack. At 4 PM ET we’ll be joined by Michael Fanone, a former D.C. police officer who suffered a heart attack on January 6th, 2021, and who is now traveling the country warning about the threat to democracy posed by the Trump administration. Then, at 7 PM ET, we’ll bring you an EXCLUSIVE update on Supreme Court cases that may be decided on Friday, with legal expert Chris Geidner.
Join us in the Substack app at 4 PM and 7 PM ET to listen in tomorrow.
Trump’s FBI Increasing Surveillance of Americans
Here’s something that didn’t get nearly enough attention this week.
At Wednesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the FBI is actively purchasing commercially available data, including information that can be used to track people’s movements and location history.
This is significant because back in 2023, then-Director Christopher Wray told Congress the FBI had done it in the past but wasn’t doing it anymore. Patel’s confirmation blows that door wide open again.
The Supreme Court ruled back in 2018 that law enforcement needs a warrant to get location data from cell phone providers. But data brokers don’t fall under that ruling. So the FBI goes around the warrant requirement entirely by just buying the data on the open market instead.
Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat from Oregon, didn’t mince words. He called it an outrageous end run around the Fourth Amendment, and said it’s especially dangerous now that AI can be used to comb through massive volumes of private information.
Wyden and Republican Senator Mike Lee introduced the Government Surveillance Reform Act last week, which would require federal agencies to get a warrant before purchasing Americans’ personal data. There’s a bipartisan House version too.
Republicans argue buying commercially available data is necessary to track criminals. But “commercially available” doesn’t mean “constitutionally kosher.” And what starts with potential criminals doesn’t always end there.
ICE Could Be at the Polls After All
Senator Markwayne Mullin sat before the Senate for his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday. And he said something that should’ve set off a lot more alarm bells than it did.
When asked directly whether he’d send ICE agents to polling places, Mullin wouldn’t rule it out. He said agents would only show up if there was a “specific threat.” But he couldn’t guarantee what that threat might look like.
Senator Andy Kim talked about the chilling effect already spreading through immigrant communities, saying he had to give his own father-in-law specific instructions for re-entering the United States.
Mullin’s response was dismissive, arguing that since non-citizens shouldn’t be voting, there’s no concern.
The concern, of course, is that it’s not just undocumented people who feel that fear, but also naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents and anyone who looks like they might be asked to prove their right to be somewhere.
Under federal and state law, federal agents are barred from polling places. Full stop. That’s not ambiguous. But Mullin’s non-answers suggest the administration isn’t exactly rushing to reassure voters.
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The Epstein Document the DOJ Doesn’t Want You to See
Senator Wyden had a busy week. He’s also now accusing Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche of personally blocking the release of an unredacted 2015 Justice Department memo tied to a DEA investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The heavily redacted version of the document, included in the batch of Epstein files released in January, showed Epstein was the subject of a Drug Enforcement Agency probe that ran for at least five years. The DEA was looking at him and 14 others for suspicious wire transfers tied to drug trafficking and prostitution.
Wyden’s investigators were told the DEA was prepared to hand over the unredacted version. Then Blanche apparently stepped in during the last three weeks and stopped it.
Blanche denies blocking anything. He says the memo is available unredacted in a congressional reading room and that Wyden simply never went.
Wyden says that’s not the point. He wrote to Blanche directly accusing him of preventing production of the document and calling the interference “highly disturbing.”
What’s in those redacted sections? The 14 other names. That’s the question that keeps getting louder the more the Justice Department seems to want this buried.
The FBI-IRS Task Force Coming for Nonprofits
And finally, the FBI and IRS are setting up a joint initiative to investigate nonprofit organizations for suspected ties to “domestic terrorism.”
This stems from a December memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi ordering federal law enforcement to prioritize investigations into antifa and other groups she broadly defines as “extremist.” The memo suggests these groups could be committing tax crimes by defrauding the IRS.
A command center will be housed at the FBI, with IRS Criminal Investigations agents working on one-year temporary assignments.
What’s notable here is that Antifa didn’t even come up during Kash Patel’s Senate Intelligence hearing on Wednesday. It wasn’t referenced in the official 2026 threat assessment either. But at a House Homeland Security hearing back in December, a senior FBI official called Antifa one of the biggest threats, and then couldn’t answer basic questions about its structure or membership.
Former Justice Department domestic terrorism counsel Tom Brzozowski told CBS News the approach raises serious legal questions about what legal basis, what “predication” the FBI has for building a list of groups to target for criminal investigation.
That’s not a partisan concern. That’s a constitutional one.
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STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
JD Vance Admits Gas Prices Are About to Get Even Higher. During a recent speech in Detroit, Michigan, Vice President JD Vance told the assembled crowd there would likely be a “rough road ahead” for fuel prices as the war in Iran continues with no end in sight. He insisted that the high prices were a “temporary blip,” and that gas prices were still higher under former President Joe Biden’s administration. The average price of gasoline in June of 2022 was over $5 per gallon, when global supply chains were still in shambles due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
GOP Senator Won’t Support Mullin for DHS Secretary. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday he wouldn’t vote to confirm Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) when his confirmation comes before the full Senate. Paul confronted Mullin over his past remarks celebrating Paul’s neighbor in Bowling Green, Kentucky for attacking him, and Mullin refused to apologize. Paul said that despite his own disagreements with Mullin, he won’t block his confirmation out of the committee.
Gabbard Disputes Trump’s Claim of ‘Imminent’ Nuclear Threat from Iran. During a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard affirmed under oath that last year’s strikes from Iran “obliterated” its nuclear program. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) then got Gabbard to confirm that there has been no effort by Iran to rebuild its nuclear program. This directly disputes President Donald Trump’s claim that the February 28 strikes in Iran were necessary due to an imminent threat of a nuclear attack.
Federal Reserve Chair Issues Scathing Report on Trump’s Economy. The Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged after its Wednesday meeting, and Fed chair Jerome Powell flatly stated that the U.S. economy was in a slump given the paltry increase in new jobs created, a stagnant unemployment rate and inflation creeping up. Powell maintained that the Fed’s goal was to keep inflation at two percent or lower, and that Trump’s war in Iran had left the economy in an “uncertain” position. Trump attacked Powell over his report, claiming he was “hurting our Country, and it’s National Security” for declining to lower interest rates.
Trump Supporter in Swing Pennsylvania District Apologizes for Her Vote. 35 year-old Amanda Robbins of Millersburg, Pennsylvania went viral this week for her profane tirade against Trump while filling her gas tank. Robbins told local reporters she voted for the president “three times,” and called him a “worthless pile of s—.” She added: “That was my bad. Apparently, I’m an idiot.”
