Sex Cult Courts Trump's Inner Circle for Pardons

Hegseth confronted over "murder" of Iranian schoolgirls, Republicans scramble to gerrymander maps after Supreme Court ruling, Jerome Powell shuts down Trump

Good evening, and welcome to Raw America. I’m John Byrne, in for British Chris.

Pete Hegseth is openly defending what legal experts are calling war crimes. A group prosecutors have referred to as a sex cult is working Trump for pardons. The Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act and Republicans are already racing to lock Democrats out of power. And Jerome Powell is digging in, denying Trump the opportunity to appoint a new member of the Fed’s board. Let’s dive in.

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Hegseth Grilled Over ‘Murder’ of Schoolgirls in Iran

So Pete Hegseth sat down in front of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, and it did not go well for him.

Democrat Seth Moulton of Massachusetts came in ready. He confronted Hegseth directly about a statement Hegseth made in March, just two weeks into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, where he told reporters the military would give enemies “no quarter, no mercy.”

Moulton didn’t mince words. He called it what it is: a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Legal experts agreed at the time. It’s also barred under U.S. military code.

Hegseth’s response? He smirked and talked about “rules of engagement.”

Here’s what makes this even more striking. The Trump administration has actually tried to prosecute Democratic lawmakers for sedition, because those lawmakers put out a video reminding soldiers of their legal obligation to refuse unlawful orders. The administration went after them for that, while Hegseth is up there defending orders that legal experts say are themselves unlawful.

Democrat Ro Khanna asked Hegseth specifically about the strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab, Iran, where 155 people were killed, 120 of them children. Hegseth said that “unfortunate situation” is under investigation and wouldn’t estimate the taxpayer cost of the strike.

Analysts have identified the weapon as a U.S. Tomahawk missile, which runs about $3.6 million each. The U.S. fired over 850 of them in the first month of the war.

Hegseth also claimed the entire purpose of the war is to destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but U.S. intelligence assessments have consistently found that Iran wasn’t pursuing a nuclear weapon. When Moulton pressed him on whether the Iran war actually accomplished anything, Hegseth said the real problem is Democrats.

The people asking questions about dead children are the adversary. That’s where we are.

A Group Described as a ‘Sex Cult’ Is Lobbying Trump for Pardons

This one is wild, and it tells you everything about how the pardon process works in Trump’s second term.

OneTaste is a San Francisco company that prosecutors described as a sex cult. Its founder Nicole Daedone and former head of sales Rachel Cherwitz were convicted last year of forced labor conspiracy. A federal judge sentenced Daedone to nine years in prison and Cherwitz to over six.

Now OneTaste is mounting an aggressive campaign to get them pardoned, and they’re doing it the Trump way: working the MAGA network.

They’ve got Alan Dershowitz on board. They’ve courted Matt Gaetz, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and Laura Loomer. They’ve briefed members of Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee. They found an ally in a nonprofit run by a close friend of the U.S. pardon attorney, who has attended at least seven meetings at the pardon office.

The obvious point of all this is that there’s no functioning clemency process for everyone who doesn’t have these connections. That’s the Trump pardon system in a nutshell. It’s not about justice. It’s about access.

Republicans Scramble to Gerrymander Maps After Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme Court issued a decision Wednesday in the Louisiana v. Callais case that effectively dismantled the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial gerrymandering. And before the ink was even dry, Republicans across the South were calling for new maps, looking to flip as many as 19 Democratic seats.

Florida had already been working on a gerrymandered map. Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn posted a picture of an all-red congressional map and urged the state legislature to reconvene and take the one Democratic seat in Memphis. Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana Republicans made similar calls.

The practical problem is that most of these states have already sent out mail ballots. Alabama’s May 19 primary makes any redistricting before then essentially impossible. Georgia and Louisiana are in the same boat.

There’s a flip side here that’s worth noting. Democrats could also gerrymander more aggressively in states they control, like New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. But the cost of that strategy is real: it would further erode minority representation in Congress.

This ruling didn’t just change the rules of one election. It changed the rules of American democracy.

Jerome Powell Denies Trump New Federal Reserve Appointment

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced this week that when his term as chair ends next month, he’s not leaving the board. He’s staying on as a governor, possibly until January 2028.

Powell said the “unprecedented” legal attacks from the Trump administration have put the central bank’s independence at risk, and he’s not handing Trump an extra seat on the board until he’s confident the threat has passed.

The Fed also held interest rates steady for the third straight meeting, but the decision came with more dissents than the Fed has seen since 1992. Three officials dissented against even hinting at future rate cuts. A fourth, Trump appointee Stephen Miran, dissented in favor of cutting rates right now.

The economy is genuinely in a difficult spot. Inflation is running at 3.3 percent, a two-year high, driven in part by rising energy costs from the Iran war. At the same time, hiring has nearly stalled.

Trump’s pick to replace Powell as chair, Kevin Warsh, has promised what he called “regime change” at the Fed. Some analysts are already warning of a “two Popes” situation, with Powell and Warsh both on the board, potentially pulling policy in different directions.

Powell said his intention isn’t to interfere. But he also made it clear he’s not going anywhere until he’s satisfied the institution he spent years building up won’t be handed over without a fight.

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