Good evening. I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America.
Democrats are warning that Trump officials could face criminal prosecution over the president’s latest illegal construction project. The Justice Department quietly rushed through the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger before senior antitrust staff could formally object. California Governor Gavin Newsom says Trump personally directed the DOJ to investigate him and his wife. And a MAGA congressman is now openly defending Iran potentially getting hundreds of billions of your tax dollars.
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Trump’s Arch Project Could Land Officials in Prison
Trump wants to build a 250-foot arch just outside of Arlington National Cemetery with no congressional approval or legal authority. Just a monument to himself, planted on federal land.
And now, a group of Democratic and independent lawmakers is putting the White House on notice, warning them if they push ahead, they could go to prison.
In a letter sent Monday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and two National Park Service officials, Independent Senator Angus King of Maine and Democratic congressman Jared Huffman of California outlined at least three federal laws the administration would be breaking if construction moves ahead.
One is the Commemorative Works Act, which governs monuments on federal land in the capital. A 1912 law that flatly says structures “shall not be erected” on federal land in Washington without express congressional authority. The Height of Buildings Act also generally caps building heights in D.C. at 160 feet, while Trump’s arch would be 250 feet high if built.
The letter warns that officials who use unauthorized funds on the project could face “suspension without pay, removal from office and, for knowing and willful violations, criminal fines and imprisonment.”
Senator King, who’s been a practicing attorney for more than 50 years, called the project “stone-cold illegal,” adding it was “one of the clearest legal cases I’ve seen.”
A group of Vietnam War veterans has already filed suit to stop the project, arguing that the arch would block the sightline between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
Huffman also made clear that if Democrats retake the House in the midterms, oversight of this administration’s lawlessness will get a whole lot more intense in the coming years.
DOJ Shut Down Its Own Investigation to Clear Paramount’s Merger
The Justice Department’s antitrust division spent months scrutinizing the Paramount bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Career staff attorneys were leaning toward recommending a lawsuit to stop it. They believed the deal was anticompetitive and would likely violate antitrust law.
Then, on a Friday, they were told the investigation was closed, without any staff recommendation or a chance to formally object.
Here’s the important context: Paramount is run by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, one of Trump’s closest billionaire allies. Last month, the senior DOJ leadership gave David Ellison a two-hour softball interview. Afterward, they decided he’d answered enough of their questions and cleared the deal.
The department then issued a lengthy public statement praising the merger as good for competition. Career antitrust staffers had no part in writing that statement. And according to people familiar with the matter, some of them believe it was deliberately crafted to make it harder for state attorneys general to ask courts to stop it.
But California AG Rob Bonta is reportedly about to do exactly that.
The Paramount-Warner merger, which would combine two of Hollywood’s biggest studios, is expected to close as soon as the end of July. The deal is also under antitrust review in Europe. We’re all seeing the plain evidence that the fix was in the whole time. The only question remaining is whether states can get the courts to step in.
Media mega-mergers like these are one of the main reasons we launched Raw America this year. News outlets owned by the wealthy and well-connected can’t be counted on to hold powerful people accountable: only independent media can do that. But we can’t keep this work going without your help. Become a paying subscriber to Raw America today.
Newsom Says Trump Using the DOJ to Go After Him
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Monday that federal investigators have been looking into both him and his wife, as well as reaching out to friends and former employees of theirs.
Newsom says he knows exactly who gave the order, pointing a finger directly at the president.
The New York Times reports multiple federal investigations are currently underway, including one into Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who founded several nonprofits and runs a film production company. A source told the Times those investigations originated with federal officials in California, rather than in Washington.
Newsom accused the DOJ of abusing the grand jury process, saying the government is looking through “years of random documents” to find something that will stick.
Trump endorsed arresting Newsom last year during a standoff over ICE operations in the state.
Newsom is widely considered to be a major contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. Using the Justice Department to investigate political rivals is the kind of thing we used to call authoritarian when other countries did it.
MAGA Congressman Justifies Handing Iran Hundreds of Billions in Tax Dollars
The same Republicans who spent years screaming about the national debt and demanding cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are now openly defending a plan to hand Iran up to $300 billion in taxpayer money.
Florida Republican Brian Mast went on Fox News Monday to defend the administration’s framework of a deal to end the Iran war, saying even if the Iranians get billions, America is “still $300 to $500 billion ahead considering we destroyed their Navy, destroyed their Air Force, destroyed all those nuclear facilities.”
To get an idea of how much $300 billion is, that’s roughly 160 percent of everything the United States has put into Ukraine since Russia attacked them in 2022.
The White House and Tehran have already signed a peace deal, though the exact terms haven’t been made public yet. A senior Iranian official who spoke with Reuters described a draft that includes the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. commitment not to interfere in Iranian affairs, and a reiteration of Iran’s pledge not to build nuclear weapons. That last part mirrors language from President Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal that Republicans spent a decade denouncing as a betrayal of American interests.
Of course, Obama’s deal didn’t come with a $300 billion reconstruction fund courtesy of American taxpayers. The party that called the Obama-era Iran deal treasonous is now championing a version that costs American taxpayers exponentially more. And their argument is: well, we blew up a lot of their stuff, so we owe them.
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Thanks for watching. I’m British Chris. We’ll see you tomorrow.
STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Senate Republican Leader Won’t Commit to Endorsing Trump’s Iran Agreement. After reports that the United States and Iran have agreed to a deal to to end the war that began earlier this year, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) stopped short of praising the agreement before full details were released, saying he can’t know for sure if it’s a good deal before seeing it in its entirety. Some details include the Strait of Hormuz reopening under full Iranian control, the U.S. lifting its blockades of Iranian ports, and freeing up tens of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets. The U.S. is also reportedly considering a $300 billion reconstruction fund to rebuild Iran.
Netanyahu Demands Immediate Meeting with Trump in Response to Iran Deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly racing to meet with President Trump after news broke that Washington and Tehran agreed to terms to end the Iran war. Both Israel and the U.S. carried out the strikes that launched the war on February 28, and the war has yet to achieve Israeli objectives of dethroning the ayatollah (former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is the current supreme leader) or significantly reduce Iran’s missile production.
U.S. Oil Reserve Hits 43-Year Low After 4-Month Long Iran War. Since the Iran war began in late February, the United States’ emergency supply of crude oil is now at its lowest point since 1983. Bloomberg reports that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is now at approximately 340 million barrels after President Trump made moves to release 172 million barrels to stave off runaway gas prices. Oil prices have consistently shot up after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, which is a major thoroughfare for roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.
Markwayne Mullin Reportedly Asked Trump Admin to Remove Warnings from Addictive Gas Station Drug. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin reportedly urged the Department of Health and Human Services to remove warning labels from products containing kratom about its links to liver toxicity. Mullin is a major investor in kratom company Botanic Tonics, and the decision to remove the labels could lead to him reaping a personal financial benefit.
Muslim Republican Leaves Texas Republican Convention in Tears. Texas Republican activist Mohamed Hussein recently shared his unsuccessful experience of attempting to find a place for himself in the Texas GOP with the Texas Tribune. According to the Tribune’s reporting, Hussein was among four Muslims who attended the convention, which platformed speakers who condemned the “Islamification” of Texas. Hussein reportedly left the convention crying, and was apparently told by attendees he should leave the country.
