More Trump administration professionalism
Charlie Kirk’s death has pushed some other important stories off the front pages. Let’s review just three.
If you missed it, Jason Leopold and a team of Bloomberg reporters obtained a cache of Yahoo emails including many between Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Wonder of wonders, Maxwell was not entirely candid about the depth and length of her relationship with Epstein:
The emails, part of a cache of more than 18,000 obtained by Bloomberg News, show that Maxwell and Epstein were closer, in many respects, than either publicly admitted. Maxwell opened at least one foreign bank account using one of his addresses, was a named director on one of Epstein’s main revenue-generating companies and traded stock in a company they were both invested in, details that haven’t been previously reported. The pair discussed undergoing a shared fertility procedure, long after Maxwell claims she largely disassociated from him. They corresponded about discrediting women who raised allegations against them, including in one exchange where Maxwell said she planned to circulate compromising information on one of Epstein’s sexual-abuse victims.
[…]
“Question,” Epstein wrote to Maxwell on May 23, 2008. “Which one do you prefer,,, lewd and lscivious conduct ,, or procuring minors for prostituion.”
Bloomberg cautions:
Riddled with typos, unfinished thoughts and missing punctuation, the emails are hardly the final word on Epstein. They do not provide complete answers for some of the most persistent questions surrounding his case, including how Epstein amassed his fortune, and no evidence that prominent public figures were sexually abusing minors. There are indications that many of the emails were deleted. Also, this Yahoo account is one of multiple email accounts Epstein used for different purposes. Nevertheless, this particular trove contains revelatory, often disturbing, details about the intricate facets of Epstein’s life. It offers new insight into how he leveraged his wealth and powerful social network, which stretched from Wall Street to Washington to Westminster, to beat back grave criminal allegations. And it showcases Epstein’s idiosyncrasies, his indignation as he’s being investigated, and his callousness toward the young women, many of them teenagers, who entered his world.
As the right raced to set its culture war narrative that “radical leftists” killed Kirk before the truth could put its pants on, ICE agents from the Trump administration continued to put their professionalism on display (Chicago Sun Times):
Federal immigration agents fatally shot a man Friday morning in a Northwest suburb after he allegedly attempted to flee a traffic stop and struck an officer with his car, officials said.
[…]
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were conducting “targeted law enforcement activity” in Franklin Park when they stopped the vehicle, according to a statement from the agency.
During the stop, a man allegedly resisted arrest and attempted to drive his car into officers, dragging one officer, ICE officials said.
The officer opened fire and shot the man, according to ICE. He was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
The ICE agent drew his weapon and shot and killed the driver who allegedly dragged him while the agent was allegedly being dragged.
The Guardian this morning publishes findings from a four-month investigation into ICE practices. Among them:
44,000 immigrants, 1,700 flights, 100 days
- GlobalX carried out more than 1,700 flights for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the vast majority of them between domestic US airports, between January and May. The airline transported nearly 1,000 children, including nearly 500 children under the age of 10, and 22 infants.
- For many immigrants, the flight paths were long, with multiple legs and layovers. Nearly 3,600 people were moved around repeatedly, forced to board five or more GlobalX flights.
- Immigrants were also moved between detention facilities more than before. The average number of transfers per person has markedly increased in the past six months, and some detained immigrants have been moved as many as 10 or 20 times.
- Detainees were moved around the US without notice, to locations far from their families, communities and legal counsel – leading to apparent violations of constitutional due process rights.
- Along their journeys, immigrants say they were repeatedly kept in the dark about where they were going. Some say they were threatened by immigration agents with long-distance transfers and separation from their families if they did not accept voluntary deportation.
- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that immigrants in custody are informed about their transfers and allowed to contact their families throughout their detention. “Claims that transfers of detainees are being ‘weaponized’ or ‘hidden’ are also categorically false,” the DHS said.
Also, Trump’s deportation hub: inside the ‘black hole’ where immigrants disappear
“Louisiana is where people go to be disappeared,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana. “My concern about the Alexandria facility is [that] it is a black box.”
It’s worrisome. These stories remind me of the Bush II-era rendition flights I wrote about for the local paper 20 years ago:
Gulfstream’s executive jets are popular with U.S. intelligence agencies, and luxurious. More luxurious than destinations their manacled and diapered passengers disappear to, thanks to “extraordinary rendition,” also known as “outsourcing torture.”
For terror suspects en route to exotic prisons in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Uzbekistan, the tranquilizing suppositories are complimentary.
No one was held to account for those either.
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