Raw Story: DOGE team using AI to scour personal data to root out Trump disloyalty: report

Elon Musk’s team is using a custom version of his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok to scour the sensitive government data scooped up by the Department of Government Efficiency, raising serious concerns about privacy, conflicts of interest and national security.

The DOGE team is expanding use of the AI chatbot, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, but it’s not clear which specific data had been fed into the generative tool or how the custom system was set up, and five experts told the news organization that the arrangement may violate security and privacy laws.

“Given the scale of data that DOGE has amassed and given the numerous concerns of porting that data into software like Grok, this to me is about as serious a privacy threat as you get,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.

“This gives the appearance that DOGE is pressuring agencies to use software to enrich Musk and xAI, and not to the benefit of the American people,” said Richard Painter, who served as ethics counsel to former president George W. Bush and a current University of Minnesota professor.

Two sources said DOGE staffers directed Department of Homeland Security officials to use Grok, although it hadn’t been approved for use in that agency, and the sources said the federal government would have to pay Musk’s organizations to use that AI tool, which Painter said could violate criminal conflict-of-interest statute.

“They were pushing it to be used across the department,” said one of the sources.

https://www.rawstory.com/doge-team-sensitive-private-data-2672192671

Daily Beast: John Roberts Personally Delivers DOGE Win for Trump

Chief Justice John Roberts has personally shielded the Department of Government Efficiency from having to hand over reams of internal data.

Acting as an individual, Roberts temporarily blocked two orders from a lower court that instructed DOGE to turn over thousands of pages of documents and have its administrator, Amy Gleason, sit for a deposition.

The emergency stay only required Robert’s approval, not the entire Supreme Court’s, as he is the justice who handles these requests when they arise out of the Washington, D.C., courts.

The stay is temporary, likely only to last a few days. It allows the court time to decide whether it wants to consider the case on its merits and make a ruling.

The question at stake in the case is whether DOGE has to fulfill public information requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The case hinges on whether the group, which has been led by Elon Musk, is a government agency.

The Trump administration has argued that DOGE is merely an advisory group to President Donald Trump and therefore does not have to hand over its data.

So for now, at least, there will be no sunshine.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/chief-justice-roberts-personally-delivers-doge-data-win-for-trump

KRON San Francisco: Father of 4 detained by ICE at citizenship interview after living in US for 12 years

A 31-year-old Danish national who was going through the naturalization process after living in the U.S. for more than 10 years was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during a routine appointment to finalize his citizenship, according to multiple media reports.

Kasper Eriksen, a green card holder with no criminal record, works as a welder in Sturgis, Mississippi, where he lives with his wife and four children. On April 15, he was unexpectedly taken into custody and later transferred to the LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana, Newsweek reported.  

The 31-year-old, according to his wife, Savannah Hobart Eriksen, first moved to the U.S. as an exchange student in 2009 and returned to Denmark.  

He returned to the U.S. legally in 2013 after he and his wife married and he began the legal process of becoming an American citizen. In September 2024, according to the outlet, the Eriksens received word that his application was under review, and, on March 7, an interview for his naturalization application was scheduled.  

ICE officials reportedly detained the 31-year-old for failing to file a single document, due in 2015, around the same time the couple lost their first child in a stillbirth. While grieving their loss, they forgot to file Form I-751, the Mississippi Free Press reported.  

If he needed to file an I-751 in 2015, then he received only a 2-year green card “with conditions” in 2013. I-751 is the “Removal of Conditions” filing.

So he’s been wandering around the U.S. for the last 9-10 years with an expired Green Card? It never occurred to him that something was amiss?

If he had filed everything on time and followed up as appropriate, he should have been a citizen by 2019 — about 6 years ago.

There must be more to this story. Given the current regime in Washington and its focus on deportation counts, that might not matter much. 🙁

https://www.kron4.com/news/national/father-of-4-detained-by-ice-at-citizenship-interview-after-living-in-us-for-12-years/amp

MSNBC: Trump made a promise not to touch Medicare. His megabill just broke it.

The House bill, as of now, would trigger massive cuts to the program.

As many Americans were still sleeping Thursday morning, the House of Representatives passed a bill whose text they hadn’t read, Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The bill’s sweeping cuts to Medicaid, contributing to 14 million fewer people having health coverage by 2034, have received wide coverage. Less well known, however, is the bill’s dire implications for Medicare recipients. If the House version of the bill becomes law, Medicare payments to medical providers would be slashed by more than $500 billion over the next 10 years. This would have serious implications for tens of millions of older adults and providers and may even cause hospitals to close.

The explanation of how these automatic cuts to Medicare spending would work:

Though the GOP bill doesn’t explicitly call for Medicare cuts, it would trigger them under the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act. Congress passed Stat PAYGO in 2010 to discourage policymakers from enacting tax cuts and spending that would increase federal deficits.

Under Stat PAYGO, the Office of Management and Budget must keep “PAYGO scorecards” for five-year deficit impacts and 10-year deficit impacts. PAYGO stipulates that when any legislation is enacted, the average cost of the legislation for the next five years is entered into each year of the five-year scorecard and the average cost for the next 10 years is entered into each year of the 10-year scorecard. At the end of each session of Congress, if there is a cumulative deficit in that fiscal year on either scorecard, there is an automatic spending reduction (sequestration) to offset the larger of the two deficits. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the House Republican bill, if enacted, would increase the deficit by $2.3 trillion over 10 years, and trigger sequestration.

And as for social security:

Some types of funding, including many mandatory spending accounts like Social Security, are exempt from the automatic cuts, but Medicare provider payments are not. 

So …

In short, though Trump and House Republicans promised this bill would not touch Medicare, at the moment that promise is broken.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-made-promise-not-touch-medicare-megabill-just-broke-rcna208518

CBS News: 4 partners leave Paul Weiss after firm cut deal with Trump

Four partners at Paul Weiss — including the high-profile Democratic attorney Karen Dunn — are departing the law firm, a spokesperson told CBS News, after Paul Weiss drew attention for striking a deal with President Trump to avoid targeting by the federal government.

The rest of the law firm threw $40M of pro bono legal work at the corrupt Trump regime so they could continue doing business as usual.

Kudos and applause for the 4 partner attorneys who had the courage to leave.


Meanwhile another law firm (Jenner & Block) had the integrity to fight back in court and win without lining King Donald’s pockets.


Latin Times: Trump Instructs Republicans to ‘Erase’ January 6 Riots From History, Congressman Says

Donald Trump has instructed Republican lawmakers to “erase” the events of January 6, a Democratic congressman said, as efforts to honor Capitol police officers with a memorial plaque remain stalled more than two years after its legal deadline.

Following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, during which over 140 officers were injured and five died in its aftermath, Congress passed legislation requiring a commemorative plaque to be installed by March 2023 to honor the officers’ bravery.

The plaque has not been installed and is currently sitting in a Capitol basement utility room. Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries says House Republicans, under Speaker Mike Johnson, have deliberately blocked its placement.

Jeffries continued, “The reason why the law hasn’t been complied with and a plaque hasn’t been erected is because Republicans, directed by their puppet master Donald Trump, have been told, try to erase January 6th, as if it has never happened.”

Whatever history King Donald might rewrite today, sometime in the future the truth will all come back with a vengeance. King Donald will go down in history as our worst, most evil president ever.

https://www.latintimes.com/trump-instructs-republicans-erase-january-6-riots-history-congressman-says-583747

NBC News: U.S. citizen with REAL ID handcuffed and held in immigration raid before being released

The man told Noticias Telemundo that authorities took his ID from his wallet and told him it was fake before handcuffing him.

A U.S.-born citizen who was wrestled into the dirt, handcuffed and detained in a vehicle as part of an immigration raid had a REAL ID on him that was dismissed as fake, the man’s cousin said Friday.

Video of the arrest, aired by Noticias Telemundo, showed authorities grabbing Leonardo Garcia Venegas, 25, while at a job site in Foley, Alabama, on Wednesday and bending his arms behind him. Someone off-camera can be heard yelling, “He’s a citizen.”

Garcia had told Noticias Telemundo that “they grabbed me real bad” and the handcuffs were placed “very hard” on him.

Garcia said he was released from the vehicle where he was held after he gave the arresting officials his Social Security number, which showed he is a U.S. citizen.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-citizen-immigration-raid-real-id-handcuffed-alabama-rcna208794

2paragraphs: Trump’s Spokesperson Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt “Just Took Away His Presidential Immunity Defense” Says Prosecutor

Trump’s Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt “Just Took Away His Presidential Immunity Defense” Says Prosecutor

President Donald Trump hosted a dinner at his golf club in Virginia on Thursday evening for the top 220 holders of his personal $TRUMP meme coin. The top 25 in the group of investors participated in a VIP reception with the president.

When a reporter asked White House spokesperson Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt if the list of attendees was going to be made available to the public, she replied, “The president is attending it in his personal time.”

Republican political pundit and Trump critic Tim Miller responded: “Presidents don’t get ‘personal time.’ There’s not like a magic suit you wear when you are doing official business and one where you are just Donald from Queens.”

Former Republican political pundit and Supreme Court attorney George Conway (ex-husband of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign manager Kellyanne Conway) replied to Miller: “Actually, it’s fine. If Trump is saying he’s doing something on his “personal time,” then obviously that means he’s not acting within what the Supreme Court calls “the outer perimeter of his official responsibility,” which, in turn, means he’s not immune from criminal prosecution.”

https://2paragraphs.com/2025/05/trumps-spokesperson-karoline-leavitt-just-took-away-his-presidential-immunity-defense-says-prosecutor/

CNN: Democratic senator places hold on Trump pick for top federal prosecutor in Miami saying Vance set precedent

A new battle is stirring on Capitol Hill as Senate Democrats have threatened to not move forward with confirmations of President Donald Trump’s US attorney nominees around the country – already following through with a hold on one of his picks.

Senate Democrats say they are merely following precedent established by now-Vice President JD Vance under President Joe Biden, when the then-senator held up US attorney nominations in protest of what he called the political prosecutions against Trump.

If it hinders the appointments of more twits like Alina “Bimbo #4” Habba, I’m all for it!

But stopping Trump from being able to fill the 93 US attorney slots across the US would place a notable strain on the justice system and could open up a continued tit-for-tat next time Democrats control the White House.

It will also spare us the drama of more revenge investigations and prosecutions by King Donald and his Attorney General Pam “Bimbo #3” Bondi.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/23/politics/durbin-hold-trump-pick-us-attorney-miami

CBS News: Hundreds of border agents to help ICE with arrests in U.S. interior

The Trump administration is planning to dispatch hundreds of border agents to different parts of the country so they can help Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest unauthorized immigrants in the U.S interior, three sources familiar with the plan told CBS News.

The plan would be the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to muster the vast resources and personnel of agencies across the federal government to support ICE in its bid to carry out what the president has vowed will be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

The effort is expected to involve around 500 personnel from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including green-uniformed Border Patrol agents in charge of interdicting the illicit entry of migrants and drugs, the sources said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal governments plans that have not been announced.

Wonderful, the Gestapo just got larger. 🙄

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-ice-arrests-border-agents