Washington Examiner: Maine settles with Trump administration in funding freeze lawsuit

The State of Maine dropped its lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday after reaching a settlement agreement, which comes as the two parties have been feuding over transgender policies.

Maine agreed to withdraw its lawsuit in exchange for the Department of Agriculture vowing not to freeze the millions of dollars it directs to the state’s Department of Education unlawfully, according to court documents.

Judge John Woodcock, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, previously ruled in Maine’s favor by granting a restraining order. He said the USDA’s actions were “contrary to law, for multiple reasons,” including because Secretary Brooke Rollins did not follow legal procedures required to stop the funding.

Rollins agreed on Friday to “refrain from freezing, terminating, or otherwise interfering with the state of Maine’s access” to USDA funds, “based on alleged violations of Title IX without first following all legally required procedures,” the agreement read.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/maine-settles-with-trump-administration-in-funding-freeze-lawsuit/ar-AA1E4GLa

More here:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/trump-maine-funding-freeze

Associated Press: Justice Department will switch its focus on voting and prioritize Trump’s elections order, memo says

The new mission statement for the voting section makes a passing reference to the historic Voting Rights Act, but no mention of typical enforcement of the provision through protecting people’s right to cast ballots or ensuring that lines for legislative maps do not divide voters by race. Instead, it redefines the unit’s mission around conspiracy theories pushed by Republican President Donald Trump to explain away his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump’s attorney general at the time, William Barr, said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in that election.

Repeated recounts and audits in the battleground states where Trump contested his loss, including some led by Republicans, affirmed Biden’s win and found the election was run properly. Trump and his supporters also lost dozens of court cases trying to overturn the election results.

But in Trump’s second term, the attorney general is Pam Bondi [Bimbo #3], who backed his effort to reverse his 2020 loss. The president picked Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican Party lawyer and long time ally who also has echoed some of Trump’s false claims about voting, to run the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, where the voting section is housed.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/justice-department-will-switch-its-focus-on-voting-and-prioritize-trump-s-elections-order-memo-says/ar-AA1E6fp4

NBC News: Trump, asked if he has to ‘uphold the Constitution,’ says, ‘I don’t know’

Trump said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he’s following lawyers’ advice as he tries to execute rapid deportations, arguing that giving immigrants due process is time-consuming.

President Donald Trump argued in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that fulfilling his ambitious campaign promise to rapidly carry out mass deportations may take precedence over giving immigrants the right to due process under the Constitution, as required by courts.

A central part of Trump’s agenda has been implementing the “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history, as he vowed during the 2024 campaign. In service of that goal, his administration has pressed the courts to allow the immediate removal of immigrants it accuses of being members of a Venezuelan gang, without giving them a chance to plead their case before a judge.

In an interview last month with “Meet the Press,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “Yes, of course,” when asked whether every person in the United States is entitled to due process.

Trump, however, isn’t so sure.

Does he remember his Oath of Office? Did he understand it when he took the Oath? What a total dufus!!!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna204580

Mediaite: Trump Orders Hegseth and Bondi [Bimbo #3] to ‘Determine How Military’ Can Be Used in Domestic Law Enforcement

President Donald Trump directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi [Bimbo #3] to determine how the U.S. military could be used for domestic law enforcement on Monday.

The president also ordered Hegseth and Bondi [Bimbo #3] to “determine how military and national security assets” and personnel “can most effectively be utilized” to prevent crime:

The police state is coming, and the military side of it will be run by a drunken wife-beating O-3 washout turned Fox TV host turned Secretary of Defense Christian Nationalist.

Mediaite: Trump Defends Pardoning One of His Political Donors – Who Was Represented by Pam Bondi’s Brother

President Donald Trump defended his pardon of Trevor Milton, the disgraced former CEO of the electric truck manufacturer Nikola.

In December 2023, Milton was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of defrauding investors. He had been free pending appeal.

“Milton’s scheme targeted individual, non-professional investors — so-called “retail investors” — by making false and misleading statements directly to the investing public through social media and television, print, and podcast interviews,” the Department of Justice said shortly after he was sentenced.

During the case, Milton retained Brad Bondi, the brother of longtime Trump ally Pam Bondi, who is now U.S. Attorney General. Milton was also represented by Marc Mukasey, who has represented the Trump Organization.

Milton and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a pro-Trump reelection fund the month before November’s election.

Just another shade of corruption … it’s all Trump does and he does it well!

Is $1.8 million a fair price for a pardon?

Daily Beast: Leaked Trump Memo Instructs ICE to Break Into Homes Without Warrant

The Trump administration has allowed immigration agents to invade homes without a warrant for over a month, according to a leaked internal memo.

The memo, obtained by USA Today and issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi [Bimbo #3] March 14, orders Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to break into the homes of suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without a warrant.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/leaked-trump-memo-instructs-ice-to-break-into-homes-without-warrant/ar-AA1DIge2

LA Times: Trump’s lawyers add new legal hurdles for Maryland man who was wrongly deported

President Trump’s lawyers have set a new legal hurdle before the Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

Even if Kilmar Abrego Garcia is returned to the United States, he will be held as an illegal immigrant can be deported again because he is member of a foreign criminal gang, they said.

The uncompromising statement presented to a Maryland judge echoed the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Monday.

U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi insisted Abrego Garcia will not be allowed to enter or remain in this country. “He’s not a Maryland man. He’s part of foreign terrorist organization. He’s a member of MS-13,” she said.

Real leaders know how to admit when they’ve made a mistake, suck it up, apologize, and move on.

Sadly, real leadership is utterly lacking in Washington today.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/trump-s-lawyers-add-new-legal-hurdles-for-maryland-man-who-was-wrongly-deported/ar-AA1D3gNn

Mediaite: Sycophantic Pam Bondi [Bimbo #3] Falsely Tells Trump, ‘You Were Overwhelmingly Elected by the Biggest Majority’

President Donald Trump and his cabinet met at the White House on Thursday where, as is customary at Trump cabinet meetings, the attendees took turns praising the president.

Perhaps no official was more obsequious than Attorney General Pam Bondi, who again vowed to prosecute Tesla dealership vandals “to the fullest extent of the law.” But before laying out her accomplishments and to-do list, she paid tribute to Trump.

“President, we’ve had some great wins in the last few days,” she began before falsely stating. “You know, you were overwhelmingly elected by the biggest majority.”

“Americans want you to be president because of your agenda,” Bondi continued. “And the courts are ruling that you have the authority to determine how the money of this country will be spent. That’s what the American citizens wanted and that’s what they’re getting.”

Meanwhile back on Earth at ground level, the truth rears its head:

Of the 59 winning presidential campaigns in U.S. history, Trump’s 2024 win ranks 49th in terms of the percentage of the popular vote margin.

You’re truly an incredible suck-up, Bimbo #3!

And we are not done screaming!

Let’s stop pretending this is complicated.

Mel Gibson beat the mother of his child while she held their infant daughter. He didn’t just yell. He didn’t just lose his temper. He didn’t just “slip up” on tape. He punched Oksana Grigorieva in the face, broke her teeth, gave her a concussion, and followed it up with an unhinged voicemail so vile it could be used as an instructional video for abusers.

“I’ll put you in a rose garden,” he said.

“You’re going to answer one day, boy.”

“You need a bat in the side of the head.”

He gasped through the call like a beast trying to breathe through its own rage, threatening to kill her — and by extension, threatening every woman who’s ever been told by a man with power, “You’ll never get away.”

And now?

He’s armed again.

Because the U.S. government decided he deserved it.

MEL GIBSON DIDN’T EARN REDEMPTION — HE BOUGHT IT

This isn’t redemption. This is rot wrapped in celebrity.

Mel Gibson has never shown meaningful contrition. His public image rehab didn’t come from atonement. It came from Hollywood cowardice and right-wing forgiveness, the same people who will scream “family values” while handing a man like this a fresh Glock and a box of ammo.

The only thing Mel Gibson regrets is that we heard him.

But you know who doesn’t forget?

The woman who lost her teeth. The baby who watched her mother bleed. And the millions of survivors watching this play out, knowing the state just set a precedent:

You can beat her. You can terrorize her.

And if you’re rich enough, white enough, and famous enough,we’ll give you your guns back.

MEET PAM BONDI — THE ENABLER-IN-CHIEF

Let’s talk about Pam Bondi — Trump’s handpicked Attorney General, the same political leech who once helped delay investigations into Trump’s fake university and then miraculously received a donation.

She had a choice.

She saw the audio. Saw the broken teeth. Saw the threats. Saw the photo of a bruised face and read the transcript where Gibson practically foamed at the mouth promising violence. And she signed the paperwork anyway.

She chose to side with the man who said:

“You should just smile and blow me, because I deserve it.”

That’s who Pam Bondi sided with. That’s who she trusted with firearms. Because nothing says “law and order” like re-arming a domestic abuser with a track record of violent threats, racism, and open misogyny.

There’s no rehabilitation here. Just rot in high heels and a signature pen.

THEY FIRED THE ONE WOMAN WHO DID HER JOB

Elizabeth G. Oyer wasn’t a judge — she was the U.S. Pardon Attorney, and she did something almost unheard of in Washington: she told the truth.

She reviewed the case and said no. She said Mel Gibson posed a risk. She said this wasn’t just a bad headline — it was a dangerous precedent.

So what did they do?

They fired her.

Because in this Justice Department, integrity is a liability.

Let that sink in: the man who once screamed “You look like a f*ing pig in heat” got his rights restored, and the woman who objected is now unemployed.

This wasn’t justice. It was a goddamn warning.

THIS IS A HELL OF OUR OWN DESIGN

If you’re a survivor, what does this tell you?

It tells you that the law does not protect you. That even with audio, even with photos, even with broken teeth and a baby in your arms — the man who did it can still win. All he needs is a few million dollars and the right people in office.

It tells you that Pam Bondi will hand him a gun. That Hollywood will hand him another movie deal. That America will hand him a standing ovation if he stages his comeback with just the right mix of crocodile tears and Christian nationalism.

And it tells every abuser watching:

Be patient. Play the victim.The system was built for you.

CLOSING THOUGHTS — AND A CURSE FOR THE COWARDS

This isn’t just a miscarriage of justice.

This is institutional complicity dressed up as due process. A celebration of white male rage, given a second chance because the world still thinks power is proof of virtue.

Mel Gibson is not a victim. He is not misunderstood.

He is a man who beat a woman while she held a child — and he is now armed and empowered by the government.

To every coward who helped make that happen — to Pam Bondi, to the cowards in the Justice Department, to the agents of rot who traded conscience for loyalty:

May you one day sit across from a survivor and explain why his gun mattered more than her life.

We will not forget this.

And we are not done screaming.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/653010460701593

Irish Star: Pam Bondi [Bimbo #3] storms off in silence after refusing to answer questions on migrant claims

Attorney General Pam Bondi was caught skipping out of a press conference as she avoided answering a reporter’s question on migrants without criminal records sent to El Salvador….

“60 Minutes found that 75% of the immigrants who were sent to El Salvador do not have public criminal records. Is that true?” the correspondent asked as Pam Bondi stepped outside to take questions on immigration from reporters.

As part of her reply, Bimbo #3 & Airhead Extraordinaire says:

“So if you committed a murder in our country, we’re gonna keep you here and we’re gonna seek the death penalty and we’re gonna keep you in prison because our victims’ families deserve that, but we don’t have to charge them with every crime. We can deport them and get them out of our country and save room in our prisons because they should have never been in our country to begin with,” she finishes.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that the Venezuelans they’re deporting aren’t really criminals. And the reporter’s follow-up question:

The reporter continues to press her, as Bondi didn’t answer her original question. “So you confirmed they didn’t commit a crime, right?” asked the reporter.

Whereupon Bimbo #3 and Airhead Extraordinaire got flustered and stomped out:

At that point, Bondi turned around and left, ending the press session.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pam-bondi-storms-off-in-silence-after-refusing-to-answer-questions-on-migrant-claims/ar-AA1Cyd9W