The Daily Grift

Nobody is coming to formally confirm what most of us already know.Today on the Daily Grift - we walk every receipt Donald Trump has paid Russia since the morning he first took the oath of office. The sanctions he tried to lift on day one. The press conference where he sided with Vladimir Putin over our own spy agencies. The afternoon he handed the Russian foreign minister classified intelligence that belonged to Israel, the day after firing the FBI director investigating him. The Kurds abandoned in Syria. The arms control treaties Russia wanted gone. New START allowed to expire. And the second-term sequel happening in real time, while Russia tells its own people the new sanctions are theater.Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.In other news:Last week, I published the final two essays in The Receipts: How Russia Bought an American President. Ten essays. This is the close.Essay 10A closes the loop on 2016 itself – the information warfare operation Russia ran on American voters, the bills Trump paid back once he got there, and the cover-up. Essay 10B goes deeper: where the playbook came from, how Russia field-tested it on Estonia, Georgia, and Ukraine before pointing it at America, and what it’s still pointing at right now.The Receipts · Essay #10A #10A From Asset to AuthoritarianA Kremlin propagandist named Konstantin Rykov sat down on Facebook in 2017 and casually confessed to the entire 2016 operation – Cambridge Analytica, the psychotype voter models, the timeline. “Our idea was insane, but realizable.” This essay closes the loop: the actual information warfare op, the bills Trump paid Russia back once he was in the chair, and the cover-up that’s kept half the country from believing it.Read Essay #10A →The Receipts · Essay #10B #10B The Playbook: How Russia Pulled It OffThe 2016 op wasn’t an improvisation. Russia had been running the same hybrid-warfare playbook – cyberattacks, information warfare, deniable special forces, all coordinated for a fait accompli – against Estonia, Georgia, and Ukraine for nearly a decade before they pointed it at America. The political-influence side goes back even further: a hundred years to Soviet front organizations. Same play, biggest target yet. And it’s still running.Read Essay #10B →The Full SeriesTen essays. Every sourced name, date, and dollar amount that the TV coverage keeps leaving out.Read the Full Series →Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.Podcast Sources* Trump Asked Tillerson to Drop Sanctions Against Russia - Yahoo News (Isikoff)* Trump Revealed Highly Classified Information to Russian Foreign Minister - Washington Post (May 15, 2017)* Trump Told Lavrov Firing Comey Took ‘Great Pressure’ Off - New York Times (May 19, 2017)* Israel Was the Source of Intelligence Trump Shared with Russia - NBC News* ‘Horrified’ Israeli Intel Officials Were Shouting at US Counterparts Over Trump Leak - Times of Israel* Trump Plans to Tear Up a 31-Year-Old Nuclear Weapons Treaty (INF) - Time* Trump Administration to Withdraw from Open Skies Treaty - Washington Post* Statement to the Conference on Disarmament (New START Expiry Confirmed) - U.S. State Department* Trump Pauses Military Aid to Ukraine After Oval Office Argument with Zelensky - CNN* Trump Officials Say US Paused Intelligence Sharing with Ukraine - CNN* Trump Eases Russian Oil Sanctions as Iran War Sends Prices Spiking - NBC News* Trump Administration Reverses Course, Extends Russian Oil Sanctions Waiver - The Hill* Russia Chides Donald Trump for ‘Bidenism’ After ‘Man-to-Man’ Agreement With Putin (Lavrov on Anchorage) - Newsweek* Mood in Russia Turns Bleak as War in Ukraine Drags On (Fifth Year) - Washington Post* Russian Receipts: How Russia Bought an American President - Essay Series Hub Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

Vladimir Putin has a rabbi. Jared Kushner’s family pays the rabbi’s organization. The FBI has known about it for six years.Today on the Daily Grift - I walk through a religious institution Putin built in 1999 with oligarch money, the $295M Manhattan real estate deal that connected it to Trump’s son-in-law, and the FBI memo that named Kushner as a Russian-money-laundering conduit. The Bureau gave the memo a case number, labeled it intelligence, and put it in a drawer. It only became public when a court forced its release a few months ago. And nobody seems to care.Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.In other news: Essay #9 of The Receipts: How Russia Bought an American President is live today.This one is the deal he lied about for two years straight. While Trump stood at rallies telling voters he had nothing to do with Russia, Michael Cohen was on the phone with the Kremlin negotiating Trump Tower Moscow. Felix Sater put it in writing: “Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it.”The Receipts · Essay #9 · New Today#9 The Deal: Trump Tower Moscow and the Biggest Lie of the CampaignWhile Trump told voters he had nothing to do with Russia, Michael Cohen was negotiating Trump Tower Moscow with the Kremlin. Felix Sater emailed: “Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it.”Read Essay #9 →The Receipts · Essay #8#8 The International Pipeline: How the Network Took Trump’s Brand GlobalPutin’s state bank financed Trump Toronto through KGB-linked companies. A broker for Trump Panama admitted half his buyers were Russian mafia. Kushner bought property from a Putin-allied oligarch through Deutsche Bank. Same network, three continents.Read Essay #8 →The Full SeriesTen essays. Every sourced name, date, and dollar amount the TV coverage keeps leaving out.Read the Full Series →Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.SourcesPodcast Sources* FBI Memo Says Israel “Compromised” Trump, Epstein Had Mossad Ties - Middle East Eye* The Odd Chabad Connection Between Putin and Trump - Washington Monthly* The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin - Politico* As Kushner Testifies, Real Estate Deal With Israeli Oligarch Scrutinized - Times of Israel* Why Is Putin’s Private Slush Fund Courting Jared Kushner - Foreign Policy* Chabad’s Long Faustian Bargain With Russia and Putin - Haaretz* Narco-a-Lago: Money Laundering at Trump Ocean Club Panama - Global Witness* Trump Toronto and Seabeco - NewsTRACS* VEB Russia Bank Spy Ring - BuzzFeed News* Russian Receipts: How Russia Bought an American President - Essay #8 The International Pipeline Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

There is a boring little piece of paper that has caught billions of dollars of drug cartel money, terrorist financing, and Russian oligarch cash since 1970 - and the Treasury Secretary of the United States just announced he wants to soften it.Today on The Daily Grift, we follow the ten-day window between a quiet FinCEN rule change and Scott Bessent’s public speech asking for even less enforcement, then we trace who actually wins when those rules go limp - starting with Mexican cartel casinos that got caught, and ending with the one German bank that has lent Donald Trump the better part of two billion dollars.Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.In other news:Essay #8 of The Receipts: How Russia Bought an American President is live today.The network went global — Toronto, Panama, three continents, same Russian money. All the sourced names and dollar amounts below.The Receipts · Essay #8 · New Today#8 The International Pipeline: How the Network Took Trump’s Brand GlobalPutin’s state bank financed Trump Toronto through a chain of KGB-linked companies. A broker for Trump Panama admitted half his buyers were Russian mafia. Kushner bought property from a Putin-allied oligarch and financed it through Deutsche Bank. Same network, three continents.Read Essay #8 →The Receipts · Essay #7#7 The Front Company: How Russian Intelligence Built a Business Inside Trump TowerBayrock Group set up shop in Trump Tower, staffed by a Soviet commerce official and a convicted felon turned FBI informant, funded by Kazakh oligarchs, and designed to move Russian money through luxury real estate. 77% of Trump SoHo units were bought with cash by shell companies formed days before purchase.Read Essay #7 →The Receipts · Essay #6#6 The Lifeline: Deutsche Bank, Russian Money, and Trump’s Only OptionAfter every major American bank cut Trump off following his Atlantic City bankruptcies, Deutsche Bank stepped in — and kept lending even after he defaulted and sued them. Deutsche Bank’s Moscow office was simultaneously running a $10 billion Russian money laundering scheme. The overlap is not a coincidence.Read Essay #6 →The Full SeriesTen essays. Every sourced name, date, and dollar amount the TV coverage keeps leaving out.Read the Full Series →Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.Podcast Sources* Treasury Secretary Speech on AML Modernization - U.S. Department of the Treasury* **FinCEN Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Bank Secrecy Act Enforcement - FinCEN.gov*** Treasury Sanctions Mexican Casinos for Sinaloa Cartel Money Laundering - OFAC* Deutsche Bank Loaned Trump $2 Billion Over Two Decades - CNBC* Deutsche Bank and Trump: A Bond Born of Necessity and Ambition - The New York Times* Deutsche Bank $425M Mirror Trades Enforcement Action - NY DFS* Deutsche Bank’s $10 Billion in Suspicious Russian Transactions - OCCRP* The Compliance Officer Who Flagged Epstein and Kushner - The Lever* The Epstein Whistleblower Who Was Silenced - Jacobin* Trump’s Chicago Tower Debt Forgiven by Deutsche Bank - CBS News* Trump Taj Mahal Fined $10 Million for Money Laundering Violations - FinCEN* Wachovia Bank Laundered $378 Billion of Mexican Cartel Money - Bloomberg* Binance $4.3 Billion Settlement for BSA Violations - U.S. Department of Justice* Decade in the Red: Trump Tax Figures - The New York Times* Why Did Deutsche Bank Keep Lending to Donald Trump? - ProPublica Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

Before we go any further with my Russian Receipts essay series, we need to talk about the elephant in the room.I still see commenters saying the whole Trump-Russia connection was a hoax. That it was overblown. That Mueller cleared everyone.That’s absolutely, positively not true.I took the weekend to put this episode together so we could clear that up before I go any further. Today’s episode explains what the Mueller report actually said, in its own words, and why calling it a hoax was a frame job run by Trump’s own attorney general.Tomorrow I’m back with the next installment of The Receipts. But we can’t walk the next ten essays together until we’ve walked this one first.PODCAST SOURCES* Mueller Report, Volumes 1 and 2 (DOJ archives)* Barr’s March 24, 2019 letter to Congress* Mueller’s March 27, 2019 response letter to Barr* Senate Intelligence Committee Report, Volume 5* Judge Reggie Walton ruling on Barr’s handling of the Mueller Report (EPIC v. DOJ)* Bill Barr Notre Dame Law School Speech, October 2019* Iran-Contra Christmas Eve 1992 pardons (Bush White House archive)* Donald Barr, Space Relations (1973) Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

Every decade, the vehicle changes. The customers stay the same.In 1984, it was condos. Shell companies, all cash, Trump at the closing. Now it’s a memecoin dinner where 19 of the top 25 holders are likely foreign nationals - and the agencies that are supposed to stop it have been gutted from the inside. Today, I trace the full 40-year pipeline from Trump Tower to World Liberty Financial and ask the question nobody in Washington wants to answer.Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.In case you missed it, this week I published four essays in The Receipts: How Russia Bought an American President – ten sourced essays documenting the case that Russia’s relationship with Donald Trump didn’t start in 2016. It started in 1977.I’m taking the weekend off. Essays resume Monday morning at 8 AM Central.If you’re new to the series, all four published essays are below. Start with Essay #1 or hit the button at the bottom to read the introduction first.The Receipts · Essay #4#4 Brighton Beach: How the Russian Mob Set Up Shop in Trump’s BuildingsThe Jackson-Vanik Amendment opened American doors to 600,000 Soviet emigrants. It also let in the Russian mafia. By the 1980s, Brighton Beach was the headquarters of America’s most ruthless criminal organization – and Trump’s buildings were their preferred address. The FBI documented it.Read Essay #4 →The Receipts · Essay #3#3 The Invitation: How the Soviet Union Rolled Out the Red Carpet for Donald TrumpIn July 1987, Trump flew to Moscow at the invitation of Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin – via Intourist, a known KGB front. He came home and immediately spent $95,000 on newspaper ads attacking NATO, echoing Soviet talking points almost word for word. Two months later he was publicly mulling a presidential run.Read Essay #3 →The Receipts · Essay #2#2 The Test: Trump Tower Was Open for Business and the Mob Came ShoppingTrump Tower opened in 1983 and immediately became a magnet for dirty money. Baby Doc Duvalier, Russian mob operative David Bogatin, and mob-connected gambling kingpin Robert Hopkins all bought condos with cash through shell companies. BuzzFeed traced 1,300+ suspicious shell company purchases totaling $1.5 billion across Trump properties.Read Essay #2 →The Receipts · Essay #1#1 The Mark: The KGB Had a Checklist for Picking Targets and Trump Checked Every BoxThe KGB literally wrote down what kind of person they were looking for – ambitious, egotistical, susceptible to flattery. Czech intelligence had been monitoring Trump since 1977 through his wife Ivana’s father, an StB informant. Roy Cohn connected him to the Russian mob. The recruitment profile was a perfect match.Read Essay #1 →The Full SeriesTen essays. Every morning at 8 AM Central. All the names, dates, and dollar amounts the TV coverage keeps leaving out.Start from the BeginningThanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.Podcast Sources* Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos to Unknown Buyers - BuzzFeed News* Trump’s Russian Laundromat - The New Republic* Top Trump Crypto Buyers Vying for Dinner Seats Are Likely Foreign - Bloomberg* Trump’s World Liberty Financial Uses 5 Billion WLFI to Borrow $75 Million - CoinDesk* Trump Pardons Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao - CNBC* Trump Pardon for Binance CEO Was ‘Corruption’ - Former DOJ Pardon Attorney - Newsweek* Justice Department Office That Prosecutes Public Corruption Slashed in Size - NBC News* Firings, Pardons and Policy Changes Have Gutted DOJ Anti-Corruption Efforts - NBC News* The Real Backstory to the Arrest of Two Ukrainian-American Trump Donors - Campaign Legal Center* Trump Tower Moscow: The Definitive Story - BuzzFeed News* Steve Witkoff Is Still Holding Trump-Linked Crypto Assets - Bloomberg* World Liberty Financial Has Borrowed Millions Against Its Own Token - The Defiant* He Championed the Trumps’ Crypto Venture. Now He’s Attacking It - WSJ Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

The whisper network just beat the political establishment.Eric Swalwell - sitting US Congressman, frontrunner for California governor, prime-time cable news fixture - is out in 72 hours, accused of raping a former staffer twice and sending unsolicited graphic messages to at least three other women. The Manhattan DA opened a criminal investigation. The House Ethics Committee opened a formal probe. And the version of this story you saw on social media is asking whether Roger Stone did it.Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.In other news:We’re on day two of The Receipts: How Russia Bought an American President in Ten Acts – ten sourced essays, one every morning at 8 AM Central. Today’s installment is about Trump Tower as a money laundering destination for the Russian mob, Baby Doc Duvalier, and shell company buyers BuzzFeed traced to .5 billion in suspicious purchases.Yesterday’s essay – the one about the KGB recruitment checklist and Czech intelligence’s file on Trump dating to 1977 – is linked below if you missed it.Russia Receipts · Essay #2#2 The Test: Trump Tower Was Open for Business and the Mob Came ShoppingTrump Tower opened in 1983 and immediately became a magnet for dirty money. Baby Doc Duvalier, Russian mob operative David Bogatin, and mob-connected gambling kingpin Robert Hopkins all bought condos with cash through shell companies. BuzzFeed found 1,300+ suspicious shell company purchases totaling \.5 billion across Trump properties. He never asked where the money came from.Read Essay #2 →Russia Receipts · Essay #1#1 The Mark: The KGB Had a Checklist for Picking Targets and Trump Checked Every BoxThe KGB literally wrote down what kind of person they were looking for – ambitious, egotistical, susceptible to flattery. Czech intelligence had been monitoring Trump since 1977 through his wife Ivana’s father, an StB informant. Roy Cohn connected him to the Russian mob. The recruitment profile was a perfect match.Read Essay #1 →The Full SeriesTen essays. Every morning at 8 AM Central. All the names, dates, and dollar amounts the TV coverage keeps leaving out.Start from the Beginning →Podcast Source List* Eric Swalwell to resign from Congress following sex assault allegations - CalMatters* Swalwell faces pressure to resign from Congress as former staffers denounce alleged misconduct in new letter - CNN* House Ethics Committee investigating sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell - NBC News* Manhattan DA investigating sexual assault allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell - CBS News* Swalwell Faces Allegations of Sexual Assault and Misconduct - NOTUS* California Rep. Eric Swalwell denies sexual assault allegations following SF Chronicle report - ABC7 San Francisco* Swalwell Defenders Blame Roger Stone Amid Accusations - National Today* Katie Porter and influencer behind Swalwell allegations don’t have a relationship to speak of, campaign says - CBS News* Lisa Rubin on X - Mrs. Frazzled MS NOW quote* Tony Gonzales admits affair with aide who died by suicide - Texas Tribune* Rep. Tony Gonzales to resign from Congress amid backlash over sexual misconduct allegations - Texas Tribune* 50 Former Staffers Release Statement Calling on Swalwell to Resign from Congress - Legal Insurrection Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

The ceasefire is two days old and every piece of it has a price tag.Someone turned $13,200 into $467,000 betting on the Iran ceasefire hours before Trump announced it - while Trump Jr. holds a financial stake in the platform it happened on. Meanwhile, Trump pitched a toll booth on the Strait of Hormuz, Israel killed 254 people in Lebanon the same day it was excluded from the deal, and Pete Hegseth’s broker tried to buy weapons stocks before the war started.Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.In other news:Four essays dropped yesterday, and they all connect to the same throughline: people in power doing exactly what they were paid to do — and counting on you not to notice. Let’s go.The CIA Director’s Grandson Just Threatened the PopePete Hegseth’s top policy aide — grandson of CIA director William Colby — invoked the Avignon Papacy to warn Pope Leo XIV to stay in his lane. That’s not a history lesson. That’s a threat dressed up in 700-year-old precedent.The Pentagon doesn’t usually threaten popes. When it does, it’s worth asking who authorized it, why now, and what exactly the new pope said that made the Defense Department nervous enough to reach for medieval blackmail.Read more →Israel Poisoned Lebanon’s Farms. Then Killed the 262nd Reporter.Glyphosate doesn’t just kill crops. It kills the people trying to document what happened to the crops. Mohammed Wishah was the 262nd journalist killed in this conflict. He was covering the agricultural destruction when he was shot.The evidence keeps piling up. The witnesses keep disappearing. That’s not a coincidence — that’s a pattern.Read more →Altman Proposes Taxing Robots While Selling Them to the PentagonSam Altman wants a robot tax. He also just signed a deal to sell AI systems to the Defense Department. The company that dropped its ethics policy lost the bid. The one that kept them got the contract. Draw your own conclusions about what “ethics” actually means here.The sleight of hand is impressive: propose a safety net for the workers your products are replacing, while cashing the government check for deploying those same products at scale.Read more →Epstein Helped Bannon Design the Authoritarian Playbook. Vance Is Running It.This one connects some dots that have been sitting in plain sight. Bannon and Epstein were in contact during the period when the authoritarian movement playbook was being drafted. JD Vance — Thiel’s guy, Bannon’s ideological heir — is now in a position to run it.The strategy was never improvised. It was designed. And the people who designed it knew exactly where they wanted to end up.Read more →That’s the grift for today. Share what’s useful, ignore what isn’t, and I’ll see you tomorrow.// Go DeeperLatest PostsIntelligence OperationsSteve BannonCover-UpsIf this is useful, tip the writer.Venmo | PayPal | Ko-fiPodcast SourcesIran Prediction Market Bets on Polymarket Raise Questions Over Insider Activity - BloombergPotential Insiders Made $600K Predicting US and Iran Ceasefire on Polymarket - Yahoo FinanceNewly Created Polymarket Accounts Profit from Insider Bets on US-Iran Ceasefire - NYC TodayWith Casino Empire Gone, Trump Family Bets on Prediction Markets - CNNTrump Administration Sues Three States Over Attempts to Regulate Prediction Markets - NPRTrump Says US Could Charge for Strait of Hormuz Passage Amid Iran War - Al JazeeraTrump Floats a Toll-Charging Venture with Iran in Strait of Hormuz - Washington TimesIran Demands $1 Per Barrel of Oil Passing Through Strait of Hormuz, Paid in Crypto - The HillTrump Says Lebanon Not Included in US-Iran Ceasefire Amid Israeli Assault - Al JazeeraIsrael Says Iran Ceasefire Doesn’t Apply to Lebanon, Strikes Central Beirut - PBSIran War Updates: Israel Kills 254 in Lebanon After US-Iran Agree Ceasefire - Al JazeeraPete Hegseth’s Broker Sought Defense ETF Before Iran Attack - SalonMorgan Stanley Broker Explored Defense Investment for Hegseth Ahead of Iran Strike - AdvisorHubTrump Wants Strait of Hormuz Open Without Limitation During Iran Ceasefire - CNBC Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

The president told the nation the war is almost over. The Pentagon is asking for $200 billion. The money goes to companies owned by the Deputy Defense Secretary’s old firm. And the FBI got hacked three times by the country we are bombing - after the director fired the team that was supposed to be watching them.Today’s episode follows the money from Trump’s Wednesday address to the defense contractors to the Deputy Secretary’s office and asks the question nobody on cable news bothered to ask: who profits from the $200 billion?Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.In other news:The FBI director fired the team that tracks Iran – then got hacked by Iran. Ohio passed a drag ban co-sponsored by a man accused of climbing into bed with a minor. And the CDC stopped testing for rabies because there’s barely anyone left who knows how. Three stories about what happens when the people in charge care more about the performance than the job.Kash Patel Got Hacked by Iran After Firing the Team That Tracks IranThree FBI breaches in one month. Kash Patel fired the Iran counterintelligence team days before Iran-linked hackers breached his personal email. A separate breach hit the bureau’s classified network in March. A third compromised FBI devices at Mar-a-Lago. The FBI director who gutted internal security is now the FBI director with the worst security record in bureau history.Read the full story ->Ohio’s “Protect the Children” Drag Bill Was Co-Sponsored by a Man Accused of Climbing Into Bed with a MinorOhio’s HB 249 bans drag performances anywhere a minor could be present. Co-sponsor Rodney Creech was accused by a 15-year-old of climbing into bed with her and touching her while she slept. The bill’s author, Josh Williams, rallied alongside neo-Nazis at a Proud Boys event. The law passed anyway.Read the full story ->Trump Gutted the CDC and Now There’s One Person Left to Handle a Rabies CrisisThe CDC pulled rabies and poxvirus testing from its lab directory after Trump-era cuts gutted staffing by 20 to 25 percent. The rabies team will be down to one person by July. The pox team will have nobody. The acting director runs the CDC and NIH simultaneously from hundreds of miles apart. The proposed budget cuts CDC funding by 42 percent. The World Cup starts this summer.Read the full story ->That’s the grift. Three institutions – the FBI, a state legislature, a federal health agency – all hollowed out by people who wanted the title but not the responsibility. More at rachelandthecity.com.Trump and Every President Before Him Has Been Selling You Fear on PurposeA graphic design grad reverse-engineers the White House war propaganda – the Call of Duty edits, the Mortal Kombat audio over real missile strikes, the Braveheart clips – and finds the same playbook every president has used. Make you afraid of the right things so you stop asking questions. The monster changes. The business model doesn’t.Read the full story ->// Go Deeper on rachelandthecityLatest PostsSteve BannonTrump – Bondi ConnectionSCOTUSPODCAST SOURCESTrump Address to the Nation on Iran - NPRIran War May Give Defense Contractors $200 Billion Windfall - TIMECracks Emerge in GOP Over Iran War Cost - CNNTrump’s War on Iran Could Cost Trillions - The InterceptThe Trump Administration’s Reckless War in Iran Has Already Cost More Than $5 Billion - Center for American ProgressDocuments Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate - ProPublicaHow DOGE Government Spending Cuts Are Hampering the US Government Amid War with Iran - CNNBy the End of the Week the Iran War Will Likely Have Cost $25 Billion - Center for American ProgressHegseth Says Potential $200 Billion Iran War Spending Request Could Shift - CNBCIran’s Ex-Foreign Minister Kharazi Gravely Wounded in Attack on His Home - Al JazeeraSurprise: Iranian Ex-Official Involved in Peace Talks Was Just Bombed - The New Republic Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

The law is working exactly as redesigned - it just depends on who you are.Today’s episode follows 23,000 criminal cases the DOJ quietly dropped to triple immigration prosecutions. Then we trace how an oil lobbyist’s name ended up in the metadata of the letter he wrote against pollution rules - and how he’s now running the EPA office that writes them. And we close with a pardoned nursing home owner who walked after three months, while his victims haven’t seen a dime.Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.In other news:The FBI director fired the agents investigating him, then got sued for it. Meanwhile, Israel’s parliament passed a death penalty law that applies to one ethnic group but not another – and the guy who pushed it wore a noose pin to the vote.Kash Patel Is Being Sued By Agents He Fired for Investigating HimKash Patel was subpoenaed in the same January 6th and Mar-a-Lago cases he’s now using as a firing list. Three FBI agents who worked those investigations just filed a class action lawsuit after being terminated. The FBI director is purging the people who investigated the crimes he was personally involved in – and calling it reform.Read the full story ->Netanyahu Just Passed a Death Penalty Law That Applies to Palestinians but Not Jewish IsraelisIsrael’s Knesset voted to make the death penalty mandatory for Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis – while Jewish Israeli citizens get the option of life imprisonment for the same crime. Two different legal tracks, sorted by ethnicity. Itamar Ben-Gvir showed up to vote wearing a decorative noose pin on his lapel. Israel hadn’t executed anyone since Adolf Eichmann in 1962.Read the full story ->Both of these stories are about the same thing: people in power using the legal system to protect themselves and punish everyone else. One’s doing it at the FBI. The other’s doing it at the Knesset. The mechanism is different. The math is the same. More at rachelandthecity.com.// Go Deeper on rachelandthecityLatest PostsKash PatelTrafficking & ExploitationBondi – Epstein ConnectionPODCAST SOURCESTrump DOJ Dropped 23,000 Criminal Investigations in Shift to Immigration - ProPublica EPA’s Aaron Szabo Once Helped Write Oil Industry Argument Against Methane Rules - ProPublica Whitehouse Blasts EPA Nominees for Defending Polluters, Role in Project 2025 - Senate EPW Committee Bondi Dropped Thousands of Criminal Probes to Investigate Immigrants - The New RepublicTrump’s DOJ Drops 1,000+ Terrorism Cases While Promising to ‘Make America Safe’ - Raw Story Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

Happy April Fool’s Day. Today’s episode is about the oldest trick in Washington: the promise of reform.Congress spent Q1 swearing it would pass a stock trading ban. Q1 just ended. Congress went on vacation. Meanwhile, the Deputy Attorney General killed crypto enforcement while personally holding crypto - and nobody is being held accountable for any of it. And we close with two numbers you need to hear at the same time: $220 million, and 366. Listen to find out why they belong together.Today’s episode is up now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Link in bio.In other news:The Defense Secretary’s broker tried to buy war stocks before the bombs dropped. Memphis cops pepper-sprayed the people keeping protesters safe. And the guy who wrote the White House’s AI policy quit so he could fund the politicians who’ll protect it. Three stories about the same thing: the people with the most power using it to make sure nobody else gets any.Pete Hegseth’s Broker Tried to Buy Defense Stocks Weeks Before the Iran War StartedPete Hegseth’s Morgan Stanley broker called BlackRock in February asking about putting several million into a defense industry ETF – weeks before the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran. The investment didn’t go through because the fund was too new to process. The Pentagon denied the Financial Times report. The STOCK Act has a $200 fine and no teeth. 86% of Americans want a trading ban. Congress has an honor system.Read the full story ->Memphis Police Pepper-Sprayed the Protest Marshals at the No Kings MarchSeveral thousand people marched peacefully through downtown Memphis on Saturday for No Kings. Minutes before it ended, police rolled up, deployed pepper spray, and arrested three people – the march’s own safety marshals in orange vests. The charge was “obstructing a highway,” a brand-new Tennessee law sponsored by a Republican state senator. Trump declared Memphis his model city last week. The city sent its answer back.Read the full story ->David Sacks Wrote Trump’s AI Policy Then Quit to Fund the Politicians Who’ll Keep ItDavid Sacks spent a year as Trump’s AI czar shaping deregulation policy. Then he stepped down and backed a $100 million PAC to elect candidates who’ll protect what he built. Total AI industry midterm spending now tops $300 million. They’ve already won 10 of 11 primaries where they spent money. Polling shows bipartisan skepticism toward AI – but the demand for deregulation isn’t coming from voters. It’s coming from the people spending $300 million to make sure voters don’t decide.Read the full story ->The full investigation lives at rachelandthecity.com. Start with the suspects, or dig into the GriftMatrix.// Go Deeper on rachelandthecityLatest PostsDavid SacksEpstein & WexnerPODCAST SOURCESLawmakers said they wanted to rein in their own stock trading. What happened? - Roll Call Complaint Accuses Trump’s Criminal Attorney of “Blatant” Crypto Conflict in His Role at DOJ - ProPublica Documents Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate - ProPublica March 22, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson / Letters from an American Partial DHS shutdown drags past 6 weeks as Congress remains split - NBC16/AP CREW and 7 organizations tell Congress: oppose the Stop Insider Trading Act - CREW Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

If you read the essays below, you know the No Kings math and why Elizabeth Warren's two-cent tax makes billionaires act like the revolution is coming. Today on the podcast: Bank of America just paid $72.5 million for looking the other way while Jeffrey Epstein ran a trafficking operation through their accounts - and they're the third bank to settle. The DOJ admitted it's sharing your voter registration data with DHS. And Pete Hegseth personally blocked four Army officers from becoming generals. Every institution is doing something other than its actual job. Hit play.In case you missed it…8 Million People Showed Up Saturday. The Number That Actually Matters Is 11.5 Million.The No Kings movement hit 8 million across 3,300 events in all 50 states – the largest single-day protest in US history. But Harvard’s Erica Chenoweth found no nonviolent movement has ever failed once it hit 3.5% of the population. That’s 11.5 million. Saturday was 2.4%. The growth is real but compressing, and the White House is betting this is the ceiling.Read the full story ->Elizabeth Warren Asks Billionaires for Two Pennies on the Dollar and You’d Think She Proposed GuillotinesWarren’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act would charge 2% on net worth above $50 million and 3% above $1 billion. It would raise $6.2 trillion over ten years – enough to fund universal child care, free college, and Medicare expansion. The Forbes 400 pay a 24% effective rate. The general population pays 30%. The bill won’t pass. That’s the point.Read the full story ->The full investigation lives at rachelandthecity.com. Start with the suspects, or dig into the GriftMatrix.// Go Deeper on rachelandthecityLatest PostsDonald TrumpThe BreakdownCorruption of PowerIf this kind of work matters to you, the tip jar is always open:Venmo | PayPal | Ko-fiPODCAST SOURCESBank of America agrees to pay $72.5 million to settle Epstein survivors suit - NBC NewsBank of America reaches $72.5 million settlement in Epstein lawsuit - CBS News Epstein victims to get $72.5M from Bank of America settlement - CNBC Bank of America settles with Epstein victims for $72.5 million - American Banker Wyden Statement on Bank of America Settlement with Epstein Survivors - Senate Finance Committee DOJ plans to share states' sensitive voter data with DHS - NPR The Justice Department plans to share sensitive voter data with Homeland Security - NHPR Headlines for March 30, 2026 - Democracy Now! DHS funding lapse is now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history - NBC News Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

This weekend, nine million Americans showed up to the largest single-day protest in US history - in all 50 states, including deep red Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. The White House called them a leftist funding network. Then Congress left for a two-week vacation during the longest government shutdown in American history. Meanwhile, the oil futures insider trading story keeps getting worse, and a federal judge blocked the Pentagon from blacklisting an AI company for refusing to build autonomous weapons, calling it "Orwellian." The grift isn't even pretending anymore. Hit play.In other News:Bernie Sanders and AOC want to freeze every new data center in America until Congress regulates AI. Noble idea. One problem: the tech giants are already supply-constrained and would love nothing more than a government-enforced moat around their existing capacity. One story this week about a bill that accidentally does Big Tech’s job for it.Bernie Sanders Turned an Instagram Rant Into a Data Center Bill Nobody Will PassSanders and AOC dropped a bill to halt all new data center construction until Congress passes AI regulation. The market is already supply-constrained – Microsoft alone has $80 billion in unfulfilled Azure orders because it can’t find enough electricity. Freezing the supply side doesn’t reduce demand. It just locks in the incumbents and pushes construction offshore where there are zero environmental rules.Read the full story ->The full investigation lives at rachelandthecity.com. Start with the suspects, or dig into the GriftMatrix.// Go Deeper on rachelandthecityLatest PostsTech OligarchyGriftMatrixThe BreakdownIf this kind of work matters to you, the tip jar is always open:Venmo | PayPal | Ko-fi Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe

This is The Daily Grift - a new daily podcast from me, Rachel Hurley. It’s news for people who are sick of the news. Every morning, I dig through the day’s biggest political stories and find the grift - the corruption, the cover-ups, the hypocrisy, the money trails, the quiet power grabs that both parties should find outrageous but somehow nobody is talking about. I connect the dots so you don’t have to. No spin, no sides - just receipts. Today’s episode: TSA agents haven’t been paid in five weeks but found time to build a quiet surveillance pipeline feeding your flight data to ICE. A jury just handed Meta its Big Tobacco moment with internal documents showing they knowingly hooked children. The feds are buying your cell phone location data without a warrant through a loophole Congress left wide open. And Minnesota still can’t get the names of the federal agents who killed two American citizens. Every one of these stories is the same story. Hit play.In other news: The Army will take your bad knees, your weed conviction, and your 42-year-old spine – but not your trans identity. Meanwhile, Tennessee is building a public database of trans patients’ medical records and calling it “transparency.” Two stories this week about who gets to exist in public and who gets erased from it.Hegseth Kicked Out the Queers to Replace Them With Potheads and Old DudesThe Army raised its maximum enlistment age to 42 and dropped the Pentagon-level waiver for marijuana convictions. The recruiting pipeline is so broken they’ll take anyone – except the 15,000 trans troops Pete Hegseth already fired. Replacing that expertise will take 20 years and cost $18 billion.Read the full story ->Tennessee’s “Transparency” Bill Is a Trans Registry With Extra StepsHB 754 requires doctors to hand over trans patients’ prescription dates, dosages, counties, and full psychiatric histories to the state – which then publishes it all online in downloadable format. The bill doesn’t need names when it has everything else. Doctors who refuse face license suspension.Read the full story ->The full investigation lives at rachelandthecity.com. Start with the suspects, or dig into the GriftMatrix.// Go Deeper on rachelandthecityLatest PostsPete HegsethCorruption of PowerThe BreakdownIf this kind of work matters to you, the tip jar is always open:Venmo | PayPal | Ko-fi Get full access to Rachelandthecity at rachelandthecity.substack.com/subscribe