Category: Judicial Watch
Local sheriff refuses to help ICE with immigration enforcement around the Super Bowl
Santa Clara County Sheriff Bob Jonsen bizarrely pledged not to work with federal agents while claiming such non-cooperation would result in increased safety for residents.
Ahead of Super Bowl LX at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the local sheriff said he is refusing to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
‘We will not be working or supporting ICE immigration enforcement.’
The Trump administration has warned illegal aliens that there would still be enforcement around the Super Bowl, which takes place on February 8, but Sheriff Jonsen told residents he will not assist the Department of Homeland Security or its agents.
“We are gonna be here for you, side by side,” Jonsen said about his own officers. “So as you’re getting off those trains, … high probability you’re going to see somebody in uniform. But if they’re not masked, if they’re wearing tan and green or blue or black, trust me, they are there for your protection.”
Jonsen told reporters on Thursday that if residents or visitors see masked law enforcement who are “trying to hide their identity,” that means “somebody hasn’t communicated” with his department.
“We’ve made it very clear to our officers — our workforce is to be open, transparent, and engaged with this community for the next few weeks,” the sheriff added.
At that point, Jonsen made it clear to his constituents that his department would not be working alongside the immigration enforcement officers.
RELATED: Former Vikings player says ‘demonic’ Minnesota Democrats are upset ICE is ‘deporting their voters’
“I urge our federal partners — if there is something that you’re planning to do in our community, please be transparent and reach out to your local officials so we can work as best we can,” Jonsen announced to federal authorities.
“As mentioned, we are not going to be changing our policies or protocols. We will not be working or supporting ICE immigration enforcement,” he added.
In October, special adviser to Homeland Security Corey Lewandowski warned illegal aliens that if they went to the Super Bowl, there would be “repercussions to that.”
He added, “Just as there are if you are in any other neighborhood in this great country.”
DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin told TMZ this week that her department is still “committed to working with” local partners to ensure safety around the Super Bowl.
“Our mission remains unchanged,” McLaughlin noted.
RELATED: Wife of Super Bowl champion launches GOP campaign for Democrat-controlled NJ congressional seat
Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
The Santa Clara sheriff positioned his department as wanting to protect the level of trust it has built with its community over “decades” and expressed that he wants federal authorities to communicate their plans to him so he can relay it to his city.
Jonsen urged his constituents to contact “somebody wearing a uniform” if they see ICE operations unfolding.
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‘USADF is garbage’: Senior US foreign aid official will plead guilty to taking kickbacks, lying to feds
The U.S. African Development Foundation, a foreign aid agency that poured millions of taxpayer dollars into African initiatives over the past four decades, desperately fought the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency and audit its finances.
It’s now painfully obvious why there was so much resistance to transparency at the U.S. Agency for International Development-adjacent outfit.
Months after government watchdog Judicial Watch sued the USADF for records regarding its expenditures and in the wake of allegations that agency officials were abusing their positions and misusing funds, the USADF’s director of financial management, Mathieu Zahui, is now admitting wrongdoing.
‘The USADF Director of Financial Management’s fraudulent acts betrayed the trust of the American people.’
Zahui, an official who denied DOGE access to the agency’s financial records last year, has agreed to plead guilty to taking secret payments and lying to federal law enforcement officers about those payments.
“Mathieu Zahui is charged with accepting payments from a government contractor and then abusing his position by directing USADF funds to that contractor for little-to-no work,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement on Friday. “Corruption by senior officials representing the United States cheats American taxpayers and rigs the system against honest work.”
RELATED: ‘STOP THE SCAMS!’ Trump announces new office in DOJ dedicated to investigating fraud
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The Justice Department indicated in court documents obtained by Rikki Ratliff-Fellman, chief content officer for Glenn Beck, and shared with Blaze News that Zahui, 59, arranged for the USADF to pay vendors and contractors through a Kenya-based company owned by a government contractor Zahui has known since 1999.
“Zahui arranged for ADF to pay certain vendors and contractors through Company-1 rather than pay them directly,” the DOJ noted in the filing. “Zahui then approved invoices for Company-1 and CC-1 that included mark-ups ranging from 17% to 66% on these pass-through invoices, even when Company-1 did no work justifying the mark-up.”
The company belonging to Zahui’s associate submitted over 20 pass-through invoices for the African Development Foundation for which Zahui had USADF shell out at least $617,625.49. His associate’s company allegedly kept $134,886.34 of that sum as a mark-up for “logistical support.”
Between 2019 and 2022, Zahui personally and directly received $12,000 in cash payments, the DOJ alleged.
Zahui and his associate’s company unsurprisingly failed to disclose the details of their little arrangement to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which oversaw and authorized USADF’s payment to external parties.
Adding insult to injury, Zahui told federal agents when interviewed in 2024 that he had never received any kickback from his friend’s company.
The USADF financial director has, however, since agreed to plead guilty to one count of accepting gratuities from his associate’s company and one count of making a false statement to a federal law enforcement officer. He faces a maximum of two years in prison for the first charge and five years in prison for the second.
Peter Marocco, former director of the Office of Foreign Assistance and USAID deputy administrator, wrote in response to the agreement, “USADF is garbage. A culture of defiant fraud, waste and abuse that must come to an end. This is only scratching the surface. Abolish it!”
“The USADF Director of Financial Management’s fraudulent acts betrayed the trust of the American people,” said Sean Bottary, the acting assistant inspector general at the USAID’s Office of Inspector General.
Zahui’s guilty plea apparently will not be the end of the crackdown on USADF.
“There are active investigations as we dig deeper into the African Development Foundation’s egregious and systemic fraud, waste, and abuse,” Marocco told Blaze News. “After battling obstructionist efforts to block the president’s executive order, the more we dig, we find evidence of intimidating whistleblowers and other outrageous conduct.”
“This rogue agency is rotten waste to the core, and it needs to be defunded,” added Marocco.
The USADF was one of the agencies President Donald Trump ordered the elimination of “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” in February 2025.
Blaze News has reached out to USADF for comment.
Editor’s note: This story has been edited after publication to clarify how Blaze News obtained the documents and to add comment from Peter Marocco.
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Congress needs to go big or go home
Last week marked one year since President Trump returned to the White House with a mandate to reshape America’s future after four long years of the Biden administration’s failures.
Overnight, illegal crossings at the southern border were brought to a halt. DEI initiatives that picked winners and losers based on group identity were eliminated from the federal government. Lethality returned as the rightful marker of success in our nation’s military.
Despite holding a majority, Republicans in Congress have produced a historically low volume of legislation, leaving much of the Trump agenda uncodified and the deep state intact.
Under President Trump, Americans finally have leaders willing to put them first. But despite a record number of executive orders and a landmark reconciliation package that delivered the largest tax cut in American history, $140 billion for border security, and the elimination of the $200 tax stamp on National Firearms Act items, the job isn’t done yet.
Obamacare’s broken framework continues to get more expensive each year — both for taxpayers and enrollees. Young Americans remain priced out of the American dream, unable to afford a home. And despite holding a majority, Republicans in Congress have produced a historically low volume of legislation, leaving much of the Trump agenda uncodified and the deep state intact.
These challenges are precisely why Republicans were elected: to fix the mess Washington created. We cannot coast into November on “tax cuts,” nor can we pretend that the nation’s most urgent challenges will be solved through uncodified executive orders or rogue discharge petitions.
We need decisive action to address the crises facing the nation. We need to make the American dream affordable again. Congress needs the structure, discipline, and publicity of a new reconciliation bill that forces lawmakers to prioritize results and deliver tangible outcomes for the American people.
It’s time to go big or go home. Despite prediction markets giving Republicans a 76% chance of losing the majority in the House, many lawmakers don’t seem to care. Just last week, 81 Republicans joined Democrats to fund the National Endowment for Democracy — a rogue CIA cutout that fuels global censorship and domestic propaganda. Many of those same Republicans had praised the Department of Government Efficiency just months prior for freezing the NED’s funding.
Likewise, 46 Republicans joined Democrats to vote against defunding the office of federal district court judge James Boasberg, who repeatedly uses nationwide injunctions to override duly executed federal law and substitute his own radical policy preferences for those of the president.
A few short years ago, Democrats attempted to lock Trump in prison and throw away the keys.
Republicans, by contrast, can hardly muster the courage to dispense with a rogue judge.
Meanwhile, much of the work of the American people remains to be done. While the House has passed Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act twice, the Senate refuses to put it up for a vote on the floor.
On health care, members of the House Freedom Caucus have offered Americans an alternative to Obamacare’s failing architecture with market-based solutions that lower costs. Yet House moderates in our ranks, by contrast, have doubled down on stupid, joining Democrats to pass an extension of Biden’s $448 billion temporary COVID subsidies, which thankfully stalled in the Senate.
RELATED: This is what happens when a state elects a ‘moderate’ Democrat
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Despite a good-faith effort from the administration on home ownership, Americans need more than solutions that subsidize demand. High interest rates, illegal immigration, and absurd capital gains taxes are crushing the market.
If Republicans don’t act now, we may not get the opportunity again. Democrats are on record clearly stating their intention to derail the administration with subpoenas and impeachments should they assume the majority in the House. We are a nation nearly $39 trillion in debt. Americans are sick of rhetoric and half measures.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed in July 2025. If, 12 months later, we can only offer the American people last year’s accomplishments, do we expect them to believe we are legislating on their behalf?
The Republican Study Committee recently released a strong blueprint for a new reconciliation bill. The legislation would put more homes on the market by eliminating capital gains taxes on sales to first-time buyers. It includes health care reforms that empower Americans to direct their health care dollars toward insurance plans that best meet their individual needs, rather than those of their employers. The proposal also cuts over $1.6 trillion in government spending, returning a semblance of fiscal responsibility to Congress.
Republicans were elected to enact Trump’s America First agenda, not to manage decline and finance the status quo. If members of Congress fail to seize this moment, they will have no one to blame but themselves when voters decide it’s time to send them home.
Jewish Voice for Peace Teams Up With Abolish ICE Group To Push for Government Shutdown
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the fringe anti-Zionist group with a history of supporting Palestinian terrorism and peddling propaganda demonizing Israel, joined forces with an Abolish ICE group to pressure senators to strip funding from ICE and Border Patrol.
The post Jewish Voice for Peace Teams Up With Abolish ICE Group To Push for Government Shutdown appeared first on .
Judicial Watch Sues Director of National Intelligence for Records on China Corruption Report
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for records of its preparation of a congressionally mandated report on the wealth and corrupt activities of the Chinese Communist Party (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (No. […]
The post Judicial Watch Sues Director of National Intelligence for Records on China Corruption Report appeared first on Judicial Watch.
Justice Dept Admits to Criminal Investigation into U.S. African Development Foundation Following Judicial Watch Lawsuit
Whistleblowers’ Years-Long Efforts Vindicated (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced that, in a status conference hearing today related to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking documents regarding corruption at the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF), the U.S. Department of Justice publicly announced an ongoing criminal investigation related to the agency. This announcement comes […]
The post Justice Dept Admits to Criminal Investigation into U.S. African Development Foundation Following Judicial Watch Lawsuit appeared first on Judicial Watch.
The Spectacle Ep. 320: Can ICE Save Minnesota From Democrat Corruption & Their Illegal Immigration Schemes?
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‘They can’t take us all down’: Actor Giancarlo Esposito declares it’s ‘time for a revolution’ in unhinged rant
“Breaking Bad” actor Giancarlo Esposito has a message for old white men: If you want civil war, you might just get it.
The 67-year-old told a reporter at the Sundance Film Festival that it is “time for a revolution” and that the powers that be “don’t even know that’s what they’re starting.”
‘They’ll kill 500, 50 million, however [many], but the rest of us would survive with a new [world].’
Esposito, who has also starred in “The Mandalorian” and “Better Call Saul,” elaborated on his theory at the premiere of his latest project on Tuesday in Park City, Utah.
Fring-a-ling
“You know, some very rich old white men are exerting their power to suppress our own people, thus creating a feeling of civil war in the streets, preparing the haters to hate, teaching them how to shoot — they’re not even trained right — to kill,” he explained. “This is all preparation for a very insidious problem that’s happening in our world.”
Esposito then told a reporter from Variety that while tens of millions may die from a revolution, the rest would get to live on in the new world.
RELATED: Sundance VIPs take 10-minute protest break in between screenings
Collateral damage
“I have to speak out that we will not be ICE’d out,” the actor continued. “This is not going to happen. They can’t take us all down. If the whole world showed up on Putin’s doorstep or on the Iranians’ doorstep or in Washington, it would stop [them]. They’ll kill 500, 50 million, however [many], but the rest of us would survive with a new [world].”
The TV actor went on to say that the unnamed forces don’t know what the revolution is that they are starting, but “we have to be strong enough to know that we can change the world. We have to change it from within.”
“Not by deporting immigrants” and “not by killing off brown … people,” the actor stressed.
RELATED: Brave Hollywood stars hit Sundance red carpet in defiance of ICE ‘gestapo’ terror
Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Talk show
This year’s Sundance has seen the “premiere” of many celebrity political opinions. Edward Norton, for example, wowed audiences by comparing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Nazi gestapo.
Not to be upstaged, actress Natalie Portman told Deadline that what the Trump administration is doing is “really the worst of the worst of humanity,” while actor Elijah Wood of “Lord of the Rings” fame showed up for a 10-minute demonstration on Main Street to protest ICE with cell phones.
Wood said “folks” had been “unlawfully gunned down in Minnesota” and that the crowd at Sundance is “coming together” and is not divided.
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