…Most of the #intelligence community, including the #CIA & the #NSA, agreed w/that assessment.
Only one agency, the #FBI [#KashPatel], partly dissented. It maintained the gang has a connection to the admin of #Venezuela’s #authoritarian president, Nicolás #Maduro, based on information the other agencies did not find credible.
The disclosure calls into question the credibility of #Trump’s basis for invoking a rarely used wartime #law, the #AlienEnemiesAct of 1798, to transfer a group of #Venezuelans to a high-security prison in #ElSalvador last weekend, with no #DueProcess.
The #intelligence community assessment concluded that the gang, #TrenDeAragua, was not directed by #Venezuela’s govt or committing crimes in the #US on its orders….
#Intelligence Assessment Said to Contradict #Trump on #Venezuelan Gang
To invoke wartime #deportation powers, Trump asserted that #Venezuela’s government controls a gang. #US intelligence analysts think that is not true.
#FactCheck #TrumpLies #law #immigration #AlienEnemiesAct #CivilRights #AbuseOfPower #USpol
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/us/politics/intelligence-trump-venezuelan-gang-alien-enemies.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=21DD7CD1-6F5B-45F9-BC48-4DAA303CD5DD
Dutton wrong to claim interest rates 'always' lower under Coalition #AusPol #FactCheck #DuttonLies
Joseph Rillotta, a senior #IRS lawyer, wrote that “no one” at the IRS had taken into account the performance of the probationary workers set to be fired. Rillotta urged that the language be struck from the draft termination letter.
If the falsehood wasn’t removed, Rillotta said he would file a report w/the #InspectorGeneral for the IRS.
Emails Reveal Top #IRS Lawyer Warned #Trump Firings Were a #Fraud on the Courts
The Trump admin cited “performance” failures to justify its #MassFiring of IRS workers. But this claim was “false,” a senior agency attorney warned officials, because the admin had not conducted any such performance assessment.
#FactCheck #TrumpLies #law #DOGE #Musk #TrumpPurge #Congress #PowerOfThePurse #FederalAgencies #SeparationOfPowers #judiciary #ConstitutionalCrisis #authoritarianism
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-irs-firings-doge-fraud-law-job-performance
