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In Idaho, MAGA Party Official Snitches On GOP Legislator For Hiring 'Illegals'

One Republican state representative in Idaho was recently caught off-guard when a far-right political activist had Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sent to her potato farm.

According to Newsweek, Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen — who is serving her second term in Idaho House District 32A — is now publicly railing against Ada County, Idaho Republican Party vice chairman Ryan Spoon in an op-ed. Mickelsen recalled in a recent essay for the Idaho Statesman that Spoon had ICE agents deployed to her farm, which resulted in them arresting one farm worker roughly a week after Spoon tweeted at President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan. She didn't mention Spoon by name but referred to him as "someone working remotely for an insurance company who thinks he knows Idaho values and the [agriculture] business better than you do."

"Could you please send some illegal immigration raids to the businesses owned by Idaho state Rep. Stephanie Mickelson," Spoon wrote on January 21, misspelling Mickelsen's name. "She has been bragging about how many illegals her businesses employ."

Mickelsen wrote in her op-ed that her farm "complies with all applicable laws regarding employment and immigration," though she would also "welcome improvements to the laws and enforcement." But she didn't spare her critics among the GOP base who criticized her for acknowledging that large and influential sectors of the economy like agriculture are heavily reliant on immigrant labor.

"As a state representative, I’ve experienced this firsthand," Mickelsen wrote in her op-ed. "For honestly discussing real issues relating to immigration policy — recognizing both the need for border security and the reality that critical aspects of our economy depend on foreign workers — I’ve become the target of intimidation tactics designed to silence me."

On his social media channels, Spoon has repeatedly targeted Mickelsen over her comments about the outsized role undocumented labor plays in the American economy. He's also amplified content from an account called "Stop Idaho RINOs" [Republicans In Name Only] including a floor speech in which she cautioned her fellow Republicans against immigration measures that could harm the Gem State's economy. Newsweek also reported that a University of Idaho study found that roughly 35,000 undocumented immigrants work in Idaho's agriculture, hospitality and construction industries.

"If you guys think that you haven't been touched by an illegal immigrants' hands in some way, either your traveling or your food, you are kidding yourselves,' she said earlier this month.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Pleading Guilty To Felony Fraud, Bannon Escapes Prison, Vows Revenge

Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump and ally of white nationalists, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a fraud charge related to duping donors who gave to his “We Build the Wall” fundraising effort.

In exchange for the guilty plea in New York state criminal court, Bannon agreed to a three-year conditional discharge and waived his right to appeal. This means he will not receive any prison time, assuming he does not re-offend.

But he didn’t get off completely scot-free: Bannon will not be allowed to serve as an officer or director of a charity or any charitable organization in New York, or any fundraising or nonprofit organization in New York. He will also not be allowed to receive or hold assets for any charitable organizations, NBC News reports.

If he violates any terms of the deal, he could face between 1 ⅓ to 4 years behind bars, according to his plea deal.

“This resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement toUSA Today and other outlets, including NBC News.

Bannon was accused of defrauding New Yorkers who donated to “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraiser aimed at fulfilling a pet project of Trump’s during his first term in office. But the indictment alleged that Bannon and others had swindled donors who contributed more than $15 million for the 2019 alleged fundraising project.

While Bannon had said that all of the donations would go toward the construction of a southern border wall, authorities said Bannon redirected the funds elsewhere. In fact, Bannon had secretly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the group’s president, Brian Kolfage, through third-party entities, prosecutors said.

According to ABC News, Kolfage was paid $100,000 upfront and received monthly payments of about $20,000.

Kolfage and another man involved with the project, Andrew Badolato, previously pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2022 and were sentenced to prison.

The “War Room” podcast host was first indicted in 2022 on six charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud. The indictment from Bragg’s office alleged that Bannon orchestrated a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud those who donated to his “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign. The trial was set to begin next month.

Bannon had faced five felony counts, including money laundering and conspiracy charges, and faced a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison on the most serious charge.

The Trump ally wasn’t exactly repentant for his actions. In fact, after the hearing, he said he planned to call on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and to investigate Bragg, both of whom have successfully challenged Trump in court.

James, Bannon said, is an “existential threat to the Trump administration.”

This is not Bannon’s first time running afoul of the law. He spent four months in jail in 2024 after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a House select committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021.

So far, Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist for just seven months during his first term, hasn’t been brought into the second administration. He currently spends a lot of time raging about Elon Musk.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Treasury Security Staff Warns Against 'Insider Threat' From DOGE Hackers

The handful of young men Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has hired to help him gut various federal agencies are now reportedly being treated as a significant security risk.

Tech publication WIRED reported Friday that the threat intelligence team with one of the payment systems managed by the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) is now recommending that Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" (which is not yet a congressionally authorized federal agency) employees be monitored. An email to BFS information technology workers entitled "recommendations" explained the reasoning.

“There is ongoing litigation, congressional legislation, and widespread protests relating to DOGE’s access to Treasury and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,” the email read. “If DOGE members have any access to payment systems, we recommend suspending that access immediately and conducting a comprehensive review of all actions they may have taken on these systems.”

Last weekend, the New York Times reported that DOGE employees had gained access to the BFS' systems, which oversee the disbursement of roughly $6 trillion in annual federal government payments involving everything from Social Security and Medicare benefits to small business loans, government contracts and federal income tax returns, among others. One of the staffers reportedly had administrator-level access to those systems, and Talking Points Memo reported that staffer may have already made changes to the payment systems' source code.

“There is reporting at other federal agencies indicating that DOGE members have performed unauthorized changes and locked civil servants out of the sensitive systems they gained access to,” the “Recommendations” email read. “We further recommend that DOGE members be placed under insider threat monitoring and alerting after their access to payment systems is revoked. Continued access to any payment systems by DOGE members, even ‘read only,’ likely poses the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled in favor of plaintiffs who sued to block DOGE staffers from accessing those systems, meaning they have now been temporarily locked out while their access is being litigated. The staffer who is accused of changing the payment systems' code — 25 year-old Marko Elez — recently stepped down from his role after the Wall Street Journal linked him to a racist social media account. He was reportedly reinstated after Vice President JD Vance advocated for him to be rehired on Friday.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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Smart. Sharp. Funny. Fearless

In Idaho, MAGA Party Official Snitches On GOP Legislator For Hiring 'Illegals'

Pleading Guilty To Felony Fraud, Bannon Escapes Prison, Vows Revenge

Treasury Security Staff Warns Against 'Insider Threat' From DOGE Hackers

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