logo
DOJ staffer is fired after feds discover she's married to radical behind anti-ICE app

DOJ staffer is fired after feds discover she's married to radical behind anti-ICE app

Daily Mail​22-07-2025
A Department of Justice employee has claimed she was fired when the feds discovered her husband developed an anti-ICE phone app.
Carolyn Feinstein, who is married to ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron, said she was unfairly removed from her post in 'retribution' against her partner's work.
The ICEBlock app sets out warning signals to users when ICE agents are within a five-mile radius of their location, allowing targets to flee.
After Aaron was exposed online for creating the app, Feinstein said she was terminated from her post as a forensic accountant after almost a decade working for the DoJ.
'This was retribution. I was fired because of the actions, or activism, of my husband,' Texas -based Feinstein told the Daily Beast on Monday.
'It is insulting to me because I dedicated myself and my career to serving the people of the United States, and now the DOJ is claiming I was attempting to harm some of them. And that's not true.'
Feinstein, who specializes in bankruptcy fraud, said she felt 'targeted' because of her husband's app, which has been downloaded almost one million times.
Aaron had not been hiding his role in creating the app - he spoke with CNN in June explaining how the app works, and faced fierce criticism from MAGA fans afterward.
The ICEBlock app (pictured above) sets out warning signals to users when ICE agents are within a five-mile radius of their location, allowing targets to flee federal agents
'When I saw what was happening in this country, I wanted to do something to fight back,' Aaron told CNN.
He went on to compare the Trump administration's immigration crackdown to purges carried out by the Nazi regime in 1930's Germany.
'We're literally watching history repeat itself,' he said.
The interview prompted a flood of MAGA rage online, while Trump administration officials like border tsar Tom Homan and ICE acting director Tom Lyon called on the DoJ to investigate the matter.
'We will not be intimidated. We will not be deterred,' Aaron told The Daily Beast at the time.
'As long as ICE agents have quotas, and this administration ignores people's Constitutional rights, we will continue fighting back. No human is illegal.'
Feinstein said she responded by telling her bosses about her relationship with Aaron.
'Since we live in the same house, I thought it was pertinent to contact my employer, the DOJ, to notify them of death threats that were coming in and just in case I needed to be out of the office, so they would be prepared,' she told the Daily Beast.
Feinstein was then contacted by officials who asked her about her association with the ICEBlock app.
'I informed them in so many words that I really didn't have any relationship or involvement in the app, I was married to the creator,' she said.
But Homan said he had contacted the DoJ airing concerns about the connection. He told NewsMax that 'all (Aaron is) doing is giving a heads up to criminals'.
'The DOJ's looking at it, and they need to throw some people in jail,' he said.
Feinstein says she received her termination note 'within 24 hours' of Homan's Newsmax interview airing.
A DoJ spokesperson told the Daily Beast the department had spent 'several weeks' investigating Feinstein's activities and discovered that she has interests in the company that holds the IP for the ICEBlock app.
Feinstein argued that her minority shareholder status in All U Chart Inc is just a safety net so that 'if Joshua were incapacitated, or further, I have the ability to shut it down'.
'ICEBlock is an app that illegal aliens use to evade capture while endangering the lives of ICE officers,' a DoJ spokesperson told the Daily Beast.
They added that the department 'will not tolerate threats against law enforcement or law enforcement officers.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Higher US tariffs part of the price Europe was willing to pay for its security and arms for Ukraine
Higher US tariffs part of the price Europe was willing to pay for its security and arms for Ukraine

The Independent

time5 hours ago

  • The Independent

Higher US tariffs part of the price Europe was willing to pay for its security and arms for Ukraine

France's prime minister described it as a 'dark day' for the European Union, a 'submission' to U.S. tariff demands. Commentators said EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen's handshake with President Donald Trump amounted to capitulation. The trouble is, Europe depends mightily on the United States, and not just for trade. Mirroring Trump, Von der Leyen gushed that the arrangement she endorsed over the weekend to set U.S. tariff levels on most European exports to 15%, which is 10% higher than currently, was 'huge.' Her staff texted reporters insisting that the pact, which starts to enter force on Friday, is the 'biggest trade deal ever.' A month after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte ingratiated himself with Trump by referring to him as 'daddy,' the Europeans had again conceded that swallowing the costs and praising an unpredictable president is more palatable than losing America. 'It's not only about the trade. It's about security. It's about Ukraine. It's about current geopolitical volatility. I cannot go into all the details,' EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič told reporters Monday. 'I can assure you it was not only about the trade,' he insisted, a day after 'the deal' was sealed in an hour-long meeting once Trump finished playing a round of golf with his son at the course he owns in Scotland. The state of Europe's security dependency Indeed, Europe depends on the U.S. for its security and that security is anything but a game, especially since Russia invaded Ukraine. U.S. allies are convinced that, should he win, President Vladimir Putin is likely to take aim at one of them next. So high are these fears that European countries are buying U.S. weapons to help Ukraine to defend itself. Some are prepared to send their own air defense systems and replace them with U.S. equipment, once it can be delivered. 'We're going to be sending now military equipment and other equipment to NATO, and they'll be doing what they want, but I guess it's for the most part working with Ukraine,' Trump said Sunday, sounding ambivalent about America's role in the alliance. The Europeans also are wary about a U.S. troop drawdown, which the Pentagon is expected to announce by October. Around 84,000 U.S. personnel are based in Europe, and they guarantee NATO's deterrent effect against an adversary like Russia. At the same time, Trump is slapping duties on America's own NATO partners, ostensibly due to concerns about U.S. security interests, using Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, a logic that seems absurd from across the Atlantic. Weaning Europe off foreign suppliers 'The EU is in a difficult situation because we're very dependent on the U.S. for security,' said Niclas Poitiers at the Bruegel research institution in Brussels. 'Ukraine is a very big part of that, but also generally our defense is underwritten by NATO.' 'I think there was not a big willingness to pick a major fight, which is the one (the EU) might have needed with the U.S.' to better position itself on trade, Poitiers told The Associated Press about key reasons for von der Leyen to accept the tariff demands. Part of the agreement involves a commitment to buy American oil and gas. Over the course of the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fourth year, most of the EU has slashed its dependence on unreliable energy supplies from Russia, but Hungary and Slovakia still have not. 'Purchases of U.S. energy products will diversify our sources of supply and contribute to Europe's energy security. We will replace Russian gas and oil with significant purchases of U.S. LNG, oil and nuclear fuels,' von der Leyen said in Scotland on Sunday. In essence, as Europe slowly weans itself off Russian energy it is also struggling to end its reliance on the United States for its security. The Trump administration has warned its priorities now lie elsewhere, in Asia, the Middle East and on its own borders. That was why European allies agreed at NATO's summit last month to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more on defense over the next decade. Primarily for their own security, but also to keep America among their ranks. The diplomacy involved was not always elegant. 'Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win,' Rutte wrote in a private text message to Trump, which the U.S. leader promptly posted on social media. Rutte brushed off questions about potential embarrassment or concern that Trump had aired it, saying: 'I have absolutely no trouble or problem with that because there's nothing in it which had to stay secret.' A price Europe feels it must pay Von der Leyen did not appear obsequious in her meeting with Trump. She often stared at the floor or smiled politely. She did not rebut Trump when he said that only America is sending aid to Gaza. The EU is world's biggest supplier of aid to the Palestinians. With Trump's threat of 30% tariffs hanging over European exports — whether real or brinksmanship is hard to say — and facing the prospect of a full-blown trade dispute while Europe's biggest war in decades rages, 15% may have been a cheap price to pay. 'In terms of the economic impact on the EU economy itself, it will be negative,' Poitiers said. 'But it's not something that is on a comparable magnitude like the energy crisis after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or even COVID.' 'This is a negative shock for our economy, but it is something that's very manageable,' he said. It remains an open question as to how long this entente will last. ___

Report: Blackstone executive identified as victim in NYC shooting
Report: Blackstone executive identified as victim in NYC shooting

Daily Mail​

time5 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Report: Blackstone executive identified as victim in NYC shooting

The shooting took place at a skyscraper that is home to the headquarters of both the NFL and Blackstone, one of the world's largest investment firms, as well as other tenants. After spraying bullets in the lobby, the gunman took the elevator to the 33rd floor, where real-estate management firm Rudin Management is based, and killed another person before turning the gun on himself. The Rudin family - a New York real estate dynasty - owns the building. 'We lost four souls to another senseless act of gun violence,' said Mayor Eric Adams . The gunman had a 'documented mental health history,' according to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, but his motive was still unknown. The rampage happened at the end of the workday in the same part of Manhattan where the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare was gunned down outside a hotel late last year. Tamura's motive for the massacre remains unclear as of Tuesday morning. Blackstone employees shared messages during the rampage saying there was a shooter in the lobby and warning not to go downstairs, an employee told the WSJ. Some started barricading themselves in their offices and bathrooms. One of those injured is an NFL employee, commissioner Roger Goodell said in a letter to staff. The employee was reportedly seriously injured but is in stable condition at the hospital. Surveillance video showed the man exiting a double-parked BMW just before 6.30pm carrying an M4 rifle, then marching across a public plaza into the building. Then, he started firing. Slain NYPD officer Islam (pictured), 36, was an immigrant from Bangladesh who had served as a police officer in New York City for 3 1/2 years, Tisch said at a news conference. He was one of two NYPD officers working paid detail at the building. 'He was doing the job that we asked him to do. He put himself in harm's way. He made the ultimate sacrifice,' Tisch said. 'He died as he lived. A hero.' Tisch said an initial investigation shows the gunman's vehicle traveled across the country, passing through Colorado on July 26, then Nebraska and Iowa on July 27. The car was in Columbia, New Jersey, as recently as 4.24pm Monday. He drove into New York City shortly thereafter, she said.

CNN anchor Erin Burnett blasted for describing NYC shooter as 'possibly white'
CNN anchor Erin Burnett blasted for describing NYC shooter as 'possibly white'

Daily Mail​

time5 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

CNN anchor Erin Burnett blasted for describing NYC shooter as 'possibly white'

CNN anchor Erin Burnett is facing scrutiny after describing the gunman who killed four people in Midtown Manhattan overnight as 'possibly white' despite surveillance footage showing he was not. Burnett angered some on social media on Monday night after describing gunman Shane Tamura, 27, from footage shared by authorities showing him holding an AR-15. Tamura was seen walking into the 345 Park Avenue skyscraper with 'sunglasses, mustache, male, possibly white' Burnett and her co-anchor said. Images of Tamura strolling into the scene with the gun by his waist circulated widely across social media, with many remarking that he had a darker complexion that Burnett's description. Although some said that the shooter's race was 'irrelevant', others said Burnett was premature in her assessment live on the air. It comes as authorities said that Tamura, from Nevada, killed four people in a horror spree on Monday before turning the gun on himself. Investigators said that it is possible he was targeting the National Football League, which is located at 345 Park Avenue. He was found with a letter on his body indicating he had grievances with the NFL and its handling of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after the rampage. In the note he railed against the NFL and pleaded for his brain to be studied. 'Terry Long football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze,' Tamura wrote, according to CNN. 'You can't go against the NFL, they'll squash you.' The shooter was referring to former Pittsburgh Steeler Terry Long, who committed suicide by drinking antifreeze in 2006 after suffering from CTE. 'Study my brain please I'm sorry Tell Rick I'm sorry for everything,' the note read. Tamura killed three people in the lobby of the skyscraper - NYPD officer Didarul Islam, a 36 year-old father of two, as well as a second unnamed security guard who tried to take cover behind a security desk, as well as an undentified woman who tried to hide behind a lobby pillar. A third man was shot and critically-injured in the lobby. Tamura then called an elevator and rode to building management firm Rudin's 33rd floor offices where he shot his fourth victim - whose identity has not been released. Tamura subsequently ended the massacre by taking his own life.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store