Latest news with #Bondi
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Pam Bondi says she doesn't want new jet after The Independent exposes FBI plan for new airplane to shuttle her around
The FBI is seeking a new private jet, which will be used not only by the bureau's elite Critical Incident Response Group, but also for 'executive transportation' by FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi. However, following a report on Wednesday by The Independent about the intended acquisition, a spokesman for Bondi now claims the AG is against the purchase and wants nothing to do with it. 'The FBI has an independent procurement process for the director and their agents,' Department of Justice spokesman Gates McGavick told The Independent. 'Neither the attorney general nor other DOJ leadership knew about this and see no need for its use in Main Justice.' 'Main Justice' is the colloquial name for DOJ headquarters. A DOJ source said Bondi would like to see the FBI's request for proposals rescinded, and that she is happy with her present travel arrangements. At the same time, an FBI spokesman told The Independent that obtaining a new jet will actually be a money-saver for taxpayers. 'The plane in question is for critical functions such as hostage rescue team deployments, international operations, SWAT ops, and other national security related purposes – but the current lease structure is unnecessarily wasteful,' the spokesman said. 'As we've done with other assets, like moving the headquarters building, the FBI is evaluating available options to better serve the American people at a much lower and more efficient cost to the taxpayer.' The ultra-long-range business jet is meant to fly agents and other bureau personnel to far-flung global locations for counterterrorism response, 'high-risk operations,' and other 'sensitive missions,' according to procurement documents reviewed by The Independent. Alongside the government's request for proposals, a related statement of objectives says the aircraft 'will also support executive transportation requirements for the FBI Director and the U.S. Attorney General,' namely, Patel and Bondi. The feds want a plane that flies at speeds of Mach 0.83 or higher, with Mach 0.85 listed in the RFP as 'preferred.' It must have a minimum range of 7,000 nautical miles, be able to seat at least 12 passengers, three crew, and 1,000 lbs. of cargo, the RFP states. That means the feds need something along the lines of a Gulfstream G800, which seats 19 and can travel 7,000 nautical miles at Mach 0.90, or a Bombardier Global 8000, which seats 19 and can travel 8,000 nautical miles at Mach 0.94. No prices are included in the solicitation paperwork, but the G800 starts at about $72.5 million, while the base model Global 8000 lists for roughly $78 million. The FBI paid $2.4 million to lease a Gulfstream V for six months in 2016, after a procurement process marked by numerous deficiencies, according to an audit the following year by the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General. In May, Patel told legislators that the FBI was spending far beyond its means and was $1 billion in the red. The 45-year-old Las Vegas resident has been pilloried in recent months for his apparently robust use of the FBI's private jet fleet to make personal trips. Government officials are required to reimburse the cost of any flights – at commercial coach fares – that are not for official business. Patel has reportedly used government aircraft to visit Nashville, Tennessee, where his country-singer girlfriend lives, to go to hockey games in New York City, to go to Las Vegas and to attend at least one UFC fight in Miami, where he sat ringside with President Trump. In May, Senate Democrats requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office look into Patel's travel on government planes, which he is required to do, while at the same time making them unavailable for FBI emergencies. 'Those aircraft have been procured or leased specifically to support operational needs,' former FBI counterterrorism official Christopher O'Leary told CBS News in April. 'The concern is that the routine use of them by the director and deputy director for personal travel could take a critical resource offline when they are sometimes needed at a moment's notice.' Craig Holman, a governmental ethics and campaign finance expert at Washington, D.C. watchdog nonprofit Public Citizen, says the expenditure shows the Trump team going against its relentless claims of 'cost-efficiency.' 'For an administration that wants to put on a veneer of cutting waste, fraud and abuse in government spending, it sure doesn't have any qualms when it comes to lavish spending on expensive new jets and other luxuries for itself,' Holman told The Independent. '... Meanwhile, the administration is slashing spending on health care, education and worker safety for the rest of us.' Since Trump retook the White House in January, the administration has decimated school lunch programs, thrown millions off of Medicaid and enacted tax cuts that will boost incomes for the wealthy while raising taxes on working Americans, experts say. Before he took over as head of the FBI, Patel slammed then-FBI Director Christopher Wray for using bureau aircraft for personal trips, telling his podcast audience that Wray's flights should be 'ground[ed]. (Wray said he reimbursed the government for all personal use.) Bondi and Patel clashed earlier this year over the so-called Epstein files, the FBI documents related to its investigation of the notorious sex offender whose ties to the rich and famous, including Donald Trump, are now well-known. 'Dear Director Patel, Before you came into office, I requested the full and complete files related to Jeffrey Epstein,' Bondi wrote in a February 27 letter. '... Late yesterday; I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein. Despite my repeated requests, the FBI never disclosed the existence of these files.' The files have still not been released, with Bondi recently announcing that Epstein's hotly anticipated 'client list,' which she once said was 'on her desk' and ready for public dissemination, did not in fact exist.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pam Bondi Backs Out of Anti-Trafficking Summit over Medical Issue as Epstein Scandal Heats Up
Pam Bondi missed an anti-trafficking summit for an apparent medical issue on Wednesday, July 23, as she navigates blowback for withholding evidence in Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking case. The attorney general, 59, suddenly canceled her appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference's Summit Against Human Trafficking on Wednesday, citing a torn cornea, per Fox News. At the summit, acting assistant attorney general Matthew Galeotti read a statement to attendees from Bondi. "I'm sorry to miss all of my CPAC friends today. Unfortunately, I am recovering from a recently torn cornea, which is preventing me from being with you," the statement read. "I truly wish I was able to join you and support all of the work being done on this critical issue." A Justice Department spokesperson told PEOPLE that "her eye will take time to heal," but that she "remains extremely active and available" in the meantime. The DOJ did not elaborate on the circumstances or timing of her injury. Bondi's absence at the event comes as Republicans reckon with the Trump administration's hesitance to release all files about Epstein, a convicted sex offender and once-close friend of President Donald Trump. The GOP has made human trafficking a top point of concern for the party in recent years, and many MAGA loyalists have been waiting a long time to know what investigators uncovered in Epstein's trafficking case before his sudden 2019 death while he was awaiting trial. Trump promised during his 2024 presidential campaign that he would look into releasing more information about Epstein and the people close to him. Bondi herself has taken much of the heat from Trump's splintering base, after she and the FBI released a joint memo in early July that said there was "no incriminating 'client list' ... no credible evidence ... that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals," and no "evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties." Months before releasing the joint memo that sought to put Epstein rumors to bed, Bondi told Fox News that Epstein's reputed client list was "sitting on my desk," awaiting review. Bondi's skipped appearance at the CPAC summit fell on the same day as a bombshell report from The Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Bondi informed the president back in May that he was in the Epstein files "multiple times," then told him that she would not disclose any further details about the case to the public. Bondi allegedly cited sensitive victim details and presence of child pornography as her reasoning for withholding the remaining evidence, according to the Journal. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer. Last week, when asked by a journalist if he was told by his DOJ that he was in the Epstein files, Trump said "no," per PBS. The White House issued a statement in response, calling the Journal's report "another fake news story." Read the original article on People
The Independent
2 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Exclusive: Pam Bondi says she doesn't want new jet after The Independent exposes FBI plan for new airplane to shuttle her around
The FBI is seeking a new private jet, which will be used not only by the bureau's elite Critical Incident Response Group, but also for 'executive transportation' by FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi. However, following a report on Wednesday by The Independent about the intended acquisition, a spokesman for Bondi now claims the AG is against the purchase and wants nothing to do with it. 'The FBI has an independent procurement process for the director and their agents,' Department of Justice spokesman Gates McGavick told The Independent. 'Neither the attorney general nor other DOJ leadership knew about this and see no need for its use in Main Justice.' 'Main Justice' is the colloquial name for DOJ headquarters. A DOJ source said Bondi would like to see the FBI's request for proposals rescinded, and that he is happy with her present travel arrangements. At the same time, an FBI spokesman told The Independent that obtaining a new jet will actually be a money-saver for taxpayers. 'The plane in question is for critical functions such as hostage rescue team deployments, international operations, SWAT ops, and other national security related purposes – but the current lease structure is unnecessarily wasteful,' the spokesman said. 'As we've done with other assets, like moving the headquarters building, the FBI is evaluating available options to better serve the American people at a much lower and more efficient cost to the taxpayer.' The ultra-long-range business jet is meant to fly agents and other bureau personnel to far-flung global locations for counterterrorism response, 'high-risk operations,' and other 'sensitive missions,' according to procurement documents reviewed by The Independent. Alongside the government's request for proposals, a related statement of objectives says the aircraft 'will also support executive transportation requirements for the FBI Director and the U.S. Attorney General,' namely, Patel and Bondi. The feds want a plane that flies at speeds of Mach 0.83 or higher, with Mach 0.85 listed in the RFP as 'preferred.' It must have a minimum range of 7,000 nautical miles, be able to seat at least 12 passengers, three crew, and 1,000 lbs. of cargo, the RFP states. That means the feds need something along the lines of a Gulfstream G800, which seats 19 and can travel 7,000 nautical miles at Mach 0.90, or a Bombardier Global 8000, which seats 19 and can travel 8,000 nautical miles at Mach 0.94. No prices are included in the solicitation paperwork, but the G800 starts at about $72.5 million, while the base model Global 8000 lists for roughly $78 million. The FBI paid $2.4 million to lease a Gulfstream V for six months in 2016, after a procurement process marked by numerous deficiencies, according to an audit the following year by the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General. In May, Patel told legislators that the FBI was spending far beyond its means and was $1 billion in the red. The 45-year-old Las Vegas resident has been pilloried in recent months for his apparently robust use of the FBI's private jet fleet to make personal trips. Government officials are required to reimburse the cost of any flights – at commercial coach fares – that are not for official business. Patel has reportedly used government aircraft to visit Nashville, Tennessee, where his country-singer girlfriend lives, to go to hockey games in New York City, to go to Las Vegas and to attend at least one UFC fight in Miami, where he sat ringside with President Trump. In May, Senate Democrats requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office look into Patel's travel on government planes, which he is required to do, while at the same time making them unavailable for FBI emergencies. 'Those aircraft have been procured or leased specifically to support operational needs,' former FBI counterterrorism official Christopher O'Leary told CBS News in April. 'The concern is that the routine use of them by the director and deputy director for personal travel could take a critical resource offline when they are sometimes needed at a moment's notice.' Craig Holman, a governmental ethics and campaign finance expert at Washington, D.C. watchdog nonprofit Public Citizen, says the expenditure shows the Trump team going against its relentless claims of 'cost-efficiency.' 'For an administration that wants to put on a veneer of cutting waste, fraud and abuse in government spending, it sure doesn't have any qualms when it comes to lavish spending on expensive new jets and other luxuries for itself,' Holman told The Independent. '... Meanwhile, the administration is slashing spending on health care, education and worker safety for the rest of us.' Since Trump retook the White House in January, the administration has decimated school lunch programs, thrown millions off of Medicaid and enacted tax cuts that will boost incomes for the wealthy while raising taxes on working Americans, experts say. Before he took over as head of the FBI, Patel slammed then-FBI Director Christopher Wray for using bureau aircraft for personal trips, telling his podcast audience that Wray's flights should be 'ground[ed]. (Wray said he reimbursed the government for all personal use.) Bondi and Patel clashed earlier this year over the so-called Epstein files, the FBI documents related to its investigation of the notorious sex offender whose ties to the rich and famous, including Donald Trump, are now well-known. 'Dear Director Patel, Before you came into office, I requested the full and complete files related to Jeffrey Epstein,' Bondi wrote in a February 27 letter. '... Late yesterday; I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein. Despite my repeated requests, the FBI never disclosed the existence of these files.' The files have still not been released, with Bondi recently announcing that Epstein's hotly anticipated 'client list,' which she once said was 'on her desk' and ready for public dissemination, did not in fact exist.
Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
IRS considers eliminating non-English language tax services
Trump administration officials are considering eliminating multi-language services at the IRS, according to records obtained by The Washington Post and two people familiar with the situation, a move that would make it dramatically more difficult for non-English-speaking individuals to file their taxes. The people said the IRS is evaluating how to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order declaring English the official language of the United States — a power that some legal scholars say the president does not have. Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisal. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued guidance to federal agencies on July 14 on how to implement that order. It requires officials to release department-wide plans 'to phase out unnecessary multilingual offerings' and 'consider redirecting these funds towards research and programs that would expedite English-language acquisition and increase English-language proficiency and assimilation.' 'A shared language binds Americans together, transcending different backgrounds to create a common foundation for public discourse, government operations, and civic life, while leaving ample room for the vibrant linguistic diversity that thrives in private and community spheres,' Bondi's memo said. The United States by law does not require an official language, though Trump signed an order on March 1 declaring it 'in America's best interest for the Federal Government to designate one — and only one — official language.' 'Establishing English as the official language will not only streamline communication but also reinforce shared national values, and create a more cohesive and efficient society,' Trump's order states. In response to Bondi's guidance, Treasury Department officials wrote in emails Sunday that the IRS would need to revaluate the agency's 'Commitment to assist non-English speaking taxpayers understand their tax obligations states,' a policy that now requires it to serve 'those who lack a full command of the English language.' It may also need to review — and decide whether to cease providing — translations for more than 100 forms in Spanish and other languages, free phone and in-person translation services, the IRS's multi-language website, its Spanish-language social media accounts and programs that allow taxpayers to receive forms and notifications in the language of their choosing. Representatives from the White House and Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment. A Justice Department representative declined to comment. It's not clear how other federal agencies are will implement Trump's order. Bondi said, in her guidance, that she was ending the federal government's Limited English Proficiency services, which dictates how agencies serve individuals for whom English is not their first language or who struggle with English comprehension. The IRS's current civil rights policy says the agency 'does not tolerate discrimination by its employees against anyone because of age, sex, color, disability, race, religion, and national origin (including limited English proficiency).' The tax service eliminated its civil rights division in April. Separately, fears among Spanish-speaking taxpayers about the IRS's collaboration with immigration enforcement officials led to steep drops in tax compliance among immigrant communities in certain parts of the country. 'Somebody is calling usually because they have a problem, and if they can't get through to someone who speaks their language, it just delays everything,' said Carlos Lopez, who runs a multilingual tax prep service in Salinas, California. 'The people who are calling the IRS are looking for help for free, most of the time because they can't afford it. So what do you do? You don't pay.' The IRS in March renewed its contract for phone interpreter services, according to two other people familiar with the matter, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisal. Officials from the U.S. DOGE Service, the Trump administration's cost-cutting arm, had required the tax agency to review all of its expiring contracts. Senior IRS and Treasury Department officials agreed the interpreters were necessary, the people said, though the contract was renewed for only a handful of months. It is set to expire before the end of the year, one of the people said. It is unclear whether new IRS Commissioner Billy Long will continue the services. 'I believe maintaining multilingual options for how taxpayers engage the IRS is essential to the mission,' Danny Werfel, the IRS commissioner under the Biden administration, said in an interview. 'The IRS is charged with helping people and businesses meet their tax obligations. The more comprehensively the IRS does that, regardless of what language they do it in, the better the financial bottom line of our nation's government will be.' Building the IRS's multilingual capabilities was a priority of Trump's first-term IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig. The son of a German immigrant and the spouse of a native Vietnamese speaker, Rettig led the agency to provide tax-filing forms in Spanish beginning in 2021 and to translate the IRS's 20 most issued notices into Spanish, simplified and traditional Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian. That year, there were nearly 90 million visits to non-English pages on the IRS's website, the agency reported.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
AG Pam Bondi told Donald Trump his name appeared in Epstein files
Pam Bondi (Pic credit: AP) Attorney General Pam Bondi informed President Trump in the spring that his name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files, according to three people with knowledge of the exchange. The disclosure came as part of a broader briefing on the reexamination of the case against Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. It was made by Bondi during a meeting that also included the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, and covered a variety of topics. Bondi frequently meets with Trump to brief him on various matters, officials said. Bondi and Blanche, both of whom previously served as lawyers for Trump, informed the president that his name, as well as those of other high-profile figures, had come up in their reexamination of documents connected to the case that had not previously been made public. It is not clear how significant the references to Trump are. But the briefing sheds light on private West Wing discussions at a moment when the president's team is desperately trying to move on and quell the rebellion among those Trump supporters who feel that he - and some of his senior appointees - led them astray with claims that they would make the files available. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, would not address questions about the briefing, but called any suggestion that Trump was engaged in wrongdoing related to Epstein "fake news". by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Dementia Has Been Linked To a Common Habit. Do You Do It? Brain Health Learn More Undo Trump previously denied that Bondi had told him that he is in the files. The week of June 7, the White House received an inquiry from ABC News about the May briefing, according to administration officials. A week later, an ABC journalist asked Trump if Bondi had told him his name appeared in the files. He replied, "No, no," and said she had told him about the "credibility" of various things in the files. He went on to claim that they contained material manufactured by Democrats. The conversation between Trump and Bondi and Blanche was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. Bondi is also facing Democratic calls to testify before Congress about the revelation. Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, responded to the report by calling on Bondi and FBI chief Kash Patel to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
