FBI Raided Secret Service Agent's Home In Charity Tax Fraud Probe

The FBI recently raided the home of a Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance’s detail in an alleged tax and wire fraud case involving millions of dollars in donations and grants.

In the alleged scheme, the agent accepted donations to a charity that purports to help inner-city youth and victims of domestic violence but didn’t provide the services it reported to the IRS, according to several knowledgeable sources in the Secret Service community.

The raid, which took place on or around Dec. 8, was the culmination of more than a year of work by a joint FBI-IRS investigation that the Secret Service joined in recent months, the sources said. Federal investigators have interviewed more than a dozen Secret Service agents, some of whom contributed to the nonprofit at the center of the probe, which is run by an agent on Vance’s detail.

The Secret Service has placed the agent on unpaid administrative leave and suspended his security clearance, signs that the agency considers the potential crimes and misconduct extremely serious, even though the individual has not been arrested, according to sources familiar with the matter.

RealClearPolitics has reached out to the USSS and has been told a statement is forthcoming.

The alleged fraud could further bruise the Secret Service, which is facing retention problems as it struggles to regain its once elite reputation after two Trump assassination attempts last year. In addition to potential criminal prosecution, the Secret Service agent could face internal insider threat allegations for demonstrating poor judgment and possible criminal intent.

“This is bigger than the 2012 prostitution scandal because agents are trained to investigate tax and bank wire fraud – anyone involved knew what they were doing was illegal,” one source remarked.

In 2012, more than a dozen Secret Service agents and other personnel were placed on administrative leave, and several were eventually fired after their superiors discovered they had hired prostitutes during a trip to Colombia to prepare for then-President Obama’s visit to the Summit of the Americas.

The agent whose home was raided is listed as the founder and chairman of the charity’s board of directors on tax documents filed with the IRS.

The charity in question purports to provide laptops to young inner-city youth in its “Laptops for Hope Program” – at least some of which are laptops donated by the Secret Service because they are beyond their warranties, according to knowledgeable sources. Investigators, however, are looking into whether laptops discovered in the basement of the agent’s home were ever donated to the youth or whether there were plans to do so.

In tax documents, the charity states that its mission is to provide “emergency assistance to survivors of domestic violence, financial literacy, preventing childhood obesity, & [stet] supporting families affected by HIV/AIDS in VA, MD, DC, & GA.”

https://realclearwire.com/articles/2025/12/22/fbi_raided_secret_service_agents_home_in_tax_fraud_probe_153663.html

Largest Acquisition In Nvidia History: Jensen Pays $20BN For AI Chip Startup In Bid For Google's TPU Tech

Just before the market close on Friday, Nvidia unveiled its largest ever acquisition (which however was structured as a licensing deal to avoid anti-trust concerns) when it agreed to buy Groq - pardon license all of Grok's assets and acquire its entire executive team - a designer of high-performance artificial intelligence accelerator chips, for $20 billion in cash. In reality what the deal is really about is Grok's TPU expertise, and specifically the knowledge inside CEO Jonathan Ross' head, who helped launch Google's TPU, the search giant's custom Application-Specific Integrated Circuit.

The news was first reported by CNBC, citing Alex Davis, CEO of Disruptive, which led the startup’s latest financing round in September. Davis, whose firm has invested more than half a billion dollars in Groq since the company was founded in 2016, said the deal came together quickly (that part is true: the deal likely came together in the days following the recent dramatic ascent of Google's Gemini and TPU architecture, not to mention stock price, as explained below).

Groq raised $750 million at a valuation of about $6.9 billion in September. Investors in the round included Blackrock and Neuberger Berman, as well as Samsung, Cisco, Altimeter and 1789 Capital (where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner). Groq said at the time it would use the funds to expand its data center capacity. Instead, the participating funds are about to 3x their money in 3 months, an unprecedented venture return, thanks to Nvidia's massive cash hoard.

Groq said in a blog post on Wednesday that it’s “entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia for Groq’s inference technology,” without disclosing a price. Clearly, however, this is much more than just a licensing agreement since Groq founder and CEO Jonathan Ross along with Sunny Madra, the company’s president, and other senior leaders “will join Nvidia to help advance and scale the licensed technology,” the post said.

As Bloomberg explains, sharing a slightly different perspective on how the deal is structured or rather wants to be structured, the world’s largest publicly traded company paid for the right to use Groq’s technology and will integrate its chip design into future products. Some of the startup’s executives are leaving to join Nvidia to help with that effort, the companies said.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/largest-acquisition-nvidia-history-jensen-pays-20bn-ai-chip-startup-bid-googles-tpu-tech

Zelensky: Ukrainians Are Wishing Death Upon Putin For Christmas

https://youtu.be/pT5N_zzqMeU

Politico Frames European Christmas Celebrations as ‘Far-Right Spectacle’

Politico is framing the celebration of Christmas as a “far-right” front in Europe, arguing that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her party have made it a “spectacle.”

Conservative social media users blasted the left-wing outlet’s Wednesday article, “How the far right stole Christmas,” authored by Rome correspondent Hannah Roberts.

“Not a ‘far right’ concept.. politico is such a joke,” wrote podcast host Mel K:

In the Christmas Eve piece, Roberts wrote that the holiday “is becoming a new front line in Europe’s culture wars,” with so-called “far-right” parties and politicians “claiming the festive season as their own.”

The evidence?: Meloni’s defense of public Nativity scenes and other long-standing Christmas traditions in her majority-Catholic country.

“In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made the defense of Christmas traditions central to her political identity. She has repeatedly framed the holiday as part of the nation’s endangered heritage, railing against what she calls ‘ideological’ attempts to dilute it,” Roberts wrote.

She continued to frame Europe’s conservative parties as “far-right” for preserving Christian culture, writing, “France’s National Rally and Spain’s Vox have similarly opposed secularist or ‘woke’ efforts to replace religious imagery with neutral seasonal language, and advocated for nativity scenes in town halls.”

“In Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has warned that Christmas markets are losing their ‘German character,’ amplifying disinformation about Muslim traditions edging out Christian ones,” she stated.

Former Republican congressional candidate Robby Starbuck wished Politico a “Merry Christmas” while calling them “commies.”

https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2025/12/24/politico-frames-european-christmas-celebrations-far-right-spectacle/

Settler reservist rams ATV into praying Palestinian in West Bank; IDF launches probe

Settler reservist rams ATV into praying Palestinian in West Bank; IDF launches probe

By Noam Lehmann

Footage published by Palestinian media shows a settler who is an IDF reservist driving an ATV into a Palestinian kneeling for prayer on the side of the road near the village of Deir Jarir, north of Ramallah in the West Bank.

The silent video shows the Palestinian falling over and lying in a heap as the settler, who has a semi-automatic rifle slung over his back, gets off the tractor and yells at him, gesturing for him to leave the area. The settler is then seen walking over to a Palestinian taxi and yelling at the driver before getting back on the ATV and driving away.

It’s unclear if the Palestinian who was run over was taken to a hospital or how badly he was hurt.

The IDF says the Israeli seen in the footage was a reserve soldier, adding that his weapon was confiscated and his service suspended following the incident.

Earlier in the day, a young Palestinian man was reportedly wounded in the same village after settlers hurled stones and fired a gun there.

According to the military, an initial probe found that the same reserve soldier seen in the footage had also opened fire earlier inside the village while wearing civilian clothes, in what the IDF described as a “serious breach of his authority.” Claims that Palestinians were injured in the shooting are being examined.

The incidents are under investigation and will be transferred to the relevant authorities in accordance with the findings, the IDF says.

The military adds that it “strongly condemns” all manifestations of violence and stresses that its soldiers and commanders are required to act in accordance with the the IDF code of ethics.

https://twitter.com/i/status/2004217636939616531

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-december-25-2025/

Christmas should be the busiest time of the year for the shopkeepers of Manger Square

, but the birthplace of Jesus is now a ghost town

Christmas has been the beating heart of the Giacaman family’s livelihood for generations.

The Giacamans own Christmas House, one of the main shops on Bethlehem's Manger Square selling Nativity figurines, festive ornaments, rosaries, crucifixes and other religious paraphernalia, all ornately carved in their nearby workshop from local olive wood.

But for the past two years, the doors of Christmas House have remained closed, Jack Issa Giacaman told Middle East Eye.

“You don’t see anybody around. Unfortunately during the last years Israel converted Bethlehem to be a big prison,” said Giacaman, who currently manages the family business.

Days before Christmas, Manger Square is almost deserted, with only a few locals taking photos of the star-topped Christmas tree decorated in red and gold baubles.

Shops are shuttered and tour guides mill about, touting desperately for non-existent business in front of the Nativity Church.

“Every Saturday a few Filipinas and Indians come - they work in Israel. But it’s not enough. Everything is closed,” said Asaad Jaqaman, the owner of another local souvenir shop.

“Closed, because why would we open? There is no one coming in, no people, nothing. What are we going to do? Sometimes I open out of boredom. The situation is pitiful.”

But the economic malaise that has gripped Bethlehem since the coronavirus pandemic is now accompanied by a graver threat.

Pressed up hard against the separation wall between Israel and the occupied West Bank, corralled on surrounding hills by settlements, and choked by a network of dozens of checkpoints and security gates, Bethlehem’s Christian and Palestinian identities exist under an ever-tightening siege.

Christians accounted for 85 percent of the population of Bethlehem governorate when Israel was created, but by 2017 that figure had collapsed to about 10 percent.

The Israeli assault on Bethlehem has accelerated at a blistering rate since February 2023, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handed Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Jewish ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism party and a settler himself, authority over the West Bank.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/christmas-christians-bethlehem-existential-threat-israel-occupation

Zelensky Releases 20-Point Peace Proposal

The proposal released by Zelensky stated that the new borders would be the current front lines in the Donbas and southern Ukraine. Russia would be required to withdraw its forces from other regions of Ukraine.

Additionally, Moscow would hand control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to Ukraine, and the facility would be jointly run with the US.

President Vladimir Putin wants full control over the Donbas, which would include Ukrainian forces withdrawing from 20% of Donetsk that Kiev still controls. The Kremlin said that if Kiev is not willing to make territorial concessions, it will take it by force.

The 20-point plan also requires the US and all NATO members to enter into bilateral agreements with Ukraine that are similar to “Article 5.” Article 5 of the NATO charter is viewed as a mutual defense pact. The text does not explicitly rule out Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Alliance.

Ukraine would also become a member of the European Union and receive a free trade agreement from the US.

Putin said that Ukraine must agree to a natural status. While Moscow is open to allowing Kiev to join diplomatic and economic bodies, Russia is likely to reject the Article 5-style agreements.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/zelensky-releases-20-point-peace-proposal/

https://kyivindependent.com/a-plan-of-capitulation-us-push-for-controversial-peace-plan-met-with-backlash-in-ukraine/

‘Morally wrong’: Sa’ar hits out at countries condemning new West Bank settlements

Foreign minister says critical statement from 14 nations is ‘discriminatory’ against Jews and their right to live in the Land of Israel

Israel reacted furiously on Thursday to a condemnation by 14 countries, including France and Britain, of its approval of new settlements in the West Bank, calling the criticism discriminatory against Jews.

“Foreign governments will not restrict the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel, and any such call is morally wrong and discriminatory against Jews,” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said.

“The cabinet decision to establish 11 new settlements and to formalize eight additional settlements is intended, among other things, to help address the security threats Israel is facing,” he said.

On Sunday, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that authorities had greenlit the settlements, saying the move was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state,” said Smotrich, a vocal proponent of settlement expansion and a settler himself.

Fourteen countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Canada, then issued a statement urging Israel to reverse its decision, “as well as the expansion of settlements.”

Such unilateral actions, they said, “violate international law” and risk undermining a fragile ceasefire in Gaza in force since October 10.

They also reaffirmed their “unwavering commitment to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution… where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side-by-side in peace and security.”

Jerusalem, December 2, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel reacted furiously on Thursday to a condemnation by 14 countries, including France and Britain, of its approval of new settlements in the West Bank, calling the criticism discriminatory against Jews.

“Foreign governments will not restrict the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel, and any such call is morally wrong and discriminatory against Jews,” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said.

“The cabinet decision to establish 11 new settlements and to formalize eight additional settlements is intended, among other things, to help address the security threats Israel is facing,” he said.

On Sunday, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that authorities had greenlit the settlements, saying the move was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state,” said Smotrich, a vocal proponent of settlement expansion and a settler himself.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition

by email and never miss our top stories

Newsletter email address

Your email

Get it

By signing up, you agree to the terms

Fourteen countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Canada, then issued a statement urging Israel to reverse its decision, “as well as the expansion of settlements.”

Such unilateral actions, they said, “violate international law” and risk undermining a fragile ceasefire in Gaza in force since October 10.

They also reaffirmed their “unwavering commitment to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution… where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side-by-side in peace and security.”

A building under construction is pictured in the West Bank settlement of Givat Ze’ev on October 24, 2025. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Sa’ar, in his response, said “the blatant silence of foreign states regarding the Palestinian Authority’s illegal construction in Area C is extremely striking,” referring to West Bank areas that are under full Israeli civil and security control according to the Oslo Accords. Most Israeli settlements also lie in Area C.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023 with Hamas’s terror onslaught in Israel, international calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state have multiplied, with several countries moving to formally recognize a state of Palestine.

Among those countries were some that condemned the settlement expansion drive.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/morally-wrong-saar-hits-out-at-countries-condemning-new-west-bank-settlements/

Epstein, Israel, and the CIA: How the Iran-Contra Planes Landed at Les Wexner's Base

Jeffrey Epstein helped Leslie Wexner repurpose the CIA’s Iran-Contra planes from arms smuggling to shipping lingerie.

Epstein had been spending extravagantly, and despite his lofty compensation at Bear Stearns and his work for [Douglas] Leese, he found himself strapped, even occasionally bouncing rent checks. Back in New York, he joined forces with John Stanley Pottinger, a lawyer who had recently left a senior post in the Justice Department. Epstein, Pottinger and Pottinger’s brother rented a penthouse office in the Hotel St. Moritz on Central Park South. (The broker, Joanna Cutler, told us that Epstein initially stiffed her on the commission.)

The Times deserves credit, we suppose, for digging up that nugget from his one-time broker—but had the paper decided to look up rather than look down, they may have noticed something a bit more revelatory in their own reporting.

Stanley Pottinger, as it happens, was a notable figure in the scandal that became known as Iran-Contra, in which the CIA used Israel as a middleman to move off-the-books weapons to Iran. In the early 1980s, under the CIA’s supervision, Pottinger advised an Iranian banker on shipping embargoed arms to Iran using fraudulent paperwork and overseas “dummy companies”—in the very same period that Pottinger and Epstein worked together selling “tax-avoidance” strategies from a penthouse by Central Park. Pottinger’s system eventually gave rise to a network of covert intermediaries shipping arms around the world; the CIA’s profits became a slush fund used to illegally bankroll the insurgent Contra army, who waged a war against Nicaragua’s leftist government while simultaneously trafficking cocaine to the United States.

The other figure from Epstein’s past, Douglas Leese, meanwhile, is described by The Times as “a defense contractor with extensive connections in the arms industry and the British government.” What he did with those connections and where he trafficked those arms is left unexplored by the paper—a look at Bermuda financial records and Leese’s own lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Miami, suggests he was working with the U.S. government and linked to a Chinese arms manufacturer. The Times also failed to note that Epstein and Leese had a mutual associate in Adnan Khashoggi, the notorious money launderer and weapons trafficker—who was also a central player in the Iran-Contra affair.

The Times did find that Epstein was “a relentless scammer” who “abused expense accounts, engineered inside deals and demonstrated a remarkable knack for separating seemingly sophisticated investors and businessmen from their money.” The contrast between what The Times found noteworthy about his relationship with his penthousemate Pottinger—he initially stiffed the broker!—and what they failed to notice is stark. In order to acquit Epstein of any connections to intelligence agencies, the paper of record instead crafted Epstein into an antisemitic caricature of historic proportions. We put this take to The Times, and were told by spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha, “We report on facts that we are able to confirm, not supposition.”

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/jeffrey-epstein-iran-contra-planes-leslie-wexner-pottinger-leese-arms-weapons-smuggling

Crisis actor now doing Israeli media interviews

'I’m not religious but I started praying': Bondi survivor Arsen Ostrovsky speaks

Bondi survivor Arsen Ostrovsky on blood, fear, and the second attack online

https://www.jpost.com/podcast/jpost-sits-down-with/article-881404

Leaked 60 Minutes segment shows Trump torture claims, CBS scrambles to remove footage online and embarrassment spreads

A 60 Minutes segment that was spiked from Sunday night’s episode just hours before airtime has been leaked online after being played during the show’s Canada broadcast.

The newsmagazine had been set to air veteran journalist Sharyn Alfonsi’s ‘Inside CECOT’ segment, featuring interviews with a group of Venezuelan men who thought they were being deported back to their home country – only to wind up at the notorious El Salvador prison.

But just two hours before the program was set to air, 60 Minutes announced on social media that the lineup had been updated and ‘”Inside CECOT” will air in a future broadcast.’

A source at CBS News explained that network executives determined the CECOT segment ‘needed additional reporting’ after new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss requested a number of changes.

It appears the schedule change came too late for Global TV in Canada, however, as the original episode aired – with the ‘Inside CECOT’ segment.

That episode is now available on Global TV’s streaming platform, and was quickly shared on platforms like X and YouTube from viewers who posted their own recordings online.

Many had been left outraged by Weiss’ last minute decision to pull the segment, which it had advertised all week, accusing her of censorship and bowing to the Trump administration.

Alfonsi, a reporter for the news magazine since 2015, even declared that Weiss was destroying 60 Minutes’ reputation.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/media/article-15407933/60-Minutes-segment-online-Canada.html

‘60 Minutes’ Pulled a Segment. A Correspondent Calls It ‘Political.’

Sharyn Alfonsi, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, criticized the network’s decision to remove her reporting from Sunday’s edition of the show.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/business/60-minutes-trump-bari-weiss.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-k8.wuJE.-fqg-Udr3WVD

Inside the Bari Weiss decision that led to a ‘60 Minutes’ crisis

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/22/media/bari-weiss-60-minutes-cecot-cbs-alfonsi-ellison

CBS News Insider on Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ Fumble: ‘Series of Unfortunate Events’ | Exclusive

Behind-the-scenes concerns about a lack of a voice from the Trump administration played out while the piece was already being promoted publicly

https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/business/cbs-news-insider-bari-weiss-fumble/

The Noahide Laws (the Seven Laws of Noah) are not in the Bible; they are from the Babylonian Talmud

The Noahide Laws are from the Babylonian Talmud and according to the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia,

"They declared that the following six commandments were enjoined upon Adam: (1) not to worship idols; (2) not to blaspheme the name of God; (3) to establish courts of justice; (4) not to kill; (5) not to commit adultery; and (6) not to rob…A seventh commandment was added after the Flood-not to eat flesh that had been cut from a living animal."

These Noahide Laws are universal and binding upon Gentiles only. According to the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia,

"The Talmud frequently speaks of 'the seven laws of the sons of Noah,' which were regarded as obligatory upon all mankind, in contradistinction to those that were binding upon Israelites only. (Tosef., 'Ab. Zarah, ix. 4; Sanh. 56a).

Note: The original Jewish Encyclopedia link has been removed since the publication of this website.

The Penalty for the Transgression of any Noahide Law is Decapitation

"With but a few exceptions, the punishment meted out to a Noachid for the transgression of any of the seven laws is decapitation." (1906 Encyclopedia)

What few Christians know and what isn't explicitly stated within the US legislation, is that the first and second Noahide laws, which prohibit idolatry and blasphemy, would be transgressed by all Christians. This is because the worship of Jesus Christ is considered idolatry and the name of Jesus is blasphemy according to the Talmud.

"With regard to idolatry, he can be found guilty only if he worshiped an idol in the regular form in which that particular deity is usually worshiped; while in the case of blasphemy he may be found guilty, even when he has blasphemed with one of the attributes of God's name-an action which, if committed by an Israelite, would not be regarded as criminal (ib. 56b; see Blasphemy)." (1906 Encyclopedia)

Therefore, under the Noahide Laws all Christians will be beheaded.

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." (Rev 20:4)

Courts will be established everywhere to issue warnings and to exact justice for violations of the Noahide Laws. Some of these courts and even prisons will exist within churches. Few Christians are aware of the inordinate number of church elders today who have police/military backgrounds with some churches even having their own police force. (L)

"The Noachidæ [those who the Noahide Laws are binding upon] are required to establish courts of justice in every city and province; and these courts are to judge the people with regard to the six laws and to warn them against the transgression of any of them." (1906 Jewish Encyclopedia)

Under the Noahide Laws all Christians will be Beheaded with Axes or Guillotines