Motor Vehicles Become A Focus For Immigration Enforcement

As I commented the other day, one big circumstance in which ordinary police agencies encounter illegals is on traffic patrol, where on one hand, the illegals don't obey traffic laws, while on the other, they either don't speak English or refuse to speak it when pulled over, and they frequently turn out not to have drivers licenses, registration, or insurance. What some agencies see as a problem has turned out to be an opportunity in other situations.

For instance,

Florida officials announced that under a new immigration enforcement program, truck weigh stations in the state will be used as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) checkpoints.

Truckers without valid licenses or who don't speak English are referred to immigration enforcement. The recent accident involving Harjinder Singh highlighted how frequently illegals cause traffic accidents, especially when they aren't properly licensed or don't follow traffic laws.

This has turned out to be a key feature of Trump's crackdown on DC crime:

Federal agents and officers from the federalized Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) recently conducted a joint operation in Washington, D.C., targeting delivery drivers across the city. Witnesses say officers in tactical gear seized scooters and mopeds, loading them into trucks already filled with impounded vehicles.

The MPD says the operation is part of an effort to address unsafe driving. According to officials, more than 1,200 scooters have been impounded and 139 arrests have been made since the initiative began. However, the department did not address the visible involvement of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

. . . “It’s very clear ICE is targeting delivery drivers because they’re outdoors, which makes it easier to do warrantless arrests. It’s a population that ICE is aware is very immigrant-heavy. And frankly, it’s easy for ICE to go after them,” said Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. He added that many of those arrested are recent Venezuelan immigrants and could be subject to fast-tracked deportation.

. . . A growing number of food delivery workers in the D.C. area are illegal immigrants, especially from Venezuela, who often lack work permits, insurance, and vehicle registration. Many of these workers use unregistered mopeds and scooters while waiting for legal asylum or work authorization. Locals have expressed concern about reckless scooter driving.

So far, major food delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash have not commented on the arrests or the broader issue of illegal alien workers on their platforms.

In fact, the food delivery apps have been aware of the problem nationally at least since last year:

Online food delivery platform DoorDash has adopted changes to its driver verification system months after U.S. lawmakers questioned whether it and similar services were being co-opted by illegal migrants "gaming the system." Some wonder whether it will be enough.

On December 12, DoorDash announced more rigorous safeguards to better deter "bad actors" from profiting off deliveries and the platform. In April, Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn, Mike Braun and Ted Budd sent letters to DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats as part of a probe demanding to know whether illegal migrants are "gaming the system" while using fake identities. Immigration was a top campaign issue for President-Elect Donald Trump.

Venezuelan migrants told The Daily Mail that food delivery is a good way to integrate into the U.S. and make quick money, while others online flaunt driver IDs for sale on social media sometimes for hundreds of dollars.

The Daily Mail covered the story a year ago:

Hundreds of Venezuelan migrants are illegally working as food delivery drivers across America, DailyMail.com can reveal, showing up to your door under names and identities that don't belong to them.

The troubling development is a consequence of the one million Venezuelan citizens who have flooded into the US, largely illegally, during President Joe Biden's time in office, with many entering through the US-Mexico border.

It raises huge concerns about the safety of the home delivery apps and the consumer's ability to trust who is actually delivering food to their home and family - with customers' personal information potentially placed in the hands of dangerous street gangs.

In February of this year, the problem had reached the financial press:

While DASH represents a successful Silicon Valley story, one of its key risks has been underplayed in more of the coverage it has received. The platform is highly reliant on migrant labor and a significant chunk of them have been operating illegally in the US. These employees pose a serious threat as they have access to the personal information of US citizens. The minimal verification allows these dashers to operate with fake names and registration numbers. With the Trump administration cracking down on illegal immigrants, it is only a matter of time before DASH is held accountable for the burgeoning count of such employees.

This latest attention to immigration enforcement in DC suggests the food delivery apps haven't made a serious effort to address the problem, while the high public visibility of the drivers makes them an easy target for ICE, especially when their mopeds and scooters are unregistered and uninsured.

Defenders of the migrant delivery workers insist they're doing honest work and aren't criminals, but their reckless driving and frequent lack of insurance raises insurance rates for everyone else, while those who rent accounts under false names create a continuing risk for the customers.

The upscale DC residents who complain that ICE enforcement is creating a shortage of DoorDash drivers are actually unhappy that it's suddenly become harder for them to exploit illegal immigrants -- but the same applies to the empoloyers like DoorDash. who tolerate and enable the system that allows the account owners to skim the earnings of the illegals by renting the accounts.

So, How Was Harjinder Singh Able To Fly Back To California?

Here's a question nobody's asked: the accepted narrative of the illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike has Harjinder Singh wandering expressionlessly around the scene after the accident and then, apparently free to leave, flying back to California, where the US Marshals tracked him down and arrested him several days later. But here's the rub:

Passed by Congress in 2005, the REAL ID Act enacted the 9/11 Commission's recommendation that the Federal Government “set standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as driver's licenses.” The Act established minimum security standards for state-issued driver's licenses and identification cards and prohibits certain federal agencies from accepting for official purposes licenses and identification cards from states that do not meet these standards.

The official purposes for which a REAL ID is required include boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft. As it happens, my California Drivers License expires in November, so I've been undertaking the process of upgrading it to meet the REAL ID requirements. On one hand, I can't opt out of the REAL ID requirement; I simply have to upgrade my ID to meet its standards, or I can't drive legally. On the other, I can't fly on a commercial airline without displaying a REAL ID, either. (Luckily, I haven't needed to.)

The restriction on anyone flying without a REAL ID began this past May 7. I would have had to upgrade my drivers license early to fly since then, or I would have had to present another form of ID acceptable under the REAL ID Act. The most cited alternative is a current US passport:

The card, itself, must be REAL ID compliant unless the resident is using an alternative acceptable document such as a passport.

While a passport will get me on a plane in a pinch, it alone isn't sufficient for me to renew my drivers license to be REAL ID compliant. But this brings us to my question: it's after May 7, and Harjinder Singh was able to get on a plane, presumably without a valid REAL ID. In fact, as we see above, the whole purpose of REAL ID was to avoid having sketchy foreign nationals like the 9/11 hijackers get on a plane in the US -- but Harjinder, a sketchy foreign national, was able to do just this.

And he was able to do it without the highly bureaucratic process legal residents of the 50 states must undergo to upgrade their own ID. California's requirements are standard:

To apply for a REAL ID, you must present several documents, including ONE proof of identity document from the list below. This document must include your date of birth and your full name (first, middle, and last).

The list includes Valid U.S. passport or passport card (Preferred); Original or Certified copy of U.S birth certificate (issued by a city, county, or state vital statistics office). “Abbreviated” or “Abstract” certificates are NOT accepted; Certificate of Naturalization or Certificate of U.S. Citizenship; and on down a list. There are two important exceptions, which I'll get to below.

I've held a US passport for most of my life, but passports expire, and as part of preparing to upgrade my ID, I had to renew it yet again, a process that takes weeks at best -- and since at my age, I'm unlikely to leave the country again, this would have been otherwise completely unnecessary. But in addition,

To prove that you live in California, you must present TWO DIFFERENT printed documents that show your California mailing address. BOTH documents must show your first and last name with the same mailing address that is listed on your REAL ID application.

Use a P.O. Box? One document MUST show both your P.O. Box and physical (residence) address, and one document may show only the P.O. Box.

So this is another new step, and it's fraught with bureaucratic gotchas. I saw a post from a Pennsylvania woman who had one utility bill with her first, middle, and last names and another with just her first and last names, and the state forced her to get the utility to change the billing data on the one bill to add her middle name to the bill. This will likely take weeks of extra effort in itself. I can only assume Pennsylvania has stricter requirements than California.

In addition, the only practical way to get through this process -- that is, without going back and forth to the DMV office to wait in line and deal with all this in person, probably over several days or weeks -- is on line. But this requires not just a computer, but a scanner to scan the various documents, and considerable computer literacy. A semiliterate or illiterate illegal who quite possibly speaks no English won't be able to do this. But that's not a bug, it's a feature, right? It should be not just difficult, but impossible for sketchy foreign nationals to get REAL ID.

Not so fast! There's a big exception for sketchy foreign nationals! Farther down on the list of acceptable identity documents are these:

Valid Employment Authorization Document (EAD) Card (I-766) or valid/expired EAD Card with Notice of Action (I-797 C)

Documents reflecting TPS benefit eligibility.

in Harjinder's case, the I-766 card, for which he was rejected under Trump 45, but which he was later granted under Biden, was enough to get California to issue him a commercial drivers license in 2024, and it was enough to get him on the plane back to California last week. TPS benefits are "Temporary Protected Status", under which hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, Haitians, and Cubans who shouldn't have been were settled in Middle America.

In other words, the REAL ID program sets up enormous bureaucratic hoops and barriers that solid citizens have to jump through and climb over, requiring patience and civic-minded cooperation over many weeks and months in order to keep sketchy foreign nationals off planes -- unless you happen to be a sketchy foreign national like Harjinder Singh, in which case, welcome aboard! You want to escape being arrested in Florida, no problemo, just show your I-766 work permit for sketchy foreign nationals, and your seat is 26C.

Something needs to be done about this.

A Couple Of Observations About Harjinder Singh

UPDATE: Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India who killed three innocent people, FAILED an English Language Proficiency assessment. Singh provided correct responses to just 2 of 12 verbal questions and only accurately identifying 1 of 4 highway traffic signs.

And yet,… pic.twitter.com/AwndMrW9Vm

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 20, 2025

The level of non-feasance that led to Harjinder Singh's illegal U-turn that killed three people on the Florida Turnpike is astonishing. The twisted path via which he received a California commercial driver's license is coming to light only slowly:

Washington authorities said Friday they continue to investigate the licensing history of a commercial truck driver involved in a fatal crash this month in Florida that has drawn national attention.

. . . Federal authorities say the state of Washington issued Singh a commercial driver’s license on July 15, 2023.

On Friday, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Licensing confirmed his license was valid through July 2024, when California issued him a commercial driver’s license. That canceled his Washington license, according to Nathan Olson, an agency spokesperson.

. . . Singh may have received training through a defunct Pacific Northwest school that allegedly helped unqualified truckers buy their way onto the road.

An investigation this year by The Oregonian/OregonLive found that Washington regulators determined that Skyline CDL School, a commercial driving academy with branches in Washington and Oregon, relied on unqualified instructors, falsified records, bypassed English proficiency standards that are mandatory for truckers, and failed to document training hours and students’ skills.

The news organization reported that the school allegedly bribed an independent driving tester, Jason Hodson, to obtain passing grades on exams for its unqualified students in Washington.

. . . Regulators in Washington shut down the school and Hodson lost his testing gig.

. . . The Washington Department of Licensing since Wednesday has so far declined to release information about who administered Singh’s driving test.

. . . Federal authorities are also investigating whether the issuance of Singh’s California license met federal rules.

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, some applicants for a commercial driver’s license may skip a skills test requirement if the applicant turns over a commercial driver’s license from another state [in Singh's case, Washington] that is valid or has been expired for less than two years.

The California agency has not responded to specific questions about the process of issuing Singh’s commercial driver’s license.

Agency spokesperson Ronald Ongtoaboc said in an email that the state “followed all federal and state laws in reviewing and granting” Singh the license.

“The federal government confirmed Mr. Singh’s legal presence in the United States,” Ongtoaboc said.

However, news accounbts generally say that Singh entered the US illegally in 2018. In 2020, he applied for an employment authorization document, which allows foreign nationals to work legally in the U.S. This was rejected by the first Trump administration but later approved under Biden in 2021, but it wouid not have changed Singh's illegal immigration status.

Singh's English language proficiency is a separate question:

Authorities with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Singh failed an English proficiency test after the wreck, answering only two of 12 questions correctly, according to [Transportation Secretary Sean] Duffy. Singh correctly identified one out of four highway traffic signs, Duffy said.

Olson, the Washington licensing spokesperson, said a commercial licensing exam is conducted entirely in English.

“English proficiency is not evaluated as a separate skill,” he wrote in an email to the news organization, “but is necessary to complete the skills exam successfully.”

Meanwhile, the federal transportation agency said New Mexico State Police conducted “a roadside inspection” of Singh last month and issued him a speeding ticket but authorities say “there is no indication” that New Mexico police conducted an English proficiency test, a requirement since June.

As a regular viewer of On Patrol: Live, the TV show that features ride-alongs with police departments across the US, I've noted that encounters with illegals have sharply increased over the past few years, but the departments tend to downplay them when they occur during the ride-alongs. Still, when a car is pulled over and the driver either speaks no English or very little and has no license, registration, or insurance, the situation is pretty clear.

The state or local agencies simply never raise the issue of immigration status; they do what they can to resolve the specific traffic issue, but if the individual is unable to answer simple questions about identity or home address due to actual or feigned inablility to understand the officers, police can do little other than throw up their hands and send them on their way. It looks like something like this happened a few months earlier when Singh was stopped in New Mexico, but this just kicks the can down the road until the inevitable finally happens. (UPDATE: New Mexico has not begun to enforce the English proficiency test.)

There's another puzzle about Singh's Florida accident: from all accounts, Singh wandered around the scene in the aftermath, and the link above says he was given an an English proficiency test after the wreck, which he failed. But apparently he was neither detained nor arrested; he was apparently free to leave, and he and his fellow driver flew home to California. According to the US Marshals Service,

An investigation revealed Singh and his passenger, Harneet Singh, flew to Sacramento, California, August 13. An arrest warrant was issued August 15.

. . . U.S. Marshals received the warrant and associated information from FHP August 16 and collateral lead was sent to the Eastern District of California. U.S. Marshals and Task Force Officers responded to an address associated with Singh in Stockton. They identified Singh as the lone occupant of a vehicle that arrived during surveillance of the location.

Singh was taken into custody without incident. He was booked at the San Joaquin County Jail to await initial appearance. An immigration detainer was also filed on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Singh was extradited to Florida Friday and made his firsr court appearance Saturday morning.

He appeared silent during most of the hearing and did not initially respond to the judge’s questions, even when asked if he wanted legal representation.

Interpreters were brought in to assist, but Singh remained mostly unresponsive. Eventually, when the public defender acting as a friend of the court recommended appointing counsel, the interpreter was able to get Singh to respond, saying, “That’s fine.”

It seems as though law enforcement so far doesn't have the resources, training, or experience needed to deal effectively with this problem, and violators can do pretty well for themselves by just refusing to answer or understand questions. There needs to be a way to get Homeland Security involved in these cases much more quickly.

Drunk Rhode Island Prosecutor Put On Unpaid Leave

Via Fox News:

The Rhode Island assistant attorney general whose arrest went viral earlier this week after she seemingly tried to use her position to evade arrest, telling officers they'd "regret" putting her behind bars, will be placed on unpaid leave.

Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Flanagan, who was arrested for trespassing, was placed on paid leave after the incident while the Rhode Island Attorney General's office reviewed the matter. Starting Monday, Flanagan will go on unpaid leave, the office told Fox News Digital.

It is unclear how long Flanagan will remain on unpaid leave until a final determination is made on her employment. The attorney general's office did not respond to additional questions about its ongoing review of the matter or when it might make a final decision.

The orignal video from last weekend \went viral as a paradigmatic exemplar of entitlement, with more than a little whif of DEI. I worked for a utility where each category of putative victim had its own promotional silo. Women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, and gays each had their own career ladder, and it was understood that every time there was a plum job opening, a member of one of those groups would be selected, an an implicit rotation.

Among those who were already climbing this ladder, the sense of entitlement was tangible. It seems as though some part of the population who saw this news clip came to an instinctive appreciation of what those two ladies represented: they were making their way up the DEI promotional silo, and the obligation of the world was to get out of their way.

Inevitably, the Rhode Island Attorney General, Flanagan's boss, found hinself on the hot seat, precisely because this was the impression everyone had of the episode. He hemmed and hawed:

In a subsequent radio interview after Flanagan's arrest, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha called it "inexcusable behavior" that will likely result in "strong, strong sanction[s]."

Strong, strong sanctions indeed. More likely not even a slap on the wrist. Half the office, at least, probably stood and applauded when she came in (late, of course) Monday morning. But there were peculiar undertones in the interview:

"I've got 110 lawyers. She embarrassed all of them. . . . It's just really hard to find and keep capable lawyers, and so I just have to think really carefully about this one. But no question there will be a strong, strong sanction here."

110 lawyers?? It isn't entirely clear what her job is; one story says she argues cases in front of the state supreme court. But the picture I get is a rabbit warren of office cubes, something like 110 of them, where the 80-20 rule applies, 20% of the people do 80% of the work, and Devon Flanagan is somewhere at the bottom of the 80% who spend the day goofing around.

Attorney General Neronha is thought to hold a safe Democrat seat, so his job isn't threatened no matter what he does in Flanagan's case. A reddit thread probably best sums up general reaction:

I really feel sorry for their husbands. I loved how they were just standing there and let all of this happen.

I have to imagine how the two dudes went to a bar after that show, drank a few beers and then after one or two maybe three hours got up like "well I guess we should get them from the police station now"

Someone replied,

I'm guessing it not the first time the husbands have been through this.

The consensus of the reddit thread seems to be that she'll spend some time on unpaid leave and come back after a week or two. A few commenters thought she looked awfully old for 34. That may be the biggest insight anyone has had. So it goes.

What Is The Point Of John Bolton?

I've mentioned here that for part of my adolescence, I lived with my family in Bethesda, which is one of the wealthiest places in the US, with a median household income in recent years about $190,000. In comparison, the median household income for Beverly Hills is about $127,000; the median household income for Greenwich, CT is about $136,000. The news photos of yesterday morning's FBI raid on John Bolton's home in Bethesda really took me back: that could have been my street and my neighborhood.

I went to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, whose team is the Barons. (This wasn't the monogram when I went there; at that time, it was more like the mustachioed Monopoly man, but the point is the same.)

Bethesda has its own entry in the Urban Dictionary:

Person from Bethesda: Hi, I'm from Bethesda.

Person Not from Bethesda: Hi, you must be a rich snobby [redacted].

PFB: Well yeah kind of, but at least I'm not from Potomac where it's illegal to wear clothes that cost less than $500 per square inch of fabric.

PNFB: Fair point. Wanna go spend an absurd amount of money on movie tickets?

PFB: Sure, but only if we go to the Row since UA/Lowes is sure to be overpopulated by 10-year-old hookers.

PNFB: Good call.

At some point, I came to a recognition that I really wasn't from Bethesda, even though I went to high school there. But looking at the news photos of John Bolton's house, it suddenly hit me that John Bolton is from Bethesda. What does that mean? Via Wikipedia,

Bolton was born on November 20, 1948, in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Virginia Clara "Ginny" (née Godfrey), a housewife, and Edward Jackson "Jack" Bolton, a Baltimore fireman.   He grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Yale Heights, and won a scholarship to the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Maryland[.]

So he was raised in a working-class family, but he somehow won the lottery. Via Wikipedia:

McDonogh is regarded as one of the Baltimore region's most prestigious preparatory schools and has been called a "Power School" by Baltimore magazine. The school's students frequently matriculate to Ivy League and other top-ranked colleges and universities.

And his destiny was established. Via the Bolton Wikipedia entry:

Bolton attended Yale College, earning a Bachelor of Arts and graduating summa cum laude in 1970. . . . He attended Yale Law School from 1971 to 1974, where he shared classes and student housing with his friend Clarence Thomas, earning a Juris Doctor in 1974.

In 1972, Bolton was a summer intern for Vice President Spiro Agnew.

Frankly, it's hard for me to avoid thinking the guy was becoming famous for being well-known, or something along that line. He seems to have transitioned easily into a white-shoe law firm career:

From 1974 to 1981, Bolton was an associate at the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling; he returned to the firm again from 1983 to 1985. Bolton was also a partner in the law firm of Lerner, Reed, Bolton & McManus, from 1993 to 1999. He was of counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis from 2008 until his appointment as National Security Advisor in 2018. In September 2015, Freedom Capital Investment Management appointed Bolton as a senior advisor.

He appears to have bought his current home, shown in yesterday's news reports, in 1986. It is 6500 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5 baths, worth upward of $2 million. Ah, Bethesda! But I keep asking, what's the point? What does he actually do to live that well? In addition to his work at highly prestigious law firms, he held a series of government positions, including stints at USAID, during the Reagan and George H W Bush administrations. Under Dubya, he became Under Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, but he left that position when the Senate wouldn't confirm him for a longer term. It appears that he'd become highly controversial.

The best I can conclude is that he was an Ivy Leaguer, a Yale Law grad, and a Republican with contacts who happened to be around when the patronage was handed out, but he also seems to have had a knack for making enemies. Nevertheless, with Trump's election in 2016, he was short-listed for various key positions, including Secretary of State, but he never quite got them.

Several Trump associates claim Bolton was not chosen, in part, due to Trump's disdain for Bolton's signature mustache.

Whatever the source of Trump's instincts, it should be acknowledged that they're often spot on. Nevertheless,

The New York Times reported on March 22, 2018, that John Bolton would replace National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, which was confirmed by Trump in a tweet later that day.

. . . By May 2019, Trump had undercut some of Bolton's major hard line positions, stating he was not seeking regime change in Iran and contradicting Bolton's assertion that North Korea had recently violated United Nations resolutions by testing new short-range missiles.

. . . On September 10, 2019, President Trump claimed on Twitter that he had told Bolton on September 9 his "services are no longer needed" given "many" disagreements with Trump, thus Bolton gave his resignation on September 10.

But what does Bolton do now to support his Bethesda lifestyle? Sundance at Conservative Treehouse offers some insight:

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton is a well-documented neocon, who operates inside the business model of selling U.S. foreign policy influence for personal gain. His activity mirrors that of former Senator John McCain in many regards.

John Bolton sold his access, contacts and ability to influence policy to the highest bidder. In DC parlance they call that a “consultant.” When the consulting is contracted for a specific national interest, the title shifts to “lobbyist.” That was his job, and all of Washington DC knows it.

Washington DC operates on this business model; the entire system will be soft to criticize Bolton and many will likely defend him.

The FBI raid on his residence and office has led to a considerable amount of speculation. However, as some background details start to come out, it appears CIA Director John Ratcliffe provided FBI Director Kash Patel with specifics on the international travels and efforts of Bolton.

That CIA referral has led to an FBI investigation under the auspices of potential violations of the espionage act, where Bolton would have leveraged current or prior classified intelligence information as part of his influence business.

The implication seems to be that Bolton made money by in effect trading on secret information, but the practice was more widespread than just Bolton, and others are also under investigation. Well, it's Bethesda. More here:

🚨💣 THREAD: John Bolton: The Man Who Never Saw a War He Didn’t Like 💣🚨

John Bolton got his start as Reagan's assistant administrator of USAID -- a time when USAID was dramatically re-transformed from Nixon-era "New Directions" third-world assistance to being contingent on… pic.twitter.com/oALm8gquGf

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) August 22, 2025

The Mortgage Fraud Cases

With Wednesday's news of President Trump calling on Federal Reserve Bank Governor Lisa Cook to resign following a criminal referral to the Justice Department for mortgage fraud, there are now three high-level figures accused of the same crime, declaring two separate homes their primary residence to get favorable interest, tax, and insurance rates. On Fox News, Kennedy interviewed legal commentator Horace Cooper specifically on Sen Schiff's predicament, but his comments in the clip embedded above apply just as much to the other two:

This type of fraud is fairly common, and it is frequently prosecuted. In fact, the real challenge here is how will the senator find an easy way out. 18 US 1001 says that you can't lie, in writing or in your application, and 1014 says that you can't lie on your application. Once you've actually done that, and there's a five-year statute of limitations, unless that is extended by ongoing carrying-out activities to promote the original crime, that means he's still under the statute of limitations, and the defenses are fairly limited. It's actually time to hire a really good lawyer to negotiate some sort of plea agreement. It's gonna be very hard to get out of this.

It does appear that Schiff, at least, has recognized his situation is serious, although he has additional legal problems as well:

California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, a longtime adversary of President Donald Trump, has formed a legal defense fund, amid the Justice Department probe into his finances.

. . . Trump specifically alleges that Schiff illicitly claimed his primary residence was Maryland for financial benefit, and his administration has tapped Ed Martin — now pardon attorney and director of DOJ’s Weaponization Working Group — to oversee the matter.

. . . FBI Director Kash Patel, who was once a House Intelligence Committee staffer working to undermine the investigation into election interference, has also released materials that suggests the California Democrat supported leaking information during his time on the House Intelligence Committee to damage the president’s reputation.

However, his new counsel, Preet Bharara, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has so far only complained that the action represents “the very definition of weaponization of the justice process.” The question remains how to find his client an easy way out.

New York Attorney General Letitia James faces similar allegations:

[Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte] alleges James may have falsified her residence status at a home in Norfolk, Virginia, to get a better mortgage rate.

According to Pulte, in 2023 James granted Shamice Thompson-Hairston power of attorney to make the Norfolk property, purchased in August of that year, her "principal residence," despite James actually living and serving as attorney general in New York at the time.

"At the time of the 2023 Norfolk, VA property purchase and mortgage, Ms. James was the sitting Attorney General of New York and is required by law to have her primary residence in the state of New York — even though her mortgage applications list her intent to have the Norfolk, VA property as her primary home," Pulte wrote.

According to Pulte, in 2023 James granted Shamice Thompson-Hairston power of attorney to make the Norfolk property, purchased in August of that year, her "principal residence," despite James actually living and serving as attorney general in New York at the time.

"At the time of the 2023 Norfolk, VA property purchase and mortgage, Ms. James was the sitting Attorney General of New York and is required by law to have her primary residence in the state of New York — even though her mortgage applications list her intent to have the Norfolk, VA property as her primary home," Pulte wrote.

. . . Pulte also alleges James bought a five-family property in Brooklyn in 2001 with a loan that is only available for homes with four units or less.

. . . It's also alleged James and her father signed mortgage documents in 1983 stating they were husband and wife.

If James is still receiving financial benefits from these transactions, the statute of limitations would not apply. It's worth noting that via the New York state machine, James is expecting to have her legal expenses paid out of the state budget:

Albany Democrats are expected to sign off on a provision allowing certain officials to tap into a $10 million fund to cover “any reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses incurred” — even as part of probes not directly related to their state employment.

The language is being slipped into New York’s operations budget bill — one of several expected to be made public and voted on starting Wednesday as the Legislature moves to pass next year’s fiscal plan.

Multiple sources told The Post that the specific language in the bill would apply to James’ looming legal fight.

She has already hired Abbe Lowell as her defense counsel, best known lately for last year's losing battles on behalf of Hunter Biden.

The most recent case stems from a letter of referral FHFA Director William Pulte sent to the Justice Department over Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook:

He said Cook had designated a condo in Atlanta as her primary residence after taking a loan on her home in Michigan, which she also declared as a primary residence.

. . . Cook’s federally filed financial disclosure documents show three mortgages taken out in 2021, including a 15-year 2.5% loan on an investment property and two loans for personal residences, including a 30-year 3.25% mortgage and a 15-year 2.875% mortgage.

The weekly average rate for 30-year loans during 2021 ranged between 2.9% and 3.3%, Mortgage Bankers Association data shows.

The immediate question for Cook isn't criminal prosecution, but whether she should remain in her position as Fed governor. The Kansas City Fed president seems to be suggesting it's OK, because the application was too complicated for her to fill out correctly:

What a weird response pic.twitter.com/YNIEcWKvYM

— Pulte (@pulte) August 21, 2025

However, as of this morning, Trump has warned that

"I'll fire her if she doesn't resign," Trump told reporters on Friday. "What she did was bad, so I'll fire her if she doesn't resign."

. . . On Wednesday afternoon, Cook said in a statement, "I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet. I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”

She'll need to do this quickly if she wants to keep her job. Still, whether Trump can fire her is a new question:

The only way for Trump to fire a Fed governor is “for cause,” according to a 1935 law. That standard has generally been interpreted to mean dereliction of duty or malfeasance. The Supreme Court suggested in May that Federal Reserve employees were protected under the law. In that ruling, the court said the Fed was different from other agencies because it “is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity,” suggesting that Fed officials lie beyond Trump’s reach.

Columbia University law professor Lev Menand said it isn’t clear whether any alleged malfeasance that happened before an official takes office would be a legally sufficient reason to fire Cook. “I think prior private misconduct would be a stretch,” he said.

However, it seems to me that if she's continuing to benefit from that misconduct by getting lower interest, tax, and insurance rates on both properties, ths isn't just a question of past misjudgment.

It does look like the seriousness of her situation is dawning on Cook only very slowly -- she seems to assume that she can bargain for an indefinite amount of time to gather accurate information that could acquit her, but in reality, as both Schiff and James have already done, she needs to hire an experienced defense attorney who can address these problems on her behalf. Being fired or suspended is only the first part of her problem.

Bishop Barron And AI

Bishop Robert Barron posted yesterday on something I've noticed for a while on YouTube: phony videos that represent themselves as being on a particular topic, putatively generated by AI. I spent a career in tech, mostly before the "AI" quasi-phenomenon, but I've always been skeptical of what's now being represented as AI. Certainly it's the case that there are YouTube videos that represent themselves as being about Bp Barron, C S Lewis, and Abp Fulton Sheen, which quickly turn out to be vapid fakes -- but are they in fact AI-generated?

In the video above, Bp Barron notes,

One that just came out recently had me giving recommendations about how to remove demons from your toilet. So my point, everybody, is this is all ridiculous. And I think if you spend just a moment, you can tell the difference between an authentic video from me and one of these fakes.

This is exactly right. What I see in the news over and over is that "they" are gonna have to build new nuclear power plants to feed the massive infrastructure AI computer centers are gonna need, blah blah-- and all of it to generate fake videos of Bp Barron telling us how to remove demons from our toilets? How is this intelligence at all, much less artificial? Bp Barron is correct: this isn't intelligence at all, it's dumb.

Lately I've seen some authentic videos on how certain wild animals like possums can in some cases make satisfying pets, although this certainly requires patience, commitment, appropriate veterinary care, and obedience to applicable state and local laws. The problem is that there seem to be dozens of phony videos on every possibility, with heartwarming stories of lynxes (for instance) adopted by lonely seniors, whose lives are thereby changed.

The problem is that an awful lot of hand work seems to go into these phony videos. The videos need images, and you need to find pictures of lynxes that can be credibly merged into pictures of seniors happily cuddling them or whatever, and somewhere you have to find seniors willing to model for these scenes, which often require others to pose as grandchildren, game wardens, angry neighbors, or whatever to suit the needs of the story. I can't imagine that this is computer generated; it would be too expensive for this sort of marginal stuff.

Next, the writing, while generally grammatical and idiomatic, has all the earmarks of being written by hacks -- human hacks. "Smiling graciously, Liddy scratched the lynx's furry head with her wrinkled hands." If this is AI-generated, someone is spending big bucks to get a cheapo product. You could hire a hack for a lot less.

Isn't this the dilemma of AI? I asked the web, "Can I get AI to write me a Henry James short story?" and got this answer from "AI":

Yes, you can use AI tools to generate a short story in the style of Henry James, but with some key caveats.

. . . AI can analyze and mimic patterns: AI writing tools are trained on vast datasets of existing text, enabling them to identify and replicate stylistic patterns like sentence structure, vocabulary, tone, and common phrases associated with specific authors.

. . . Lack of true creativity and originality: While AI can imitate style, it doesn't possess the same level of human creativity, emotional depth, or understanding of the nuances of human experience that characterized authors like Henry James. It can mimic, but not truly innovate in the way James did.

Risk of superficial imitation: AI might capture the superficial markers of James's style (long sentences, certain vocabulary) without fully grasping their deeper purpose or meaning. The resulting story might feel like a stylistic imitation rather than a genuine work of art.

In other words, whatever AI tries to do in any sort of creative realm, something's going to be missing. But there's nothing new here. I had a dorm neighbor as an undergraduate who was a computer science major working on a project trying to get the computer to write music like Bach. It got as far as producing scores that looked like music, but there was always something missing --and this was 60 years ago.

So on one hand, AI itself gave me an insightful answer to my question, but we're still back to the other question -- I can hire a hack writer for far less than minimum wage. Why spend money to get AI to write uninspired prose? I asked the web, "Why should i spend money getting AI to do work when I can hire a mediocre person to do the same thing for a lot less?" The answer was very different:

There's a prevailing notion that hiring a human for a lower cost might seem like a more budget-friendly approach than investing in AI, especially for tasks perceived as "mediocre". However, a closer look at the actual benefits and long-term implications reveals a more complex picture.

AI can significantly boost productivity, reduce errors, and handle repetitive tasks with greater efficiency than humans. AI agents can conduct research, create websites, write content, and cross-reference information across databases, automating entire services and replacing the need for full-time employees in some instances.

Except the "AI" that answered my first question said if you ask AI to be creative, you're just going to get a blah result that anyone can tell isn't creative. The "AI" that answered my second question said well, AI will free up your mediocre employee to be more than mediocre, or something like that, or maybe you won't even need a mediocre employee, except you've spent a lot more money. Which is no answer at all.

Bp Barron concludes,

To those who've been following me for, you know, 25 years, use your common sense, too. When you see these goofy images that are obviously generated by a computer, and you hear me talking about some wild thing, I hope you have the sense to know, look, that's not really Bishop Barron speaking.

But this is just another way of saying AI is overrated, particularly in any area that requires genuine insight or creativity. Just a little bit of common sense can burst that bubble.

Bp Barron also points out that the people who put out the phony AI Barron videos are doing it for ad revenue -- but if they're actually using AI, they can't be making much money at it. That's the real dilimma.