Coast Guard Arrested a Canadian Man. He Says He Wasn’t in U.S. Waters.

A Canadian fisherman is sounding the alarm to stay far, far away from the United States-Canadian border, alleging that the U.S. Coast Guard detained him in Canadian waters, CTV News reported.

Sixty-year-old Eduoard Lallemand borrowed his friend’s fishing vessel near Venise-en-Québec, about nine miles north of the U.S. border at the northern end of Lake Champlain, where he has been fishing for decades.

Lallemand said he was surprised when he was approached by the U.S. Coast Guard, who instructed him to turn off his engine and told him he’d ventured into U.S. territory. He complied, but maintained that he was in Canadian waters.

“I said, ‘No, I’m very sorry, I’m in Canada,’” Lallemand recalled to CTV News. “And I said I’m polite enough to talk to you guys but you cannot arrest me. ‘You can’t come across the border and pick me up,’ but they did.”

Lallemand said that he told the agents he’d like to talk to them by the shore, starting up his engine again. He claimed that the Coast Guard then attempted to push his boat closer to U.S. waters, causing his boat to capsize and sending him into the waters of Lake Champlain.

Lallemand said the agents were furious as they handcuffed him and brought him to the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, who detained him in his wet clothes for two hours.

The U.S. Coast Guard released a statement claiming Lallemand was 65 yards south of the U.S. border and that he’d capsized because he had “ignored commands” and made an “abrupt” turn, hitting their vessel. “The actions of the operator of the Canadian vessel are currently under investigation,” the statement said.

But Darlene Fielding, Lallemand’s wife, suggested that there was reason to doubt that her husband had strayed into U.S. territory. “We were told afterward that their GPS may not have been working properly,” his wife wrote in a post on Facebook.

“We treat our pets better than they treated him,” Fielding told CTV News.

Meanwhile, Lallemand is warning other fishermen to keep their distance from the United States.

“I want the people to know and to be aware: Stay away from the border,” he told CTV News. “Even if it’s 500, 600 feet from there.”

It seems that some Canadians were already keeping their distance. In May, there was a 25 percent decrease in legal border crossings between the U.S. and Canada.

This incident comes amid strained relations with America’s northern neighbor, spurred by President Donald Trump’s additional 35 percent tariffs on certain Canadian goods and 25 percent tariffs on aluminum and steel imports. Not to mention Trump continues to childishly feud with the leader of the northern nation, which he previously insisted should join the U.S.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell called out President Trump for lying about the cost of renovations to the Federal Reserve headquarters. 

Trump has been purposefully trying to increase the cost of the renovations so that he can blame Powell for mismanaging funds, as a pretext for firing him. 

“It looks like it’s about $3.1 billion, it went up a little bit. Or a lot,” Trump said to the press, while standing next to Powell wearing matching hard hats. “So the $2.7 is now 3.1.” 

“I’m not aware of that,” Powell interjected, looking visibly concerned. 

“It just came out,” Trump replied. 

“I haven’t heard that from anybody at the Fed,”  Powell said.

“It just came out,” Trump repeated, unfurling a piece of paper he had folded in his suit pocket and handing it to Powell. 

“This came from us?” 

“Yes. I don’t know who does that,” Trump said, pointing at the paper. 

“You’re including the Martin renovation, you just added in a third building is what that is. That’s a third building,” said Powell. 

“Well I know, but it’s a building that’s being built.” 

“No, it was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago.” 

“It’s part of the overall work.” 

“It’s not new.” 

“So we’re gonna take a look, we’re gonna see what’s happening, and it’s got a long way. Do you expect any additional cost overruns?” Trump asked.

“Don’t expect ’em. But we’re ready for ’em. We have a little bit of a reserve that we may use, but no, we don’t. We expect to be finished in 2027. We’re well along, as you can see.” 

Trump has targeted Powell for some time now, as the Fed chair has repeatedly refused to lower interest rates to help the president. Trump has made it known that he wants Powell fired, and this number fudging was purely antagonistic. At least Powell was there to fact-check him.

The commander in chief is not the only administration official with ties to the notorious late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

As President Trump is dogged by a scandal surrounding his relationship with—and perceived lack of transparency in the case of—the disgraced financier, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is also facing renewed scrutiny for his Epstein connections.

Making the rounds again are photos of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at social gatherings with Epstein, which previously surfaced amid Kennedy’s short-lived 2024 presidential campaign.

In one photo, Kennedy is pictured chatting with Epstein at an event at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan in March 1994. Beside them is Kennedy’s late second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who, he’s said, “had some kind of relationship with [now-convicted Epstein accomplice] Ghislaine Maxwell.”

In another, Kennedy appears to be seated at a table with Epstein at a 1994 fundraiser for the New York Academy of Art.

Kennedy also shares with Trump the distinction of appearing in Epstein’s “little black book,” which contains the names of various high-profile contacts.

Further, Kennedy has publicly admitted to having flown twice on Epstein’s infamous jet “before anybody knew about … his nefarious issues.”

He told Fox News’s Jesse Watters that he did so once in 1993, hitching a ride to Palm Beach to “visit [his] mom over Easter” and again, one or two years later, “to go fossil hunting” in South Dakota. Both times, he said, he was with family.

In March 2024, Kennedy was roundly mocked online for defending his interactions with Epstein by, oddly, listing numerous other figures accused or convicted of horrendous acts with whom he’s also had run-ins, such as Harvey Weinstein, O.J. Simpson, and Bill Cosby.

That bizarre remark aside, the health secretary’s past connections to Epstein still were seemingly not as deep as the president’s, who had a storied friendship with the disgraced financier. In fact, Epstein once told journalist Michael Wolff that he “was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.”

Still, Kennedy’s closet is full of skeletons, to use his own words. When Vanity Fair reported on a former babysitter’s sexual assault allegations against Kennedy, he did not deny them. Instead, the then-candidate said, “I am not a church boy.… I had a very, very rambunctious youth. I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet that, if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world.”

There’s nothing wrong with being friends with child sex traffickers, according to Representative Tim Burchett.

Speaking with Fox News on Thursday, the Tennessee Republican tried to brush off Donald Trump’s reportedly cozy relationship with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein by offering his own slimy admission.

“They knew each other, they ran in the same circles,” Burchett told the network. “It’s just like me, I know a lot of dirtbags myself.”

Trump’s allies have been working overtime to explain away the MAGA leader’s various ties to Epstein, as pressure mounts within his base to make public the records pertaining to the government investigation into Epstein and his sex-trafficking empire.

Trump has a well-documented history with the New York financier. Prior to his death, Epstein described himself as one of Trump’s “closest friends.” The socialites were named and photographed together several times, Trump allegedly penned a salacious letter to Epstein for the pedophile’s 50th birthday, the real estate mogul reportedly flew on Epstein’s jets between Palm Beach and New York at least seven times, and the first time that Trump slept with his now-wife Melania was reportedly aboard Epstein’s plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express.”

In a 2002 New York magazine profile of Epstein, Trump said he knew Epstein for 15 years and referred to him as a “terrific guy.”

“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said at the time.

Earlier this month, Burchett offered more convenient cover for the Trump administration after the Justice Department directly contradicted its leader, Attorney General Pam Bondi, on the existence of Epstein’s supposed “client list.” Speaking with NewsNation, Burchett said that he believed the client list was “destroyed” by the Biden administration and no longer existed.

When pressed why Bondi would not have said so if that was the case, Burchett responded that it was because “she doesn’t have any proof of it.”

Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin just admitted that congressional Republicans are voting against efforts to release the Epstein files in full because they’re trying to give President Trump “cover.”

On Thursday, Mullin and Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego each put forth a resolution on the Epstein files that they claimed was transparent. While Gallego called for the DOJ to release all files in full without caveat, Mullin called on the department to release “all credible information” related specifically to Epstein’s sealed legal proceedings. 

“I’m sure this would be handled just like any other thing [the Democrats] have tried to go after like the baseless impeachments. Or the bases—baseless special counsels. Or the unbelievable amount of charges they tried to file against the president,” Mullin said while objecting to Gallego’s resolution. “I’m sure this would be handled the exact same way. What we’re simply wanting to do here, is give [Trump] cover.”

What exactly do Trump and his administration need cover for? And what is the current GOP obsession with disqualifying Democrats’ calls for an investigation into Epstein on the grounds that former President Biden didn’t do it? That is a weak, lazy argument. Trump was also a former president, and Epstein killed himself during his first term.  

Mullin dismissed Gallego’s resolution on the basis of it being political theater. But it remains unclear just what about it is so theatrical. Gallego’s resolution attempted to get answers on a case that the Republican Party has absolutely bungled. Trump and his Cabinet broke a massive promise on these files, and it’s no wonder his base is angry. But Mullin is using technicalities and old excuses to prolong the process and provide cover for his dear leader. 

“All of us want transparency. We want to know actually what happened, the American people want to know what’s happened, but what [Senator Gallego’s] resolution does, is it actually is a blurred line between the separation of powers,” Mullin said. “When we start dictating to the Department of Justice what they can and can’t do, there’s a clear separation of power. We’re the legislative branch. That’s what we do. We make laws. We can’t dictate other branches on what they must and how they must do their job.…  A.G. Bondi, and the president has both already called on the judges to release this information. 

“What my resolution is simply saying, is we agree with the president, we agree with A.G. Bondi, on the judges and calling upon the judges to release it,” Mullins concluded. 

Gallego responded. 

“Let me explain to the American people what just happened. My colleague from Oklahoma refused to join me in calling on the DOJ to release all the Epstein files. Instead he offered his own resolution calling on the courts to unseal the records. When I asked if we did both, which I am asking to do both—I wanna call for transparency, and of course we could ask the Justice Department and the courts—he’s also gonna object.” 

This same conflict occurred a week ago, when Mullin also chalked Gallego’s efforts up to theater.