Even Kash Patel Seems to Have His Own Secret Personal Slush Fund

FBI Director Kash Patel may be using the FBI as a “personal slush fund” to give “tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars” to his cronies, according to Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin.

“We have been receiving troubling reports that you may be using part of the budget of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a personal slush fund to make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in unlawful ‘bonus’ payments to loyalist MAGA henchmen who have engaged in misconduct,” Raskin wrote in a letter to Patel. He went on to allege that Patel made “nearly $8,000 payments” to multiple different people who had already eclipsed their maximum salary.

“We can confirm that numerous loyalist employees have received at least five such payments in consecutive pay periods, amounting to nearly $40,000 per agent. We can also confirm you have depleted this reserve at such a frenzied rate that some of the payments have bounced back from exhausted accounts,” Raskin continued. “It is not clear whether these bonus payments have simply been a corrupt attempt to slide cash to friends or whether they are also meant to ensure the silence of the agents who witness your inebriation and accompanying professional negligence and misconduct.”

The FBI has yet to respond to Raskin’s letter. This is the latest in a string of troubling allegations against the FBI director regarding his use of federal resources for personal gain or convenience.

The White House’s latest effort to kill off algae in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool involves a whole lot of bleach.

Park workers outfitted in hi-vis vests were spotted dumping gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the Reflecting Pool Tuesday morning. A close-up of their equipment revealed that they were using a 12 percent concentrate, a level that can cause problems if inhaled and burns if the chemical touches the skin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hydrogen peroxide is generally considered less environmentally destructive as its compounds readily break down in water, but the high concentration could nonetheless pose a risk to some of the pool’s frequent visitors, such as ducks or other birds.

Records indicate that the Trump administration spent at least $14.8 million renovating the Reflecting Pool—a project that was, apparently, all for naught. (As well as a far cry from the president’s original promise of a $1.8 million price tag.)

The project wrapped earlier this month to praise from Donald Trump, who celebrated its “beautiful, clean water” following the overhaul. The job involved painting the bottom of the memorial a color that Trump has described as “American-flag blue” ahead of the country’s semiquincentennial anniversary.

But within days, the relentless algal bloom was back—almost in full force—thanks to Washington’s hot and humid weather. By the weekend, the green, plant-like form had coated the bottom of the pool in several areas and floated to the surface.

Photojournalists also snapped shots of buckets of Induclor around the memorial, a chlorine compound used to control bacteria, algae, slime, and fungi in water, reported The Washington Post.

Fixing the Reflecting Pool is a headache that’s plagued pretty much every administration since its construction in 1923.

What makes the Reflecting Pool beautiful is exactly what makes it so difficult to maintain. The pool’s expansive length is possible due to the use of multiple large concrete slabs as its bottom. But those slabs are also prone to serious structural leaks, which requires the White House to replace roughly 16 million gallons of water each year. And the pool’s shallow depth—which creates its mirror-like appearance—also detracts from the pool’s health by creating a breeding ground for algae blooms that turn the water green.

Vice President JD Vance admitted that Iran has not actually agreed to stop enriching uranium—one of President Donald Trump’s biggest demands.

During an interview Monday night on Fox News’s Hannity, Vance was asked whether Iran had agreed to end its uranium enrichment program.

“They’re agreeing right now to eliminate the enriched stockpile,” Vance said. “And, if they don’t get to a point where they agree to stop enriching, then they don’t get any other benefits of the bargain.

“A lot of the technical details we’re gonna figure out over the next month, over the next two months, but the basic structure is they can get a lot if they comply with the United States’s demands.”

Since the beginning of the war, Trump has repeatedly promised that his deal with Iran would end the country’s uranium enrichment program. However, it seems that’s a commitment Iran has yet to make. Rather, Trump’s deal seems primarily interested in collecting Iran’s nuclear “dust.” But now the president doesn’t seem committed to doing that, either.

“You could make the case, ‘Why even bother?’ Because it’s not really valuable, it’s probably half a million dollars’ worth,” Trump said Tuesday while at the G7 summit in France. “It’s not very valuable stuff. But I think, psychologically, we want to get it.”

So rather than stop Iran from enriching uranium, Trump made a deal to collect Iran’s nuclear dust—which he says probably isn’t worth it, except that it will make the United States feel better.

Crucially, it’s not clear that Iran was actually enriching uranium in the first place. At the beginning of the war, Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that Iran was not currently enriching uranium. Later, multiple U.S. intelligence officials suggested that Iran did not present an imminent threat.

Still, upending Iran’s uranium enrichment program was a central demand for the Trump administration, though now it appears that it’s been punted to further negotiations.

Iran’s national soccer team is dealing with unnecessary hardship during the World Cup thanks to the Trump administration, with acquiescence from FIFA, international soccer’s governing body.

The team was forced to leave the U.S. immediately after its World Cup match with New Zealand Monday night in Los Angeles, which ended in a hard-fought 2–2 draw, and head back to their Tijuana, Mexico, base camp.

“After the game today they said to us, ‘You have to leave immediately,’” coach Amir Ghalenoi told the press after the match. “Whereas today it’s very important for us to have recovery.

“We’ve been asked to get on a plane and return to our camp in Tijuana, and we are really troubled by that. They are forcing us to go back early. They are making the situation more and more difficult, more hurdles, but we’re not going to let that stop us from doing our best.”

Iran wasn’t even supposed to have its tournament base camp in Mexico. They were forced to abandon their original plans for a base camp in Tucson, Arizona, thanks to the Trump administration, which isn’t letting them stay overnight in the U.S. despite their group stage games taking place in Los Angeles and Seattle. Their fan base is also being punished: Iran’s entire ticket allocation was taken away last week, although it’s not clear if that was a U.S. or FIFA decision.

Before their match, the team had to go through five hours of travel and security checks on Sunday, despite the distance between Tijuana and Los Angeles only being 140 miles.

“We don’t know why they’re returning us, to be honest. I think it’s very strange. It seems like others are doing the planning for us.… We were supposed to arrive two nights before the game, but they didn’t permit [it],” Ghalenoi said. “We were supposed to stay here tonight to recover and return tomorrow lunchtime.

“I think our team is the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup. Our federation isn’t here, our media isn’t here, our management isn’t here.”

The U.S. government initially denied visas to 15 of the Iranian team’s support staff, later reducing that number to 11 after some visas were approved. Those excluded from the U.S. include both of the team’s media officers, analysts, and Iranian Football Federation President Mehdi Taj.

Inexplicably, winger Mehdi Torabi’s visa has also expired, as he was only granted a single entry visa to the U.S., Iranian state media reported. The Iranian federation is scrambling to get Torabi a new one that lets him take part in the remaining matches.

“I think it’s not good for the football,” team captain Mehdi Taremi said of the team’s situation. “In [the] World Cup, you have to prepare good for the next game, which is a lot of stress for the players and the staff and everyone. But we don’t have that support, and I think FIFA have to help us more than this. Let’s see what’s going to happen in the future.”

Republican senators are being kept in the dark about the exact terms of Donald Trump’s deal with Iran—and they’re not happy.

The Trump administration has yet to release the text of the memorandum of understanding officials signed with Iran, leaving senior GOP members frustrated at everything they don’t know, Politico reported Monday.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a defense and Iran hawk, voiced concern about discrepancies between different parties’ descriptions of the deal. “The MOU being described by us sounds really very good; the MOU being described by Iran sounds awful,” he told Politico.

The South Carolina Republican fretted that the deal would resemble former President Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which defense hawks despised.

“If they can enrich [uranium] anywhere at all, then it’s the same as JCPOA. If they can’t enrich, then that makes it a good deal,” he continued, and added in a separate conversation that he was “skeptical that Iran will ever go there.”

It seems that the similarities between Trump’s deal and the JCPOA are already coming into sharp relief: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth crumbled on live television when trying to explain the difference.

Some Republican senators are wary of the deal, believing they will have to review and vote on it.

“If you want a deal to last, it can’t be an executive agreement,” said Oklahoma Senator James Lankford. “We’ve got to have a vote of Congress to be able to solidify [it] long term.”

But others suspect that, like the JCPOA, the deal will be a political agreement.

“They’ll try to write it around the treaty requirements, so I don’t expect we’ll vote on it,” said Texas Senator John Cornyn.

GOP lawmakers aren’t the only ones wary of Trump’s deal with Iran: Even his own Cabinet members seem to hate it. Trump has claimed he will release the text of the deal on Friday, after the formal signing ceremony.