(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) The torrent of scandalous funding revelations linked to the United States Agency for International Development continued on Thursday, days after the agency was overrun by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which compelled President Donald Trump to announce its total closure.
Among the allegations was a bombshell claim by State Department whistleblower Mike Benz on Steve Bannon’s WarRoom that the agency had meddled in the reelection of Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, tipping the scales in favor of socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva under a set of circumstances that appeared to closely mirror the 2020 U.S. election, in which Democrat Joe Biden was installed as president.
USAID IS A US FOREIGN POLICY VEHICLE. @MikeBenzCyber explains for @Bannons_WarRoom how it accomplishes the political goals of a very small secular elite within the US and their international partners. “USAID is a mutant baby of the CIA and the State Department.” pic.twitter.com/UldJstfJNz
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) February 3, 2025
“USAID is a mutant baby of the CIA and the State Department,” Benz said.
Like Trump, Bolsonaro has since been threatened with incarceration for his efforts to challenge the highly disputed outcome and was barred from running for office by the country’s corrupt judiciary until at least 2030.
Benz made other scathing allegations against USAID in an 11-minute interview with Tucker Carlson that was posted Wednesday.
Mike Benz exposes USAID for 11 straight minutes. pic.twitter.com/ja95d0qp0c
— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) February 5, 2025
Meanwhile, investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger exposed a direct link between the embattled CIA piggybank and House Democrats’ contrived 2019 impeachment of then-President Donald Trump.
He noted that the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a source cited repeatedly in the report of anonymous “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella, not only was funded by USAID, but that the agency effectively had editorial control over its content.
“OCCRP does not operate like a normal investigative journalism organization in that its goals appear to include interfering in foreign political matters, including elections, aimed at regime change,” Shellenberger wrote.
“… As such, it appears that CIA, USAID, and OCCRP were all involved in the impeachment of President Trump in ways similar to the regime change operations that all three organizations engage in abroad,” he added. “The difference is that it is highly illegal and even treasonous for CIA, USAID, and its contractors and intermediaries … to interfere in US politics this way.”
The House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump on December 18, 2019, after a White House whistleblower went public with evidence that Trump abused his powers by withholding military aid to Ukraine in order to dig up dirt on his rival, Joe Biden.
In the complaint,… pic.twitter.com/rZ6gTazw5v
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) February 5, 2025
On the heels of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s confirmation, the explosive allegations of high treason could potentially implicate House Democrats who helped to coordinate the political attack (including Sen. Adam Schiff, whose preemptive pardon applies only to his work on the Jan. 6 committee).
It remains unclear whether Bondi will seek the death penalty—although the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to declare the punishment for treason.
Nonetheless, those left-wing conspirators may not be the biggest targets ensnared by the USAID scandal.
Other Twitter sleuths had uncovered a direct money-laundering pipeline to millions in tax dollars leading from the State Department (which Hillary Clinton previously oversaw) to the Clinton Foundation, by way of a non-governmental organization linked to billionaire oligarch George Soros.
Chelsea Clinton casually taking home $84 million pic.twitter.com/4E0xQhmUlT
— aka (@akafaceUS) February 5, 2025
The Tides Foundation, a supposedly apolitical 501(c)3 nonprofit founded by venture capitalist Drummond Pike, is part of the Democracy Alliance, the same dark-money network as Soros, who has also given at least $3.5 billion in direct funding to Tides.
It also counts as a member Organizing for Action, the former campaign arm of Barack Obama, which was subsequently converted into a nonprofit overseen by ex-Obama “wingman” and Attorney General Eric Holder.
The shadowy network of shell companies and umbrella organizations that leftists have used to subversively bankroll their radical agenda has, thus far, proven to be a major vulnerability for their opponents on the right—in no small part due to what seemed to be an infiite reserve of resources.
But the efforts by DOGE may have leveled the playing field, revealing the circular nature of the cashflow: from Democrat officials to corrupt government front-agencies like USAID, into the hands of radical leftist nonprofits and NGOs, and finally, back into the coffers of Democrat elites through their own “philanthropic” institutions.
As conservative investigative journalist Mike Cernovich noted, USAID was the “skeleton key” to unlocking the whole corrupt enterprise.
USAID was the Skelton key to unlocking all of the corruption. I’ve never seen Democrats so outraged about anything.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) February 3, 2025
The abrupt termination of USAID, with its more than $40 billion annual budget, may swiftly stem the supply of resources, forcing leftist elites, at the very least, to put their own money on the line in any counterattacks on the transparency-pushing Trump administration.
However, with Musk—by far the world’s richest man, with one of the most powerful social-media outlets at his disposal—leading the charge, they are likely to be outgunned in a fair fight.
The future fate of power-players like the Clinton and Soros families may depend on what remains to be unraveled and where it leads, but as many X users noted, the discoveries thus far appear only to be the tip of the iceberg.
USAID bribed George Soros with $27 million for his prosecution fund.
USAID is just the tip of the iceberg! pic.twitter.com/nkUXBuurdd
— 🇺🇸RealRobert🇺🇸 (@Real_RobN) February 5, 2025
Ben Sellers is the editor emeritus of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
