(Jesse Colombo, Money Metals News Service) As the wild ride continues in all markets, let’s take a look at COMEX gold futures to assess where things stand. I focus on COMEX futures because key support and resistance levels tend to form cleanly at $100 intervals—$3,000, $3,100, $3,200, and so on.
I’m pleased to see that gold surged nearly $100 per ounce yesterday, bouncing directly off the $3,000 support level. Gold is looking strong here, now trading only $80 below its all-time high.
My view is that it will likely consolidate in this area for a bit, gathering strength. Ideally, I’d like to see it make a strong move toward its record high around $3,200—and eventually break through it. From there, the upside potential should be explosive, especially as the broader economic picture continues to deteriorate, regardless of how the tariff drama plays out.
I’m encouraged to see COMEX silver futures bounce off the $28–$30 support zone I highlighted in my most recent precious metals update. Ideally, I want to see that support hold firmly from here.
The next key test is whether silver can reclaim the uptrend line it broke below on Friday and resume the bullish path it was on before being aggressively knocked down by bullion banks. That said, I still firmly believe silver will soon break free from this suppression and follow gold’s lead.
I’m pleasantly surprised by the resilience and strength the mining stock sector has shown despite the recent brutal precious metals ambush.
Take the large-cap VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX), for example—it’s already rebounding sharply and is now approaching the same levels it held before the downturn.
It looks poised to challenge the key $42–$46 horizontal resistance zone. If GDX can break through that zone, I see it launching into a powerful bull market from there. I’ll definitely be watching that scenario closely.
The VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) is also rebounding strongly, now trading near its recent highs and testing the key $50–$60 resistance zone. A breakout above this level would open the door to significantly more upside.
The flagship Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) is also recovering nicely. If it can close above the key $48–$52 resistance zone, I believe it will mark the beginning of a full-blown bull market.
The Amplify Junior Silver Miners ETF (SILJ) also saw a strong rebound yesterday and appears poised to make another attempt at breaking out of a long-term triangle. A successful breakout would signal the start of a major bull market.
In summary, yesterday was another wild and volatile day—this time to the upside—but it leaves me with an uneasy feeling.
Beneath the surface, the same serious issues remain: a looming recession, unprecedented levels of debt, and massively inflated asset bubbles hanging over us like the Sword of Damocles. The ongoing back-and-forth over tariffs ensures that market volatility is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
In times like these, I’m grateful to take refuge in physical gold and silver. They’re proving their worth while most other assets are revealing their true nature as anything but safe havens. I believe we’re only beginning to see gold and silver step into their rightful role in this shifting financial landscape.
Jesse Colombo is a financial analyst and investor writing on macro-economics and precious metals markets. Recognized by The Times of London, he has built a reputation for warning about economic bubbles and future financial crises. An advocate for free markets and sound money, Colombo was also named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Economy & Finance. His Substack can be accessed here.
(Money Metals News Service) As global markets react to trade tensions and tariff rumors, the real story may lie beneath the headlines.
In the latest Money Metals Midweek Memo, host Mike Maharrey argues that while tariffs dominate the financial news cycle, they’re just a subplot in a much deeper economic drama—one driven by monetary malfeasance and the long-term consequences of easy money.
On Monday, gold dipped below $3,000/oz, then rebounded to $3,083/oz by Tuesday morning. The VIX volatility index surged to 57.85, approaching levels seen in the early days of the pandemic (66) and the 2008 financial crisis (79).
A fleeting rumor that President Trump would pause tariffs for 90 days sparked a stock market rally—only to be quashed within 30 minutes. Maharrey emphasized that this level of uncertainty paralyzes entrepreneurs, investors, and businesses alike.
“Uncertainty is almost worse than a bad policy,” Maharrey notes. “It’s impossible to make smart decisions when you don’t know what the rules will be in two days.”
The Bigger Picture: Monetary Policy, Not Just Tariffs
Though tariffs have sparked recent market turmoil, Maharrey warns they may be merely the pin that pops a much larger stock market bubble—a bubble decades in the making.
At the heart of the issue? The U.S. economy’s addiction to easy money. Since the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has inflated asset prices through low interest rates and quantitative easing (QE). Maharrey suggests that without these artificial policies, the market would have faced a full-blown crisis years ago.
“It’s a bubble economy fueled by monetary malfeasance,” Maharrey explains. “Every bubble needs a pin—and tariffs might just be it.”
Current ratio: ~12.5:1 (i.e., 12.5 oz of gold to buy the Dow).
Historical low: 1:1 in 1980, during gold’s last historic bull run.
Peak in 2000: 43:1, fueled by the dot-com bubble.
Maharrey explains that when this ratio falls, it often precedes or coincides with a financial crisis or major correction. A return to 5:1 could imply $7,500/oz gold, even if the Dow holds steady. If the Dow falls to 20,000, the gold price could still reach $4,000/oz.
“A breakdown in this ratio might signal a major opportunity: it could be time to rotate out of stocks and into gold.”
Silver: Historically Undervalued and Set for Gains
The Gold-to-Silver Ratio is currently over 100:1, far above its modern historical average of 40:1 to 60:1. Maharrey points out that during previous gold bull markets, silver has outperformed, especially in the later stages.
“Silver is significantly undervalued compared to gold. Based on historical metrics, it’s a bargain right now.”
Easy Money: The True Driver of Market Bubbles
Tracing the last several decades, Maharrey outlines a repeating cycle:
The Fed loosens monetary policy (low rates, Quantitative Easing).
Asset prices inflate (stocks, real estate, etc.).
The Fed tightens policy.
Markets crash.
The Fed loosens again—this time with even more stimulus.
This pattern has repeated through the dot-com crash, 2008 financial crisis, and COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic, he argues, gave the Fed cover to “go nuclear” with QE, artificially inflating markets once more.
“It takes more and more of the easy money drug to keep the economy high. And it always shows up somewhere—stocks, real estate, even Bitcoin.”
“When dollars are rejected, gold still buys,” he says.
Final Thoughts: Prepare Before the Next Crisis
Whether or not tariffs subside, Maharrey believes a larger reckoning is inevitable. The stock market remains overvalued, easy money policies are unsustainable, and the Dow-to-Gold Ratio is flashing warning signs.
Investors, he argues, should take steps now:
Consider rotating out of overvalued equities.
Increase exposure to gold—and especially silver.
Don’t wait for the next crisis to get your lifeline in place.
“It’s not too late. But when chaos hits, you’ll wish you had real money in hand.”
Call to Action
For personalized guidance, contact a Money Metals precious metals specialist at 1-800-800-1865, or visit MoneyMetals.com to shop, chat online, or learn more.
Stay informed. Subscribe to the Midweek Memo and the Friday Market Wrap Podcast for weekly insights and interviews from the world of sound money, gold, and investing.
But that’s precisely what greeted me as I switched on CNBC this morning.
Shades of October 2008… and March 2020!
Over the past week, we’ve seen similarities with those two previous crises in that gold and silver have been alternately sold off as investors desperately raised cash for margin calls, and then bouncing higher as traders bet on more mayhem and easier money.
Today (or rather, last night) we got another throwback — the feeling that the global financial system was in danger.
That’s because, contrary to the wishes and the strategy of the Trump administration, Treasury yields spiked overnight.
As our friend (and New Orleans Conference alum) Jim Bianco posted on X this morning:
Something has broken tonight in the bond market. We are seeing a disorderly liquidation.
If I had to GUESS, the basis trade is in full unwind.
Since Friday’s close to now … the 30-year yield is up 56 bps, in three trading days.
The last time this yield rose this much in 3 days (close to close) was January 7, 1982, when the yield was 14%.
This kind of historic move is caused by a forced liquidation, not human managers making decisions about the outlook for rates at midnight ET.
The “basis trade” has been a darling of hedge funds, which bet on the arbitrage between spot Treasury yields and futures, using massive leverage on this tiny spread to get enough torque to make it worthwhile.
It’s the kind of trade that emerges when there are vast oceans of liquidity sloshing around the markets looking for any advantage. And those oceans are the result, as I’ve been writing ad nauseam, of decades of ever-easier monetary policies.
It’s also the kind of trade that can go radically south on an unexpected turn in the markets, as will happen when the rest of the world decides to sell anything associated with the U.S. and its currency.
What Alan Greenspan Warned Me Of…
It reminds me of a conversation I had with Alan Greenspan about a decade ago.
I was sharing my concern over the expanding federal debt, which was at that time just a fraction of today’s level, but still worrisome to me.
Greenspan shared my worries about the federal debt but then confided that what really concerned him was the derivative exposure of the “too big to fail” institutions. Nominally, that exposure is denominated not in trillions, but somewhere above a quintillion.
As Greenspan pointed out to me, even those institutions couldn’t get a handle on their liabilities, since their derivatives were interconnected with those held by other institutions…and all their exposure was now backed by Uncle Sam!
The crack-up of the Treasury basis trade, along with nations and global investors shedding their U.S. exposure to equities, Treasurys, and the dollar, directly impacts that derivative market.
After trading off of its morning highs for a while, gold is now rocketing higher again. And so are U.S. equities, as the Trump administration has announced a 90-day pause in the reciprocal tariffs…although China is still in the crosshairs thanks to their retaliatory responses.
The rally in gold today, as well as over the past year or so, has been nothing short of remarkable. As you know, now and then over this new bull market, I’ve rhetorically pondered, “What is gold telling us?”
Is it seeing stagflation ahead, with the trade war bringing a recession along with higher inflation? Yes.
Is it the Fed’s debt trap, with over $9 trillion of Treasurys that need to be refinanced this year at much higher interest rates? Yes.
Is it the teetering bond market and the risk of contagion endangering the global financial system? Yes.
Is it a global flight from dollar hegemony, not only central banks but investors across the globe? Yes.
In short, gold has been telling us that it’s not one thing. It’s everything.
After decades of ever-easier money, ever-greater financialization and globalization, ever-larger debts, and more, gold remains the only thing that protects against everything.
The good news is that not only are gold and silver soaring, but investors are finally jumping onto the mining stocks to gain exposure to the already high metals prices.
To get Brien Lundin’s ongoing commentary on the markets at no charge, click here to subscribe to his free Golden Opportunities newsletter.
Brien Lundin is the publisher and editor of Gold Newsletter, the publication that has been the cornerstone of precious metals advisories since 1971. Mr. Lundin covers not only resource stocks but also the entire world of investing. He also hosts the annual New Orleans Investment Conference. To get Brien Lundin’s ongoing commentary on the markets at no charge, click here to subscribe to his free Golden Opportunities newsletter.
(Kyle Anzalone, Libertarian Institute) President Donald Trump made ending the war in Ukraine a top talking point on the campaign trail and has worked to bring Kiev and Moscow to the table over the first two months of his second term. However, the talks have not reduced the fighting on the ground.
On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that its forces had driven Ukrainian troops from the village of Guyevo, located in Russia’s Kursk region, which was targeted by a Ukrainian offensive last summer.
The village was Ukraine’s most significant stronghold remaining in Kursk. Over the past month, Russia has made rapid gains in the region.
While Ukrainian forces are being driven from Kursk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said his troops are active in a second Russian border region. “We continue to carry out active operations in the border areas on enemy territory, and that is absolutely just – [the] war must return to where it came from,” he explained on Monday.
Ukrainian sources speaking with CNN said that Russian forces had stepped up attacks across the frontlines. Moscow claims its troops advanced in a number of regions along the front.
Ukrainian soldiers say they are losing territory as they are significantly outnumbered by Russian forces. “Sometimes there are 10 Russian occupiers for one of our infantrymen,” a representative of Ukraine’s 66th Separate Mechanized Brigade told the Kyiv Post. “The Russians are pressing with an incredible amount of infantry, which they simply have a lot of.”
The military official explained that in recent months, his brigade lost two battalion-sized units.
Along with the fighting on the frontlines, Kiev and Moscow continue to trade missile and drone attacks. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have hit 150 Ukrainian targets with drones and missiles in a single day. The ministry reported downing over 150 Ukrainian drones over the same period.
The increase in fighting comes despite Trump’s push to end the war in Ukraine. US mediators have engaged in separate talks with Ukrainian and Russian officials, resulting in agreements to end attacks on energy infrastructure and shipping in the Black Sea. However, Kiev and Moscow have traded accusations of ceasefire violations and the status of the agreement is now unclear.
Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said the Kremlin remained interested in an agreement with Kiev, but only one that would resolve the conflict permanently. He added that Ukraine must not use any pause in fighting to re-arm.
“We are open to a meaningful and practical dialogue, but we will not allow anyone to deceive us or to use this negotiation process, directly or indirectly, to enhance the military potential of the Kiev regime,” he told the UN Security Council earlier this week. “To achieve this, it is essential to address the root causes, one of which is the influx of Western weapons into Ukraine. As we all know, this flow began long before the start of our special military operation and was facilitated under the cover of the Minsk agreements.”
The US and Russia are set to engage in another round of talks in Turkey on Thursday. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the delegations will be led by Russian Ambassador to the United States Alexander Darchiyev and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter.
Zakharova said the talks would focus on removing any obstacles slowing diplomacy between Russia and the US.
This article originally appeared at The Libertarian Institute.
“If it requires military, we’re going to have military,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if the US would attack if a nuclear deal isn’t reached with Iran.
“Israel will obviously be very much involved in that — it’ll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do,” he added.
Trump’s latest threat comes ahead of negotiations between the US and Iran that will be held in Oman this Saturday. The talks will be attended by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Trump has insisted the talks will be direct negotiations, while Aragchi has said they will be indirect, meaning Omani mediators will pass messages between the two sides. Reports have said that Iran would need a goodwill gesture from the US to hold direct talks, such as the removal of some sanctions. But the Trump administration continues to impose sanctions andadded new ones on Wednesday.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian restated Iran’s long-standing pledge in comments on Wednesday. “We are not after a nuclear bomb,” Pezeshkian added. “You have verified it 100 times. Do it 1,000 times again,” he said.
Pezeshkian also said that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was not opposed to US investment in Iran. “His excellency has no opposition to investment by American investors in Iran,” he said. “American investors: Come and invest.”
(Headline USA) U.S. inflation declined last month as the cost of gas, airline fares, and hotel rooms fell, a sign that price growth was cooling even as President Donald Trump ramped up his tariff threats.
Consumer prices rose just 2.4% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday, down from 2.8% in February. That is the lowest inflation figure since September.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.8% compared with a year ago, down from 3.1% in February. That is the smallest increase in core prices in nearly four years. Economists closely watch core prices because they are considered a better guide to where inflation is headed.
The report shows that inflation is mostly cooling. Yet Trump’s huge tariffs on China and 10% universal duty are likely to push up prices in the coming months, economists say. The higher import taxes will likely weigh on the economy’s growth as well.
On a monthly basis, prices actually fell 0.1% in March, the first monthly drop in nearly five years. Core prices rose just 0.1% in March from February.
Used car prices dropped 0.7% from February to March, the government said. The cost of auto insurance fell 0.8%, welcome relief for car owners, though insurance costs are still up 7.5% compared with a year ago.
One reason prices fell was sharp drops in travel-related costs, including air fares, which slipped 5.3% just from February to March. Hotel room prices dropped 3.5%. Visits to the United States from overseas fell nearly 12% last month, according to government data.
The cost of groceries, however, jumped 0.5% last month, the report showed, as egg prices leapt 5.9% to a new record average price of $6.23 a dozen. Clothing prices rose 0.4%, though they have increased little in the past year.
Trump had imposed sweeping tariffs on nearly 60 nations last week, which sent financial markets into a tailspin and caused sharp drops in business and consumer sentiment. Yet on Wednesday he paused those duties for 90 days. He kept a steep 125% tariff on all imports from China and 25% duties on steel, aluminum, imported cars, and many goods from China and Mexico.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In the wake of the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing, the FBI launched a massive manhunt for a mystery accomplice to Timothy McVeigh known as “John Doe 2”—only to later claim that he never existed, and that McVeigh acted largely alone.
Nearly 30 years later, an attorney in Utah named Jesse Trentadue is still working to unearth the truth of the matter through his ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for surveillance footage of the blast—footage that, according to FBI and Secret Service records, shows McVeigh with another unidentified subject. Since McVeigh’s other accomplice, Terry Nichols, was confirmed to have been in Kansas on April 19, John Doe 2’s identify remains a subject of debate. Credible researchers have made the case that he may have been an undercover informant, or even an agent.
Trentadue’s nearly 17-year-old FOIA lawsuit hasn’t received much attention over the last decade, largely because it’s been litigated behind closed doors, with gag orders on all parties. That’s because a special master is continuing to investigate stunning allegations that the FBI intimidated an undercover informant involved in the case.
With the OKC bombing anniversary next week, Trentadue recently moved to unseal the deposition he took of the FBI informant—a retired Marine named John Matthews, who purportedly saw McVeigh months before the bombing. However, one of the top officials in the Justice Department, Principal Acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth, is opposing his motion, according to a letter Trentadue wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi—a copy of which was obtained by this reporter.
“Mr. Roth appeared in that case in his official capacity and heads the Department of Justice’s vehement opposition to unsealing Matthews’ deposition,” Trentadue told Bondi in his March 26 letter.
“Why is the Department of Justice fighting so hard to prevent the unsealing of that deposition when it is contrary to everything the current administration has publicly stated about exposing and cleaning up the FBI lawlessness?”
It’s unclear what the contents of Matthews’ deposition are. Trentadue said he wasn’t allowed to comment on the matter due to the court-imposed gag order.
🚨NEW: A Utah attorney suing for surveillance footage of the OKC bombing recently moved to unseal an FBI informant's deposition about the matter.
HOWEVER, the motion is opposed by Trump's DOJ — specifically one of the top officials, Principal Acting Assistant Attorney General… pic.twitter.com/lSUABGVE7h
Judging by Matthews’ past public disclosures, his testimony likely reveals new information about some of the darkest scandals in the FBI’s history—including its coverup of the others involved in the OKC bombing, which killed at least 168 people, including 19 children, in what remains the deadliest domestic terrorism attack in American history.
Bondi’s office did not respond to messages seeking comment on the matter. Roth also did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Who is John Matthews, and What Does He Know?
Matthews, a retired Marine who infiltrated the right-wing underground in the 1990s as a paid operative, never intended to become a whistleblower. He had been out of the game for over a decade, and only went public after he saw that the bureau burned him by not redacting his name in documents that were being released.
“All those years I’ve been a good boy and kept my mouth shut,” Matthews told Newsweek in 2011. “Then you release my name? What kind of shit is that?”
Initially, Matthews attempted to tell his story through the press.
Buttressed by his credibility—the FBI gave him a plaque for his service, and documents corroborated much of what he said—Matthews told a Newsweek all about an undercover operation to infiltrate right-wing groups called “Patriot Conspiracy,” or PATCON for short.
According to Matthews, PATCON entailed numerous undercover FBI agents and informants posing as neo-Nazis. Those undercover operatives fomented numerous crimes, including illegal gunwalking to plotting an attack on a nuclear plant in Alabama, according to Matthews. Perhaps Matthews’ most jolting claim was that he saw McVeigh in 1994 with a German national named Andy Strassmeir—who an ATF informant later saw casing the Murrah Building in early 1995.
But when Newsweek published its article about Matthews on Nov. 11, 2011, he was dismayed to find his most damning disclosures unreported.
That’s when Matthews turned to Trentadue, who was preparing for his upcoming trial in his FOIA lawsuit for the OKC bombing surveillance footage—the only FOIA case, to this writer’s knowledge, that’s ever gone to trial.
Trentadue’s Trial
Trentadue had filed his lawsuit in 2008, and the FBI swore to a judge that footage never existed. Typically, such a declaration is all it takes for a judge to dismiss a FOIA lawsuit. But in Trentadue’s case, the Utah attorney had already separately obtained investigatory records from the Secret Service, which conducted its own investigation into the bombing.
The Secret Service documents showed that the John Doe 2 surveillance footage indeed exists.
“Security videotapes from the area [around the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building] show the truck detonation three minutes and six seconds after the suspects exited the truck,” the Secret Service document states.
Trentadue also showed the judge FBI records and contemporaneous news reports about an agent who allegedly tried selling the surveillance footage to NBC News. According to the leaked October 1995 FBI memo, an attorney representing an FBI agent in Los Angeles had contacted the NBC show “Dateline,” offering to sell surveillance footage for more than $1 million.
“It was represented that the video tape would contain lapse photography of the arrival and then departure of a UPS truck. Then a Ryder truck pulls up and a male resembling Timothy McVey [sic] is seen exiting the driver’s side of the Ryder truck and then walking away,” the FBI memo says. “Next, a second male is seen exiting the passenger side of the Ryder truck and walking to the back of the truck. The second male then walks away in the same direction as the first male.”
Having been caught in an apparent lie about the surveillance footage and the existence of John Doe 2, the FBI was forced to go to trial. Trentadue’s trial happened in Utah over a four-day period from July 28 to July 31, 2014.
Wanting to show that the FBI was hiding records about others involved in the bombing, Trentadue was going to have Matthews testify about his encounters with known associates of McVeigh. Trentadue also wanted to press Matthews on his inside knowledge of scandals ranging from the 1993 Waco massacre all the way to the Obama-era Fast & Furious gun-walking disaster.
Aftermath of the OKC bombing. PHOTO: FBI
Matthews’ testimony was supposed to put the finishing touches of Trentadue’s case that other unidentified accomplices indeed were involved in the bombing, and that the FBI was hiding records about them. Specifically, Matthews was going to talk about his time with Andreas Strassmeir, an infamous figure from the 1990s militia scene who was accused by an ATF informant of casing federal buildings in late 1994 and early 1995.
“Prior to the Oklahoma City Bombing [Matthews] had seen Timothy McVeigh and a German National by the name of Andreas Strassmeir at a militia training facility near San Saba, Texas,” Trentadue later said in a sworn declaration.
“According to Mr. Matthews, he had reported the McVeigh–Strassmeir [sighting] to the FBI, and was told by the FBI that the Bureau was already aware of that fact, which indicated to Mr. Matthews that others within the FBI were monitoring McVeigh on the [run-up] to the attack on the Murrah Building.”
Matthews Goes Missing
The reason Matthews’ purported sighting was recounted in a sworn declaration, and not from his trial testimony, is because he changed his mind about taking the stand. On day three of the trial, Roger Charles—a private investigator who worked on McVeigh’s defense team before helping Trentadue with his litigation—said he received a phone call from Matthews, who relayed to him that he had been threatened by the bureau.
“John Matthews said that he had been told by the FBI to ‘stand down.’ John Matthews also said that he had been told by the FBI to take a vacation so that he could not be subpoenaed,” Charles said in his Aug. 7, 2014, sworn declaration to the court. “He likewise said that the ‘Bureau’ had made it very clear to him that if he did testify, it could result in the loss of his Veteran’s health coverage, and Veteran’s disability pension.”
Trentadue filed a similar declaration.
“During that conversation, Mr. Matthews related to me the events leading up to his refusal to testify, including the name of the FBI agent who had contacted him, Adam Quirk,” Trentadue said in his declaration.
The FBI denied Charles’s and Trentadue’s allegations of witness tampering. The bureau showed Judge Waddoups an Aug. 2, 2014, email from Matthews to both parties in the FOIA dispute. In there, Matthews said he declined to testify based on the advice of his former handler, retired FBI agent Don Jarrett.
“Like we both agree, I had nothing to do with the Oklahoma City bombing or the tapes. I did not want to testify and I did not want to get caught in a crossfire with both sides,” Matthews wrote. “If I took a trip, no one could find me to give a subpoena to. Don told me we should inform the FBI in Salt Lake City and let them know what I was going to do.”
In his email, Matthews confirmed that he spoke with Trentadue and Charles.
“I told them that I was not going to testify. That Agent Adam Quirk was supposed to [have] told the court,” he wrote, emphasizing in all capital letters: “NO ONE FROM THE FBI OR DOJ HAS MADE ANY THREATS TO ME OR MY FAMILY.”
Matthews’ assurances did not convince Judge Waddoups, who launched an investigation into the matter.
“The current record at least permits a reasonable inference of wrongdoing by Defendant or its agents in influencing Mr. Matthews not to testify,” Judge Waddoups said in an April 2015 decision, ordering a separate magistrate judge—a “special master”—to investigate the witness tampering allegations.
Almost exactly a decade later, and the special master has yet to issue his report and recommendations.
Meanwhile, Matthews is nowhere to be found. Trentadue said he doesn’t even know if Matthews, a Vietnam veteran who suffered from the effects of Agent Orange, is still alive.
While declining to comment on the proceedings, Trentadue did say the DOJ and FBI have fought him “tooth and nail” every step of the way.
Trentadue said he expected a coverup from previous administrations. After all, former Attorney General Merrick Garland helped prosecute McVeigh, and was involved in suppressing info about John Doe 2—Garland argued during McVeigh’s April 27, 1995, preliminary hearing that “it doesn’t matter whether there were two or 100 people in that truck, as long as there was somebody representing Mr. McVeigh there.”
“The only person on trial at this hearing is Mr. McVeigh. It doesn’t matter whether there were two or 100 people in that truck, as long as there was somebody representing Mr. McVeigh there."
Even though the Trump administration promised more transparency, Deputy AG Roth’s move to keep Matthews’ declaration sealed is just the latest move by the U.S. government to keep the truth hidden, Trentadue said.
Sean Dunagan, a senior investigator for transparency group Judicial Watch, has told this reporter that he’s surprised the case has even gotten this far.
“We’re one of the largest FOIA litigants in this country, and we’ve never been involved in anything that involves that degree of alleged misconduct by the [FBI]. It’s astounding,” Dunagan told this reporter in 2022.
“It’s very good for Jesse that his case is not being litigated in D.C. If this case were litigated in D.C., it would have been closed years ago. Judges in D.C. have a lot more deference to agencies, particularly when it comes to classification of law enforcement records.”
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
(Headline USA) President Donald Trump has long complained about restrictions that limit water flow for showerheads, making it harder for him to wash his “beautiful hair.”
In his first term, Trump directed that restrictions on showerheads be loosened, an action that former President Joe Biden reversed.
Now Trump is going to let the water flow — again.
An executive order he signed Wednesday calls for an immediate end to water conservation standards that restrict the number of gallons per minute that flow through showerheads and other appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines and toilets.
“I like to take a nice shower, take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump said Wednesday as he signed an executive order at the White House. “I have to stand in the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. Comes out drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous.”
“What you do is you end up washing your hands five times longer, so it’s the same water,” he added. “And we’re going to open it up so that people can live.”
The order directs Energy Secretary Chris Wright to immediately rescind what Trump called the “overly complicated federal rule” that redefined the word showerhead under the last two Democratic presidents.
Biden and former President Barack Obama both imposed restrictions on water flow from showerheads and other appliances. The standards were intended to make dishwashers, showerheads, refrigerators, laundry machines and toilets use less energy and water.
But the regulations “turned a basic household item into a bureaucratic nightmare,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “No longer will showerheads be weak and worthless.”
(Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square) Republicans in the House narrowly cleared a procedural hurdle to tee up a final vote on the Senate’s amended budget.
The House passed the first version of the budget in February, which extended President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for ten years, and then sent it to the Senate.
The Senate then passed a similar version, with the notable difference of making President Donald Trump’s tax cuts permanent, but changed the accounting of the spending so that costs much less on paper.
Unlike the House’s original budget resolution, which had priced a 10-year extension of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts at $3.8 trillion, the Senate’s budget framework assumes the extension will cost nothing.
By adopting a current policy baseline, which treats renewing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a continuation of current law rather than new policy, Senate Republicans drastically reduced the amount of spending cuts they’d need to make in order to offset the plan.
Three Republicans broke with the party in a 216-215 vote that set the stage for the House to adopt the Senate’s amended budget resolution. If enough Republicans vote in favor of final passage, the chambers can finally move forward in the next step of the budget reconciliation process to fulfill President Donald Trump’s tax, border, and energy agenda.
The next step will involve combining the House and Senate bills, which means agreeing on where the specific cuts will be made to help pay for the tax cuts.
The trio of Republican holdouts — Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., and Mike Turner, R-Ohio — are concerned that the Senate-amended budget resolution will explode the deficit. Turner, however, says he will vote yes on final passage.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, called the Senate’s amendment “unserious and disappointing.”
“It is critical that the reconciliation bill be guided by the House’s resolution framework. Otherwise, we risk adding trillions of dollars to the debt,” Arrington said prior to the vote. “As we unlock the reconciliation process, we must hold fast to the principles established in the House’s budget resolution.”
Outside fiscal organizations like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget say the actual cost of the Senate’s resolution hovers around $5.8 trillion.
Fiscal hawk Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, voted to move the resolution forward but said he “cannot support the current Senate Budget plan,” because while the House’s blueprint is “arguably budget neutral,” the Senate’s “math does not add up.”
Democrats, all of whom voted no, are concerned primarily about potential cuts to entitlement programs like Medicaid.
“The reckless Republican budget scheme will slash nutritional assistance for working families and make the largest cut to Medicaid in history, all so they can give massive tax breaks to billionaire donors like Elon Musk,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stated.
But House Rules Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., called Democrats’ claims about program cuts “lies.”
“This is more than a budget. It’s a blueprint to take our country back,” Foxx said. “We’re done playing defense. It’s time to lead, fight, and win, all for the American people.”
(Morgan Sweeney, The Center Square) As the U.S. and China escalate their tariff rates in an all-out trade war, two congressional committees held a joint hearing Wednesday on the problem of the Chinese Community Party’s influence on American investment and possible solutions.
The Chinese Communist Party is embedded in Chinese business to the extent that the assets of any American who has tried to do business in China, invests in the stock market, international index funds or mutual funds, or who has a 401K or pension invested in international index funds is at risk, according to TV personality and businessman Kevin O’Leary. O’Leary was called as an expert witness at the hearing.
The hearing was hosted by a House select committee that focuses on “strategic competition” between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party and the Senate Special Committee on Aging, as the party’s involvement in the Chinese economy and financial scams stands to disproportionately impact older Americans, according to committee members.
“The [Chinese] government has chosen to be America’s enemy. Unfortunately, that’s not a problem that only our military intelligence community has to worry about,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL, chairman of the aging committee. “ If you have your retirement invested in anything that is controlled by or under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Communist Party, you are at risk of losing every dollar, and this could happen overnight.”
The senator went on to say that “there is no real private industry in China,” a point that was emphasized multiple times throughout the hearing by both committee members and the called witnesses.
O’Leary, an investor on the business reality TV show Shark Tank and the U.K.’s Dragon’s Den, said that China allows something called a “golden share,” which essentially de-privatizes private businesses. Any entity that purchases a golden share in a Chinese business – a small share, typically 1% – acquires disproportionate control of that company. A golden share can secure its owner a position on the company’s board or a certain level of authority over company decisions.
The Chinese government buys these shares in companies it wants to influence, so that the Chinese Communist Party is deeply involved in companies that may appear private “on paper,” according to O’Leary.
In addition, the Chinese government doesn’t “play by the rules” of the World Trade Organization, even though it has been a member since 2001, according to O’Leary. This poses a real risk to Americans’ savings, according to Rep. John Moolenaar, R-MI.
“The CCP’s opaque regulatory regime, its disregard for the rule of law and its willingness to use financial tools for political gain present ongoing and significant dangers to American savings,” Moolenaar said.
O’Leary said that the Chinese Communist Party implements policies that disadvantage other countries in the Chinese economy but uses other countries’ legal systems against them to gain the upper hand in economic competition.
The party has passed “various laws in the realm of cyber security, espionage, intelligence and beyond and other mechanisms to control its corporations, industries and business partnerships, all to the detriment of U.S. investors,” O’Leary said.
The Chinese government doesn’t allow other countries to own shares of Chinese companies, for instance, while the U.S. “has given China preferential treatment for over a decade through its own special memorandum of understanding that governs accounting standards and oversight,” according to O’Leary.
“If we can’t own stocks in their country, they should not be allowed to own stocks in the U.S. Unless businesses can operate in China with the same freedoms that Chinese businesses have here, we should not let their businesses operate in the U.S.,” O’Leary said.
“Make no mistake, I want to do business in China, as do millions of other investors and companies, but we want a reciprocal ecosystem in place that is transparent,” he continued, saying the U.S. should leave China’s marketplace until its government implements significant reforms.
President and CEO of the American Securities Association Chris Iacovella said that even though China seemingly transitioned from a state-run to a free market economy decades ago, that’s not really what happened. Instead, China has “penetrated [American] capital markets” to build wealth and power. As a partial remedy, Iacovella said Congress should enact a ban against Chinese companies that engage in unlawful behavior from American markets.
“We have companies on the commerce list, on the DOD list, on the human rights list. These companies should not have access to our capital markets. They should not have access to anybody to be able to do business in this country,” Iacovella said.
A third expert witness called by the committee members was Brady Finta, founder of the National Elder Fraud Justice Coordination Center.
“I believe the scale of fraud against America’s elders has grown to epidemic proportions, and it’s time that we as a country treat it as such,” Finta told the committee members.
Finta worked to combat elder fraud in a previous position with the FBI but said the scale of the problem was so great, he and his team were able to address less than 1% of scams reported to them, even though only a fraction of people report the crimes committed against them.
Some committee members believed the CCP was either directly involved with international crime rings that perpetuate such scams, or at minimum, doesn’t actively deter them.
Finta suggested now is the time for a “whole of society response.” Separately, neither local, state nor federal law enforcement has the bandwidth to sustain a response that matches the magnitude of the problem. But if they joined together in elder justice task forces across the country and even partnered with the private sector, which has access to much of the data that is exploited, they could wage a much stronger fight, according to Finta.
“[Where] local and state resources can be used to support larger federal and international investigations, the effect of that is much greater than the individual investigations by local law enforcement,” Finta said.
