Feds Blame Ebola as They Refuse to Bring Back Wrongly Deported Woman

The Trump administration is fighting a court order to bring back a Colombian immigrant it deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo, claiming it can’t do so because of the country’s Ebola outbreak.

Gothamist reports that the Department of Homeland Security is arguing that Adriana Zapata, 55, can’t come back to the U.S. even though she was deported to the country a month ago.

On Monday, DHS cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order preventing anyone from traveling to the U.S. from areas affected by the outbreak. Zapata’s lawyers say that she was deported to Congo well before the outbreak was announced, and she’s staying in the capital, Kinshasa, which hasn’t had any cases. On Tuesday, her lawyers pointed out in a court filing that Zapata already had medical conditions before being deported to a country that said it couldn’t care for her, and now she is particularly vulnerable in the midst of an Ebola outbreak.

At the time of Zapata’s deportation, Congolese officials said that they couldn’t care for her medical issues, which include “diabetes accompanied by black spots on her foot and back, peeling skin, blackened nails, and other manifestations consistent with severe vascular and metabolic disease.” In the U.S., she would get medical care with help from relatives in New Jersey. A federal judge ruled in 2024 that Zapata could not be returned to the country of her birth, Colombia, because she faced the likelihood of torture from her former intimate partner.

Last Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, appointed by President George W. Bush, ruled that the U.S. government had to bring Zapata back to the U.S. Zapata had sued the federal government, and described how her ex-partner, who has connections to the Colombian National Police, had physically and sexually abused her, including stabbing her in her genitalia, repeatedly raping her, breaking her teeth, and cutting cross-shaped scars into her chest.

On Friday, lawyers from the Department of Homeland Security responded to Leon’s ruling and claimed that they didn’t know where Zapata was and were working “diligently” to find her in Congo, claiming that Zapata’s attorneys hadn’t told them her location.

The next day, Zapata’s lawyers responded in their own filing, saying that DHS had not even reached out to them, pointing out that Zapata’s address in Congo was mentioned in earlier court filings and was shared with DHS in court the day before. On Monday, DHS lawyers tried another tactic, filing a status report asking for Leon to pause his order because the country’s Ebola outbreak, announced last week by Congolese officials, made it unsafe to bring her back to the U.S.

“The premise of plaintiff’s request for conditions upon her return is for her to receive medical monitoring in the United States,” Zapata’s lawyers wrote in the filing.

DHS claims that the Democratic Republic of Congo had sent documentation saying that it could care for Zapata, prompting skepticism from Zapata’s lawyers on Tuesday. They pointed out that as recently as last Wednesday, Congo hadn’t said it could care for Zapata and that the U.S. government was using its agreement with the country as its justification for deporting her.

Sending a woman with serious medical issues to a country she has no ties to is cruel enough. But refusing to obey a court order to allow her back into the U.S. because of an outbreak that arose after she was deported is an obscene act of callousness, even for this administration. It seems clear that they are grasping at legal straws to keep Zapata from returning, ignoring her own safety.

The Internal Revenue Services’ own lawyers wanted to convince the Justice Department to dismiss Trump’s $10 billion case against them, outlining several massive issues with the lawsuit that could have served as defense against the suit, according to The New York Times. The DOJ instead chose to settle with the president, awarding him a nearly $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a slush fund for his supporters and friends.

The 25-page IRS memorandum was given to top Treasury officials last month but it’s unclear if it ever made it to the DOJ. The memo stated that Trump’s lawsuit was filed two years too late. Federal statute requires that people suing the IRS for unfairly released tax information must do so within two years of the infraction. Trump claimed not to have known about the tax information leak until January 2024, but the memo notes that Alina Habba—one of Trump’s personal lawyers—was present at the trial of IRS leaker Charles Littlejohn in October 2023. Trump did not file a complaint until January 2026, over two years later.

The IRS also raised that it may not even be accountable for Littlejohn’s actions, as he was a contractor with Booz Allen with IRS access, not an IRS employee. Regardless of whether these arguments would have worked, it’s clear that the DOJ—controlled by another one of Trump’s personal lawyers—had no intention of making them.

The general manager of the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, has his hands in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s renovation.

David Schutzenhofer has run Donald Trump’s golf club since 2006, and is effectively consulting on the historic renovation as well as recruiting contractors to the job, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Schutzenhofer has no known training in engineering or architecture, according to the daily.

“Mr. Schutzenhofer is unpaid and is volunteering his time to offer suggestions on this project because he is an American patriot,” Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, told the Times in an email.

Martin specified that Schutzenhofer had provided guidance on the project without becoming a temporary government employee, which, she said, would have required additional ethics training and a pledge to avoid conflicts of interest. She added that Schutzenhofer did not “direct” any federal contracts.

The Interior Department did not elaborate on the specifics of Schutzenhofer’s role with the renovation, which is expected to cost upward of $13.1 million (Trump had initially promised the price tag would hover around $1.8 million).

The White House also dodged questions regarding Schutzenhofer’s involvement. In an email, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told the Times: “Thanks to President Trump, the Reflecting Pool will be restored to its proper glory!”

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 at 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.

But the pool’s shallow depth—which creates its mirrorlike appearance—also detracts from the pool’s health by creating a breeding ground for algal blooms that turn the water green.

The solution, according to Trump, is to paint the bottom of the pool a color that he has described as “American flag blue” ahead of the country’s semiquincentennial anniversary.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, the pricey makeover is unlikely to fix the pool’s fundamental problems.

One of the first of Donald Trump’s many presidential scandals was in 2016, when he refused to release his tax returns as previous presidents and presidential candidates had done for 40 years.

On Tuesday, Trump’s Department of Justice essentially ensured his taxes would never be properly audited again.

As part of a settlement between the president and the IRS, the DOJ “forever barred and precluded” the IRS from pursuing Trump, his family members, and his companies over any unpaid taxes.

This key addition to the settlement was signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. It was not released as part of the publicly available settlement agreement on Monday. Instead, the details were unceremoniously posted to the DOJ’s website a day later. Readers may recall that Blanche took over after Trump reportedly grew frustrated with Pam Bondi’s ability to secure indictments against his political enemies.

Trump has been investigated by the IRS since he was just a humble casino owner. He even falsely claimed that a tax audit meant he could not release his tax returns during his first term (the IRS commissioner clarified that he totally could if he wanted).

Protection from future audits could save the president tons of money in fines. In 2024, The New York Times found one such audit could cost Trump over $100 million.

The settlement is a result of Trump dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS after an employee leaked his tax returns to the Times and ProPublica between 2018 and 2020. Since the suit was dropped, the IRS has also agreed to create a slush fund worth nearly $1.8 billion to pay January 6 rioters and members of Trump’s own super PAC who are deemed to have been unfairly persecuted by the Biden administration.

Critics had already labeled the fund one of the most blatantly fraudulent creations of Trump’s second term. Now Trump and his allies appear to have swindled the federal government for yet more financial and legal gain.

This story has been updated.

President Trump’s decision to endorse Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race has left many Republicans fuming.

Paxton, Texas’s scandal-plagued attorney general, is in a runoff in the state’s Republican primary against incumbent John Cornyn, who has the support of many of his Senate colleagues. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska reportedly told The Hill that she was “supremely disappointed” by Trump’s endorsement, adding, “I don’t understand it.”

Murkowski also said that Republicans will likely have a tougher time retaining the seat against Democratic nominee James Talarico, who is polling very well.

“Based on the numbers that I’ve seen, yeah,” Murkowski said, regarding the risk that the GOP will lose the Senate. “How does that help strengthen the president’s hand when we lose a state like Texas?”

Senator Susan Collins said that she didn’t understand why Trump endorsed Paxton, calling him an “ethically challenged individual” due to his many scandals, which include defrauding investors in a tech startup and an extramarital affair leading to his wife divorcing him on “biblical grounds.”

“John Cornyn is an outstanding senator and deserved in my judgment the president’s support. Obviously it’s the president’s call but I’m disappointed that he did it,” Collins told The Hill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who for months tried to lobby Trump to support Cornyn, had a serious expression when reporters asked him Tuesday about the president’s endorsement, only saying, “It’s his decision.” Senator Roger Wicker walked into a lunch meeting with his head bowed and ignored reporters’ questions about the endorsement.

“I’m speechless,” Senator Rob Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju when asked about Trump’s choice, taking a long pause before answering, adding that he “really [had] no comment.”

Unlike his colleagues, Senator Lindsey Graham was optimistic, telling Raju that “you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the pathway for Paxton is there, but it’s more uphill, and it will cost more.”

In Trump’s own words, “Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate.” In contrast, while Trump said Cornyn is a “good man, and I worked well with him,” the incumbent senator “was not supportive of me when times were tough” and “was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency, itself.”

If Trump’s endorsement propels Paxton to win in next week’s runoff, Democrats may have a better shot at winning the race, as Paxton’s scandals give him a lot in common with the president. But Texas is a strong Republican state that voted for Trump three times, so nothing is certain.