Treasury Sec. Swears They’re This Close to Finding Something on Antifa

The Trump administration says it’s reeeeeally close to figuring out who’s funding antifa. Who’s gonna tell ’em? 

During a White House press briefing Thursday, the Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for an update on the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into antifa. “How close are you guys to figuring out who’s funding it?” she said.

“It is ongoing. We’ve made substantial progress. And I think in the weeks and months ahead, we’re gonna have a lot to report,” Bessent said. 

There’s just one problem for Bessent’s loose timeline to deliver results: Antifa doesn’t formally exist. Antifa, which is short for “anti-fascist,” is a movement, not a group. The so-called organization lacks a central structure and instead functions as a loose network of individuals and small groups who act separately under the banner of opposing facism. Still, the Trump administration has insisted this so-called group is a major domestic terror threat.

On that front, Bessent claimed he could announce some slight progress: He said the IRS was now providing new guidance on 990 forms, requiring nonprofits to report the recipients of funding following the government’s (spurious) claims about the Southern Poverty Law Center. 

“And we are going to encourage, or demand, that nonprofits know their grant recipients. So, if a grant recipient is violent, if they are suppressing people’s rights, then you are responsible for that,” Bessent said. 

It was a particularly ironic answer from the secretary, who had, moments earlier, defended the creation of a $1.8 billion slush fund that could award funding to some of Donald Trump’s most dangerous allies, including the leader of a violent hate group.  

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill is calling for the Delaney Hall immigration detention center to be shut down after the Department of Homeland Security denied state health inspectors access to the facility.

“The New Jersey Department of Health today sought to conduct a health inspection of Delaney Hall, but it was denied full access and was allowed to inspect only a limited part of the facility,” Sherrill wrote on Thursday. “As I’ve said repeatedly, refusing to provide full access raises serious questions about what ICE is trying to hide from public view. New Jersey believes in the rule of law, will uphold the Constitution, and Delaney Hall should be closed down. I am calling for ICE to immediately de-escalate the situation as I continue working to keep New Jersey residents safe.”

Since last Friday, around 300 detainees have reportedly been engaging in a labor and hunger strike inside the facility in protest of due process violations and inhumane conditions—in which at least one person has died. Denying state health inspectors access to the prison only exacerbates those allegations. There have also been protests outside the jail that have seen federal immigration agents pepper-spraying, tasing, and arresting protesters. In one incident over the weekend, agents pepper-sprayed Democratic Senator Andy Kim after he visited the detention center.

Delaney Hall is also where four Democratic politicians, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Representative Lamonica McIver, attempted to visit to conduct oversight last year. Baraka was arrested, and McIver is still facing criminal charges after the incident.

The Trump administration has completely denied that the hunger strike is happening, even as border czar Tom Homan threatened to force-feed prisoners participating in it.

“People detained at Delaney Hall are facing brutal and inhumane conditions. Their families and community members who are protesting their treatment, and the elected officials who are asking to inspect the facility, should not face pepper spray and rubber bullets for doing so,” the New Jersey ACLU wrote in a statement. “Our federal representatives—who have the congressional authority to conduct oversight visits of the facility—have instead taken pepper spray to their eyes and experienced abuse at the hands of federal agents.”

Delaney Hall is a for-profit private mass prison run by security company Geo Group, which contracts with the federal government.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gracelessly dodged questions about the $1.8 billion slush fund the Department of Justice awarded to the president and his allies.

During a White House press briefing Thursday, a reporter asked Bessent to comment on the process for developing the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” set up as part of a settlement for Donald Trump’s failing lawsuit against the IRS.

Surprise, surprise: Bessent’s response did not mention the fund at all.

“This is going to be the only question I take on this matter today. So, there’s ongoing litigation, so it’d be inappropriate for me to comment,” Bessent said. “President Trump is a great American who has endured more than 10 years—10 years—of nonstop harassment and weaponization from federal and state government actors. A bad actor at the IRS leaked more than 400,000 tax returns, including the Trump family, all the employees, and that’s how we got here now.

“No American should be targeted for political reasons, and every citizen deserves fair treatment and the full protection of the law. The Department of Justice represented the Treasury and the IRS in this matter, and I’m going to have to refer any questions to active Attorney General Todd Blanche.”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins also pressed the secretary on the sudden exit of Brian Morrissey, the Treasury’s top legal officer, following the announcement of the fund—but Bessent wouldn’t bite.

“I will not be taking any other questions, I will not be taking any other questions,” he repeated. Maybe he should add that to his list of pathetic affirmations?

It appears that Bessent is intent on allowing Trump to pillage the Treasury and award his worst allies with taxpayer dollars—without owing taxpayers any answers. This lack of transparency is par for the course, but Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund is a criminal enterprise so egregious that it manages to stand out in a presidency that was already blatantly corrupt.

The son of conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito seems to have gotten a nice job in the Treasury Department.

Philip Alito has been working in the department’s office of the general counsel since early last year, NOTUS reports, raising questions of conflicts of interest as the court hears cases concerning the Treasury, including President Trump’s deal to avoid tax audits of himself and his family, as well as his $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

Alito’s office provides legal and policy advice to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and his employment seems to have been deliberately kept secret. Alito doesn’t have a public résumé or a LinkedIn account, and he isn’t mentioned anywhere on the Treasury Department’s website. His three professional bar listings have incorrect information regarding his previous employers and appear to be out of date, according to NOTUS.

An unnamed former official said that when Alito was hired in early 2025, he didn’t have an exact role and seemed to have been hired because the Trump administration wanted loyal employees across the federal government.

“Everybody knew who he was. I think it’s fair to say he kept a pretty low profile. I kind of had the impression that he was kind of a little bit sheepish about his celebrity affiliation. You’d go into a meeting and if people were introducing themselves by first and last name, he’d just say ‘Phil,’ not Phil Alito. He’s a pretty soft-spoken guy,” the official told NOTUS.

Another former official told the publication that Alito became an attorney-adviser, briefed on important department matters and able to offer legal advice.

“There’s no doubt he got that position because of who he is,” this official said. “[Advisers] are in all the meetings, so they knew all the issues across the board.”

Alito was on the job when other important cases concerning his department, such as challenges to Trump’s emergency tariffs, went before the high court, and his father never recused himself. With Trump’s anti-weaponization fund and his IRS settlement blocking audits of his taxes facing legal challenges, that is almost certain to happen again.

A spokesperson told NOTUS that “Philip Alito is currently detailed from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia as a Counselor in the Office of the General Counsel, and his portfolio covers a broad range of topics. As a matter of both professional and personal judgment, Phil does not counsel on any matters reasonably expected before the Supreme Court. Like all attorneys in the Office of the General Counsel, Phil is in compliance with all applicable ethical obligations.”

However, the department didn’t answer NOTUS’s questions on when Alito started at the agency, what his specific duties were, or whether he filed an ethics disclosure form. It seems that in the Trump administration, questions of ethics are easily ignored.

Employers and institutions have so far paid out a cumulative $2 million in legal settlements to people who were fired or penalized over their online reactions to Charlie Kirk’s death.

Kirk—a longtime right-wing activist who played a critical role in translating the MAGA agenda to America’s college-age youth—was assassinated in September. His death proved as polarizing as his life’s work: Millions of people reacted, some with shock and rage, and some with apparent glee.

An estimated 600 people were either penalized or let go from their places of employment, a punishment for their publicized opinions on the right-winger’s untimely demise.

The consequences were hailed by the Trump administration. In an honorary postmortem episode of Kirk’s podcast hosted by Vice President JD Vance, the number two Republican encouraged listeners to call the employers of anyone “celebrating Charlie’s murder.” Former Attorney General Pam Bondi likened the anti-Kirk posts to hate speech, and said at the time that the Justice Department would “absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

Legal experts fretted that the governmental response had set a dangerous precedent. Yet the settlements have proven to be a major win for freedom of speech.

One of the largest settlement recipients was a retired Tennessee cop, Larry Bushart, who was jailed for more than a month after he posted a meme related to Kirk’s assassination. Bushart settled an “unlawful incarceration” lawsuit for $835,000 last week.

“I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated,” Bushart said in a statement last week. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy.”

Biologist Brittney Brown settled last week with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for $485,000 after she was fired for similar causes, also involving a Kirk-related meme on her Instagram account. In a statement, Brown claimed that all she wanted was her job back.

Suzanne Swierc made a comment about Kirk on her private Facebook page. But a screenshot of her post, taken and shared by someone else, ultimately cost Swierc her job at Ball State University. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the college on Swierc’s behalf. They settled on Tuesday, with Ball State University agreeing to pay $225,000.

“Suzanne was speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern when Ball State fired her over a private social media post,” Stevie Pactor, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Indiana, said in a statement. “The First Amendment does not allow government institutions to retaliate in those circumstances, and this settlement reflects that.”

Many more such lawsuits could be on the horizon. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has recorded at least 14 First Amendment lawsuits in federal court over wrongful termination related to comments made about Kirk’s death. That tally does not include those brought by workers terminated in the private sector, or for employees who filed in state court, reported Axios Thursday.