Treasonous Conspiracy

Plus: Columbia settles, State Department releases murderer, and more...

Department of Justice investigation begins: Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would be forming a task force to determine whether former President Barack Obama and senior officials instigated an investigation into President Donald Trump's connections to Russia back in 2016, when he was first running for president.

This announcement follows Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's public accusations that there is "irrefutable evidence" that Obama manufactured a "false" intelligence analysis claiming that Russia helped Trump win in 2016. She characterized Obama administration officials as orchestrating a "yearslong coup and treasonous conspiracy," and is declassifying an old House Intelligence Committee report about the election that conflicts with a Senate report from around the same time that endorsed the intelligence community's belief that Russian actors undermined Hillary Clinton's candidacy. It's unclear how much the House report changes—or whether this will all be a suitable distraction from the Jeffrey Epstein news that keeps pouring out, pointing to closer ties between Trump and the pervert financier.

Politics of vengeance: The White House press secretary confirmed this week that Trump doesn't want Elon Musk's company, xAI, to receive any government contracts, per Axios. (Musk's SpaceX contracts with the government have not yet been canceled.)

This comes on the heels of the Pentagon's announcement that it has secured contracts with four artificial intelligence companies—the aforementioned xAI, as well as Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI—to "address critical national security challenges" (whatever that means). Musk's company, xAI, was reportedly a late-in-the-game addition, but now Trump has reversed course and apparently denies that xAI should receive a federal contract.

"Days before the announcement, Grok, xAI's chatbot, had gone on an antisemitic tirade that the company struggled to control," reports NBC News. "In short, xAI didn't have the kind of reputation or track record that typically leads to lucrative government contracts, even as Musk had a long history of working with the government." (Of course, back in early 2024, Google's Gemini had accuracy and reliability issues too, notably and hilariously portraying the Founding Fathers as black.)

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Scenes from New York: "Columbia University will pay a $200 million fine to settle allegations from the Trump administration that it failed to do enough to stop the harassment of Jewish students, part of a sweeping deal reached on Wednesday to restore the university's federal research funding, according to a statement from the university," reports The New York Times. It has also, notably, agreed to actually follow the law regarding race-blind admissions and hiring, which is huge for people who care about merit-based advancement and nondiscrimination.

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QUICK HITS

• "One of the Trump administration's highest-profile deportation targets, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, must be released from criminal custody in Tennessee and returned to Maryland and cannot be immediately redetained by immigration authorities, a pair of federal judges ruled Wednesday," reports Politico. "Earlier this year, Abrego was illegally deported to his home country despite an immigration court order barring him from being sent there. Then, after months of resisting court orders to return Abrego to the U.S., the administration brought him back to face newly unveiled charges of immigrant smuggling in Tennessee." ("The fact this unhinged judge is trying to tell [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] they can't arrest someone who is subject to immigration arrest under federal law is insane," said the Department of Homeland Security's spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin.)
• "When the State Department secured the release of 10 Americans and permanent legal residents from a Venezuela prison last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the action as part of an effort to safeguard the well-being of Americans unjustly held abroad," reports The New York Times. "But one of the men released from the prison, an American-Venezuelan dual national named Dahud Hanid Ortiz, had been convicted in Venezuela for the murder of three people in Spain in 2016, according to an official at the prosecutor's office in Madrid and Venezuelan court records reviewed by The New York Times."
• Federal prosecutors say they're going to criminally charge any tariff evaders. Customs officials have, in the past, faced civil settlements and fines for common lawbreaking like changing countries of origin and mischaracterizing goods on import forms. This is a huge change in policy. More from Bloomberg. 
• Tans are BACK, baby. Will the Trump administration at some point repeal the excise tax on tanning beds? Or must people do it the good old-fashioned way and simply flock to the beach to save a buck?
• Can't we just return?

This is wild. My parents were pretty involved parents. They took me to Wal-Mart, got a bunch of stuff for my dorm room, hugged me, and left. There were just so many fewer ways to hover without the Internet. I had to figure most things out after they left. That was the norm. https://t.co/1AwCFnLCaU

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) July 24, 2025

• How cheaply can high-speed rail actually be built?

About 1/5 of Americans live on the Northeast Corridor, from DC to Boston.

It's an ideal stretch for high-speed rail, but could we build it? Amtrak says it'd cost more than $100 billion.

What if Amtrak is wrong? https://t.co/mJMenjDUzo

— Santi Ruiz (@rSanti97) July 23, 2025