A rare earth company was given a $620 million loan from the DOD just three months after Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm invested in it—raising many ethics questions.
Here’s what you should know.
In November, the Office of Strategic Capital announced a joint $700 million loan to two small rare earth companies. But the loan given to Vulcan Elements in particular stood out due to its ties to Trump Jr. war.gov/News/Releases/…
A recent ProPublica investigation revealed more details about what may have actually transpired for that deal to happen. propublica.org/article/donald…
President Trump recently pardoned Stephen Buyer, a former member of Congress convicted of insider trading. For those keeping track at home, this makes *22* politicians convicted of corruption charges granted clemency by President Trump. nytimes.com/2026/06/06/us/…
In 2023, Buyer was convicted of insider trading on four counts of security fraud and served 22 months in prison.
Trump’s pardon of him says everything about how he feels about corruption: It deserves a free pass!
This pardon also brings Trump’s count of second term acts of clemency for corrupt politicians to a dozen.
Now that he’s granted twelve corrupt politicians clemency, he’s already let more corrupt politicians off the hook in this term than his first, just a year and a half in.
Back in March, we reported that an Indian conglomerate called Reliance Industries—owned by the richest person in Asia—paid Trump $10 million before he took office, and kept getting wins from the Trump admin this year. Well…the plot thickens 🧵
Here’s our story about how Reliance got a Venezuelan oil license and then a shoutout from Trump for investing in a new oil refinery in Texas developed by a company America First Mining: citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…
New reporting from @ProPublica shows how it’s even more corrupt than we knew.
Don Jr., President Trump’s son, reportedly secretly became an investor in America First Mining, alongside Reliance: propublica.org/article/trump-…
It’s not like Trump needed another vehicle for presidential profiteering.
He’s made at least $4 billion during his first year back in office through his merch store, foreign real estate deals, media company and—most of all—crypto. newyorker.com/news/a-reporte…
This is a big deal and it’s flying below the radar—Trump’s DOJ just gave him a huge gift in the form of a legal opinion declaring that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional.
Let’s be clear: that’s nonsense. We’ll break it down 🧵
Congress passed the Presidential Records Act of 1978 after Watergate to establish that presidential records are the property of the American people, not individual presidents.
In nearly 50 years, no president has claimed that it is unconstitutional.
Trump has a long history with the PRA, including multiple warnings from the National Archives that he was violating the law during his first term.
A month ago, we noted that Jared Kushner’s appointment as special envoy for peace meant he would need to file a financial disclosure so that he could resolve potential conflicts of interest and called on him to proactively divest from Affinity Partners.
He hasn’t.🧵
We also sent a letter to the White House counsel demanding that Kushner comply with the law by filing the mandated disclosures within 30 days of his appointment—which passed on March 21st. citizensforethics.org/legal-action/l…
Since then, Kushner appears not to have done so.
Unless he got an extension from the White House ethics official, that would put him in violation of the Ethics in Government Act. citizensforethics.org/news/press-rel…