🔵 IRS Chief OUT

Author

Citizen Frank
April 18, 2025

Good morning. It’s Friday, April 18.

 

The acting head of the IRS is reportedly being ousted after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained to President Donald Trump that Elon Musk pushed to place him in the role without Bessent’s assent.

Gary Shapley, who gained prominence for testifying as part of the Republicans’ corruption investigation into Hunter Biden, is being replaced as acting IRS commissioner just days after being appointed to the role, according to multiple reports.

Musk was a key ally to Trump on the campaign trail and has spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency, which has aimed to slash the size of the federal government since Trump entered office.

U.S. airstrikes targeting the Ras Isa oil port held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed 58 people and wounded 126 others, the group said Friday, marking what appeared to be the single-deadliest known attack under President Trump’s new campaign targeting the rebels.

Assessing the toll of Mr. Trump’s campaign, which began March 15, has been incredibly difficult as the U.S. military’s Central Command so far hasn’t released any information on the campaign, its specific targets and how many people have been killed. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi rebels strictly control access to areas attacked and don’t publish information on the strikes, many of which likely have targeted military and security sites.

But the strike on the Ras Isa oil port, which sent massive fireballs shooting into the night sky, represented a major escalation of the American campaign. The Houthis also immediately released graphic footage of those killed in the attack.

The Trump administration said Friday that it has started releasing the first tranche of records on Democratic Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 assassination, which will contain roughly 10,000 pages of previously classified records.

The disclosure — ordered by President Trump within days of taking office and backed by the senator’s son, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — could reignite speculation about the decades-old killing, as the younger Kennedy insists his father’s convicted assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, might be innocent.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the release, which began Friday, comes after an effort done in conjunction with the National Archives and other agency officials to scan and upload more than 10,000 pages, which will be available for the American people to view online “to fulfill President Trump’s maximum transparency promise.”

The Trump administration rolled out a revamped COVID.gov website Friday showing the “true origins” of the coronavirus, while admonishing Democrats and the media for discrediting the theory that the virus leaked from a lab and alternative health treatments, and for imposing strict mandates.

“This administration prioritizes transparency over all else,” a senior administration official told Fox News Digital Friday. “The American people deserve to know the truth about the COVID pandemic, and we will always find ways to reach communities with that message.”

The website, which previously had focused on promoting the coronavirus vaccine to Americans, now walks readers through evidence supporting the lab leak theory, how former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci promoted the idea that COVID-19 originated naturally, former President Joe Biden pardoning Fauci for “any offenses against” the U.S. he may have committed, and providing details on the origin of the “social distancing” rules and mask mandates.

Judicial Watch announced today that it received 52 pages of documents from the U.S. Department of Justice showing White House staffers suggesting edits to transcripts of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur regarding his handling of secret documents.

The documents were obtained thanks to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice for records of communication between the agency and White House regarding the altered transcripts of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s October 2023 interviews of President Biden in the criminal investigation into Biden’s theft and disclosure of classified records (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-02176)).

In a separate lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch, a federal court ordered the Department of Justice to declare whether it intends to continue denying Judicial Watch’s request for the full audio of former President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. The Trump Justice Department has until May 20, 2025, to report its position on the release of the videotape.

The Department of Homeland Security sent Harvard a letter on Wednesday threatening to revoke its eligibility to enroll international students unless it submits information on international students’ disciplinary records and protest participation.

In a Wednesday press release, the DHS wrote that it had also canceled two grants worth $2.7 million to Harvard.

The letter threatening Harvard’s authorization to host international students, which was signed by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, accused Harvard of creating a “hostile learning environment” for Jewish students.

The biological mother of accused Florida State University shooter Phoenix Ikner kidnapped him and fled to Norway amid a bitter custody battle a decade before the deadly shooting, court documents reveal.

Anne-Mari Eriksen took her then-11-year-old son to the Scandinavian nation in March 2015 in violation of the custody agreement she had with Christopher Ikner — after telling the father she was taking him to South Florida for spring break, according to a probable cause affidavit from the Leon County Sheriff’s Office viewed by The Post.

Eriksen and Phoenix Ikner — who at the time went by his birth name, Christian Gunnar Eriksen — both have American and Norwegian citizenship.

A spokesperson for the family of the 17-year-old boy accused of stabbing Frisco, Texas, track star Austin Metcalf to death has a long history of supporting defunding the police as well as close ties to former Squad Rep. Cori Bush.

Minister Dominique Alexander, a Dallas-based defund the police activist and social justice leader, has been in the headlines in recent days as he and his organization, Next Generation Action Network (NGAN), have been rallying in defense of the family of 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, the teenager who is accused of fatally stabbing Metcalf, and Anthony himself.

“The Next Generation Action Network is currently working with the Anthony family to get the bond processed and will keep the community updated regarding his release,” NGAN posted on X earlier this week after the bond was reduced from $1 million to $250,000. “We want to sincerely thank everyone for the overwhelming support you have shown. This is just the beginning of a long legal journey, and we will continue to stand strong in defense of Karmelo’s rights.”

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