Politics
Pro-police group asks DOJ to probe Soros-backed Virginia prosecutor using Biden-era law once aimed at cops
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EXCLUSIVE: A pro-police group will request the Justice Department investigate a Virginia prosecutor accused of being unfairly lenient to illegal immigrant suspects, using an oversight law the Biden administration used to scrutinize police departments like one in Kentucky after the Breonna Taylor incident.
The law enforcement “pattern-or-practice” provision, under 34 USC 12601, was previously used to investigate alleged civil rights violations during the Biden era by police departments — including in Louisville after a no-knock warrant was served, leading to a shootout that killed Taylor.
It has also been used against departments in New Jersey, Mississippi and Tennessee, as well as a division of the NYPD, for allegations ranging from excessive use of force, to gender bias and allegedly unlawful traffic stops.
VIRGINIA AG CALLS DEM PROSECUTOR’S ACTIONS ‘WEAPONIZED INCOMPETENCE’ IN SCATHING REPORT
The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund is calling for an investigation of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images; Sarah Voisin/Getty Images)
On Wednesday, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF) told Fox News Digital it would ask the Trump Justice Department to use the same law in a different respect to investigate progressive Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano in Virginia.
Descano, who received at least $600,000 from a George Soros-funded political action committee during his first election bid in Virginia’s largest jurisdiction in 2019, came under fire recently for the nonprosecution of an illegal immigrant who allegedly murdered someone the day after he was released.
LELDF’s request “seeks to use established federal civil-rights tools to test whether a prosecutor’s office is operating a discriminatory system that endangers the public and erodes equal justice under law,” the group’s president, Jason C. Johnson told Fox News Digital. LELDF officials will formally ask Deputy Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon to investigate Descano’s office under the same “pattern-or-practice” concerns as Biden’s DOJ had in Louisville.
The group alleged the Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office “violat[ed] the civil rights of US citizens by favoring illegal aliens and non-citizens in charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing decisions.”
They cited Descano’s “official policy” to consider “immigration consequences” when prosecuting cases.
“As a federal prosecutor, Steve protected immigrants from criminals who targeted them due to their immigration status… Steve knows that regardless of immigration status, all our neighbors deserve equal protection of, and equal access to, the law,” a passage on Descano’s campaign page reads.
“The fear of law enforcement that Donald Trump has fostered in immigrant communities does nothing but lead to increased crime,” Descano claimed in backing up his policy.
“In addition to providing a safe place, Steve’s office will take immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions. Although prosecutors typically refer to immigration consequences as ‘collateral consequences,’ avoiding the unnecessary destruction of families and communities will be a top priority for Steve as Commonwealth’s Attorney. Wherever possible, Steve will make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences.”
That type of prosecutorial discretion runs afoul of the law, LELDF claimed in their letter to Dhillon.
SEARS DEMANDS RECALL OF FAIRFAX PROSECUTOR AFTER ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING CASE
Marvin Morales-Ortez was arrested by Fairfax County Police. (DHS)
They pointed to the case of Marvin Morales-Ortez, who reportedly had first-degree murder charges stemming from a 2019 incident dropped by Descano’s office — which in turn told Washington’s ABC affiliate their evidence showed it was “clear that he was ultimately not the perpetrator who had killed Mr. [Jose] Guillen Mejia.”
Nick Minock, a reporter for the outlet, later obtained a transcript of Morales-Ortez’ preliminary hearing where Descano’s office posited that Morales-Ortez was present when Guillen Mejia was murdered and had ambushed the man on a walking path.
A short time after he was released, Morales-Ortez allegedly went to a home on Fan Shell Court in Reston, Va. — near John F. Dulles International Airport — and allegedly shot a man inside.
That chain of events enraged the Trump administration, with Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin saying that “Fairfax County politicians [who] push[ed] pushing policies that released this illegal alien from jail” have “blood on their hands.”
In the letter, LELDF argued that “dozens of illegal aliens like Morales-Ortez have repeatedly received excessive leniency from [Fairfax] under Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.”
They pointed directly to a passage in a 2020 memo from Descano laying out similar to his campaign page that “[Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys] shall consider immigration consequences where possible and where doing so accords with justice.”
LELDF claimed the memo and the policy it forwards directly violates the Constitution and denies U.S. citizens equal protection under the law versus illegal immigrants.
Steve Descano speaks at an event at the Center for American Progress on Dec. 17, 2019. (Getty Images)
“It is both immoral and unlawful for a government agency to engage in systemic discrimination against U.S. citizens to the benefit of those illegally present,” the group told Dhillon.
The memo represents the necessary predicate for a federal investigation, they argued, while also taking issue with Fairfax’s “explicit policy directing prosecutors to weigh immigration consequences, including deportation’s ‘detrimental impact’ on families and communities, while ensuring no better outcomes than for non-immigrants.”
In a fuller excerpt from the memo, Descano says that when the seriousness of an offense and its harm is significant, the weight of “potential adverse immigration consequences” should be “minimal,” while the opposite is true for “less serious” offenses and those with “no identifiable victim.”
In those cases, subordinate prosecutors should “have greater latitude in negotiating a resolution that takes adverse immigration consequences into account.”
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While his office did not respond to a request for comment, Descano has also bristled at the notion of being tied to Soros — recently hitting back at a top Youngkin administration official who blamed prosecutors linked to the Hungarian-American financier for the crime crisis.
“I’m not a ‘Soros funded prosecutor’, I’m the CA for Fairfax County – where the murder rate is 75% lower than the entire Commonwealth’s. Maybe [she] should look at the numbers (especially since she works in public safety) before making such a ridiculous claim,” Descano tweeted in 2022.
Politics
JD Vance says he was ‘obsessed’ with UFOs, believes aliens are actually ‘demons’
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While discussing the mystery surrounding UFOs, Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, said he believes what people think of as aliens are actually “demons.”
While interviewing Vance, conservative commentator Benny Johnson asked the vice president, “You gonna release all the UFO files?”
“Ah, we’re workin’ on it,” Vance said.
He explained that when he took office he “was obsessed with the UFO files” but ended up being busy with other issues.
Vance asserted that he will “get to the bottom” of the matter.
JD VANCE SAYS UFOS, ALIENS COULD BE ‘SPIRITUAL FORCES’ AS VP VOWS TO ‘GET TO THE BOTTOM’ OF MYSTERY IN SKIES
Vice President JD Vance boards Air Force Two on March 18, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (Elizabeth Frantz-Pool/Getty Images)
“I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons anyway,” Vance noted.
Prompted by Johnson, Vance later elaborated on his view.
“Well, look, I, I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people — I think that the desire to describe everything celestial… to describe it as aliens — I mean every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there, and there are things that are very difficult to explain,” he said.
“And I naturally go — when I hear about, sort of, extra-natural phenomenon — that’s where I go to is the Christian understanding that, you know, there’s a lotta good out there, but there’s also some evil out there,” he continued.
UFO SECRET FILES, DRONE SWARMS AND NUCLEAR-LINKED SIGHTINGS STUN EXPERTS IN 2025
Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump attend the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Feb. 19, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
He added that he believes that among “the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed.”
Last month, President Donald Trump said he would order the release of files pertaining to the issue of aliens and UFOs.
EXPLOSIVE NEW DOCUMENTARY PROBES ‘80-YEAR GLOBAL COVERUP’ OF UFO SECRETS
Vice President JD Vance speaks onstage at Engineering Design Services, Inc. on March 18, 2026, in Auburn Hills, Mich. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
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“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” the president declared in a February Truth Social post.
Politics
Commentary: Goodbye, Border Patrol bogeyman Gregory Bovino, and good riddance
How would you feel about getting a dream gig only to see it end in disgrace because of, well, you?
That’s what Gregory Bovino gets to think about for the rest of his life. Friday is the Border Patrol lifer’s last day on the job after 30 years — and he ain’t leaving because he wants to.
For the last year, the self-described “hillbilly” was the personification of the Trump administration’s xenophobic deportation deluge. Helicopter invasions of apartment complexes, tear gas canisters thrown into large crowds, defying court orders, glamorous photo shoots: There was no municipality too big, no tactic too crazy, no quote too incendiary for Bovino to take on while he treated immigrant neighborhoods like the shores of Normandy.
The North Carolina native’s caravan of cruelty quickly earned him a promotion from El Centro sector chief to Border Patrol commander at large, a new position crafted just for him. He embraced the role of migra bogeyman like a tween boy scarfing down a bowl of Warheads, always promising more deportations, more chaos, more more.
Not anymore.
In January, Border Patrol agents shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti during a protest against them a few weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer did the same to Renée Good, a mother of three. Bovino threw napalm on the matter by claiming Pretti wanted to “massacre law enforcement” without offering any evidence. The incidents so soured the public on immigration agents that a Public Religion Research Institute poll released this week showed only 35% of Americans surveyed approved of how Trump is handling immigration, compared with 48% a year ago.
Bovino was sent back down to El Centro and lost his privileges on social media, where he had long posted cringe-inducing videos about what a swell guy he was. Even Trump turned on his migra man, telling Fox News that Bovino was “a pretty out-there kind of a guy … and in some cases that’s good. Maybe it wasn’t good [in Minneapolis].”
I should’ve warned Bovino the one time we met that failure was his fate.
The setting: the Fox 11 Los Angeles studios in July. Bovino and I were in to do separate interviews with the station’s former anchor Elex Michaelson. Bovino was in the middle of his Los Angeles invasion, which saw immigration agents lay siege to MacArthur Park, storm Home Depots and car washes and show up outside the Japanese American National Museum while politicians inside were decrying Trump.
Dressed in full Border Patrol uniform, complete with a clipped-on walkie-talkie on his shoulder, the guy was billing himself as a modern-day Charles Martel defending the homeland from invading infidels. The nasal-voiced Bovino rambled to Michaelson about how “Ma and Pa America” deserved a country free from undocumented immigrants and vowed to remain in Los Angeles “until the operation is over.”
Then-U.S. Border Patrol commander at large Gregory Bovino, center, marches with Border Patrol agents toward the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles after a show of force outside the Japanese American National Museum on Aug. 14.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
After his interview, Bovino and three Border Patrol agents strolled into the greenroom to grab some homemade cookies while I sat on a couch. He looked me in the eye while bending down to sign Michaelson’s guest book, as if he expected me to not only recognize him but say something.
It was like staring at someone doing an impersonation that was one part Lt. Col. Kilgore from “Apocalypse Now” and two parts Henery Hawk, the short, brash Looney Tunes character that was always trying to capture the much larger Foghorn Leghorn. He really thought that his scorched-earth assault on L.A. would defeat the city and persuade other communities to offer no pushback once Bovino’s self-titled “Green Machine” trolled into town.
The opposite happened.
People who had never bothered with politics — even some who voted for Trump or at least agreed with deporting immigrants with criminal convictions — rose up to resist. Everywhere became a front — social media, the streets, courtrooms — and activists across Southern California began to share notes among themselves and with communities nationwide to prepare them for la migra. Bovino flailed back at every affront instead of focusing on his mission, not realizing his recklessness was eroding public support for his cause and threatening it altogether.
Really, Bovino lost the day he has long claimed as a victory: the Battle of MacArthur Park.
That’s when he persuaded the Trump administration to send a skeptical National Guard alongside his men to surround the historic L.A. green space in the ludicrously named Operation Excalibur. Armed vehicles parked on Wilshire Boulevard. A grinning Bovino strutted around with media in tow. A wannabe cavalry unit, anchored in the center by an agent on a white horse, swept through a soccer field where children were attending day camp just minutes before.
No one was arrested or detained that day. Instead, Bovino left to a chorus of cuss words and boo birds. The exercise allowed Americans to see the folly of burning millions of taxpayer dollars just so someone could star in a TikTok reel. It also broke the spell Bovino had cast over many critics — myself included — who had feared he truly was an unstoppable Punisher.
Nah, he was just a spiky-haired pendejo.
If Bovino was as smart as he thinks he is, he would’ve followed the longtime strategy of another longtime immigration enforcer. Trump border czar Tom Homan executed a years-long roundup under the Obama administration with numbers Trump has yet to reach and with nowhere near as much public rancor. Homan, who loves the camera almost as much as Bovino, knew then and now that an issue as explosive as deportations must be approached quietly if it’s to be done successfully.
Instead, not only does he have to clean up Bovino’s mess, there’s now a real chance that the Republicans will lose the midterms because Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024 are now furious at his administration. That’s why even Trump is now telling Republicans to tone down their anti-immigrant rhetoric, stat.
Gracias, Bovino!
You thought you would go down in U.S. history as a domestic Patton, a borderlands Sherman. Instead, your last week coincided with the publication of a New York Times profile of you railing at enemies while downing coffee at a burger bar in El Centro.
You called Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott “weak-kneed,” mocked Homan and said you could’ve deported 100 million people — a radically racist number considering that even the Center for Immigration Studies, which has long pushed for reduced immigration of all kinds, estimated a record 15.4 million illegal immigrants were in this country at the start of Trump’s second term.
Instead, you’re heading off to the Tar Heel State to spend your days hunting … coyotes.
“Maybe I get me some dogs and we go hard,” you told the New York Times. “I’ll take it in my own hands.”
Which reminds me of another hapless cartoon character who thought himself a genius but who kept screwing things up in ceaseless pursuit of his quarry: Wile E. Coyote.
Politics
Everything With Trump’s Signature, Name and Likeness: Currency, Buildings and More
As anyone who has ever seen his buildings knows, Donald Trump has always liked to see his name displayed prominently. It’s become a hallmark of his presidency, to the point that the Treasury Department announced on Thursday that President Trump’s signature will appear on U.S. dollars later this year, a first for a sitting U.S. president.
The move is the latest reflecting a push to imprint his personal brand on Washington and the nation in ways that could outlast his presidency.
In total, since the start of Mr. Trump’s second term, there have been more than a dozen instances of his name, image or signature emblazoned on a variety of American initiatives and institutions. Some changes seem as if they could be lasting, some are caught up in the courts, and others may never get off the ground.
Here is a look at that ever-growing list.
Already approved uses
Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images, Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
U.S. Treasury
Eric Lee/The New York Times
Eric Lee/The New York Times
Trump Card
TrumpRX
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who runs Medicare and Medicaid, has said that Mr. Trump was not involved in picking the name. “We thought it had a catchy element to it,” he said.
Trump Accounts
Department of Interior, via Center for Biological Diversity
U.S. Navy
U.S. Air Force
Proposed uses
Johnny Milano/The New York Times
Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Shawn Thew/EPA, via Shutterstock
Washington Commanders
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Joseph Eid/AFP via Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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