Democrat News

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Comedian and actor Paul Rodriguez was arrested after police allegedly found narcotics in his vehicle during a traffic stop on Friday night in Burbank.

Burbank Police Sgt. Stephen Turner said Rodriguez, 70, was a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped for “code violations” at around 7:30 p.m. in the area of Victory Boulevard and Lamer Street.

“During the investigation, narcotics were located,” Turner said in a statement.

Rodriguez was booked at the Burbank jail for possession of narcotics and released with a citation to appear in court next month, Turner said.

Rodriguez is telling a different version of the story.

He told TMZ that he was sleeping in the passenger seat when a “Caucasian” officer on a “power trip” slapped him to wake him up. Rodriguez told the outlet that the drugs belonged to the driver of the vehicle.

Bobby Samini, his attorney, called the charges against Rodriguez false, and said his arrest and treatment by police were a “violation of his civil rights.”

“He fully cooperated with law enforcement at all times,” Samini said in a statement. “Law enforcement asserted that the driver of the vehicle was in possession of a controlled substance. Mr. Rodriguez did not have any controlled substance in his possession, nor was he under the influence of any controlled substance.”

Rodriguez, the son of a migrant farm worker, was born in Mexico before moving to East Los Angeles in his youth. His career in stand-up began in L.A. comedy clubs in the late 1970s.

Rodriguez’s work includes writing and acting in dozens of films, including his own stand-up comedy specials. He also hosted television shows on Univision and MTV. He is known for his roles in such movies as “Blood Work,” “Rat Race,” “The World’s Fastest Indian” and “Tortilla Soup.”

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The “Tesla Takedown” protests are growing by the day, as seen in this video that I TOOK on Saturday morning in Rockville, Maryland right out front of a HUGE Tesla dealership on the Rockville Pike (Route 355, officially). Let me tell you, this was WAY larger than previous protests. There were hundreds of people on sides of the road. Limited police presence. Peaceful. Signs, cowbells, upside down flags. So much energy.

Everyone was honking in support.
No counter protests at all.
People were slowing down (like me) to take photos and videos.

It was ELECTRIC.

If you are near a Tesla dealership, look for a protest.

Visit the Tesla Takedown website –> here!

This movement is not slowing, it is not stopping, it is not ending.

The people will not be silenced by an unelected billionaire Nazi who thinks he bought the Presidency and is now King. We will be heard! We will prevail!

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If anything shows that Republicans care more about power and performatively “owning the libs,” it’s their efforts this week rolling back energy standards for refrigerators and walk-in coolers that President Joe Biden put in place shortly before he stepped down.

“I think ‘insanity’ is a good word for what’s happening here on the House floor today. Another good word is ‘bizarre,’” Stansbury said about the efforts.

As if to prove her point, The Baltimore Sun reported, “Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., who authored the measure, argued the regulations harmed small businesses and food banks.” Yep, those are the same food banks Republicans’ DOGE just knifed in the back by yanking $1 billion in funding. The DOGE bags are harming small businesses, too. I doubt that rolling back refrigeration standards is high on any food bank or small business’ concerns at the moment. But House Republicans are patting themselves on the back, pretending they just did their constituents a big solid.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) brought the fire that’s needed:

STANSBURY: [T]oday is one of those days where I’m like, what the hell are these folks doing? Because while our economy is in crisis, while groceries and housing are at an all-time high, while our veterans and our firefighters and our teachers are being illegally fired, while Elon Musk is dismantling the U.S. Department of Education and while the secretary of defense is trying to cover up the most incompetent national security leak I have ever heard of in my life, the Republicans in the House are trying to save the American people from the scourge of walk-in cooler and refrigeration efficiency standards.

She went on to highlight just how out of touch Republicans are with everyday Americans:

STANSBURY: How out of touch are you with the American people? Like, literally. I know you’re not holding town halls and meeting with your constituents anymore, but you think that the American people voted for you to waste our time on refrigeration standards? That’s what you think you were elected to do?

Literally, how out of touch are you because no American voted, no American – I don’t care where you are on the ideological spectrum, you did not vote for this, this is ridiculous, it’s preposterous and it’s just stupid.

Hey, Chuck Schumer, are you listening? Maybe you could learn something.

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These liars on Fox “news” have absolutely no respect for their viewers or their constituents whatsoever. Never mind that both Usha Vance and VP JD Vance’s trips to Greenland this week have gone over like lead balloons, or the fact that a recent opinion poll showed 85 percent of Greenlanders do not want to join the United States.

Fox host Jesse Watters (who has already voiced his support for the US invading Canada, Panama, and Greenland) and his guest, MAGA wingnut Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, want the viewers to believe Greenland is supportive of Trump’s insanity.

WATTERS: And if you’re not growing, you’re dying, and that’s why Greenland is necessary. Do you have colleagues in the House that are against taking Greenland?

LUNA: No, I don’t think so. Well, actually I take that back.

I think that there’s been some rumors of people that think that it might just be messaging, but I would actually argue from a strategic standpoint, Jesse, that that would actually be a great location for us, not to mention from what I gather the people of Greenland are very much supportive of becoming potentially a US territory.

And so I’m supporter of it. I’m supportive of it.

Why would we not want to expand our message and really have people that are for the America first and pro-American ideology?

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Fox News host Shannon Bream challenged White House trade adviser Peter Navarro after he insisted that President Donald Trump’s tariffs were “tax cuts.”

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Bream noted that Trump had said he “couldn’t care less” if car prices increase because of his tariffs.

“The U. S. Consumer message is that tariffs are tax cuts,” Navarro insisted. “Tariffs are jobs. Tariffs are national security. Tariffs are great for America. Tariffs will make America great again.”

“I want to clarify,” Bream interrupted, “when you say a tax cut, how exactly is that going to work?”

“First of all, we’re going to raise about a hundred billion dollars with the auto tariffs alone,” Navarro replied. “What we’re going to do is, in the new tax bill that has to pass, it absolutely has to pass, we’re going to provide tax benefits, tax credits to the people who buy American cars.”

“This is a genius thing that President Trump promised on the campaign trail,” he added. “In addition, the other tariffs are going to raise about six hundred billion dollars a year, about six trillion over a ten-year period, and we’re going to have tax cuts.”

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Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen took to social media to post a video after J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha, visited Greenland and had the unmitigated gall to bash Denmark and Greenland.

Usha and JD received an icy welcome in Greenland and waved to absolutely no one as they departed the plane. Before their visit, the American delegation went door to door in Nuuk, Greenland, asking if anyone wanted to meet Usha or JD, but everyone said no. Not one resident agreed to meet them. But the tone-deaf couple went anyway.

Rasmussen politely scolded the Trump administration for its “tone” in criticizing Denmark and Greenland, explaining that his country already invests more in Arctic security and remains open to more cooperation with the United States.

“Many accusations and many allegations have been made. And of course we are open to criticism,” Rasmussen said, speaking in English. “But let me be completely honest: we do not appreciate the tone in which it is being delivered. This is not how you speak to your close allies. And I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies.”

Vance is an idiot:

Greenland remains a part of the Council of Europe and NATO as part of Denmark. I thought MAGA was about supporting borders and being anti-war.

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A North Carolina man pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement during the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. David Paul Daniel, 37, of Mint Hill, pleaded guilty to a felony offense of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. But the ‘law and order’ guy pardoned him, along with the more than 1,500 other insurrectionists.

Daniel is now arguing that his indictment on charges of producing and possessing child pornography is null because images were found during an investigation into his role at the riot at the Capitol.

The News & Observer reports:

The office of U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson, however, is opposed to dismissing the charges, a court record said.

Investigators in Washington “allegedly observed images of a nude minor female, drug paraphernalia, and firearms” after they seized David Paul Daniel’s phone and computer in November 2023, according to a motion Daniel’s attorney filed in federal court Wednesday.

That attorney, William Terpening, declined to comment Friday. Daniel is asking a judge to either dismiss the case or suppress all evidence the government found. “The charges here are unrelated to the January 6 case,” his motion said. “Mr. Daniel does not argue that the Pardon directly reaches this case. Rather, the Pardon requires dismissal because this case is entirely based on evidence that was seized pursuant to search warrants obtained exclusively in furtherance of that now-pardoned January 6 case.”

Daniel is asking a judge to either dismiss the case or suppress all evidence the government found. “The charges here are unrelated to the January 6 case,” his motion said. “Mr. Daniel does not argue that the Pardon directly reaches this case. Rather, the Pardon requires dismissal because this case is entirely based on evidence that was seized pursuant to search warrants obtained exclusively in furtherance of that now-pardoned January 6 case.”

The Charlotte Observer previously reported that after being sprayed with a chemical irritant, Daniel left through a broken window and re-entered through a different window. He is a perfect picture of MAGA.

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If you’ve driven on the freeway in recent years, been to the grocery store, attended a movie or a live performance — heck, if you’ve been at all sentient — the findings of a new poll will startle you about as much as the sun rising at dawn and setting at dusk.

America has gotten ruder.

At least, that’s how a plurality of Americans perceive the tetchy state of our union.

A poll released this month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic many of those surveyed believe public behavior in the United States has changed for the worse.

Our politics surely have.

“Everything’s a war. Everything’s a battle. There’s no collaboration, no coordination, no civic pride,” said Don Sipple, a veteran communications strategist who helped shape campaign messages for George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, among many others.

“Civic duty is just warfare,” Sipple continued. “And since Donald Trump entered the [presidential] race in 2015, it’s only gotten more corrosive and caustic.”

That’s what happens when you have a president with no filter, no conscience and a flamethrower where his mouth should be.

More on that in a moment.

The pandemic seems a good starting point to measure the foundering of America’s p’s and q’s, seeing as how it produced the equivalent of a national nervous breakdown and pried a deeply divided country even further apart.

The Pew survey found that just under half of U.S. adults polled — 47% — said the way people behave in public these days is ruder than before the pandemic. Two in 10 said today’s behavior is a lot ruder.

Some 44% of adults said public behavior is about the same; 9% said people are behaving a lot or a little more politely in public.

Those latter respondents have presumably been anesthetized, never set foot in the real world or live in a permanent, chemically induced stupor.

How do you — or, rather, how did the Pew researchers — measure rudeness? The behaviors they tested involved, among various trespasses, smoking, swearing and the use of technology around other people.

Of the eight actions mentioned in the survey, two drew the widest disapproval: 77% said it’s rarely or never acceptable to smoke around others and 74% said the same about taking a photo or video of someone without their permission.

About two-thirds of adults said it is rarely or never acceptable to bring a child to an adult venue, such as a bar or upscale restaurant; to visibly display swear words, such as on a T-shirt or sign; or to curse out loud in public.

Smaller majorities say it’s rarely or never acceptable to play music out loud or to wear headphones or earbuds while talking to someone. In both instances, a sizable number said it depends: Roughly a third said it’s sometimes OK to play music out loud, and about a quarter said that about wearing headphones while talking to someone.

The poll found the largest gap in perceived rudeness was between those of different ages.

Older adults were more likely than younger adults to consider it impolite to curse out loud, visibly display profanity or wear headphones or earbuds while talking to someone in person.

Strikingly, in an age when everything seems politicized there were not major differences in viewpoints based on respondents’ partisan affiliations. At the very least, Democrats and Republicans agree that wafting cigarette smoke in someone’s face and capturing their reaction on video — without first asking — is untoward.

Maybe there’s hope for the republic yet.

Not that you’d want to model the behavior of our boorish, foul-mouthed chief executive.

It seemed scandalous — and highly indecorous — back in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush referred to his Democratic rivals, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, as “two bozos.”

Bush felt obliged to apologize, as did his son George W., when he was seeking the White House eight years later and a hot mic caught him referring to one of the New York Times’ political correspondents as “a major league a—.”

It’s worth noting that indiscretion, however heartfelt, became public by accident. Bush didn’t bellow it out at a campaign rally.

Compare that with Trump’s casual profanity and the insults — “fat,” “ugly,” “scum,” “stupid,” “sleazebag,” “pencil neck,” “son of a bitch” — he regularly spews at opponents.

When he descended upon the Justice Department earlier this month to whine about the serial criminal cases he once faced, arguably the least shocking thing about Trump’s extraordinary, browbeating appearance was the presidential use of the profanity “bulls—” while in public.

“Donald Trump has been at the leading edge of changing the discourse norms of leadership in the presidency,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a University of Pennsylvania expert on political communication and the author of extensive works on the subject. “I mean, he’s broken barriers never before broken.”

It’s hard to parse the degree to which politics shape culture and how much culture shapes our politics. As Jamieson noted, “We’re influenced by what we see around us. If I hear a lot of what we would traditionally mark off as uncivil discourse, it seems normal to me.”

Is it any surprise, then, that America has gotten ruder? Especially with the crassness and vulgarity routinely emanating from the nation’s ill-mannered chief executive?

Andrew Breitbart, the late conservative website publisher, famously suggested “politics is downstream from culture.” But it seems these days the waters have commingled, creating a pool that’s increasingly foul-smelling and polluted.

Like a fish, America’s manners have rotted from the top down. So, too, our political dialogue.

No wonder people hold their nose — and refuse to take their earbuds out.

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SAN YSIDRO, California  — When the humanitarian aid workers decided to dismantle their elaborate tented setup — erected right up against the border wall — they hadn’t seen migrants for a month.

A year earlier, when historic numbers of migrants were arriving at the border, the American Friends Service Committee, a national Quaker-founded human rights organization, came to their aid. Eventually the group received enough donations to erect three canopies, where it stored food, clothing and medical supplies.

But migrant crossings have slowed to a near halt, bringing a striking change to the landscape along the southernmost stretch of California.

Shelters that once received migrants have closed, makeshift camps where migrants waited for processing are barren, and nonprofits have begun shifting their services to established immigrants in the U.S. who are facing deportation, or migrants stuck in southern Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Border Patrol, with the assistance of 750 U.S. military troops, has reinforced six miles of the border wall with concertina wire.

On a recent day at the aid station erected by the Service Committee a few miles west of the San Ysidro border crossing, just one mostly empty canopy remained. Three aid workers wearing blue surgical gloves were packing up boxes labeled “kids/hydration,” “tea and hot coco”and “small sweater.” There was no need for them now.

Border Patrol agents in the San Diego sector are now making about 30 to 40 arrests per day, according to the agency. That’s down from more than 1,200 per day during the height of migrant arrivals to the region in April.

Adriana Jasso, who coordinates the U.S.-Mexico program for the Service Committee, recalled that hectic time and the group’s aid effort. “This was the first time we took on this level of providing humanitarian aid,” Jasso said.

But these days, she said, “it’s the closing of an experience — for now. Because life can be unpredictable.”

In May 2023, the Biden administration ended a pandemic-era policy under which migrants were denied the right to seek asylum and were rapidly returned to Mexico. In the leadup to the policy change, migrants descended on the border by the thousands.

Two parallel fences make up much of the border barrier near San Diego. Asylum seekers began scaling the fence closest to Mexico and handing themselves over to Border Patrol agents, who would tell them to wait there between both fences for processing.

Days often passed before agents returned to the area, known as Whiskey 8. In the meantime, Jasso and her colleagues doled out hot instant soup, fresh fruit and backpacks through the slots in the fence.

The last time Jasso saw any migrants there was Feb. 15 — a 20-person group made up mostly of men from India and China.

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) volunteer Emma Starkey packs up at an area called Whiskey 8 in San Ysidro. “It’s been about a month since we’ve seen anyone,” Starkey said about migrants.

Then a storm came in, dislodging two of the canopies. Jasso and her team took that as a sign to tear the rest of it down. The stench of the contaminated Tijuana River wafted in the morning air as Jasso hauled out a plastic shelving unit from the canopy.

Inside the canopy, one of the last remaining items was a stuffed Minnie Mouse, her bubblegum pink shoes shaded gray with dirt. A young girl had handed it to Jasso through the fence.

“Border Patrol refused to let her take it,” Jasso said. “I promised her I would take care of it and that somebody would love it as she did.”

Just as Jasso was packing up at Whiskey 8, Border Patrol held a news conference a few miles away.

Parked against the border wall, east of the San Ysidro border crossing, a Border Patrol SUV and a green Humvee served as a backdrop to illustrate the partnership between the departments of Homeland Security and Defense.

A pair of U.S. soldiers look towards Tijuana that rests behind the border wall with new concertina wire along the U.S. and Mexico border near San Ysidro.

A gate in the barrier opened and Border Patrol, Marines and Army officials showed reporters how both fences were now sheathed in concertina wire.

Loud music could be heard from Tijuana, where construction workers were building an elevated highway right up against the wall separating Mexico from the U.S.

Troops created an “obstacle design” by welding metal rods to the top of the fence, pointing toward Mexico, and attaching more layers of wire over that.

Jeffrey Stalnaker, acting chief patrol agent of the San Diego sector, said the additional wire, installed since troops arrived on Jan. 23, has slowed illegal entries.

Stalnaker said federal prosecutors in San Diego had also accepted more than 1,000 border-related criminal cases this fiscal year. And following Trump’s tariff threats, Mexico vowed to send 10,000 National Guard troops to its northern border. Those troops now meet with U.S. agents a few times a week and conduct synchronous patrols on their respective sides of the border, Stalnaker said.

Construction workers in Tijuana work high above the border wall that features new concertina wire along the U.S. and Mexico border near San Ysidro.

“What we see behind us here today is the result of a true whole-of-government effort, from the Marines laying down miles of concertina wire along the border infrastructure, to the soldiers manning our scope trucks and remote video surveillance cameras,” he said.

Only Border Patrol agents can arrest migrants entering the country illegally, but Stalnaker said that using military personnel to detect migrants has freed agents to spend more time in the field.

Last April, San Diego became the top region along the border for migrant arrivals for the first time in decades. Stalnaker said there’s been a 70% decrease in migrant arrests so far this fiscal year, compared to the same period last year.

“To say there has been a dramatic change would be an understatement,” he said.

But Stalker noted that Border Patrol expects an increase in attempts by migrants to enter California by boat “as we continue to lock down the border here and secure it.”

Farther east, Jacumba Hot Springs was once the site of additional open-air camps, where hundreds of migrants slept on plastic tarps (or in tents, if they were lucky) and huddled around campfires fueled by brush to stay warm.

Sam Schultz approaches Moon Camp, where migrants would rest and camp out after crossing the U.S./Mexico border near the unincorporated town of Jacumba Hot Springs. “It’s hard to keep it up if you don’t see anyone at all,” Schultz said about his efforts to continue to bring food and water to the migrants in the area.

A tank filled with water for migrants, tires to sit on and sandbags, that were used to weigh down tents, is all that remains at Moon Camp near the unincorporated town of Jacumba Hot Springs.

Sam Schultz, a retired international relief worker who has lived near Jacumba for nine years, once made daily deliveries of water, hot meals and blankets to migrants there. When the camps popped up a few miles from his home, he felt compelled to help.

The tents that once covered a camp site just off Old Highway 80 are gone. Schultz’s son recently hauled them away because they’re no longer needed.

Schultz still visits three sites a few times a week to check if water left out for migrants needs replenishing.

“The water hasn’t been touched,” he said.

Legal aid and humanitarian organizations that helped migrants have shifted their operations away from the border.

Immigrant Defenders Law Center, headquartered in Los Angeles, served migrants who were bused there from the border by the Texas governor; the group also provided legal help to those waiting in Tijuana for appointments with Customs and Border Protection. After his inauguration, President Trump quickly canceled existing appointments and ended use of a phone application used by the Biden administration to schedule them.

Lindsay Toczylowski,the law center’s co-founder and CEO, said that since arrests by immigration agents have increased around Los Angeles, the organization has begun to focus on defending recently detained immigrants from deportation.

Oscar Mendoza, right, peers out of his tent with his daughters Melina, 15, and Dolores, 12, foreground, at the Movimento Juventud 2000 shelter in Tijuana. Mendoza and his family fled Morelos, Mexico, for the border due to all the violence along with his family being threatened.

Erika Pinheiro, executive director of Al Otro Lado, said many of those deported to Mexico are being sent farther south, so there aren’t as many people stuck in Tijuana. She said the organization has brought staff to Mexico City and to Tapachula, which borders Guatemala.

Pinheiro said the San Ysidro-based organization recently scaled up a project supporting non-Spanish-speaking migrants in Mexico — refugees who now cannot seek asylum in the U.S. but also can’t safely return to their country of origin.

The American Friends Service Committee has also shifted its work to focus on offering “know your rights” presentations at schools, churches and community centers.

But back at Whiskey 8, Jasso said the organization will continue offering direct humanitarian aid to migrants moving forward.

A border patrol agent rides an along the U.S./Mexico border wall near an area called Whiskey 8 where migrants used to receive water and food in San Ysidro.

She recalled learning about three migrants who died earlier this month in the Otay Mountain wilderness after calling for help during a storm that brought near-freezing temperatures to the harsh terrain.

With migrants now unable to seek legal ways of entering the U.S. through the asylum process, advocates anticipate that more will begin to risk their lives by attempting to enter illegally through more remote and dangerous terrain. Some desperate enough might even try to jump over all the newly installed concertina wire.

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A federal prosecutor in Los Angeles was fired Friday at the behest of the White House, after lawyers for a fast-food executive he was prosecuting pushed officials in Washington to drop all charges against him, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Adam Schleifer was terminated Friday morning, receiving an email informing him that the dismissal was “on behalf of President Donald J. Trump,” according to two of the sources, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from federal officials. Joseph T. McNally, the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California who is Schleifer’s boss, was not involved in the decision, the sources said.

Carley Palmer, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who is now a partner at Halpern May Ybarra Gelberg LLP, said Schleifer was fired via a “one line e-mail, and it came from a White House staff account.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles declined to comment. Schleifer declined a request to be interviewed. The White House and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to inquiries.

The sources who spoke to The Times suspected the firing was motivated, in part, by a case Schleifer was assigned involving Andrew Wiederhorn, former chief executive of the company that owns fast-food chains Fatburger and Johnny Rockets.

Last May, a grand jury indicted Wiederhorn on charges that he hid taxable income from the federal government by dispersing “shareholder loans” from the company to himself and his family. Wiederhorn allegedly used the funds for personal benefits, according to the indictment, including payments for private jet travel, vacations, a Rolls-Royce Phantom, other luxury automobiles, jewelry and a piano. He has pleaded not guilty.

Wiederhorn’s lawyers have aggressively pushed Justice Department officials to drop the case, according to two sources familiar with those conversations who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The defense team has attacked the legal theory of the case and alleged Schleifer was biased, the sources said.

Wiederhorn’s defense attorney, Nicola Hanna, previously told The Times that prosecutors had exceeded the law in charging his client. “This is an unfortunate example of government overreach — and a case with no victims, no losses and no crimes,” Hanna said in a statement last year.

McNally was ordered to meet with Hanna and during the conversation Wiederhorn’s attorneys criticized Schleifer,the two sources said.

Hanna, the former U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, and other members of Wiederhorn’s defense team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Two of the sources familiar with the matter said Schleifer received an email around 11:15 a.m. informing him of the termination. After Schleifer’s work phone was wiped remotely and his computer locked him out, fellow prosecutors helped him box up family photos and personal effects before he left.

Schleifer is a registered Democrat who made several unflattering remarks about Trump when he ran for an open congressional seat in New York’s 17th District in 2020. Schleifer’s father is the co-founder and chief executive of the pharmaceutical company Regeneron, and he faced criticism during his bid for office for refusing to pledge to divest himself from such holdings if elected, according to a column published in the Rockland/Westchester Journal News. Schleifer holds nearly $25 million in stock in the company.

Schleifer started with the U.S. attorney’s office in 2016. He prosecuted drug trafficking and fraud cases before quitting in 2019 for his congressional bid. He finished second in the Democratic primary and returned to his job as a federal prosecutor.

Though U.S. attorneys are political appointees who often ally with the agenda of the current presidential administration, line prosecutors like Schleifer are normally considered career employees. But since taking office, the Trump administration has made a point to drive those seen as political enemies from all levels of the federal government.

“This is the most overtly political firing I’ve seen in my time at the Department of Justice,” said Palmer, the former federal prosecutor. “I could absolutely see it having kind of a chilling effect. I also think current prosecutors are concerned about the ability to have free speech. An AUSA [assistant U.S. attorney] who I spoke to said they are concerned that the only people who will be allowed to stay are Republicans or very quiet Democrats.”

In January, Gregory Bernstein, who worked in the Major Frauds Section of the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A., was among more than a dozen lawyers fired across the Justice Department after working on special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump. Bernstein declined to comment.

In several social media posts during his political campaign, Schleifer attacked the president’s tax policies and Trump’s behavior toward federal agencies that have investigated him for a wide range of state and federal crimes.

In one 2020 tweet, Schleifer accused Trump of eroding constitutional integrity “every day with every lie and every act of heedless, narcissistic corruption.”

“It’s hard to imagine a President doing more to demoralize line prosecutors, law-enforcement partners, and faith in rule of law than he already has,” Schleifer tweeted in February 2020.

On Friday, Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur who has at times served as an advisor to Trump, shared one of Schleifer’s prior critical tweets on X and called for the prosecutor to be fired.

“We need to purge the US Attorney’s office of all leftist Trump haters,” Loomer wrote.

Although Loomer referred to Schleifer as a “Biden holdover,” he was hired back to the office ahead of Biden’s inauguration in 2021. According to sources, he was assigned the Fatburger case after his return.

One source inside the U.S. attorney’s office, who requested anonymity over concerns about retaliation, said “people are obviously very pissed.”

Though Schleifer’s family might be wealthy, the source said, the firing seemed politically motivated and meant to scare prosecutors who might pursue defendants who curry favor with Trump.

“No one feels particularly scared for his livelihood, but I do think it’s bull—,” the source said.

Another source, a former prosecutor who handled fraud cases in the U.S. attorney’s office and sought anonymity over concerns about facing professional backlash, said he believes Schleifer’s firing is “going to have an incredible chilling effect on any line federal prosecutor who is thinking about criminally investigating or prosecuting an executive of any company of any significance.”

“The message from Adam’s case is that if you’re going to indict some run-of-the-mill CEO of a company, you need to check if he’s a Trump supporter first,” the former prosecutor said. “It’s going to cause line prosecutors to be considerably more careful about pursuing anyone who has even tenuous connections to the president, which is not good for the DOJ.”

According to Federal Election Commission records, Wiederhorn has donated approximately $40,000 to Trump political action committees and the Republican National Committee since 2023.

The recent federal case comes nearly two decades after Wiederhorn was first ensnared in financial crimes. In 2004, he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Oregon to charges of paying an illegal gratuity to an associate and to filing a false tax return. He spent 15 months in federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., and paid a $2-million fine.

Trump repeatedly complained about the “weaponization of the federal government” while facing investigations for improper handling of classified documents and fostering an insurrection with lies about election fraud, but since returning to office he has taken steps to bend the Department of Justice to his agenda.

Earlier this year, Trump appointees pushed for federal prosecutors in Manhattan to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, accused of accepting more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions from a Turkish government official. Several high-ranking prosecutors refused the order to drop charges against Adams and resigned in protest, with some alleging Trump is trying to force Adams to help deport record numbers of undocumented immigrants.

Last week, Trump named one of his personal attorneys and counselors, Alina Habba, as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Habba has no experience as a prosecutor, but represented Trump in several civil cases and served as an advisor to his political action committee.

Four current and former federal law enforcement sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, told The Times that Trump is strongly considering naming Assemblymember Bill Essayli (R-Riverside) as U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

Essayli is a devoted Trump supporter who has staked out positions in lockstep with the president in the California Legislature, including pushing a bill in 2023 that would force schools to notify parents if their children were identifying with a gender that does not align with the sex on their birth certificate. The bill died in committee. Representatives for Essayli did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.

Times staff writer Seema Mehta and the Associated Press contributed to this report.