DL Open Thread: Thursday, May 28, 2026
The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the 82-year-old former magazine writer who accused Donald J. Trump of sexual assault, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The investigation centers on whether Ms. Carroll committed perjury in civil lawsuits against Mr. Trump, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Ms. Carroll won a $5 million civil judgment against Mr. Trump that he had sexually abused and defamed her, which the president last November asked the Supreme Court to overturn. She also won a $83.3 million civil judgment against him in another defamation case.
An inquiry into Ms. Carroll would represent the latest chapter in Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign, which has been carried out by Justice Department officials. A number of figures who brought criminal and civil cases against Mr. Trump have come under the department’s scrutiny, including James B. Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and other adversaries of the president.
The answer, of course, is that it’s not the U.S. It’s the criminals currently running roughshod over the Department Of Justice and, uh, justice.
Perhaps satire isn’t totally dead:
When Is A Security Risk Not A Security Risk? When an event takes place on the ‘perfectly-safe’ White House lawn:
After a gunman opened fire near the White House over the weekend, President Donald Trump’s administration made an urgent plea to the judge hearing a lawsuit over his proposed ballroom, saying in a brief that the shooting shows why the president needs the ballroom to safely host special events.
“Without this National Security Facility, such events are otherwise relegated to the vulnerable tents on the South Lawn, exposed to various threats, as again shown by last night’s shooting, which would have been easily in range to reach a tent,” the Justice Department said in its brief filed Sunday. (Secret Service agents fatally shot a 21-year-old man with apparent mental health issues who’d opened fire on a checkpoint.)
But the supposed vulnerability of the South Lawn hasn’t stopped the White House from hosting major events there — including an open-air mixed-martial arts event scheduled for June 14, which happens to be Trump’s 80th birthday.
Large arches have been erected on the South Lawn ahead of the “UFC Freedom 250” event Trump’s hosting as part of his administration’s celebration of America’s upcoming 250th birthday. The UFC envisions hundreds of guests watching fights under bright lights and a dusky sky just outside the executive mansion.
Juliette Kayyem, a lecturer on national security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former official at the Department of Homeland Security, said the UFC plans undermine the administration’s ballroom argument.
“You can’t have both. You can’t say, ‘We’re going to do the UFC and it’s going to be safe and secure, and we’re going to have this big event. And by the way, we need a ballroom because we can’t protect the president,’” Kayyem told HuffPost. “Those two things don’t go together.”
The administration complained in court on Sunday about the South Lawn because U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, said earlier this year that construction of the ballroom could not continue unless Congress gives its blessing. So far, Republican lawmakers have balked at the administration’s $1 billion request for its “East Wing Modernization Project.”
“This court’s unlawful injunction has wrongfully cast a cloud of uncertainty around the future of the entire East Wing Project, which is being constructed for the physical safety and security of all Presidents, their families, staff, Foreign Dignitaries, and guests,” the administration said.
The shift towards a security argument, Kayyem said, is cynical.
“The ballroom was never about security, it was about the party,” Kayyem said. “The UFC arena is just exposing that lie.”
On Sunday, the government also complained in its court filing that tents have “virtually no ability to stop a bullet” and, on top of that, they’re “vulnerable to water and flooding.”
“Over the years, many an evening has been ruined by even moderate rain,” the administration said.
That, right there, is an enticing proposition…
Guess Which Country (And Ally) Trump Is Threatening To Blow Up Today:
US president Donald Trump threatened to “blow up” Oman on Wednesday if it did not comply with his demands over the Strait of Hormuz.
“Oman will behave just like everyone else, or we’ll have to blow them up,” the president warned in an off-the-cuff remark about a key US ally during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday.
Trump reiterated his insistence that Oman and other nations sign on to the Abraham Accords, a US-led treaty brokered during his first term encouraging the normalization of diplomatic ties between Arab nations and Israel.
The US president’s remark was afterwards tweeted out by the State Department’s official account on X, confirming he had not mixed up the country with Iran – the type of mix-up he has made previously when referring to Greenland as “Iceland”.
The US president’s comments came after reports emerged in Iranian state media that Tehran and Oman had discussed a possible situation in which the two countries would manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after the war.
Man. Woman. TV. Camera. Oman.
When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a small North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.
The president’s eldest son said through a spokesperson that he wasn’t involved. The Pentagon said Trump Jr. played no role in the record-setting deal. And the startup’s founder told reporters that his company, Vulcan Elements, received no political favoritism.
But interviews and Defense Department records reviewed by ProPublica show that the request to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the firm linked to Trump Jr. was made by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump and a friend of Trump Jr.’s.
Of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was considering funding at the time, Vulcan’s was the only deal initiated by a top aide to the president, said an official at the Pentagon who was not authorized to speak publicly.
After defense officials got the White House request, they asked Pentagon staff to move at an unusually rapid pace, said another person who was involved in the deal at the Pentagon but not authorized to speak about it. The staff worked late nights and with little sleep to get the loan through in a matter of weeks, the source said.
“The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” the person said.
The loan was a massive financial commitment from the Pentagon in its effort to fund companies that could help the U.S. reduce dependence on China’s critical mineral supply chains. The deal was a dramatic win for Vulcan, a North Carolina rare-earth magnet company launched just two years earlier. Estimates of its valuation grew tenfold after the deal was announced. It was also a win for Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, which took a stake of undisclosed size in Vulcan about three months before the Pentagon announced the deal.
No further comment necessary.
Suxco Spies: What’s Going On In Lewes? I ask because of this. And this:
Sources confirm multiple complaints have been made against Lewes City Manager Ellen Lorraine McCabe, including one filed as recently as this month.
According to sources, the complaints against McCabe come from the Lewes Police Department. When asked about the reported complaints against McCabe from within his department, Lewes Police Chief Tom Spell said, “I can’t comment on pending personnel matters.”
The reported tension between McCabe and the police department dates back to 2025. In June 2025, the police union filed a formal grievance and issued a unanimous vote of no confidence against McCabe. The Fraternal Order of Police claimed the promotions of three officers violated the union contract.
The claims of complaints against McCabe come as scrutiny intensifies around Lewes city government and as an investigation begins into a missing video that was critical of city staff and one council member. The video was taken off the city’s website days before an election. Lewes Building Official Jon Ward told CoastTV News he requested the video be taken down pending legal review because comments made in the video could influence one of his personnel complaints.
When asked who removed the video, Ward said he did not know. (Subsequent reporting from CoastTV has McCabe admitting–or taking credit–for removing the video
Additionally, an open letter emailed from a staffer addressed to city leadership claimed working in Lewes City Hall is “toxic” and “negative.”
“Maybe it’s time for those in administration and those on City Council to look at the bigger picture,” the email reads. “If you think “your camp” is without blame in the current situation, you are wrong.”
What do you want to talk about?
What would be more appropriate would be the establishment of a $3 Bill with Trump’s image. As a lifelong fraudster his image would be suitable for something as phony as a $3 Bill.
what the hell is wrong with small delaware beach communities? they have the most toxic and poorly managed bureaucracies in the state
Wealthy entitled often DC folks with no real connection to DE other than to control “their” play space their way. They were my client base for 20 years. Insufferably condescending bunch and they don’t play well with each other. I have owned property and/or operated a business in Dewey, Rehoboth, Bethany and South Bethany over the years. Same shit different town.
Small Pond Syndrome.