DL Open Thread: Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Ted ‘Horsey D’ Kittila Goes National.  Well, international.  Always knew he had it in him:

One of President Trump’s lawyers is being sued for millions of dollars over his role in an international spying scandal.

Ted Kittila, who used to work for Trump’s social media venture Truth Social, was sued in federal court for $120 million for alleged fraud, civil conspiracy, and extortion on behalf of agents of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, The Daily Beast reports.

According to court documents, the regional government was seeking to acquire surveillance software in the U.S. A Kurdish spy said that he was seeking to buy $11 million of surveillance equipment from a spyware contractor, Ben Jamil. But the spy alleged Jamil couldn’t prove the system worked, so he asked for his $360,000 deposit back, which Jamil refused. Then the spy hired Kittila to sue Jamil.

Jamil in turn sued the spy for $460 million in a separate action, and is seeking $120 million from everyone involved, including Kittila. He claims that Kittila and the others are using a criminal contempt motion, rare in a civil case, designed to stop him from discussing the case outside of court. He thinks that Kittila sought the order to spare the KRG and himself from embarrassment over the scandal.

“If he’s a prominent and important lawyer, connected to important people, why would he want to have the world know?” Kittila told The Daily Beast.  (Why, indeed?)

Kittila has ties to Trump beyond Truth Social. He worked with Republican operatives to investigate the Biden family, and was employed by the Republican National Committee to sue the Delaware State Election Commissioner for access to voter rolls. For nearly three years, Kittila also worked for the KRG, which has been accused of human rights abuses, including violence against political opponents and journalists.

Kittila’s work on the spyware case came at the same time he helped Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee investigate President Biden and his son Hunter for the latter’s business deals, which allegedly involved foreign influence peddling. Now it seems that his own foreign business dealings are in the spotlight.

You may or may not remember Kittila as a three-time Rethug loser in elections.  First, (and I’d forgotten this) as a challenger to Matt Denn in the 2014 race for AG.  He re-emerged in 2022 to lose twice in the same calendar year.  He faced off with Bud Freel to fill the remainder of the term of the vacant Gerald Brady (did I get that right? Yes, I think I did) in RD 4.  He then doubled-up by losing to Laura Sturgeon for the SD 4 Senate race that fall.  Whereupon he returned to his one-horse person law firm.  The ‘Horsey D’ reference?  So glad you asked:

If, that is, a lawsuit filed by the alleged victim and (bum-)steered by, of course, yet another failed Republican candidate who just happens to practice law, is affirmed.  Here’s the story from WDEL (an El Som tip of the sombrero to an intrepid tipster):

A lawsuit filed in Delaware Chancery Court seeks to force a local hospital to use a controversial treatment for COVID-19.

David DeMarco, 54, of Brandywine Hundred was hospitalized with COVID-19 on September 7, 2021, according to a complaint filed on September 17, 2021. Since being hospitalized, he’s not responded to various treatments including anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and steroid drugs administered at Wilmington Hospital, the complaint claims.

An attorney for the DeMarcos, Ted Kittila, told WDEL Monday that DeMarco was moved to home hospice care Sunday, but has since been transferred back to the ICU, where he’s been intubated with mechanical ventilation. He did not answer whether DeMarco was vaccinated against COVID-19.

Without the horse dewormer, the lawsuit alleges, this guy is headed for the Last Roundup.  They found some doctor in Milton to write a scrip for the dewormer which, of course, has not been shown to have any medical value whatsoever in the treatment of COVID, but which has become yet the latest ‘miracle cure’ touted by the RWNJ’s.  A cynic might suggest, “If you’re gonna take horse dewormer, why didn’t you just get the shot?”  But I’m no cynic.

John Carney On Homelessness: ‘Blahblahblah’.  Read it.  Am I wrong?

Where’s The Bleeping Money For The Port Gonna Come From?:

Speculation is swirling around how Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer’s administration plans to prop up the Port of Wilmington’s Edgemoor project, as officials continue to dodge questions about where additional state funding will come from.

The administration revealed last month that the Phase 1 costs of the Edgemoor container terminal construction had ballooned from $415 million to $669 million. The state agreed to pitch in an additional $110 million to help cover a $189 million shortfall.

The source of that $110 million is publicly unknown, and the lack of transparency is drawing criticism from current and former state lawmakers and open government advocates.

“I don’t know why this is such a state secret, but the public has a right to know,” said John Flaherty, spokesperson for the Delaware Coalition for Open Government. “There’s no justification for not sharing it.”

Some Delaware lawmakers said they’ve been told the administration will use unclaimed property revenue from the general fund. Others say the state could use surplus money socked away in savings and could find even more revenue when the budget forecasting council meets later this month.

While meeting recently with reporters, Meyer refused to identify the origin of the state’s additional contribution to the Edgemoor project, saying only that it is a “one-time money source that we’ll discuss at the appropriate time.”

Meyer’s office did not respond to a request for comment seeking clarity on when that appropriate time will be.

You will note that neither Darius Brown nor Deb Heffernan, who represent the area of the proposed Port expansion, commented on this.  I don’t need to tell you why.

Nuc-ular Power On Hold.  BTW, didja even know that teeny tiny nuclear reactors has been envisioned as part of Delaware’s energy future?:

In April, New Jersey lifted a 50-year moratorium on new nuclear power projects.

In Virginia, an energy company is already 3D printing parts for the state’s nuclear plants.

And details about restarting Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant could be announced as soon as this month. (Can hardly wait for that one…)

But in Delaware, decisions about the state’s stance on nuclear power — specifically the emerging technology of small modular reactors — will likely be delayed until well after this year’s General Assembly adjourns on June 30.

That’s because the Delaware Nuclear Energy Feasibility Task Force, which has been convening regularly since last fall to study the issue, pushed back its deadline to produce a report until nearly a month after the legislative session ends.

The group, created by the legislature, was supposed to present its findings by the beginning of 2026, but task force members decided to delay the deadline almost immediately after they first convened.

Y’see, turns out that teeny tiny nuclear reactors have some–issues:

The U.S. military reported in April that it is developing small modular reactors and related technologies that could come online as early as next year. But there are no such reactors actively providing power to anyone anywhere in the world, according to Allison Macfarlane, the former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

During a meeting last month of the task force, Macfarlane told members that only large reactors operate throughout the world because the immense costs inherent in nuclear technology can only be overcome through economies of scale.  

“It’s basic economics and I don’t think we’re going to be escaping that any time soon,” Macfarlane said.

Three guesses as to who is bitching about the delay.  You got it:

“Right now, Delaware is years behind the other states,” said Martin Willis, a member of the Boilermakers Local 13 union, and task force appointee. “If we wait until 2027, we’ll be light years behind. We have to do something.”

Wow.  The rare all-Delaware edition of the Open Thread.

What do you want to talk about?