It’s Wednesday, January 21. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Ashley Rindsberg on the Wikipedia editors sanitizing the Iranian regime’s atrocities. Is the UK about to end trial by jury? River Page speaks with the child social media star who joined OnlyFans as soon as she turned 18. Madeleine Rowley reports on the social media networks helping migrants navigate Trump’s immigration crackdown.
But first: Meet the “Little Trump” waging war on the Federal Reserve.
Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Trump v. Cook, the case brought by Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, to prevent President Donald Trump from firing her, as he has been seeking to do since August.
Under the law, a Fed governor can only be removed “for cause”; Trump’s ostensible rationale is that Cook, an ally of Fed chairman Jerome Powell, is guilty of mortgage fraud, an allegation she has “unequivocally” denied.
Trump is also turning up the heat on Powell, of course—indeed, the administration launched a different investigation against him. Who is behind this ruse? In The Free Press today, Bethany McLean, the business journalist who is often credited with being the first to smell a rat at Enron, offers an answer. His name is Bill Pulte, and he leads a small agency called the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled behemoths that guarantee a staggering 70 percent of all mortgages issued in the U.S.
Bethany’s sources, from Wall Street to Washington to the housing industry, say things like “bull in a china shop” and “dictator” to describe a man who is “widely disliked within the administration” but has the support of Donald Trump Jr. and the president himself. And Pulte appears to view doing Trump’s dirty work as part of his mandate. He has allegedly used his position to get information about mortgages held by people Trump views as his political enemies, like New York attorney general Letitia James and California senator Adam Schiff—and Lisa Cook. Read Bethany’s piece to learn about this largely unknown but powerful official that some call “Little Trump.”
—Joe Nocera
Wikipedia Editors Are Helping Iran Rewrite History |
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In Iran, the regime has shut down the internet and murdered protesters to silence dissent. But the crackdown does not end at the country’s borders. In his latest investigation, Ashley Rindsberg uncovers how Wikipedia editors sympathetic to the regime are working to control how these events, and Iranian history more broadly, are recorded and read by the rest of the world. | | |
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How a Kidfluencer Became an OnlyFans Star |
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It’s every parent’s nightmare. Piper Rockelle, who has been a social media star since age eight, is now 18 and debuting on OnlyFans. In an interview with River Page, Rockelle explains why she decided to join the subscription platform known for its pornographic content. | | |
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Is Britain Giving Up on Jury Trials? |
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The United Kingdom recently announced plans to remove jury trials for less serious criminal cases. Is the move an erosion of an ancient freedom, or the obvious solution to a hefty case backlog? British legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg cuts through the noise to make sense of the proposal, and whether or not it will actually come to fruition. | | |
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Avoiding Deportation? There’s an App for That. |
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“Can a person who removed the ankle bracelet leave the country without consequences?” This is one question of many popping up on a bevy of migrant-focused social media forums and apps amid Trump’s immigration crackdown. Madeleine Rowley reports on the online tools migrants are using to get legal advice, skirt enforcement, and even leave reviews of immigration judges. | | |
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