President Donald Trump extended his self-imposed deadline Tuesday for when the United States would resume attacks on Iran, claiming that his decision was made “based on the fact” that Iran’s government was “seriously fractured” – a remark that one senior Iranian official mocked as a “desperate attempt to save face.”
Trump has extended his own deadlines several times amid the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, despite calling at least one of them “final.” His justifications for extending his own deadlines have varied, but often involved claims about Iranian officials that Tehran would immediately refute.
On Trump’s latest deadline extension, the president said the fracturing of Iran’s government was a key component in his decision, but as has happened over the past 54 days since the war began, an Iranian official immediately refuted the claim.
“[A senior] Iranian official dismissed Trump’s claims that Iran’s leadership was in disarray, characterizing it as a desperate attempt by Trump to save face after his recent false claims, including that Iran had offered him sweeping concessions,” wrote Drop Site News’ Jeremy Scahill, citing an Iranian official who spoke with the outlet on the condition of anonymity for its report published on Wednesday.
After one round of failed peace talks between Washington and Tehran, Trump claimed on Tuesday that Vice President JD Vance and a U.S. delegation were already on the way to Pakistan for a second round of talks. However, subsequent reporting revealed that Vance had yet to leave Washington by midday, with Tehran having yet to commit to participating.
Trump has continued to insist that the second round of peace talks will take place, and without lifting his administration’s naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. An Iranian official, however, once again refuted Trump’s claim.
“The Pakistani side indicated that they expect Trump to lift the naval blockade of Iran,” the same Iranian official told Drop Site News. “If that happens, and the ceasefire is extended, a new round of talks will be held on Thursday.”
President Donald Trump started his morning with a furious Truth Social rant against the Supreme Court, complaining they are not loyal enough to him and not endorsing policies he wants.
In particular, he took aim at the justices for striking down his reciprocal tariff scheme, as well as their visible skepticism to his executive order rewriting the Fourteenth Amendment to abolish birthright citizenship — and lashed out at Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as "low IQ," an insult he routinely uses on Black women.
"How can the Democrats not like how the U.S. Supreme Court votes," fumed Trump. "The Democrat Justices stick together like glue, NEVER failing to wander from the warped and perverse policies, ideas, and cases put before them. They ALWAYS vote as a group, or BLOCK, even that new, Low IQ person, that somehow found her way to the bench (Sleepy Joe!)."
"The Republican Justices don’t stick together, they give the Democrats win after win, like a 159 Billion Dollar pile of cash on a completely ridiculous Tariff decision, and nasty, one sided questions on the country destroying subject of Birthright Citizenship, something which virtually NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD IS STUPID ENOUGH TO ALLOW," said Trump (this is not true). "It was meant for the babies of slaves, not for the babies of Chinese Billionaires. No, certain 'Republican' Justices have just gone weak, stupid, and bad, completely violating what they 'supposedly' stood for."
"Handing over 159 Billion Dollars in Tariff refunds to people who have been Ripping Off our Country for years, is unexplainable," Trump continued. "One little sentence would have stoped[sic] this record setting payment from having to be made. It is a travesty! Their Tariff decision was an unnecessary and expensive slap in the face to the U.S.A., and a giant victory for its opponents. If they rule against our Country on Birthright Citizenship, which they probably will, it will be even worse, if that’s possible. It will cost America massive amounts of money but, more importantly, it will cost America its DIGNITY!"
"No, the Radical Left Democrats don’t need to 'Pack the Court,' it’s already Packed!" he concluded in a fury.
President Donald Trump's back-and-forth with the Federal Reserve is set to worsen as he is already on track for a blowout with Jerome Powell's successor.
Trump has waged a relentless campaign to remove Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, primarily over monetary policy disagreements. Trump has repeatedly demanded that Powell lower interest rates significantly, but Powell has maintained that rates must remain elevated to combat inflation.
When unable to remove Powell directly by law, Trump launched a criminal investigation into Powell through U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, alleging mismanagement of Federal Reserve headquarters renovation costs. However, the strategy backfired spectacularly.
The investigation now blocks confirmation of Trump's replacement nominee, Kevin Warsh, effectively prolonging Powell's tenure rather than ending it.
Analysis from The Bulwark's Catherine Rampell suggested Kevin Warsh, Trump's pick to replace Powell, is already on track to clash with the President.
Rampell wrote, "Maybe Warsh thinks he can manage Trump. Certainly, every other onetime Trump ally or appointee seems to believe they’re uniquely able to survive a disagreement with him. But smooth and well-connected as Warsh is, I am dubious he’ll be able to sweet-talk his way out of presidential wrath. That’s important, because a confrontation over interest rates between Trump and a Warsh-led Fed is starting to look inevitable."
Rampell outlined the three problems Warsh will face should he be confirmed as Fed Chair.
"Warsh will be just one of twelve votes on the committee that sets interest rates; he can’t deliver them solo," Rampell wrote.
"Second, markets don’t seem to think he’ll really want to. When Warsh was first announced as Trump’s nominee in January, long-term Treasury yields ticked up slightly—suggesting investors expect the Fed to become somewhat more hawkish under Warsh, despite Trump’s demands and Warsh’s recent dovish transformation.
"Third, that market reaction occurred before Trump started bombing Iran, leading to severed global supply chains and higher prices."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is reportedly seeking to join the Trump administration after leaving office, and the president has supposedly considered handing the outgoing GOP governor his "dream job."
Axios reporter Marc Caputo, who's plugged into Florida's MAGA world, told "CNN News Central" that President Donald Trump had lunch with DeSantis last week to discuss potential openings in his administration, and the president came away from the sit-down telling allies the governor was "begging" for a job.
"They had a lunch on April12, the Sunday before last,Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis did, and the discussion of Ron DeSantis future was on the menu," Caputo said. "DeSantis is termed out in January. He served two terms, orwill have served two full terms,as Florida governor, and in thewords of one, he's looking fora job. DeSantis and Trump havehad sort of an on-again, off-again, on-again relationship.DeSantis was sort of an understudyof his. Trump helped endorse himor endorsed him and helped makehim governor in 2018, then theyran against each other."
"DeSantisran against him, and now they'vemade up and they're pals again,though a lot of people in Trump's orbit don't like Ron DeSantis," he added. "Some of them actuallywork for him here in Florida,the relationship between him and President Trump is prettystrong, and Trump likes him."
The 79-year-old president has considered several plum positions for DeSantis, who has been rumored as a potential 2028 Republican presidential candidate.
"The likelihood of himbecoming attorney general isrelatively slim, according to anumber of people, but it's stilla non-zero chance," Caputo said, "and we'regoing to have to see, inaddition to the secretary of warspot – and incidentally, Pete Hegseth, from what I'm told, isin no danger of going anywhere, it's just if he happens toleave. There's also the slightpossibility that if a Supreme Court post opens up, thepresident might consider Ron DeSantis for that. In fact,he's made some calls to peopleand said, 'Hey, what do you think about this as anidea?' So that is a dream job for DeSantis, according to peoplewho know his thinking, and Iwouldn't rule that out either."
That was stunning news to CNN's Sara Sidner.
"When you consider that, Imean, the politicalramifications, you know, peoplesaying, look, the court is notsupposed to be political," Sidner said, "andthen putting a Florida governorin that spot would be aremarkable move by thepresident."
European diplomats were left perplexed after the Trump administration’s “naughty and nice” list of NATO nations was leaked this week, though details as to how the White House intends to punish allies given the “naughty” designation remain scant, Politico reported Wednesday.
According to three European diplomats and a Pentagon official “familiar with the plan,” the list “includes an overview of members’ contributions to the alliance and places them into tiers,” and was drafted as a means to help the Trump administration look “for ways to punish allies who refused to back the Iran war,” Politico’s report reads.
“They don’t seem to have very concrete ideas… when it comes to punishing bad allies,” a European official told Politico on the condition of anonymity. “Moving troops is one option, but it mainly punishes the U.S. doesn’t it?”
Joel Linnainmäki, a former Finnish official who assisted in the nation’s 2023 acceptance into NATO – an acronym for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – was left equally confused by the Trump administration’s intentions behind the drafting of the list.
“[President Donald] Trump and his team are busy trying to extract themselves from their self-inflicted quagmire,” Linnainmäki told Politico. “Likely the administration does not have the bandwidth to open another hostile front with Europe as long as the war continues.”
Trump has long been a critic of NATO, with tensions escalating amid his administration’s war against Iran as NATO countries refused to join in the efforts.
“Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social last month. “They didn’t want to join the fight to stop a Nuclear Powered Iran.”
Trump has also floated leaving the NATO alliance, a move that critics noted would likely be illegal due to U.S. law strictly prohibiting a president from single-handedly terminating the United States’ NATO membership.
"The word 'dementia' is not a word that prior to Donald Trump held such a prominent role in American political discussion," said Pakman. "And yet now we're hearing the word almost daily. Donald Trump unleashed what many are calling a demented tirade on Truth Social once again. And there are a few reasons why Donald Trump is doing this."
"Reason number one, he knows that Republicans are going to get crushed in November," Pakman said. "They're going to lose the House and Trump and his entire administration will be mired in the muck of investigations and oversight for the final two years of his presidency. Donald Trump is panicking because he screwed himself on Iran and there are reports that he is in fear at the White House of what he has done to his own legacy."
Pakman started with a post from Trump proclaiming that "90 percent" of what the media says are "lies and made-up stories," that the "polls are rigged," that the results in Iran will "be amazing," and that he has made America "respected" again.
"Another example of projection," said Pakman. "Trump said under his watch we will be respected again much like we weren't under Joe Biden. Except it is under Donald Trump that we are a laughingstock. It is under Donald Trump that other countries say it's not even worth inviting the United States anymore because they'll send some Trumpian tool."
The president then posted a rant complaining about the Iran nuclear deal made under former President Barack Obama, in which, in his formulation, "They actually gave $1.7 billion in green cash, loaded into a Boeing 757, and flown to Iran for Iranian leadership to spend any way they saw fit."
"Let me tell you the truth of this," said Pakman. "Donald Trump is now realizing the best he can hope to do is to put back in place something like the Obama Iran nuclear deal. We wouldn't even be in this situation if Trump had kept us in that deal. We are in the situation we're in today, yes, because of Trump's belligerence, yes, because of Trump's decline. But in great part because Trump got out of that deal in 2018. Trump is realizing he's going to have to get back into a similar deal, a deal that may not even be as strong. And so what he needs to do now is lay the groundwork to tell you this is nothing like that other deal. Because if Trump acknowledges my deal that I'm trying to get is like Obama's deal, it blows up the entire premise of where we find ourselves today. Because every American hopefully will look around and go, I guess he should have just stayed in the Iran nuclear deal. That probably would have made more sense."
Pakman then ended by looking at Trump's attack on the media, proclaiming "I'm winning a war by a lot" but "horrendous and disgusting" outlets won't report how badly he has decimated the Iranian military.
"The argument is the media is unpatriotic, anyone who believes this stuff is unpatriotic, everything is going really well," said Pakman. "Little question. If everything is going really well, why are we in week eight of a three to four week war? Is everything is going really well, why have we still not achieved the objectives that supposedly were the reason for this war? And if everything is going really well, why doesn't Donald Trump even know who or where the negotiations are taking place and the parameters of those negotiations and why are we still in this thing?"
"So, this is a panicked guy," he concluded. "He knows they're heading towards getting crushed. He knows the Iran war is likely going to screw his legacy. And his new approach is just telling other people, don't believe what you're seeing. Don't believe what the media says. Don't believe what the reporting indicates. Believe me. He wants to be the ultimate source of truth. Common, by the way, among cult leaders."
Platner, who is running for the Democratic nomination for US Senate in Maine, told NBC there are reasonable grounds for the removal of Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Alito and Thomas have faced significant ethical scrutiny during Trump's second term. Alito authored the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, a decision that sparked widespread controversy and calls for his recusal from abortion-related cases.
Thomas has been embroiled in controversy also, with recent calls for his removal from the Supreme Court following a speech where he denounced progressive politics.
During an appearance at University of Texas Austin Law School, Thomas said, "Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government."
Platner has since called for the impeachment of both sitting judges. He said there is a "compelling case" against both Alito and Thomas. "The relationship between Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow is not hard to see as clearly corrupt, and Justice Thomas doesn’t even recuse himself from cases that impact Crow’s businesses," he said.
Platner added that he is "definitely open to doing more, including adding seats on the court." He also outlined a plan, should the Democratic Party win a majority in the Senate, to investigate Donald Trump's administration.
“I want to shut the White House down,” Platner said. “I want us to, for the next two years, be dragging every single person in the White House, every single person in all these agencies that have been conducting themselves in illegal and unconstitutional ways. They need to be dragged by subpoena in front of Senate committees over and over and over again."
A Supreme Court justice can be impeached through a constitutional process outlined in Article II of the U.S. Constitution. The House of Representatives must vote to impeach the justice, requiring a simple majority, by charging them with "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."
Following House impeachment, the Senate conducts a trial where the justice can present a defense. A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate is required to convict and remove the justice from office.
No Supreme Court justice has ever been successfully impeached and removed through this process, though several have faced impeachment attempts throughout American history for various alleged misconduct and ethical violations.
Kevin Warsh, tapped by President Donald Trump to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, was hammered Wednesday by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough for his “pathetic” Senate hearing performance Tuesday in which he frequently dodged questions on his ability to act independently of the president.
Warsh was vetted by members of the Senate Banking Committee, led in part by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the top Democrat on the committee, who frequently grilled Warsh for lacking the “courage” and "independence" required for the job. One exchange in particular between the two caught Scarborough’s attention.
“Name one aspect of President Trump's economic agenda with which you disagree,” Warren asked Warsh, who proceeded to dodge the question.
After continued pressing, Warsh finally provided an answer, albeit one that didn’t correspond to Warren’s question.
Trump had called Warsh a “central casting” choice for Federal Reserve chair, a comment that Warsh said he disagreed with, saying that if he actually was a “central casting” choice, he would “look older, greyer, and maybe show up here with a cigar of sorts."
“Quite adorable,” Warren fired back. “But you know, we need a Fed chair who is independent, that's the only way we preserve the independence of the Federal Reserve. If you can't answer these questions, you don't have the courage and you don't have the independence.”
Warsh also refused to acknowledge Trump’s election loss in 2020, leading Scarborough to blast the nominee for his “sad” performance, as well as his “cutesy little answer on the one thing he disagreed with Trump on.”
“That's sad! That is really sad, it's really pathetic!” Scarborough said. “Catherine Rampell, who writes a great newsletter, "Receipts," said that this nominee actually has a very good background, but for the fact that he was kowtowing to Donald Trump and seemed to be scared of his own shadow yesterday, would quite possibly make a very effective Fed chair. But she said [Warsh] failed on three major parts.”
A former Republican congressman dismissed a mea culpa from one of the most prominent MAGA voices as essentially worthless.
Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News broadcaster who was ultimately terminated for spreading 2020 election lies, expressed regret this week for "misleading" his podcast listeners about President Donald Trump, and CNN's Audie Cornish asked her panelists to comment.
"So the president has called Tucker a 'low-IQ person' becausehe is extremely upset with howhe's reacting," Cornish said. "My group chat ispeople either being, like, thegrift is strong or this reflectsan actual sentiment. Where are we on the spectrum?"
Charlie Dent, a former GOP congressman from Pennsylvania, wrote off Carlson's remarks entirely.
"Oh my goodness, I mean, laughout loud," Dent said. "Look, he's been upsetbefore, after Jan. 6, you know, he was, you know, [he called Trump ademonic force. He said all sorts – but he came crawlingback."
"He'll come back home because look, these guys have monetized, they're making a lot of money off of this stuff," Dent added, "and I can't imagine he's going to have a real permanent rupture with Trump because he probably will lose market share and audience. He'll be back."
The other panelists agreed, and Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright said Carlson had much more to apologize for than boosting Trump's campaigns.
"Tucker Carlson used all ofhis platforms for many yearsamplifying right-wing extremehate, bigotry, racism andanything else, so certainly wedo not take his commentaryserious," Seawright said, "and I think what the 'America first' crowd is figuringout that there's no interestlike self interest when it comesto Donald Trump. He is not aprincipled man. He does not havea core, and now they'refiguring it out."
Patel filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic and staff writer Sarah Fitzpatrick on April 20, 2026, following the outlet's bombshell report detailing his alleged drinking problem. Patel's legal team characterized the article as "replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel's reputation and drive him from office."
The Atlantic's report cited more than two dozen sources, including current and former FBI officials, who alleged Patel has rescheduled meetings to recover from intoxication and has been unreachable when needed.
Fitzpatrick also claimed that, when temporarily locked out of the FBI computer system due to an IT error, "He panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House," according to nine people familiar with his outreach.
Further analysis from Lisa Needham in the Public Notice Substack notes that only one outcome of the lawsuit benefits Patel.
She wrote, "Much like some of Trump’s media complaints, Patel’s has the flavor of counsel making the grave mistake of letting the client write the thing.
"Even if Patel were the World’s Greatest FBI Director as far as law enforcement results, and even if The Atlantic shamefully ignored his great stats, none of that has anything to do with whether the allegations in the article about Patel’s drinking, absenteeism, and impulsivity are true. Nor does Patel’s whining that he only got an 'arbitrary two-hour window' to respond to the story’s allegations before they went to press have anything to do with actual malice."
"Patel would be luckiest if The Atlantic succeeds at getting this thing dismissed right away — no, really. Because if this case goes forward, he’s stuck with discovery."
Needham has since argued that Patel filed the lawsuit potentially to impress President Donald Trump and to fire a warning shot at other publications.
"Patel didn’t file this lawsuit to win," she wrote. "He filed it to show Trump that he’s not just a dilettante flying around on the FBI jet, but a loyal crony who’s fighting back against the fake news media.
"He filed it to send a message to other publications that he will make their lives hell if they report critically on him. But he did not file it because he genuinely believes he can show The Atlantic manufactured all of this out of whole cloth."
MORRISVILLE, N.C. — When the Department of Homeland Security surged federal agents into North Carolina last November, they pledged to “target criminal aliens” and go after “the worst of the worst — including murderers, rapists, and pedophiles.”
But in one case reviewed by Raw Story, federal immigration authorities received a tip about a 24-year-old Guatemalan national suspected of involvement in the kidnapping and rape of a 16-year-old girl — and they repeatedly missed the opportunity to detain him, despite him being in police custody.
Federal immigration authorities appear to have learned about Maynor Godinez-Mendez when a detective with the Fuquay-Varina Police Department contacted the FBI’s Human Trafficking Division. When Godinez-Mendez was interviewed following his arrest on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a federal Homeland Security Investigations agent was present and translated.
Even after Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, received a notification from a detention officer that he was in a local jail, they still failed to take Godinez-Mendez into custody, and he was released on his own recognizance four hours later.
The day after Godinez-Mendez’s release from jail, the Department of Homeland Security announced “Operation Charlotte’s Web.” Border Patrol “stormed” North Carolina’s largest city “in unmarked SUVs and masks, sweeping up hundreds of people,” as described in the Charlotte Observer. In the midst of the five-day blitz, the operation briefly expanded into the booming area about 150 miles to the northeast surrounding the state capitol of Raleigh, which includes Fuquay-Varina.
Chafed by the agency’s fumbled response involving Godinez-Mendez, an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations supervisor tasked a team with apprehending the suspect. But based on faulty intelligence, ICE staked out the wrong house.
During an arrest operation on Dec. 2, 2025, agents in unmarked SUVs converged on a different man and blocked him at the entrance of a shopping center in Morrisville. When the man tried to back up and drive away, an agent rammed his car through a hedgerow, spun the vehicle around, and pushed it into a parked car.
The driver was not Godinez-Mendez, but rather another Guatemalan. His name was Milton Roblero.
When the agents took Roblero into custody, they determined that he had an outstanding order for deportation. Federal prosecutors charged him with forcibly assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and willfully damaging government property.
Roblero’s lawyer filed a motion to dismiss, while questioning whether the agent who rammed his vehicle “violated ICE’s own policy and regulations restricting offensive driving techniques.” The shopping center includes a daycare, and the motion contends that ICE policy prohibits using offensive driving techniques “in school zones where children are present or going to or from school or where the danger to the public outweighs the enforcement benefit.”
Surveillance video shows ICE ramming Milton Roblero's vehicle during his arrest in Morrisville, N.C. on Dec. 2, 2025. (federal courts) roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms
The government did not directly address the question of whether ICE violated its policies, only saying in a court filing that the agents’ use of a vehicle for an administrative arrest was “appropriate.” But a filing in federal court on Monday indicates the government agreed to plead down the charges to a misdemeanor for impeding federal immigration officers’ traffic interdiction efforts. The agreement notes that Roblero will be removed to Guatemala following resolution of federal charges.
Andreina Malki, the defense manager for the immigrant advocacy group Siembra NC, told Raw Story Roblero’s arrest fits a pattern of unsafe activity by ICE.
“They used unmarked vehicles that don’t have any indication that they might be ICE,” she said. “If you’re a person driving, and unmarked cars try to block you in, you would probably try to leave. The fact that he got rammed and then got a charge for using his vehicle as a weapon — the story doesn’t add up. It’s not clear to the people being stopped who’s stopping them.”
Lindsay Williams, an ICE spokesperson, told Raw Story he couldn’t speak to the specifics of Roblero’s arrest.
A missing person case leads to a call to the FBI’s Human Trafficking Division
The circumstances that led to Roblero’s arrest began three weeks earlier with a missing person case that developed into a kidnapping and rape investigation.
Police in Fuquay-Varina, a town on the southwestern fringe of Raleigh, received a frantic phone call from a woman who reported that her 16-year-old daughter was missing (Raw Story is withholding the girl’s name because she is a juvenile). According to the police investigative report obtained through federal court filings, the daughter had texted: “Mommy and Daddy, I’m sorry for doing this to you, and well, I’m not coming home. I love you all very much.” The mother’s calls went straight to voicemail.
After interviewing the girl’s younger cousins, the police were able to get the name of a former boyfriend, then a residential address, and ultimately a description of a vehicle registered to the address. Using a law enforcement database, the police determined that the vehicle, a 2012 Hyundai Accent, had been repeatedly observed at an apartment complex in Cary, a nearby city.
Two Fuquay-Varina police officers went to the apartment complex the day after the 16-year-old girl had disappeared. As the officers were speaking with two females, the 16-year-old girl walked out of the apartment. She told the officers that the owner of the Hyundai was “Maynor,” and that he was in the car with another man named “William” when they picked her up.
Initially, the 16-year-old girl told the police that she had run away because of problems at home, and that nothing happened to her at the apartment. She said she had only watched TV and slept.
But on Nov. 13, two days after the 16-year-old girl was returned to her family, she told Cpl. Cassaundra Sullivan that William Godinez-Ramirez had called her and told her to go to an Indian grocery store. When she got into the car, according to Sullivan’s notes, Godinez-Ramirez told the 16-year-old girl to throw her phone out the window. She refused, and Godinez-Ramirez reportedly got out of the car, opened her door, grabbed the phone and threw it away. The girl told the officer that another man, Maynor Godinez-Mendez, and his wife were also in the car. They drove to a car wash, switched cars, and drove on to the apartment in Cary.
Summarizing what Sullivan learned from her interview, Detective Salvatore Fundaro wrote that the 16-year-old girl “reported that Godinez-Ramirez raped her” and “also reported that Godinez-Ramirez told her that he was going to kill her family if she didn’t leave with him.”
Fundaro consulted with the Wake County District Attorney’s Office, and he said he was advised to keep investigating before charging with rape and kidnapping, but he swore out warrants for contributing to the delinquency of a minor for both Godinez-Ramirez and Godinez-Mendez.
The federal authorities appear to have learned about the investigation of the two men on Nov. 12. That day, Fundaro wrote, he contacted the FBI’s Human Trafficking Division for assistance with the case. What raised his suspicions was that the 16-year-old girl had told her parents that she was going to a job, but her employer told the detective she hadn’t shown up for work for the past three months.
On the same day, a federal immigration officer signed a Department of Homeland Security administrative arrest warrant for Godinez-Mendez.
Accompanied by the Homeland Security Investigations agent, Fundaro interviewed Godinez-Mendez at the Morrisville Police Department. Godinez-Mendez “could not offer a logical reason as to why they switched vehicles,” Fundaro wrote. The detective asked if the reason was “because they knew they had committed a crime and wanted to avoid apprehension,” but Godinez-Mendez denied that.
Susan Weis, a spokesperson for the town of Fuquay-Varina said she was unable to comment because the case remains under investigation. The town also cannot “comment on another agency’s procedures,” she said.
Godinez-Mendez wound up spending six hours in the Wake County Detention Center, but ICE did not respond to a detainer inquiry from the jail or take the opportunity to place him in custody.
“Immigration warrants take a back seat to criminal charges,” Williams, the ICE spokesman, told Raw Story. “If he was arrested for something serious, we would let that process play out.”
Williams’ statement appears to be at odds with the bellicose language in the DHS press release, issued the day after Godinez-Mendez’s release, that takes aim at “criminal aliens” and “sanctuary politicians.”
“Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens hurting them, their families, or their neighbors,” then-Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “We are surging law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed. There have been too many victims of criminal illegal aliens. President Trump and [former] Secretary [Kristi] Noem will step up to protect Americans when sanctuary politicians won’t.”
Only slightly more than half the people detained by federal immigration agents during “Operation Charlotte’s Web” had a criminal record, according to data recently released by the Deportation Data Project.
Asked to reconcile the seeming contradiction between the administration’s rhetoric about targeting the most serious criminals and the imperative to let charges play out in state courts, Williams said: “We’re going to deport him, whether it’s now or seven years from now. We ideally want folks to be held accountable for their crimes. The deportation order doesn’t expire. The system will take effect.”
‘I want to get hands on him’
The morning of Godinez-Mendez’s release from the Wake County Detention Center, an immigration agent identified in emails obtained by Raw Story by the initials “CD” forwarded the detainer inquiry to an ICE supervisor.
“Here is the lead you forwarded to us but not in custody,” the agent wrote.
The supervisor, identified only by the initials “SC,” forwarded the message to another agent.
“Biometrics did not hit as expected,” the supervisor wrote. “I wish we had a heads up. Magistrate bonded him out last night. He was there for 6 hours. They only charged him with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
“I want to get hands on him,” the message continued. “What can you provide to assist? His booking record has an address in Morrisville. Work location? Vehicle info?”
An email shows an ICE supervisor expressing disappointment that they did not take Maynor Godinez-Mendez into custody before he was released from the Wake County Detention Center on Nov. 14, 2025.Federal courts
On Nov 29, an ICE agent conducted surveillance on the house in Morrisville, observing through binoculars from a distance of 200 yards away. The agent watched an individual identified as “Target 1” leave the house and drive away in a red Honda Civic, and also leave the house and get into a white truck. It’s unclear who the agent actually saw.
After the ICE agent witnessed a man leave the house and drive away in a red Honda Civic on Dec. 2, he radioed the arrest team — eight agents, including three on loan from Homeland Security Investigations. Given Godinez-Mendez’s “pattern of life,” the agents anticipated that he would drive to the nearby shopping center.
But the man they arrested was not Godinez-Mendez.
ICE ageents rammed Milton Roblero's red Honda through a hedgerow and spun it around before arresting him in Morrisville, N.C. on Dec. 2, 2025.Federal courts
None of the federal court documents or local police investigative reports reviewed by Raw Story implicate Milton Roblero, the man arrested by ICE on Dec. 2, in the kidnapping and rape investigation
About three weeks later, the real suspect was arrested on state criminal charges of felony conspiracy and felonious restraint. On the same day he was booked, for the second time, in the Wake County Detention Center, a magistrate issued a 48-hour hold to allow ICE to take him into custody.
ICE did not respond. On Dec. 28, he was released on a $25,000 bond.
Following his indictment in February, Godinez-Mendez was finally deported by Homeland Security Investigations, Melanie Shekita, a Wake County prosecutor, told Raw Story.
The White House is already plotting its response to a major Democratic Party victory where Virginia voters elected to adopt a new congressional district map that could flip as many as four seats, but “even some of [President Donald] Trump’s closest allies” are “worried” that the plan could “backfire” spectacularly, Politico reported Wednesday.
Tuesday night, Virginia voters approved a new congressional district map for the state that could flip as many as four Republican-controlled seats, a referendum that was launched in response to Trump’s redistricting push he pushedlast year to bolster Republicans’ election prospects for the upcoming midterm elections.
As Democrats’ victory became apparent Tuesday night, former White House spokesperson Harrison Fields, who served as Trump’s special assistant last year before resigning to join a conservative lobbying firm, pitched what he believed Republicans’ response should be: initiate redistricting in Florida to benefit Republicans.
“To my friends in Tallahassee: in a state that is ruby red, it’s time to respond to what we saw tonight in Virginia with a redistricting plan that reflects Florida’s true partisan lean – and adds 3-4 GOP seats to our supermajority,” Fields wrote in a social media post, tagging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican figures.
“Virginia is a purple state being drawn as deep blue. Florida should draw a map that’s even redder – and get it passed ASAP.”
The proposal, however, has already sparked “concern” among Republicans, Politico reported, particularly given the recent off-year Democratic election victories in the state.
“Recent special elections in South Florida (including one in Palm Beach itself) offered up eye-catching Democratic wins and overperformances, raising fears among some Republicans that redistricting could backfire,” Politico reported.
“Even some of Trump’s closest allies in Florida are worried. MAGA influencer Laura Loomer – who famously has the president on speed dial – told [Politico] this month that with DeSantis moving forward with redistricting, ‘he’s going to take away from the strongholds.’”
A criminal investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been filed as an act of revenge from Donald Trump's administration, a legal analyst has claimed.
The legal center has been indicted on federal charges relating to past payments to confidential informants used to infiltrate groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Bryan Fair, the SPLC’s chief executive, called the allegations “false” and said the Justice Department’s actions “will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the civil rights movement becomes a reality for all."
Prosecutors allege the center had funneled $3 million into confidential sources within extremist groups between 2014 and 2023.
Joyce Vance, who served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017, wrote in her Substack, "At first blush, these allegations feel like an extension of the revenge docket and the attacks on universities and law firms, an effort to delegitimize and marginalize an organization that is pushing back against the administration.
"We’ll have a chance to study the charges as we learn more about the government’s evidence. The government’s core theory is that the SPLC paid high-ranking white supremacists, but they seem to ignore the reason—that the use of paid informants was essential to the intelligence the Center was gathering on the groups they were members of, including intelligence that was shared with the FBI."
Vance went on to note that the DoJ's filing named no individuals, and that this could be a telling sign of where the case leads.
"It’s worth noting that only SPLC, as an entity, is indicted here," she wrote. "No individuals are charged. That suggests an inability to identify a specific individual who committed a specific criminal act, or perhaps a lack of confidence in the ability to convict an individual, given the overall context of the work the Southern Poverty Law Center does.
"[Todd] Blanche reiterated that the investigation was ongoing at the press conference. So why rush to indict the case today? Why not wait and see what the investigation reveals before charging? Perhaps it’s that Blanche is auditioning for the AG position and [Kash] Patel is trying to hold onto his. But it may also suggest some weakness in the evidence.
"This administration has targeted people and institutions whose philosophies run contrary to its own, even as it has protected and rewarded its allies, disappearing convictions of people like Steve Bannon and January 6 defendants convicted on serious insurrection charges."
An email shows an ICE supervisor expressing disappointment that they did not take Maynor Godinez-Mendez into custody before he was released from the Wake County Detention Center on Nov. 14, 2025.Federal courts
ICE ageents rammed Milton Roblero's red Honda through a hedgerow and spun it around before arresting him in Morrisville, N.C. on Dec. 2, 2025.Federal courts