博客

Trump-approved energy projects at risk of sudden death by next hostile president

August 13, 2026 6:00am EDT / Fox News

Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act sets no time limit on EPA’s authority to block disposal sites, alarming industry groups

By Elaine Mallon, Fox News

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin got into a heated exchange with Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., over the Clean Air Act and climate change.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

blob:https://www.foxnews.com/3cb467bd-5e8f-4a02-a5d4-ed2f85545089

Listen to this article
5 min

President Donald Trump’s push to fast-track energy and infrastructure projects could be undercut by an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) veto authority that allows the agency to block projects even after permits are issued.

EPA’s veto authority stems from Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act, which allows the agency to block or limit where dredged or fill material can be dumped if it determines the disposal could cause “unacceptable adverse effects.” But the law sets no explicit time limit on that authority, leaving the door open to both preemptive and retroactive vetoes.

And it has already been put to the test.

In 2011, the agency used the provision to block disposal sites for Mingo Logan Coal Co.’s Spruce No. 1 mine in West Virginia, four years after the Army Corps of Engineers had issued a permit. The dispute ultimately reached a federal appeals court, which ruled in EPA’s favor.

TRUMP’S REINDUSTRIALIZATION AGENDA FACES ITS BIGGEST HURDLE — AMERICANS

A split image of Mammoth Preparation Plant in London, West Virginia, U.S. and President Donald Trump.(Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Myron Ebell, a senior advisor to the Fix the EPA Veto Coalition, said the statute gives EPA broad authority to veto or revoke permits even after the Army Corps of Engineers has issued them, potentially putting projects already under construction at risk under future administrations.

“The environmental movement and the climate movement groups are focused on anything related to fossil fuels, and so any project that is likely to become controversial and political that they can make — that these groups can make politically controversial — would then seem to me to be, have the threat of a veto, and that would, I think, that would just drive away investors and companies from all these projects,” Ebell said.

“So that’s why we want to focus the administration’s attention on this problem that could undo all of the good work that they’re doing to speed up permitting,” said Ebell, who headed the EPA transition team before Trump’s first administration.

The coalition, which consists of several state energy business groups, wants Congress to change the law but is also pressing the Trump administration to enact an EPA rule limiting when the agency may exercise its veto authority.

GORSUCH SUGGESTS SUPREME COURT’S TRUMP RULING IS OPENING MOVE AGAINST ADMINISTRATIVE STATE

“The way to improve the situation is to get the EPA to put some sideboards and some constraints on the provision, and that would not solve the problem because a future administration could undo that rule, but it takes time to undo a rule,” Ebell said.

Congress is also considering a more permanent solution. Last December, the House passed the PERMIT Act, which would limit when EPA can use its Section 404(c) veto power. Under the bill, the agency could use the authority only after a complete permit application is submitted and before the permit is issued. But the legislation has since stalled in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Daren Bakst, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, told Fox News Digital that congressional action would provide the strongest protection but argued that the administration should also examine what EPA can accomplish under existing law.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin backstage before an EPA panel discussion during the Great American State Fair on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Ultimately, Congress really has to do something here, but you got to work multiple angles, and you have to walk and chew gum at the same time,” Bakst said.

Bakst said an executive order from Trump highlighting the issue could pressure EPA to pursue a durable administrative solution while signaling to lawmakers that the Section 404(c) provision should be addressed in broader permitting legislation.

“If President Trump issued the executive order, it might help provide a real signal of the importance that the administration places on having such a 404(c) veto issue included into the permitting reform package,” Bakst said.

TRUMP’S EPA CHIEF PUSHES BACK ON CLIMATE SKEPTICS BEING LABELED ‘SCIENCE DENIERS’

Bakst cautioned that it remains legally uncertain whether EPA could categorically prohibit all retroactive vetoes through regulation. But he said the agency could impose constraints, including requiring officials to consider costs imposed on permit holders and their reliance on previously issued permits.

“The reliance, the consideration, the cost, and the reliance interests of the permit holder are certainly things that [EPA] can make it very clear have to be considered,” Bakst said.

Jason Hayes, a senior research fellow for energy, climate and environment at The Heritage Foundation, said EPA should retain some authority to stop projects that pose genuinely unacceptable environmental risks but argued that the current authority is too broad.

In this July 27, 2018, file photo, the Dave Johnson coal-fired power plant is silhouetted against the morning sun in Glenrock, Wyo. The Trump administration is close to completing one of the biggest of its dozens of rollbacks of environmental rules, replacing a landmark effort to wean the nation’s electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-changing smokestack emissions.(AP Photo/J. David Ake)

SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER

“While it is reasonable for EPA to retain a limited authority to halt a project when there is potential for a genuinely unacceptable environmental impact, the authority granted to the agency under Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act is too broad. Currently, the agency has an open-ended veto and can shut down a project before the permit application is filed, while it is under review, or after the permit has been approved and work has already begun,” Hayes said.

In a June letter, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce made a similar push, calling on EPA, the Council on Environmental Quality and the Army Corps to pursue a rule barring EPA from vetoing a Section 404 permit after it has been issued.

“The ability to undo or preemptively block permitted projects undermines confidence in the permitting system and can chill investment even where projects have complied with established requirements,” Marty Durbin, senior vice president of policy and president of the Global Energy Institute at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote.

While Mingo Logan remains EPA’s only retroactive veto of an issued permit, Bakst warned that the authority still poses a threat to future projects.

“Even though there’s only been one example of the retroactive vetoes, the fear is that it can be used, and it would be used,” Bakst said.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“If you can’t even rely on a permit that you’ve already gotten, then I mean, we’ve got a serious problem,” Bakst continued.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the EPA for comment.

Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.

Colombia earthquake search for survivors enters “final phase”

2026-08-13T07:48:00-0400 / CBS News

Rescuers in Colombia were making last-ditch efforts to locate earthquake survivors early Thursday as the critical 72-hour window for rescue operations neared its end.

The magnitude 7.4 quake, the strongest to hit Colombia this century, has killed 265 people, injured almost 3,500 and left almost 500 missing, according to Colombia’s new president Abelardo de la Espriella. Civilian-run databases put the number of missing at more than 4,100. Nearlly 26,000 families were affected, de la Espriella said.

“Our efforts are focused on the disappeared,” he told journalists in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital.

Firefighters search through rubble two days after an earthquake struck Cali, Colombia, on Aug. 12, 2026. AP/Santiago Saldarriaga

In cities such as Cali and Pereira, emergency crews worked through a third night with their bare hands, cranes and sniffer dogs, stopping not to rest but to listen for signs of life.

Thursday morning marked 72 hours since the quake, a period when survivors are considered most likely to be found alive beneath collapsed buildings.

Cali resident Martha Perez said she felt “helpless” as two relatives were thought to still be trapped under rubble.

“We will hold on to (hope) until the very end,” Perez told AFP on Wednesday night.

” All of us here — the entire city of Cali — are hoping to find more survivors,” volunteer rescuer Fernando Loaiza said.

Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder said Wednesday that rescue efforts were “entering the final phase.”

De la Espriella has declared the disaster an “economic emergency” and announced three days of national mourning.

“We will do what is necessary,” he said in a statement, vowing to “emerge again as a country and as a society.”

More than 11,000 dwellings have been destroyed and thousands of families have been rendered homeless, according to official figures.

An aerial view shows civilians and emergency responders working together in Cali amid the rubble as search and rescue operations continue for survivors and missing people following the earthquake that struck Colombia, on Aug.12, 2026. Edwin Rodriguez Pipicano/Anadolu via Getty Images

“A state of shock”

In Pereira, crews focused on a collapsed bakery where they believe a street vendor trapped since Monday’s earthquake may still be alive beneath the rubble.

Rescuers using equipment that detects vibrations said they had picked up possible signs of life from Pablo Loaiza, prompting anxious relatives to gather near the wreckage.

“They tell us it could be him,” said his 16-year-old niece, Sara Loaiza. “My heart is about to burst out of my chest.”

Relatives said the trapped man appeared to respond when rescuers asked him to knock twice, then three times from beneath the rubble, drawing applause from those gathered at the scene.

“Every half hour we make everyone be quiet to see if we can find people alive,” volunteer rescuer Johana Sanchez told AFP.

“So far, three people have been pulled out alive and three dead.”

Many have already spent consecutive nights outdoors, either because their homes were damaged or because they feared aftershocks.

Damaged buildings and infrastructure are seen after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Aug. 10, 2026. The earthquake caused significant structural damage in Manizales, including to the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary and other buildings. Alexis Munera/Anadolu via Getty Images

In the town of Roldanillo, Yuliana Mendez picked through the wreckage of the beauty products store where she worked, one of many businesses damaged in the disaster.

“It’s like starting over from scratch,” she said.

In Pereira’s Providencia neighborhood, residents hauled furniture and household items from damaged buildings. Among them was lawyer Ana Paulina Crosthwaite, whose apartment block was left unsafe by the quake.

“We’re in a state of shock,” she told AFP. “We’re not prepared to tell our children that we have to pack whatever we can and start a new life.”

Many Colombians have mobilized to help, bringing water, food and supplies to affected neighborhoods, while long lines formed outside blood donation centers.

“It’s about wanting to help your community, your city and your country,” said blood donor Ferney Cabrera.

The United States announced $15.5 million in emergency aid to Colombia and the European Union pledged 2 million euros ($2.3 million).

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/aid-worker-describes-destruction-in-colombia-after-earthquake/

Aid worker describes situation in Colombia after earthquake: “Things are not good here”

(04:10)

美国起诉11人 涉策划逾千起假结婚助外籍人士骗取绿卡

2026年8月13日 16:01 / 联合早报

美国司法部起诉11人，指控他们在10多年间策划逾1000起假结婚，协助主要来自中国的外籍人士骗取美国绿卡。图为起诉书所附的假结婚宴会照片。 （取自美国司法部网站）

美国司法部起诉11人，指控他们在10多年间策划逾1000起假结婚，协助主要来自中国的外籍人士骗取美国绿卡。

美国司法部星期三（8月12日）在官网发布新闻稿，列出当天上午被捕的11名被告，并指他们预计将同日提堂。

根据起诉书，自2016年至2026年7月，11名被告经营一个横跨美国和海外的婚姻欺诈网络，安排外籍人士与美国公民假结婚，外籍人士主要是中国公民。

这个网络通过熟人介绍、社交媒体和广告招揽外籍客户，声称可协助他们取得绿卡。客户须向中间人支付最高10万美元（12万8000新元），负责招募美国公民参与假结婚的人员，每成功牵线一人可获最高约5000美元佣金。

为骗过移民部门审查，被告还为外籍客户和美国公民安排婚礼。起诉书所附照片显示，部分婚礼在餐厅举行，参与者会换上传统中式婚服；网络的协调人员、招募者和“新人”还会邀请亲友出席，营造真实婚姻的假象。

美国司法部长布兰奇（Todd Blanche）指出，司法部正在全面打击各类欺诈行为，包括移民体系内的欺诈。他说，上述被告涉嫌策划精密骗局，通过假结婚协助外籍人士非法取得美国公民身份，“这类行为公然蔑视美国及其法律，特朗普政府绝不会容忍”。

消息：特朗普专机曾遭肩扛式导弹袭击威胁

2026-08-13 17:23 / 联合早报

美国总统特朗普7月8日结束土耳其北约峰会行程，在媒体镜头前登上美国总统专机“空军一号”离开，稍后却秘密转移到一架不起眼的美军运输机上。 （法新社）

（华盛顿综合电）知情人士透露，美国总统特朗普7月从土耳其北约峰会离开时秘密换乘专机，是因为遭到肩扛式导弹袭击威胁。

特朗普7月初在土耳其出席北约领导人会议后，在媒体镜头前登上一架旧“空军一号”飞机，随后却通过餐车秘密转移到一架美军C-32A运输机上，飞往英国。

路透社星期三（8月12日）引述一名知情人士报道称，这个举动是因为有人威胁称“空军一号”可能面临肩扛式导弹攻击。由于当前美国与伊朗关系高度紧张，美国特勤局认为这道威胁可信且迫在眉睫，这才启动非常规行动。

据消息人士透露，当时随特朗普秘密转移的还有一小群助手，包括战争部长赫格塞斯、白宫助理哈普、诺塔和斯卡维诺。国务卿鲁比奥和财政部长贝森特等美国高级政府官员、白宫幕僚和随行记者，则留在“空军一号”上。

另一名知情人士告诉路透社，敌视特朗普的势力并无明确计划实施这一威胁，只有意图，因此这两架飞机才获准飞行。

米切尔航空航天研究所执行主任伯基认为，报道中的威胁可能是一种新型热寻导弹，它能追踪高温飞机发动机，比传统雷达制导武器更难探测，已日益引起军事策划人员关注。

伯基称，这类导弹的其中一种型号是伊朗的SA-67，它配备简单的导轨发射器，相信同时也使用热寻制导和激光制导系统。此外，俄罗斯也制造了一种肩扛式热寻武器，即9K333“维尔巴”（Velba）。

消息：特朗普专机曾遭肩扛式导弹袭击威胁

2026年8月13日 17:23 / 联合早报

美国总统特朗普7月8日结束土耳其北约峰会行程，在媒体镜头前登上美国总统专机“空军一号”离开，稍后却秘密转移到一架不起眼的美军运输机上。 （法新社）

（华盛顿综合电）知情人士透露，美国总统特朗普7月从土耳其北约峰会离开时秘密换乘专机，是因为遭到肩扛式导弹袭击威胁。

特朗普7月初在土耳其出席北约领导人会议后，在媒体镜头前登上一架旧“空军一号”飞机，随后却通过餐车秘密转移到一架美军C-32A运输机上，飞往英国。

路透社星期三（8月12日）引述一名知情人士报道称，这个举动是因为有人威胁称“空军一号”可能面临肩扛式导弹攻击。由于当前美国与伊朗关系高度紧张，美国特勤局认为这道威胁可信且迫在眉睫，这才启动非常规行动。

据消息人士透露，当时随特朗普秘密转移的还有一小群助手，包括战争部长赫格塞斯、白宫助理哈普、诺塔和斯卡维诺。国务卿鲁比奥和财政部长贝森特等美国高级政府官员、白宫幕僚和随行记者，则留在“空军一号”上。

另一名知情人士告诉路透社，敌视特朗普的势力并无明确计划实施这一威胁，只有意图，因此这两架飞机才获准飞行。

米切尔航空航天研究所执行主任伯基认为，报道中的威胁可能是一种新型热寻导弹，它能追踪高温飞机发动机，比传统雷达制导武器更难探测，已日益引起军事策划人员关注。

伯基称，这类导弹的其中一种型号是伊朗的SA-67，它配备简单的导轨发射器，相信同时也使用热寻制导和激光制导系统。此外，俄罗斯也制造了一种肩扛式热寻武器，即9K333“维尔巴”（Velba）。

My husband was kicked out of hospice for dying too slowly. Here’s what I learned about navigating hospice care.

August 13, 2026 5:00 AM EDT / KFF Health News

“No more operations,” he said.

It was mid-January 2026, and my then-73-year-old husband, Mike Salmon, had just started bouncing back from a three-month ordeal of three operations related to aortic aneurysms, sepsis, and a terrifying descent into delirium tied to a stay in the intensive care unit. Now, after another potentially fatal aortic aneurysm and ambulance ride, the doctors clustered around his hospital bed said the fix involved two more major, risky operations.

If Mike did nothing, the aneurysm or sepsis would likely kill him, they predicted. How soon? “Weeks,” one doctor said. “I’m astonished I’ve made it this far,” Mike said. So, abruptly, we were shunted onto hospice care — the dead-end spur of the American medical system.

Mike Salmon’s health improved so much under hospice care that he got kicked out. Kim Clark for KFF Health News

Hospice agencies manage care for patients expected to die within six months. They don’t provide curative procedures or drugs. Instead, they aim to help families make terminally ill patients comfortable, typically at home, as an illness reaches its inevitable conclusion. Families provide most of the day-to-day care, and 85% have suggested they are very satisfied with their hospice’s services, which include supplies of drugs and medical equipment, and visits from nurses, therapists, and aides.

More than 1.9 million Americans were enrolled in hospice in the last fiscal year. Over 80% of those patients stayed on hospice until they died — within four weeks, on average. But each year, about 6% of patients are kicked out because a hospice doctor decides they have stabilized or improved enough that they are no longer likely to die in the next six months.

In May, Mike joined that select group. His experience in and out of the hospice system revealed surprising lessons about how families can manage care. And getting removed from hospice revealed a little-known process that can represent a welcome respite for families like ours — but can be devastating for patients with serious chronic illnesses.

Here’s what we learned in our four months on and off hospice.

Check before you choose

“Choose one.” A hospital nurse handed me a list of local hospice agencies. The sooner we signed up, the sooner Mike could go home. Stunned by the suddenness of Mike’s health emergency, I just pointed to the name at the top of the alphabetical list, assuming they were pretty much the same.

Big mistake. Medicare sets basic standards for the hospice agencies it reimburses, but some agencies are understaffed or poorly run. Amy Tucci, president of the Hospice Foundation of America, noted that some agencies provide extra therapy, aide support, and other services.

The problems with the organization I had chosen started immediately. Staffers were often late. They entered inaccurate medical information on Mike’s paperwork and didn’t make corrections when alerted. Medicare allows you to quit or change agencies, so I asked neighbors for recommendations. That was a good start, but Kristina Newport, chief medical officer of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, said I should also have checked the quality ratings on Medicare’s Care Compare site and the National Hospice Locator. Those sites would have alerted me to our first agency’s low ratings. Ideally, Newport said, patients or caregivers should call their area’s top-rated agencies to find those that provide the services you need, such as staff members who speak the patient’s native language, provide spiritual care that aligns with the patient’s beliefs, or are stationed nearby to arrive quickly in an emergency.

The local, long-established nonprofit that neighbors recommended handled the transfer seamlessly. Its staff was punctual, accurate, and kind. The chef’s kiss after we switched: A nurse from the original company we chose called to say she hoped I hadn’t initiated the change because of “concerns about our care of your mother.”

Some people get better on hospice

Research hasn’t yet fully explored why, but some people actually see their health improve under hospice care. Studies have found, for example, that hospice patients with congestive heart failure or lung cancer live about a month longer, on average, than similar patients in the standard medical system.

Terry Bertholet, who teaches courses on elder law and hospice care at the University of Connecticut, said many patients benefit from hospice’s careful pain management, and from leaving hospitals, where they risk infection and overtreatment. Returning home allowed Mike to get up and walk without waiting hours for an overworked nurse to unplug a bunch of monitors, and to enjoy real food. Also, the hospice nurse gave him medicine to help him sleep through the night. He soon started regaining weight and strength.

You can flunk out of hospice for not dying quickly enough

Medicare and many other insurers pay for hospice services only for patients whom physicians certify are likely to die within six months of the most recent assessment (not the date of enrollment), so hospice staff regularly reassess patients. Medicare audits agencies to check for fraud and demands repayment of funds provided for care of patients its auditors deem have not proved to be terminal. Hospices, good and bad, worry about their bottom lines and Medicare’s fraud audits. They may feel pressure to discharge patients who threaten the organization’s finances, even though such discharges can remove important care. “Medicare is worried about fraud and abuse, not about people not getting enough care,” Bertholet said.

Especially for diagnoses with uncertain prognoses — such as dementia — if a patient improves or even stabilizes, hospice physicians might discharge the patient because they can no longer certify a likelihood of death within six months.

For some lucky reason, Mike’s aneurysm and sepsis held off. By early May, his wounds had healed, and his strength had improved enough that he returned to gardening, playing bridge, and whipping up his signature lattice-topped blueberry-cinnamon pies. While we appreciated the convenience of the nurse’s visits and the drug and medical supply delivery, we realized Mike no longer needed care, so we agreed with our agency’s decision to discharge him.

For patients suffering from more debilitating diseases, discharges can be a “nightmare,” said Krista Harrison, a hospice researcher at the University of California-San Francisco. Discharges often happen quickly. Medicare requires giving patients a minimum of two days’ notice.

When Harrison’s father-in-law, suffering from a neurodegenerative disease similar to Parkinson’s, was discharged because his health seemed to plateau, the family scrambled to replace and pay for hospice-provided equipment such as a hospital bed and oxygen supply, and they had to quickly find and hire aides to replace the hospice aides. “Just getting his prescriptions reestablished and filled was a big deal,” she said. Her father-in-law died six weeks after discharge, she said.

Do your homework to ensure appropriate care

Arming yourself with information about your risks and rights can help you get the hospice care you need when you need it.

• Know your diagnosis. Discharges are unlikely for most cancer patients. But patients with dementia, heart disease, and Parkinson’s often plateau. So they are disproportionately likely to be discharged, UCSF’s Harrison said.
• Choose a highly rated hospice. Research shows for-profit hospice agencies are more likely to discharge patients than nonprofits. Medicare’s Care Compare site will alert you to which is which.
• Keep your own records. Caregivers who can document, say, a patient’s growing need for eating assistance can help hospice staff approve continuing care, or build a stronger appeal, UCSF’s Harrison said.
• Keep your family doctor more informed. Doctors “don’t have the financial interest” the hospice faces and could help you dispute a discharge, Bertholet advised.
• Appeal quickly. Hospice agencies must provide information on appealing a discharge. But you must file the appeal (online or by phone) by noon on the day before the termination date, which may mean you have only a few hours if you’ve been given the minimum two days’ notice, said Wey-Wey Kwok, a senior attorney for the Center for Medicare Advocacy.
• Reenroll. Patients can try reenrolling in hospice at any time. Another hospice agency may take you immediately. Or you can wait until the patient’s health declines and try reenrolling with your original hospice agency, the Hospice Foundation’s Tucci advised.

That last option is our plan. For now, Mike and I are enjoying these unexpected bonus days. But whenever fate catches up with him, Mike said, he’s comforted to know he’ll get good care from the hospice’s staff. “They’ll try to improve the quality of what time I have left,” he said.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Inside the drama at ActBlue – and why some Democrats are quietly afraid it could cost them in the midterms

2026-08-13T09:00:29.883Z / CNN

On a Saturday morning last year, several of ActBlue’s lawyers and executives gathered on a video call to discuss a sensitive matter with the fundraising platform’s president and CEO.

A review by an outside law firm had raised questions about whether the organization had always taken the steps to stop illegal foreign contributions that Regina Wallace-Jones had told Congress it had.

Wallace-Jones was urged to alert ActBlue’s board of directors about a potential legal vulnerability. But according to people with familiar with the discussion, Wallace-Jones flatly rejected the idea.

“I refuse to let you go to the board with this information,” she said, according to one person.

The confrontation led to the rapid departure of several key ActBlue employees and a chain of events that reverberates through Democratic campaigns more than a year later. It has given new life to probes by Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have sought to cast ActBlue as a conduit for foreign money.

Among national Democrats worried about countering a deluge of Republican-aligned spending in the midterms, there are quiet concerns about the future of ActBlue and the management style of its leader.

Anyone who has made an online donation to a Democratic candidate in recent years likely did so through ActBlue. In a midterm election cycle where national GOP-aligned groups are equipped to outspend their Democratic counterparts, any disruption to ActBlue would affect thousands of the party’s campaigns that rely on small-dollar donations to keep up.

“For people who work in the Democratic ecosystem, it’s been a wake-up call to us that we have a vendor that is too big to fail, in effect,” said one Democratic strategist who is encouraging campaigns to use more fundraising platforms. “And we’ve had to reckon with that.”

ActBlue defended Wallace-Jones, who declined to be interviewed, and rejected the characterization of how she handled the meeting with lawyers. The organization’s spokeswoman, De’Andra Roberts LaBoo, said in a statement that the CEO has kept the board abreast of “all material updates” throughout her tenure.

“I was recruited in 2023 to grow our mission-driven, technology-focused organization to support more candidates, causes and small-dollar donors,” Wallace-Jones said in a statement provided by ActBlue. “We have been able to steer the organization from a single-service startup into a diversified technology platform supporting campaign operations well beyond fundraising. Change on this scale isn’t easy, but neither is protecting the integrity of small-dollar democracy.”

President Donald Trump last year ordered the Justice Department to investigate whether ActBlue allowed illegal straw donations and foreign contributions to infiltrate US elections. Last October, federal prosecutors in two separate US attorney’s offices made initial inquiries about ActBlue’s operations, according to a person familiar with the matter. Three separate GOP-led congressional committees have been probing the organization for years but have not publicly made good on threats to escalate the matter.

“There’s a lot of smoke coming out of that building. I think we need to find out if there’s a fire,” GOP Rep. Tom McClintock of California, who serves on one of the committees investigating ActBlue, told CNN.

Former ActBlue employees and people inside the Democratic ecosystem in Washington also say Wallace-Jones’ actions and management style have created momentum for Republicans. The three-year effort on Capitol Hill to investigate ActBlue appeared to be winding down until news of Wallace-Jones’ potential mismanagement first broke in The New York Times.

Wallace-Jones’ reaction on last year’s call was emblematic of her management style, according to critics who have worked inside ActBlue and spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity. They described a work atmosphere in which some employees were mocked or had their views dismissed out of hand by the CEO, who sometimes referred to herself in the third person in meetings.

“She would say things like, ‘Stop being so lawyerly. This is going to be OK,’” said one former employee, who was granted anonymity to candidly discuss the inner workings of the organization.

Neither ActBlue nor any of its current or former employees have been charged with wrongdoing. And Democrats have roundly denounced the GOP-led probes as politically motivated attacks. Democratic lawmakers and strategists argue that investigations are instead aimed at destabilizing their party ahead of the midterms, now less than three months away.

“A lot of people just want to Monday morning quarterback,” said Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, who runs the digital fundraising and advertising firm Authentic. “Republicans would have made hay out of anything. It doesn’t matter what Regina said or did or anything else. This is all politically motivated.”

ActBlue is the small-dollar fundraising engine for the Democratic Party, with more than 20,000 campaigns and organizations using it to process online contributions. It is sustained through the fees it charges on transactions and “tips,” voluntary payments that contributors add on to help fund the platform’s operating expenses. More than $19 billion has been processed through the platform since 2004, according to its website.

ActBlue’s express-giving feature is a signature strength. Over the years, donors have stored their credit card information with the platform, allowing them to easily contribute to any affiliated campaign or organization with just one click.

Federal law makes it illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to US candidates with the goal of preventing foreign influence in American elections. US citizens living abroad, however, are free to contribute to politicians back in the United States.

Starting in 2023, Republicans on Capitol Hill, citing reporting by Fox News and others, began questioning how ActBlue vetted the contributions it sends to Democrats to guard against fraud.

“We have to be above reproach because they will come up with reasons to investigate Democrats,” said one Democratic strategist working in Senate campaigns. “And any fodder that you give them, while it may be unfair that they take this route, it’s still fodder.”

For some staffers who had grown frustrated with Wallace-Jones’ leadership, the February 2025 confrontation on the video call proved a breaking point. Several departed within days of the meeting.

The dispute revolved around memos from ActBlue’s then-outside law firm, Covington & Burling, warning that some elements of a 2023 letter that Wallace-Jones had sent to Congress describing how the platform vetted contributions from foreign addresses may not have been accurate.

Wallace-Jones said in the letter that ActBlue sought US passport numbers on its contribution form for donations from foreign addresses. That was in effect for contributions made with credit cards, but it wasn’t necessarily the practice followed when the contribution came through a third-party platform, such as PayPal or Venmo, Covington indicated in a February 18, 2025, memo viewed by CNN.

Additionally, Covington warned that ActBlue did not follow the level of review for contributions from foreign addresses as described by the Federal Election Commission, the agency that is charged with policing campaign contributions in presidential and congressional elections.

“This creates a substantial risk that some of the funds received were impermissible contributions from foreign nationals,” the lawyers concluded.

The meeting occurred four days after Covington’s memos landed and was described by people familiar as an effort to prod Wallace-Jones to act on the issues raised by the firm.

Two days after the Saturday meeting, Aaron Ting, then the most senior in-house lawyer at ActBlue, resigned.

“I am concerned that leadership is not fully committed to transparently addressing with the Board the seriousness of our most pressing concerns: the legal compliance of ActBlue’s past practices for screening political donations from abroad and its past representations to Congress regarding foreign donations and related matters,” he said in his resignation letter, which was reviewed by CNN.

Officials at Covington & Burling did not respond to CNN’s inquiries. The firm no longer represents ActBlue, and ActBlue’s leaders have publicly criticized the firm.

Several days after the meeting, another in-house ActBlue attorney, Zain Ahmad, forwarded the law firm’s memos and other internal documents to board members and top ActBlue executives before abruptly taking a leave of absence.

ActBlue representatives contend that the original 2023 letter Wallace-Jones sent to Congress was accurate, and the organization did not mislead lawmakers.

In a statement to CNN, ActBlue’s full board of directors affirmed their support for Wallace-Jones, saying she has “demonstrated exceptional leadership across every dimension of the job,” kept the board “closely apprised of evolving risks” and “built an incredibly capable Legal and Compliance team, ensuring we operate at the highest standards of accountability.”

In a June 2025 letter to Congress, several months after Covington’s warning, ActBlue’s current outside law firm said it had implemented new measures to protect against impermissible foreign contributions. ActBlue has opted to bar any contributions with a foreign mailing address or IP address, even those from US citizens living abroad who are legally allowed to contribute to candidates back at home.

Wallace-Jones became CEO of ActBlue in January 2023, having previously held executive positions in several tech companies, including eBay, Facebook and Yahoo. The Stanford-trained engineer also was active in politics, having served on the city council of East Palo Alto, California, and a stint as the city’s mayor during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wallace-Jones has worked to change the organization from operating as a fundraising vendor to one that meets her vision of offering a full campaign in a box to candidates.

Jaime Harrison, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said innovations under Wallace-Jones – such as offering a website builder – are making it easier for down-ballot candidates to run their campaigns. “I’m a big fan of the work she’s done,” he said in an interview.

Harrison said he believes the criticism of Wallace-Jones has been unfair. “Even on the Democratic side, sometimes being a woman and a woman of color, you get some certain biases.”

During Wallace-Jones’ tenure, ActBlue’s spending has soared, with operating expenses so far this cycle topping $93 million, far exceeding the roughly $67 million spent during the entire midterm cycle in 2022, Federal Election Commission records show.

Legal bills have jumped, as a battery of lawyers has been deployed to defend the organization and Wallace-Jones personally. ActBlue has spent more than $17 million on “legal consulting” in a 17-month period between January 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026, according to FEC records.

“We are committed to standing up for our rights, and the rights of all Americans who disagree with this administration,” Wallace-Jones said of the rising the legal expenses. “Part of fighting is retaining the best legal minds to help defend our work.”

Her critics have questioned some of her moves, such as spending $250,000 to help underwrite a conference of the Democratic Attorneys General Association. It raised eyebrows, given the role that state prosecutors have played in investigating fundraising platforms. The partnership with the attorneys general group was approved by ActBlue’s board, spokesperson Roberts LaBoo said.

The warnings from Covington & Burling – and whether ActBlue mischaracterized its vetting of potential foreign contributions in the 2023 letter to Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil – now sit at the center of the a renewed Republican probe into the organization that was first launched in October 2023.

That probe has since expanded to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees as well, with the trio of GOP-led committees recently demanding access to internal documents and communications relating to potential misconduct. Republicans have threatened repercussions if they are not turned over to lawmakers.

“The investigation now is about ActBlue misleading Congress,” Steil told CNN.

ActBlue’s current outside legal firm says that the group’s officials have worked in good faith to answer lawmakers’ questions and provide documents, along with a log of material they say is covered by attorney-client privilege.

The three committees subpoenaed five former ActBlue employees who invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination 146 times or cited attorney-client privilege in declining to answer questions. Wallace-Jones similarly followed suit at a public hearing in June before Congress, repeatedly declining to respond to inquiries, including whether she lied to Congress.

In a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6lLlIUjUu4 posted the same day she appeared on Capitol Hill, Wallace-Jones defended the platform and said invoking the Fifth is “not an admission or even an insinuation of guilt.”

“It is the only reasonable response to a highly partisan proceeding that is about harassing its largest political opponent’s fundraising platform,” she added.

Wallace-Jones and her attorneys argue that Hill Republicans are working to advance a Department of Justice investigation of the platform that Trump first demanded last year, rather than engaging in legitimate congressional oversight.

Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, argue that Republicans are waging a one-sided partisan probe, pointing to the GOP’s failure to scrutinize WinRed, a fundraising platform launched in 2019 as the Republicans’ answer to blockbuster fundraising on ActBlue.

A CNN investigation into allegations of deceptive fundraising practices targeting older donors found that from January 2022 through June 2024 WinRed had nearly seven times more complaints filed against it with the Federal Trade Commission than ActBlue had.

“It’s outrageous but hardly surprising that this Republican majority has flat-out refused to investigate critical, credible reports of fraud, abuse and corruption on the Republican fundraising platform WinRed,” Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the Committee on House Administration, said at the panel’s June hearing with Wallace-Jones.

Asked about that critique, Steil told CNN: “There’s no accusation to my knowledge that WinRed ever misled or lied to Congress.”

WinRed did not respond to CNN’s inquiries.

ActBlue remains central to Democratic politics

As part of his order to investigate ActBlue, Trump also directed the attorney general to issue a report on its findings to the White House. It was due in October 2025, but nothing has been made public to date. Earlier this year while still the acting Justice Department head, Attorney General Todd Blanche indicated it remained a priority for the agency.

The Justice Department declined to provide any details about status of the probe to CNN, citing a policy against discussing “ongoing” investigations.

ActBlue scored a legal victory in June when a federal judge in Boston, where ActBlue is based, halted a lawsuit against the platform brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for the US Senate.

Through it all, ActBlue has remained the primary fundraising engine for Democrats.

It recently announced raising $586 million during the second quarter of 2026 for Democratic causes, candidates and organizations. ActBlue officials said that marked the strongest fundraising period in a non-presidential election season in its 22-year history.

But the alarm over potential threats to ActBlue has prompted some candidates to begin putting in place backup fundraising systems should the platform come under a debilitating attack from the Trump administration before November’s election.

One Democratic House candidate has had donors ask about other donating platforms because the contributors are nervous about ActBlue.

The party strategist encouraging candidates to pursue backup fundraising tools is confident Democrats can adapt should ActBlue become seriously endangered.

“The type of people who give to our campaigns are well informed,” the person said. “I think you’d have to say, “Listen, Republicans have taken down ActBlue, and so I’m deeply sorry, but you’re going to need to put your credit card back in.’”

“They’ll do it,” the person added. “It’s a little more friction, but it’ll happen.”

美媒：美军在演练中被乌军无人机部队击败

2026年8月13日 17:51 / 联合早报

美国率先在战争中使用远程无人机，五角大楼近年来也耗资数十亿美元采购新无人机和反无人机技术，并组建专门部队来操作。然而，今年在中东战场，美军难以抵御伊朗远程无人机，为此蒙受人员伤亡、军机被击毁。图为美国陆军士兵正在检查一架无人机系统。 （路透社）

（纽约/华盛顿综合电）《华尔街日报》报道，美国陆军部队今年在德国的一场军事演习中与乌克兰无人机操作员正面对抗，结果美军落败。

知情人士透露，在这场名为“联合决心”的演习中，来自得克萨斯州胡德堡基地、在德国轮驻的美军装甲旅被乌军无人机部队轻易发现并击溃。

虽然美国多年来一直将无人作战系统作为现代战争的重要组成部分，但这场演习以及美国今年在伊朗遭受的人员伤亡，都暴露出美军在面对无人机时的脆弱性。

美国率先在战争中使用远程无人机，五角大楼近年来也耗资数十亿美元采购新无人机和反无人机技术，并组建专门部队来操作。然而，今年在中东战场，美军难以抵御伊朗远程无人机，为此蒙受人员伤亡、军机被击毁。

美国智库战略与国际研究中心学者科恩指出，近期战场经验显示，各类型无人机已成为现代战争不可或缺的装备，美军必须掌控无人机作战系统，但截至目前美军还未做到这点。

五角大楼拟在美国本土部署反无人机系统

面对日益增加的无人机威胁，五角大楼正加速在美国关键设施周围部署高功率激光和其他反无人机系统。五角大楼专项工作组负责人巴格纳蒂星期三（8月12日）说，国防部将在数日内与国土安全部和联邦航空管理局（FAA）签署协议，以便使用新技术在美国机场和其他设施上空击落无人机。

今年早些时候，得州埃尔帕索发生的一起事件凸显了各部门有必要加强协调。当时，海关与边境保护局使用了一台军方借出的反无人机激光器，但未充分知会FAA，以致FAA被迫关闭附近机场周围的空域。

美军太平洋基地衰败状态引发担忧

五角大楼助理监察长斯通8月6日发布通报警告，美国在太平洋地区的军事设施正处于令人担忧的衰败状态，引发外界对这些遏制中国关键基地的担忧。

监察人员对美国在太平洋地区11处军事设施进行检查，发现建筑物出现腐蚀和破洞、天花板坍塌，以及存在霉菌和石棉等问题。这些问题不仅影响到对美国军队战备至关重要的基础设施，也波及供驻军及其家属使用的设施。

通报中指出，太平洋司令部辖区内还存在其他关键基础设施方面的问题，包括为军事任务提供支持的供水和住房设施。虽然这并不直接影响到军队的作战能力，但对于支持驻军来说至关重要。

不具名的五角大楼官员说，许多设施建于上世纪70年代，加上地震、海啸等环境因素，以及人员和资金不足，导致设施严重退化。

美媒：美军在演练中被乌军无人机部队击败

2026年8月13日 17:51 / 联合早报

美国率先在战争中使用远程无人机，五角大楼近年来也耗资数十亿美元采购新无人机和反无人机技术，并组建专门部队来操作。然而，今年在中东战场，美军难以抵御伊朗远程无人机，为此蒙受人员伤亡、军机被击毁。图为美国陆军士兵正在检查一架无人机系统。 （路透社）

（纽约/华盛顿综合电）《华尔街日报》报道，美国陆军部队今年在德国的一场军事演习中与乌克兰无人机操作员正面对抗，结果美军落败。

知情人士透露，在这场名为“联合决心”的演习中，来自得克萨斯州胡德堡基地、在德国轮驻的美军装甲旅被乌军无人机部队轻易发现并击溃。

虽然美国多年来一直将无人作战系统作为现代战争的重要组成部分，但这场演习以及美国今年在伊朗遭受的人员伤亡，都暴露出美军在面对无人机时的脆弱性。

美国率先在战争中使用远程无人机，五角大楼近年来也耗资数十亿美元采购新无人机和反无人机技术，并组建专门部队来操作。然而，今年在中东战场，美军难以抵御伊朗远程无人机，为此蒙受人员伤亡、军机被击毁。

美国智库战略与国际研究中心学者科恩指出，近期战场经验显示，各类型无人机已成为现代战争不可或缺的装备，美军必须掌控无人机作战系统，但截至目前美军还未做到这点。

五角大楼拟在美国本土部署反无人机系统

面对日益增加的无人机威胁，五角大楼正加速在美国关键设施周围部署高功率激光和其他反无人机系统。五角大楼专项工作组负责人巴格纳蒂星期三（8月12日）说，国防部将在数日内与国土安全部和联邦航空管理局（FAA）签署协议，以便使用新技术在美国机场和其他设施上空击落无人机。

今年早些时候，得州埃尔帕索发生的一起事件凸显了各部门有必要加强协调。当时，海关与边境保护局使用了一台军方借出的反无人机激光器，但未充分知会FAA，以致FAA被迫关闭附近机场周围的空域。

美军太平洋基地衰败状态引发担忧

五角大楼助理监察长斯通8月6日发布通报警告，美国在太平洋地区的军事设施正处于令人担忧的衰败状态，引发外界对这些遏制中国关键基地的担忧。

监察人员对美国在太平洋地区11处军事设施进行检查，发现建筑物出现腐蚀和破洞、天花板坍塌，以及存在霉菌和石棉等问题。这些问题不仅影响到对美国军队战备至关重要的基础设施，也波及供驻军及其家属使用的设施。

通报中指出，太平洋司令部辖区内还存在其他关键基础设施方面的问题，包括为军事任务提供支持的供水和住房设施。虽然这并不直接影响到军队的作战能力，但对于支持驻军来说至关重要。

不具名的五角大楼官员说，许多设施建于上世纪70年代，加上地震、海啸等环境因素，以及人员和资金不足，导致设施严重退化。

Trump promised a sex-trafficking crackdown. His Justice Department hasn’t delivered

2026-08-13T10:03:21.179Z / Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The Trump administration has repeatedly said the fight against sex trafficking is one of its top priorities.

But investigations have stalled and prosecutions declined in the past six months because of staffing shortages, funding cuts, immigration enforcement and growing distrust of the government among victims, according to Reuters interviews with 25 former prosecutors, current agents and victims’ advocates, and a review of federal court records.

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

“You can’t say something is a priority and then not provide the resources to ​make that happen,” said Jacqueline Kelley, a former federal prosecutor in New York who led the prosecution of rapper and actor Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was accused of sex trafficking and convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution.

Federal sex-trafficking charges have dropped this year to the slowest pace since 2010. The ‌Justice Department charged 73 people through June, about 22% lower than the number of people charged during the first half of the past three years, court records show.

Charges for related crimes also declined. The DOJ charged 1,230 people child pornography violations through June, 3% less than average for the same months over the past three years. It charged 318 people with violating the Mann Act, which targets interstate prostitution, 18% less than average.

These drops reflect a larger shift in federal law enforcement priorities under President Donald Trump, who has slashed agency budgets and mandated a focus on deportations. People charged with crimes unrelated to immigration – everything from tax evasion to drug trafficking – dropped 7% through June to about 22,000, according to the court records.

The findings come just as Congress has confirmed Trump nominee Todd Blanche as Attorney General in a 50-to-49 vote with two Republicans defecting. ​His candidacy faced a bipartisan backlash over the handling of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a transfer to a minimum-security prison granted to his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, shortly after Blanche personally interviewed her.

Blanche recently told Congress combating human trafficking “remains a Department priority given the gravity of the harm it causes.” The administration also ​appointed a new national coordinator for child exploitation and human trafficking, Alessandra Serano, a career prosecutor.

Serano said in statements to Reuters that the department was committed to combating sex trafficking. She said the drop in prosecutions might have resulted from prosecutors and investigators spending time ⁠litigating a large number of ongoing cases that have pulled those officials away from opening new ones.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Katherine Currie declined to comment on the Reuters review of sex-trafficking cases. She said in a statement that the department is committed to both immigration and sex-crimes enforcement and touted its “unwavering dedication to dismantle human-trafficking networks.”

AGENTS PULLED AWAY, SEASONED PROSECUTORS GONE

Sex-trafficking ​cases are among the toughest to investigate and prosecute, requiring the untangling of psychological abuse, tracking illicit finances and securing the trust of traumatized victims.

Dozens of veterans with experience prosecuting sex-trafficking cases have recently left the department, according to seven former prosecutors who have worked such cases. During part of last year, the majority of all HSI agents were assigned to immigration, according to ​current agents and previous Reuters reporting.

In some U.S. attorney’s offices, the shortage is so acute that the remaining agents working sex-trafficking cases can’t find prosecutors to pursue their cases, agents and former prosecutors say.

Serano said attrition is normal in these jobs because working sex-trafficking cases “takes a toll on people more than other types of cases,” though the recently departed prosecutors said more people had left than is typical. Serano added that the department is actively hiring to fill these roles.

To measure the department’s sex-crimes enforcement effort, Reuters obtained the dockets of every publicly-filed federal criminal case over the past two decades from Westlaw, a Thomson Reuters legal research service. In some cases, Reuters used artificial intelligence to help classify charges. A review of a random set of records showed its assessments to be 98% accurate.

The Justice Department said its own data showed ​a smaller decrease, but it declined to explain how it reached those conclusions or to provide case numbers correlating to the prosecutions it counted. Reuters could not replicate the DOJ’s results using a public version of its database.

The data examined by Reuters, from court records, showed a long-term trend of declining sex-trafficking cases over the past decade. Sources attributed the trend in ​part to the Justice Department’s increased focus on more time-consuming cases against higher-profile offenders.

But under Trump, such prosecutions have been hampered by the focus on immigration, the departure of agents and prosecutors and cuts to grants to groups supporting sex-trafficking victims. One veteran federal agent, speaking on condition of anonymity, said sex-trafficking has not been a priority since Trump took office and launched his mass-deportations campaign. With ‌fewer agents dedicated to ⁠sex-trafficking, many active investigations are essentially frozen and new files are rarely opened, seven former prosecutors and three agents told Reuters.

“The administration is throwing sand in the gears in 10,000 different ways,” said Martina Vandenburg, president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center, whose organization worked with partners to file a petition for the release of a cooperating trafficking victim from detention.

One former prosecutor in the southern United States said her office’s sex-trafficking investigations were crippled when several Homeland Security Investigations agents working them were reassigned to other priorities, including immigration raids. In other jurisdictions, people familiar with federal enforcement operations said supervisors were forced to bargain for the few remaining agents available for sex-trafficking probes.

When agents get reassigned, sometimes to new cities, it disrupts fragile relationships with sex-trafficking victims and witnesses, who often don’t have phones or stable housing. That means cases can fall apart, said one federal agent.

One trafficking survivor in New England saw her case languish after agents said they’d been diverted to immigration enforcement, according to a staffer at a local advocacy organization who had been working with the survivor.

Such reassignments send the message to victims that their ​cases and their safety are not a priority, said the advocate, who spoke on condition ​of anonymity to ensure confidentiality for the sex-trafficking survivor the advocate had been ⁠helping. The survivor was subsequently forced back into sex work but no longer wants to involve federal authorities, the advocate said.

An FBI spokesperson said agents who had been shifted to immigration had been working on areas including sex-trafficking but that the transfers didn’t change their responsibility to investigate these crimes. The official did not comment on whether the transfers contributed to the decline in sex-trafficking prosecutions.

GRANTS DISAPPEAR, TRUST ERODES

As personnel have vanished, so has the financial safety net designed to keep victims stable enough to testify.

The Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs typically distributes ​roughly $90 million annually in grants to support trafficking victims. These funds flow to nonprofit organizations providing emergency housing, food and mental health counseling.

But grantees said some of these grants have been delayed or frozen in Trump’s efforts to cut federal spending. Associate Attorney ​General Stanley Woodward said in a statement that most ⁠grants from last year have been awarded, without providing figures, and the department is reviewing the remaining applications to ensure they align with administration priorities.

Alan Smyth, the executive director of Los Angeles-based Saving Innocence, saw two federal grants totaling $700,000 delayed for nearly a year. While the organization survived, other groups told Reuters they have been forced to end some programs or stop providing services because of lost grants.

Historically, federal prosecutors have offered so-called T-visas, granting legal immigration status to trafficking victims as an incentive to cooperate with law enforcement.

The administration approved 354 T-visas in the first six months of the current fiscal year that ends in September – or about half the typical pace over the past decade, according to Department of Homeland Security data. More than 71,000 T visa applications are pending.

Two former prosecutors ⁠told Reuters their respective ​U.S. Attorney’s offices halted the practice of supporting T-visa applications. Serano said prosecutors and paralegals across the country still work with DHS to verify victims’ cooperation but that DHS ultimately decides on their visa applications.

Several immigration attorneys ​also said that clients actively cooperating on sex-trafficking probes had been detained by immigration authorities, halting criminal investigations. In Michigan last year, a Chinese woman who had been sex-trafficked in California was detained by ICE despite having a T-visa application pending since 2022, said her attorney, Laura Berger.

“If I can’t guarantee a victim won’t be locked up, how can I ethically tell them to cooperate with federal agents?” Berger asked.

The loss of that trust, as well ​as staffing, funding and expertise, could have long-lasting consequences, said Jean Bruggeman, co-executive director of the anti-trafficking organization Freedom Network USA.

“It’s hitting that tipping point where important pillars are starting to fall, which will bring down the entire anti-trafficking structure,” she said. “Rebuilding it could take years.”

Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Kristina Cooke and Brad Heath; editing by Michael Learmonth, Richard Valdmanis and Brian Theveno