California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a pair of bills Monday night rolling back parts of a landmark environmental law to remove barriers to tackling the state’s housing shortage.
The California legislature with bipartisan support voted last week to exempt certain projects, such as some high-density housing plans, from onerous California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reviews and approvals. Newsom pushed the legislation forward, threatening to hold up the state’s budget unless the CEQA rollbacks hit his desk, as well.
“Today’s bill is a game changer, which will be felt for generations to come,” Newsom said in a <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/06/30/governor-newsom-signs-into-law-groundbreaking-reforms-to-build-more-housing-affordability/">statement</a> referring to the CEQA overhaul.
Newsom held a press conference Monday evening touting the bills as necessary to rescue the reputation of California’s government and prove that the state is capable of solving pressing problems.
“If we can’t address this issue, we’re going to lose trust, and that’s just the truth,” said Newsom, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/us/california-environment-newsom-ceqa.html">The New York Times</a>. “And so this is so much bigger in many ways than the issue itself. It is about the reputation of not just Sacramento and the legislative leadership and executive leadership, but the reputation of the state of California.”
Newsom has promised to address California’s burgeoning housing shortage since his first campaign for governor in 2018. Now well into his second term and close to being term-limited out of office, Newsom pushed the CEQA reforms forward as he is widely seen as a potential Democratic contender for president in 2028.
CEQA was originally signed into law in 1970 by then-Governor Ronald Reagan. The law at the time it was enacted was thought to only apply to government projects, but a court decision two years later broadened the law&#8217;s application to a host of development projects.
Since then, critics have said that the law’s strict review and approval process, believed to be the toughest in the United States, has been <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook-pm/2025/07/01/ceqa-bill-signed-00436315">abused</a> by environmental activists, labor unions, California residents, and others to extract concessions in exchange for politically sensitive projects or to override construction proposals unpopular with a small group.
Environmental groups rallied against the CEQA reforms. Dozens of groups partnered together to urge lawmakers to reject the bills.
“This bill is the worst anti-environmental bill in California in recent memory,” the groups wrote in a joint <a href="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/79/7e/ba35e6994248bac9c0237763d82a/ab-sb-131-oppose-ceqa-budget-bill-5pm-6-27-25.pdf">letter</a>. “It represents an unprecedented rollback to California’s fundamental environmental and community protections at a time in which the people of California grapple with unprecedented federal attacks to their lives and livelihoods.”

Gavin Newsom

California Kills Environmental Reg Strangling Home Construction

California

Economy

Environment

U.S.

This week, the Republican-controlled Senate aims to dismantle the former Biden administration&#8217;s move giving California room to implement a green agenda for cars across the country, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) announced on Tuesday.
During <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4856qr2PN0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarks</a> on the Senate floor, Thune said the upper chamber will take up Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions to overturn Clean Air Act preemption waivers the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted to California, which <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/12/18/epa-california-electric-vehicles-waiver" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allowed</a> it to proceed with a plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
The waivers allowed California &#8220;to dictate emissions standards for the whole country – effectively imposing a nationwide electric vehicle mandate,&#8221; said Thune, who called the state&#8217;s rules an &#8220;improper expansion of a limited Clean Air Act authority and would endanger consumers, our economy, and our nation’s energy supply.&#8221;
A key conflict is whether the CRA, which allows bypassing a filibuster to undo regulations, applies to the waivers. Both the Senate <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5233436-senate-parliamentarian-says-lawmakers-cant-overturn-california-car-rules-but-republicans-may-try-anyway/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">parliamentarian</a> and Government Accountability Office (<a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/b-337179" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GAO</a>) have assessed the waivers are not rules that qualify.
But the Senate is poised to press forward, as Thune contended the EPA submitted the waivers as rules. He also noted the GOP-led House already <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025114?Date=05%2F01%2F2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> to pass a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval with the support of 35 Democrats, and did so &#8220;without objection from the House parliamentarian.&#8221;
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), the top Democrat for the Committee on Rules and Administration and a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, declared in a <a href="https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-places-holds-on-epa-nominees-until-republicans-cease-efforts-to-abuse-the-cra-to-revoke-californias-clean-air-act-waivers/#:~:text=But%20if%20my%20Republican%20colleagues,the%20CRA%2C%E2%80%9D%20added%20Senator%20Padilla" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> that he was placing a hold on EPA nominees until Republicans back off and warned of future consequences if the GOP refuses to relent.
“None of these actions are rules, which is why they’ve never been submitted to Congress as rules,&#8221; Padilla said. &#8220;But if my Republican colleagues open this door and overturn the Parliamentarian’s wise safeguards on this type of abuse, there would be no practical limit, and the Senate could be forced to vote repeatedly on such matters that are clearly not ‘rules’ notwithstanding the plain language of the CRA.&#8221;
Thune suggested there will soon be repercussions for GAO, which <a href="https://www.gao.gov/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bills</a> itself as being an independent and non-partisan agency that &#8220;works for&#8221; Congress, because of the stance it took on the CRA in the California waiver debate.
&#8220;It is true that we are facing something of a novel situation,&#8221; Thune said. &#8220;Because for the first time ever, the Government Accountability Office has decided to insert itself into the process and affirmatively declare that an agency rule submitted to Congress as a rule is not a rule. It’s an extraordinary deviation from precedent for an agency that should be defending Congress’ power instead of constraining it.&#8221;
He added: &#8220;And frankly &#8230; I think we need to act to ensure that this intrusion into the Congressional Review Act process doesn’t become a habit, and that the Senate doesn’t end up transferring its decision-making power on CRA resolutions to the Government Accountability Office. That’s why this week I intend to bring the question of GAO’s unprecedented interference to the floor.&#8221;
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune

Senate Gears Up To Stop California’s 2035 Gas Vehicle Sales Ban

Cars

Congress

Electric cars

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

John Thune

Politics

U.S. Senate

Today is Earth Day, a good time to remember that the guy who claimed to have founded this &#8220;peace and love&#8221; environmental celebration was a convicted murderer.
Ira Einhorn was a tie-dye-wearing, long-bearded hippie &#8220;guru&#8221; in Philadelphia who originally <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna42711922#.WPudZ4jytPY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">became</a> known for his environmental activism in the 1960s and &#8217;70s.
Today, he&#8217;s better known for killing his girlfriend and stuffing her body in a trunk.
A famous <a href="https://time.com/5242190/earth-day-founder/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">photo</a> shows Einhorn flashing a peace sign on stage at the first Earth Day in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970, and he later claimed that Earth Day was his idea.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Just your annual reminder that one of the original <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EarthDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EarthDay</a> leaders murdered and composted his girlfriend.
(The Left and the media—but I repeat myself—have tried to distance the festival from Ira Einhorn, but the photos and history books don&#8217;t lie.) <a href="https://t.co/PLciuHG6YW">pic.twitter.com/PLciuHG6YW</a>
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1253000708749582337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
He became popular with ecological groups during the counterculture movement of the &#8217;60s and protested the Vietnam War. He was a teacher at Temple University, but his contract was not renewed after he <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YEVIDQAAQBAJ&amp;q=temple#v=snippet&amp;q=temple&amp;f=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he offered students &#8220;straight answers about the delights and dangers&#8221; of cannabis and LSD. Their parents were definitely thrilled.
<div id="attachment_910865" style="width: 313px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910865" class=" wp-image-910865" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1603199-229x300.jpg" alt="" width="303" height="397" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1603199-229x300.jpg 229w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1603199-439x576.jpg 439w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1603199-768x1007.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1603199.jpg 781w" sizes="(max-width: 303px) 100vw, 303px" />Ira Einhorn (Getty Images)</div>
He nicknamed himself &#8220;Unicorn&#8221; because his last name translates to &#8220;one horn.&#8221; Later, he became known as the &#8220;Unicorn Killer.&#8221;
In 1977, Einhorn&#8217;s girlfriend of five years, Holly Maddux, broke up with him and moved to New York City. In September, she returned to their Philadelphia apartment to get her belongings, which Einhorn had allegedly threatened to throw out on the street. She was never seen again.
<div id="attachment_910863" style="width: 308px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910863" class=" wp-image-910863" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1479906-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="298" height="397" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1479906-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1479906-433x576.jpg 433w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1479906.jpg 769w" sizes="(max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px" />Holly Maddux (Getty Images)</div>
It was a year and a half later, when a neighbor <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna42711922#.WPudZ4jytPY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complained</a> about a reddish-brown, stinking liquid leaking from the ceiling right below Einhorn&#8217;s bedroom closet that police showed up and searched his apartment.
They found Maddux&#8217;s mummified, somewhat decomposed body stuffed in a trunk along with Styrofoam, air fresheners, and newspapers.
&#8220;It looks like we found Holly,&#8221; a cop <a href="https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?rev_t=20110224092300&amp;url=http%3A%2Fwww.time.com%2Ftime%2Fnation%2Farticle%2F0%2C8599%2C168382%2C00.html#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&amp;tab=url" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> to Einhorn.
&#8220;You found what you found,&#8221; he allegedly replied.
When police questioned Einhorn about his girlfriend&#8217;s disappearance, he claimed that in true hippie fashion, she had gone out to the neighborhood co-op to buy some tofu and sprouts and never returned.
Making matters even more darkly comical, his new girlfriend <a href="https://www.anothergaze.com/cecelia-condits-body-of-becoming-women-and-the-dark-forest-of-dreams/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> could not smell the body in his apartment thanks to a medication she was taking that affected her sense of smell.
Days before his murder trial was to begin in 1981, Einhorn fled the country and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna42711922#.WPudZ4jytPY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lived</a> in Europe for 20 years before he was finally extradited back to the United States.
<div id="attachment_910869" style="width: 378px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910869" class=" wp-image-910869" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-542412654-1-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="368" height="245" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-542412654-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-542412654-1-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-542412654-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-542412654-1.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 368px) 100vw, 368px" />Ira Einhorn (KLEIN STEPHANE/Sygma via Getty Images)</div>
When the murder case began, Earth Day organizers distanced themselves from Einhorn.
Two organizers of Philadelphia’s first Earth Day wrote to Time Magazine to complain about the idea that Einhorn had come up with the event, saying he was not even a member of the committee that organized it.
&#8220;The photo you ran was taken during a one-hour period when Einhorn literally occupied the podium, refusing to get off the stage and delaying Senator Edmund Muskie’s keynote speech,&#8221; the organizers <a href="https://time.com/vault/issue/1997-11-03/page/20/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Time. &#8220;It was an unsuccessful attempt — at least at that time — to seize 15 minutes of fame. Now a notorious murder, flight, trial in absentia and foreign capture are giving Einhorn the national media attention he so desperately craved.&#8221;
Einhorn was eventually extradited from France and took the stand in his own defense, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100831230541/http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/10/18/einhorn/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claiming</a> his girlfriend had been murdered by CIA agents who framed him — we&#8217;re dealing with an extremely stable hippie here, folks.
He was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He died in prison in April 2020 at age 79.
Happy Earth Day!

(FILE PHOTO)  Ira Einhorn Found Guilty Of Murder

Guy Who Claimed To Invent Earth Day Was A Hippie Who Murdered His Girlfriend

Crime

Earth Day

Environmentalism

It&#8217;s Earth Day, and the White House is trying to fix a toxic and smelly environmental issue on the nation&#8217;s southern border.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that the Trump administration is urging the Mexican government to do more to stop sewage from flowing across the border and into the United States. She highlighted President Donald Trump&#8217;s desire to &#8220;do what&#8217;s right&#8221; for the environment.
During Tuesday&#8217;s press briefing, Leavitt responded to a question from Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan and discussed the work of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who is in San Diego pushing for the Mexican government to stop the flow of sewage into the United States.
&#8220;Administrator Zeldin met with his Mexican counterpart to discuss steps Mexico needs to take to ensure the water entering the United States is clean and safe, and he&#8217;s holding a press conference in San Diego today with elected officials and local stakeholders on the Tijuana River sewage crisis,&#8221; Leavitt said. &#8220;I would also add from the president himself, he has always maintained he wants America to have the cleanest air and the cleanest water, and we want to do what&#8217;s right for our environment and for our earth.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
What does the White House have planned for Earth Day? <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> tells <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MaryMargOlohan</a>:
&quot;[President Trump] has always maintained he wants America to have the cleanest air and the cleanest water, and we want to do what&#39;s right for our environment and for our earth.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/nrNinIXu8A">pic.twitter.com/nrNinIXu8A</a>
&mdash; Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1914738540858265921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Raw sewage from Mexico has traveled into the United States through the Tijuana River Watershed &#8220;for decades,&#8221; according to Zeldin, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/us-news/epas-zeldin-demands-end-to-mexican-sewage-flooding-across-border/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The issue has raised concerns about &#8220;beach closures, degradation of the Tijuana River Valley, and concerns of public health, air quality,&#8221; Zeldin added. Trump&#8217;s EPA administrator met with Mexican Environmental Secretary Alicia Bárcena to discuss the crisis.
Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/work-starts-to-stop-sewage-flows-into-california-from-mexico/2020/09/02/b8675f3e-ed86-11ea-bd08-1b10132b458f_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed</a> to resolve the Tijuana sewage issue during his first administration, completing a $10.6 million project to prevent millions of gallons of sewage from entering the Tijuana River. Zeldin said on Monday that the crisis &#8220;needs to end.&#8221;
“[T]here’s nowhere more important for me to be tomorrow than on the border in California dealing with this very important public health and environmental crisis,” he added.

Karoline Leavitt

Leavitt Highlights Big Environmental Issue For Trump Admin On Earth Day

Donald Trump

Lee Zeldin

Mexico

Social Issues

Southern Border

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cut hundreds of grants totaling $1.7 billion in the latest cuts to align spending with President Donald Trump’s agenda.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-lee-zeldin-cancels-400-grants-4th-round-cuts-doge-saving-americans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> the results of the fourth round of cuts identified with help from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project on Monday. The agency said it has cut around $2 billion since Trump took office in January.
“Working hand-in-hand with DOGE to rein in wasteful federal spending, EPA has saved more than $2 billion in taxpayer money,” Zeldin said in a statement. “It is our commitment at EPA to be exceptional stewards of tax dollars.”
The agency is working to claw back $20 billion in funds that the Biden administration doled out under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The funds were turned over to Citibank in the months leading up to the election and held under the names of eight nonprofits. Those nonprofits intended to disperse the funds to other groups and programs.
Citibank has frozen the funds while the Department of Justice probes the issue. Zeldin has said he wants the money returned to the federal government.
Zeldin has called the funds “gold bars” that were shoveled out of the agency at the last minute. Last month, the EPA head <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-prosecutor-steps-down-after-refusing-criminal-probe-into-20b-in-biden-climate-spending" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that $20 billion had been directed to go to a group of “pass throughs” that would then funnel the money to other pass throughs with the effect of funding friends and allies of the Biden administration.
$2 billion of the $20 billion was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/epa-doge-cut-nearly-70m-in-biden-era-grants-to-green-groups" target="_blank" rel="noopener">directed</a> toward a group called Power Forward Communities, a green group linked to Democrat Stacey Abrams. Zeldin suggested last month that the example represented a serious case of waste and fraud that the Trump administration is working to rectify.
“I made a commitment to members of Congress and to the American people to be a good steward of tax dollars and I’ve wasted no time in keeping my word. When we learned about the Biden Administration’s scheme to quickly park $20 billion outside the agency, we suspected that some organizations were created out of thin air just to take advantage of this,” Zeldin said in a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/icymi-administrator-lee-zeldin-finds-gold-bars-epa-stacey-abrams-connected-group-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>.
“As we continue to learn more about where some of this money went, it is even more apparent how far-reaching and widely accepted this waste and abuse has been. It’s extremely concerning that an organization that reported just $100 in revenue in 2023, was chosen to receive $2 billion. That’s 20 million times the organization’s reported revenue,” he said.

EPA Ends Hundreds Of Grants Totaling $1.7 Billion In Latest DOGE Cuts

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

California Democrat activist Joseph Sanberg, a multimillionaire who fashioned himself an anti-poverty crusader, was arrested Monday on suspicion that he conspired to defraud investors in his &#8220;green&#8221; finance company, Aspiration.
&#8220;Joseph Neal Sanberg, 45, of Orange, the co-founder and largest shareholder of the financial and sustainability services company Aspiration Partners, Inc., was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint alleging that he conspired to defraud two investor funds of at least $145 million,&#8221; Joseph McNally, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/joseph-sanberg-co-founder-aspiration-partners-arrested-conspiring-defraud-investment">said</a> in a statement.
Aspiration Inc. was backed by actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr. The <a href="https://www.aspiration.com/">“climate-friendly banking”</a> platform courted users through Democrat messaging, telling them that, unlike with traditional Wall Street firms, with Aspiration they could “do good” and “do well” because “clean rich is the new filthy rich.”
But a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.955039/gov.uscourts.cacd.955039.26.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plea agreement</a> signed by Aspiration board member Ibrahim AlHusseini, unsealed Monday, said that AlHusseini falsified financial statements &#8220;at Sanberg’s direction and with Sanberg’s assistance,&#8221; including one that claimed an account &#8220;held more than $199 million&#8221; when it actually &#8220;held a total of approximately $2,693.63.&#8221;
&#8220;Sanberg obtained $145 million in loans secured by AlHusseini, who Sanberg knew did not have sufficient financial assets to cover those loans if Sanberg defaulted. Sanberg hid this fact from investors, then defaulted on the loans, which resulted in at least $145 million in losses,&#8221; the Justice Department said.
Sanberg reportedly mulled <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-joe-sanberg-presidential-run-20190528-story.html">running for president</a> last year, and his website bills him as a &#8220;leader nationwide and in California on economic and social justice.&#8221; His <a href="https://www.joesanberg.com/advocacy/">platform</a> included &#8220;taxing the ultra wealthy&#8221; and &#8220;passing a Green New Deal.&#8221;
Sanberg, whose wealth came in a large part from an early investment in meal delivery company Blue Apron, also led the charge to raise the minimum wage to $18 in California, pouring $10 million into a ballot initiative that was narrowly voted down last year. Top Democrats have credited him for the successful initiative to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit in the state — a move that extended one of the most fraud-ridden programs in government to illegal immigrants.
AlHusseini donated more than $300,000 to Democrats, was on the board of anti-Israel group CodePink, and was cited by the environmentalist Sierra Club <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/yes-reversing-climate-crisis-can-be-profitable" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as proof</a> that “reversing the climate crisis can be profitable.”
The implosion of Aspiration, once the poster child for &#8220;green&#8221; finance, also raises questions about the billions of dollars the Biden administration sent to green groups, such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stacey-abrams-linked-group-received-2b-from-biden-admin-slush-fund-doge-finds">$2 billion</a> to a nonprofit connected to Stacy Abrams that previously had only $100.
The criminal complaint against Sanberg focuses on the same $145 million deal for which AlHusseini was arrested in October.  Investors agreed to lend Sanberg money because it was collateralized with Aspiration shares that AlHusseini agreed to buy from them in the event of a default. Sanberg never paid back the loan, and AlHusseini refused to buy the shares. The investors had relied on bank statements showing AlHusseini had plenty of money to buy the shares, but the FBI said in the AlHusseini complaint that those statements were fake. The complaint included a list comparing 24 allegedly fake bank statements to real ones.
<div id="attachment_881341" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-881341" class="size-large wp-image-881341" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-490x576.png" alt="" width="490" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-490x576.png 490w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-255x300.png 255w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-768x903.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi.png 1240w" sizes="(max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px" />AlHusseini FBI complaint</div>
AlHusseini acknowledged in his plea agreement that the statements were fake, and said Sanberg put him up to it.  &#8220;At Sanberg’s direction, defendant made untrue statements,&#8221; it said. &#8220;Defendant and Sanberg knew that the falsified statements inflated the value of the assets in defendant’s accounts by tens of millions of dollars.&#8221;
AlHusseini was paid $12 million for agreeing to backstop the loan, some of which Sanberg wired to Saudi Arabia, according to the FBI complaint against AlHusseini.
The invoices&#8217; apparent falsity emerged through a civil lawsuit after the lenders sued Sanberg and AlHusseini in New York state court. That court issued a $78 million judgement against AlHusseini, and also a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25549820-652063-2023-clover-private-credit-v-clover-private-credit-decision-order-on-199/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$209 million</a> judgement against Sanberg.
On October 7, AlHusseini was arrested at the airport and held in jail as a flight risk — the civil lawsuit said he transferred $300 million to his native Saudi Arabia to avoid the judgment — before CodePink founder Jodie Evans and other liberal bigwigs put up their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-green-investor-climate-change-activist-charged-with-securities-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homes as bail</a> in December. On January 10, the New York judge held him in contempt of court for spending money on luxuries and donations to Democrat politicians instead of paying his debt.
The Daily Wire reported that criminal complaint against AlHusseini was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/career-doj-prosecutor-dismissed-fraud-case-against-dem-megadonor-hours-before-trump-took-office">dropped</a> on January 21. A lawyer hired by AlHusseini, John Lambert, told The Daily Wire that AlHusseini&#8217;s “record has been dismissed pursuant to court order and all records related thereto have been destroyed.”
But McNally, the prosecutor, said in his statement that the complaint against AlHusseini was dismissed &#8220;to facilitate his cooperation in the prosecution of others, including Sanberg,&#8221; and that AlHusseini &#8220;pleaded guilty today to an information charging him with wire fraud for falsifying documents and information to assist Sanberg.&#8221;
AlHusseini had already signed a plea agreement at the time Lambert made that statement, which admits to his guilt and that his victim &#8220;had losses of approximately $145 million, and defendant personally received approximately $12.3 million.&#8221;
Court <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.955039/gov.uscourts.cacd.955039.37.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">papers</a> dated February 25 and unsealed Monday say that AlHusseini &#8220;began supervision by agents of the FBI&#8221; and &#8220;at the direction of the government, defendant could contact Aspiration, including Joe Sanberg&#8221; and board chair Nate Redmond.
<div id="attachment_886519" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-886519" class="size-large wp-image-886519" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-540880634-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Then-Chairman of the Jefferson Awards Foundation Joe Sanberg speaks in 2016. (Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for Jefferson Awards Foundation)</div>
McNally said “Our prosecutors and law enforcement partners have worked methodically to secure a guilty plea from one of the main offenders in this case and have now charged another member of the conspiracy. We will continue to ensure that markets and businesses receive an honest and level playing field in which to operate.”
Though Monday&#8217;s complaint against Sanberg focuses on the $145 million deal, the cooperation suggests that more charges could come, given a trail of red flags around Aspiration — a company which in some ways mirrors Sam Bankman Fried&#8217;s infamous FTX.
Aspiration offered big companies the opportunity to purchase “carbon credit” indulgences to offset their emissions. That&#8217;s big money with a hard-to-prove connection to actual value, but with hype and ideology potentially warping customers&#8217; judgements. Like FTX, Aspiration spent disproportionately on marketing, such as a partnership with the <a href="https://x.com/lukerosiak/status/1896766335704785083" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LA Clippers</a>. In 2021, as left-wing fervor peaked, Aspiration sought to go public at a $2 billion valuation — but there are indications it may have juiced itself with fake revenue to try to get that valuation.
A Bloomberg investigation in July suggested that Sanberg sought to inflate the company’s value through <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-07-10/questionable-deals-caused-a-climate-finance-startup-to-unravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubious deals</a> as it prepared to go public. Millions of dollars in purported income from customers were traced to an LLC called Day 12 that was once registered to Sanberg. In another case, a nonprofit was purportedly going to pay Aspiration 10 times its annual revenue. Yet another deal appeared to have a Colombian model pay $50,000 a month to Aspiration, after which a company tied to Sanberg would pay her the same amount. The company’s auditor refused to work with it any longer, Bloomberg said.
The effort to go public through a SPAC collapsed in 2023, but not before taking $300 million from investors including former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-18/doj-cftc-probe-carbon-credit-firm-aspiration-tapped-to-turn-la-nba-arena-green" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a> reported last January that “the Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking into whether Aspiration misled customers about the quality of carbon offsets it was selling.” <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-celebrity-backed-green-fintech-company-that-isnt-as-green-as-it-seems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ProPublica</a> reported in 2021 that Aspiration said it had “5 million passionate members” when it actually had half a million active customer accounts, and told customers that for a dollar, they’d plant a tree to help the climate, when it only cost a few cents to do so.
Sanberg has not responded to requests from The Daily Wire. Nor has Andrei Cherny, who founded the company along with Sanberg and was pushed out in 2021. Cherny worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, ran the Arizona Democrat Party, and ran for Congress in 2024. He sued Aspiration in December, saying it had not paid him money he was owed, but dropped the suit a few weeks later.
Aspiration did not return a request for comment, including asking whether Nate Redmond still chairs the board.
McNally said &#8220;If convicted of the charge in the complaint, Sanberg would face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. AlHusseini faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The FBI and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating the case.&#8221;

Joe Sanberg

California Politico And ‘Anti-Poverty’ Activist Arrested For Alleged ‘Green’ Finance Fraud

Wall Street

Over the past couple of days, the GOP-led Congress took action to repeal a pair of rules from the final months of the Biden administration that implemented a methane emissions fee and energy conservation standards for gas-fired water heaters.
The House voted 220-206 on Wednesday to pass a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-joint-resolution/35/all-actions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joint resolution</a> from Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) that provides for congressional disapproval of the EPA&#8217;s methane emissions fee on oil and gas facilities. One member voted &#8220;present.&#8221;
On Thursday, the House voted 221-198 to pass a similar <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-joint-resolution/20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">measure</a> from Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) that takes aim at the Energy Department&#8217;s rule on energy conservation standards for gas-fired instantaneous water heaters. Two members voted &#8220;present.&#8221;
&#8220;House Republicans are rolling back burdensome and misguided rules the Biden administration shamelessly exacted on the American people on its way out the door,&#8221; Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) said in a statement obtained by The Daily Wire.
Emmer went on to say, &#8220;For four years the Biden administration, aided by Congressional Democrats, waged war on American consumers all in the name of their radical, unfounded climate agenda — House Republicans say no more.&#8221;
The resolution focused on the methane emissions fee passed through the Senate <a href="https://x.com/CraigCaplan/status/1895174884839293297" target="_blank" rel="noopener">52-47</a> on Thursday. President Donald Trump&#8217;s advisers have recommended he sign it into law, according to an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) statement of administration policy.
“I applaud the Senate&#8217;s swift passage of my CRA to reverse the Biden-era&#8217;s harmful natural gas tax,&#8221; Pfluger said in a statement, adding later, &#8220;I am thrilled that this legislation is now headed to the President&#8217;s desk to eliminate this harmful tax once and for all!&#8221;
The OMB has also released a <a href="https://x.com/USRepGaryPalmer/status/1894437859664564729" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> in support of nullifying the Biden-era water heater rule, after which Palmer <a href="https://palmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/trump-administration-releases-sap-favor-palmer-legislation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expressed</a> his thanks and said any similar rules in the future &#8220;should be rescinded so that consumer choice is protected and prices remain affordable.&#8221;
Democrats who opposed the resolutions echoed the Biden administration&#8217;s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-finalizes-rule-reduce-wasteful-methane-emissions-and-drive-innovation-oil-and-gas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claims</a> that the rules on the methane emissions fee and water heaters finalized in the weeks after the 2024 election would help stop the &#8220;climate crisis&#8221; and lower energy costs.
After the lower chamber passed Pfluger&#8217;s resolution, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said, &#8220;House Republicans are leveraging the Congressional Review Act to support President Trump in undoing the damage of the Biden Administration’s war on American energy.&#8221;
Johnson also said of the Biden-era methane emissions fee: &#8220;This overreach has driven up energy prices, hurt domestic natural gas production, and increased reliance on foreign energy — without delivering any so-called environmental benefit.&#8221;
On the first day of his second term in the White House, Trump signed the national emergency <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/declaring-a-national-energy-emergency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declaration</a>, which ordered agencies to boost domestic energy production and infrastructure. Trump has also <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-the-national-energy-dominance-council/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">established</a> a &#8220;National Energy Dominance Council.&#8221;

Joe Biden

Congress Moves To Undo Biden-Era Rules On Methane And Water Heaters

Biden Administration

U.S. House of Representatives

Update: On March 3, AlHusseini <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-politico-and-anti-poverty-activist-arrested-for-alleged-green-finance-fraud">pleaded guilty to wire fraud</a>, and a plea agreement was unsealed in which he implicated Joe Sanberg, who was also arrested that day. Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally said the initial complaint against AlHusseini was dismissed “to facilitate his cooperation in the prosecution of others.” Although an attorney hired by AlHusseini, John Lambert, claimed AlHusseini&#8217;s &#8220;record has been dismissed&#8230; and all records&#8230; destroyed,&#8221; he had at the time signed a plea agreement admitting guilt. This story has been updated accordingly.
A career Department of Justice prosecutor on January 21 dismissed a criminal case against a major Democrat donor alleged to have engaged in a $150 million fraud involving a green-energy firm.
Ibrahim AlHusseini, who has fashioned himself an environmentalist star and Hollywood playboy, gave more than $300,000 to Democrats and was a lead investor in a “socially conscious” finance firm backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio called Aspiration Inc. The longtime CodePink board member had been heralded <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/yes-reversing-climate-crisis-can-be-profitable" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as proof</a> that “reversing the climate crisis can be profitable.” But the FBI said AlHusseini falsified financial documents to inflate their value by nearly $200 million.
AlHusseini was <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25540186-653401-2023-clover-private-credit-v-clover-private-credit-memorandum-of-law-i-143/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> at the Los Angeles airport on October 7 and held in jail due to the “serious risk [the] defendant will <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108.3.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flee</a>” after his alleged victim said he’d transferred $300 million to his native Saudi Arabia. He was released in December because wealthy environmentalists, including the co-founder of CodePink, Jodie Evans, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-green-investor-climate-change-activist-charged-with-securities-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">put up their homes</a> as his <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108.15.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bail</a>.
But Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally submitted a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108.70.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one-paragraph filing</a> that &#8220;the Acting United States Attorney having moved for a dismissal of the complaint by the presentment of this Order, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that said Complaint be dismissed as to defendant IBRAHIM AMEEN ALHUSSEINI only without prejudice and that &#8230; bond, if any, be exonerated.&#8221;
<blockquote>
<h1>On January 10, a New York judge found AlHusseini in contempt of court after he showered donations on Democrat politicians instead of paying his debts.</h1>
</blockquote>
Without prejudice means that Trump&#8217;s Justice Department could resurrect the charge. But ending the bond means AlHusseini could leave the country first — without causing prominent left-wingers to lose their homes. Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, where AlHusseini recently claimed an address, do not have extradition treaties with the United States.
Connor Williams, a spokesman for McNally, would not explain why charges were dropped, saying “We have no comment at this time.”
A lawyer hired by AlHusseini, John Lambert, told The Daily Wire in a letter that the Justice Department had gone even further, claiming that “our client’s record has been dismissed pursuant to court order and all records related thereto have been destroyed.” Lambert did not respond to a request for elaboration.
The Daily Wire asked AlHusseini whether he was still in the United States and whether he would return if charged again while abroad. AlHusseini referred to his criminal lawyer, Jessica Nall, who said “I can’t comment other than to say that, as Mr. AlHusseini’s counsel, we are pleased that the case has been dismissed.”
The <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI’s criminal complaint</a> provided substantial evidence that AlHusseini committed large-scale fraud. It included a table of 24 purported financial statements that he used to secure a funding deal, compared to what the FBI said were real bank documents. For example, a February 2023 statement claimed an account contained $181,582,018.43, when it actually contained $14,726.29. All 24 of the statements had balances ending in 43 cents, suggesting it was a sloppy cut-and-paste job.
Relying on those financial statements, an investment firm entered into a deal resulting in “losses in excess of $150 million, including interest and penalties, and AlHusseini personally received more than $12 million in ill-gotten gains,” the FBI said. &#8220;There is probable cause to believe that AlHusseini has committed securities fraud.”
<div id="attachment_881341" style="width: 500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-881341" class="wp-image-881341 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-490x576.png" alt="" width="490" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-490x576.png 490w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-255x300.png 255w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi-768x903.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/fbi.png 1240w" sizes="(max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px" />FBI complaint</div>
Even as the high-profile tycoon sat in jail, prosecutors kept the case quiet and dragged their feet charging him. On October 31, AlHusseini <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108.19.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">waived</a> “prosecution by indictment and consent[ed] that proceedings may be by information rather than by indictment.” The Justice Department <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr?page=9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">did not</a> issue a press release, and only The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-green-investor-climate-change-activist-charged-with-securities-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noticed</a> that the arrest had occurred.
The alleged fraud emerged in a civil lawsuit in New York involving Aspiration Inc., a carbon-credit and &#8220;socially conscious&#8221; finance company backed by actors Robert Downey Jr. and Leonardo DiCaprio and co-founded by Joe Sanberg, a California <a href="https://www.joesanberg.com/advocacy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">progressive activist</a>. AlHusseini was on the board of Aspiration and a main investor.
According to civil and criminal court documents, Sanberg defaulted on a $145 million loan for which Aspiration stock was collateral. Part of the deal involved a promise by AlHusseini to buy the stock from the lenders in the event of a default, since Aspiration was not publicly traded. AlHusseini refused to follow through, and discovery in the resulting <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25540186-653401-2023-clover-private-credit-v-clover-private-credit-memorandum-of-law-i-143/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">civil case</a> suggested that his bank documents were fake.
<div id="attachment_854231" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-854231" class="size-large wp-image-854231" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1218865785-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1218865785-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1218865785-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1218865785-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1218865785-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1218865785-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1218865785-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1218865785-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Joe Sanberg announces a donation of COVID face masks from himself and Aspiration Inc. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images)</div>
The lender, called Clover Private Credit Opportunities, sued in New York state court, which in November 2023 entered a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25541406-653401-2023-clover-private-credit-v-clover-private-credit-judgment-money-63/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">judgment</a> against AlHusseini for $78 million. By then, he was acting suspiciously, according to filings by Clover, firing his lawyer and changing his address to  <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25541555-653401-2023-clover-private-credit-v-clover-private-credit-letter-correspond-76/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lebanon</a>.
Clover also sued in Los Angeles’s Beverly Hills Courthouse to lock up his assets, saying that just as the loan was defaulting, AlHusseini <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25541402-e98573877/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transferred $300 million</a> to Saudi Arabia. Immediately after the judge ruled against him in New York, he transferred ownership of his Venice, California <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25541558-e98613133/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mansion</a> to his brother Faisal, to “render himself judgment proof.”
The decision to drop the criminal case on January 21 came days after a series of signs that the situation was only getting more suspicious.
On January 7, Jodie Evans, the influential progressive and CodePink founder who put up her house as bail, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25541882-e106407282/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">didn&#8217;t show up</a> to a deposition to which Clover had subpoenaed her. Evans said in court papers that she thought &#8220;Mr. Husseini’s attorneys had <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25541883-e106407280/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taken care of</a>&#8221; it and she did not need to appear.
On January 8, AlHusseini <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25541881-e105505063/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failed to appear</a> for his own court-ordered &#8220;debtor examination&#8221; in the California civil case, leading to a bench warrant, according to court papers.
On January 10, the New York judge found AlHusseini in <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25541886-653401-2023-clover-private-credit-v-clover-private-credit-decision-order-on-167/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contempt of court</a> after Clover said that, instead of paying the judgment, AlHusseini has since &#8220;transferred at least US $907,356.08 in violation of the Restraining Notice to pay for, inter alia, accommodation at luxury hotels and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25541884-653401-2023-clover-private-credit-v-clover-private-credit-memorandum-of-law-i-99/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">donations</a> to United States political candidates.” It said he “donated at least US $22,100.00 to United States political candidates” and spent $16,000 at the Four Seasons hotel in Greece and $10,000 on Gucci clothes in New York. “Meanwhile, AlHusseini has persuaded other persons to put up their assets as collateral for his bail of $3,000,000,” Clover <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25540186-653401-2023-clover-private-credit-v-clover-private-credit-memorandum-of-law-i-143/">wrote</a>.
His political donations focused on “the Squad,” the cadre of far-left Democrats who have advocated for a Green New Deal that would pump billions of dollars into environment-focused businesses.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-854207" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/campaign-contribs-944x576.png" alt="" width="944" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/campaign-contribs-944x576.png 944w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/campaign-contribs-300x183.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/campaign-contribs-768x469.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/campaign-contribs-1536x937.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/campaign-contribs-2048x1249.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 944px) 100vw, 944px" /></div>
During the time of the alleged fraud, Sanberg and AlHusseini had been trying to take Aspiration public through a “SPAC” with a <a href="https://news.spacconference.com/2023/08/23/interprivate-iii-financial-partners-calls-off-aspiration-deal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$2.3 billion valuation</a>. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2021 <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1839610/000095012321014973/filename1.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> “Ibrahim AlHusseini is a member of Aspiration’s board of directors and co-founder and managing partner of Social Impact Finance, LLC. Entities affiliated with Social Impact Finance hold more than 5% of Aspiration’s capital stock.” The next month, it announced <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211215005801/en/Aspiration-Secures-315-Million-of-Incremental-Equity-from-Oaktree-and-Affiliates-of-Steve-Ballmer-in-Advance-of-Closing-Business-Combination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$315 million</a> in funding from investors including former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. But the SPAC deal collapsed in August 2023.
Although Sanberg and Aspiration were not charged with wrongdoing in the criminal case, it adds to a mass of questions about them. Aspiration used progressive messaging to attract customers with slogans like “do well by doing good” and “clean rich is the new filthy rich.” But the company may have been misleading people about both its environmental impact and its financial viability.
<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-18/doj-cftc-probe-carbon-credit-firm-aspiration-tapped-to-turn-la-nba-arena-green" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a> reported last January that “the Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking into whether Aspiration misled customers about the quality of carbon offsets it was selling.” <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-celebrity-backed-green-fintech-company-that-isnt-as-green-as-it-seems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ProPublica</a> reported in 2021 that Aspiration said it had “5 million passionate members” when it actually had half a million active customer accounts.
Another Bloomberg investigation in July suggested that Sanberg sought to inflate the company’s value through <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-07-10/questionable-deals-caused-a-climate-finance-startup-to-unravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubious deals</a> as it sought to go public. Millions of dollars in purported income from customers were traced to an LLC called Day 12 that was once registered to Sanberg. In another case, a nonprofit was purportedly going to pay Aspiration 10 times its annual revenue. Yet another deal appeared to have a Colombian model pay $50,000 a month to Aspiration, then a company tied to Sanberg would pay her the same amount.
Aspiration and Sanberg did not answer inquiries from The Daily Wire, including whether AlHusseini is still on the board or owns stock. (The <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108/gov.uscourts.cacd.944108.15.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">terms</a> of AlHusseini’s bail prohibited him from contact with any Aspiration board member.) They also would not say what happened to the $145 million that Sanberg borrowed.
But the timeline raises questions about how much Sanberg knew about AlHusseini’s allegedly false finances, and if they extended to the company, too. If AlHusseini claimed to have no assets in the United States in order to avoid paying the New York judgment, then he must have sold his stake in Aspiration. But the reason for AlHusseini’s involvement in the loan in the first place was that, since Aspiration was privately held, selling such a large stake would be difficult to do — particularly without Sanberg’s knowledge.
<div id="attachment_854215" style="width: 1017px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-854215" class="size-large wp-image-854215" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-1007x576.jpg" alt="Actress and activist Jane Fonda embraces Ibrahim AlHusseini at a Champions of our Planet's Future gala in 2016 in Beverly Hills. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images)" width="1007" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-1007x576.jpg 1007w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-300x172.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-768x439.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-1536x879.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-517390558-2048x1172.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1007px) 100vw, 1007px" />Actress and activist Jane Fonda embraces Ibrahim AlHusseini at a Champions of our Planet&#8217;s Future gala in 2016 in Beverly Hills. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images)</div>
The FBI criminal complaint also said that Sanberg, who it described but did not name, wired $5 million to an AlHusseini relative in Saudi Arabia.
On December 2, Aspiration’s other co-founder, former Bill Clinton speechwriter and Arizona congressional candidate Andrei Cherny, filed a <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69430396/andrei-cherny-v-aspiration-partners-inc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit against the company</a> that lashed out at Sanberg. It said that on October 12, 2022, the board exited Cherny as CEO and agreed to pay him $535,000 plus additional payments and stock options and that “The Company, the Company’s Board members, major shareholders and officers will not publish or disseminate, directly or indirectly, any statements regarding Executive’s separation being due to Executive’s performance or misconduct.”
It said Sanberg “has made clear through his conduct that he intends to harass, threaten, and disparage Mr. Cherny, notwithstanding the execution of the Agreement.” Cherny dismissed his suit on January 3.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-green-investor-climate-change-activist-charged-with-securities-fraud">EXCLUSIVE: Green Energy Investor Arrested In Securities Fraud Probe</a>

Ibrahim AlHusseini

Fraud Complaint Against Dem Megadonor Dismissed Despite Evidence Of “Green” Scheme

Department of Justice

Another fire broke out at one of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery storage facilities in California.
Residents living near the Vistra Moss Landing Power Plant and Energy Storage Facility were told Tuesday night to close their windows and doors after “light smoke and fire” were seen at the facility, <a href="https://www.readymontereycounty.org/emergency/alerts?eventId=995779ALE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an emergency aler</a>t from county officials said.
“Public Safety Agencies are in Unified Command due to light smoke and fire at the Vistra Battery Facility in Moss Landing. Unified Command continues to monitor the situation and community air particulate matter and metals monitoring are ongoing,” the alert from Monterey County officials said. “Out of an abundance of caution, safety agencies urge residents to close windows and doors overnight.”
An earlier message from the county said the fire was first detected around 6:30 p.m., but residents weren’t told this until after 8:30, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/moss-landing-lithium-battery-storage-vistra-monterey-county/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to CBS News</a>. The fire started in the burned-out area where a previous fire broke out on January 16, but the message said the new fire didn’t appear to be burning undamaged batteries.
“The Jan. 16 fire grew out of control when the facility&#8217;s internal fire suppression system failed,” CBS reported.
The fire burned for several days, NBC Bay Area <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/heavy-metals-elkhorn-slough-battery-storage-fire/3773937/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, and noted the increase in toxic metals related to baseline measurements that had been conducted prior to the blaze. Initially, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under then-President Joe Biden, along with local authorities, claimed the fire at the energy storage facility released no toxins.
High levels of nickel, manganese, and cobalt were found in the soil within 2 miles of the facility, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nature-preserve-poisoned-after-california-lithium-battery-facility-catches-fire-scientists-say" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, according to measurements taken by scientists at San Jose State University.
Dr. Ivano Aiello, the chair of San José State’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/12024233/monterey-county-battery-fire-linked-surge-heavy-metals-nature-reserves-soil" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> KQED that his lab tested soil within two miles of the Elkhorn Slough nature preserve and found that samples from around 100 locations showed concentrations of three toxic heavy metals hundreds of times higher than before the fire. He noted that the fire caused the increase in findings because the heavy metals were only found in the top layer of soil, suggesting they were recent.
“They are clearly the type of material from a battery, so you can link directly the occurrence increasing of this toxic heavy metal to the source, which is a battery,” he told the outlet. “The line of evidence from a scientific perspective is pretty solid. There’s no other explanation as to why before the concentrations were much lower and now are much higher, and those elements are linked to those nanoparticles.”
Earlier this month, residents near the facility filed a lawsuit against Vistra Energy and PG&amp;E, the companies that own the two facilities at the Moss Landing site. The lawsuit alleges that Vistra failed to take proper safety measures and PG&amp;E designed an unsafe facility.

Moss Landing Power Plant

California Lithium Battery Facility Catches Fire Again, Residents Told To Close Windows

California Lithium Battery Facility Catches Fire, Again, Residents Told To Close Windows

Fire

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> on Monday signed an executive order “to end the procurement and forced use of paper straws,” saying they are ineffective and contain harmful chemicals. 
The order came after Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/back-to-plastic-trump-vows-to-end-ridiculous-biden-push-for-paper-straws" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promised</a> last week to reverse former President Joe Biden’s &#8220;ridiculous&#8221; push for paper straws over plastic. Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-ends-the-procurement-and-forced-use-of-paper-straws/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">order</a> also calls for developing a strategy to “alleviate the forced use of paper straws nationwide” within 45 days.
“The Federal government is directed to stop purchasing paper straws and ensure they are no longer provided within Federal buildings,” Trump’s executive order said. “The irrational campaign against plastic straws has forced Americans to use nonfunctional paper straws. This ends under President Trump.”
The Biden administration rolled out a plan in August 2024 to phase out the government&#8217;s use of all plastic bottles, straws, cups, cutlery, and disposable plastic bags by 2035.
Trump&#8217;s order stated that some research shows that paper straws are not better for the environment or consumers. 
For example, a Belgian <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19440049.2023.2240908" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> published in 2023 found that out of plastic, paper, glass, and bamboo straws, paper straws contain the most perfluoroalkylate and polyfluoroalkylate substances (PFAS), which are often referred to as “forever chemicals.” These “forever chemicals” can bleed from the straw into the drink, carrying potential health risks. 
“Paper straws are not the eco-friendly alternative they claim to be – studies have shown that producing paper straws can have a larger carbon footprint and require more water than plastic straws,” the order said. 
The president also cited the cost of paper straws compared to plastic ones and pointed out that paper straws will often come wrapped in plastic. 
<iframe class="truthsocial-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0;" src="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/113968217842034212/embed" width="600" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><script src="https://truthsocial.com/embed.js" async="async"></script>
Some states, such as <a href="https://fox5sandiego.com/news/california-news/straws-and-ketchup-packets-are-banned-but-is-anybody-enforcing-it/">California</a> and <a href="https://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/2025/02/07/trump-vows-to-overturn-plastic-straw-ban-how-new-jersey-could-be-impacted/">New Jersey</a>, have single-use plastic bans in effect, prohibiting restaurants from handing out plastic straws or cutlery unless a customer specifically asks for them.
“Cities and states across America have banned paper straws, caving to pressure from woke activists who prioritize symbolism over science,” the order said. 
“President Trump’s policies are promoting economic growth, while still maintaining standards that allow Americans to have among the cleanest air and water in the world,” the order continues. “This marks a sharp contrast from the previous Administration, which wasted American taxpayer dollars on virtue signaling instead of implementing effective solutions.”
The executive order cited other actions the Trump administration has taken on the environment, including improving forest management to prevent wildfires, suspending the expansion of windmill farms, and pursuing energy independence.

President Trump Signs No Men In Women’s Sports Executive Order

Trump Signs Executive Order ‘To End…Forced Use Of Paper Straws’

Executive

Executive Orders

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would sign an executive order next week ending the federal government&#8217;s &#8220;ridiculous&#8221; push for paper straws.
Last year, the Biden administration announced that it would &#8220;phase out&#8221; single-use plastic utensils such as cutlery, cups, and straws across federal departments. The move was part of President Joe Biden&#8217;s &#8220;ambitious actions … to end plastic pollution,&#8221; the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/08/05/us-news/biden-admin-will-ban-federal-government-using-plastic-cutlery-to-combat-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. In a Truth Social post on Friday morning, Trump said the U.S. government would again use plastic straws.
&#8220;I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!&#8221; the president <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113963246096886557" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.
In recent years, some restaurants, cafes, and coffee shops have begun using paper straws instead of plastic in the name of saving the environment. A Belgian <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19440049.2023.2240908" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> published in 2023, however, showed that out of plastic, paper, glass, and bamboo straws, paper straws contain the most perfluoroalkylate and polyfluoroalkylate substances (PFAS), which are often referred to as &#8220;forever chemicals.&#8221;
&#8220;PFAS were more frequently detected in plant-based materials, such as paper and bamboo,&#8221; the study&#8217;s authors noted, adding, &#8220;The presence of PFAS in plant-based straws shows that they are not necessarily biodegradable and that the use of such straws potentially contributes to human and environmental exposure of PFAS.&#8221;
Until Trump officially rolls out his executive order, it&#8217;s unknown how his action could affect state laws and business operations across the country. Some states, such as <a href="https://fox5sandiego.com/news/california-news/straws-and-ketchup-packets-are-banned-but-is-anybody-enforcing-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a> and <a href="https://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/2025/02/07/trump-vows-to-overturn-plastic-straw-ban-how-new-jersey-could-be-impacted/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Jersey</a>, have single-use plastic bans in effect, prohibiting restaurants from handing out plastic straws or cutlery unless a customer specifically asks for them.
Trump&#8217;s executive action on paper straws will likely be popular among conservative Americans. After the Biden administration began cracking down on paper straw use in the federal government, Republican lawmakers blasted the move.
&#8220;The world&#8217;s on fire and [Biden&#8217;s] worried about plastic forks,&#8221; Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13695203/Joe-Bidens-plan-ban-popular-kitchen-item-sparks-fury-world-fire.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Daily Mail.
&#8220;Look, I certainly understand that plastics are a pollutant, we need to do a better job with it,&#8221; Rounds added. &#8220;But I&#8217;m a little bit hesitant to say that this plastic ban will be a good thing.&#8221;
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) added, &#8220;They should shrink the government if they want it to be less of a consumer. The reason it&#8217;s the largest consumer is because &#8230; it employs so many people, and it&#8217;s doing so many things it was probably never intended to do. So if they want to reduce the impact of the U.S. government environmentally, they should right-size the government.&#8221;

President Trump

‘Back To Plastic!’: Trump Vows To End ‘Ridiculous Biden Push For Paper Straws’

A recent fire at one of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery storage facilities poisoned a vital nature reserve in Northern California.
High levels of nickel, manganese, and cobalt were found in the soil within 2 miles of the Vistra Moss Landing Power Plant and Energy Storage Facility, KQED <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/12024233/monterey-county-battery-fire-linked-surge-heavy-metals-nature-reserves-soil" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, citing measurements taken by scientists at San Jose State University. Those heavy metals were found in soil samples shortly after the facility caught fire on January 16.
The fire burned for several days, NBC Bay Area <a href="https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/heavy-metals-elkhorn-slough-battery-storage-fire/3773937/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, and noted that the increase in toxic metals related to baseline measurements that had been conducted prior to the fire. Initially, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under then-President Joe Biden, along with local authorities, claimed the fire at the energy storage facility released no toxins.
Local officials said they didn’t detect higher levels of pollutants, KQED reported, and a company hired by the power facility also found no evidence of heightened toxic metals. A Facebook group of nearly 3,000 people in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, however, contains allegations that people are suffering from headaches, sore throats, nausea, and other conditions they believe are linked to the fire.
Dr. Ivano Aiello, the chair of San José State’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, told KQED that his lab tested soil within two miles of the Elkhorn Slough nature preserve and found that samples from around 100 locations showed concentrations of three toxic heavy metals hundreds of times higher than before the fire. He noted that the fire caused the increase in findings because the heavy metals were only found in the top layer of soil, suggesting they were recent.
“They are clearly the type of material from a battery, so you can link directly the occurrence increasing of this toxic heavy metal to the source, which is a battery,” he told the outlet. “The line of evidence from a scientific perspective is pretty solid. There’s no other explanation as to why before the concentrations were much lower and now are much higher, and those elements are linked to those nanoparticles.”
Though local outlets have covered the story, it has not received national attention, possibly because the facility was used to store solar power during the day and provide it to consumers in the evening. Had the facility been a nuclear power plant, the story would likely have become international news.
Today, however, the same voices who would otherwise oppose nuclear power for the threat it poses to crops and nature are silent about their preferred energy source causing damage to the surrounding area.

California Power Plant Fire

Nature Preserve Poisoned After California Lithium Battery Facility Catches Fire, Scientists Say

Toxin

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