The Paper Trail: May 19, 2026

Top stories for May 19, 2026

How understaffing and DHS policy drives rising deaths in ICE detention centers: Nearly 50 ICE detainees have died since President Trump returned to office. Many of the deaths appear to have been preventable, a result of substandard treatment by understaffed medical teams dealing with escalating detainee populations, in addition to failures by DHS and its contractors. (Casey Tolan et al., CNN)

🔎 See Also: Immigrants are dying in ICE detention. A key watchdog office is now gone (Isabela Dias, Mother Jones)

Troubled ICE medical provider remains at Camp East Montana despite outcry: Camp East Montana’s current medical provider has a yearslong paper trail of poor management and substandard medical care. (Julienne McClure, Luisa Clausen, and René Kladzyk, Project On Government Oversight)

🔎 See Also: ICE has not paid for detainee medical care for 7 months (Judd Legum, Popular Information)

Watchdog probes Kristi Noem’s warehouse purchases for ICE detention centers: DHS’s inspector general launched a probe into the $38 billion warehouse-to-detention-facility conversion program championed by former Secretary Kristi Noem and her top adviser, Corey Lewandowski. The IG is currently investigating DHS’s contracting practices during Noem’s tenure. (Tarini Parti, Michelle Hackman, and Shane Shifflett, Wall Street Journal)

Former private prison official to serve as acting ICE chief: Effective June 1, David Venturella will become acting director of ICE. Venturella, a former employee of federal contractor Geo Group, most recently worked for DHS overseeing contracts between ICE and detention facilities. Federal ethics rules generally bar government employees from working on contracts awarded to their former employers for one year, but Venturella was granted a waiver. (Ximena Bustillo, NPR)

FBI insiders: Kash Patel is “padding the stats” to boost his record of arrests: At a congressional hearing last week, FBI Director Kash Patel touted his leadership of the bureau by citing statistics such as the increase in arrests and the capture of individuals on the “Most Wanted” list. But sources say Patel inflated these numbers and overstated the bureau’s progress in fighting crime. (Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian, MS NOW)

🔎 See Also: Emails show FBI Director Kash Patel’s Hawaii trip included “VIP snorkel” at a Pearl Harbor memorial (Jim Mustian, Eric Tucker, and Michael Biesecker, Associated Press)

Trump poised to drop IRS suit, launch $1.7B “weaponization” fund for allies: President Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, including the January 6 defendants. Trump would have the authority to remove members of the commission overseeing the fund, and the commission would be under no obligation to disclose its procedures, its decision-making process for awarding the money, or the identities of the recipients. (Katherine Faulders, Peter Charalambous, and Alexander Mallin, ABC News)

🔎 See Also: Top Treasury lawyer resigns after creation of ‘anti-weaponization fund’ (Andrew Duehren, New York Times)

Watchdog recommends nearly 100 ways for agencies to save tens of billions: GAO reported that, as of March, agencies had fully or partially addressed 1,662 (77%) of recommendations that GAO has made in the last 16 years, yielding about $774 billion in financial benefits. However, GAO acknowledged this is a “rough estimate” and flagged past recommendations that remain unimplemented. (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

House GOP probes agency settlements with federal workers: Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee are investigating the rate at which federal agencies settle cases involving allegations of prohibited personnel practices, implying the agencies go easy on poorly performing employees and that settlement payouts are a waste of money. (Erich Wagner, Government Executive)

Women in both parties agree: Sexual harassment training in the House is “laughable”: Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández and Kat Cammack say the current system for handling sexual harassment and misconduct in Congress is woefully inadequate and plan to launch a task force aimed at overhauling the system. (Oriana González and Dave Levinthal, NOTUS)

DOT inspector general reviewing complaint against Sean Duffy over reality show: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s participation in a reality TV show may have violated federal ethics rules, according to a complaint Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed with the department’s inspector general. (Eric Katz, Government Executive)

Trump misses deadline to disclose tens of millions of dollars in stock trades: President Trump was months late in disclosing tens of millions of dollars in trades of Microsoft and Amazon stock. The president has yet to make publicly available his 2025 financial closures, which were due Friday. Trump and Vice President JD Vance each requested and received a 45-day extension. (Emily Davies and Cat Zakrzewski, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Trump bought stock in drugmaker as his government boosted its obesity drugs (Darius Tahir, KFF Health News)

Interior secretary claims ignorance of Trump’s July 4 “vanity projects”: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has taken a lead role in promoting President Trump’s particular plans to mark the Semiquincentennial. That includes helping fund Freedom250, an opaque, public-private partnership set up within Burgum’s department. But how Freedom250 came about is apparently a mystery to the secretary. (Dan Friedman, Mother Jones)

Reflecting Pool repairs appear uneven and behind schedule, officials say: Interior Department employees are raising concerns about the quality and speed of the repair work that a contractor is performing on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Documents say the quality issues are being addressed, but they raise the possibility that the work may not be finished by the government’s deadline of May 22. (David A. Fahrenthold and Maxine Joselow, New York Times)

White House explores 250 pardons to mark America’s 250th birthday: White House officials are weighing a plan for President Trump to issue 250 pardons in honor of the Semiquincentennial. The pardons could be announced on June 14, which is both Flag Day and Trump’s birthday, or the Fourth of July. (AnnaMaria Andriotis and C. Ryan Barber, Wall Street Journal)

Analysis: Congress must protect whistleblowers after a year of attacks: Whistleblower protections are being systematically dismantled, but it’s not too late for Congress to step in and reinforce them. (Joe Spielberger, Project On Government Oversight)

Iran War

Pentagon seeks additional funding as cost of Iran war tops $29 billion: Jules Hurst III, the DOD’s acting comptroller, said the increase from $25 billion just two weeks ago reflects “updated repair and replacement of equipment costs,” along with the “general operational costs” of sustaining forces in the theater. Hurst emphasized that the cost projection doesn’t include expenditures for repairing damaged military installations. (Tanya Noury, Military Times)

Navy admiral: Epic Fury could force tough cuts, personnel problems by July: Naval Operations Chief Adm. Daryl Caudle said that without supplemental funding for the war in Iran, he will have to implement cuts in training, routine operations, and personnel by July. (Ellen Mitchell, The Hill)

A top U.S. commander dismisses reports of civilian deaths in Iran: Admiral Brad Cooper, the senior officer overseeing U.S. combat operations in Iran, told senators last week that a strike on an Iranian school was the only civilian casualty incident of the war. Cooper’s testimony suggested that he believes the U.S. military’s record since that February 28 strike had been near perfect, a fact belied by human rights groups and news media organizations. (Greg Jaffe, New York Times)

Pentagon considering renaming Iran war “Sledgehammer” if ceasefire collapses: The U.S. military is considering officially renaming the war with Iran “Operation Sledgehammer,” which could allow the administration to argue that it restarts the 60-day clock for seeking congressional authorization. (Mosheh Gains, Courtney Kube, and Monica Alba, NBC News)

Analysis: Exquisite defense fails in practice: Operation Epic Fury has revealed the gaps in U.S. weapons systems capabilities. The failures that have been the most clearly highlighted are those in defensive interceptors like the THAAD and Patriot missile systems. (Virginia Burger, The Center for Defense Information at POGO)

Prediction Markets

Dozens of Polymarket bets show signs of insider trading, the Times finds: More than 80 Polymarket users have placed bets with suspicious characteristics, including 38 whose well-timed wagers have drawn little or no public attention. They won money across nearly 30 topics dating back to at least 2024, from Israel’s strike on Iran last year to the regulatory debate over cryptocurrency trading. (Stuart A. Thompson and David Yaffe-Bellany, New York Times)

Online prediction market traders make millions betting on U.S. military operations: In the U.S., betting on military operations through platforms like Polymarket is prohibited, though digital workarounds are easy to find. An analysis found military-related bets had a 52% success rate, compared to just 7% for more traditional wagers like sporting events. (Jon Wertheim, Andrew Bast, and Jessica Kegu, 60 Minutes)

House holds off on prediction market ban despite bipartisan calls for prohibition: Unlike Senate members and staff, House lawmakers and aides can still bet on prediction markets. Some lawmakers are now pushing for a rule change to prohibit members and staff from using prediction markets as reports of insider trading continue to mount. (Luke Garrett, NPR)

Tensions in the Twin Cities

ICE agent charged in shooting of immigrant during Minneapolis crackdown: Minnesota prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Christian J. Castro, an ICE gent who allegedly shot Julio C. Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, during the federal government’s enforcement surge in Minneapolis early this year. (Arelis R. Hernández, Washington Post)

Epstein Files

Comer requests sit-down with former JPMorgan banker in Epstein probe: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) asked former JPMorgan Chase executive Jes Staley to sit for an interview with the panel as part of its probe into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (Max Rego, The Hill)

Insurrection

DOJ sues D.C. Bar, escalating fight over discipline for Trump administration attorneys: The lawsuit accuses the D.C. Bar of unlawfully impinging on executive branch powers by recommending the disbarment former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The D.C. Court of Appeals hasn’t yet made a final determination on the recommendation to disbar Clark, whose law license was suspended pending the decision. (Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck, Washington Post)

The War on “Narcoterrorists”

Major investigation names 20 victims of U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats: A new cross-border investigation reveals that the victims are often day laborers, working on the boats as a job of last resort in some of the poorest towns in the region. To the extent that victims have affiliations with cartels, they are often loose affiliations, with the illicit economy their only viable livelihood option. (Tomi McCluskey, Anna Zahn, and Pedro Almada, Airwars)

CIA escalates secret war on cartels with deadly operations inside Mexico: The car bombing of a Sinaloa Cartel member in March was part of an expanded CIA campaign inside Mexico targeting the cartels. The level of CIA involvement in operations in Mexico varies from intelligence sharing and providing general support to direct participation in assassinations. (Natasha Bertrand et al., CNN)

Weaponization of the Government

FBI created “payback squad” to handle political cases, sources say: The FBI allegedly has a team of special agents internally referred to as the “payback squad” that pursues political targets set by the Trump administration. The FBI denied that a squad was created with that particular name, but confirmed that a “director’s advisory team” was created last year as a “special investigative” unit tasked with “getting to the bottom of some abuses of power that happened” during the previous three presidential administrations. (Jose Pagliery, NOTUS)

🔎 See Also: Fired former acting FBI chief says Patel tied job security to purging agents linked to Trump probes (Isabelle Khurshudyan and Anderson Cooper, CNN)

Blanche warns DOJ will subpoena reporters who receive classified information: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is warning reporters who receive leaks of classified information about potential investigations, as concerns grow about the federal government’s cracking down on media outlets critical of the administration. (Dominick Mastrangelo, The Hill)

Trump administration will withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California: Vice President JD Vance, the “Fraud Czar” in charge of a task force cracking down on the misuse of public funds in federal programs, said California hasn’t done enough to fight Medicaid fraud. So far, the task force has focused only on Democratic states. (Sarah Kliff, New York Times)

Supreme Court Ethics

Watchdogs urge Senate to investigate Samuel Alito’s oil stock conflicts: A coalition of watchdog organizations called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is violating court ethics codes by participating in cases involving oil and gas companies. Alito’s most recent financial disclosure showed stock holdings worth up to $245,000 in several oil and energy companies. (Dharna Noor, Mother Jones)

Reproductive Freedom

A “scheme” against Dobbs: SCOTUS dissent hints at next phase of abortion rights fight: Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito found themselves in the minority on Thursday, when the court ruled that telehealth access to the abortion drug mifepristone could continue, leaving the dissenting conservatives to foreshadow a future showdown over abortion rights. (Jessica Washington, The Intercept)

Middle East Conflicts

FBI quietly closed a probe into Mahmoud Khalil while he was in ICE detention: A recently released FBI file shines new light on the days immediately leading up to the arrest of then-Columbia University student and Palestinian rights activist Mahmoud Khalil. (Akela Lacy, The Intercept)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Internal Pentagon report reveals Hegseth is willfully putting civilians in danger: The Pentagon’s top watchdog says cuts to civilian harm mitigation and response efforts have been so severe under War Secretary Pete Hegseth that the United States cannot adequately protect civilians in conflict zones. (Nick Turse, The Intercept)

Pentagon pushes back on CBO’s trillion-dollar Golden Dome estimate: A Congressional Budget Office estimate that the Golden Dome missile defense system could cost about $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy, and operate over 20 years is based on inaccurate assumptions, according to the general in charge of the project. CBO’s estimate is seven times the Pentagon’s $185 billion, 10-year projection. (Courtney Albon, Air & Space Forces Magazine)

U.S. special operations leaders frustrated by inability to modify their own equipment: U.S. special operations leaders are frustrated with manufacturers’ agreements that block soldiers from making quick upgrades to military equipment. The problem is especially acute for unmanned drones. (Michael Peck, Military Times)

Defense contractors pump big money into congressional campaign accounts amid Iran war: The defense industry donated millions of dollars to members of Congress via PACs and individual contributions in the first quarter of 2026. Rep. Ken Calvert, head of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, raised more than $200,000 in campaign funds from industry PACs and executives. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, took in about $130,000. (Samuel Larreal, NOTUS)

A VA system paid out millions in “improper” claims: A VA computer system used to review death certificates and medical information incorrectly approved $2.7 million in payments to families between September 2023 and August 2024, according to an inspector general review. The IG said the overpayments might indicate the system is also rejecting legitimate claims. (Patty Nieberg, Task & Purpose)

VA security personnel aren’t detecting knives or booze, according to a watchdog report assessing medical facility security: Police officers who guard VA medical facilities failed to address security issues in a majority of covert tests conducted by the GAO, which also determined that VA leaders have not fully implemented federal building security best practices. (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

Military bases ae rife with ‘forever chemicals.’ New Mexico wants them cleaned up: The state is leading the country’s reckoning with PFAS. The outcome of its suit against the federal government will affect how courts treat more than 15,000 other claims nationwide. (Alexander Nazaryan, New York Times)

Hegseth mulls benefits fix for veterans exposed to radiation at A-bomb test site: The Pentagon is conducting a review on supporting a bill that would give veterans — predominantly from the U.S. Air Force — the same benefits civilians have been receiving for exposure to radiation at a Nevada test site that has seen more than 900 atomic bomb tests. (Richard Sisk, Military Times)

Hegseth campaigns for congressional race, breaking with Pentagon neutrality: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday campaigned for a Republican congressional challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump in an extremely unusual move that broke with the military’s longstanding tradition of political neutrality. (Eve Sampson, Military Times)

Business and Finance

Judge probes whether Musk settlement with Trump admin is tainted by corruption: U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said she won’t rubber-stamp the $1.5 million settlement between Elon Musk and the SEC, saying the deal raises red flags and needs scrutiny over whether Musk is getting special treatment. (Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica)

PayPal to waive $30 million in fees to settle DOJ probe of minority business program: PayPal settled a DOJ investigation into a 2020 investment program that the department claimed gave illegal preferences to minority-owned businesses. Under the settlement, PayPal will launch an initiative that waives processing fees on $1 billion in transactions — valued at about $30 million — for eligible small businesses that are veteran-owned or operate in farming, manufacturing, or technology. (Reuters)

Why two big companies just cut paid family leave: Deloitte and Zoom are among the companies reducing support for working parents, signaling a retreat from family-friendly benefits. The trend could particularly affect female workers. (Claire Cain Miller, New York Times)

Political money is flowing to influencers. but from whom?: The Federal Election Commission, the agency that monitors political spending, says its rules governing disclosure for traditional political advertising do not apply to social media. And the Federal Trade Commission, which regulates deceptive business practices, requires influencers to disclose payments for promoting commercial products and services but, it says, does not regulate political advertisements. (Ken Bensinger, New York Times)

Tech

Why A.I. safety controls are not very effective: When companies like Anthropic, Google and OpenAI build their artificial intelligence systems, they spend months adding ways to prevent people from using their technology to spread disinformation, build weapons or hack into computer networks. (Cade Metz and Tiffany Hsu, New York Times)

Infrastructure

A Texas city bet big on industry. Now it’s running out of water: Corpus Christi is not alone in grappling with water shortages. Half the nation is dealing with a persistent drought as industrial water demand has risen because of growing needs from power plants and data centers. (Lauren McGaughy, New York Times)

20,000 trucks a day: Life near a booming warehouse hub: Since 2000, retail giants and developers have erected more than 146 million square feet of warehouse space in the Chicago metro area. The Chicago area warehouse boom offers a cautionary tale to other communities: The roughly 20,000 trucks that pass through the area every day contribute to road damage requiring millions of dollars of repairs, and crashes have become more common. (Cam Rodriguez, Justin Mayo, and Daniel Wood, New York Times)

Health Care

With a friend in Trump, the tobacco industry secures a lucrative win: In a dispute over flavored vapes, the president sided with tobacco companies that have donated millions of dollars to his political groups and projects — including the White House ballroom — over his own FDA commissioner, who resigned in protest last week. (Christina Jewett and Kenneth P. Vogel, New York Times)

🔎 See Also: Top Kennedy spokesman resigns in protest of move to allow flavored vapes (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times)

The campaign to turn healthy people into Alzheimer’s patients: Many of the tests’ biggest advocates are being paid millions by the drug and device companies that stand to gain from people taking these tests and opting for preventive drug treatment. These same companies are pushing the Medicare legislation that could radically expand their business. (Jeanne Lenzer, The Lever)

Medical care delays for approval persist, despite insurers’ promises: Nearly a year after the nation’s health insurers pledged to overhaul their much-criticized practice of prior approval for medical care, patients and doctors say there is little evidence that delays and denials for necessary treatment have eased. (Reed Abelson, New York Times)

Eroding ACA enrollment portends higher insurance rates: An uptick in people skipping Obamacare premium payments in many states suggests the Affordable Care Act’s rising costs — driven partly by lower subsidies to help people buy plans — are hitting home for 2026 enrollees. (Julie Appleby, KFF Health News)

TrumpRx will add 600 generic drugs, president says: President Donald Trump on Monday announced that about 600 low-cost generic drugs would be available through TrumpRx.gov, a government website aimed at helping Americans purchase medications at discounted prices. (Dan Diamond, Washington Post)

ICYMI

Immigration and Border Security:

→ 911 call reveals ICE pepper-sprayed 47 detainees in overcrowded Mesa holding facility

→ Trump administration pushes IRS to identify undocumented immigrants

→ Immigrants detained in Chicago military-style raid seek millions in damages

→ Trump moves to admit 10,000 more White South Africans as refugees

→ 'We're not kids anymore': The DACA generation hits their 30s with an unstable future

Other News:

→ Sermonizing Easter email prompts USDA employees to sue department, USDA responds: “We will keep the plaintiffs in our prayers”

→ Appeals court pauses Trump’s $83 million payment to E. Jean Carroll pending Supreme Court action

→ Ship operators involved in Baltimore bridge collapse charged with misconduct and obstruction

→ Your school district is probably scoring worse than 10 years ago

→ Trump planning to build helipad at White House for new Marine One

→ EPA to end some limits on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

Upcoming Events

📌 Oversight Hearing – Department of Justice. House Committee on Appropriations; Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. Tuesday, May 19, 2:00 p.m., 2358-C Rayburn House Office Building.

Hot Docs

🔥📃 GAO - 2026 Annual Report: Opportunities to Reduce Duplication, Overlap, and Fragmentation and Achieve an Additional One Hundred Billion Dollars or More in Future Financial Benefits. GAO-26-108505 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Open GAO Recommendations: Financial Benefits Could Be Between $132 Billion and $251 Billion. GAO-26-108932 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Recommendations for Congress: Action Can Cut Costs, Reduce Waste, and Improve Services. GAO-26-108896 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - VA Medical Facility Security: Actions Needed to Address Longstanding Risks. GAO-26-109020 (PDF)