President Trump’s Justice Department announced a 33-year federal sentence for a Canadian predator who targeted children across the United States. Ramanan Pathmanathan, 40, of Toronto, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in connection with a sextortion scheme that prosecutors said reached more than 145 victims. Some of those victims were as young as six years old. The sentence does not replace his Canadian punishment. It stacks on top of it. DOJ said the 33-year U.S. prison term will run consecutively to the 12-year sentence Pathmanathan is already serving in Canada. The FBI highlighted the case after the sentence, calling it the takedown of a prolific predator: Today’s story behind the numbers: This #FBI and the takedown of a prolific predator who used “sextortion” to terrorize children and families across the country. Ramanan Pathmanathan of Toronto, Canada, spent years hunting down children to exploit. He ultimately contacted at… — FBI (@FBI) June 8, 2026 The U.S. Department of Justice described the sentence and the case this way: WASHINGTON – Ramanan Pathmanathan, 40, of Toronto, Canada, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 33 years in federal prison in connection with a prolific sextortion scheme that targeted more than 100 children across the United States, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. “This defendant spent years methodically hunting children online. He targeted more than 145 victims, some as young as six, and subjected them to horrors no child should ever experience,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro. “The United States will not allow international borders to serve as a refuge for those who prey on children, and I am grateful to our Canadian partners for ensuring this predator faced justice on both sides of the border.” In addition to the 396-month prison term, Chief Judge Boasberg ordered Pathmanathan to serve 10 years of supervised release and register as a sex offender. The prison term will run consecutively to the 12-year sentence that Pathmanathan is serving in Canada. According to court documents, Pathmanathan used multiple social media accounts, primarily Instagram and Facebook Messenger, to establish contact with at least 145 young girls and boys. Between at least March 2014 up until the day of his arrest on March 10, 2021, Pathmanathan posed as a teenage boy from New Jersey. Pathmanathan recorded his victims’ sexually explicit conduct and saved the files on his desktop computer. Some of the victims were as young as six years old. When the minor victims would decline to continue to engage in sexually explicit conduct or blocked Pathmanathan’s social media accounts, he threatened to send images to the children’s friends or family. This case was investigated by the FBI Houston Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and the Texas Department of Public Safety. This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative. The cross-border piece matters. Pathmanathan was already serving time in Canada, and DOJ said its Office of International Affairs secured his temporary surrender so he could face an American court too. That is exactly what parents should want to see when a predator reaches into American homes through a screen. No border should be a hiding place for someone who hunts children online. Thirty-three years on top of the Canadian sentence is a serious answer to a serious crime.

President Trump’s Justice Department announced a federal prison sentence in a Texas firearms-smuggling case tied to guns headed for Iraq. Hassan Al Gharawi, a 54-year-old Iraqi national from Sugar Land, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison after a jury convicted him of conspiracy to violate gun export laws. The sentence also includes three years of supervised release and a $5,000 fine. DOJ said Gharawi conspired with others to stockpile, conceal, and transport firearms in vehicle parts bound for Iraq. The FBI highlighted the case update after the sentence was announced: CASE UPDATE from @FBIHouston: Sugar Land man sentenced for role in conspiracy involving smuggling firearms to Iraq Hassan Al Gharawi, 54, will serve 63 months in federal prison following his conviction for conspiracy to violate gun export laws. From 2020 to 2021, Gharawi… pic.twitter.com/KFPjUU504g — FBI (@FBI) June 8, 2026 The U.S. Department of Justice laid out the case and sentence in its release: HOUSTON – A 54-year-old Iraqi national has been ordered to federal prison following his conviction for conspiracy to violate gun export laws, announced Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck. The jury deliberated for approximately two hours before finding Hassan Al Gharawi guilty on one count of conspiracy to violate export control laws following a three-day trial, Oct. 1, 2025. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen has now ordered Gharawi to serve 63 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. He must also pay a $5,000 fine. From approximately November 2020 to June 2021, Gharawi conspired with others to knowingly stockpile, conceal and transport firearms in vehicle parts bound for Iraq. At trial, the jury heard Gharawi received two deliveries in 2020 and 2021 totaling approximately 77 firearms, which he had stored in his home. On June 10, 2021, authorities observed Gharawi load firearms into his vehicle and transport them to a storage facility. The jury saw photos of more than 500 firearms and listened to recordings of Gharawi discussing the trafficking plan. The defense argued Gharawi acted under duress from the traffickers in Iraq. The jury rejected those claims after seeing the extent of his involvement and found him guilty as charged. Gharawi will remain in custody pending transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future. FBI conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Heather Winter, John Pearson and Steven Schammel prosecuted the case. The details are blunt: dozens of firearms in his home, weapons loaded into a vehicle, and a jury shown photos of more than 500 firearms. Export-control law exists because firearms do not become harmless once they are hidden in vehicle parts and routed overseas. The defense argued duress. The jury rejected it. Now Gharawi is waiting for transfer to federal prison, and the case stands as another reminder that gun trafficking across borders is not a paperwork issue. It is a national security problem, and this time federal investigators closed it down.

President Trump’s Justice Department says it has charged a New Jersey man who allegedly wanted to support ISIS and discussed attacks on American targets. Mohamed Sagha, 22, of Wayne, New Jersey, was charged by complaint on June 8, 2026, with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS. He made his initial appearance in federal court the same day and was ordered detained. The allegations are serious. Prosecutors say Sagha went beyond abstract online talk. They allege he discussed a possible attack on a National Guard location or a Jewish place of worship. DOJ also alleges he shared images and videos of both locations with a confidential human source and said they were near his residence in Wayne. The FBI highlighted the Newark case update after DOJ announced the charge: CASE UPDATE from @FBINewark: Passaic Man Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIS From approximately December 2025 to June 2026, Mohamed Sagha participated in one or more online chat groups wherein supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS)… pic.twitter.com/TvIj2sS1S2 — FBI (@FBI) June 8, 2026 The U.S. Department of Justice laid out the allegations and the law enforcement response this way: A Passaic County man was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS). Mohamed Sagha, 22, of Wayne, New Jersey was charged by complaint with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS. He made his initial appearance today in federal court. He was ordered detained. “As alleged, the defendant sought to support ISIS and expressed interest in violence directed at targets within the United States, including places of worship,” said U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer for the District of New Jersey. “Those who seek to advance the objectives of foreign terrorist organizations should expect a swift and coordinated response from federal law enforcement. This Office will continue working relentlessly with our law enforcement partners to identify, disrupt, and prosecute individuals who support terrorism and threaten the safety of our communities.” “The defendant allegedly wanted to attack targets in the United States in support of ISIS and its hateful ideology, but the FBI detected and put a stop to his violent plans,” said Assistant Director Donald Holstead of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. “This should be a stark reminder to the American people of the FBI’s resolve to pursue anyone who tries to harm Americans and provide material support to terrorist organizations, and we will work with our Justice Department partners to make sure they face justice.” From approximately December 2025 to June 2026, Sagha participated in one or more online chat groups wherein ISIS supporters discussed, among other things, potential attacks on targets within the United States, including places of worship. In his discussions with the CHS, Sagha expressed an intent to assist one of the members of an ISIS-supporters online chat group with an attack on a place of worship. He also told the CHS he was contemplating carrying out an attack of his own, possibly on a National Guard location or on a Jewish place of worship. He then shared images and/or videos of both locations with the CHS, and stated that they were near his residence in Wayne, New Jersey. Sagha ultimately purchased a VPN, sent it to the CHS – whom he believed to be a member of a terrorist organization – and explained to the CHS how to use the VPN. The count of attempt to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization has a maximum penalty of twenty years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a term of life of supervised release. The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. That last line matters, and the case now has to move through court. But what DOJ describes is the exact kind of homegrown threat federal agents are supposed to find before it becomes a body count. Soldiers, worshippers, and local communities should not have to wait until after an attack to learn that someone was talking to ISIS supporters online. In this case, federal law enforcement says it was watching, and it moved first.

President Trump’s administration just landed another concrete Make America Healthy Again win, and this one hits the medical schools that train America’s doctors. On June 8, 2026, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that 19 more medical schools signed the Trump administration’s Nutrition Education Pledge. That brings the total to 73 participating schools, after 54 joined earlier this year. The 19 new schools vowed to incorporate 40 hours of nutritional education, or its competency equivalent, into graduation requirements starting this fall. HHS said the push also reaches beyond individual schools. HHS and the Department of Education hosted eight of the nation’s leading accreditors, assessors, and medical organizations as part of a broader nutrition reform announcement. The agency framed the move as a shift across medical education, testing, training, and residency: HUGE 73 medical schools have now joined the Trump administration’s Nutrition Education Pledge after 19 schools signed on today. Nutrition is a powerful tools to prevent and treat chronic disease. Thanks to @POTUS, medical education is starting to reflect that reality. pic.twitter.com/7Tnw2z167g — HHS (@HHSGov) June 8, 2026 For decades, nutrition was treated as an afterthought in medical training. The numbers show it. HHS cited a 2022 survey finding that medical students reported receiving an average of just 1.2 hours of formal nutrition education each year. Until recently, three-fourths of U.S. medical schools did not require clinical nutrition courses, and only 14 percent of residency programs required a nutrition curriculum. Now set that against what the country spends treating the fallout. HHS said America spends $4.4 trillion annually treating chronic disease and mental health, while an estimated one million Americans die from food-related chronic illnesses each year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services laid out the announcement and the stakes: WASHINGTON – June 8, 2026 – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Education today hosted eight of the nation’s leading accreditors, assessors, and medical organizations to announce a historic development to increase nutrition requirements at every level of U.S. medical education, competency-evaluation, training, and residency. Additionally, 19 medical schools across the country have signed the Trump administration’s Nutrition Education Pledge, vowing to incorporate 40 hours of nutritional education or its competency equivalent into graduation requirements starting this fall. “Poor diets are the primary driver of America’s chronic disease epidemic, and today’s announcement reflects the shifting landscape toward placing nutrition and prevention at the core of patient health,” said Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Still, more work remains, and I look forward to seeing nutrition play an increased role as the latest science, data, and best practices develop.” “Making America Healthy Again begins with education, and we are encouraged to see accreditors and institutions of higher education working together to better prepare current and future physicians for success,” said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent. “This commitment to strengthening nutrition education reflects the Trump Administration’s efforts to reform higher education and focus on what matters most: ensuring every student has access to a high-quality education and the knowledge needed to improve our communities.” The U.S. is in a chronic disease crisis. Despite spending $4.4 trillion annually on treating chronic disease and mental health, an estimated one million Americans die from food-related chronic illnesses each year. A 2022 survey published in the Journal of Wellness found that medical students reported receiving an average of just 1.2 hours of formal nutrition education each year. Until recently, three-fourths of U.S. medical schools did not require clinical nutrition courses, and only 14% of residency programs require a nutrition curriculum. Adding to the 54 schools announced earlier this year, today 19 new schools have voluntarily pledged to require at least 40 hours of nutrition education, or implement a 40-hour competency equivalent, for students starting in the fall of 2026. That is the part ordinary families should care about. If doctors are never trained to think seriously about food, prevention gets ignored and the prescription pad does the heavy lifting. America’s chronic disease crisis took decades to build. This moves medical education in the direction families have been begging for: prevention, nutrition, and root-cause health instead of pretending food has nothing to do with sickness.

The Southern Poverty Law Center spent decades branding conservatives, Christians, Catholics, and pro-family groups as bigots and hate merchants. On Tuesday it was the SPLC sitting in the witness chair, answering for itself. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate, Part II” on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. ET in the Rayburn House Office Building. Chairman Jim Jordan ran the questioning, with SPLC Interim CEO and President Bryan Fair in front of him. Democrats treat the Southern Poverty Law Center as the gold standard. The receipts tell a different story. Millions flowed to extremists and hate groups while the SPLC targeted conservatives and misled donors. Tune in at 10:00 AM to hear the evidence: https://t.co/jsVw3vHpVA pic.twitter.com/AwqQM8eXRS — House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) June 9, 2026 The premise of the hearing was simple and brutal for the SPLC. According to the committee, the same organization federal officials leaned on to define extremism stands accused of secretly bankrolling extremists. The official House Judiciary Committee hearing page laid out the purpose plainly: WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. ET. The hearing, “The Southern Poverty Law Center: Manufacturing Hate, Part II” will examine the role that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has played in distorting civil rights policy in recent years. Additionally, the hearing will explore recently released information revealing that the SPLC has funneled money to some extremists, raising questions whether the SPLC has been artificially elevating the domestic extremist threat and misleading its donors. WITNESSES: Mr. Bryan Fair, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Southern Poverty Law Center; Dr. Alveda King, Chair of the American Dream, America First Policy Institute; Mr. Ryan Bangert, Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Special Counsel to the President, Alliance Defending Freedom; Ms. Mary McCord, Executive Director, Institute for Constitutional Advocacy Protection; Visiting Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center. The numbers come from a federal indictment, not partisan chatter. The Department of Justice announced on April 21, 2026 that a grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama returned an indictment charging the SPLC with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. The DOJ statement spelled out where it says the money went: Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and National Socialist Party of America. A Grand Jury in Montgomery, Alabama, today returned an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. According to the indictment starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of individuals who were either associated with violent and extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, or who had infiltrated violent extremist groups at the SPLC’s direction. Unbeknownst to donors, some of their donated money was being used to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups at the same time that the SPLC was denouncing the same groups on its website. According to the indictment, the objective of the scheme and artifice was to obtain money via donations through materially false representations and omissions about what the donated funds would be used for. The details contained in the civil forfeiture complaint are allegations only. Those are allegations. No one has been convicted, and the indictment is the government’s accusation, not a verdict. Jordan put a round number on it Tuesday. According to The Gateway Pundit’s transcript of the hearing, he told Fair the amount was actually $4 million, said the Biden DOJ knew about the problem, and claimed the SPLC tripled its donor income after Charlottesville. Those specific claims are Jordan’s, made under the hearing’s framing. Chairman @Jim_Jordan catches SPLC President Bryan Fair in a lie. https://t.co/xsOkIknXDd — House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) June 9, 2026 This is where the story stops being about one nonprofit’s books. Republicans have argued for years that the Biden-Harris machine treated SPLC labels as gospel and used them to point federal power at ordinary Americans. The committee says it found the receipts. House Judiciary Committee Republicans laid out the coordination angle when Jordan first demanded documents in April: WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a letter to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Interim CEO and President Bryan Fair demanding documents and communications regarding the SPLC paying sources and any coordination with the Biden-Harris Administration. On April 21, 2026, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging the SPLC with wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Alarmingly, between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC allegedly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds to individuals associated with violent extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, and the National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party), among others. The Committee has been conducting oversight of the Biden-Harris Administration’s close coordination with the SPLC on federal civil rights matters. We have found that an internal FBI system contained at least 13 documents, including the Richmond memorandum that labeled traditional Catholics as “violent extremists,” that cited material from the SPLC. The Richmond memo is the part that should make every churchgoing American sit up. The FBI’s now-infamous document treated traditional Catholics as a domestic extremist concern, and according to the committee, it leaned on SPLC material to do it. If donor money was flowing to actual Klan and neo-Nazi affiliates the whole time, as DOJ alleges, the SPLC’s authority to brand anyone an extremist collapses. Republicans on the panel made clear they see this as bigger than a fraud case. Rep. Roy ahead of @JudiciaryGOP hearing on the SPLC: "We know what was being directed towards Charlie Kirk with hate maps, and we know that the SPLC was instrumental in what happened in Charlottesville. We've got to expose this. I'm glad that DOJ is doing it, but Congress has a… pic.twitter.com/G7kMkIVZJW — Rep. Chip Roy Press Office (@RepChipRoy) June 9, 2026 The SPLC denies all of it. In an April 28 statement, the Southern Poverty Law Center said it strongly denies the indictment’s allegations and argued that the government is mischaracterizing its informant program. The group says the program helped prevent threats and attacks, stopped criminal activity, gathered information against extremist groups, and saved lives. That is the group’s position, and the courts will test it. What the hearing did was flip the table that the SPLC built. For years it sat in judgment of conservatives and decided who counted as a hate group. Now it answers questions under oath about its own ledger, and Jordan is asking why the last administration looked the other way. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.