Badlands Brief
Bioweapons Sneak Into the News Cycle as Israeli Shenanigans Ensue
The Badlands Brief is your daily drop of Badlands’ takes on the narratives dominating the info war. Read on, and join the conversation in the comments section.
Biden DOJ Wasn’t as Confident in Their Mar-A-Lago Raid as They Publicly Let On
A senior Biden Justice Department official raised internal concerns just two days after the FBI’s August 8, 2022 raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
In an August 10, 2022 email to National Security Division attorney Sophia Brill, Patty Stemler—a longtime DOJ veteran and ally of then-Attorney General Merrick Garland who had been consulted on Trump-related matters—questioned whether the former president had declassified the seized documents. She noted that while standard declassification procedures exist, “the President as Commander in Chief” is not necessarily bound by them, drawing an analogy to the pardon power.
The email, recently obtained by Just the News and discovered during the DOJ’s own review of federal law enforcement actions, underscores early internal doubts about the raid’s legal footing.
The search, personally approved by Garland, occurred amid prior assertions from Trump’s legal team (including a May 2022 letter from attorney Evan Corcoran) that Trump possessed broad declassification authority and had issued a standing order treating documents removed to his residence as declassified.
Ashe in America: “The email was reportedly discovered during the Justice Department’s investigation into weaponization of federal law enforcement.”
A proper investigation about the weaponization of government would not be a quick undertaking.
Weaponizing the government during the Biden years was not the work of rogue officials, it was official policy — as evidenced by the resource allocation and the consistency in tactics in field offices across the nation.
Every once in a while, and more frequently it seems in recent months, we get these reminders that there is an ongoing federal investigation into the weaponization of government. That should be encouraging, and it is — it’s signal in the midst of an all out assault of noise.
These reminders let us know that what they did to us has not been forgotten, and that, ostensibly, it’s going to be remedied.
While most of these stories relate to weaponization against President Trump, including this one, I have hope that following the investigation where it leads will reveal that 45 is the tip of the iceberg.
There must be a justice phase before we can have a golden age. And it seems we’re closer to that than we’ve ever been.
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Feds Drop Charges for Property Manager Connected to Illegal Biolab(s) in Las Vegas
Federal authorities have dropped gun-related charges against Ori Solomon, the property manager tied to an illegal biolab discovered in a Las Vegas home in late January/early February 2026.
Solomon, an Israeli citizen on a non-immigrant visa, was arrested in February after FBI and local police searched the east Las Vegas rental property and found lab equipment, test kits, vaccines, influenza samples, and other biological materials stored in a locked garage.
Federal prosecutors dismissed the complaint for illegal firearm possession without prejudice in May 2026, citing the interests of justice after reviewing additional information.
Solomon still faces a pending Clark County charge for improper disposal of hazardous waste, with a status hearing set for June 4.
The Las Vegas site has been linked to Chinese national Jia Bei Zhu (also known as Qiang “David” He), who owned the property through an LLC.
Zhu was recently convicted in a separate federal case in California for operating Universal Meditech Inc. (later Prestige Biotech) in the Fresno/Reedley area. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, multiple counts of wire fraud, distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices, and making a false statement to the FDA after fraudulently selling over one million faulty COVID-19 tests imported from China for nearly $4 million between 2020 and 2023.
Materials found in the Las Vegas garage may have been connected to Zhu’s California operations. His former partner remains a fugitive in China.
The cases highlight overlapping issues of improper biological material storage and fraudulent medical device activity across state lines.
While federal charges against Solomon were dropped, the state hazardous waste case continues.
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: So this guy—an Israeli foreign national (not even an American dual citizen)—was running some sort of an illegal biolab in the garage of this single-family home in Las Vegas.
Multiple people who had access to the property became "deathly ill" after being exposed to the specimens that were haphazardly stored in the garage.
There were hundreds of vials of various rare and highly infectious diseases that were basically just shoved into an old refrigerator, and the house cleaner (who also became deathly ill) said the place reeked of "foul stagnant hospital air."
Ori Solomon, the property manager who had hired the cleaner and allowed others to live there, was in illegal possession of six firearms when he was arrested, given his nonimmigrant visa.
Solomon managed 37 properties in the area.
The Chinese national, Jiabei Zhu, who owned the property and hired Solomon to manage it, is currently in federal custody in California for his connection to another similar type of illegal makeshift biolab.
Zhu was arrested in 2023 and later convicted.
According to a report from the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the vials found in that 2022 lab were labeled as pathogens like “HIV”, “tuberculosis”, “malaria”, “hepatitis”, and “Ebola”.
Zhu was also found guilty of fraudulently selling more than a million COVID tests for nearly $4 million through his Fresno-based company, Universal Meditech Inc.
When Zhu and his wife were arrested in 2023, authorities realized that Zhu at the time was already a fugitive in Canada, wanted "for his connection to companies in the Chinese dairy industry."
Zhu's business partner, Zhaoyan Wang, was also indicted for his role in the scheme, but Wang fled to China and remains a fugitive of the United States.
"Trial evidence showed Zhu and Wang hired inexperienced employees, like cellphone salespeople, supermarket workers and childcare workers, who ‘would not ask any questions.’ Some of the employees were hired through the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation, which is a public organization that helps find jobs for unskilled workers and provides significant subsidies to employers that hire them, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office."
Despite all of this damning evidence, the state magistrate (judge) in this case allowed Solomon to be released from jail (as he awaited trial) back in February, citing "no concern" that he would return for trial.
The judge's name is Elayna J. Youchah, and from what I can discern, she does appear to be Jewish.
The federal prosecutor who yesterday dropped the weapons charges against Solomon is Sigal Chattah.
Not only is Chattah Jewish, but she was born in Israel—making her a dual citizen.
Chattah also happens to be the First Assistant US Attorney and the Special Attorney to the US Attorney General, so she absolutely has a national profile.
So to be clear: Solomon is still facing state-level charges related to hazardous waste disposal, but he is not facing any federal charges from Chattah. And it was Judge Youchah who released Solomon back into the wild, despite his Israeli citizenship and the fact that the business partner of his employer (who is currently in prison for another biolab) has fled the country to evade an indictment.
The fact that the judge and the US Attorney in this situation are Jewish (the prosecutor is also Israeli) seems like a pretty important detail considering that this guy is an Israeli national, and Israel is notorious for blocking extradition requests by the US for criminals hiding within their borders.
How the hell does this happen?
This appears to be more than just a miscarriage of justice.
This appears to be the control of the US justice system for the benefit of a foreign country; perhaps multiple foreign countries.
I'll ask again: How the hell does this happen?
What kind of Mickey Mouse bullshit is this?
Why do Israeli citizens consistently get away with committing federal (and state) crimes inside the United States?
Treasury Probes Big-Time Youtuber Hasan Piker and Others Over Cuba Ties
Federal investigators have subpoenaed streamer Hasan Piker and activist Medea Benjamin as part of a Treasury Department probe into their participation in a March 2026 humanitarian aid convoy to Cuba.
The “Nuestra America Convoy,” organized with help from CodePink (the anti-war group co-founded by Benjamin), delivered roughly 20 tons of goods to Havana.
More than 40 Americans are reportedly under scrutiny by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for potential violations of U.S. sanctions law.
Subpoenas served to Piker and Benjamin seek financial, logistical, and communications records related to the trip.
The probe comes amid heightened Trump administration pressure on Cuba, including a tightened blockade implemented last year, the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, and a recent Justice Department indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro.
Piker, a 34-year-old democratic socialist streamer, publicly praised aspects of the Cuban regime after the trip and was photographed with CodePink figures in Havana.
Benjamin, 73, has long been a prominent critic of U.S. Cuba policy and has faced prior scrutiny over her activism.
Burning Bright: Piker is one of the internet's leading Democratic Socialist voices ... someone who's made his name on anti-Trump, anti-MAGA rhetoric
Benjamin, for her part co-founded Code Pink, an NGO that organized aspects of the effort, and which has long operated in the same ecosystem of activist NGOs that parallel the SPLC model — leveraging humanitarian framing and narrative positioning to advance anti-American rhetoric while maintaining operational ties that are now facing scrutiny, to say the least.
These subpoenas, we're told represent the beginnings of a much wider probe into dozens of Americans involved in similar efforts in the beginnings of the public disclosure phase of what we've known all along: what has been presented as organic counter-culture dissent to Donald Trump and the MAGA core is now being exposed as having been engineered from the start.
These developments mark a rapid and seismic progression in the Mind War, even if most are dismissing the headlines as partisan posturing at present.
The anti-SPLC action could mark the beginnings of the dismantling of institutional proxies that manufactured conflict and laundered narrative power through the administrative state.
The scrutiny of American Culture War figures under the guise of action against Cuban communist influence extends that pressure into the cultural transmission layer against the NGOs and influential voices of the last decade that have shaped a generational perception and normalized opposition to American sovereignty and progress.
Both fit a larger pattern: the mapping of the system is beginning to yield the first hints of coming concrete accountability.
Each disclosure adds pressure to the insurgency’s own unraveling, forcing more of its structure into view without requiring total kinetic confrontation on the home front.
In other words, the more they struggle against the accusations, and now, against the actions of the DOJ, the more the web trembles and twitches, and begins to unravel.
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CDC and Aid Groups Fearmonger Over Ebola Outbreak
An Ebola outbreak centered in Ituri province in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is spreading faster than response efforts can contain it, according to aid organizations.
The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo virus strain and has expanded into North Kivu and South Kivu provinces in the DRC, as well as into Uganda, with confirmed cases reported in major population centers, including Goma and Kampala.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned that “the warning signs are flashing red,” stating the epidemic is outpacing responders.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the delay in detection means authorities are “playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic” and that the outbreak is currently outpacing scaled-up operations.
No vaccines or treatments are available for the Bundibugyo strain.
Response efforts include intensified surveillance, patient isolation, contact monitoring, and scaling up operations by the WHO, DRC and Ugandan governments, and partners, with roughly $500 million pledged for response and prevention.
The IRC has called for relaxing import restrictions on personal protective equipment and rapid funding to support health workers and safe burial teams.
While Congolese officials have stated that response teams are being strengthened daily and described the situation in the affected DRC provinces as “well contained,” aid groups emphasize the heightened risk of further spread given the current conditions.
Ashe in America: Isn’t it weird how we keep having all these potential pandemics after the global think tanks told us we were going to see increasingly frequent pandemics?
They’re so good at predicting stuff … or they’re planning stuff.
Jordan is correct, though; they do seem to be throwing all the public health crises at the wall to see what sticks.
And, in the wake of the “affirmation” of the “lab leak theory,” these stories are less believable than in prior years.
Also from Jordan:
Accelerate.
Israeli Nat SEC Minister Says They Won’t Let Trump Sign a ‘Bad Deal’ With Iran
GhostofBasedPatrickHenry: The Israelis clearly believe that they are in control and in the driver's seat as far as "Peace in the Middle East" is concerned.
Perhaps that is why they launched yet another major offensive in Lebanon while President Trump is ostensibly in the middle of a high-stakes negotiation with Iran.
There are rumors floating around that the deal has already been finalized and just requires signatures, though none of that has been substantiated. But these rumors do take their toll on those who are highly invested in the outcome of this situation.
One of those people is Lindsey Graham.
Here is what Lindsey Graham had to say about Pakistani Defense Khawaja Asif and the Pakistanis, in general.
(Note that President Trump has had nothing but high praise for the Pakistani leadership, and they have had nothing but love and admiration expressed for President Trump.)
Here is a link to the quote by Asif being referenced in that X quote post.
Make no mistake, when this deal is announced as formally finalized, most of the GOP is going to turn on President Trump like a pack of wild rabid dogs.
That's because those congressmen all are compromised and actually work for the State of Israel, not the American People.
You know it, I know it, and pretty much the whole world knows it.
You know what would be a great way to really take the wind out of the GOP's sails?
Declassifying both COVID and the 2020 Election investigation, specifically any material that implicates the GOP in the coup against President Trump.
I would love to see Tulsi break all of their toys on her way out, and I can't think of a better way to hurt the Uniparty than exposing the traitors in the GOP.
BONUS ITEM
Paxton Crushes Cornyn In Stunning Texas Senate Upset
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated four-term U.S. Senator John Cornyn in a major upset in the Republican primary runoff for Texas’s U.S. Senate seat.
Paxton won with roughly 63% of the vote to Cornyn’s 37%.
The victory came after a competitive March primary in which neither candidate secured a majority, forcing the runoff.
The result is being described as one of the biggest primary upsets in modern Texas political history.
Paxton, a hard-charging conservative and strong Trump ally known for legal battles against the Biden administration, campaigned as a fighter against the Washington establishment.
Cornyn, a longtime Senate insider and former Majority Whip, was portrayed by Paxton as out-of-touch.
The race featured heavy spending on attack ads.
Trump’s endorsement of Paxton days before early voting helped energize the MAGA base and proved decisive. In his victory remarks, Paxton stated, “Texas has spoken loud and clear. We’re done with business as usual.”
The outcome signals a further rightward shift within the Texas Republican Party, with voters favoring Trump-aligned candidates over establishment figures.
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Great take, Ashe, on the ongoing investigations into the weaponization of government. “I have hope that following the investigation where it leads will reveal that 45 is the tip of the iceberg.”
Yes, Justice closes out the old age before the new Golden Age!
“signal in the midst of an all out assault of noise” is the reason we love Badlands Briefs and Takes!
Truth exists in a nonlinear realm making its way through the mindscape of a linear world. Our will to know has become a collective power speeding up time.
"𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 ... 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺." This is important to bear in mind. The rot was systemic, beginning well before Biden and, although it particularly thrived under his occupancy, it goes deep into the core of multiple agencies (and exists in all of them). The corrective must be far deeper than snipping out a few blemishes here and there - not only must we follow the roots all the way down, but we must change the bureaucratic environment to keep this from developing again - which it otherwise will, as surely as weeds will fill a plowed field, if we don't both prevent it in general and quickly address any instances that pop up despite our precautions.