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.
Rule of Law? New Disclosures About Swalwell, Fang Fang, & Jack Smith
Newly declassified FBI files reportedly show investigators found evidence that suspected Chinese intelligence operative Christine “Fang Fang” Fang solicited illegal campaign contributions benefiting Rep. Eric Swalwell, including alleged straw donations.
The files reportedly show the FBI initially sought to recruit Fang as a source on Chinese influence operations before she left the US in 2015. Investigators believed Fang had violated several federal laws, but the case was ultimately closed for “national-security” reasons.
The revelations are drawing renewed scrutiny because Jack Smith, years before becoming special counsel investigating Trump, was serving in DOJ Public Integrity when the Swalwell-related investigation was underway, raising questions about what DOJ knew and why the case was ultimately dropped.
Jon Herold: We have new documents revealing Swalwell’s relationship with suspected Chinese spy, Fang Fang.
The first thing that jumps out to me is these documents were declassified by a “White House Memorandum Dated 3/23/2026.”
After searching, I could not find any such publicly available memorandum. What I did find was the existence of two previously unknown classified NSPMs, NSPM 9 & 10, that fall sometime between the dates of 10/15/25 and 06/05/26.
If these new documents did come from an NSPM, it means their release sits inside some larger classified policy about congressional vetting, foreign-influence disclosure, or “weaponization” oversight.
Very interesting.
[Also]
Swalwell was apparently bragging about how Fang Fang would show up at his apartment not wearing any underwear
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Voter Roll Battle Could Be Heading to SCOTUS
The Trump administration’s nationwide fight to obtain state voter rolls could be headed to the Supreme Court, Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday, calling a high-court showdown “absolutely” a possibility.
DOJ has sued dozens of states that refused to provide voter-registration data, arguing federal election laws authorize access needed to verify voter eligibility. Courts have repeatedly rejected the federal government’s demands, with DOJ now losing more than 20 cases.
The dispute centers on the federal government’s authority to obtain and scrutinize state-maintained voter records, setting up a potentially significant fight over federal versus state authority in election administration.
Ashe in America: I wrote a feature on my substack last week about how this voter roll fight appears to be the wrong case for the right target.
Discussing the dismissal of a similar case against Jena Griswold – who, by the way, we are now referring to as “autojen” – in the district of Colorado, I said, “The DOJ didn’t argue national security. They argued voter roll hygiene, an activity and authority directly under the purview of the states and, for [Judge] Brimmer, that was insufficient. Since the case is dismissed with prejudice, the DOJ can’t bring the voter roll hygiene case again. They should bring the national security one.”
With all of the national security disclosures about fake elections, most recently the revelations involving China, the federal government could bring a national security case to gain access to voter information at the state level.
The fact that they haven’t – yet – is interesting to me.
Maybe it means the obstruction is the story.
I also wrote in that piece, “There is no indication that Secretary Griswold is mitigating a Chinese data breach. She doesn’t even seem concerned about it, despite credible, documented evidence of a foreign threat to Colorado elections. Almost like it’s not a surprise. Instead, the secretary is concerned that federal authorities might check the work of her and her office.”
If that is true – and it seems to be, in my opinion, based on the information available – it’s stunning. That states would tacitly enable foreign adversaries and ignore potential threats for political reasons is arguably criminal.
It’s arguably treasonous.
President Trump Praises Mecca AGREEMENT as First Step, Suggests Backchannels With Iran
Trump praised the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan as an “important first step” toward regional countries taking greater responsibility for their own defense.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has reportedly explored a backchannel to Iran’s IRGC through Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani. The IRGC denies current talks are underway.
Trump says Iran wants a deal and maintains his primary demand is preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, even as the US continues applying military pressure in the region.
Burning Bright: For those of you who’ve been following our work for any length of time, hearing terminology like ‘Sovereign Alliance’ is old hat to you.
As such, it can be rather jarring for Badlanders not so much to see what Donald Trump deploys into the central narrative regarding the rapidly-shifting geopolitical landscape and America’s role in it, but more so in the mindscape’s response to said deployments.
Last week, Ghost and I spoke in depth about the just-announced Strategic Joint Defense Agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, something Ghost explicitly predicted on the Micro and something the Sovereign Alliance template and the Regions of Responsibility principle have pointed to directionally for years.
We also claimed Trump was in favor of this agreement, as it has matched all of the moves and countermoves he’s made in the Middle East going back to his first term, and contrary to the constant war and fear mongering out of the Establishment NeoCon cast that have been masquerading as Republicans for the better part of the decade.
That said, it’s not every time that Trump issues a public statement on foreign affairs that seemingly don’t include the United States.
Well, on Sunday night, he did just that, directly praising the Mecca Agreement between former rivals while calling it am “important FIRST STEP.”
A first step to what, though?
Well, probably toward the Multipolar World architecture that stands as the projected end goal of the Sovereign Alliance, something I’ve been writing about and commenting on for years, now, and something that even most in the MAGA world don’t just refuse to endorse, but fail to understand entirely, so lost in the sauce are they regarding Trump’s seeming rivalries with nations (like Russia, China and yes, a soon-to-be-publicly-reformed Iran) I have suggested will soon be counted among our greatest allies.
To wit, if you think Trump’s constant references to Iranian backchannels in the midst of his praising of joint defense agreements in the Middle East that DO NOT include Israel are unrelated, then you may just still have a foot in that NeoCon door, which is to say, the very Forever War paradigm we’ve been locked in for the better part of a century, ever since the close of World War 2 and the stories told about it inverted the Axis and Allies paradigm that is in the midst of being disentangled on the world stage.
The reason it was possible to see the Mecca Agreement coming is owing to the fact that, if the Sovereign Alliance is real, and if it is to be successful, the ONLY way it can be over a long enough timeline is if the world is almost-literally reshaped along Multipolar grounds, with the globalist proxies and the wars they’ve perpetuated being disarmed along the way.
The Mecca Agreement is a First Step.
It’s not the Last Step.
Backchannels with Iran have been active the whole time, and when the eventual Peace Deal with the so-called Iranian Regime is signed, it will pave the way to their inclusion into the very Multipolar framework only our so-called Allies seem to oppose.
Almost like that framework is already agreed to, with the rest as smoke, mirrors and a touch of fire and brimstone en route to its public codification and the collectivist capitulation to a vision they cannot stop, and can no longer delay.
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Ohio Indicts Six More Medicaid Providers as Fraud Crackdown Expands
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson announced indictments against six Medicaid providers accused of stealing a combined $558,383 through fraudulent billing. The allegations include billing for services never provided, inflating claims, falsifying timesheets and submitting claims while patients were hospitalized or even after they had died.
The largest case involves Rasheedah Biles, owner of a Columbus behavioral-health program, who is accused of directing employees to inflate claims and bill for services that were never provided, allegedly costing Medicaid $404,810 between November 2023 and October 2025. The indictments follow other recent Ohio Medicaid cases, including a July indictment alleging a separate $9.3 million fraud scheme. All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Ashe in America: I think of these stories as “proof of doge.” That does not mean that I believe Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk’s bromance was anything other than political theater. The public storytelling about doge was just that: storytelling.
But doge was real. It was a tech tooling implementation project; and, right now, we are seeing the prosecutorial fruit of that modernization effort.
All modern corporations have had the capability to track their employees down to the keystroke for a long time. Whether they use that capability is a matter of policy, but the capability was common before AI even entered the conversation. That’s important – because government capabilities on identifying waste, fraud, and abuses in public bureaucracy was severely lagging their private partners. (Note: This was most likely by design – plausible deniability for, again, corruption.)
The Executive Order establishing “D.O.G.E.” was a technology project intended to be embedded in every federal function. The entity of doge was seemingly short-lived; but what if it was a project to upgrade government tooling…to modernize “human capital” systems and management capabilities inside the black hole of government?
That was January 20, 2025, in the Presidential Action “Establishing And Implementing The President’s ‘Department Of Government Efficiency.’”
Day one, the Administration were putting the tools in place to rapidly identify and prosecute corruption. The give it, technologically, no where to hide.
These Ohio indictments are just the latest indictments.
Accelerate.
BONUS ITEMS
War Department Orders Audits of 30 Universities Over Foreign Ties
The Department of War has issued formal notifications to 30 U.S. universities ordering them to immediately review all their academic, financial, and research collaborations with foreign entities of concern.
The reviews target partnerships with groups flagged under Section 1286 of the FY19 National Defense Authorization Act, plus any organizations tied to rebranded Confucius Institutes. Schools must finish the audits, check whether sensitive research was exposed, and put mitigation plans in place by August 31.
Failure to comply risks losing eligibility for future federal research funding. Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael said the department has “zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security.”
Shasta County, CA Registrar Appoints Tina Peters as Assistant
Shasta County, California Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis is replacing Assistant Registrar Brent Turner with Tina Peters next month, as confirmed in a text message from Curtis to Action News Now.
Under county policy, the assistant registrar steps into the top job on an interim basis if the registrar leaves before the end of the term. The Board of Supervisors would then choose a temporary replacement.
Last week, Curtis was censured in a 3-1 Board of Supervisors vote after two investigations found he had engaged in managerial misconduct that included threats of physical violence toward staff, creating a hostile work environment, verbal abuse, and retaliation. Curtis flatly rejects every finding, calling all of it untrue and insisting the complaints came from disgruntled employees and supporters of his election opponent who were trying to sabotage him and take back control of the elections office.
Peters, the former Mesa County, Colorado clerk, was convicted on seven counts of election interference in August 2024. She received a nine-year prison sentence that Colorado’s governor later commuted.
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❤️❤️ Tina Peters appointed as assistant registrar for Shasta County, CA!❤️❤️ (If not just theater!)
I keep wondering when it will be exposed that many of these fake “care service” contracts were awarded by politicians for quid pro quo. I expect to see plenty of republicans. 🤓