The Epstein-linked Bank of New York Mellon will manage Trumpās new tax-advantaged investment accounts for children.
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Written by Veronica Riccobene. Edited by Joel Warner and Abigail Edge.
šļø Peace be with you. Nine years ago, a retired general reminded lawmakers that the military can refuse a presidentās nuclear attack order if it is illegal ā and a bill proposed in Congress right now would outlaw the Commander-in-Chief from making first-strike nuclear assaults without legislative approval. Consider calling your lawmakers and urging them to support this common sense limit on Trump.
š„ New in The Lever: After the imperial Nixon presidency, conservatives faced a backlash that even Naderites couldnāt predict.
STORIES TO GO
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š¢ Fire and fury. President Trump says he will begin destroying Iranian civilian infrastructure at midnight, warning that āa whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.ā
š Welcome to the dark side. Photographs from Artemis II captured the entire far side of the moon for the first time.
š¹ Cameras donāt lie. New footage out of Minneapolis undermines ICEās account of a nonfatal shooting in January.
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TODAY'S TOPLINES
A judge on the inside. In the months after Maine voters approved a landmark measure to reduce corporations and billionairesā election influence, Maineās U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R) helped a lawyer who fought to kill the law score a judgeship on the federal appeals court deciding its fate. Maineās new law, backed by 74 percent of voters, caps annual contributions to super PACs at $5,000, and advocates hope the legal fight could reach the Supreme Court.
š«© Conservative groups went to court to block the measure, with Josh Dunlap leading the caseā¦ until Sen. Collins ā who accepted $2.9 million in PAC cash in the two years leading up to her last election ā advocated for Dunlapās nomination to the appeals court hearing the challenge.
šļø When asked by The Leverās Katya Schwenk whether Judge Dunlap planned to recuse himself from the super PAC case, the First Circuit Court of Appeals declined to comment. Under federal judicial code, judges are disqualified from ruling on cases they litigated while serving in private practice.
šØš»āļø Dunlap, a ālongtime ally of right-wing legal causes,ā serves on the left-leaning First Circuit as one of only two judges appointed by a Republican president. That means Dunlap could oversee cases involving campaign finance statutes in other blue states in the court's jurisdiction, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
Busted. Ryan Crosswell, a former Republican and federal prosecutor, is running in the heavily contested Democratic primary for Pennsylvaniaās seventh congressional seat, a key swing district for the 2026 midterms. Before becoming a liberal media darling for leaving the Justice Department in protest of Trump administration corruption, Crosswell worked at the notorious union-busting law firm Littler Mendelsohn, known for helping Amazon, Starbucks, and Trader Joeās to stymie union drives, The Leverās Luke Goldstein exclusively confirms.
š Crosswell denies that he personally participated in any overt anti-labor activities during his time at the firm. But court records show that he specialized in suing workers on behalf of employers to enforce ānoncompete agreements,ā which were banned by the Biden administration for depressing wages, limiting competition, and trapping workers in low-paid, abusive jobs. Numerous states have since banned them.
š§¹ In one notable case as an attorney at Littler, Crosswell helped a cleaning services company sue a former sales representative for trying to take clients to a competitor firm.
Dirty money. The Trump administration has tapped the controversy-embroiled Bank of New York Mellon to act as a financial agent of the U.S. government to help launch the presidentās new āTrump accounts.ā These tax-advantaged long-term investment accounts are available to children who are U.S. citizens and include a $1,000 federal seed deposit for babies born between 2025 and 2028. The bank ā which is under Senate investigation for its ties to Jeffrey Epstein ā has also partnered with the Trump-allied cryptocurrency and investment app Robinhood to serve as brokerage and trustee for the accounts, which must be vested in U.S.-focused mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs).
š Last election cycle, Robinhood gave overwhelmingly to Republican candidates and PACs and in 2025 donated $2 million to President Trumpās inaugural fund.
āļø Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing the Bank of New York Mellon of facilitating Epsteinās crimes by failing to properly report $378 million in payments to his associates and victims.
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DAY IN DATA
In the United States, just one percent of corporations account for more than 80 percent of sales and employ over 60 percent of workers. (Source: National Bureau of Economic Research)
NEWS DIVE
**Moderation and megadonors. The previously undisclosed board of an ascendant D.C. think tank pushing Democrats to the center includes a Democratic Party megadonor with a stake in artificial intelligence chipdesigner Nvidia, which could benefit from the organizationās efforts to defend data center build-outs and limit AI regulation...
****Block Trump from sending over 20,000 bombs to Israel.** Trump is trying to bypass Congress to give Israel more weapons for deadly strikes against Iran and Lebanon. The White House declared an āemergencyā to skip Congressional oversight and send over 20,000 bombs to Israel costing U.S. taxpayers $660 million.1
Urge your lawmakers: Block Trump from sending 20,000 bombs to Israel.
DOOMSCROLL DISTRACTIONS
š§ Build back better. After a stroke, the brain rewires and ārejuvenatesā itself to regain lost function.
š³ Itās taller than the Statue of Liberty. This spring, plan a visit to the biggest tree on the planet.
š« Back to basics. Hershey is returning to its classic chocolate recipe for Reeseās products.
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